Between the Lines, Iowa City, University of Iowa, 2013

(Between the Lines (BTL), a program that brings high school writers, aged 16-19, to the University of Iowa for creative writing study and cultural interaction)

July 13, Welcome to Iowa City

We left Chicago in the morning in two University of Iowa vans. It is about a 4-hour drive from there to Iowa City through endless corn fields with intermittent barns and scanty cows.

Upon arrival we were lucky to catch the Summer Arts, Jazz, Movies and Music Festival. Somehow jazz stands along with music, apparently having a distinguished role in American culture. Two events were scheduled for the evening – open doors free concert and film showing. Leaving the suitcases in the rooms, students went to explore the surroundings. Downtown of Iowa City is really small but nice and cozy, with 12(!) bookstores and vintage clothing small shops like “White Rabbit”.  Iowans keep special folding chairs for such festivals and people unfold the chairs right in the middle of the street in front of the only high building in the city – Sheraton hotel – turning the Pedestrian mall into a performance hall. It is hard to imagine such a multi-age crowd enjoying music and frozen yogurt all together in Russia. Infants in strollers, teenage rappers in same-colored outfit, elderly people with fashionable purses and funny labels on their T-shirts, all hang out and have fun.

Frozen yogurt deserves a separate notion. It costs 39 cents per ounce, you grab a plastic cap and pour it as much as you want sprinkling nuts, chocolates or fresh berries. Before choosing a flavor we tried several ones in miniature cups – yummy! – and that was a mistake because after tasting we can’t but take a little bit of everything. That ended up in a full cup worth about 5$ and half an hour indulging in gluttony.

Between the Lines, Iowa City, University of Iowa, 2013

(Between the Lines (BTL), a program that brings high school writers, aged 16-19, to the University of Iowa for creative writing study and cultural interaction)

July 12, Exploring Chicago

Chicago! Finally. Students’ excitement was bursting out of windows of the van that brought us to the city. I got a message in the morning. We are downstairs having breakfast. Heading to walk around straight away. Gosh! You were given time for relaxing and rest in the morning, guys! The first group left the hotel at 7 a.m. to climb the 103d floor of Willis Tower, famous Chicago sky deck. It was Sears Tower when I was an explorer there myself, 8 years ago, on a weekend trip with a group of internationals. I couldn’t stop smiling. The streets of the Windy City (or Paris of the Prairie, as   ran a familiar bell though I didn’t recognize anything except for the Water tower (the only stone building that preserved after Chicago fire in 1871. The first thing we visited with the second group of BTL (those who slept till 7.30 a.m.) was public library, and impressive 4-story building in an ornate antiquated style with green sculptures on the roof. The first thing that drew students’ attention was a rack with plastic covers for wet umbrellas at the door. And my first pictures was at a rubbish bin with a sign ‘Recycle your flag’. So typical of 

Americans.

The whole group had a scheduled tour of Poetry Foundation where we got by subway (not underground!) with a daily transit card. Poetry Foundation has open door policy (meaning that everybody can have free access to new, astonishing, tried and true, children, funny collections of poetry) and runs social programs like Poetry Out Loud, which is a contest for schoolchildren nationwide.

Art Institute ‘run’ followed, with late admission at half-price, and a lengthy walk in Millennium Park and along the Michigan lake full of yachts and begging swans.

To finish the intense day we took a boat cruise exploring Chicago architecture. Well, not all the skyscrapers are the same. Some are built in contextual style, that is they reflect the history or surroundings like a bend of a river or give you a hint what they have inside with a small statue on top.  Some are modern, postmodern, triangle (and built by Mr. Triangle – yes, that’s the nickname of the famous Chicago architect Frank Lloyd Wright). They reflect the vigor and perplexity of the city built on a swamp in the early 19^th century that first became a major transportation point, then a center of meat-packing industry, and now is a cultural center with Art Institute, summer festivals and Taste of Chicago gastronomical extravaganza.

Between the Lines, Iowa City, University of Iowa, 2013

(Between the Lines (BTL), a program that brings high school writers, aged 16-19, to the University of Iowa for creative writing study and cultural interaction)

July 11, Running through JFK

The group successfully flew out of Sheremetyevo congratulating Inna, one of the students, at the airport as she was turning 19. Indeed, the longest birthday ever – she celebrated it for 33 hours crossing over the Atlantic.

We arrived at JFK and had less than two hours to change for Chicago flight. Right at the entrance we got an orange Quick-connect ticket that saved us from missing the flight. The queue was enormous but we were shown straight to the officer who took our fingerprints and corrected our pronunciation – ‘Iowa (stress on the first syllable), not I’owa (not on the second as in Russian). At the customs again Quick-connect pass helped us join the shortest line. We had to receive our luggage, go through the customs, recheck the luggage, take an airtrain to Terminal 2 from Terminal 4, go through security again. We wouldn’t have managed to do it all in 2 hours in a group of 11 but for the constant help and directions from the airport staff. JFK bears the name of the 35^th US president John F. Kennedy not in vain. In 2011 more than 47,5 mln passengers flew through  contributing about $31.5 billion in economic activity to the New York/New Jersey region, generating approximately 224,000 total jobs and about $11.3 billion in wages and salaries. The  36,000 employees of the airport do their job well.

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Song that makes fun of stereotypes about Russians

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Как иностранцы произносят русские названия

http://www.adme.ru/nejming/kak-inostrancy-proiznosyat-russkie-nazvaniya-404405/