pullman tour

Buon giorno, tutti!

It is a dark, rainy morning here in Chi-town. Feeling more and more like fall everyday...

On Saturday I went on a tour of historic Pullman for my history of Chicago class. Very interesting. The coolest part for me was that the area we saw looks pretty much like it did in the 1800s, when the factory was running. We walked through the Hotel Florence, which is currently being restored, so we didn't get to see the whole thing, but still fun to see. Then we walked through the factory, which someone tried to burn down just a few years ago, if I remember correctly, which is also being fixed up. It was a weird, yet awesome feeling to stand in that big, open, empty factory and the hotel and know that real people worked and stayed there over 100 years ago. After lunch we walked around the neighborhood, where there are still houses that were once lived in by the factory workers and their families. The farther you lived from the factory, the less skilled of a worker you were, therefore the less money you made, resulting in housing with cheaper rent. So the first block or so are more like duplexes, the next block had houses that looked about the same size as the duplexes, but housed three families rather than two, after that came smaller apartments, and then barracks for single male factory workers. The architecture, while not elaborate, was nice to look at, but the housing also got plainer the farther we got from the factory. And people still live in these houses now, some of which have special plaques designating their historical significance. (i.e., one of them was lived in by the person (I forget who specifically), started the Pullman strike.) So in a way it was kind of eerie, walking down those streets. Very cool indeed.

Saw "Hollywoodland" with my brother that night. Good movie, but left me rather frustrated at the end. I shall say no more, for fear of writing a spoiler.

Yesterday consisted mostly of homework, accompanied by the Bears/Packers game. The Bears kicked some major Green Bay ass. Whoo!! Great way to start the season.

Well. Time to do a quick workout and either practice or do more homework. Or both. And somehow, my plan to get up early to do homework this morning actually worked. Interesting.

Ciao ciao. :-)