Well, I'm back from Chi-town, and it was a great trip. Everything went so well and despite a little rain and mud on saturday, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.
I started out in St. Louis, where Vanessa was waiting for me at the airport with a "welcome to st. Louie" sign. We're nerds. Our next immediate stop was to stop by the giant st. louis arch, which was actually pretty cool to see, I touched it and a family laughed at me because i made a silly pose while doing it. I didn't know you could even go up in the arch, no thanks.
We got our stuff together, had a quick stop at St. Louis Bread co. ....not Panera around there, and headed out on the country roads to Champaign, IL to stay the night at the U of I.
The bars were fun there, but perhaps they were more fun since we decided to go out at 6:00 so by the actual time people start to go out, we were ready to call it a night. I did become a mug club member of the Illini Inn though, pretty sweet.
Next morning included packing up our stuff walking over to the library and eating in the University of Illinios student Union with all the other asians-- I mean students. Good thing I acquired a sweet pair of shades from Joe, which made the upcoming concert fun because they made everything bright neon colors all day!
We hit the road and by around 4:45 we were in downtown Chicago in our hotel along the Magnificent Mile, and it was Magnificent, or atleast the shopping was. We played our parts of tourists and ate at navy peir and were pooped by the night so headed back to the hotel.
Saturday was full of Pitchfork Music Festival...day one. Saw tons of bands including !!!, Caribou, Fleet Foxes, Atlast Sound, Vampire Weekend, animal collective...to name a few. Saturday night we walked back to the hotel and took a pitstop into Millennium Park to see the fountains and the bean. A nice touristy spot on the walk home from a lonnnggg rainy muddy day.
Sunday was just as fun, before the concert Vanessa and I drove out to Lincoln park to see my new neighborhood! I couldn't be more in love with it! Its the cutest apt. in the greatest location, my roomies did good.
Sunday turned out to be soo hot, so Vanessa and I spent most of the day people watching those crazy hipsters in the shade until the good shows came on. Best ones of Sunday were Bon Iver, High Places, The Dodos, and unfortunately NOT Cut Copy, they were stuck at the airport or so the stage hands said. I wanted to collapse in the mud when they said that.... :( The only show after that was spoon so we watched a small bit of that but just hit the road back to Edwardsville that night.
All in all i had a great first experience in Chi-town, its an awesome city and so less overwhelming than somewhere like NYC. I can't wait to go back and hopefully have some job possibilities when i do!
