Exploring Indy!

Today was our cultural exploration day, which was our first opportunity to really explore the great city of Indianapolis.  We got to sleep in today (slept in until 9!) and woke up to delicious cinnamon rolls provided to us generously by the church.  We then had the rest of the morning to hang out, play games, throw around the frisbee, and attend the Sunday service being held at our church.

Then we all drove down together to a beautiful, scenic canal right outside of downtown Indy.  The water was so peaceful and there were birds and kayaks and paddleboats and lots of runners and bikers all around.  We had our nice bagged lunches here and spent time relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Next we headed down to the stadium where the Indy 500 was taking place.  We figured it would be a cool, once in a lifetime opportunity to actually experience this huge event and since we just happened to be in Indy, we should definitely check it out.  We didn't think we would be able to get very close to the race, but we ended up being able to drive right up to the arena and park really close by and walk over to the arena.  The race was crazy loud, and even though we couldn't see the actual race cars over the fence, we watched the race projected on the huge television screen.  Even though most of us weren't super enthusiastic about race cars, it was pretty cool to experience how insanely fast these cars were racing and we got to experience the wild and fun crowd that attends this event.

From this point on we split into two groups:  One group wanted to actually go into the stadium to watch the race and the second group (the one I chose) decided to head over to the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

The museum was incredible and it features all different types of artwork, from life size model cars to ancient Roman artwork to very modern pieces.  We also got to design our own "dream cars" and I created a masterpiece that was expensive, not fuel efficient, and slow (and ugly).  After spending a couple hours inside the museum we took a walk through the beautiful gardens surrounding the museum.  We also got to tour around a huge mansion, greenhouse, and vineyard that were all previously owned by a family who then donated all of their property for public use.  Simonne got to see Tiffany silverware, which she was very excited about.

After a long day full of walking, we settled back in the church and had delicious pasta and chicken and vegetables and garlic bread and salad (with the lettuce we picked from the farm!) for dinner and ate outside once again.

Then we started our daily reflection.  We shared fun events from our day and then made a word web centering on "disability".  From this activity we realized just how many different issues there are surrounding disability, and how we could never even come close to fully covering all of these different aspects in just one week's trip.

We finished the night by watching the movie, "My Left Foot," which is a biography of Christy Brown, a man who has cerebral palsy and is almost entirely paralyzed.  It chronicles his life from his childhood through adulthood, where he successfully becomes a poet, painter, and writer with the use of his left foot (his only functioning limb).  We also got delicious sugar cookies that the church gave us!

It was a really fun day, and even though we are all exhausted from a long week so far, we are looking forward to working at a nursing home tomorrow and meeting more incredible individuals!

-Jackie