Btown

This week took me to Bloomington. I had several dinner parties with friends, hit up many of classic Bloomington restaurants (Buffalouie’s, Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, Pizza Express, Swing In Pizza, Mother Bear’s, Lennie’s), went to Oliver Winery, and met with a handful of IU professors. The neatest treat was being able to be at IU during a SNOW DAY! I went sledding with Emily with all the other college students who decided not to study and have fun with life. Enjoy all the photos in the link!  Photos!

Doggie Bag

The days have slipped by all of us. Every night seems to leave Ben and myself in a drunken stupor, and you can’t expect me to produce results in such conditions. Yesterday was no different, except this time, we did all we could do intoxicate ourselves in any way that presented itself.  It was actually this level of destitution that made us realize we should clean up a bit, hence my ability to peck on a keyboard for an idle moment this evening.

Short Story Posted

My short story entitled “Message in a Bottle”, originally a letter to my friend Ben Wright, has been posted on my stories page. So far, to date, there has only been one person who has successfully decoded it without my help (not that it’s difficult – people are just lazy). I wish you the same success in your journey. Enjoy!

A Billion Photos and counting!

I have begun the process of putting an assortment of my photos online for public viewing. There are still plenty of photos I haven’t posted, but many of them are repeats of other photos and I’ll try to spare you the horrendous task of looking at amazing things too many times. I know your eyes can’t bear such amazingness. No worries. But without further ado, I bring you…..

Photos!

Do you know what I love about Nachos?

Everything! We enjoyed a SMALL plate of Nachos at a local micro-brewery in Las Cruces. Yes, there were indeed two sizes of nachos bigger than this one. Insanity!

Before

After

Chicago to Las Cruces

Thursday had Ben and I sleeping in late and heading towards Union Station. The previous two days had been great, because we got snow flurries and I was able to play in the snow again. This day was free and clear of snow, which was great, because it meant there would be no weather related train delays. As we headed towards the station, we decided to grab lunch at Jimmy John’s. I hadn’t had it in awhile, and after eating at different sub shops, I was curious how it stacked up. For Ben, it was a new experience. Both of us found it sadly lacking.

After lunch, we headed into Union Station and grabbed a seat in their premium lounge for people holding sleeping cabins. There were free snacks and drinks, so Ben and I grabbed a coffee each, likewise grabbed a seat, and watched the replay of Obama’s talk on the state of the economy. After a bit, they called us all for getting on the train. As we were getting on the double decker train, we met and talked with our train attendant, Tony. He was very animated, and from first impressions, we knew the train ride would be interesting.

Chicago – Science and Religion

Today started off late due to a tired Ben, but that’s alright. It gave me some time to deal with things on the internet and phone, and once he did get ready, we set out on our way. Being touristy again (i.e. bumbling idiots), we set out on a walk from the metro station through U of Chicago’s campus, only to realize that we had been looking at the map with a much larger scale. And so we walked… I could have easily walked and walked for hours, but as it turns out, it’s not really Ben’s thing, and since we had a late start, we sort of made a bee-line to the museum.

After walking a long time, we were glad to reach the place, and our excitement was heightened by the fact that the Science and Industry museum was FREE! Feeling great at our good luck, we were commenting how incredible it was that we randomly came here on a Wednesday… only to find out that it was a monthly deal. Perhaps things are just slow in January?

We spent a few hours in the museum seeing the sites and taking photos: A German U-Boat, futuristic projections, automated lecture about the earth, genetics and chicken hatching exhibit, trains and city miniatures, and what I thought was the coolest thing – stuff on farming with machines. I had spent two years in a place where farming was all by hand and hoe, and I had been curious FOREVER about how the large machines cut, husk, and separate maize from the plant. Well, I got to stand at a John Deere kiosk and hear the entire elaborate story – FASCINATING! Hahaha. That exhibit alone would be so fascinating for a school full of students, especially my Tanzanian students.

After the museum, we were a little smarter and took a local bus back to the metro station. We took the red line basically from one end to the other, then continued all the way up north to the very end of the purple line. After a quick walk, we arrived at a site I had seen in photos forever in Tanzania thanks to the amazing Kavisa – the Baha’i temple. It was so incredibly beautiful. There is a major center of worship like this one located on every continent (I think not yet on the Antarctica, though), and North America’s is in Chicago. We took a number of photos on the outside and then ventured inside. There was a wealth of literature, but what was most surprising was the wealth of pamphlets in other languages. While Ben picked up some information in English, I got to read one in Swahili. It was fun, especially since I had once opened up a prayer book of Kavisa’s that was all in Swahili.  Totally worth it! If you are ever in Chicago and you miss out seeing this place, shame on you. Enjoy the photos!

Ben in the snow

Hitler visits Paris

German U-Boat

My Future Car

The Earth!

Baby Chicken

Chicago Miniature

Ben goes farmin’

Baha’i Temple side

Baha’i Temple back

Ben and I at Baha’i Temple

Baha’i Temple front

Chicago – Buildings

After hanging out with Ed and catching up, we jumped into the cold. I should probably point out that at this time, in Chicago, it is SNOWING! Oh man, it’s freaking awesome! It’s been over three years since I’ve seen this amazingness that is frozen water falling from the sky. It was a delight. Ben’s friend is a Chicago native, and during her time in high school and just in general, she has taken several architecture tours of Chicago, and so we indulged in a sort of self-created tour. Highlights included a tall blue skyscraper and a tapered skyscraper that creates a crazy optical illusion if you stand at the bottom and look up.

After cruising the streets, we headed to Millenium park and saw this huge crazy metal jelly bean thing, as it was deemed, and took some time staring into it’s mathematical and physical awesomeness. One of the neatest features was the reflections looking up from underneath. If you take a picture with flash it creates a fancy effect as well.

Big Sister is watching

Flash photo and craziness

Eat your heart out Escher!

Watch out Ben!

Optical Illusion

Picasso Sculpture

Pigeons at Grave

Theater

Old and New

Russian Tea Time

After taking a video or two about ice-skating (one with me trying to poorly free-flow with swahili to interpret ice skating to Tanzanians – I ended up saying that people wear ‘ice shoes’ and that they consist of knives on bottom that you continue moving on top of the ice like walking. It should make sense) and one about the craziness of snow, we headed to a place called ‘Russian Tea Time’. It was here that we pampered ourselves with tea, tea sandwiches, and sweets. And I got to pick minds about creative writing.

The day ended with a delightful pub experience, where Ben, Rachel, and I talked about a variety of things, but most interestingly her work with architecture and secondary schools. I put her on the future jeremy-builds-a-school-in-tanzania list, in which she will serve as the chief architect, under my and others’ cultural insights. I could see it happening someday, so keep a look out if you want to help.

Here are two videos for my friend Kava in Tanzania and anyone else over there who wants to show their counterparts:

Chicago – Art Museum

So, the day started out great with a quick breakfast at Einstein Bros Bagels close to Rachel’s house (which, by the way, if I haven’t mentioned, it located directly below a aura reading psychic’s office – hilarious) and led us to the art institute of Chicago. In front of the museum was my first encounter with American street touts. It was a guy raising money for the homeless by selling street guides to Chicago. Now, I was taken aback a little bit, because I didn’t really have any interest to talk with him even though he continued, but honestly he was an amazing street tout. He kept at it and annoyed us, but he did it in such a kind manner! He made light of everything. It wasn’t just us, though. He was full of jokes for everyone, in order to endear their hearts. Some of my favorites were as follows: ‘Well, I hope that you wear two socks when you are golfing… in case you get a hole in one.’ and ‘What do you call a teacher who doesn’t fart in public? – A private tooter’. Classic. After the museum opened, we looked at the out of date map that was given us and realized we had no idea what we were doing and eventually just decided to go up a floor and enter any room. We asked a person for bearings just to make sure we had an idea of where we were on the map and began looking.

Georges-Pierre Seurat

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Ben with Impressionists

American Furniture

Winslow Homer

Jackson Pollock

Miniature Room

Grant Wood

We ended up exactly at the place we wanted – the Impressionists. I thought it was luck and noticed it right away. It was more funny, however, when after seeing a few paintings, Ben turned to me and said ‘Wait, I just saw 4 paintings and 3 of them were Monet. Holy shit.’ It only got better as we progressed. We got a full viewing of a huge Impressionist collection, which by the look of things, had actually been closed for quite some time (yay, lucky us). Then, we sort of did a round about on the top floor seeing alot of various paintings from all generations.

From here, Ben and I split up a bit (even though in the end we saw all the same stuff in different orders) and I went towards the American art section. I was quite astounded, actually. I hadn’t remembered seeing so much great American art. My favorite part of that tour was seeing a group of people crowded around a man talking. I went towards them and found myself in the midst of what obviously seemed like a professor with his students giving a lecture on the forms and methods of American artists. I immediately fell in line and soaked up the lecture as if I was one of his students (most of whom seemed bored to be there – quite opposite of me at that moment). I soaked up the American art and headed back. I got to see some ancient cultures and their work (totally unfulfilling after the Cairo Museum), some African art (also unfulfilling since most of it was so stereotypical and only from West Africa), and some Asian art (also pretty unfulfilling – I couldn’t place why, though). One great exhibit near the end was the miniatures. There were dozens of windows of miniature rooms, all completely decked out and designed so superbly. There were even outside scenes and side rooms that completed each diagram. My favorite was the room with the library, and in the photo you can see my reflection taking a photo. They were so tiny!

After the museum, I got a chance to catch up with my old friend Ed Lee, who had spent the last two years in the Koren military, as every citizen is required to do. I had heard that Peace Corps volunteers and veterans had alot in common, but didn’t realize the full extent. I really felt like Ed and I, even though our times were different, had quite a different perspective on life and what we were out to do afterwards. It was refreshing.

Jeremy and Ed

Chicago

So, after a long dreary sleep of 2.5 hours, I threw myself into a car and went to the Amtrak station with Ben and his mom. Ben was quite taken aback by the lack of security, and I would have to agree, after spending several weeks on international plane flights. But, after being bored in the terminal (yes, yes, I know I enjoy hurrying up to wait – it’s a fault), we got to board the train. For the most part, we tried to pass out on the train, but after a short and restless sleep, we talked about life, love, and the pursuit of the meaning of the universe. We arrived timely into Chicago, but that does not mean that our post-arrival was timely in any manner. First, we upgraded our seats on the train (whatever led Ben to think we wanted to SIT in a seat like a greyhound bus for over 50 hours beats me, but I’m sure he had a reason), and then walked quickly to the Subway loop. When we arrived, we spent quite the ordeal trying to make ourselves look like idiotic tourists. You know, like a hidden camera show. People see us acting crazy and really there is a hidden element that makes it funny for the audience. The viewers were probably especially laughing when we had to walk all the way back to the train station to buy 3 day passes for the subway and THEN return again. But you know, we try to ablige our audience, so I’m hopeful they enjoyed the touristy antics.

On an aside, I find it actually quite peaceful being a tourist in Chicago thus far. The previously mentioned antics did not have one thing that came to be common in my travels – touts and street ‘helpers’. Thank god. I kept pretending to mess with Ben by being a street tout and relating our whole day to how it would ACTUALLY happen on the streets of Tanzania. We had a good laugh.

Deliciousness ensued!

Italian sandwich and chocolate malt

‘A Wreck’ sandwich and strawberry malt

The skyline from Lincoln Park

Ben waits in anticipation

Beer doesn’t flow freely forever

Classy Joint

Deep Dish was a success!

The day was pretty simple, with a delcious ‘grinder’ (phrase a la Ben) – think Penn Station, and a strawberry malt. I thought I would never taste something more delicious, but considering at every meal I come to this conclusion, perhaps maybe more delciousness will follow. And I’m a fan of that.

I’ll write more after our Chicago style deep dish pizza dinner. Can you say ‘I thought I would never taste something more delicious.’? I have a hunch that I can.

…….

Oh. My. God. So, yeah, I never thought i could taste something more delicious! Ben had written off deep dish pizza as a child and because of his pride of St. Louis style pizza, but his mind was blown tonight. So was mine. Actually, it was quite funny to have three St. Louis people all together celebrating even the tiniest of Chicago joys. Is this a wrong feeling?

We had alot of catching up and gossiping about people, but mostly just conversing about our current/future goals for graduate school. It’s nice to be around people again who are all planning to improve their minds. It’s so refreshing.

Tomorrow, we plan to head to the Art Institute of Chicago as well as another museum. Be on the lookout!