After I left Evansville, I attended school at DePaul University. I took a number of courses, but I LOVED my Economics courses. The teacher had graduated from Yale, but she was able to put very complicated topics into plain English. I worked at Wrigley Field when the star player was Sammy Sosa! I tried to maintain my dignity while I wore my red, white,and blue POLYESTER uniform and as we had to wipe off seats in a certain section before our shift ended. I played Chicago style softball which is with a large softball and no mitt. I got a job at the Omni Chicago on Michigan Avenue and would go to school during the day and ride my bike to the Omni for the night shift. I continued with the University Ministry and volunteered to tutor local elementary school kids as well as at the Cook County Correctional Facility.

Everyone got searched before entering the jail and the smell that emanated from the food was absolutely disgusting. We were assigned to the non- violent criminals, but we entered the jail and had to pass by the violent felons before taking an elevator down to the basement level where we would tutor. The prisoners were disproportionately minorities. In fact the whole time I was there, I only saw two Caucasian prisoners. The educational level of the prisoners was extremely low. I spent one session trying unsuccessfully to explain basic math concepts and then I got frustrated with the lack of progress and tried to work on vocabulary .

I did the Late Ride in Chicago three times on my Mongoose bicycle. We would start at Grant Park and ride through the closed-to-traffic streets and ride back along Lake Michigan back to Grant Park.

I also volunteered to be a bilingual translator at the World Cup when it was held at Soldier Field. I would ride my bike to the games and ride my bike home.

I didn’t have use for a vehicle in Chicago and would have to bring a wheeled cart to the grocery store and wheel it back to our apartment. I would use the ‘El” or busses to get where I needed to go.

I visited the museums of Chicago on their free day and was able to see all the important museums in the city.

I also remember the Taste of Chicago where vendors would set up and sell their food. It was kind of gross to see people walking around gnawing on a big turkey leg

One time heard the Three Tenors sing at Grant Park for FREE.

In 1995, I was able to study in Spain. I realized that I didn’t have a passport, so I had to go and apply for one. I was walking to the passport office with my sister when we saw alternate places to get passports. We decided on a place and I received my expedited passport. I felt so adult as I waited in O’Hare with my group to go to Spain. We flew through Amsterdam, had a layover and then flew to Madrid. Upon arrival, our host families were there to greet us and take us to their homes. My host mother was a pensioner who lived not far from the Atocha train stop. At first, I was her only resident, but soon after, she received another home stay student from France; her name was Sonia. Sonia’s mother was French and her father was from Morocco, so she spoke English,Spanish, French. and Arabic. She was helpful in attempting to teach me Arabic, but for some reason, it never stuck. We would have coffee or tea in the morning, a bocadillo in the afternoon, and a soup or something lite in the evening. We attended the Universidad Complutense for our course work, and our Faculty liaison, Dr. Torres, had us keep journals of our experiences and would arrange for us to take group excursions to Al Alhambra, which was formerly a harem, to Malaga, the closest I have ever been to Africa, to Toledo, and to Barcelona,where the residents speak Spanish but are extremely proud of being Cataluños and having their own language, Catalán. It was in Barcelona that I saw the Sagrada Familia by famous architect Gaudí. In Andalusia, I learned about the flamenco and of the Roma culture. In my introduction to the Flamenco, we were at one place where it appeared, to the American eye, to be pictures of the Ku Klux Klan, but we soon learned that this was the way people would dress for Semana Santa, or Holy Week , the week before Easter. I had tested into the highest level of Spanish classes in Complutense, which surprised me as many of the group had grown up in Spanish-speaking homes. The Castilian Spanish I was learning focused a lot on ‘vosotros’ and when we were on campus, I was delighted when a student would come to me and say ¿Teneis Fuego? ( do you have a lighter for my cigarette?) the latter part pronounced Fogo it seemed to me. I was delighted because I thought that THEY thought that I was Spanish. The Complutense was COVERED in graffiti, and I never quite understood why. While I was at a phone booth, yes Milennials, those are what we used to make calls on, one day a pair of ladies were behind me. I found out that the two were from Ireland and they had come to Spain to study the education process in Spain. We hit it off well, and we went once to the only Irish bar in Madrid. My Irish friends were fluent in Gaelic, which they told me was named Irish and was mandatory in schools. I really wanted to travel to Ireland, but the Spanish rail and airports would shut down for religious holidays and I never got a chance to go. I had a friend from Evansville who was studying at Harlaxton College in England, and she came to visit me in Madrid. Halfway through my stay, I switched home stay families. I was with a family whose father was very ill. The mother, Amelia, attended the church located in the cul-de-sac everyday at least three times a day. So many things were different in Spain. Hostels were well kept and not scary. Also, there was not a typical grocery store but a fruit store, and a place for getting bread, etc. I had a small television where we we would watch bonanza and laughed each time they said Little Yo instead of Little Joe. I would receive phone calls occasionally from my then boyfriend, Spencer. I met Spencer at the Omni hotel where I was a room service operator and he was a sous chef. Spencer was African-American and drove a Cadillac. The car was as big as a boat! He had grown up with his Grandmother, and the one time I went to her house she had a picture of Dr. King and a portrait of JFK. My heart warmed to see an Irishman had an impact in this woman’s home. I can clearly remember that one time Spencer gave me a ride home and was pulled over by the police. They asked why he had a bag of knives in a bag on the backseat. “I am a chef’ he responded gruffly. The officers were condescending and tried to provoke him. For no reason whatsoever, he was arrested and taken to jail. That meant that I had to drive the Cadillac- I had learned to drive on a station wagon, but a Cadillac?? I was nervous. A few weeks later, we ran into the same police officers in a bike store. They taunted him by asking “oh- you’re shopping for a bike? What happened to your car?” Thankfully he didn’t react, but I was feeling impotent and angry at the officers for attempting to emasculate my boyfriend.

Back to Spain…

I saw the film “Mi Familia” in Spain and was impressed with the impact of the film. And what was up with ham? There were Museos de Jamon everywhere!! Our instructor took us to our first ‘Zarzuela’ a Spanish operaretta. We had school in the late afternoon for a semester, and before we knew it, our time was over. I remember taking a taxi to the airport and silently saying goodbye to Spain.

When it was time to go to high school, I was a bit upset as many of my friends were zoned for a different high school, First Colonial.

I had quite a few classes that enjoyed: English, History, Spanish, and Physics. I took Advanced Placement Spanish and my teacher, Mrs. Hilda Wilson, from Puerto Rico, encouraged me to apply for a summer immersion class to be held at Averett College in Danville, Virginia. Every day from the time we woke up to the time we went to bed, we had to communicate in Spanish or we would run the risk of having a chest full of ice water poured over our heads. The only time we could speak anything else was when we took Greek, which was taught to us in Spanish

In middle school, I took a variety of classes, and I took my first Spanish class. I loved being able to learn how to speak a new language. I learned vocabulary words and how to conjugate verbs. It was the start of something that changed me forever.

I remember that I took Algebra and was challenged by my teacher; I loved Math.

Our school was across the street from the public library and every afternoon, there would be a gaggle of kids that would go over there and smoke. We non-smokers would go there to study. One time during our study group, our teammate Frankie made a Xerox of his face. We thought it was so funny until we got shushed by the librarians. In the eighth grade, I found out that I needed glasses. I was mortified; I was already different and now I would be MORE different.

I also recall that we had a presentation given to us by a survivor of the Holocaust. I was shocked to learn just how brutal humans could be to other humans. I went to the library to learn more about the Holocaust, and one of the books I picked out showed photos of women who were hanged by the Nazis. I felt sick to my stomach seeing those images.

On a separate note, and more positive note, I remember reading books to which you could pick the ending you wanted. So you wanted a funny ending, you would be directed to the page where the funny ending would begin. In all, there were, I believe four different endings.

Lynnhaven was the first school where we had lockers. We were given padlocks and had a certain amount of time to switch classes and visit our lockers before we could go to the next class. We felt so grown up.

In English class, we would spend time journaling each day and we had to do very difficult work out of a book that would ask very convoluted questions to see if you could infer from the reading. I wish I could remember what they were called, but I cannot.

In PE, since it was Virginia, we played field hockey. I loved it even if I wasn’t particularly good at it. Our track was visible from the main road. We had to “dress out ” for PE which means we had to change into our PE gear in the locker room.

Our PE teachers were also our Health teachers, and I had my mom, the nurse, as my “study director”. She would quiz me and she was not messing around!

My dad would take me into work with him on occasion, and I learned CAD, computer aided drafting. I had a bit of experience in computer programming that I forgot to mention during my elementary years, and I found CAD to be fascinating.

Virginia had one mall in my area, and we would go there to shop, to go to the movies, and to eat. There was an arcade in the mall, and we would play all the games. They had a game for Journey, the band. PAC-man was still around. I loved air hockey.

I started elementary school at Trantwood Elementary school in Virginia Beach in the second grade. All of my friends from my previous school wrote me letters, which was nice and also a little sad. My first memory of Trantwood was looking up the word “fart” in the dictionary with my friend Kim Scott. I think it said something like a”spontaneous explosion of gas” For whatever reason, we found that to be hilarious, and we couldn’t stop laughing. We were separated in groups by skill-set. I was in a Math class that I loved. My teacher was fantastic. As I continued at Trantwood, I got involved with dancing at the Debbie Copeland Dance studio. I took tap, jazz, and ballet. During this time, I learned that I needed to get special inserts in my shoes for having flat feet. I was involved in the production of “A Wizard of Oz”. It was so much fun and a lot of work. As I progressed in school, I was taken into a private room where I was administered a test. I later learned that I was administered an intelligence test and tested into Old Donation School for the Gifted and Talented. At that school, I won the trivia game and was awarded a prize. I worked hard with my dad to prepare for needed presentations and I was happy with the results. Each day we had class, we would start off with mental games and puzzles. As I continued in elementary school, I was learning new skills and I once did a project on Ancient Egypt, and I wrapped gauze around a large doll. Fit the doll into a guitar case, and baked a good replica of an Egyptian mask. I was enormously proud of my “mummy “. I can remember that we would often watch 321 contact on the TV to learn about science. One time we were watching the liftoff of a space shuttle with the first non-astronaut, I believe she was a teacher, and the space ship exploded. My mother, who had been an operating room nurse prior to her marriage, would volunteer in the school’s clinic. I completed Trantwood elementary and awaited what middle school had in store for me.

I was an Irish lass who attended a Jewish Nursery School called Creative Gardens. I was not aware of our religious differences but I asked my mom why she chose the school and she said simply “Because it was the best “ We lived in a split-level home in a cul-de-sac across the street from my elementary school, Broadneck Elementary.. My neighbors were from Australia, and one of the neighborhood’s adults was the school’s crossing guards. We had two little puppies, Samantha and Barney. We had a bumper pool board in the downstairs level and a ping-pong table and the best of all, we lad an ATARI. We would watch Greatest American Hero, Wonder Woman, and the A team on TV. When it snowed, we would go sledding. One time my dad sledded with me, and we crashed right into a tree. Our community had a pool that had a high dive board as well as a standard diving board . The staff would break for lunch and we had to get out of the pool. One time, I was skimming my foot in the water, and I feel in the pool. I was so embarrassed. We had a chimney, and one day a bird flew down the chimney to get into our house and my mother ran all around the house after the bird with her broom stick in her hand and was determined to get things done. When I was a kindergarten student, we would have floor time when the teacher would read a book to us while we sat cross-cross applesauce on the floor. My favorite class was music because we would sing John Jacob Jingle Heimershmidt at the top of our lugs. My dad took us to my first movie,ET, and we saw it at a drive in theater! I was engrossed in the film. The second movie I ever saw was Annie with my neighbor,Amy, and her mom. My mom wanted to make sure that we were able to learn things that she never learned to do. We all had to learn how to play the piano and learn to swim. In Arnold, we had open classrooms, and we could hear what was going on in other classes. My favorite activity was to find words in the dictionary before others did. I volunteered to work in the school library to reshelve books. When I was in second grade, my dad had an offer to work in the private sector in a company that contracted with Navy ships in Norfolk, Virginia. So, we moved again.

I was born in California. My dad worked at the Naval Postgraduate School I don’t remember much of that time in life since I was so little, but I do remember my dad would take movies of us using some old movie machine and we would place our index finger on the top of another hand’s palm and we would disappear because he would stop filming for just a little bit and then when he restarted the film it was like we disappeared and we had reappeared in a different area so we had a lot of fun doing that. I also remember that we had a dog named Whiskey and I used to play with my next door neighbor, Renzo. His real name was Lorenzo but all I could say was the latter half of his name.Unfortunately we could not stay in Monterey;we moved to Arnold, Maryland so dad could teach at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton