Popping the Bubble

Today in class, when analyzing "Division Street," by Studs Terkel, we discussed the difference between the city and the suburbs and how the residents of the two areas view each other.  This really interested me, because I have lived a good thirty minute drive from the beautiful city of Chicago (on a good day of traffic, that is) for my entire life, and there is so much of the city that I have yet to set foot in.  Me, as the classic suburbanite, have only explored the common destination spots like, Michigan Ave., Navy Pier, and the Water Tower Place.  In all honestly, the only reason I usually venture down to the city is to shop, go out to lunch, go to the beach, or for big events like "Lollapalooza."

However, there have been a few eye opening experiences for me, and one occurred just this past weekend.  Last Sunday, my family and I crammed in the car and drove past the familiar areas- Millenium Park, Michigan Ave., Lake Street- and ended up in a new territory for me, Chicago's Chinatown.  I was very surprised at how different this new area was than anything I am used to.  The streets were crowded and little shops boasted the latest and greatest items with big neons signs written in a very unfamiliar language, and there was not a tree in sight.  Even in the sea of cement and parking garages, we still drove around for twenty minutes searching for a parking spot, and ended up creating our own.  I looked around and noticed that there were piles of trash spewed aimlessly around, and after buying a frozen drink and carrying the empty cup around for an hour, I understood why.  I am used to having a trash can accessible at every street corner, all over the North side of the city, but there wasn't a can to be found.

The experience made me think about how little of the city I really knew, and how enclosed I can be sometimes in the "North Shore Bubble" that I don't have a clue about my surroundings only twenty miles away.

In this photo, the large bright signs that line the streets are filled with a foreign language that many of us can't even begin to understand, and the architecture of the buildings are in a style very unlike what I might see in Winnetka, or even down Michigan Ave.  All of these things about the culture that I don't seem to understand make the place feel very different and foreign to me, but the Willis Tower and the faded black buildings towering over it all stand like shadows in the background.  These menacing shadows that I am so familiar with remind me that this "foreign" place is actually located right under my nose.