April 2010, The Chicago Chapter
Place & Year: Chicago, USA / 2-Apr-2010 | 4-Apr-2010
Author: Vishwa
Prologue | This is the first trip since I’ve landed in the United States. My bro always said this was where he first went when he came to US. May term it as a coincidence or anything, but it ended up the same way for me too. It was pretty much an expected day to come since I’ve not seen a closely know soul for about 3 months’ time. Vishnu Priya, a college mate who by time became a very close friend of mine was doing her MS in Chicago and I decided to join her on a long weekend. Booked my tickets well in advance and had things set to go. Came home early from office on 1st Apr (Thursday) and packed everything and hit the bed early as I was supposed to wake up at 3:00 next morning. My other two roommates had planned a trip to Washington and a few other friends also us joined that night for the same trip. The living room was packed. I woke up 10 minutes before time and the vicinity was dead silent. Took a cup of tea and had a quick shower. I had dresses ready over the packed bag. I put them on and one of the my friends also woke up early and offered a drive to the Railway station. As I grabbed my wallet, it looked bulky with all the checks and receipts that I had for every purchase made for about a month time now. So I emptied them to make sure it easily fits into my jeans.
The railways station was almsot empty except a very few who were smoking. A typical movie scene I would think of directing. The temperature went high last week and it was around 10 degree Celsius. A very enjoyable weather I would say after the rough winter. The first train for the day arrived and as I borded it saw most of the seats to be occupied to my surprise. I sat on one and the very next moment realized I left my train pass back home as I emptied my wallet. The day was good for me. The conductor somehow believed what i said and allowed me to commute without a fine. In about 30 minutes I was in the airport station. From therean air train took me to Terminal C where i grabbed the boarding pass from kiosk and finished the security check. Had a good amount of time before my gate was opened; Called Mom and bro to have a nice chat. Then called my cousin Raagini and spoke to her for about 30 minutes and continued the talk till the flight took off.
From Left - Aparna, Vishnu, Vishwa
Meeting Vishnu | I was in the Newark, NJ airport. The Manhattan skyline always looks clear from here. But on that particular day, as my flight was taxing, I had a breath taking view. Sun was large enopugh to cover the whole of Manhattan. It was dark red and was just rising, revealing half of itself above the horizon. The sky scrapers of NYC were seen as a silhouette with the sunrays rays cutting through them. Truly breathtaking! I could enjoy it only for 20 seconds, by then the flight raced on the runway. As I turned awawy from the window, everyone around me were all looking through the windows at the same view. Really wished the SLR in bag was in my hand. But something’s are cherished better in memories. The flight landed 20 minutes before time in Chicago and as I ringed Vishnu, she was 20 minutes away. I managed to find the nearest Train station from the Airport and waited for her to come. In about 10 minutes she was there and I almost jumped to hug her for it was long time since I got to see her. It felt great to be with someone close in the middle of an alien country. The train journey to her house was for an hour and we spoke all the stories from college through families, studies, friends to whatever you may name. In a quick walk from station, we reached her house. A Cozy one I should say. It felt that way to me since I was in a hard wood floored house while hers' was carpeted.
Ramya and Aparna were the girls with whom she shared her house. Aparana by the time we reached had already started off for her work and Ramya was fast asleep. Vishnu made Pongal for breakfast and after an hour of idle talk, Jez, one of the million friends of Vishnu had come home. Ramya was also awake by then. Very soon I realized they were nice people to be with. Once they left, both of us listed down a few places to cover for the trip. As we fitted them into various timings, we realized that time was already running fast. So we decided to start in an hour time Chicago was one hour behind New Jersey in time and I got used to these time variations in the last few months. Day light saving time was another crazy add on to the time difference game. I slept for about 45 minutes and by 3:00 we took a bus to the place called “Lake Shore”. I grabbed a coffee at Star Bucks and reached Lake Shore.
Lake Shore | This place is a broad path ways built in concrete with staircases and gardening along the shore of Chicago river. The skyline of downtown could be seen from here. It was very enjoyable with the gulls flying around. The days temperature was the highest since I came to the United States. It was warm and I was more than happy since I always though the cold will spoil the trip. My SLR clicked a bunch of pictures covering ducks, gulls, skyline and obviously pics of ourselves too. I could right then pick some shots to be uploaded in fotolia.com. From there, we took another bus to downtown. After being in the streets of Newyork, Chicago looked almost empty. But I liked it better than NYC for its less calmness. We walked a few streets taking pictures on the way till Sears Towers.
Skyline from Lakeshore
Sears Towers | A very famous landmark when it comes to Chicago is this. This stands as one of the tallest towers in the world. As we entered the elevator area, Vishnu could make out the time it’s going to take by looking at the crowd.
Sears Towers
She estimated some 2.5 Hrs which looked very long for me. But then as we moved into the queue, I could see the line creep inch by inch. But it was nice as I had hell a lot of stories to share with Vishnu and we kept speaking and laughing all through. Finally after about 1 Hr we reached a theater where the history of the tower was narrated as a story with pictures. It was a good one. But I could understand how boring it would have been for Vishnu looking at it for 4th time. She has become theofficial guide of Chicago for all our friends. The view from top was stunning. Horizon was clearly seen in all directions. The night lights were slowly coming up. The glass skydeck was the most interesting part. Suffering from acrophobia, I barely thought I would digest walking on it. But then due to the crowd, we had to stay just before the glass for about 5 Mins.Fear came down a lot by then and to my surprise I enjoyed walking on the glass. It was spine chilling to look at the roads hundreds of feet below. We clicked some standard snaps there, sitting on the glass. In a few minutes, we joined the exiting queue and realized 3 Hrs had passed. It was already late and we took a bus back home.
City View from Sears
Aurora Temple | Aparna had come home by then, another nice girl to join the plate of Vishnus' friend. I’ve already met her back in India. Ramya and Aparan had cooked dinner and it was great to have dinner ready when u get back home after coming to US. Remembered all the golden days in India where mom used to cook and keep food hot and ready when I return. Vishnu took me around various apartments in the street to introduce me to her friends. I knew most of them from the stories Vishnu had been telling me. Then I hit the bed for the next day turn. The place never slept at all. Vishnu friends kept coming in and out. The next day morning, I remember Vishnu waking me up after getting herself ready.I dressed up myself in about 30 minutes. Vishnu’s friend Tamizh got his car to go to a temple called Aurora. This was the first temple visited in US. It was drizzling, and another girl, Priya joined us. As we hit the freeways, it started to pour. Finally after 45 minutes of drive, we reached Aurora. It was still raining. The temple was serene and I felt a divine vibration as i would feel in a temple in India. It was pretty big and had many Sannadhi’s. There was also the canteen below the temple which served real great south India food. We filled our tummies. As we came out the weather was good and the rain had stopped. A very enjoyable weather. We clicked a few snaps here and there. Tamizh wanted to have his car checked as he had bought it only a few days back. As he had the checking done, the rest of us tried to pick a few dresses in JC Penny. But finally we ended up purchasing only socks for me. Thamizh dropped Vishnu and me near AMC Theater where we have already booked tickets for the movie “How to train your dragon”. It was in the center of the downtown. The view was good. After the movie, we walked through the streets of Chicago and picked a blu-ray since Vishnu had a coupon to use.
Aurora Temple
Dinner | We walked past the building called “Water Tower” and took pictures of it. It has the historic importance of not being burnt in Chicago great fire. We went shopping from there and grabbed a couple of dresses for Vishnu which I wanted to get her for the B’Day. From there Vishnu took me to an Indian restaurant. The food was not the best, but Vishnu’s company gave it the value. We spent an hour discussing on her job and various other stuffs. From there we slowly walked to a bus stop and waited for a bus. The city was almost empty by 9:30. It was a clear contrast to NY. I have seen NYC buzzing with activity at 2:00 PM. After an hour at home, a few friends of Vishnu came in. Santhana Barathi, called as Batty (though I hate spoiling his nice name with such a nick name!) was one of them. As we spoke, I started liking him for various reasons including his genuine character. Then it was time for bed and get ready to walk through another busy and final day in Chicago.
Water Tower
Navy Pier | On the next day we directly went to the downtown to shop dresses that Vishnu wanted to gift me for B’Day. We purchase two T-shirts which I really loved. I did not get much of T-Shirts from India and these were cool. I tried my luck on Jeans pants which I have been finding hard to to see one that fits my waist . Hard luck on that day too, we did not get any jeans that could fit my waist. Aparna and Bharathi were on their way to Navy Pier to join us. Meanwhile we went to Millenium park.
Millenium Park
A nice place and it was fun to click around the huge reflecting object placed in the center. I could also click a few gulls there. From there we reached Navy Pier in 20 minutes. They offer boat rides there which gives a great view of the downtown skyline. We purchased tickets and got into a boat. As it moved around the lake we could collect beautiful snaps of the skyline. This was exactly the view opposite to what I saw from Lake Shore. Barathi and Aparna were giving us great company.
Navy Pier
We shared lot of stories and walked back to the railway station to get back home. My flight was in a few hours’ time. On the way we grabbed coffee and cookies in Star Bucks. The buildings in the city had a old style of construction. Even Star Bucks wasn’t modern. I liked it in a way.
Skyline from Navy Pier
As I Left | We went to meet Vikram, another friend on Vishnu and had a small chat with him. I also went around the place saying a “Bye” for all whom I met in the last two days. We came back home and packed my stuff. Ate sandwich and juice. Jez joined us in half an hour time. Then in another half an hour we left the house. Aparna and Bharati came joined us to the airport. The train travel back to airport seemed short for me and I did not wish to go back to New Jersey. That’s the thought u always get after enjoying around for three days. Finally we reached the Airport well in time and stood in the kiosk for some time. After hugging Vishnu a bye, with no interest in leaving, I entered into the security check and waited for the gate to open. It was raining and the flight was delayed a few minutes as they waited for the sky to clear. Then the flight took off to reach Newark in 1.5 Hrs. As I boarded the train from Airport back home, I ringed back home and narrated the whole trip story to mom. This was one of the most enjoyable trip after the Coorg one I went with Kanda and my Bro back in India.