Hello there friends! We have been having such a great spring
here in the Windy City. Hubby and I are really starting to make friends and
find our place in this metropolis. He’s been playing tennis a few days a week
with friends and with a league that he joined. I’ve been exploring the city now
that the weather has warmed up so nicely.
One of my new friends is Margerita. She is a lovely woman
who moved here from Kosovo a few years ago with her husband. Her history is
incredibly interesting and quite tragic, given her forced involvement in the
Bosnian war just over a decade ago. To give just a brief explanation of some of
her experiences, she remembers being dragged out of her home with her family,
stuffed into the overhead luggage compartment of a train, and then taken out to
the mountains of Macedonia where she and hundreds others were dropped off with
nothing more than each other and the clothes on their back, all in the middle
of winter. I don’t know how she survived. Not only did she survive, but she is now
thriving, happy, and she has moved on. Most incredibly, she has forgiven. We
work with a few women who are of the ethnicity that caused her and her family
such harm, and she holds nothing against them. She understands that, while
their ancestors and relatives may have been involved, they had nothing to do
with it and are now only a part of her new, peaceful American life. What a
beautiful heart she has!
Margerita and I went for a stroll the other day. I had to go
north to pick out some yarn for my Nephew’s birthday present and so I invited
her along to explore that area. After picking up some beautiful yarn, we walked
along the Ravenswood gardens. These gardens are planted along the side of the
Metro track for nearly a mile. They are such a beautiful use of otherwise
unusable urban space. There is a group of volunteers that tends to the gardens
every Saturday morning, and Margerita and I are planning to help out at least a
few times this spring and summer.
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| I'm growing my hair out and I pulled it back for the day!! A new look for this girl! |
Across the street from the gardens was a sweet little
family-owned distillery called
Koval, so we popped in to see what it was all
about. We were unable to tour at that time, but we enjoyed the smells and
seeing all of the interesting whiskeys, liquors, and vodkas they had.
Our next stop was a Middle Eastern grocery store and bakery
that we stumbled upon. Much of the food she grew up with was heavily influenced
by Middle Eastern traditions, and so she recognized so many things in the
grocery store that I had never seen before. There were a few teas and snacks
there that she had never seen before, but that I was able to explain to her a
bit. I am by no means an expert on teas, but I am most certainly a lover and
consumer of teas! I found some lovely hibiscus tea and my very favorite tea,
Moroccan Mint! I also found some whole honey comb for Hubby!
After our fun in the grocery store, we stopped in at a café called
Icosium for some coffee and to snack on the bakery that we had just bought. It was a
very unique Algerian café with gorgeous antique textiles all over the walls and
even the seats! Talk about living the good life! We felt like queens. After
coffee and girl talk, it was nearly time that our husbands would be coming
home, so we parted ways, looking forward to our next day at work together.
Just a few days after my outing with Margerita, I had
another wonderful day with another wonderful friend. Well, several wonderful
friends I suppose! Hubby and I were planning on going to a Roller Derby with a
group of friends from church. After a morning of playing tennis, he had far too
much homework to do to consider spending the entire afternoon and evening out
with friends. So I called on my friend Sarah to join me instead!
Sarah is another friend from work, but it almost feels like
we grew up together! She also grew up in rural Eastern Wisconsin. Her family
owns a large herd of sheep and she loves to knit. We even have some family
friends in common! After working with Sarah for a couple months, I invited her
out for coffee and knitting. We ended up spending nearly a whole day, from 10am
to 5pm, knitting together at the coffee shop! We had such a great time and our
friendship quickly grew from there.
When I asked her to accompany me to the Roller Derby, she
graciously and enthusiastically accepted the invitation, and even came out for
dinner and drinks beforehand! Our friends from church warmly welcomed her and
we had such a great time.
Neither of us had ever seen a roller derby before, so it was
quite a learning experience for both of us. Although there is plenty of
strategy, strength, and training involved, our basic idea of the sport is that
two teams of roller-skating women chase one another around a rink, while boxing
out and otherwise taking out the other team. There are different positions and
different purposes for each position, but I would say that’s about the gist of
it to a first-timer.
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| Our Windy City Rollers (WCR Second Wind) kicked butt! |
Other highlights of the derby included a kilt-donning
official (referee),
a cute half-time performance, and the puppet show we saw on
our way to the game. Or rather, the bout as they say.
This city isn’t turning out to be too bad. Here are a few
more photos from my outings.
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| The spring breezes in this windy city carry the scent of flowering trees all over the city! |
XOXO Natalie
