Big Chicago New Year`s Eve Party

We thought we were going to keep it low this year, maybe have dinner just two of us, or perhaps do something with Giulietta and Adrian from the neighboring house. Turns out, we are going to have some sixteen people over for a dinner party with a dress code. Must find some 2012 decorations tomorrow for this one. So have a wonderful New Year`s Eve, everyone, head vana aasta löppu ja merci viu mau for the wonderful 2011. See you next year, then.

Christmas at Home

Christmas is over and it was a fine Christmas, too. When on the 23rd I got a bit nervous about finding a tree, because the few places I had had in mind had closed already for holidays by Friday afternoon, Clerg was so kind to even rent a car and take us to a ride around Chicago neighborhoods in search of a Christmas tree. Luckily, already the first corner we stopped at there was a perfect little tree waiting for us. I decorated him with the Maui leias (the flowers they carry around their necks, traditionally) and Christmas lights I always have at home.

After cooking the whole day - meatloaf and mashed sweet potatoes and lots of good wine - we went to pay what Reverend John Buchanan called a compulsory visit to the Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue. I had read in the reviews (there are reviews for anything online nowadays) that this church was definitely to see and to be seen and it suited this one to a T. The church was packed with families, one better off than the other, ladies wearing diamonds, pearls and Prada fur and the youth was as if stepped down from a Tommy Hilfiger ad.

We were a half an hour early but still about the last ones to get a seat in the side hall of the church where about five hundred people could participate in the sermon through a screen. However, when so many people are singing together, and this is what a Christmas Eve service usually is in any Christian church, it sounds really great and we did get our Christmas feeling, and happily walked back humming Joy to the World. At home our tree was waiting with wonderful presents and according to the Estonian tradition, we finished the Christmas Eve off with Die Hard I.

Merry Christmas! We Are Back From Maui.

We are back from Maui, Hawaii, and chilling shamelessly in christmasy Chicago. Yesterday, we saw Nutcracker in The Joffrey Ballet and despite the popcorn they sell and eat in the gigantic and very elegant Auditorium, the show was absolutely wonderful.

But here are some a bit different kind of Christmas memories to share. Merry Christmas everyone!

This was what expected us after nine hours of flying to Maui. We barely managed to take these pictures and then dropped to bed. The time difference, however, made even me to wake up sevenish the whole week so we could enjoy the light of long days on the island.

The climate in the fiftieth state of the USA is perfect. It is not often that random raindrops fall from what seems to be a blue sky. This means rainbows are a very usual vision. We saw at least five, here is one.

The Pacific is not always calm, but the bay we were at, usually is. It was funny how it almost sounded the same early in the morning as the Lake Shore Drive at home.

The next day we took our rental to a small tour in the neighborhood. The street signs in Hawaiian seem like a drunken Finn has named them after arriving at Tallinn Port on a cruise ship. Not only because of that I felt quite at home on the little green island.

Surely, the Iao state park and the Iao Needle, Kukaemoku in Hawaiian, on the far left here really reminded us of the second home, the Engadine. Everything grows so well in the friendly climate, humidity and the volcanic ground that the greens occasionally seemed out of the Jurassic Park.

There are several little towns and villages on the island, neatly located around the coastline. One of our favorites was Lahaina, touristic as hell but cute, and with some Käsmu meets St. Moritz but friendly kind of flair to it.

Judging based on what one sees in those towns the locals prefer big cars. Mostly beasts that look like this one here.

Also it sticks out that there is a large choice of religious congregations to choose from. From what Google offers one can understand that before the missionaries arrived from the mainland with Christianity in the 19th century, the Hawaiians mythology, gods and legends had been more nature-oriented. (Told you I felt like at home in many ways.)

In modern days, the Bible is taught online, or, alternatively, from the front windows, as here in Lahaina main street.

We switched between pool and driving, so the next trip took us to the Haleakala volcano crater and national park. The blue sky could only be seen in the side window here and...

... the only thing we saw up there on 3055 meters above see level was each other and Clerg was disappointed, we decided to come back later and change the route for the day.

So we set off to explore the Hana Highway that our map guide promised to be a spectacular ride. And it was - 50 km and 620 curves. It took us 3 hours to drive it.

The West coast of Maui was much rougher than what we had seen before. The nature was bigger and somehow angrier, the plants seemed poisonous altogether. This is where the dangerous scenes of the Jurassic Park would be shot.

The rocks and sand on the seaside are black because they are volcanic. When we finally reached Hana, a quiet little dark town we had a quick burger in the local sports bar and headed back the same curves. By the end of the road I felt sick like a dog.

The next day we laid low at the pool on lounge chairs and enjoyed the sunset. You can take millions of photos like this and I believe Clerg did, too, and still almost not believe them yourself.

The second attempt to conquer the Haleakala was already much more successful. At the entrance sign even a Nene, the Hawaiian national goose came to welcome us back.

The colors and contrasts were truly breathtaking and Clerg was happily hopping from one trail to another with his lenses.

The Hawaiian islands are the most remote island group on Earth. This means that the nature there is unique and stayed far away from the developments of the mainland. The islands are still trying to protect the species that only live there and this is why we sacrificed a suitcase lock to the local Agricultural Inspection who apparently opens all luggage in search of fresh fruit or plants that could endanger the local species.

The darling below is a plant called Silver Sword. It can live up to 50 years and only blossoms once in its lifetime, and dies thereafter.

Haleakala is still considered a sacred place, a wilderness of the gods, and it is easily understandable why. According to the legend, the Maui God had fished the island from the ocean. On the numerous information boards one gets a much more professional geological explanation but to sum up, those holes in the crater are not the directly from the volcano but the result of the erosion. The mountain used to be hundreds of meters higher.

Like every other place that can be found in tourist guides and lives off the money that the tourists bring there, Haleakala is not an exception. Buses of Japanese are driven up there and Clerg is nothing against their photographing volume. Here we are posing to one who wanted to photograph us.

Happy that we could see it all we drove down and even if I was sick again it was a fair price to pay for all this beauty. The curves took us to Paia, a little town that seems to be a surfers` paradise.

Think about it - the weather is constant the whole year around and you do not really need to do much to be warm or have a full stomach. What a life.

We sat on the beach for some time and another film came to my mind, the Beach, you know, the one with Leonardo di Caprio. Everything looks like a movie.

The week was over so soon. We packed the cocoa and mango soaps that the cleaning lady had provided us very generously with and said mahalo, thank you, to the wonderful Maui.

The flight back from the Kahului airport was so much more conveniently an overnight one so I cannot say I remember much of it. The Christmas decorations from Maui are like in a weird dream - even if everything is a bit surreal, it actually makes sense in the end.

Tomorrow we are hunting down a Christmas tree in Chicago.

One Day in Chicago Lakeshore Through our Windows

We are both stuck at home now. Clerg has no lectures and is studying in the living room. He is more of an early bird waking up to be able to take some pictures of the beautiful sunsets on Lake Michigan from our living room / kitchen windows.

I am a night owl, working until well after midnight and up only when the day has already begun long ago. Sometimes the lake is really angry.

And sometimes the sun pushes through and

sometimes its really clear.

Even as up as the 21st floor, there is quite a lot of traffic around. Here is a helicopter. They are noisy.

And here is ... a plane?

This is one of the Chicago Fire Departement trucks out of like ten that attended the flood in the neighboring house one afternoon.

And here is a neighbor who is getting ready for the holiday season.

This is what it looks like the last ten minutes of sun from our office / guest room window.

And this is what it looks like after around four thirty in the afternoon.

This is when its full moon from the bedroom.

And this is when a car thief is hunted down by the police at midnight. Straight into the wall of the same neighboring house with the flood earlier the same day.

And this is what it looked like an hour after that, everyone was there and we got free first row seats in our living room.

This morning it was all quiet again with the first snow. We are off to Maui in three days - the next views will certainly follow from there.

The American Grittibänz (To Be Pronounced with the Respective Accent)

Happy Samichlaus Day to all the Swiss. We made some Grittibänz celebrating the 6th of December today. Otherwise, we live a very low life. Clerg is writing his first exam tomorrow and has been working hard on his books. I have pretty much closed myself into the guest room where I am transcribing one interview after the other. It is the most boring work on earth and heating only with the air conditioning is so annoying. The only thing that lit my spirit today though was the thought of only five days - this means five interviews - until our Christmas break in Hawai. And the Grittibänz below.