Chicago Day 3- Rain!

Sabine was right- it's a rainy day today! Been raining non-stop since morning and it's still raining now. I'm sitting in the dining area, beside the celing-to-floor window and the rail track just about less than 100 m away from where I'm sitting. I really like watching the train pass why and it feels kind of strange that the train is running so close to the buildings. I was just thinking...if the MRT in Singapore were to run so close to the residential buildings, the residents sure will complain to the authorities. But it's just simply special here to have trains running above ground in between buildings. It gives me the feeling of like being in a giant roller coaster theme park (something to that extent).

Today is the last full day that I'll be in Chicago. It lived up to its name to be a "windy city" today. The rain and the wind made walking on the streets so unpleasant. I had to run into buildings once in a while to get a break.

Went to Navy Pier, Millennium Park and the Green Mill club for Jazz on Friday. Went to the Art Insititute of Chicago, Millennium (again) and Grant Park with Mica yesteday. I decided that there will be no more museums for me for the rest of my time here today (after visiting art museums in DC, NY and Chicago, I'm pretty sure that there is only so many things that they can display in museums). Since I have the day pass, I thought I'd make good use of it by taking the bus and rail to explore the city a little more. Took the green line to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Should have taken bus 151 instead of the subway because it was such a long walk from Sedgwick station! (But one good thing was that I got to see how a regular neighbouhodd in Sedgwick looks like. Found it surprising that the neighbourhood is so quiet on a Sunday though)
I finally found the park, after a miserable time struggling in the rain with a limp and almost totally destroyed umbrella. It was just so inconvenient that the umbrella finally chose to give up on me on the day that I needed it badly!! In the end I decided that I'd be a laughing stock carrying that limp umbrella around so I popped into a CVS store to buy a new umbrella and chucked mine into a rubbish bin outside the store. R.I.P my dear blue umbrella- after at least 2 years of hard work it has finally succumbed in a foreign land.

Lincoln Park Zoo wasn't bad. Saw leopards, lions, monkeys and gibbons in their indoor enclosures. It's good that it's free too :) I realised that not having visited the zoo in at least 12 years, I'm not used at all to looking at animals and observing their activities. They are such different creatures...they look at you with that look in their eyes, as if they totally comprehend what's happening in your world but you on the other hand, have no idea what they are thinking nor how they function. Anyways, the zoo was quite deserted today, probably because of the poor weather and also I guess because the zoo is rather derelict from age and is not exactly an 'attraction; here.

After the zoo, I went to Chicago Chinatown!! I was looking for a small chinese cafe to rest my feet and have some affordable hot chinese fare for lunch. I found the perfect fit in a hong-kong style-cafe. They even have bo luo bao and all. I immediately thought of Elian and Stefy (I made a mental note to ask the two of them whether 'die tou fan' is common in HK)! ahaha...it was getting a taste of what their 'territory', albeit transplanted. There was a plastered wall with a collage of pictures depicting scenes from quintessential Hongkong -neon lights, people, traffic...and hawker glistening with sweat in front of a cooing wok. They even had a TV running HK drama serials from cable TV. The people running the small cafe were cordial and I felt good after the meal :)

After that, took the subway and wanted to go to see the U of Chicago and the Garfield Park Conversatory, none of which I managed to see though, cos I decided not to see the uni and the conservatory was closed. Taking the train to area outide the 'Loop' really opens the eye to the suburbs- away from the tall magificent densely populated buildings (what i call the concrete jungles). There is so much more space everywhere and of course, everything is so spread out. But that doesn't necessarily mean the area is nicer. There is so little sign of the presence of people that it gets kind of depressing.

Tmr
I'm toying with the idea of going to Grant Park to catch the sunrise tomorrow morning at Lake Michigan.
Anyways, leaving for Vancouver tmr-- Woohoo~~. Look forward to catching up with Nick, Paula and Vince!!!

Post-script
Noticed that my entries are alot longer (and long-winded)? That's because I have, or I think I have, lots of time now as compared to before April 16. Corp Finance on 30 April had seemed a piece of cake at the beginning of the term, but now it is a huge piece of cake which I think I'd have huge trouble shoving down my throat. I brought notes to study! But hasn't touched anything today. It's okie. I will be fine (I hope).