North America,  Travel,  U.S.

Chicago Week 14

June 19, 2023 /

I went to a new housesitting house on Thursday. Both the hostess and hostess are computer game programmers, and the hostess also likes interior decoration. The design of the home is particularly artistic, and the colors are well matched. The hostess is a Mexican-American, and their cat is called Benito, which is the same name as the famous Mexican president Benito Juáraz. One of the most interesting designs in his house is a mini presidential podium placed on the big table in the living room, with Mexican symbols and national flags on it, the small microphone is a small brush, and the base of the podium and itself are made of cardboard. Cats can scratch their paws. I didn’t associate this with their cat at first, until one day the cat scratched its paw behind the podium, sat up after scratching, its mouth was right behind the microphone, as if it was giving a speech, after all, his name is the same as the president of Mexico Same. These two masters are so creative, they deserve to design games. I was quite surprised that there are so many Asian ingredients and seasonings in their kitchen: dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, mature vinegar, sesame oil, chili oil, Korean chili sauce, tools for pressing tofu, tools for making sushi, large woks, etc. , I even saw a bag of monosodium glutamate that I have never used. I haven't cooked Chinese food for a long time. I made hot and sour cold noodles and made a big bowl for them and put them in the refrigerator. They had dinner when they came back from the plane. This cat is very greedy. The owner reminded me not to leave the food outside. I didn’t expect that I put the bag of dry noodles on the kitchen counter for a short time. When I came back, I was bitten by him. I guess he took a bite and it was tasteless. I'm not interested anymore. Haha, a well-deserved greedy cat.

There are three art galleries/museums open for free in the Bridgeport area on the third Friday night of every month. I went to the Heritage Museum of Asian Art with my friends first. This museum is in a building. When I entered, I saw a chef and catering school on the first floor, and a Chicago Chinese school. Some companies related to China, such as Fantuan Express, also rented office space here. I took the elevator to the museum. There was an exhibition explanation group at 7 o'clock. We arrived at 6 o'clock and went shopping by ourselves. The collection here is very interesting. Most of the exhibits are unique in style and type. They have never been seen in the Asian exhibition area of other large art museums. There is also a small exhibition hall dedicated to ancient furniture. Even their gift department buys The souvenirs are also very interesting, and seeing a lot of things evokes childhood memories. Although the museum is not big, it took about an hour to visit, but it is really worth visiting. It is an underrated art museum.

Afterwards, we went to the nearby Zhou B Art Center. As soon as we entered, a staff member introduced to us and asked us to go downstairs to watch. It seems that this place is not open to the public at ordinary times. The first basement and the third and fourth floors above ground are all small studios rented out to artists. It is said that the venue can also be rented out for weddings or other large-scale events. Just came downstairs and met an old artist, she showed us her works. She does fused glass crafts and mixed media, and she showed us the necklaces, earrings, paintings, etc. she made, all beautiful. She also told us that the color inside the glass she uses can change according to the outside light or background color, which is amazing. She looks quite old, we all thought she had been doing this for many years, but she said that she used to be an educator, and only started to engage in art creation after retirement, and she only did this for five or six years, and said that her mother did the same An artist may have been infected with artistic genes since he was a child. In her spare time, she also goes to a school to volunteer to teach painting and so on. I was quite moved after hearing this: If you want to start trying to do new things, there is no age limit, the so-called limits are imposed by yourself invisibly.

After coming out of her small studio, I saw a few works of art with super-large leaves at the end of the corridor. When I was marveling at how there were such big leaves, another artist who was also quite old came to introduce himself and told us Said these were her creations, said the leaves were brought to her by her friends in Tennessee, and she colored them and turned them into works of art. After speaking, she took us to her studio to see her other paintings. She used to be a professional basketball coach. After retirement, she started buying paintings to decorate the house, but the art she bought was not liked by her family. One day she started to create paintings by herself, framed them in photo frames and hung them at home. Her family members asked her where she bought them. Since then, she has started to paint more paintings in the basement, and new paintings will be replaced every once in a while in this studio. According to her profile, her works have been exhibited in New York, London, and Paris, and some of her works have been exhibited on the 25-story high screen in Times Square, New York. She also started a scholarship fund supporting female college students with her late husband in 2012, which is amazing. When she was chatting with us, her son also came to help and said a few words in Chinese to us. Then her son's fiancée and her parents also came to visit. After I came out, I saw some children’s painting exhibitions in the corridor. One of the names was very familiar to me. Then I looked at the school. It was the school where I worked ten years ago. This is the student I used to teach. At that time, she was only 4 years old. I didn't expect to see her paintings here ten years later, it was a little surprise.

We visited some other studios on the basement floor, and the artists all have their own styles. Take the elevator to the second floor. I feel that the elevator itself is also a work of art, with a green background and a red bench in front. The elevator is very old and needs special staff to operate it. Pull down the big iron door like a garage from above, and then Close the elevator door on the outer floor to open it. The elevator moves very slowly. It is estimated that taking the stairs will be much faster. There was a special event on the second floor. Some African-American teenagers came to the stage to read their own poems, and then there was a small live concert. Although it is a private event, we can also go in, but only to see the painting exhibition on the wall. After going up to the third floor, after a short walk, I met the artist who was a women's basketball coach and her family just now on the basement floor. She pointed to a portrait and said it was her friend who was a professional basketball player. Contributed a lot to fighting for the rights of female athletes. She also told us that she is also a good friend with the artist who painted this portrait, and pointed us to the location of his studio for us to visit. Not long after we arrived at the studio, she also came and enthusiastically introduced us to her portrait artist friend. The portrait artist said that he had just moved from Florida not long ago, and that he would hold small painting classes in a while. He should be relatively well-known, and many people will find him to paint portraits based on photos. He showed us some unfinished works in progress. Most of his works are portraits or animals, and the colors are extremely bright and vivid. The public toilets here are also a bit interesting. There is no distinction between men and women. One toilet on each floor is for mixed use. There is also a special sink in each toilet for washing paint. It’s too late to come out of this Zhou Brothers Art Center, and it’s too late to go to another art museum, so I’ll go again next month.

At noon on Saturday, I made an appointment with two friends to go to the Mercado de Colores market in Little Village, Mexico. I arrived on time at 11:30, but a Mexican friend suddenly had something wrong, and I will contact us to meet up later. Another friend said He's still on his way. So I was shopping here alone. I thought this market would be very big, but I found that the market is in a small street park with only a few small stalls, selling fruits and vegetables, honey, homemade soap, Colombian coffee, ice cream, handicrafts, etc. of. Anyway, I was waiting for my friends, and when I had nothing to do, I wandered through the stalls one by one and chatted with the stall owners, because they all spoke Spanish. I finished shopping in the whole small market. Before my friend arrived, I didn’t answer the phone. I went to a bakery next to me and bought two biscuits. The price of the bakery is much cheaper, the area is gradually being gentrified, and the overall price is gradually rising. When my friend got impatient with waiting, he finally replied to the message, saying that the nearest return place for his shared bicycle was a bit far away, so he had to walk over. He was already an hour late when he arrived, but fortunately, a large group of high school students from the mariachi Mexican traditional performance band came at this time. After asking, they said that the performance would start after 1 o'clock, so we waited for them to start performing.

The band started to perform at one o'clock. The teacher who led the team briefly introduced their band. After the collective performance, there were boys solo, girls solo, and group chorus. After watching the show, my friend and I went to a small restaurant in the nearby Mexican supermarket and ordered a few tacos. Halfway through the meal, another Mexican friend also arrived, and we had lunch together. This Mexican friend said that this area is too similar to Mexico.

After that, the three of us took the bus to Bronzeville in the south to participate in the celebration of Juneteenth (June 19). I had never heard of this festival before. After the black rights movement, it began to be set as a national federal holiday to celebrate the liberation of black slaves. When we arrived, we saw many stalls selling handicrafts and clothing, as well as music performances.

After that, I drove back to the housesitting house in Pilsen, rested for a while, and then made an appointment on Couchsurfing with a new friend who is also near this area. She's Peruvian and just moved to Chicago from Arizona this week. She's temporarily staying at a friend's house here, and she hasn't been around the area yet, so we're walking and chatting. There are lots of big, brightly colored murals and some gentrified restaurants and coffee shops in this area. On the way home, I went to a taco street stall that was strongly recommended by the housekeeper. There were three or four people queuing up in front of me. Only the stall owner was in charge, and there were no helpers. I only ordered one taco because I wasn't hungry at all. The waiting time is a bit long, but it is worth the wait. It is really authentic and delicious. It is the best taco I have eaten since I came to Chicago. I will come back to eat it.

Leave this housesitting on Sunday morning and head straight north to another one in Andersonville. This is the first person who chose me directly after I applied without having a video with me. I can see that he is also a traveler in his profile, so it is probably easier to trust others. This district is the second largest gay district in Chicago, and many LGBTQ groups live here. When I came here, I met the owner of the house. He is also gay. He said that his boyfriend lives in the next building, but he doesn't want to bother his boyfriend to take care of his cat every time he travels. He briefly explained to me the dos and don'ts of the apartment and his cat. His house is very clean and tidy, well organized. Chatting with him, I learned that he used to be a school teacher, and now he works remotely for an educational technology company headquartered in San Francisco. I heard the company's name very well, but suddenly I couldn't remember where I heard it. He asked me to friend him on LinkedIn after he learned that I was also a former school teacher. After he finished explaining, he left and went to the airport to take a plane to Mexico. After I added him on LinkedIn, I found out that we have a mutual friend, a former colleague of mine at the school in the Bay Area, who resigned to this company last year, no wonder it sounds familiar.

In the afternoon, I went to Loyola Beach in the north with my friends and saw many locals painting on the benches on the beach. I heard that this is an annual event for the residents of this area, which is very interesting.

Afterwards, I went to Boystown, the largest gay area in Chicago, to participate in Pride Fest. The housesitting owner I met in the morning told me not to go too late, because many people would drink too much from four or five in the afternoon, and then they would be crazy. Although I have gay friends and colleagues around me and know something about this group, I have not participated in such a large-scale celebration of LGBTQ. There used to be a large LGBTQ parade in San Francisco every summer, but I was always traveling during the summer vacation, so I never participated. Chicago's LGBTQ community is also large,soAfter arriving here this time, I really opened my eyes. There are people dressed in all kinds of clothes, and there are also naked men writhing in iron cages. After strolling around, I decided to watch passers-by on the curb. Most of the people who came were from the LGBTQ group. I saw that they were very confident, they were all being themselves, and there was no taboo. Although American culture is very tolerant and accepting, it is conceivable that they must have experienced more or less misunderstood, not accepted, criticized, and discriminated against in other occasions (work, family, friends, etc.). It's not easy. Instead, I feel like I'm a non-LGBTQ minority here, and I wonder if there will be a day when there will be more LGBTQ people than straight men and straight women. In any case, the most important thing is that everyone tries to be tolerant and accepting of all people, especially those who are different from their own beliefs and lifestyles.

baked tamari & maple tofu
spicy and sour cold noodles
Kiwano melon

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