Living in Chicago and going to school in Minnesota (and camp in northern Wisconsin, etc) has sent me through Milwaukee dozens of times. I can navigate a bunch of people who couldn't read a map on the main expressways and probably list all the street names that one could exit onto. I've even spent time staring at a street map of Milwaukee and could give a vague description of where the main roads are, and to a lesser extent describe how they run.
But I had never been to Milwaukee. Not that I ever really wanted to; it's a pretty junky city with tons of poverty and abandoned buildings, and other than the local brewery plants the city itself doesn't really have a lot of history. Add in the fact that once I got there, I watched the driver of my car get hopelessly lost in one of its suburbs, nearly hit a deer, miss a turn on an expressway junction, and nearly get hit by a pair of cars going 90 or higher (mph) in a 60 zone. So much for trying to sway my views of the town.
But a lot of good things happened. I banded with several friends from FCA to make the trek to serve God and the inhabitants of this blah city, ranging from helping a church store in a rundown neighborhood set up shop, to helping disabled kids in the Special Bowling Olympics, to visiting a homeless shelter and organize donated clothes that had just arrived at the shelter. I was able to not give in to material distractions such as computers and TVs (apparently the White Sox won the pennant while I was away). I spent a lazy afternoon in one of Milwaukee's beautiful downtown parks playing frisbee and sipping hot chocolate from a local coffee shop. I surprised several of my friends in Cantorei when several of my FCA chums made the trek to a suburb when the Cantorei people clearly weren't expecting any of us to show up. I made some new friends, as well as getting to know better several of the people I already knew. And I got a big reward at the end of helping with the Bowling Olympics: a hug from one of the kids who initially had trouble accepting that he wasn't going to succeed every time he bowled. Oh yeah, and 2 new T-shirts.
There were some frustrations as well, centered around trying to balance hanging out with my friends as well as knowing new people--we had a group of about 25--and feeling productive about what I did during the day. But playing Mafia, Sardines, (the piano) and learning how to jump-start a car (from a safe distance) helped tip the balance into agreeing that it was quite a trip.
End note: the first word out of my mouth when Justin's car finally started this morning (after going through 2 sets of jumper cables) was not, Yippee! or Woo hoo! or Hooray!. It was Hallelujah!. Hallelujah for spirituality of it all, I guess. Hallelujah for the fact that Chicago finally has a team in the World Series for the first time in my life. Hallelujah for the fact that we all arrived Milwaukee and returned at St. Olaf safely. Hallelujah for the fact that I didn't have to do homework for five days. Hallelujah for God. Booyah.