LIAM ULLAND-JOY, 16

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part two of a two-part column series on a school trip to Chicago. Part one ran in the Dec. 11-12 weekend edition.

Once everyone had finished purchasing their items from the El Condor grocery store, it was time to go to our next stop. However, we did not have access to the bus at this time and would be walking. We decided to stop by a nearby mural before continuing to the next item on our itinerary. We ended up getting a bit lost, but thanks to a printed map and the help of Google we eventually found our way through the cold air. The next stop was a place called the Dance Academy of Salsa. It was a small building that offered dance lessons. We were there for about 45 minutes and learned a few different dance steps, including Bachata.

After leaving the Dance Academy we had a brief problem locating the bus, but this was soon resolved. It was time for lunch! We went to 90 Miles Cuban Cafe. Earlier in the day we had pre-written our orders due to the large size of our group. The main options available to us were their sandwiches. Among the options were the cubano, other meat-filled ones, and a vegetarian sandwich. The ingredients of every sandwich were listed on the menu and it was obvious they were all stuffed with fillings.

On arriving, we also learned that the cafe offered several sodas I had never tried before. The two ones I remember are Iron Beer, which was described by Profe Jensen as a mix of Root Beer and Dr. Pepper, and a pineapple soda called Jupina. I decided to get the pineapple soda, a fairly sweet and strong flavor but a good one. I also ordered a vegetarian sandwich. It was completely stuffed with different fillings, including mushrooms, which I had never tried before.

After lunch, we visited a churro shop called Xurro, which had a huge variety of flavors. There were regular churros, miniature ones, filled ones, and even “churro shakes,” which used a churro as a straw. The item next on our itinerary was a guided walking tour, and it was already starting to get pretty cold outside, so I got a churro and a hot chocolate to keep my hands warm.

The focus of our Chicago trip was the Pilsen neighborhood, which is home to many different murals. For our final scheduled activity, we would be receiving a guided tour of several murals near the National Museum of Mexican Art, which we had visited the day before. There was some downtime between our trip to Xurro and the walking tour, so I stayed in the bus where it was warm. When it was time to reconvene for the tour, we met up outside the NMMA and met our guide. After a few minutes, we embarked on our walk.

I don’t remember every mural we visited, but a few stand out in my memory. The first one we stopped at was a depiction of the story of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, figures from Aztec mythology for which two volcanoes near Mexico City are named. We also saw a scene from “Gulliver’s Travels” and some graffiti art. Most of the murals we saw took up the entire sides of buildings, reaching truly impressive sizes. I only took one picture because my hands were getting cold and I didn’t want to use my phone very much.

The walking tour was the last scheduled event of the trip. After we finished it, we returned to the hotel and had dinner from a Costa Rican restaurant that did catering. I went to sleep at around 11:30 p.m. and woke up sometime before 8:00 a.m. The group gathered in the hotel restaurant and finished our breakfast before starting preparations to return home. We left for Marquette at around 9:20 a.m. and were driving all day.

There was quite a bit of snow in Marquette when we arrived, different from Chicago where it had only been cold and windy. This made me consider other differences in the two places, especially the sheer size of Chicago. It had been a while since I visited a really big city; early 2020 or mid-2019, depending on how you define “big.” The trip also had a unique educational value in expanding my knowledge of Latin American cultures in a way that was very different from a school setting. All in all, I think I would go again.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Liam Ulland-Joy, 16, is a youth writer for 8-18 Media.