Kari and the City
 
 
 
 
 
 
On the season finale of the hit show Kari and the City, Kari embarks on a journey that will forever change her life.  Who knew that a week in Chicago would turn her from a country girl at heart to a confident city girl?  She learns many life lessons on this trip that are highlighted throughout the show.  In the end she feels that she gained more than she ever thought she would. The trip starts out on the wrong foot, with a terrible grilled cheese sandwich.  However, the tone of the trip changes when her friends Jessica and Echo get locked in their rooms at the hostel where they are staying.  Things seem to get better from here for Kari.  The group that she is with eats Indian food the first night they are there and Kari surprisingly likes it!   To get around the city, Kari must learn to use CTA that runs all around the city.  At first it is a weird concept to her, but as she gets used to it she is able to move freely from place to place.  She also learns that she can read a map of Chicago and can map out what transportation needs to be used.  She then goes on an excursion with her friend Echo that ends up being a success.  She learns a valuable lesson, which is that she can move within the city and she becomes very excited and proud of herself for such an accomplishment.  She also observes on this excursion the people around her.  On the subways and buses, people in the city don’t care who they are sitting by.  They just care about the paper they are reading and the music they are listening to on their I-pods.  This surprises Kari, but she gets used to it fast.  Kari’s view on the city begins to change as she realizes that people aren’t stuck up like they seem in the movies.  She sees that people are more open in the cities and they live their lives in the public. As the show goes on, Kari experiences something that she has never felt before.  She becomes a minority.  This is an eye opening experience for her, since she is used to being with people of her own race.  She travels to places like Little Village and Bronzeville, where people are different races and they look at her wondering why she is there.  She learns that it is hard being looked at differently, but that it was worth seeing from a different perspective. Kari experiences many more eye opening things that include bared windows, police boxes on light poles, and neighborhoods that are being demolished just so that people who are better off can create a new neighborhood.  All of these things help Kari understand the city a little bit better.  During this trip she often wonders where those people will go if they get pushed out of their homes because of an increase in taxes and other things that prevent affordable living. All of these experiences together help Kari to understand the city better.  Near the end of the episode, it is easy to see that she begins to feel more comfortable with the city and the people that live there.  She learns that it is possible to live in a big city.  Stay tuned next season to see what Kari will do next! Homehttp://othello.alma.edu/~vonwallmenich/tales/main/tales.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0