Chicago- HI, Navy Pier, Green Mill, Bean....

It's 12.55am now, exactly 48 hours after I wrote my last entry! And about 48 hours since I left London Hall to hop onto the Abouttown taxi to the Abouttown station. I'm sitting in the HI library now- really glad that the hostel has a working spot like this.
It's been a rather thrilling-and-strange-and-surreal experience so far. Again, as in any other travels, I know I am going to leave this place 36 hours later and find myself wondering if everything had happened after all.

London to Detroit: Sonia
Where should I start? To recount my the whole journey fully, I'd have to start Abouttown. Met a Chinese girl xinyue at the station who came into the station 10 minutes after me. We struck a conversation and I learnt that she is doing her second degree with King's College in some sort of alliance programme between Western and her home university in Liaoning. She was going to go back to Liaoning just three days to attend an interview as part of her applications for a post-grad research position. I couldn't believe how competitive it is- flying all the way back just to attend an interview? I asked her why a phone interview would not suffice and she told me because there's a strong competition for the positions. Huh?! But I still find it hard to justify requiring someone who is in canada to fly all the way back for just for a 30min interview...

Anyway, it was not the most bizarre thing that night. There was another lady, by the name of Sonia, who travelled with me on the same bus to Detroit. She was going to Phoenix (I later found that it is in Arizona) to join her husband who is there golfing. She is a nice but kind of strange lady. She began telling me about London, the fact that she has stayed in London for the past 26 years, asked me about Singapore, asked me for my telephone number and email address and gave me the same of hers and even invited me to her house party on 16th May if I could make it. We began talking about the places I'd like to travel to and seems like she'd been to those places too. The first strange thing about her surfaced when she put pressure on the driver (who is a very nice man) to drive faster because she though her flight was at 5.40am and if the journey were to take three hours, she would reach the airport at 5.15am. It turned out that her flight was at 6.40am. She implied that she would have been on time had the bus not left the station 15 late, which did not make sense because even then she'd reach the airport only 15 minutes earlier and she may still not make it in time. The second strange thing was that one moment, she was talking to me in very friendly terms and when it came for us to get down the bus for me to do the security checkpoint paper work (which took only about 10min), she was palpably unhappy with the 'delay'. Well whatever. Strange encounter. I don't even know whether I'd send her an email from her info she has given me.

Arrived Chicago: BARBARA!
I met Barbara and Lucie at the O'Hare Airport!!!! Can anyone believe was a coincidence it was?! I was walking to the baggage claim area when I heard my name being called and there she was, the sweet sweet Barbara! Haha, she was in transit at ORD with Lucie for three hours and they were heading towards San Diego. Both of us were simply exhilarated at seeing each other :) A story to tell when I go back!! We finally parted ways after chattig and I took the subway to Laselle.

Mica
The first thing when I emerged from the subway station was the Chicago Stock Exchange...Not exactly a most magnifcent building and doesn't really look like a stock exchange to me with its re-brick weathered facade. Found HI Chicago after going past it the first time (it was named differently on the sign, except for the triangle symbol). I was pretty pleased with the room because it has high ceilings and adequate space and ventilation. Then and there I met Mica, my walking buddy today. She is from Canberra and such a rare breed- strong, seasoned, seems to be someone -who-has been-through-it-all and yet there is an incredibly soft-hearted and sentient side of her that makes her guilty-conscious when she doesn't have loose change to give to beggars on the street. We told each other a great deal about where we come from and our lives so far-or rather she told me more than I told her because she has experienced much more than me. Grew up in a farm near Canberra, has taken her time to finish her degree in 5 years instead of three, travelled widely, works with disabled children and adults and was involved in a playing card scam where she had to make a dramatic harrowing emergency esacape...
Anyway we got along really well, probably because she is such an easy person to connect with-open, cheery and chatty. She was saying we may have a chance to meet in SF and she'd ask me to join in her dance workshop if I happen to be there. Not sure if it'd happen, but wonder if we'd ever meet again. I have a feeling that we may, as Canberra is really not far from Singapore. But anyways, one more friend it is.

Sabine, Green Mill
Sabine is an Austrian girl whom we met on the trip to the Jazz club. Talking about the Jazz Club, watched the first Jazz performance in my life but wasn't impressed because I was feeling absolutely exhausted. The lead singer has lots of 'jazz flair' though. I think I was the only one who did not enjoy the music totally- probably due to reasons to do with cultural gap ba...I was so tired that Mica felt sorry for me and told me to put my head on her shoulders and sleep and I did!
Sabine also has an interesting background: did tourism studies, worked and travelled in US for 8 months (part of the time working for a wealthy family) and is now studying microbiology. I had to tell her I am sorry that the only thing I know about Austria is the Austrian 'monster father' incest case and the kidnapping and dungeon imprisonment bad press (of course she wasn't by that...) Sabine is a nice lady too...very sensitive and serious about friendship. Perhaps just one thing is that she seems so intense when she doesn't smile that I feel kinda of intimidated.
We also met three other guys at the Green Mill Jazz, Marco, Daniel and Jason who are so different.
Anyways, 6 of us took a photo otuside Green Mill, took the subway back together at 12.3oam and they left again for drinks!!! I couldn't believe their stamina. I asked Sabine (after having her stand beside me for about 1hr to listen to the performance) whether she was tired after a long day and still standing at that hour and she said very resolutely, 'no'. I almost fainted.

Goodnight
It's really late now and I'm super sleepy. Thinking of going on a rail and bus trail tmr to explore other parts, like chinatown and lincoln park zoo (so that I can sort of get my rail and bus day pass's money's worth) Tmr will be the last day in Chicago and it should be good!