After a cold, gray morning, finally the rain clouds parted and the sun came out for a most beautiful day on Lake Michigan in Chicago. I love this city!
Hola, como se siente?
I finished up geriatrics in September in Chicago and was supposed to start an ER elective at hospital I once was an ER tech in for October. In a strange turn of events, I found out last minute that my rotation was at a non-ACGME site so with 2 business days and a weekend, I had to find new rotation to start Monday. If not, I’d have to sit out a month or travel back to NY in order to graduate on time.
So after tons of phone-calls, emails and prayers, I finally ended up on a family practice rotation here in Chicago in a Spanish-only clinic. At first, my school and the hospital were reluctant to let me start the rotation, reluctant meaning they flat out wouldn’t let me. I took 4 years of high school Spanish and while in NY, participate in a language exchange group, yet my Spanish isn’t quite up to par. So out of desperation determination, I begged to do the rotation in hopes that I would pick up. I have good comprehension since Spanish is similar to Tagalog and Italian, but my conversational medical Spanish is not very good.
Armed with my Medical Spanish dictionary that I picked up at Barnes & Noble on the way into my first day, I struggled through talking with patients on my first day, eventually involving the MA’s to help translate. For the past week and a half, I have been reading through this dictionary, doing Rosetta Stone and forcing myself to remember my vocabulary. I tell all of my Spanish-speaking patients, “Entiendo mucho pero hablo un poquito de Espanol. Asi que hableme despacio por favor.” which means “I understand a lot but I speak a little Spanish. So please speak slowly.” My patients’ seem excited that I’m trying to learn and speak their language. It’s amazing how much I picked up and now and doing full interviews with patients and families, and slowly on the road to being fluent!
So this month began as a stressful mess, but has turned into a great opportunity for me to learn more about family practice and to become more bilingual, an important advantage for the future.
I wish I had gotten a chance to see this in Chicago. The cold brought me down.
Magdalena Abakanowicz, Agora, 2005-2006, iron
106 figures 285-295 x 95-100 x 135-145 cm
Permanent installation in Grant Park, Chicago
Snugglefritz, Jennifer and Shania’s first ever Snowman… From this point forward, they will always remember me stumbling through the snow rolling around a ball of snow to teach them the important life lesson on how to build a snow man.
My father has worked for the Brach’s Candy Corporation for the past 32 years. Such loyalty to one company is unfounded in my generation of Y’ers who pick up and go to a new company/organization after a couple years or so after they’ve milked it for skills and learning experiences. It’s a different work culture these days. In his 32 years there, he developed strong friendships with his co-workers and he saw their children grow up and even start their own families. He helped friends and family get jobs there when they first moved to this country, and even helped their family members find jobs elsewhere. Even now, he meets up with his other retired friends for lunch and times to reminisce about the glory days.
I have fond memories of visiting this factory on the west side of Chicago as a child for “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day” or just in passing. I remember all the candy my dad used to bring home for us kids to try. I vividly remember walking through the factory and my dad chatting with a machinist who gave me a giant piece of peppermint that was to be cut into the infamous Starlight mints. I remember how it felt still slightly warm in my hands since it was freshly made and the belly ache that followed.
Today, I received an email from my father about the end of an era. At 2pm CST, the old Brach’s Candy Factory on Cicero was blown up for the new Batman Movie, a sad and quick end of what once was. A part of my father’s history gone, and part of Chicago history gone in just a moments’ time. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to see your second home be demolished as a stunt for a movie. After sitting in an hour of Chicago traffic through snow, rain and hot summer days without air conditioning, my dad came to this building day in and day out for 32 years. Now it remains as a pile of rubble and ash.
This company was and still is an icon. Perhaps, the empty, abandoned shell that it has been for over a year was an anticlimactic end, as it sat idle and unproductive unlike any of its years in operation. Maybe, it is a momentous end for the Brach’s Corporation to go out with a bang, literally. However its end may be viewed, I know I feel at a loss for its demise, yet nostalgic for the memories which will survive in time.
"Take the world apart and figure out how it works." - Built to Spill, 1994.
