
The past week has been exhausting, exciting, and nerve-racking all at the same time. when we first started the week, I was a bit skeptical choosing “walking Chicago” as my explore class. Not knowing anyone and walking around the city sounded extremely intimidating at the time. As the first day grew to a close I realized I was having much more fun that I thought I would be having. My expectations were that I would be nervous talking to others and getting to know their backgrounds. It was quite the opposite. Everyone that I talked to was very welcoming and nice.
Over the course of the week, I learned not only to pay attention to what is going on around you but to use all of your senses to gain an adequate understanding of all aspects of wherever you are in the world. There is much more to a city than just using your eyes. There are sounds, smells, tastes, and even the sense of touch. It is important to walk without headphones because sound is a very important sense to learn about a city. You learn whether it is a quiet or loud part of town, whether people are shouting or just talking to one another, or even if people honk their car horns often. Some people walk around and do not pay attention to any of their surroundings and walk blinded every day and never experience the environment in which they are in.
I saw many things that I would never have seen if I were to be walking around with headphones in and looking at my phone I would not have noticed many things. I noticed different ethnicities of people for each of the parts of Chicago we went to. I learned that to walk a long distance and experience new things you need to be prepared with water, good walking shoes, and maybe a snack. On the particular day we walked a long distance we were all very exhausted but, in the end, we learned and experienced a lot of new things.

Learning to ride the train was a very useful experience to someone who has never ridden public transportation in their life. If I were to try and do that alone I would have been pretty lost, and it would have taken much more time. I am still learning the stops and where they take you but over time I think I will have a good understanding of all the stops and places at them.

I am not from Chicago but after that first week I feel as if I could explain each of the sides of Chicago, not in-depth, but enough so that the other person would have a general idea of that side of Chicago.
