YSEALI PFP Day 22: Indivisible Chicago

11 May 2019

Rise and shine to Chef's Thomas deluxe breakfast set.

Left Thomas' place for the Farmers' Market

We took a drive through Shorewood, Dane County. Shorewood is a suburb surrounded by Madison city and Lake Mendota.

Fancy Houses

Blackhawk Country Club

Glanced upon the Eagle Heights Community Gardens and admired the spacious land set aside for community gardening.

And we arrived at the Madison Farmers’ Market on the Square, the largest local producer-only farmers’ market in the United States. 

The stalls lined the perimeter of the Capitol square.

A stopover for caffeine

Look at that cup of coffee in their hands

Cold weather calls for cold beverage

Hmm...

Political outreach by Libertarian Party

Socialist Alternative

Say Cheese!

Interesting dry gourds sold as art materials

  

Enjoyed some cheese samples 

Wisconsin Law Enforcement Memorial

 Given to the people of the state of Wisconsin

Tommy G Thompson Governor 

By Wisconsin Law Enforcement Memorial Inc. 1998

Went to Target to shop toys and items that I promised my son to bring back

Lunch at Dotty Dumplings Dowry

Story of the Restaurant

Cheese Curds!

  

In the Land of Dairy, one of the most important dishes to try is the Cheese Curd, which is basically fried Cheese

Craft beers

Thanks Thomas for bringing me around, despite his tight deadlines 

Struggling to finish even one cup

I would never forget how rush it was for us to be there in time for my bus back to Chicago. Reached just in time for departure. Given that it's graduation season, I felt lucky that there were many empty seats. Whew!

What a cool building

Bus took longer than usual, deviating from its route to drop off excess passengers to O'Hare airport. When it finally arrived at Union Station, it was about time to leave for dinner with ACYPL alumnus Marj Halperin.

Knocked on the door, and was greeted by Alan Robinson and Marj. Gained some perspectives from Alan, a former Chicago Public School educator, on unionism amongst teachers as well as the education system.

The view from their residence was breathtaking.

Over to the right, BTS was due to perform at Soldier Field stadium that night

We began with homemade Horchata with rum, and then homemade Mexican cuisine for dinner. It was so, so, so delicious. Our hosts were so thoughtful to use halal ingredients.

Chicken Enchilada

Cilantro Rice

Chicken Enchilada

Yummy!

Tres Leches Cake, made from 3 milks - 

sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream

Someone was hiding

We had a wide-ranging discussion over dinner. Besides Alan and Marj, we were also joined by Denise Poloyac, as well as Alan and Marj's daughter Abby, and her best friend, Abby. Two Abbys in the house!

We learnt about Indivisible Chicago which Marj and Denise were involved in. Indivisible Chicago is a grassroots organisation that started off with Chicagoans who were shocked by the 2016 election and are committed to resist the Trump agenda. Going house by house, group by group, it is raising awareness and building the ground for the next election.

Was also happy to link up with Denise, a former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) organiser for a potential meeting with unionists. Also got to learn about Greater Chicago Food Depository from Abby!

Spot the difference between this photo and the previous one

Our conversation lasted till about 11pm. When I got back to the corporate housing, I joined our Fellows who had come visit Chicago from their placement cities of Iowa (An Do) and Alabama (Farah and Sun Me). We were happy to have them bunk in at our humble housing. Later in the wee hours, we were joined by Ivy and her host, and the chatters lasted till 3am, when Farah and Sun Me left to catch their flight...