I wasn't sure of the closest station to my hotel. So I was planning to get of at the most central station in the city and get a cab from there (I knew my hotel was somewhere pretty central). I asked this guy sitting next to me and he started pulling out map after map out of his backpack, as he tried to explain exactly where to get off and then how to walk several blocks to my hotel. He ended up getting off at the same stop as me, then helping me to carry my bags up the steps and then walking me to the hotel. All the time I was trying to decide if he was a weirdo or not - but when he started encouraging me to go to church on my visit, I realised it was because he was a Christian! He told me that Chicago was much better than New York, because people in NY were 'snabby'. I was like, 'what is 'snabby'' and then I realised he was saying 'snobby'....
I was a bit too jet-lagged to head out on Saturday night (Chicago is 6 hours behind UK -so at 8pm it was 2am UK time!) The following are some snaps from out and about Chicago Saturday afternoon and Sunday, before I headed out to the training facility.
Macy's department store on State St. I ended up chatting to one of the sales assistants there who was quite helpful. She recommended I go and check out millenium park, and the cultural centre which were close by.
At the cultural centre I was really pleased to discover that a free session of the symphony orchestra was about to start - so I got to see some of this. They were doing Dvork.
'The Bean', Millenium Park.
Stage at Millenium Park. They hold big music concerts here in the summer.
The 'L' railway makes a loop around the central part of Chicago. It is an elevated railway, going right through the heart of the skyscaper centre. I liked the wooden platforms.
View from Sears Tower. Sears Tower was once the tallest building in the world, it has now been slightly overtaken by ones in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Korea. It is still very impressive as you travel in the lift for 60 seconds to get to the top, and get off at the 106 floor. P and I went to the building in KL last year and I prefer this one. The views over Lake Michigan are spectactular, as I realised just how big the lake is - it is almost like an ocean it is so big. You can only faintly make out buildings on the other side of the lake.
A sign I spotted in the training complex where I stayed. Definately haven't seen one of these before! The weather in the states was quite crazy. Tornadoes in the south. Heavy snows in the north (I loved the description that the weatherman gave: thick, wet messy snow). A risk of major coastal flooding in the North East with winds of 60-70 mph
A bus we caught from the training complex to a local shopping mall. I just loved these buses they are so chunky and wide and look exactly like you expect American school buses to look like.
On the way to the shopping malls, and on the way back to the airport I got to see some of the suburban sprawl outside of Chicago. There are really large retail parks with drive through ATM's and drive through fast food. The thing that really struck me was the availability of land - most of the homes are quite large and on big blocks . In the wealthy areas, some of the homes are made to look like castles, complete with turrets and have 7-8 bedrooms!
Also the Virginia Tech massacre happened while I was there, which was quite awful and very shocking. It really bought home the tragedy as Indiana is a state on just the other side of Lake Michigan. I noticed that all the flags at the front of people's houses and at the towns were all flying half mast.
I have to say, I was really pleased to return back to London and get back home after this trip. Chicago itself was interesting, but it was quite a tiring trip as the training course was quite intense, and also involved 'networking' activities after class - so the days were quite long.
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