Monday 26 November 2007

Hoo ha!

I have internet time left, and nothing left in my magic book of wonderment to type up. I am officially caught up with all things that have occurred in the windy city. Which seems to lack wind. Chicago is really great, I really wanted to go up near Lincoln Park and see the posher end of town, as I think they have cool second hand bookshops and the such like. Ah well. Maybe next time, and I'll drag Rex along that time, and destroy him with puns, such as this one I pwned him with today:

Rex: "I like dolphins. Lots. Did you fall in accidentally?"
Tom: "Nah, on porpoise... *gaffaws*"
Rex: "Good night mr tom. *sighs*"
Tom: "*giggles* night dude, you sure set me in my plaice *sniggers*"

Good times, good times. Just done my good deed for the day by helping a person of Scandinavian origin use the vending machine. I should really go to bed as it's 23:45, and I need a shower. I'm a bit scared though as I fear my dorm is full of old men, and they may get grumpy with me for wearing a garish t-shirt and not being tucked up asleep yet. Ah well, us riff raff must continue to be the spanner in the works, the bane of their existence, the apple in there carrot cake, the brick in their washing machine and the suspiciously placed post box in the hanging garden of their hearts....

Yeah, I'll sleep now then.

Newly Revised Chicago Plan:

Tuesday:
  • Field Museum: 09:00-13:30
  • Planatarium: 13:30-16:30
  • Contemporary Art Museum: 17:00-19:00
  • All You Can Eat Pizza And Beer For $20: 20:00

Wednesday:

  • Science & Industry Museum: 09:30 - X
  • Planatarium: X-16:30
  • Hancock Observatory: 20:00/21:00

26th November, 23:00

I then headed to the Planaterium (spelling?) as it was free today. It was only open for a short while longer but I saw a show about Black Holes which was quite interesting though I knew most of it already. Though I didn't realise that there is a black hole in the middle of most galaxies as well as our one (the milky way). They had some snazzy computer graphics and liam neeson or someone narrating.

After it shut I wandered back to the hostel and via the medium of text organised to meet Tim for drinks. I then grabbed a Gargantuan Jimmy John's sub, which was excellent and then met him outside the Art Institute (though I waited outside for 15minutes because he was late). We then cruised down the Mag. mile to the Hancock centre, which is a massive skyscraper with an apparent very posh bar on the top, but we got in fine. Was quite expensive but the view was immense. I got a coors light ($8.25+tax) and he got some crazy cocktail which was tiny ($12.00+tax). However, his was immensely strong, apparently, and he got drunk off it quite quickly. By this time I had started to realise that he was a bit dull company as he didn't really pay attention or keep the conversation going. He also appeared moderately racist and snobbish towards Americans, which was a slight issue as he would talk to anyone, just often say the wrong things. Luckily, as it was expensive, we moved on, and the next bar we went to that suggest wanted a $10 cover, so we moved on, after a while of not finding a bar he got tired, which I was glad of, and he parted ways to go back. I'm quite glad in the end we only had 1 drink as I think I would have got REALLY annoyed with him as he was extremely hypocritical, especially in that he claimed all American's were ignorant to everyone, which is in turn an ignorant view. Ah well, at least we didn't agree to go to any museums together like we were gonna.

This post may be more rambling than normal, or longer, or something, as I am typing this straight from my neural pathways, because I couldn't be bothered to write it out, and I can type 10 times faster so I tend to splurge my brain on here. Yay me! Man the aquarium was awesome.

26th November, 17:20

Now that was an awesome day, makes me wish I had longer here. After I last left you I bought a random Manga book because I could and the blurb was humourous:

"On his way home from a round of heavy drinking late one night, master Moocher and Game Programmer Keita Ibuki decides to satisfy a craving for ramen at a noodle stand. But instead of slurping soup, he gives up his meal to a cute girl (an apparent ramen fanatic). Unbeknownst to Keita, the girl is a superhuman being known as a Mototsumitama who's being hunted by others of her kind. When a battle suddenly ensues, Keita gets caught in the crossfire and loses his arm. The next time he opens his eyes, he's back in his apartment - arm intact. But just whose arm is it?! Asking the strange girl raiding his fridge only makes things more complicated!"

Anyway, I took a really nice walk to the museum campus, with many trees and statues on the way. I went into the extremely impressive Shedd Aquarium and bought another City Pass. It's amazing in there!!! To start with there was a 90,000 gallon replica of the Caribbean coral reef with Rays, sharks, fish, etc. Even a giant turtle called Nickel, who was injured by a speed boat and swims awkwardly now. When they were rehabilitating her, they also found a Nickel lodged in her food pipe, hence the name. a diver also went in to feed the sea life and a small presentation about it all occurred.

Afterwards I wandered around looking at the huge amount of aquariums in there, with all sorts of crazy fish, eels and turtles. Some fish swim up and knock into other fish so their babies, which they carry in their mouth, fall out and can be eaten! Another type of fish as a long aerodynamic snout which is similar to an aeroplane wing and is needed as otherwise the fish would just swim downwards the whole time. Then I walked out to the Oceanarium, where they have dolphins and a type of whale that I have forgotten their name, but it begins with B. Watched a dolphin display, which was awesome, and shows how well trained and happy they were. Their environment was 63 times the size of the minimum regulations for keeping that many dolphins (5). Down below you could see underwater as well as see Penguins and sea otters.

There was even a lizard section which had some crazy looking critters in there, including some that would drop their tails if caught, and then the tails shatter. They also had a majorly huge and very lazy komodo dragon, but it can't apparently get up to very high speeds. Other sections included more turtles, spiders, another coral reef replica with some cool fishies, electric eels, huge ants and many more fascinating things besides. I took MANY photos. Whoa this entry is getting big.

In between I got a nice salad for lunch, with egg and turkey ham. I also got three cookies cos they looked the yum, plus a cranberry juice. I also scratched my head twice, fiddled with my bracelets, stretched my arms, looked slightly to my left, then back to my right, and all manner of trivial details that you really don't need to know but I seem to tell you anyway and you don't have a choice. Mwahahahaha...

26th November, 10:52

Mmmm coffee and a japepeno pretzel. Good times. Last night after returning and kinda chilling I met an Australien called Time. He lived in Vancouver for half a year but can't find anywhere to teach so is flying back to Oz. Had a really good sleep, and my South Korean chum gave me a subway pass for free as he was leaving at 5am. Jolly nice of him. Today is Aquarium day. woo! and then Field Museum if I have time, possibly with Tim though he's moving hostel today as snoring kept him up (not mine). Awesome quote I found in Barnes & Noble:

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!” - Jack Kerouac

Random Thoughts
  • I should get some brain books.
  • Hopefully on my big trip I won't be nervous beforehand like with this one, just excited.