Chicago: Day 14 - 16

Dear Diary,

Today's Day 16 of my trip here. I found out from FB just this morning that Hazel's here in Chicago! Yay! A friend to potentially meet! :) She's going to Kingston Mines tonight, which was the place that I originally wanted to check out. It actually won the Chicago Music Award for Best Blues Club. Can't wait! We might go for a salsa mixer after that. Steph says that there will be instructors there too, so I can get myself assessed for class. Am not too confident bout that! :P But I do look forward to some activity and people interaction. Wheee! :)

Last 2 days has been interesting. On Thursday itself, I woke up early and actually prepared a packed lunch for Steph. Nothing complicated - just left over rice with defrosted lemon chicken breast and pre-marinated beef, the remainders of what Steph had left in his fridge. But it felt good anyway doing it :) We had been up late the night before as Steph had to clear some work items on his To Do List which needed to be done by Thursday. So I thought a little homecooked meal might help :)

A little update, Mum and I have been communicating via Whatsapp, Google messenger, FB and google chat. She recently got herself the latest Samsung phone. She's been playing with it since and sending me some of her masterpieces:

I asked her to draw a picture of me too! She came up with this:

As usual, I went to the park for lunch. This time, I got myself a char-boiled dog. To be honest, I can't really differentiate one "dog" from the other, except that this one has jalepeno peppers, which makes it spicier and more sour! 

I couldn't stay at the park for long though. Steph had arranged for me meet him at the suburb where his office is located. It's a one hour drive from Lincoln Park, but train-wise, I needed to buffer in extra time in case of traffic held-ups and other unforeseen circumstances. I discovered that Chicago is served by 2 different train systems - the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), which runs trains and buses to serve some parts of the city, and the Metra Railway System that serves the surrounding suburbs. 

In order to get to Steph's workplace, I had to first take the subway from Armitage Station, along the CTA brownline, alight at Quincy in town (the Loop) and walk down three blocks along W. Jackson Blvd to Union Station. From Union Station, I needed to catch a train travelling along the Milwaukee District North line and alight at Northbrook Station. 

Thanks to my "immaculate" planning, I was there an hour early. So I wandered around the suburb. Thankfully, there was a park nearby where I could sit and read, and rest my feet. I was super tired and somewhat cranky (due to the lack of sleep and exhaustion from travelling). Nevertheless, it was fascinating watching people mill about the neighbourhood. I realised that Chicagoans in general, love to have a balanced life. They also love their dogs as much as they love their kids and exercising. It was great just seeing parents hanging out among themselves as their children play. And I'm not talking about just stay-home mums. There were dads too. It just felt so leisurely and carefree!

By the time Steph was done with work and met up with me, I was cranky from fatigue. Our intention was to get some groceries from Mitsuwa, a japanese supermart near his office, so we took a drive down. Apart from a gigantic Japanese Supermart, Mitsuwa also had a japanese bookshop, a japanese liquor stall and a japanese foodcourt (where Santouka can be found). We had a simple meal - beef curry udon for Steph and an unagi rice bowl for me. 

Mitsuwa is a fantastic japanese supermart with lots of delicious snacks and produce. It's also very pricey. Steph usually gets his supply of rice here (cause they sell it in big sacks). We got some cakes from the bakery, rice snacks, cuts of ox tail and a freshly packed trio of miso marinated pork chops. I got some japanese rice seasoning mixes too - something different for us to try. 

That pretty much marked the end of the 14th Day.

On Friday, Steph decided to work from home. He had met the quota for his working hours (since he worked overtime on Thurs) and was free to spend some time with me. We got some burgers for lunch from FIVE GUYS, a popular burger chain in the US, and headed to Lincoln Park for a "picnic". 

The special character of a FIVE GUYS burger is not just how juicy the patty is, but also the ability to design your own burger - you get to choose from a list which toppings you want on your burger, for no extra charge at all! They offer regular sized hamburgers and cheese burgers, as well as baby sized ones. The difference lies not in the size of the bun, but the number of beef patties itself.

A cheeky staff decided to join in the fun :P

They even do deliveries! :)

My baby cheeseburger - topped with mushrooms, onions and pickles.

While we were at the park, we had a surprise visitor - there was a squirrel moving just a few feet away from us. It saw us eating. Steph waved a fry in it's direction and it immediately stopped moving. It eyed us carefully, before hesitantly coming forward to share in our meal. Here's a footage of it:

Evidently, squirrels aren't scared of humans after awhile, especially if they know that they'll be fed :P It reminded me of warnings not to feed creatures in the wild - for fear that they may turn hostile and aggressive one day, after realising the harmlessness of us humans. Still, we could not resist sharing our food with the little critter. After three fries, it ran off up a tree - hyperactive with salt and oil in its system. *eek*

After lunch, Steph and I headed to a Starbucks nearby to discuss and plan our trip to SF. We managed to finalise bookings for the hotel, but we have yet to settle our plane tickets. It's a toss between visiting Raymond and his cousins in L.A., after our visit to the wine valley, or a vacation in Las Vegas. 

We subsequently caught a movie that night - Snow White and the Huntsmen. (Interestingly, its free seating in the theatre!) I love the cinematography. Unfortunately, the story is very slow moving, so it was slightly torturing, considering how sleep-deficient and tired the both of us have been lately. Nevertheless, I was thankful for the two "dates" I got with Steph today :) It felt good spending time and doing things together:) It also provided us with sometime to understand each other (and our inner workings) better. 

Looking forward to more dates with Steph! :)