grab your bongo and a megaphone

There is one place, and one place alone that is acceptable to park at O’hare.


Across the street from our house, there is a building. Having too much time, and not enough money to do anything truly interesting, my roommate and I have spent a great deal of time looking out the dining room windows, wondering what they are doing in there. We can see large, industrial machines of some sort or another. So we know that it is not someone’s house. Every weekday, we can see a couple men in there working. From time to time, they look at us staring down at them. For a few months now, we have been joking that we are going to make a sign that says “What do you do there?” So last week, after once again getting caught staring, we decided it was time to make the sign. It was hanging in the window a few minutes, before we noticed the guys were looking and pointing. We took the sign down. Several minutes later, one of the guys put up a sign in his window that said “I slave away”
(Sorry, my picture is blurry).

So then Anya made a sign that said “The mysteries continue.” At this point, it was getting to be quitting time, so he put up a sign that said “See you tomorrow for a new episode” and then he left shortly after. Our conversation has not continued since then, but I have high hopes for the coming months. I am still very curious as to what they are doing in there.

Every Saturday morning, I go to a giant farmers’ market at St. Michel. While I am not the only non Muslim there, I am definitely in the minority. So it is no surprise that the past several Saturdays there have been people passing out pro Palestine flyers. I follow the news pretty closely at home. However being without the evening news, WGN Radio, and a local paper delivered daily in the mailbox, I feel slightly out of the know here. I read my free newspapers I get at the tram stop in the morning. That news seldom sticks with me because I use it mainly as a way to improve my French, and I pay little attention to the stories themselves. Not to mention those papers are so bad that they make The RedEye seem like the Washington Post. Yeah, we are talking THAT bad. Anyway, I vaguely remembered reading about some happenings in Gaza City. In my mind, the details were sketchy at best. So this past Saturday in addition to the usual people passing out flyers, there were several people waving Palestinian flags, and I saw one woman carrying around a doll that was supposed to look like a dead baby. Later that afternoon, Anya, Pat and I were on our way home. We were walking a block down from the city hall, when we heard the roar of a crowd and some chanting. In my four months here, I have seen a teachers march, several students marches, and probably the most memorable was the pro/anti abortion rally that ended with tear gas. I love seeing the protests/marches. So we walked towards the sound to see what was happening, and once again France did not disappoint. It was a huge pro Palestine march, followed by a slightly smaller group of people showing their support for communism.