Last night I got back from my 2-day excursion to Chicago. It was a blast. Emily's parents dropped us off at our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn, and then went to Schaumberg, IL to do their own stuff. The hotel we stayed at was nice, but the best part about it was how close it was to Michigan Ave. I don't think I've ever walked down Michigan Avenue, so that was a lot of fun. What I find most fascinating about the city is all the interesting people. Just walking dowtown we saw people playing instruments for money and handing out political pamphlets. we even saw this girl who stood up on a platform, dressed in a victorian outfit, and froze perfectly still in these poses. Her eyes were fixed, even with all the people going by. I don't know how she did it! As part of our agreement, Emily and I compromised on what we'd do. She wanted to shop, and i wanted to do something cultural, so...we spent the morning shopping at stores like H&M (I ended up buying some graduation clothes there) and in the afternoon we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Even though I'm terrible at interpretting art and getting what the artist is trying to say, it was interesting to see all these modern art works. One display that was revolting, though, was a video clip of this woman giving head to her big toe. Is that gross or what? On the same wall, there was also a picture of a woman with a bush...and a dick! Excuse me while I puke. Some of the better displays, however, were the photography (they had a series of pictures of girls at the big 10 colleges wearing ski masks and holding books), some scultpures, and a really awesome old-style silent documentary on the murder of the royal Czar family during the Russian Revolution. I liked the contrast between the narrative words and the silence (except for the sound of the film rolling). It made the film more dramatic. Anyways, we ended up going to lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. That pizza was alright, but it wasn't like the stuff I had at Giordano's about two months ago. We ended up going back to the hotel and getting ready to go clubbing. We called a few places, but everywhere we found was for 21 & up, so we decided to ask someone at the "speciality shop" we were headed to. Emily said the website said it was by Loyola Unviersity, so we rode the "el" to the Loyola stop only to find out that we were VERY far from the store we were looking for. We walked a long way down N. Sheridan just to find the place, which we did. That was interesting. When we were checking out, emily asked the cashier if she knew of any night clubs for 18 & up. The cashier said "are you looking for gay or straight?" and emily responded "straight, preferrably," trying not to be rude...but I thought it was funny. When we got out of there, we took the easy way and instead of backtracking to the Loyola stop, we found the nearest "el" station, and rode back to Michigan Ave. We decided to go to Ghierdeli's (can't spell it, but they're famous for their chocolate) for some ice cream. It was the most expensive ice cream Ive ever had, but definitely good. When we got back to the hotel we aksed the front desk if there was anything going on at night that we could do. She was going to tell us some places, but when we interrupted her to tell her we were only 18, she stopped herself to tell us there was really nowhere we could go except to Navy Pier to watch the fireworks. Emily and I decided that fireworks can be overrated, so we decided to wander around downtown some more. We took the "el" to the Washington Street exit, but most of it was businesses and shopping, so the place was pretty much deserted. By that time we were hungry because we never ate dinner, so we decided to go to walgreens to pick up some snacks and go back to the hotel. It was past midnight by this time anyways. The next morning we got up and went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast only to find out that the continental breakfast was $10. We decided to hit up the Rock-n-Roll Micky D's instead. The Hard Rock cafe was across the street, so we stopped by the pick up emily's dad a t-shirt. Then we headed back to the hotel to check out, and went back to Michigan Ave to shop some more (well, mostly I watched emily shop). We had to be back at the hotel at 3:00 to meet her parents and leave, but when we were coming back from the water tower place, I saw Mrs. Alexander, her husband, Anne, and Anne's parents! It was so strange to see someone I knew from Muskegon in Chicago, but it was awesome. We told them that we had to go catch our ride and pointed them to the H&M store. When we were a block from the hotel, emily's mom called to ask where we were. We got there and I explained that it was my fault we were held up, but then she said that her and henrick didn't even get there until a quarter after three. Anyways, the weather was cleared up by this time (it had been raining REALLY heavily earlier) and emily's mom wanted to do some shopping. We had an extra hour and a half, so emily and I walked down Michigan Ave, crossed the river, wandered around some side streets, came back to Michigan Ave, stopped at the apple store (where I decided that I want to buy an ipod for college) and went back and waited at the hotel. Overall, I'd say that Chicago was once again a blast, even though emily and I coudln't find anything to do at night. I can't believe that chicago teens don't have a night life of their own! Well, we did hear that there was a club somewhere in the suburbs, but they should have more stuff for teens downtown. Unless you have tickets to a show or some other plans, the only thing to do in chicago (if you're under 21 and don't have a fake ID) is to shop and eat. Hopefully, once I start college there and become situated, I'll find some more stuff to do.

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