St. Louis and floating down the Meramec river

This weekend was pretty amazing. I went to visit a friend in St. Louis, someone who knows me from my time in Surrey and shares my enthusiasm for Finland and (almost) all things Finnish. I headed down on Friday to St. Louis on Amtrak.

Start of my journey near Union Station, Chicago

The journey was pretty good except for the hour delay 10 mins away from St. Louis. Amtrak suffers from the problem that the tracks are owned by freight companies, which means that freight gets priority. It was no problem, I had plenty to read. It was great to be able to see the scenery, although the majority of it was small towns and cornfields, not surprising since Illinois is a part of the cornbelt - an area that is so rich in photosynthesis from all the cornfields it can be visualised from space. Arriving into St. Louis I got to see the Arch - the Gateway to the West. So called because the pioneers who travelled westward from the east coast would pass this way in the effort to find land and settle.

Gateway Arch from the train window

First impressions of St. Louis were that it is a lot more run down than what I have seen of Chicago, but I was assured that it does get better. Like Chicago, St. Louis has some good neighbourhoods and some bad ones.

We headed out to the Wildflower, where I got to experience some decent mac 'n' cheese and the first place with a proper outdoor terrace. We were also joined by some of the crew would be going on the "float" the next day. Despite the fact that I hadn't seen my friend for about 9 years and had not met any of these people I felt at home and relaxed with everyone and I knew it was gonna be a fun weekend.

St. Louis at night

The following day we headed out as soon as we were ready to the Huzzah Valley Resort for the float. It's remote enough that around a mile from our destination there was next to no mobile phone signal. Those of us who had already arrived pitched our tents and waited for the others. After a few mishaps, everyone managed to join us down by the riverside.

Where we picked up wood for the campfire. Yes, that is a real animal skull on the post

                            

Wood chopping & pitching tents

We had been told that the river was too low for inner tubes and that we could either canoe, kayak or raft down. We picked up 2 six-man rafts and put a cooler full of beer (and Gatorade) in each raft and headed off. Our plan was to do the minimum amount of work possible and just float down the river and join in the madness further downstream. I reckon on the 5.5 hour, 4 mile trip we must have bumped into well over 500 people doing the same thing. There were people in rafts, inner tubes, canoes and kayaks. Some had coolers that played music. Some had water guns. Some had pimped out their boats. We saw a pirate ship, a Hawaii themed raft with an inflatable palm tree, and a bachelorette party. We had so many laughs on the way and there was plenty of mucking about on the raft. We didn't stick to the one raft we had each started out in, there was plenty of boat hopping going on.

Some of the float crew (photo courtesy of Victor Akunyili)

The Float (photo courtesy of Victor Akunyili)

The Float (photo courtesy of Victor Akunyili)

The Float (photo courtesy of Victor Akunyili)

Some of the people on the float had decided to chill out on sandbanks and eke out the length of their float. I was glad our crew didn't. Due to the delays at the start we didn't get floating until 1 pm which meant that we spent the last mile with the sun behind the trees and we got cold. I think at that point pretty much everyone had had enough. Some us stayed in the water because our t-shirts were soaked and it was warmer in the water than on the raft.

Eventually we got back to camp and in dry clothes and set about making dinner. A huge fire was lit and we had a smaller bbq grill on the side. Everyone had bought stuff to share which meant we had masses of food from hotdogs to chicken, homemade burgers and fresh corn on the cob :).

                              

Telling scary stories round the camp fire

I had thought we were going to carry on drinking a bit longer, but most of us were absolutely knackered, which meant an early and sober night. Shame I can't say the same for other people on the campsite. At one point in the night a few of us did get concerned we were going to be run over like bowling pins when we heard a truck fire up following some crazy drunk girl having an argument. I was also gutted I didn't get to see any raccoons. Apparently they come out in the dark and rip apart any trash bags you leave out, in the hope that there's food there. 

  

                                               

Morning @ camp

We packed up and headed to Cracker Barrel, where I finally understood why some people hate US coffee. I've drunk better dishwater. The pancakes however went down a treat. We split our ways and went back to St. Louis to shower off before I headed back to Chicago. It was such a great weekend, hanging out with some wonderful people. There was no one there that I wouldn't love to see again. Looking forward to seeing some of them later in September when we head back down that way.

Homesickness and Wicker Park

I've spent time away from home before - a few summers ago I was away for nearly a month. But the last time I lived anywhere for an extended period of time was when I moved to Finland for my exchange year, many moons ago. So, I should have a pretty good idea of what to expect. But last Sunday, I couldn't understand why I felt so lethargic and quite frankly, miserable. Until it dawned on me that I was probably feeling homesick. It's passed now, thanks to a phone call that made me laugh. But last Sunday was definitely not the best day I have had here.

Weekends aren't the best time since I don't have my class or workmates around me for 8hrs a day, and the two days seem to streeeetccch (unless weekends are magically longer here in the spirit of everything being bigger in the US). I now have a list of all the things I want to do and see here in the couple of months remaining. Plan is to do at least one thing on the list every weekend. On the list is kayaking on the river downtown one evening. I have been trying to get some company with no luck so far, but screw it, I'll do it alone if need be. Other trips are going to the Field Museum & the Contemporary Art Museum, and a trip north to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. An American football game or two are definitely on the cards! Might see if I could even go north to Milwaukee for the weekend. 

My homesickness last week was relieved somewhat by a trip downtown to Wicker Park on Sunday evening. My colleague at work lives there and loves the place and wanted to show us around. Wicker Park is west of the city and isn't the most easy neighbourhood to get to. In distance it's about 10 miles from Chicago, in time it takes 90 minutes to get there. As someone helpfully pointed out the other day, people round here measure journeys in time not distance.

A cannon in someone's front yard

The Wicker Park Festival was on this weekend, a free-ish festival down one of the main streets with music and street food.

A really tasty Serbian street food offering - spicy sausage in a type of pita bread

'Nuff said

I really liked the vibe and the crowd were pretty interesting. It's definitely an eclectic neighborhood and there looked like there were some fun shops and restaurants and bars to hang out in. Food was had and we met some of my colleagues' friends who, like everyone else I have met here, were really friendly and fun to hang out with for a few hours. I'll definitely be going back to see what it's like sans festival. Photos will be coming later when I get back home - currently on a train to St. Louis!

Idiosyncrasies and observations about the US

Obviously when living abroad you'll come across a few idiosyncrasies of the country you are in. Here's a few I have been listing during my stay here. They shouldn't be taken as complaints (well some might be..) more as observations:

- lack of chip and pin, or even signing for some credit card payments!? I know that it speeds up the transaction, but I still can't get over how easy it would be for someone to rack up quite a credit card bill  with a stolen card.

- going out to eat is an ordeal. Well, the end bit is when you go out with friends. It requires mathematical hurdles of calculating tax and tip and who owes what. Completely takes the fun out of eating out with a group of people.

- getting carded everytime I buy alcohol....woohoo, although when they stop carding me at WholeFoods I know I look over 40.

- price of cigarettes here is beyond extortionate. I am so glad I have my e-cigarette.

- for a country that is home to some amazing technological advancements there are still some really backward things here. Such as, how is it possible that the social security card is on paper? Easily forgable, and not to mention easy to lose once it accidentally makes it into the washing machine.

- cheques, I cannot believe they still exist and are widely used in lieu of online banking. See comment about amazing technological advancements. I think I accidentally ended up in 1998, not 2014, when I flew here.

- jaywalking, I thought it was illegal here but apparently no one cares. Huge difference compared to home, where people always wait for the signal to cross regardless of whether there is traffic or not.

- it's weird being able to understand everyone because they speak English as a mother tongue. I know this is a bit obvious, but I still get surprised when someone talks to me in English and not Finnish.

- my accent apparently is cute, cool, adorable, <insert positive adjective here>, I could get used to this. I think I need to posh up my accent, just to milk it as much as I can.

- people are incredibly friendly and helpful here, even the homeless people (in Evanston). I actually do think it is genuine, even at restaurants. So what if someone is being nice in the hope of getting a better tip? Most people have an agenda when being nice to a fellow human being.

I'm sure there's some more that will crop up over the next few months...

Worms, fireflies and temples

Yesterday was a lovely day, a fun day at the lab where I got to do some hands on stuff with the worms (C.elegans) that they use as model systems for their experiments (I used to use cells, which can be ok, but nowhere near as half as cool as the fluorescent worms!). While I don't want to return to the lab full time, it was nice to do something other than work at a desk. I was really happy that earlier in the week I had been invited to join one of my Kellogg coursemates and her friends and family for dinner last night. It was such a lovely evening, great food and friendly company.  We even got to see fireflies! One of the things I really like about the US is the overwhelming hospitality and friendliness here.

Today, I decided to get out of Evanston and go four stops north on the purple line to the end of the line to Linden. My destination was the Baha'i Temple. I came across it when looking for things to do and see in the nearby area and it looked pretty impressive. Today was warm, one of those hazy, lightly clouded days which is not quite beach weather - my original plan for today.

It felt a bit weird going out exploring by myself. The last few weekends I have had plenty of company and things to do, but it's time to get out of my comfort zone and reliance on having others to spend time with. The area I ended up in was beautiful, very suburban with some stunning houses. The Baha'i Temple in Evanston is the oldest surviving Baha'i House of Worship in the world and one of only seven such Temples worldwide. I had never heard of the Baha'i religion before, however at least what I read of it, it seems to be one of the more amenable religions of the world. While I am not at all religious myself, I like the fact that their belief is based upon acceptance of other religions and full equality. This is reflected in their temple here in Evanston, with symbolism from the main religions in the world engraved into the pillars surrounding the temple.

It was so nice here and lacking in the sobriety that usually surrounds other places of religious worship. I just sat on the lawn for a while enjoying the warmth, before exploring the large park and beach area nearby.

On returning the Evanston, I discovered that many shops were having street sales, and I found the local second hand bookstore was selling used books for 99cents which I took advantage of! Can't remember the last time I picked up 5 books for €3.75!

My peaceful day was marred slightly by the numerous charity workers accosting people in Evanston. This one charity had at least three people on every street corner asking for $20 for underprivileged youths in the area to get an education. I generally don't mind people asking for money, they usually won't get it from me but they are welcome to ask, nicely. I understand there is a massive rift in society here between rich and poor, and that while I am by no means rich I am not at the bottom of the scale. But, it really annoys me when they can't recognise a 'hard no' and then get aggressive when I walk off. It's not a huge amount they were asking for, but I get solicited for money several times, every single day in Evanston. I also don't want to give cash on the street to a charity I have never heard of, who is soliciting so aggressively, no matter how noble the cause. If I want to support something, by all means give me a flyer and I'll think about it, but don't get in my face if I don't want to give you cash upfront.

The perils of Amtrak, and fun in Lincoln Park

For any poor soul who decides to travel by train on the Lakeshore Limited from the East Coast to Chicago, don't. Well not unless you like to be stuck on the train for 4.5 hours more than you bargained for. And so that's how my last weekend started... a text at 6:46 am from my friend who was stuck on that train saying the train was late by 2.5 hrs, which over the course of the morning turned into 4.5 hours late. That would be ok, if he wasn't spending only one night here!

Since I had time to kill, I decided to take the Metra downtown, instead of the 'L' (the metro lines), just to see what it was like. The Metra is the local railway. Far fewer stops than the regular 'L', $2 more expensive (which at $4.25 is practically the same price as a bus ticket in Turku). But, it got me right to the part of town that I need to be, in about a third of the time. Like all things in the US, the trains are big. The seats are pretty nice, if you get one on the way down to town. The thing that amused me the most is the fact that the carriages resemble cattle cars with the split upper level. I'll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

Finally, after getting downtown late and braving Michigan Avenue (Chicago's answer to Oxford St/5th Avenue) to run an errand, I finally met my friend at Union Station. A much needed beer was had at the bar in the station and then we headed on out. I had arrived to the station via the Loop. The Loop is pretty much what it says on the tin. It is a loop around central downtown Chicago. Unlike London or New York central subways, the Loop is an overground metro line and the stations remind me of the rickety wooden roller coaster ride at Linnanmäki. However, being overground gives you a fantastic view of the skyscrapers. I din't really want to take the Loop back into town with my friend, I wanted him to see Chicago from the water instead. Considering the short amount of time we had, we took a water taxi so we didn't have to shell out $40 and spend 90 precious minuteon the tour boat.

After the hellish train ride, I decided to honour my friend's request of hunting down some Chicago style pizza at Lou Malnati's. OMG, the pizza was massive, the crust was so good and buttery. The thing with Chicago style, is it isn't just about the crust. It is almost an inside-out pizza, the cheese is on the bottom and the tomato sauce and other toppings are on the top. It is so incredibly filling that we took half the pizza home with us. We got the train home, freshened up and headed back downtown to check out the Lincoln Park neighbourhood.

A medium pizza was far too much for two people

The Lincoln Park neighbourhood is supposed to be one of the nicer, more trendy areas. After getting our bearings, we found some really lovely pubs and craft beer along N. Lincoln Ave. First stop was Lincoln Station - great pub, with a fantastic beer selection. We both fell in love with the Akari Shogun. We worked our way up a few of the bars, before settling down at this cute place, with mismatched furniture and a friendly crowd. The beer was chased by some lovely bourbons, including the Bulleit Bourbon.

The following day was pretty chilled. After wandering round Evanston and the Northwestern Campus, and getting a Chicago style hot dog, we chilled out in Millennium Park, which is a beautiful place to get away from the hubbub of the city. There was all sorts of music playing in the free concert area, mosly radio hits and we heard a live band. We even got to see the "Bean"! Perfect place for hangover chilling.

The meadow garden in Millennium Park

The "Bean"

Goodbye's were said and I headed home. Only to get a text saying that my friend was on a 4 hour bus ride to Toledo, Ohio because the train back to the East Coast was there instead of in Chicago... Gotta love Amtrak. Not looking forward to the train ride to St. Louis next week!

Downtown Chicago - tourist style

Last week I had the pleasure of a brief visit from a friend and took the opportunity to finally head to downtown Chicago. Some of you might be wondering what the hell I have been doing all this time and why I haven't been before. Well, there's a couple of reasons. Walking round a city sightseeing by yourself sucks. Yes, it's exciting to see a new place but it's much more fun to do it with company. I knew my friend was coming over so I decided it would be more fun to wait for her arrival and spend the day sightseeing together. The other reason is that I have been warned by many that the metro is not exactly the safest place, and I am acutely aware that as a young(ish), lone female, I make a pretty easy target (I can also be pretty damn naive sometimes, as close friends and family will attest).

I'm not sure why I have been more wary of exploring downtown Chicago by myself than other places. I've been all over the place to quite a few cities on my own, London, New York, Boston, and Amsterdam, to name a few. I think it maybe perhaps because the presence of guns seems to be more ubiquitous here. All around the University there are "No guns" signs on the building doors, and it's the same in many shops. I don't remember seeing that in Boston or New York. In addition, Chicago seems to have quite a high rate of gun crime. The 4th July weekend saw 11 deaths and over 60 wounded in shootings.

So, with a slight hangover after my 4th July celebrations, I headed downtown to The Loop to meet my friend. First stop was to head to Michigan Avenue a.k.a The Magnificent Mile. I'll explain why it is called that later. Our destination was the river front to get tickets to go on a River Boat Architecture Cruise. I'm not one for museums, usually eschewing them in favour of wandering round a city and exploring the neighbourhoods. However, I had been recommended by several people to go on this boat cruise. There are several available by different operators, however we took the one offered by the Chicago Architectural Foundation. It was a really good decision. The guy we had was so knowledgeable and the stories he was telling about how modern Chicago came to be were really interesting. Taking a boat cruise along the two arms of the river gives a completely different perspective on Chicago to seeing it from the side walk. At least for me, I got an appreciation for how this city came to be. While 40 bucks might seem a bit steep, I think it was well worth it. There are other tour operators, but I got the impression that their passengers weren't getting as richly told stories as we were.

The beauty of the River Boat Architecture Cruise is the fact that you get to see much better how the buildings reflect their environment

I knew jobs like this existed. But it's something else seeing someone actually doing it

Lunch was next on the cards. The advantage of having a US phone contract is the fact that you don't have to rely on wifi. A quick check of tripadvisor gave me a couple of options for decent places to try in the vicinity. I love tripadvisor for restaurant recommendations.  We used it in Croatia to plan all our meals out and it worked brilliantly. The only rubbish meal we had out there was the only time we ignored the tripadvisor reviews in favour of the place being nearby, and it was spectacularly bad! In Chicago, we ended up at The Purple Pig, currently ranked number 12 on the Chicago restaurant tripadvisor ratings. Apparently mum had read about it in some magazine, so we were pretty lucky to get a seat at the bar straight away. The food was fantastic, even more so because it was so affordable. The Purple Pig is a very friendly place, the waiting staff are lovely and the food is based around sharing platters. We had the pork rillettes from the "Smears" section, scallop spiedini and some rib tips, which were amazing. The wonderful thing here is you can order as you go along. So if you are still peckish, you can pick something else from the menu. Although after these, we were stuffed!

We headed up the Magnificent Mile, so called because it is full of shops, both regular clothing stores to high end places. Little shopping was done, not because we didn't want to, but there was so much more to see. We then backtracked and headed back down via the lake front towards Navy Pier, stopping at the beach and a fab beach bar playing salsa style beats for a beer along the way.

The walk towards the beach  and Navy Pier (where the Ferris wheel is). If you look closely you'll see someone swimming, which is amazing considering how cold the water is at the moment!

The people on these boats were definitely having a party - definitely need to make friends with someone who owns a boat!

Navy Pier is apparently Chicago's biggest tourist attraction. It reminded me of an upmarket Coney Island (an amusement park area with a boardwalk on the sea near NY). Navy Pier is well known for its amusement attractions and fireworks display every Wednesday and Saturday night. We were pretty knackered by the time we got here. It was a nice place, full of families. There were also some nice views back towards the city.

The Navy Pier Ferris Wheel

We had had plans of grabbing some food but night was starting to fall so we wandered back to The Loop walking along the lake and via Millenium Park, so I could get on the underground before it got too late.

A glimpse of Millenium Park

Impressions? I love Chicago, it's a beautiful city. I'm really looking forward to exploring it further when another friend swings by next weekend to visit.

4th July

So I got to experience 4th July in the USA. The 4th July is Independence Day in the USA and is characterised by BBQ, hot dogs, loads of flags, fireworks and enjoying time with family and friends. The weather was phenomenal. I decided that before I start with my plans of going to the parade and the beach, that I would go for a run by the lakefront. People were already settling in for the day at the parks bordering the lake. There were BBQ grills on the go, people had set up canopy tents and gazebos and music was playing, all at 10am! Definitely a party vibe going on.

The parade in Evanston was ok, bit slow to start, but once it going it was the slice of Americana that I had been looking for. Some 140 different organisations from the area were represented from big bands, to cheerleaders, politicians, scouts and even the local fire brigade! Two hours in the sun was enough, for both me and my poor phone which couldn't cope in the 30C+ heat!

My original plan had been to hang out at the beach, eat more hot dogs and then watch the Evanston fireworks. Didn't fancy going downtown by myself to watch the big ones there, since the metro isn't particularly safe at night when you're on your own. Especially if you are a weirdo magnet like me. However, my friend invited me to join her at a really awesome rooftop party downtown. The view was pretty good, a few tower blocks in the way but we could see the fireworks, listen to great music with some really fun people and enjoy beers & BBQ. I had such a great time and was probably one of the best days I have had here so far. The mini-hangover was well worth it!