So last time I claimed that the reason I hadn’t written a post was because my life was monotonous. Oh how nice it would be to have that again. This last month has instead been rather all over the place, in terms of busyness, stress and geographically!
So I left you all last time about to head to Chicago. I love Chicago, I only visited briefly before, but that was enough to give a lasting impression and make it one of the top memories on my American tour (the other being white water rafting in West Virginia.) I loved it so much that I organised my trip with two weekends either side of work so that I could explore. This meant getting a flight at 7:45 am on Saturday = wake up at around half 3. I didn’t mind this, though some might, but unfortunately my plane was delayed. Initially only by 45 minutes but this soon increased to 3 hours. 4 hours. 6 hours… However; I still had to be a the airport at the original boarding time. I got a £10 voucher for food (woopee), but I was rather bored and tired at the airport. It didn’t help either that the airline seemed unable to tell how long a plane would take to arrive in London from Chicago (they were projecting a delay of 2 hours when the plane hadn’t even taken off…)
Despite pressure, I refused to drink alcohol before midday.
I needn’t have worried, I had plenty of time in the afternoon thanks to the delay!
Despite this, the staff on the plane were very nice and, perhaps due to the delay, the plane was almost empty. We were given free alcohol as an apology and I could enjoy the airplane food – a seemingly perverse pleasure of mine which is not shared but other people I have spoken to. The flight was otherwise uneventful, though I was given 10,000 free airmiles as further apology!
Once I arrived in Chicago, and made my way through the ridiculous customs queues, I eventually got to where I was staying. At 8:30 pm. I was supposed to arrive in Chicago at 10 am, and the flats I was at only had a manned reception between 2 and 5pm. After ringing one of the 10 numbers on the door I eventually managed to get access to my room.
Now, this has all been very negative so far, which is unlike me. So, it will only go up from here! The flat was awesome. Due to some complication, I ended up being given a suite. I thus had two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a dining area, sitting area and kitchen all to myself. I was supposed to be moved as well half way through, but they decided to let me keep it.
Plaque in Hyde Park area, just a couple of blocks from my flat and a couple from their current residence.
The area I was staying in – Hyde Park, most famous, probably, for its link to Obama – was nice and near the University, but no so close to the town. Luckily there was a decent train line into the city. It was too late to venture in the first night, but I vowed to get up early and explore on Sunday.
Sunday I actually did get up early – for anyone who knows me well, this may well surprise you! I think the changing time zones helped a lot – and headed in. I aimed for the tourist office for a map, then wandered round, found the bike place where I did a tour last year, walked round the pier, main street and Millennium Park. By this point it was 3 pm. I had booked some stuff for the next day (another lucky coincidence, I arrived when they were having a bank holiday (or ‘labour day’) so unfortunately couldn’t go into work on Monday) and I had time to kill so I thought, hey, why not walk home and see more of what Chicago has to offer?
Google Map of the distance I walked: about 60 blocks!
There were two slight issues with this. One I became more aware of as I walked, the other I was only slightly aware of until informed over the next few days. As I boldly started out, looking at the museums and football stadium at the south side of the city, I realised that, though I had walked a considerable distance, the amount I had moved on my map was very small. And the place I was hoping to get to was way off the bottom of the map. The second epiphany was that some people in certain areas were looking at me in a slightly bemused way as I walked through. When I saw my supervisor later he said “don’t go too far from this [Hyde Park] area, it’s not safe” and when I spoke to the post-doc at the University he clarified this.
Apparently, Chicago hasn’t quite washed off the image of the gangster city. Gang crime is high and some areas are even more dangerous than those in New York. It appears on my Sunday afternoon jolly back to my flat I had walked through several gang controlled regions. Thankfully it seemed people were more bemused than aggressive and that gang members have better things to do than accost British tourists early on a Sunday afternoon! (Interesting fact break: The University of Chicago borders onto these more dangerous regions. It stands out as a kind of oasis of safety, which stretches to a two block perimeter. The reason for this? The University has the second largest private police force in America! Can you guess which is the first?)
The next day I again did a bike tour. Last time I was there we did a night tour which was awesome and gave great views of the city skyline, so was eager to try again. This time I opted for the “Bikes, bites and brews” tour. I saw the city, tried some typical Chicago foods (deep pan pizza pie!) – and some not so typical (maple and bacon cupcake!) – as well as local beers. I even met a really nice couple who had moved from Boston who took me for pumpkin beer after! The tours are always really good, I definitely recommend checking them out if you are in Chicago (http://www.bobbysbikehike.com/).
Posing on the bike tour in front of the skyline.
I travelled back, more quickly and safely by train, and met my supervisor. We were supposed to go for beers but, as the state or city has some law about no alcohol being consumed within a certain distance of a school, we could find nowhere so just ended up eating instead.
Finally I started my work at the University! The style of the University is a copy of Oxford, just bigger, and as such is a very beautiful place. I was here to be taught in the use of a code for simulating complicated plasma systems by the post-doc. Unfortunately, my supervisor recently had a paper submitted with them, so stole many of the people I needed to talk to, but the week was useful and I managed to get everything up and running. I have been too busy recently to continue, but it should be a useful aid in future. The post-doc at the University was really helpful and nice, and we shared several pitchers of beer with my supervisor in the evening!
After the week of work I had another few days spare in Chicago. I did another bike tour, this time longer (around 28 miles), which explored more about the history of the city which was interesting. The tour was billed as ‘advanced/moderate’ due to the distances, but there were rather a few unsuitably-weighted people who attempted it. Needless to say an incident occurred and one lady had to be removed to hospital! I felt sorry for her, though unsurprised, but the best part was seeing the ambulance (and managing to take a sly photo whilst noone was looking, I didn’t want to seem uncaring!) It was weird that the paramedics giave her some paper to fill out insurance details before taking her away, however. The idea that you wouldn’t be helped without insurance was jarring, and made me grateful for the UK!
After the tour I wandering around various areas of Chicago, avoiding bad areas, was directed by some friendly locals, and came across a Chipotle festival where I was given an avocado and tabasco (which came in useful the following week, see part 2!) I spent Sunday morning exploring local shops and marvelling at the differences before heading to the airport and flying to Rochester, NY.
And there I have realised that I have blabbered on quite a lot! I fear this would bore even the most avid readers (i.e. my Mum) so I shall stop here and reveal the rest of my travels in part 2!
Joe @ Oxford 