Falling in Love with Chi-Town

I really liked Chicago before, but now I'm falling in love with the city.  Last night, we went to Millennium Park for the Celebration of Dance Chicago Dance Festival.  We missed the first 1 1/2 hr of the show (don't even get me started), but the last 1/2 hr was AMAZING!  The Joffrey Ballet was spectacular - and the show was FREE!  I love it!

Today we started off with a Food Tour in the Near North/Lincoln Park neighborhood.  Wow, it was AWESOME.  Secret:  way to my heart is through my stomach.  After the tour, I've officially fallen in love with the city.  My favorite stops on the tours are Old Town Oil, The Spice House, and the Tea Gschwendner. 

Old Town Oil.  Specialty Olive Oil (including varieties such as garlic, walnut, mushroom and sage, cilantro and onion) and Balsalmic Vinegar (spectacular flavors such as Strawberry, Raspberry, Peach, Mushroom, Pomegranate, etc.)

I had so much fun, and forgot (was too busy eating) to take photos of the food we had.  I had my first reuben sandwich (delicious!) at the Ashkenaz Jewish Deli, tasted delicious teas and learned about how they are made at the Tea Gschwendner (oh!  the entire store smells like heaven!), had the most wonderful time drinking oil and vinegar at the Old Town Oil (I imagine this is what I would do in heaven), sampled the most delicious toffee and touched a real cocoa bean (they are huge!) at The Fudge Pot, and devoured a delicious stuffed pizza at Bacino's Pizza. Our tour guide, Hillary, was amazing - she knows so much about Chicago architecture and injected lots of fun cultural bits into the tour.  I learned lots about Chicago, about food, and about architecture.

Our tour guide, Hillary.

This was THE original Playboy Mansion that Heffner purchased.  It used to house 32 bunnies at any given time.  The style of the house is called a "Georgian" style because of it's symmetry.  Heffner donated the house to the Art Institute of Chicago (where he dropped out), and was used as a first-year dormitory for a few years before it is sold.  

The city of Chicago was rebuilt from the ground up after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 (which is why Chicago is called the Second City).  This is a very typical Chicago style building, where the building is very deep, but the front is actually quite narrow. 

After the food tour, we dropped by the Chicago History Museum.  It was great learning about Chicago - I love the Crossroads Exhibit, where it explained the adversities that the city has gone through and how they have defined Chicago.  It definitely gave me a deeper appreciation of where I'm living and the pride Chicagoans have for their city.  I mean, come on, did you know that Kraft Mac n' Cheese was invented here?  That's right, along with the birth control pill, nuclear chain reaction, and the Ferris Wheel.

In short, I'm in love.  Chicago is a GREAT city.  I can't wait to see and experience more of it!

In an unrelated note:  My apartment has been painted (expert job, might I add), and the only thing I'm possibly missing is a TV.  I have a couch, a rug, and a coffee table, facing a blank wall with cable jacks.  It screams missing TV.  The TV that would go PERFECT there is a 42" flat screen, but it's $500 (for the cheapest one I can find), and I don't REALLY need it.  I don't really have the money to spend on it, either.  Hmmmm!

Free Concert, Farmer's Market, & MCA

Last night I went to Millennium Park for a free concert. In the summer, there are all these free events in the park, including free dance lessons, yoga, etc., and it's only 20 minutes walk away from my building.  This particular band is called Clare and the Reason.  I liked some of their stuff, but mostly I thought it was a bit too new age for me.  The violinist was French, and he was awesome. 

The concert was held at the Jay Pritzker Pavillion.  It is a gorgeous structure, with an amazing stage, seats in front, and a great lawn in the back where you can picnic and sit around.

Clare and the Reasons.

And since I was right there.... Behold, THE GIANT BEAN.... The official name of the sculpture is called Cloud Gate, but Chicagoans lovingly call it The Bean.

And today, I went to a farmer's market near by, right outside of the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is held every Tuesday in the summer and fall.  Oh how I just LOVE farmers markets!  I got some button peaches, pattypan squash, and corn.  Yum!!

After the Farmer Market, I decided to check out the Museum of Contemporary Art, and it's free on Tuesdays!  Right now they have an exhibit of Alexander Calder's sculptures called Form, Balance, Joy.  It was pretty cool.

Here are some cool pieces by other artists:

I can totally get used to this life!  I kind of feel guilty, though.  I probably could have came here a month later, save a bit more money, like my mom had wanted me to and still have time to get things done and settle in.  I guess I was just so unhappy at my last job, and too eager to come and start my new life.  Also, I feel so SO spoiled living in Chicago in this fantastic apartment at this fantastic location - what have I done to deserve it all?!?!  Maybe I will be productive and read my Genetic Counseling textbook the rest of today.  Maybe I'll make myself a lemonade and go to the sundeck on the rooftop and do that.

Glenwood Art Festival

Chicago has so many different neighborhoods, and there is always something going on.  Today I decided to go to the Glenwood Arts Festival in Rogers Park.

The Art Festival takes over 4 blocks of the neighborhood.

Kids playing on the balance boards.

25 cent Peace Patches.

Window Art.

There were 3 stages with live music playing.  This one is a band called Popular Rejects, I think all the kids in this band are 12 year-olds. 

A whole garden full of junk art. 

The entire street is painted with mural art (you can sort of see them behind some of the pictures of the vendors).  There were vendors for prints, paintings, sculptures, ceramics, quilts, books, window arts, candle arts, jewelry, crochet and knitting, arts and crafts, wood work, stone and sand work, and everything else in between.  It was lots of fun to walk around and just see everything.  I bought myself a pair of double-sided earrings made using shrink paper.

Navy Pier

I finally had some time today to do a little exploring.  My electricity is set up, cell phone is connected, immunization sorted out (getting the TB test after September 1st), textbooks ordered, all the essential things are done!  So, today I walked on over to Navy Pier, which is kind of a combination of Granville Island and the Vancouver Convention Center.

The tall ships are in town!

Historic anchor from some historic ship, a perfect spot for touristy pictures!

There are lots of stuff going on at the Navy Pier, including a Children's Museum, a Stained Glass Museum, an IMAX theatre, a regular theatre (currently play Shrek, the Musical), an indoor greenhouse/garden, a ferris wheel, shopping center, a Gardening Convention, etc.  I didn't go in the Children's Museum, but the Stained Glass Museum was fantastic.  Here are just some of the beautiful work I saw:

Here is Crystal Garden, a gorgeous oasis in the middle of the Pier. 

There's also a magic show and pirate show for the kids all day long. 

The famous Ferris Wheel (there's mini golf right under it), and the Merry-Go-Around.   

Just outside the Pier, there is a huge foundain/water park, where kids and family run around to cool-off.

The tall building on the left (the one with the X pattern on it) is my building.  You can see just how close I am to the beach (and the park beside it). 

Digitally Connected

Yay, I finally got a phone here.  It is a beautiful android phone - the Samsung Captivate.  I love it so far.

My old iphone will go to my sister.  My old phone plan (city Fido) is up for sale if anyone wants it.  :)

Le Grand Tour Part II

Lobby.  Pretty water fall thing.  There is a 24-hour front desk person, so the building is really safe.  I felt weird taking a picture of the front desk person, so I didn't.  But basically, the entrance is a revolving door, once you walk in, you see the front desk person on the right, the leasing office on the left.  Then the cool waterfall thing, mail room on the right, entrance to parking on the left.  Then the auto glass double door, and then 5 elevators taking you up. 

This is the view from my apartment.  I get a partial view of the lake, the big building in the way is the Playboy Headquarters, in case you are wondering. 

View from the roof top sun deck.  On the right is Navy Pier, and on the right, Millennium Park.  As you can see I'm very close to the beach.  This is the East-facing view.

Sun deck, north view. 

Sun deck, west view.  The tall building with the two antennas is the John Hancock Building. 

Sun deck, South West view.

Sun deck, South East View.  Again, on the bottom left corner is Navy Pier. 

Though I tried, I didn't get much accomplished today.   I went into an "authorized dealer" to transfer my city electrical account, but I need to wait a few days to find out if it worked.  Apparently the "authorized dealer" can only input the information, and it is now up to the city electrical company to sort things out, and I find out later if it all went through.  *shrugs*  I guess I did what I could, and if there's a problem I'll just have to deal with it later.  I rented a zipcar and drove out to Evanston for my student card only to find out that my information isn't uploaded in the system yet, so they cannot give me a card.  That's the bad news, and the good news is that I DON'T have to drive half an hour to Evanston to get my student card like the website says, I can actually get it done on the Chicago campus!  I still don't have a cell phone number, because the deal I want is only online and the online system won't let me use my credit card (because the zip codes don't match).  Round 2 tomorrow, hopefully it'll work then.  I wanted to schedule my TB test appointment, but my school health insurance doesn't kick in until after classes start, which means I can't get my immunization test done until after that.  Although while holding on the phone with the health clinic, I discovered something cool.  The call-waiting music that the hospital/health clinic uses is the EXACT same one as the Vancouver Fire Department's.  If you've ever heard the Vancouver Fire Department call-waiting music, you'll know it is AWESOME.  Very dramatic music, I wonder where they get these music!  Reminded me of home.  So yeah, today was basically a lot of running around, but not a lot of things actually getting "done".  Oh well, I guess we all have days like today.  I think tomorrow I'm going to try to sort out my cell phone situation once and for all, and maybe find out what's happening in the city or maybe relax a bit on the sun deck with a book.  :)  Brodie gets here in 3 days.  I'm excited!