Chicago

This was my first encounter with snow. This white thing that actually looks like the pentagonal flakes often depicted. It may be nice, it may be pretty, but the fact that it has to be very cold for it to snow, spoils the whole experience. It was SO cold. It didn’t help that the hostel was not in a very prominent spot. We dragged our luggage through the snow, up and down the streets and well, it was our first stop in travelling. Not much experience there. I still found the fact that we were half stranded kind of funny though. People in Chicago were really nice. It was 2am in the morning and it was bitter cold and they offered directions and one even stopped to ask if we need a phone to call someone because ‘you should get out of the cold’. This is the first impression of Chicago, and my, did it paint a very good impression on the Americans.

It was cold, I reiterate. Most of the outdoor theme park-areas were closed at Navy Pier. There was a Christmas exhibition with kiddy Magic show, huge x’mas trees, Santa Claus statues from the various countries and cookie design (which we did for $2). This lady working at the navy pier saw me taking a photo of the snow from the inside of the building.
‘Why don’t you go out and I’ll take a photo for you?’
“But it’s so cold.”
‘I’ll be very quick!’
Felt that that was really thoughtful and kind of her to offer to help.

Shopping was done on Michigan Avenue where we finally get to see shopping centers in America. The usual shops though, nothing much worth mentioning. Right next to the shopping area was the Museum of Contemporary Arts. I’m not exactly the artsy fartsy sort of person and I will not pretend that I comprehend what I was looking at. But I distinctly remembered seeing an artwork done by a rising artist from Singapore. There was this silly joy associated with seeing this familiarity and tiny pride that ‘hey, we aren’t that bad you know!’ But emotions aside, it was an art work that commemorates all the missing people in out society- literally missing. There after was my second encounter with The Cheesecake Factory (after the first time in San Francisco) which had been nice too with the Vanilla Cheesecake. But it once again proves that I just don’t learn, because once again, I ordered a main course and had to box up half of it in order to stuff my cheesecake into my bloated belly.

Of course, anyone who has ever considered travelling to Chicago would have heard of the Millennium Park. I suppose it must be a huge garden/park with loads of Museums and Statues planted throughout. The park wasn’t closed for winter. But the fact was none of us could tolerate more than 10min out in the cold (despite wearing the full gear- thermals, hat, coat, scarf, gloves). So we had to restrict our understanding of the park to the brief 10min.

Moving indoors brought us (with some effort) to the Cultural Centre where we took a tour of the building. Things that we have never noticed before were explained to us, such as using long columns on wall marble to make the ceiling of one room look higher than the other, the seashell ‘trademark’ design of Tiffany glass and the design of the Chicago windows (long floor-to-ceiling window adopting the shape of 3 sides of an octagon). The architecture in Chicago was really rich, just like the history behind it.

Lunch was at the annual German Christkindlemarket (a marketplace by the Germans) with German bratwurst and Sauerkraut (sour cabbage). Oh. Breakfast was the left over from the Cheesecake Factory.

We went on to watch a theatre – A very neofuturistic Christmas Carol at the uptown area of Chicago. I really must say that the environment was not that nice. It was dark and you got to go up a flight of steps (much like our terrace houses) and the theatre was right beside a Funeral Chapel. Like ‘hello! I’m Asian and I’m a little bit superstitious.’ They had a Christmas tree decorated with fake skeleton and the people there were hyperactive (I suppose its because they are from theatre). What am I to think?! It was one of those shows that I laughed at and enjoyed myself at the most. The way they interact with the audience and the same-frequency-sense of humor had truly left an impression. Despite the simple tools, it was the zest and energy that they put into portraying the Christmas Carol that really mattered. I wonder if they really did send out the chicken sandwich (to replace a turkey) to the mother-in-law of one of the audience. It would be really cool if they did.

Greektown breakfast was the first time I really viewed upon the Greeks as a different ‘race’ because I have never really known what they were like. But the conclusion is that – they can cook, It is a family-run business and everyone is very relaxed and at home in the shop, whichever counter they were at. We then took a quick walk around the Printer’s Row neighborhood where I again, for the first time, entered an antique book store. Found out that I’m particularly interested in reading up on the relationships between the blacks and the whites and their history. Each book there could cost a few thousands or so I was told.

We went on the most interesting trip ever to Chinatown where we found durians and gave Liesbeth a treat in durians for her to try it. It was flown in from Thailand and it was frozen. The shop owner had to use the ‘cleaver’ to CHOP up the durians. When its frozen, it taste just like ice cream- cold and sweet. Of course we had Chinese food and my salted-fish fried rice=) Liesbeth’s rice noodles (hor fun) looks weird. Its like fried and its thick like a kuey. We also showed her to the Japanese snack shop and brought her into Chinese herbal shops to explain Bird’s nest, Sharksfin, Ling Zhi, Ginseng and stuff like that to her. It’s good to know that there are things that we take for granted that are not exactly that common in other people’s world.

Institute of Arts- free admission on Thursday 5-8pm. There were many different categories but a lot revolved around Christianity and you could really see the proliferation of the religion in the European and American countries and states. I particularly like this portrait. I believe that the part most difficult to capture on a drawing is the eyes. This one looked like he is smiling at me. I couldn’t help it but to smile back at him. A drawing that made me happy!

With that, we concluded our first trip out of California. More to come!