New day, new plans. Visit to Hull House (Jane Adams´ incredible starting settlement in the city of Chicago). We meet professor Katrin Schulteiss who will be guiding house into what Americans call Women´s Studies. We do tour around Hull House, watch a very interesting video and feel History in front of our eyes...I always say that being such a young country in historical terms has got some advantages. Yes, Americans don´t have such a long record of events as we may have in Europe, but they can feel and live and even touch their own History with their fingers. Americans have got this kind of self respect and perpetual admiration for their past that I do envy very much. It´s not that we don´t respect ourselves back in Spain, but we don´t take so much care about our historical heritage in the way Americans do...I wish we learnt a little bit more from them in that aspect.
Right in the middle of our visit a typical thunderstorm blasts into our ears with pouring rain hitting Hull House´s roof violently. Every time I witness this kind of weather events in this country I think Nature is here again to remind us that we are basically nothing. That´s right, I feel so insignificant...especially in such a huge country like this one.
We get to the Students´Union´s Shop after our visit to Hull House and surf among all this sweatshirts and tshirts and caps (almost all of us get something as a souvenir) and back home for lunch and the 13:30 lecture with Katrin.
Believe it or not, I felt another thunderstorm on our heads...there are certain topics we can´t make jokes about, and women´s discrimination and segregation is one of those...some people in the group don´t seem to notice it, but at the end we get through the class and feel that dark side of History has been fairly enlightened to us thanks to perfectly organized Katrin´s class.
Back home, lovely dinner prepared by our particular Japanese chef Mark. Unbelievably accurate in the handling of pans and noodles, I just couldn´t imagine how nice sharing my time with my new international friends could be. They´re all soooooooo lovely: Blandine and her particular consideration of short term memory (mmmm who am I?), Jutta and her sort of squarely-organized sweetness (Austrian stuff...not German!!); Manto and her neverending generousity with all of us (is there a place you haven´t been to?) and Mark and his unbelievable mixture between Asian vital philosophy and Western fondness of beer!! Thank you all, guys!
Well, I must be off. There´ll be more events for the weekend. I´ll keep you informed.
Javier Barbero
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