Finally! With a switch weekend break of 2.5 days, a few friends and I headed out to be tourists of Chicago, armored with our various forms of cameras: hand held, ipod, and super fancy + big lens kind. No coincidence only the Asians had cameras. The trip started at -2 days when I found out my long lost roommate from undergrad was also going to be there for the weekend - yay MNZ!
Day 1: Finished ob/gyn shelf, went to eat some free appetizers (complement of social chairs), packed in 15 minutes, and drove 5 hrs, to get there around 7:30p. We ate dinner at Lao Szechuan in Chinatown, which was a nice break from the same frozen pasta that I've eaten for the past two weeks. Oh man, do I miss Chinese food! With our powers combined, we ordered in in Chinese, and it was delicious.
After meeting some more friends, we went to a comedy show at
The Second City. Unfortunately, the main show was sold out, so we just went to watch the backup comedians/trainees. Although not the real deal, it was still pretty entertaining (OCD bartender, black/white twins, vegan song, radio station couple, Goldfigure and Jonathan Bond, wedding songs, Dr.'s creation).
Day 2: After insistence from the coffee drinkers of the group (KL, LL), we went to Intelligentsia where all I enjoyed was the aroma. True to our tourist roles, we went to Millennium Park to observe the city through a gigantic bean-shaped mirror. And to train my stomach for going abroad, I licked the bean. Yup, I licked it. I'm hoping because it just rained, that it didn't have too much dirty hand microbes on it. I also got a deal out of it from a friend, so it wasn't too bad.
We continued across
BP bridge (no sliding down the slide for me...), admired the
Crown Fountain (aka faces fountain), skimmed the Art Institute, and took a bus to
The Magnificent Mile on Michigan Ave. You'd think traveling with 2 guys and a girl wouldn't involve a huge amount of shopping, but I was wrong. We must've spent an hour in Banana Republic. There was another really interesting shop, that I forgot the name of. It was dark, the ceiling was dotted with sewing machines, and it had tons of leather. Man, if I had more money, I'd buy clothing from that shop.
After getting cute gifts from Anthropology, we ate lunch at
Portillo's Hot Dog's - some classic Chicago hot dogs. Not supposed to have ketchup, but I put some on anyways (how can you not have ketchup?!!). They were good (probably because I was starving without bf), but I still don't understand why they're so special.
The
Navy Pier was a lot of fun! The sea (okay, lake) was refreshingly beautiful, and the skyline was perfectly outlined by a sunset. We had some fun observing the slowly moving Ferris Wheel and making fun of their usefulness in trapping potential dates, and then continued to the end of the pier where I took a picture with the anchor that looked like a pelvis (don't they all look like pelvises?). The cherry on top was that along the way back indoors, we ran into a Winter Festival with beautiful lights/rides/events, and the
Smith Museum of Stained Glass that's supposed to be one of the best in the U.S. (free!).
We then made our way to Kai's place, got a tiny view form the 58th floor, and ordered some Gino's deep dish pizza. While it was very filling, I have to say I prefer my cheese on top of the sauce.
Day's still young: We then went to the
Zoo Lights - how can anyone not like shiny, glittery lights that synchronize to the music? And while the group (now expanded) wandered from light to light, I preferred to check out all possible paths, which often led to me being separated from the group and trying to catch up to them. I sometimes wonder if I were completely gone, if anyone would notice. Anyhow, my efforts were awarded with seeing sleeping lions and gorillas with a foot of me.
We spent a little time celebrating our wonderful host's bd party (LM), and then I split to join MNZ and YYL at a holiday party. There I realized what a small world it was, how everyone knew everyone, and our class president was as notorious in highschool as now.
Day 3: After sleeping 4 hrs, we sent MNZ off on her plane. Intending to take a short nap, we slept too long, ran into Bear's Game traffic, and didn't get to the
Field Museum until 11:30. Sighs...were supposed to leave at noon for SL. It was supposed to be free for residents today, so I had a friend bring her residency info, but I was disappointed that they stamped your hand, not give you a ticket. I lingered a bit, hoping the security guards would look away, and I could make a quick dash for it, but the opportunity presented, and I was too chicken. So instead, I wandered around the building's outskirts. While I was on the phone, I followed some people into the North entrance. Before I realized what happened, I was already in the museum. Fortunate for me, my friends decided to leave at 12:30, giving me some chance to explore the exhibits: Gems, Evolution of the Earth, New Guinea, Environment, Egyptian Tombs, etc.
Fun times!
