Chi-town mishap

Before we get to the exciting part and moving to France, I had quite a bit of troubles just moving within the US. You'd think I'd have the traveling part down within my own country, and be able to handle just about every situation after living in New York for a couple years. In my two years in the city, I had moved from uptight Wall Street to uber-clean Chelsea, managed a brief stay near bustling Union Square, and then rounded out my experience in Lower East Side. I loved the restaurants, side streets, and shady nooks of that pocket of Manhattan, but it's still struggling and I still wasn't entirely happy about the thought of walking around that area on my own.

Which brings me to my first travel stop after leaving Manhattan: Chicago. I manage to emerge safe and sound from two years in New York, and what happens?? I get my wallet stolen by a couple high school punks in Chicago. Chicago of all places! Where only 30 minutes before this incident, I had witnessed a random lady turning in an iPod to the bus driver because someone had left it on the seat next to her. You'd never see the same thing happen in New York, that's for sure. So I was definitely shocked when not only was my wallet stolen, but the thieves had actually reached inside my purse to take that wallet. Needless to say, the following week was spent visiting all my banks, sitting in the Social Security office downtown, and filing a variety of federal credit bureau reports to document the incident. Not exactly the best vacation, but it got the job done.

Other than that unfortunate episode, Chicago did have some interesting points:

1) The policemen ride four wheelers around town...not police cars, but four wheelers! Check it out:

2) People are also obscenely friendly here. Example: random people I don't even know will say hello when they walk by on the street. My response? A stare of disbelief, or perhaps a scowl. You never know how much New York is in you until you get tested by a stranger's hello.

3) The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is one of the best aquariums I have ever been to. They had a new baby beluga whale! And the penguins are one of my favorite animals to see...


4) The city smells like a giant brownie. After waking up to the scent of chocolate for the first couple days, I found out that there is a huge chocolate factory right outside of downtown Chicago. Waking up and falling asleep dreaming of chocolate is not too bad...