Flat Broke

I have now run out of money. This is not a good state to be in three days before embarking on a six-month European tour. It is an okay state to be in at the end of one, but certainly not the beginning. Helen and I were at the grocery store tonight, and I was planning on buying a lottery ticket, but the lottery station there was closed, so my free lunch was not to be had. Maybe I'll find some drug money in a trash can while I'm walking down the street.

Dad and Jon are watching a movie called "In Bruges", which neither they - who've been watching it - nor I - who's been listening passively - understand. They say it is weird, and I'd be inclined to agree from what I've seen. Anyways, the real reason you're all reading this is to hear more about Chicago. Or possibly because YouTube is taking too long to load and you don't want to go turn on the TV.

So, I set off to Chicago on Tuesday night, Harley having graciously agreed to drive me. I got off work at 9PM and the bus left at 1030PM so I had just enough time to eat dinner, pack and get to the bus station. We left at about 10PM, but Harley couldn't find her car keys, so we drove my car. This ended up being better because we got caught up in traffic and were very nearly late. In snafu situations, I am more at ease when I am the person at fault and can't direct my wrath towards otherwise innocent others. That's why I always juggle chainsaws instead of letting other people juggle them around me. In my rush to pack, I had managed to get everything I needed, but I decided since I was setting off on my trip to bring one of my lucky frogs.

I am not superstitious per se, but I prefer not to be understitious. Therefore, anything that can improve my luck, karma, or mojo I try and take advantage of. That's why I have a collection of frogs, which are my self-defined totem, that are all made of stone and I believe bring me good luck. For my trip to Chicago, I brought with me my jade frog I purchased from a vendor in Winnipeg two springs ago. I credit it for my enjoyable time.

The movie just ended with pretty much everyone dying and saying how much they find Belgium to be a strange, uneventful Hell. I've never been, but I'd be inclined to agree. So, the ride on the Megabus to Chicago was almost completely uneventful. Someone brought a pirated copy of Hancock and we watched that, but I slept most of the way. We arrived in Chicago at 6:15 in the morning outside of Union Station. However, arriving at 6:15, one finds oneself with very little to do. On the flip side, and despite having a plethora of museums, shops, restaurants and other venues, Chicago has perhaps the largest and oldest collection of skyscrapers in the world, other than perhaps Manhattan. So, it's really really cool to look at.

After readjusting the weight in my backpack (I'd sillily brought four books with me), I made my way to Millenium Park, being large and the first thing to technically open in the city that I wanted to see. On my way there, I stopped by the Art Institute but that wouldn't open until 10:30. I therefore had three hours to kill. And killed them I did. Millenium Park is extremely beautiful and is probably the most unlikely park in existence. From what I understand, it was built in 2004 over an unused railroad yard sided by four of the busiest streets in Chicago, two of which contain some of the most historical and famous landmarks in the city. Major cities often do not have large, centrally located parks. Well, okay, this is not true. Most do. But they were planned early and the surrounding areas became beautiful as a result of their presence. Millennium Park worked in the astonishing and opposite way. It was built after all the buildings, which were beautiful in their own right, and is still centrally located. For those without a focus in urban planning, this sort of thing does not happen. It just doesn't.

Nonetheless, thank you Richard M. Daley for being sensible, if corrupt. In Millennium Park, there is a large and now world-famous sculpture commonly known as the Bean. It looks like this: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/128627213_b349267c88.jpg. I got to stand under it when no one else was there (okay, so there was a Chinese family on vacation, but they left after a bit) and it was really cool. However, Millennium Park is completely exposed to the sun from the east, and it was quickly warming up by about 7:30, so I decided to head into the shade of the many, many skyscrapers. So many skyscrapers! And they're all really beautiful! I took many pictures. I walked the length of Michigan Avenue down to the Hancock Building, where I decided I had walked far enough and needed a break, so I ate the PB&J sandwich I had packed the night before in a nice little park by the Water Tower and rested my feet. Upon getting up a little while later, I was walking around the block and what should I see but a tourist information center!!! Just what I'd been looking for, because to be honest I had not planned my trip very extensively. I knew I had to be at the Consulate at 9AM on Thursday, and that I would have one free day, but other than that, I had no definite plans. This, upon reaching Chicago, proved to be a bit of a problem. Luckily, and with Jade Frog in town, my friend Hillary had prepared an exhaustive list of things that I should do while I was there. So, I decided to hit up spot number two, the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Or the Architecture Foundation of Chicago. Or some rearrangement of those three words.

The CFA/AFC/CAF/FAC/CCCP/AFL-CIO was a 1/3 exhibition space, 2/3 gift shop, but they gave a number of walking tours (since the architecture of the city is best seen not in pictures but in context) and the exhibits were interesting, if small. There was a photography exhibit on late-Soviet photography that I thought was... okay, in an effort to sound a little less repetetive, I find lots of things to be cool and interesting. If I'm writing about it, and unless I state otherwise, chances are it was cool. No more explicit coolness for you! The tour I wanted to go on wasn't scheduled until 1PM, so I went to the Art Institute first with the hopes that 1) it would be air-conditioned, and 2) that I could check my obnoxiously and shoulder-dislocatingly heavy backpack.

The Art Institute and more... tomorrow!!