Chicago Trip & Update

Hello everybody!


Sorry for the long absence. It seems that I should have more time to blog now, but the truth is that without a proper schedule it's even more difficult. I've also been traveling a bit. Finally I've been able to visit Chicago and it was just fantastic! Such a beautiful city. Just look at this skyline! The picture was taken from the 56th level of the Hancock tower. Very nice bar and free view, but quite a lot of tourists (^_^)



Of course I've also seen "the bean". After some research I found out that it's actually called the "cloud gate", but fore me it's just "the bean".



And this is from the inside of the bean. Can you spot me? I'm duplicated or triplicated, that makes the task a little bit more difficult...



And of course I had to take one of these pictures. The temptation was just too big! hehe (^_^)



Chicago has a lot of very arty installations outside. I like that very much. And of course I visited the Chicago Institute of Art. Very pretty indeed, although I was a bit sad that they didn't have any of their Hokusai prints out. Apparently they're in storage now and won't be shown again until in 2 years! Can you imagine that?

I've also walked by the continental divide. Really, it was more of luck that I saw this. But of course I had to take a picture.


I also walked by Mr. E. Hemingway's birthplace, several museums of Frank Lloyd Wright (check out his amazing architectural structures!), saw THE photography shop in downtown Chicago, visited the University of Chicago (which doesn't have a college of engineering because Mr. Rockefeller (who founded it) thought it not worthy enough), I took several rides with the Chicago metro (which is really old!), went for a walk in Devon (which feels much more like Middle East than American), went to have Costa Rica-ian food (which doesn't make any sense other than it was very good), had one of those famous Chicago pizzas (which are really quite a bit different from "normal" pizza) and so forth...

And just for the records: Don't ever eat anything that's served in an Amtrak train! Believe me. It's not worth it. The sandwich I ate was my absolute lowest point concerning food during my whole 7 months here in America. But what can you do when you have a train ride of approx. 5 hours - but which will take about 6 hours because our train had to stop for freight trains (!?) - and you weren't fast enough to bring some food (because you were quite late for the train already)?

Well, now I'm back home and trying to wrap up all my work and doings before I'll leave A2 in about one week. It's sad to leave the surroundings which have become so familiar over the last months, but of course it's also great to go home again and see all the things that have been familiar for a much longer time!