Hard Rockin' Chicago

After arriving back from Portland and catching our breath, we welcomed Val, a friend from LA, as she arrived in South Bend to visit us for a few days. We took in the sites of the city and Notre Dame before heading to Chicago to celebrate Halloween on Saturday night. This trip we were traveling in style however, as Val was in town for business and had a room at the Hard Rock Hotel all set for our arrival. We checked in and raced downtown to see Val's brother's band play - who are touring at the moment -
before heading out for some dinner and drinks. Despite being under dressed for Halloween, we met up with some friends from Chicago and London, and toured the town in order to judge the most creative costume. There were some definite highlights of creativity - with crowd favorites including a gentleman with a box around his waste (Google 'Justin Timberlake in a box' for this crude reference), and a 6-foot guy dressed as a Whoopee Cushion. It was a brilliant night with some old friends, and now I promise, it is back to reality, and we will finally do some work.

Pictured: Jen and Val; and the view from our room.

Melbourne, Oregon.

Jen’s immediate family is not small, and is in fact closer to the population of a small country than the ‘parents and two-kids’ model that I grew up in. So after learning everyone’s name, a two-year process in itself, it was time to extend the circle and meet her Uncle’s and their families in Portland, Oregon. After our classes on Friday, we set off for Chicago, and after a quick stop in Denver, we arrived in Portland, looking as great as ever after a 14 hour trip on planes, trains and automobiles. While at night it was hard to get a feeling for the city, the following day I felt completely at home, and realized that I had arrived in the American version of Melbourne (yes this is bias…and yes Melbourne could be the Australian version of Portland…but I am writing…so it is as it is). We were welcomed warmly into Jen’s uncles homes, greeted many of the family from LA, and starting Saturday morning, began our whirlwind tour of Portland and the surrounding area.

It was an amazing few days, with all sorts of weather greeting us as we toured magnificentt waterfalls and scenic lookouts, the city of Portland and a possible school for Jen, as well as riding four-wheelers around Jerry & Wendy’s beautiful property away from the city. While staying with Luis & Christina, Luis provided background music for many of our adventures, as well as proving to be a most capable tour guide, complete with ‘hole-in-the-wall’ eating recommendations and cheesy jokes. Finally, Lucas and Kirsten happily set aside any possibility of getting something accomplished over the weekend, and were more than willing to provide us with hangovers to take sightseeing the next day. In all, the time went far too quickly, but thanks to the entire family, we were able to see so much in just a few days. Now it is back to reality…and the six-week countdown to the Christmas break.

Pictured: Scenic lookout and waterfalls; Jen four-wheeling; Portland.

"E" is for "Apple"

Three months ago I began training as a volunteer at a foundation here in South Bend that provides free tutoring to children with dyslexia. This amazing organization provides three years of one-on-one tutoring for children in the community, whose families are unable to afford such services. It has also served to provide me with one of the most uniquely humbling experiences of my life.

As a professional student who refuses to get a job, I am very comfortable in the academic domain. I have my own little research field which I can talk about until your ears bleed, I can skim book chapters, read abstracts in place of entire articles, use unnecessarily big words, and look serious and busy so nobody thinks academics' have it easy. Further, despite being Australian, I was under the impression that I had a fairly decent grasp of the English language. I am no longer under this impression. I didn't think that helping kids to read would be too much of learning curve...how wrong I was. It really only takes one time for a 10 year-old to correct your pronunciation for you to throw your entire ego out the door...an ironic and uniquely enjoyable experience indeed.

Once you start getting down to it, the English language is pretty damn complicated. Apparently there are all these different catergories including so-called 'verbs' or 'adjectives'. Then there is the phonetic aspect of language comprehension, which I have realized does not mix well with an Australian accent. So as if these poor kids aren't doing it tough already, now they end up with friggin Crocodile Dundee as a tutor - who is going to attempt to teach them to read with a strange accent. Plus, given that I was never really exposed to the wonderful world of 'digraphs' and 'r-controlled vowels' - it is back to square one in a beautifully humbling manner. I am also of course surrounded by professional educators, the sorts of 30 year veteran teachers who create lesson plans as if they were breaking wind. So I am well and truly out of my depth, and for some reason, I am enjoying it.

C'arn the Cats!

There was something ironic, yet special, about singing the National Anthem at the top of my lungs while standing in a Chicago bar surrounded by 250 fellow idiot Australians on Grand Final day/night. A chorus that I barely knew came flooding back as the crowd, fueled by the magical taste of Coopers, burst into passionate song. It was indeed a special feeling as we all settled down to watch the AFL Grand Final from afar, especially for those Geelong supporters in the crowd who no doubt believed that another Final loss would result in the town of Geelong being removed from the Australian map.

After a few minutes explaining the basic rules to our fellow Americans, we watched the game unfold. The few Americans in the bar were vastly outnumbered...and not that popular either...with two foreign gentleman in the bathroom commenting that 'they would rather be ***** American than a Port Adelaide fan'. Three hours later, and with Jen (in her Geelong jersey) asleep at the bar, the few dedicated fans who remained threw a final fist in the air as the siren sounded. What a wonderful night it was to see Geelong finally take home the flag...and while it may have been sweeter still to share such a moment with the crazed Peat/Dunstan family in Melbourne...this was one I was glad to have seen...even if it was in a shady bar in the Midwest of America.
The following day was spent carrying a well-deserved hangover around Chicago - and some quality time spent with Jasper and Judette at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival - where some sax players blew the crowd away...no pun intended.

Pictured: We are Geelong...and the First 'Annual' Jazz Festival in Hyde Park.

Moving on...and moving out!

A question...what is the last thing you would feel like doing after flying back from a week in London...arriving home with an almighty hangover from the flight...and with work scheduled all weekend? Does moving apartments sound like a possible winner...?
So the only thing more stupid than accidentally scheduling our move date the weekend of our return...was purposely scheduling our move date the weekend of our return...and thinking this was a good idea at the time. We figured that we would already be packed...we were moving to an apartment in the same complex...and really...we don't have that much stuff after all?? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! After 8 hours of trips back and forth with our contents (with one trip solely devoted to Jennifer's shoe collection)...the apartment looked exactly the same as when we started...and thus we climbed into bed at the end of the most unsatisfying day of labor imaginable. The next day was slightly more bearable...with the furniture finally moving with the help of some free labor...and our new apartment taking shape. By late Sunday night it was done...we were nearly dead...and the only thing left to do was to once again reminisce about the fact we arrived in South Bend...one year ago...with only a car load of belongings. This was indeed an impressive lesson in the art of material accumulation!