Sententia

I’m on the train from O’Hare to downtown Chicago where I’ll connect to the South Shore Line to Valparaiso. I’m jamming to some electronica a friend of mine, Ben Harel, mixed, check it out: http://www.purevolume.com/JohnnyRealgood

A crapload of St. Patty’s day celebraters just flooded my part of the train. Why sit next to me? I don’t know, but they’re actually pretty chill so far. For some reason I’m looking forward to seeing a load of hung-over faces at my 9 AM class this Wednesday.

A lot’s on my mind as I near Valpo; a great week in New Orleans, the new friends I made and the older ones I bonded with; an amazing week home in Mass; the friends I miss at Valpo and how I look forward to furthering our relationships; my hopes for my classes, especially the three tests I have in the next two or so weeks, and the research paper due Friday; the B- I have in Spanish, a class I’ve found to be a lot harder then I’ve expected.

The St. Patty’s people just started talking to me somewhat indirectly. “Hey you get internet on there?” “Can I like, check my facebook?” We chatted a bit, and I was told I sounded like I was from the South. Apparently my week in Nawlins affected me more than I thought or my cough is just wreaking havoc with my voice, in a southern way. Go figure. Anyway, I got some beads out of the deal.



On the topic of New Orleans I ponder more about what I took from it. I’m not left with a great sense of helping a hurting city, just a sense of doing a little bit. In construction terms, we left less than a tiny mark on the 850,791 homes (http://www.throughtheeyeofthestorm.com/KatrinaFacts.htm) that need to be rebuilt. In emotional and spiritual terms I hope we did more. Wherever we went we shared our brief story, and met many looks of appreciation and happiness.

Now I’m having tea (fighting the cough) at Starbucks in Millenium Station. A friend from Valpo, Emily, just dropped by; she’s going for St. Patty’s drink with a friend at the Millenium Bar (there’s also a Recession Buster deal at the pizza place down here, it’s a pretty wild station).