my kind of town
last weekend parley and i made a 7 hour trek to chicago for the reunion show of a band called the promise ring. this band was one of the original emo classics, paving the way for much crappier bands like dashboard confessional and brand new. anyway, i'd never really listened to them before, but parley got 3 tickets and invited me....and i do like chicago a lot. on this trip i got to see a lot more of the city than i'd ever had before, and it opened me up to a lot of likes and dislikes about the city. i've compiled a short list:
likes
* the train- it's so nice to be in a city that has good public transportation. we stayed with our friend drew, who lives about a 25 minute walk from wrigley field. he also lives about 5 minutes away from a train stop. we ended up riding the train at least 4 times a day, so we had access to downtown and the good shopping areas without the hassle of trying to park a car, all for the low low price of $1.75 a ride. plus, now that it's cold out, the waiting booths have heat pumped into them, so you kind of feel like a reheated burger at a fast food restaurant. drew, parley, and i ended up taking a lot of arty train pictures, which i hope to get a hold of and post at a later time.
* the stores- pretty much take everything cool about columbia and multiply it by 10,000- that describes chicago's shopping. thrift stores as far as the eye can see. we spent an entire day parusing record stores, clothing stores, more record stores, and lots of little interesting shops. there was this cool looking chinese gift store, but it was closed...
* the food- chicago style pizza is the best. st. louis style sucks. any kind of pizza that is at least 60% cheese gets my vote. a lot of places are very veggitarian-friendly (not that that helps me, but should i ever decide to adopt a healthier life style...). we went to this diner and i got this huge stack of the best pancakes ever.
* the colleges- this is kind of a no brainer, but columbia university beats university of missouri-columbia hands down. we hung out in the dorms with some of drew's friends, and they are the classiest dorms i have ever seen. the have film editing rooms and movie theatres in there. plus, having your dorm in a 16 story high rise is pretty cool in and of itself- incredible views.
* not just one, but two ikea stores- that's right, in addition to the one in shaumburg, they've built another one, slated to open later this month. parley and i had a fantastic time looking through the massive 4 story sweedish wonder. and they had a cafe with really good really cheap food. i got this meatball meal for 4 bucks, and then negated the cheapness by buying a slice of chocolate truffel cake that cost almost as much....but it was sooooo tasty.....mmmmmm, luscious.
dislikes
*the train- and i only say this because we were riding home at 3am one night and this guy sat down next to me who was totally drunk and probably high, and he proceeded to hit on me without shame. (drew and parley were seated behind me- they laughed and took pictures...) the sad thing was, he kept forgetting pieces of the conversation (he kept introducing himself- 5 times at least). then he randomly yelled out "go cubs!". good transportation, but it is public transportation nonetheless.
*man, is it cold!- the day of the show, not only was it windy, it rained. so i was cold and wet- my least favorite combination. maybe i'd develop a tolerance to it if i lived there, but i'm pretty sure i'd never leave my place of residence and rack up a huge electric bill.
*my compassion would kill me- there are homeless people everywhere, always begging for money. drew was telling us that when he first moved there, he was astonished by the amount of homeless people he saw every day- he really wanted to do something about it and make a difference. 6 months later he hardly notices them. he's already seen a couple dead people in the streets, which is really sad... i wouldnt want to become desensitized to something like that.
*i like grass- while there are trees and parks, i found myself missing open spaces and nature. the biggest 'yard' i saw was about 3ft by 6ft. i really enjoyed the ride home, seeing all those semi-rolling hills.
*'different town, same faces'- parley made this comment at a party we went to. yes, the town is cooler, but there are still the same stupid, silly, drama-infused people there that there are here. cool town does not automatically = cool people.
perhaps my list was not as short as i thought. but hopefully it gave a good rundown of how my weekend went. all in all, not a bad trip. not a lot of downtime though...didnt get a lot of sleep, and drew's living room had a huge skylight so things got really bright in the morning, making sleep harder...but we had a free place to stay and a good tour guide...so things worked out well.
likes
* the train- it's so nice to be in a city that has good public transportation. we stayed with our friend drew, who lives about a 25 minute walk from wrigley field. he also lives about 5 minutes away from a train stop. we ended up riding the train at least 4 times a day, so we had access to downtown and the good shopping areas without the hassle of trying to park a car, all for the low low price of $1.75 a ride. plus, now that it's cold out, the waiting booths have heat pumped into them, so you kind of feel like a reheated burger at a fast food restaurant. drew, parley, and i ended up taking a lot of arty train pictures, which i hope to get a hold of and post at a later time.
* the stores- pretty much take everything cool about columbia and multiply it by 10,000- that describes chicago's shopping. thrift stores as far as the eye can see. we spent an entire day parusing record stores, clothing stores, more record stores, and lots of little interesting shops. there was this cool looking chinese gift store, but it was closed...
* the food- chicago style pizza is the best. st. louis style sucks. any kind of pizza that is at least 60% cheese gets my vote. a lot of places are very veggitarian-friendly (not that that helps me, but should i ever decide to adopt a healthier life style...). we went to this diner and i got this huge stack of the best pancakes ever.
* the colleges- this is kind of a no brainer, but columbia university beats university of missouri-columbia hands down. we hung out in the dorms with some of drew's friends, and they are the classiest dorms i have ever seen. the have film editing rooms and movie theatres in there. plus, having your dorm in a 16 story high rise is pretty cool in and of itself- incredible views.
* not just one, but two ikea stores- that's right, in addition to the one in shaumburg, they've built another one, slated to open later this month. parley and i had a fantastic time looking through the massive 4 story sweedish wonder. and they had a cafe with really good really cheap food. i got this meatball meal for 4 bucks, and then negated the cheapness by buying a slice of chocolate truffel cake that cost almost as much....but it was sooooo tasty.....mmmmmm, luscious.
dislikes
*the train- and i only say this because we were riding home at 3am one night and this guy sat down next to me who was totally drunk and probably high, and he proceeded to hit on me without shame. (drew and parley were seated behind me- they laughed and took pictures...) the sad thing was, he kept forgetting pieces of the conversation (he kept introducing himself- 5 times at least). then he randomly yelled out "go cubs!". good transportation, but it is public transportation nonetheless.
*man, is it cold!- the day of the show, not only was it windy, it rained. so i was cold and wet- my least favorite combination. maybe i'd develop a tolerance to it if i lived there, but i'm pretty sure i'd never leave my place of residence and rack up a huge electric bill.
*my compassion would kill me- there are homeless people everywhere, always begging for money. drew was telling us that when he first moved there, he was astonished by the amount of homeless people he saw every day- he really wanted to do something about it and make a difference. 6 months later he hardly notices them. he's already seen a couple dead people in the streets, which is really sad... i wouldnt want to become desensitized to something like that.
*i like grass- while there are trees and parks, i found myself missing open spaces and nature. the biggest 'yard' i saw was about 3ft by 6ft. i really enjoyed the ride home, seeing all those semi-rolling hills.
*'different town, same faces'- parley made this comment at a party we went to. yes, the town is cooler, but there are still the same stupid, silly, drama-infused people there that there are here. cool town does not automatically = cool people.
perhaps my list was not as short as i thought. but hopefully it gave a good rundown of how my weekend went. all in all, not a bad trip. not a lot of downtime though...didnt get a lot of sleep, and drew's living room had a huge skylight so things got really bright in the morning, making sleep harder...but we had a free place to stay and a good tour guide...so things worked out well.
posted by suz at 9:27 PM
2 Comments:
Chicago has much better art than columbia. But I guess you weren't going there for the culture.
I'm glad you had a nice time.
i actually really wanted to go to the art museum's toulouse-lautrec exhibit, but we did not have time. i forgot to put that on as a 'like'
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