Fall break adventures: Boston (October 4-6)

Next on our fall break adventure agenda was Boston, baby! I enjoyed my time there despite the average weather that persisted during our entire stay. I guess we got to experience Boston in all its inclement autumn glory? 

Boston: Day One

Our first day in Boston was pretty chilled out. Well, it took half the day to actually get there. Amy and I left our hostel in Chicago at 6:00am to catch our 10:00am flight from O'Hare International Airport to Boston. The flight was about four hours long, so even with the one hour we gained because of the time difference, we only arrived in Boston in the afternoon. It was a cold and cloudy day, the chill bit into my bones and rattled them. I couldn't believe this was Boston in early October - if it's this cold now, how cold does it get in the heart of winter? Bostonians have a pretty rotten deal, man. I do not envy those Harvard kids, eh.

After claiming our luggage we got in touch with Tom's friend Sam, an Australian exchange student studying politics at Boston College this semester. We were going to be crashing at Sam's flat during our stay in Boston. He was really helpful: he gave us detailed instructions on how to get to his place on the trains and subway, and said that he would meet us at the train stop by his house to pick us up. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the train stop near his place. We met up with him without hassle, and a Dunkin' Donut and a coffee later, we were sitting in Sam's cosy living room, complete with a hardwood floor (covet) and comfortable couches (super covet). It was 4:00pm, or thereabouts. We'd spent 10 hours travelling from Chicago to Boston. Sick.

I briefly entertained the thought of going out to explore the Boston College campus and the nearby neighbourhood, but the unfriendly weather and travel weariness chased that possibility away. Amy and I hung out at Sam's place for the evening, just having chats with Sam and his flatmates: two French exchange students (girls named Tiphaine and Noemie) and one German exchange student (a guy named Konrad), all studying at Boston College. The French girls were really friendly, they made us Irish tea and hung out with us for a while although they had assignments to do. They had such hot accents, man! They told us about life in Boston, and the differences (perhaps I should say disparities) they've noticed between France and America in terms of food and boys. It was a funny conversation.

Tom arrived at the flat at around 6:00pm. He was meant to arrive earlier but apparently his flight from Richmond had been delayed. He's not been having the best luck in terms of travelling in America so far - he's suffered loads of cancellations and delays during his travels, it's weird. And he was soaking because of the rain. At least he made it in time for the amazing dinner that Noemie made for us, man it was delicious (creamy chicken and mushrooms with white wine, yum).

After dinner, Sam, Tom, Amy and I went out to the nearby cinema to watch "Howl", a film about the poet Allen Ginsberg starring James Franco as Ginsberg. It was about Ginsberg's life, his groundbreaking and seminal Beat Generation poem "Howl" (I think the poem is about Ginsberg's take on life [both his life and life generally] and the people of his generation that meant something to him; it's graphic, suggestive and honest), and the litigation brought against the domestic publisher of the poem on the grounds of its obscenity. It was pretty arty and I enjoyed the cinematographic techniques employed in the film (black and white material, interview-type scenes with James Franco, the trial scenes in full colour, and animations depicting the images in the poem). I also learnt a bit about Allen Ginsberg which was neat, given that he's meant to be a key literary figure of the 20th Century. And I enjoyed the fact that Jon Hamm played the defence attorney, he's pretty awesome. The cinema we were in was small and snug too, very cute.

That about wraps up our first day in Boston. Lots of travelling to get there, and good times taking it easy.

Boston: Day Two

We spent our second day in Boston out and about, getting amongst the city while braving the rain and wind. We didn't really plan an itinerary or anything, so we had a flexible and day full of random activities that turned out pretty well.

Our first stop was the Trinity Church in the city. We just wanted to get out of the rain when we arrived downtown, and it was the closest touristy building we could spot. It's an Anglican church that was founded in 1733. According to the American Institute of Architects, it's one of the top 10 most important buildings in America. It was a stunning church, and its architecture, murals and stained glass window artwork were very impressive. The richness of the church's history and culture filled me with awe, and I felt moved by the love for God that the key people behind the building of the church must have been inspired by. It was a real privilege to be there.

Trinity Church in the city of Boston.

View of the ceiling from the Crossing.

The Chancel.

After a delicious lunch at Finagle-A-Bagel, we went shopping on Newbury Street (a famous shopping area of town) because Tom wanted a waterproof windbreaker and Amy wanted a warm jacket. The shops were all housed in cute as buildings, which made the experience all the more enjoyable. And unlike Chicago, we had some success in hunting down some decent gear. Win!

Newbury Street. Cute shops.

Our next stop was the Boston Public Library. You might think it weird that we deliberately took time to check out a public library, but dude, the Boston Public Library was actually pretty mint. The architecture of the building and its interior was really impressive. It put the General Library and the Davis Law Library at Auckland to shame.

The Boston Public Library.

Impressive.

Our final big activity for the day was touring Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox and the oldest major league baseball stadium still in use. Our tour guide was was very enthusiastic, which helped to offset the depressing weather. I'm not a baseball fan, but learning about the history of the stadium and the Red Sox was really fun. And baseball is a huge part of American culture, you guys. I felt that I had to get amongst it. We sat in the stadium's seats as we listened to our guide, and also got to check out the Red Sox Hall of Fame and go up the Green Monster (the 11.3m high left field wall with a manual scoreboard, whose primary function is to prevent people from watching the games for free from the outside) to get awesome views of the stadium. I hope I get to catch an actual baseball game before I leave the States.

Fenway Park.

Red Sox Hall of Famers.

Tom and me.

View of the stadium from the Green Monster.

At night we returned to Sam's neighbourhood, and had a couple of beers before having dinner at a small but awesome Vietnamese place. I had pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) for the first time ever, and it was really good. It was a nice end to the day. Sam and Tom headed out for drinks after we got back to the flat, but I was knackered and elected to stay in. To this day, I don't regret that decision. 

An added bonus to the day was getting loads of happy birthday messages from people back home. Due to the time difference, it was the 6th of October in New Zealand although it was only the 5th in Boston. The Facebook wall posts, emails and texts really made my day. I'm so blessed, man! I just felt really grateful and thankful for all the love I have in my life. You know who you are. You're awesome. 

Boston: Day Three

Our third day in Boston was the day of my 23rd birthday. My Israeli exchange friend Nir gave me a happy birthday call from Charlottesville at midnight, and I think he was surprised at the fact that he had woken me up with his call, perhaps he had expected me to be partying until the early hours of the morning? Nah man, I was in bed by 11:00pm. It was really nice of him to call though, he's a great guy.

We had a pretty early start to the day, because I wanted to get a lot done that day: visit Harvard, go downtown and see all the historic buildings and check out Boston Common (the first public park in the States), have clam chowder at Quincy Market... It really sucked because we had the worst rain and wind on this day out of all the Boston days. But we still got out there and tried to see and do the most we could.

We rode the bus to Harvard and had breakfast at Leo's Place Diner, which the guy at the Harvard tour kiosk recommended to us. It was a pretty cute place, and it had pictures of all these celebrities on the walls that had been to the diner, including Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Sneaky picturetaking.

Before doing the Harvard morning tour, we checked out a couple of the stores near the tour starting point, including Urban Outfitters. Man, I really hope that they open an Urban Outfitters chain in New Zealand, because it's the shiz. It sells stuff that hipsters would wear. I'm not embarrassed to say that I wanted to buy everything in the entire store. I exercised self-control and limited my purchases to a purple sweater. But dude, seriously, it was an amazing shop. I'm gonna have to go back there a few times before heading back home.

The Harvard tour was given by a guy called Yosef, a Harvard student majoring in history. We walked around the campus as he told us about the different buildings and fun facts about the university. To be honest, Harvard was a little underwhelming. Maybe it's because I'd built it up in my head to be this awe-inspiring place. But the central grounds at the University of Virginia are so much more beautiful than the main campus of Harvard. And the rain didn't help put the campus in a good light. It was still neat to walk around it and see it, though. And obviously the fact that it's not as aesthetically pleasing as I thought it would be doesn't detract from the university's international academic and social ranking.

Harvard students only enter through side gates.
It's bad luck to go through the main ones.

So so...?

John Harvard wasn't actually the founder of Harvard,
nor is this statue of the actual John Harvard. What?

A Harvard Law School building housing the library.
This was pretty cool, actually.

After the tour (it was advertised as free but Yosef pressured us to tip him at the end, I gave him a couple of bucks but Amy gave him twenty, I think she would've made his day) we checked out a few more shops in the neighbourhood, including the Harvard Shop. My friend and fellow US exchanger Kristy Li and I had this plan to buy Harvard t-shirts and wear it around casually, and to answer in the affirmative if people asked us, "Did you go to Harvard?" because it would technically be true. But when it actually came time for me to buy a Harvard t-shirt, I gave into common sense and decided not to get one. I mean, come on. That's a pretty lame thing to do. I'm going to stock up and proudly wear UVA stuff instead. That makes more sense. Also, I dragged Tom and Amy to the nearby comic book store because Sam told me that he got an Arrested Development t-shirt from there, but the smallest one was too big for me. Fail in both places! After the comic book store fail though, I got a happy birthday call from my mate Geoff McGrath, which was both unexpected and really awesome. 

Then we took the subway back into town and decided to walk from the subway station at Boston Common to Quincy Market to check out the city while we were at it. Big mistake. The wind and rain had gotten worse, and we were completely battered by stormy gales and a vicious deluge as we tried to navigate our way around the city. We had maps on us but for some reason we kept getting lost. It was really, really not fun. The city looked pretty bleak in the crappy weather, and I could feel myself getting a little frustrated at the situation. We managed to make our way to the Market after about 45 minutes of (what felt like) directionless wandering. Quincy Market is basically this big building full of food places and little stalls selling random merchandise. It was bustling with people, and I could smell different enticing aromas from either side as we walked down the Market. In the bathroom I discovered that my feet were bleeding from all the walking (I was stupid and didn't wear socks, nor did I have any band aids with me). Far out... The clam chowder in a breadbowl definitely picked me up, though. It was like the breadbowl chowder we had at Boudin in San Francisco during Contiki: they cut out the top and most of the middle of a gigantic round bread bun and fill it to the brim with clam chowder, and you eat the whole thing. Absolutely gorgeous.

Sanctuary.

After lunch we headed back to Sam's flat because the weather was becoming too much for us to handle. That was probably the best decision of the day. I'd fought against it, saying that if I went back to Sam's I'd probably not want to come out again, and what a waste of a day that would be. Foolish. We got back, dried off and got warm, and played 500 with Sam (a complex but fantastic card game). I reckon when I grow up, I'm going to invest in a house with a fireplace, a solid kettle and a diverse collection of teas and board games so that rainy days won't ever get me down.

In the evening we headed out with the flatties to the New England Aquarium, because they were giving university students free entry. According to the flatties, the museums and galleries around the city take turns to have "student night Wednesdays", where they let people with university student IDs in for free. Apparently the previous week it was the Museum of Fine Arts, which sounds like it would have been awesome. When we arrived at the Aquarium the line to get in was snaking for a couple of hundred metres from the front entrance. Wow. I think that capitalising on free stuff is a universal student trait. It made me chuckle as I stood in line waiting in the freezing cold: regardless of whether you're a uni student in New Zealand or in America, free stuff will always rule over your sensibilities.

The Aquarium housed loads of interesting sea creatures. My favourites were the penguins and the gigantic tortoise that was hanging out in one of the pools. Dude, wow. It smelt kinda weird around the penguin enclosures but their cuteness was adequate compensation.

The New England Aquarium.

Cute.

Wazzup?

After our trip to the Aquarium, we got together with a bunch of Sam's friends from school (who all happened to be French exchange students) and went to grab some dinner at a cute place called "21st Amendment". It was a gourmet burger place, and the food was delectable. I think it was fitting to have staple American food to celebrate my birthday in the States. It was great to hang out with a good bunch of people over a nice meal.

Me, Sam, Tom and Amy. 

The kumara chips were heavenly.

After dinner we tried to go to this bar which, according to Sam, was a pretty mint joint. But we weren't allowed in because they didn't accept IDs for foreigners that weren't passports, and not everyone had brought theirs. We ended up going back to the flat, and fighting against my innate homebodiness, I went out with the boys to a pub a few minutes' walk down the road. It was actually quite nice, and they had an impressive selection of beer. I had a glass of pilsner, and they gave it to me for free because the beer ran out before they could fill up my glass. It was totally fine though, they were only about half a centimetre from the top. Birthday beer? Yeah, birthday beer. It's funny, ever since coming to America, I've grown to really enjoy good beer and good wine. I don't know how or when it happened, but it's true. This probably sounds really silly but I now fully understand why people choose to hang out at bars, drinking. Good beer and good wine is actually quite tasty. Obviously this doesn't mean that I've started drinking heaps, it just means that I've come to appreciate good alcohol. Maybe I'm growing up? I'm still not that big a fan of red wine, but who knows, maybe I'll start to enjoy it in a couple months' time. It was good to chill out with the guys, although most of the conversation was about sports. I was a little out of my depth, but I tried to keep up as best I could. We got back to the flat at around 1:00am, and went straight to bed. 

So that was Boston. I enjoyed my time there, but not as much compared to Chicago, purely because of the weather factor. I'd really like to revisit it during a rain-free day, and see all the buildings and sights that we didn't get to see this time around, because it's meant to be a really beautiful city. While I spent my birthday getting abused by a Boston mini-storm, I felt so thankful that I was able to turn 23 in the country that has been my number one travel destination for as long as I can remember. And I also felt super thankful for all the marvellous people back home sending me birthday love, I missed my friends a lot on the day but felt warm and fuzzy thanks to all their messages. I don't know what I've done to deserve this. I'm just eternally grateful.

I had this thought on the train ride from our Chicago hostel to O'Hare on the day we left Chicago from Boston, and it seems apt to end my fall break entries with it. How lucky am I to be alive at this moment in time, when technology, information and means of transportation are so advanced that exploring new and wonderful places is child's play? If I had been born a century ago, I probably wouldn't have gone beyond the perimeters of my own hometown. But here I am, blessed with good health and adequate means to see and experience new places and new things, to meet wonderful new people, and to learn and grow from all of it. Man. It's amazing. God is good, and He loves me so much. I want to try to remember this thought and make the most of every day, particularly my time in the States. Capture this feeling of awe and wonder, and live each day with humility, thankfulness and joy. Yeah. 

Bring on Thanksgiving break! I can't wait to travel some more. I'll post an entry on Washington DC as soon as I find a decent chunk of time to sit down and write it up. Have a good one. 

G.

Fall break adventures: Chicago (October 1-3)

We had fall break in the first week of October and I visited Chicago and Boston with a couple of my exchange friends. UVA Law School only gives its students three weekdays as fall break. Combined with the weekend, that's a total of five days. Five days? Ridiculous. I naturally assumed that we'd get a fortnight off, just like back home, but I guess they do things differently here. We made the most of our time off though: we extended our break by skipping some classes and it was totally worth it. I spent three days in Chicago with my friend Amy, who is also my flatmate and an exchange student from the UK. Then we flew to Boston to meet up with our friend Tom, an Australian exchange student.

So, Chicago. WOW. I loved it, SO MUCH. Let's start from day one.

Chicago: Day One

The beginning of our trip was pretty auspicious. Our flight to Philadelphia (from which we were due to take a connecting flight to Chicago) was due to leave from Charlottesville at 7:00am on Friday morning, and neither Amy and I got any sleep the previous night: Amy had gone out to Bar Review and didn't sleep when she got back home, and I had hung out with a couple of mates until about 3:00am Friday and made the conscious decision not to sleep because I hadn't packed yet and a 2-hour sleep wouldn't have done anyone any good. So yeah, we were both in an interesting place, mind-wise. But I think it was actually a good thing overall, because I slept like nobody's business on the planes, which made the flights quite pleasant. I might try that out every time I go flying from now on.


We got to Chicago and made our way from the airport to our hostel on the El train. The teeming metropolis of Chicago, unlike sleepy little Charlottesville, has an excellent public transportation system in the form of trains that run both underground and on tracks that are elevated above ground level (hence the name "El train" - they're "elevated"). We got 3-day passes for the trains and made good use of them, man. We managed to find our hostel (Chicago Getaway Hostel) okay too. I really enjoyed staying there, I'd recommend it - it was a lot cleaner and nicer than I thought it would be, which was a relief. They also had guitars for their guests to borrow and play, they totally win.

 

Our hostel. Awesome.

After checking into our room and grabbing some lunch at this cute sandwich place down the road that was also a hipster joint, we went out to explore the city. It was a gorgeous autumn day. We got off the train at the Loop in the centre of town, and wandered into the Theatre District of Chicago. Then we caught sight of the Chicago Theatre and a sign saying, "RICKY GERVAIS LIVE". What? We couldn't believe it! We learnt from the posters on the theatre windows that it was his last performance that very night. So we rushed inside to the box office and got in the queue behind these two European guys who were buying some tickets. When they were done we asked the box office man for two tickets to Ricky Gervais. He replied, "Oh, I'm sorry, I just sold the last two tickets to those guys that are walking out the door right now." WHAT? He saw the crushed look on our faces, and he told us to come back and check in a few hours to see if any more tickets were released for the show. We walked out empty-handed, but for some reason I had this strange feeling of belligerent optimism that we were going to get tickets to Ricky Gervais, even if the odds didn't look too good.

Anyway, we went to visit Millennium Park, which borders Lake Michigan. It was really beautiful. We saw the famous "Silver Bean" artwork hanging out at the park. It's real name is "Cloud Gate" but nobody calls it that. It was pretty funky, eh. Apparently it's a big Chicago icon although it's only been in the city for a few years.

Silver Bean.

The other attractions at the park were awesome too. The outdoor Harris Theatre and Pritzker Music Pavilion were neat. We weren't allowed on the grass though, so we had to admire the Theatre from afar.

The Theatre and the Pavilion.

The Crown Fountain was my personal favourite. It's basically a very shallow pool (so shallow that people can walk in it for a little bit without getting their shoes soaking wet) with two huge glass towers at each end. The towers show different pictures, like huge faces of people and waterfalls. There's a pipe in each tower through which water pours out and makes it look like the people are squirting water from their mouths. It was strange and cool, but mostly cool.

Me at the Crown Fountain.

One of the huge faces on the Crown Fountain glass tower.

We then went to the Art Institute of Chicago, which is probably one of the most famous museums in Chicago. It houses all sorts of artwork from all these different time periods, and it was HUGE. We spent two hours there and still didn't get around to see everything.

The Art Institute of Chicago.

Awesome staircases inside the Art Institute.

The Modern Wing had some pretty interesting pieces. These are the pieces I liked the most.

 

 

My favourite section was probably the Impressionism paintings, though. I wish I knew more about art, but I really enjoyed it anyway, particularly Monet. Gorgeous, much? Much. The Van Gogh paintings were pretty awesome too.

 

 

Afterwards we went back to the Chicago Theatre to check whether any more Ricky Gervais tickets had been released. To our surprise and jubilation, there had been! Apparently they decided to stick some chairs in the disabled people's section at the back of the theatre and sell them for $50.00 each. We didn't care, we bought two seats straightaway. I was like, omgosh! Ricky Gervais, live in Chicago, with a new show, and I was going to see it! It was unbelievable.

Success! Also, isn't the theatre beautiful?

Before the show, we wandered around town and explored it a bit. We wanted to find somewhere to grab a bite, but we didn't come across any decent restaurants. (Later on we found out that all the good eateries are north of the River, whereas the Theatre District is below it. Why would they plan the city like that? It makes no sense, people want good food to be available all over a city, don't they? Don't they? If I ever get to design the plans for a city I'm going to make sure that excellent food places are spread out evenly all over the place. Come on, Chicago.) Though I had a great time admiring all the beautiful Chicago buildings. I think Chicago's architecture is some of the coolest I've seen. Put a bunch of amazing buildings together to make a city, I'm gonna love that city. It was awesome just walking through the streets. I took way too many photos of random buildings. Here are some of them, both from the early afternoon at the park and from our evening stroll/hunt for food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended up having burgers for dinner. I've had way too many burgers in this country already, probably enough to fill up my burger quota for the next year and a half. I can't remember what the place was called, something about jacks? It was okay.

So, Ricky Gervais was pretty much awesome. We were seated pretty far from the stage but we had a direct view of it, and we were close enough to make out his facial expressions. They said they were filming the performance to broadcast it on HBO in December, and told us to be extra responsive and to applaud him loudly. The opening act was average, an American comedian who was not very funny (I don't even remember his name). But Ricky Gervais was hilarious! He made jokes about fat people, Christianity and gay animals, amongst other things, and while some of them were so-so, most of them were gold. I just love his accent and his cheeky little face. Most of what he says is pretty offensive to some demographic of society, but I guess you can't take him seriously, he's a comedian and he makes a living out of making fun of different people and different beliefs. It was a great show, if I happened to find myself in the same city as him again in the future I'd definitely go watch him again. Check out the show on TV in December (or maybe it's on YouTube already), it was called "Out of England 2".

Sneaky picturetaking against the rules. Badass.

That about wraps up our first day in Chicago. It was a good day. A good, good day.

Chicago: Day Two

The weather on our second day in Chicago was not so good. It was windy, rainy and cold. But we braved the storm to get amongst more of the city's sights, sounds and flavours.

Our first stop was the infamous Giordano's, where we indulged in stuffed deep dish pizza, a Chicago gem. It's exactly what the name suggests: a pizza with a deep crust full to the brim with delicious fillings and toppings. We ordered the classic cheese pizza with special sauce, and it was glorious. Except it was way too huge and Amy and I couldn't finish it between us. But man was it good! I was pretty much consuming mouthfuls of melted cheese but it didn't feel greasy or artery-clogging at all. We were really lucky that we got there relatively early (around 11:00am), because the pizza took about half an hour to cook, and by about noon the restaurant was full of heaps of people waiting to get seats.

AMAZING.

Noobs.

As a side note, I found out later that Giordano's pizza isn't technically the "original" deep dish pizza of Chicago. But oh well, apparently it tastes the same as the original stuff and Giordano's is pretty well-known and well-loved! If I ever have a chance to return to Chicago though, I'll try to check out somewhere that does the original deep dish pizza, like Gino's East.

After pizzunch (pizza brunch) we made our way to the John Hancock Centre, the most famous observatory in Chicago where you can get the best views of the city, its surrounding suburbs and Lake Michigan. It's not the tallest building in Chicago, but we were still freakishly high up, given that the observatory was on the 95th floor.

 

It doesn't look that pretty on the outside, but it makes up for it as a gateway to amazing views of Chicago. We did a multimedia tour around the observatory which was actually pretty informative and entertaining: you walk around the observatory wearing a headset that's connected to a touchscreen machine, and when you get to a window with a number on it you punch the number into the machine, and information about the view that you have from the window comes flooding through the headset. The tour was given by David Schwimmer, a proud Chicagoan. The views that we got from up above were awesome, despite the drizzly weather and cloudy skies.

 

 

Afterwards we went on a hunt for some coats and jackets, because the weather was getting progressively worse. Despite the vast number of shops, we couldn't really find anything decent. I guess the experience wasn't fruitless, because we at least got to explore the Magnificent Mile: it's Chicago's shopping district, with all these fancy stores and cool buildings.

As the day went on, the weather miraculously cleared up, and feeling adventurous, I suggested that we go check out Navy Pier. It used to be a cargo facility for lake freighters, but now it's a tourist attraction, sort of like an amusement park. It's got all this random stuff on it, like the Amazing Chicago's Funhouse Maze (a mirror maze house), the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows (free entry, perhaps for a reason), the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and the famous Navy Pier Ferris wheel (modelled after the very first Ferris wheel). It was weird though, the Ferris wheel wasn't going and lots of the attractions seemed closed. So we just walked to the end of the pier, only checking the places out from the outside. It was still quite pretty, and we got a neat view of the city's skyline from the pier's endpoint.

 

It was windy out there on the pier.

A highlight of Navy Pier was the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant. Dude, it was mint. I had thought that the restaurant was an existing restaurant chain that the movie "Forrest Gump" had cleverly incorporated into its storyline to make it look like Forrest Gump was the founder, but it turns out that the movie inspired the restaurant chain into being. The place did pay homage to the film in a lot of ways, like the way their drinks menu looked like a ping pong paddle. After taking our order, the waiter came back and asked us trivia questions about the movie, which we totally nailed. I thought he was going to give us prizes, but he just gave us verbal praise and left. What? But it was fine, I was so stoked to be in shrimp heaven. We got this dish to share that had shrimp cooked in all these different ways (fried, tempura, normal shrimp) and it was unbelievably good. I definitely want to go back to there!

Tasty.

In the evening we went to watch "Billy Elliot: The Musical" at the Oriental Theatre. Our seats were pretty far back, but it was still a spectacular show. It was an all-American cast and according to Amy their British accents weren't so good, but I couldn't really tell. The boy who played Billy Elliot was great! I mean, everyone was pretty brilliant, but the fact that he was this little 11-year-old boy who could dance (ballet and tap), sing and act so well just blew my mind. The songs were all really good too (go Elton John). I laughed, I cried, I sat there mesmerised. So overall, a pretty good time.

The Oriental Theatre.

That was our second day in Chicago.

Chicago: Day Three

Our last day in Chicago was awesome too. Luckily the weather was much better than the previous day. Yay.

For some reason I woke up pretty early in the morning, so I decided to go downstairs to have the free breakfast at the hostel dining room. It was actually a pretty decent selection. As I grabbed a bagel, some fruit and a cup of coffee, this random Asian girl came up to me and asked me in English, "Excuse me, but are you Korean?" I was a little taken aback, but I answered in the affirmative. Then she got really excited and started talking to me in Korean, saying that she was really glad to meet a Korean person. So I sat with her during breakfast and we had a chat. Her name was Yujin, and she was in the States to study English and work for a year. Apparently she was going to be staying at the hostel for half that time, because her programme in Korea recommended that she do that. Wow, bad recommendation, much? I mean, it was a nice hostel, but I don't think I could live there for months on end. Perhaps she didn't have many other options, given her relatively short stay and what not, but still... After a while we were joined by this guy called David, who had been staying at the hostel while apartment hunting in Chicago. He was new to the city, about to commence studies at a local graduate school. He had found a place nearby and was going to move into it that day. They were both pretty nice, so I invited them to hang out with me and Amy if they were willing and able, and they accepted the offer.

After breakfast the four of us went to Chinatown. It was pretty neat.

 

There was a courtyard that had statues of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals, and plaques that described the characteristics and attributes of people belonging to each particular animal. Naturally, I checked out the rabbit plaque. Apparently rabbits are fun to be around, pleasant, obliging, affectionate, have a tendency to get too sentimental at times and seek to avoid confrontation. The plaque also said that rabbits are blessed with good fortune and are thus successful in business, politics and law. I guess I chose the right career path.

Rabbit.

 We wandered around for a little bit more and had lunch at this place called Lao Sze Chuan, which was recommended to me by an awesome guy in my section at school. I had the cumin lamb dish that he particularly recommended, and it was pretty good, except the portion was so huge that I couldn't finish it all. I reckon that's the case for most portions of food in the States. It didn't help with the guilt I felt for leaving behind so much food, though.

On the El train back to the city, we split and Amy and I went to Grant Park to check out the Buckingham Fountain. It's this gigantic, beautiful fountain that puts on a water show every hour on the hour. We caught about half of it. Apparently the show is better at night because the fountain lights up and music plays throughout the show. But it was still pretty awesome. In general, Chicago's parks and their attractions are very cool.

As we walked around in the city, we came upon a double decker trolley tour, which we decided to check out. The bus stopped at 15 major spots in the city, and the tour guide gave a running commentary the whole way. The top floor of the bus was open, which gave us great unobstructed views of all the sites, but it was so freezing up there that after a while we took refuge in the warm downstairs part of the bus. It was a good tour, we got to see lots of parts of Chicago that we wouldn't have been able to see on foot.

The evening was the highlight of the third day for me: we went to watch the Blue Man Group! So, awesome story behind this. My friend Calleigh McRaith from the Law Christian Fellowship group at UVA Law School went to school in Chicago as an undergraduate, and she gave me this great tip about volunteer ushering for the Blue Man Group in exchange for free admission to the show. So I'd called up the Briar Theatre the previous day to inquire about this deal, and luckily they had some spots open for the 7:00pm show on Sunday. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity. We just had to go to the theatre an hour prior to the show to meet the other volunteer ushers, receive training on how to usher and go over our cleaning responsibilities after the show. It was pretty easy stuff. I just had to smile, be friendly, tell people how the theatre was laid out so they could find their own seats and hand them programmes as I sent them on their way. (The clean up after the show was no big deal either.) Just before the show was about to start, we ushers met up at the theatre bar, got given free soft drinks to take into the theatre, and were told that our seats were in the fifth row from the front. What? Amazing! If I'd paid for the show, I probably would have bought relatively average seats located near the back of the theatre. I couldn't have asked for better seating.

The show was phenomenal! I can't really describe what it's about, apart from saying that it's a collection of awesome bits that the blue men do. They played on this huge percussion instrument made out of pipes, they made marshmallow sculptures with their mouths, they banged on drums covered in bright paint to give us a percussion-paint show, they gave us a lesson on how to be rock stars, they waved huge ribbons around while strobe lights flashed... I really can't list everything they did in the show. And they did all their skits without saying a single word. They looked a little eerie with their blue skin and wide-open eyes that really stood out white against the blue. But they gave off friendly vibes at the same time. They had an accompanying rock band who were really good, and the fact that the musicians were dressed in neon skeleton costumes was a bonus. It was all extremely hilarious, weird, creative and innovative. They incorporated loads of audience participation in the show, too. They'd step out into the crowd, literally walking through the audience seats, looking for people to take up onto the stage. I really wanted them to pick me. At one point I made and sustained eye contact with one of the blue men, but he broke it off and went off to pick another woman to participate in their twinkie skit. Man... In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed watching The Blue Man Group: it was definitely one of the coolest shows I've ever seen. I'd fully recommend it (and the volunteer ushering thing too, what a great deal!) and I'd consider watching it again in the future, maybe in New York? I really hope I get picked as a participant if I do watch it again.

So that was Chicago. Man, totally amazing place! I'd love to revisit it someday. Next up: Boston.


G.

Thoughts I had on time management while fake cycling and treadmilling

So I haven't posted anything for a while. My bad. I've been out of town a fair bit this month, and Law School work doesn't help. But today I found some thoughts in my head that I want to share with you.

Wednesday is the worst day of the week for me in terms of classes and workload. I have to do readings for class in the morning and I have class from 1:00pm to 6:00pm (pretty much), then I have to do recap work in the evenings after dinner. It doesn't sound too bad when I look at what I've just written but trust me, it's a long and stressful day, and usually I'm tired and not in the greatest mood by the end of it. When a Wednesday passes I feel a new sense of rejuvenation soar through my veins, and when Tuesday rolls around I start dreading the next day.

Today (a Wednesday) after class I felt lethargic and grumpy. I'd been cold called in International Law and dropped the ball on what was (in retrospect) a pretty easy question. It had been a cloudy and miserable day too. Things were not good at 6:05pm. I felt like I needed to let all these crappy vibes out of my system, so when I got home, I changed into my sports gear, put on my dusty trainers, grabbed my iPod and headed to the gym to do some exercise for the first time in a month and a half.

As I pedalled furiously on the fake bicycle and jogged on the conveyer belt of the treadmill, I felt better. So much better. I could feel the day's lameness sweating out of me. Gross? Sorry. But it was really awesome!

And as I pedalled furiously on the fake bicycle and jogged on the conveyer belt of the treadmill, I found myself thinking, 'I have to do this more often.' Then I asked myself, 'Why don't I?' Then I kept thinking. Why don't I do productive and beneficial stuff more often? Why don't I exercise more? Why don't I read more books that aren't prescribed by my classes? Why don't I spend more time with the people I like? Why don't I email my friends and family more often? Why don't I cook more? Why don't I read the Bible and pray more? Why don't I post more stuff on this blog?

It's because I make excuses. I constantly say to myself, "I can't do (insert activity that will enrich my life), I don't have time." But that's not true. I mean, I do find time to do mint stuff that helps me grow and think - for example, I went to this really interesting lecture on Genesis 1 and the claims of science given by a Wheaton College professor on Monday night - but there's so much more that I could and should be doing each and every day. It's all about time management; in particular, not wasting time. I devote so much time to useless things. It's about working really hard when I have work to do so I can enjoy doing things that will improve my existence guilt-free and not being chased for time to get schoolwork done. It's about keeping up a routine to a certain extent.

And another warped notion I have is that I'll be able to do all the stuff I feel that I should do later on, when I have more time. In a couple of weeks, a couple of months, next year, when I start working... Not right now, when I have piles of schoolwork to do. But this notion is, as I've already mentioned, warped. Things aren't ever going to slow down from here on. Life is only going to get busier and busier, and if I don't figure out how to manage my time NOW to do mint stuff on a regular basis, I never will. I can't afford to delay this, I have to start acting now.

Challenge for this week: hang out with God more daily, go to the gym every day, read a book that isn't for school, only check Facebook once a day (I've found that free wireless internet isn't necessarily a good thing), reply to emails promptly and be up to date with all my readings and recap work. I can do this.

Entries on Chicago, Boston and Washington DC will be up soon, I promise!

G.

PS. Another thought I had while fake cycling and treadmilling, unrelated to time management, was how much I miss my guitar. The answer is, a lot. When I go back to New Zealand I'm going to play the daylights out of it while singing at the top of my lungs.