Never Wear a Skirt in Chicago Pt. 1
I like Chicago. It's nice. I mean, count out the attack birds, the smog, careless drivers, snotty museum workers, and dangerously high winds, it's nice. It takes a lot to like a city through all of that. Says a lot about Chicago. (: By the way, remember that this POV is that of a small town girl.
4/25/08
Before the Train
Missy came over to my house, and me, Missy, and Molly watched August Rush, which I think was based in Chicago or NYC. Molly went to bed, considering she had school Friday, so Missy and I watched Juno in the living room. We got about an hour into it, and crashed. We set our alarms for 1:30 am, to get to Carbondale Train Station by 2:40, which sounds ridiculous, but we got there just in time.
We got to the train station and some guy was all "You can't pay the meters before 6 am," and we were like "fuck." So, I called what I thought was Mrs. Lilly's cell, which was actually her home phone. Woopsies. Then we bought some parking tag thing so her car wouldn't get towed.
Missy went off with some other friends, and I went to talk to Angela. We sat around a while longer for Kaitlyn, and then Lindsay got there. I realized I left my water bottle at home, so I tried to buy a bottle from the soda machine, but they only had soda and tea.
Tip 1: Never forget your water bottle.
Tip 2: Never forget you have Luna bars in your backpack.
The Train
We finally got on the train around 3:45, which was late, and were on there for nine or so hours. That sounds like forever, but it was one of teh best parts of the trip. Kaitlyn and I found a coupl eseats to sit in, and Angie and Lindsay sat behind us. Lindsay kept hitting the little tray thing on the back of my seat and made my seat pop about 10 times until I yelled at her and then she stopped and did it again, blaming Angie.We fell asleep around 4:30 am, then woke up about 6:00 am. Kaitlyn and I watched the sun rise, which was really weird because it was pink and really big. Then Angela and Lindsay woke up from us being so loud, so we kind of ended up waking up the whole train.
The train connected all of the carts with this accordion-looking thing so no one flew out of the train while switching carts. (Which would have been really cool to see.) So we went into another cart and took a souvenier (napkins and spoons) and headed back to our seats. Kaitlyn kind of went mad crazy with her spoon, so she had a gigglefest. Angela kept hitting on me [in our joking way] and that just about sums up the train ride.
Tip 4: Bring a small pillow AND a blanket. You will be so glad you did.
Tip 5: Sleep on the train.
Chicago
We got into Chicago, right by this river thing. The first breath of air I took was nasty, but I got used to it. We walked about a mile, all of us just gazing up at the beautiful buildings and people. There was such a diversity of culture; it was so amazing. There are so many Asian and Black people there-- Whites are a minority. :) Oh yeah, and I got attacked by a fucking pigeon.
First we went to the Art Institute of Chicago, where we got our picture by the giant lions on the side of the stairs. Then this guy was telling us about Chicago. He was talking about how there were so many homeless people and how we could help. He tried to get us to buy this newspaper for a dollar, which I SO would have bought, had I not only had a twenty dollar bill. Every time we would walk by a homeless guy, they'd tell us to ignore it. You can't ignore people on the side of the road. I'm sorry but that's just unethical. Next time I go, I'm going to bring as much money as possible and just hand it to them. They deserve it. I seriously feel terrible that I have so much and they don't. It's not right.
Anyway, we learned some really cool things from this guy. The people that made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were sitting in this little cafe across the street from the Institute and were trying to figure out a name for the Turtles. They looked over at the Institute and saw Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael on the top part of the wall of the building. Hence came the four mutant turtles. Cool, huh?
Tip 6: Don't shoulder-check anyone.
Tip 7: Don't ignore the homeless people. Give them money. How would you feel if people ignored you in your rock-bottom state?
Check out Part 2
4/25/08
Before the Train
Missy came over to my house, and me, Missy, and Molly watched August Rush, which I think was based in Chicago or NYC. Molly went to bed, considering she had school Friday, so Missy and I watched Juno in the living room. We got about an hour into it, and crashed. We set our alarms for 1:30 am, to get to Carbondale Train Station by 2:40, which sounds ridiculous, but we got there just in time.
We got to the train station and some guy was all "You can't pay the meters before 6 am," and we were like "fuck." So, I called what I thought was Mrs. Lilly's cell, which was actually her home phone. Woopsies. Then we bought some parking tag thing so her car wouldn't get towed.
Missy went off with some other friends, and I went to talk to Angela. We sat around a while longer for Kaitlyn, and then Lindsay got there. I realized I left my water bottle at home, so I tried to buy a bottle from the soda machine, but they only had soda and tea.
Tip 1: Never forget your water bottle.
Tip 2: Never forget you have Luna bars in your backpack.
The Train
We finally got on the train around 3:45, which was late, and were on there for nine or so hours. That sounds like forever, but it was one of teh best parts of the trip. Kaitlyn and I found a coupl eseats to sit in, and Angie and Lindsay sat behind us. Lindsay kept hitting the little tray thing on the back of my seat and made my seat pop about 10 times until I yelled at her and then she stopped and did it again, blaming Angie.We fell asleep around 4:30 am, then woke up about 6:00 am. Kaitlyn and I watched the sun rise, which was really weird because it was pink and really big. Then Angela and Lindsay woke up from us being so loud, so we kind of ended up waking up the whole train.
The train connected all of the carts with this accordion-looking thing so no one flew out of the train while switching carts. (Which would have been really cool to see.) So we went into another cart and took a souvenier (napkins and spoons) and headed back to our seats. Kaitlyn kind of went mad crazy with her spoon, so she had a gigglefest. Angela kept hitting on me [in our joking way] and that just about sums up the train ride.
Tip 4: Bring a small pillow AND a blanket. You will be so glad you did.
Tip 5: Sleep on the train.
Chicago
We got into Chicago, right by this river thing. The first breath of air I took was nasty, but I got used to it. We walked about a mile, all of us just gazing up at the beautiful buildings and people. There was such a diversity of culture; it was so amazing. There are so many Asian and Black people there-- Whites are a minority. :) Oh yeah, and I got attacked by a fucking pigeon.
First we went to the Art Institute of Chicago, where we got our picture by the giant lions on the side of the stairs. Then this guy was telling us about Chicago. He was talking about how there were so many homeless people and how we could help. He tried to get us to buy this newspaper for a dollar, which I SO would have bought, had I not only had a twenty dollar bill. Every time we would walk by a homeless guy, they'd tell us to ignore it. You can't ignore people on the side of the road. I'm sorry but that's just unethical. Next time I go, I'm going to bring as much money as possible and just hand it to them. They deserve it. I seriously feel terrible that I have so much and they don't. It's not right.
Anyway, we learned some really cool things from this guy. The people that made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were sitting in this little cafe across the street from the Institute and were trying to figure out a name for the Turtles. They looked over at the Institute and saw Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael on the top part of the wall of the building. Hence came the four mutant turtles. Cool, huh?
Tip 6: Don't shoulder-check anyone.
Tip 7: Don't ignore the homeless people. Give them money. How would you feel if people ignored you in your rock-bottom state?
Check out Part 2
Posted on April 27th, 2008 at 04:06am
