Day 21: Days Of Our Lives

Okay, I've got seven days to catch up on here so here we go:

Angels and Day-mons
TallaDAYga Nights
DAYzed and Confused
Training Day
Groundhog Day
The Day After Tomorrow

There we go, that should cover all of the 'Day' puns I've missed so far.

Not much to report, to be honest. I've been popping in and out of Chicago haphazardly on little shopping trips and the lark and just exploring new parts of the city.

I went to the museum today - because it was free - but left unimpressed. Maybe it's the lack of variety there or maybe it's because I was just wandering around a museum by myself but either way it wasn't great. I nipped into Gamestop today too and picked up Scribblenauts and Katamari Forever for the DS and PS3 respectively. Scribblenauts seems alright from the initial 20 minutes of tutorials but the DS needed charging so a full opinion will have to wait.

Drank almost a litre of Monster energy drink. The can made me chuckle with a little Doom reference, the can being referred to as the BFC: Big 'Effin Can. =D

I was going to go to the Skydeck today but stupidly I left my camera behind so I'll have to go another day. It's a shame because it was a really nice day and the view would've been ace.

Seven days till I come back now. Will try and update this more often.

Jambo out.

Day 14: Day of the Triffids

An action packed day of searching for and booking out hotels. After worrying about my budget yesterday I planned it all out today and if I can get BA to move my flight forward by a couple of weeks I'll be as good as gold with nothing to worry about. The itinerary has been written in ink and for the most part is set in stone. As it stands, here is what my journey will look like in the end:

Newcastle > London > Chicago > Washington DC > San Francisco > Los Angeles > Toronto > New York City > Chicago > London > Newcastle

I'm now far more optimistic about the rest of the trip and am looking forward to seeing new places. Tomorrow I will spend booking flights and train trips and if there's time I'll head into Chicago. If not, it gives me something to do on Wednesday.

Jambo out.

Day 12: Day Another Day

Well, another day in quiet Illinois. I've started feeling better after what I believe may have been a touch of food poisoning. Had a nice big, hearty meal to celebrate before having a nice chat with Ahsan (Happy Birthday for yesterday, by the way) on iChat. Newcastle United ended up winning again which was nice - we're now two points clear at the top of the league thanks to a hatrick from Kevin Nolan and a rather nice freekick from Ryan Taylor. =D

Since I was feeling better I went grocery shopping and picked up some supplies including some cereal and some milk. Normally this wouldn't be blog-worthy; however, the aforementioned cereal is none other than Lucky Charms! They used to sell Lucky Charms in Britain but for some reason they stopped. I haven't had them in years so I'm hoping they taste as good as 10-year old me tells me they were.

One final quiet day in tomorrow I think - just to make sure I'm feeling fine - then the hustle and bustle of getting everything I want to do done before I leave. There's not too much left on that list though so it shoudln't be too bad.

Jambo out.

Day 10: Live And Let Day

Well, I partially did today what I planned to do. I got up a little later than expected to caught the 11:52 train into Chicago. I was going to get a bus to Michigan Avenue (a.k.a the Magnificent Mile) but eventually decided on walking the distance and saving a few dollars. After about 20-25 minutes of walking I ended up on one of the most impressive shopping locations I've ever seen. Massive Malls everywhere and loads of designer places. I definitely felt like an outcast in my jeans and t-shirt with a cumulative price of ~£15. I felt like splashing some cash and, considering everything in the States is almost certainly considerably cheaper than in ol' Blighty, this was the place to do it. I wandered down the street for a fair amount of time before stumbling across the Apple shop. I say shop, it was in fact more of a classroom dedicated to teaching those uninitiated with Macs and iPods how to navigate the interfaces. But there was a shop tacked on at the end so I walked out with an Apple Remote meaning I can control music and DVDs from a distance now which is nice.

After this I wandered further north and found Macy's, a massive designer department store with eight levels! The sunglasses I'd taken with me had been warped by the heat so I needed a new pair so I bought a nice pair of Ray Ban aviators for considerably less than I would have paid back in the UK. Right across from the sunglasses hut was a watch stand selling designer watches. I've been a little worried about the lovely, lovely watch I brought with me as I'm always paranoid that it's going to get stolen or damaged in some way and it means so much to me that I ended up buying a watch that I wouldn't mind if it got nicked or damaged seeing as it has far less sentimental value. Straight across the road from Macy's was a Borders book shop so I popped in and grabbed a new book (Kathy Reichs; 'Bones to Ashes' if you must know). I carried on walking till the shops finished then walked all the way back down which took ages so when I looked at the time it was getting late so I walked back to the station (picking up a shaver on the way) and got on the train back to the hotel. Here's a snap of the stuff I bought:



After checking the Chicago History Museum's website it's a good thing I didn't go today as it's free to enter on Mondays. So, that's Monday sorted!

Jambo out.

Day 9: Dawn of the Day-ed

Urgh... Feeling most unwell after the 'delights' of the Baconator. It's been so bad it's forced me indoors on what has turned out to be a rather nice day. In my current state of being, movement is a no-go at the minute so I'm hoping I'm better in a few hours as I need to get some groceries in. The fresh air will probably do me good as well. So, I've decided to leave Illinois a week earlier than anticipated and head to a new destination. I was torn between Boston and Washington DC so I left it up to Lady Luck:

[There was going to be a video here but the Internet connection is so unbelievably lame that it can't upload a puny 10MB video file so here's a description of what happened: I shuffled a deck of cards thoroughly then cut the deck. If the card I chose was red I'd go to Boston, if the card was black I'd go to Washington DC. I ended up picking the 5 of Clubs.]

So, Washington DC it is! I can't wait! I've been doing a lot of reading of stuff to do and if I stay for a week and a bit I think I'm going to be busy every minute of every day! There just seems like so much stuff to do! Definitely going to try and get a hotel right in the middle this time. I've got just under two weeks left here though so I'm going to get train tickets sorted out, a hotel booked, and then visit the few remaining places I want to check out in Chicago before heading off to a new State. =D

I've got to be feeling better by tomorrow morning though - I've got an action packed day planned involving a trip to the big shopping areas, a bite to eat, a museum visit and then a wander around Itasca before making it back to the hotel.

Day 6: Return of the Jed-Day

C'mon, you've gotta give me that one. It's getting harder and harder to think of appropriate film titles.

Massive shout-out to my brother-in-law Iain for doing the Great North Run today. He raised a lot of money for charity. I'll buy you a beer for your efforts when I get back.

Anyway, my feet were still killing me when I woke up so any plans of walking for any conceivable amount of time were thrown out the window in favour of another comfy day in the hotel room. I've exhausted my supply of Mountain Dew so will have to pick some up tomorrow on the way back from Chicago. I'm considering a trip to the Magnificent Mile tomorrow as I desperately need a pair of shorts and a shaver and it's somewhere interesting I haven't been yet.

I think I'm going to spend the rest of the day getting something to eat (the Baconator from Wendy's sounds pretty good!!) and then browsing the 'Net and my travel guide for places I need to visit while I'm here.

Looking ahead to Tuesday, I think I'll explore the parts of Itasca that I keep threatening to and find a local watering hole. In other news, I finally won a game of Patience! Grated, it's a one player game, but I didn't have to cheat this time! Majorly chuffed with that.

Jambo out.

Day 3: Day Hard with a Vengeance

Today I got up very promptly after a cool early night being soothed to sleep by the sound of the air con (a complete God send) with the intention of getting to Itasca Metra station by 10:52 in time for the train. However, I got distracted by a book and by the time I'd got out of the shower and was dressed it was already past 10:52, so I decided I'd stay in a bit longer and suss some info out. Last night as I was browsing the net trying to plan today I found a potentially nearer Metra Station on Medinha Road so I figured I'd find the route on Google Maps, take a photo of it to refer to, and set off to try and catch the next train which was at 11:52. Along the way I saw this fella:



Anyway, the distance between Medinha and Union Station is pretty much the same distance between Newcastle and Sunderland so I was used to this sort of train ride. Nothing to note really other than you pay for your ticket once you're on the carriage (but if there was a ticket agent at the station you have to pay an additional $2) and there's loads of leg room. The seats were leather and were pretty comfy. Also, the train had two floors! Awesome!

So, I made it to Chicago's Union Station unscathed (other than bumping my head as I stood up to leave). I figured seeing as I didn't know where I was going that I would head right and see what I stumbled across. Incidently what I did stumble across was alot of very tall buildings and a lot of restaurants. After about 20 minutes of ambling, I find a Staples and head in as I needed a notebook and pen so I could jot down directions so I wouldn't get lost again... Notebook - check. Pen - Hang on? Where're the pens? Unless you're after chunky permanent markers or multi-packs of mechanical pencils then Staple's is not the right place for you! I headed into the next 7-11 I found and bought some orange juice as the heat was making me crazy with thirst. After a bit more walking I find the Chicago Institute of Art and the stroll alongside it took me right next to a rather nice looking park. A further investigation revealed that I was right next to Buckingham Fountain so I thought I'd pop by and see what was what:





It took me a pretty long time to get back to Union Station but after asking a couple of the locals made my way back okay - my internal sat-nav instinctively taking me in the right direction but requiring confirmation along the way. So, I hop back on the Metra to Medinha after some 4 hours of ad-hoc exploration in Chicago. I've been doing a lot of walking recently and I can't see me stopping any time soon. I'll be fit as a fiddle in no time! Anyway, that's all for now - my feet are killing me so I'm going for a lie down and a read.

Jambo out.

Day 1: Arrival

Whoa. That was a looong flight. I mean, I knew it'd be long, but at times it felt like the clock was going backwards. A few times I dozed off and awoke to find the estimated time had increased!

Got into Chicago O'Hare at roughly 8:15pm and made my way through to border control/customs and immigration, etc. One guy at the airport got quite rudely grabbed by the shoulder and shoved at the back of the line for no reason whatsoever so I made sure I was on my best behaviour. The queue went by quick enough and eventually I saw one of the officers and they asked me the usual questions (how long you here? Where are you going? How much money did you bring? etc...).

Just as I made it to the carousel my luggage swung by which was a stroke of good fortune so with that in tow I made my way to the Taxi rank. Due to the late time I had to pay 1.5x the normal rate. In the end it cost me $60 to get to the Hotel but it's better than having to try and make my own way there.

Anyway, got into the Hotel and got the key to the room. It's a nice big room with a nice big bed. Nothing spectacular but perfectly good enough for a base of operations. The Internet is pretty fast too so I can update with ease. Anyway, it's been far too long a day to carry on without sleep so I bid you adieu.

Jambo out.

One week till lift off!

Well, after months [read: days...] of planning I've finally got tickets booked and a Hotel sorted for the first month of my 3 month stint in America. I'm staying in a seemingly quiet little place called Itasca, Illinois which is a short train ride away from the centre of Chicago. Feeling very excited - maybe a little bit nervous - but I'm definitely looking forward to it! I'm currently making final preparations such as getting GPD changed into USD, getting a digital camera/camcorder and getting stuff ready to be packed; I think I'll be travelling lightly though to avoid loads of luggage...

I know I've neglected this blog a little bit over the last couple of months but this will be the main hub of my Stateside Adventure so it will be updated a lot more often in the coming months with photos, videos, and comments. I'm very much looking forward to the trip and I hope you are looking forward to reading/seeing/hearing about it.

Jambo out.