meet simon. he comes to chicago by way of germany. i remember sitting at the dinner table the summer before my senior year of high school with my parents. my mom decided it would be a great idea for us to host an exchange student. [my mom has really great ideas sometimes]. & i pulled simon’s profile. i said i would like a boy since i already knew what it was like to have a sister. [i have really great ideas sometimes too]. simon is my german brother. in the short year that simon stayed with us, we forged a brother/sister bond & a friendship. he experienced a lot here: september 11th, saying goodbye to our beloved family pet, college parties with my older sister, squirrels, riding on a real american school bus, getting his driver’s license & graduating from american high school. every few years, he takes time out of his schedule & arrives on our doorstep again. & we always pick up where we left off, sharing jokes & him sharing stories of his world travels from southern spain to the southern most part of chile, patagonia. good decisions are the best. & simon was one. i feel so lucky to have a german brother.

on wednesday we showed simon some good laughs & thursday, we shared art & culture. we stopped by the art institute to check out their ‘inside/out’ workshop with the hubbard street dance company [starring my friend, kevin]. & enjoyed the music floating around millenium park.