A Thousand Words

A picture is worth a thousand words. This is approximately how much I would need to go back all the way through May and half a June. But because Clerg has documented it all in photos, here is a summary.

We have largely contributed to Chicago`s tourism industry. Here are our dear guests Andrea and Martin. They are a handsome couple, too.

This is on a very happy May 12, taken after 2 hours, 7 minutes and 8 seconds and 13,1 miles. Clerg hosted a brunch after the Chicago Spring Half Marathon.

Clerg`s visit to the White Sox game. I believe we won.

Soon it was the last day at the university. It is sad to think about leaving all those people who have become friends.  Here`s Benny.

The weekend of May 20-21 we spent in our apartment because the NATO summit was held in Chicago. On one side of the house, we had 300 policemen keeping an eye on the Millennium park, on the other men in black like in the photo, above, the air was full of helicopters and in front of the milk section in the supermarket next door there was a policeman carrying a huge gun standing there all day long. You could see he was freezing.

After this race, the Soldier Field 10 Mile, I finished the outdoor running season in Chicago. It was a big run finishing spectacularly on the 50-line in the middle of the stadium but it was very, very big, and I learnt that running with 15 000 others is not always fun. Now I am looking forward to meeting the trails in Zurich. 

It was so nice to have had almost all our family over and to have shared our big love Chicago with them.   I cannot even remember when I last spent so much quality time with my father.

Here it is us in New York! It was our first visit and we loved it. But we also love that we love Chicago more. More on NYC in another post, though. It does deserve more than just forty words.

Here he is, the proud LLM. The graduation on June 9 was a party for altogether 22 000 students and spectators, lasted five hours and was hot as hell but the pictures were really nice.

After the busy time in Chicago, the guests and the trips and the graduation we packed our bags and hit the road for three weeks. I cannot wait to show you the photos from Nevada, Utah and Arizona. 

Family Time

People do not need much to be really happy. I need my family and food. In the mornings perhaps in the opposite order. Last week was full of great meals, music, Chicago and most importantly, Mannu and emm. As my sister put it, we were like rich people - taking long walks in parks and the zoo before noon, starting cocktail hours due time and spending nights at concerts. Those were true treats - first Doris got us to the sold out Snow Patrol night, then on Sunday we had one of the greatest Beethoven concerts ever, performed by the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. We spent Monday night at a Wicker Park piano bar that regularly hosts open mic evenings but as it turned out, we were not only the only foreigners there but also the only outsiders to a group of about 20 people of different age, sexual orientation and vocal range, all differing to extremes. By the end of the night and when our tab was high enough (after all, we were the only ones who could order a beer, the rest were unemployed musical singers), Mannu received a warm applause and an invitation to come back from some of the eccentrics there. We had a wonderful time. 
Here is a photo reportage.

Chicago, Love of My Life Part I

Today we were going through the list of stuff we have so that we can sell it to anyone who takes over our apartment in August. It made me so sad. Chicago is the love of my life, and I love it the way it is. Chicago is not just what you see in postcards or even in this blog here, it is so many more indescribable things that really, you simply must come and live yourself to truly understand them. I am so happy that after three more times sleeping, M and Mannu are coming to do exactly that.

The following pix are the first part of a little tribute to some of the things I love about Chicago.

The arts. I love how Chicago-people can make art just about anywhere. Here a light installation at the Bean.

All the crazy people. Here represented by an old lady activist in the Old Town.

Shops you can buy anything from. Here is a stuffed something-something in Wrigleyville. Special greetings to Clava.

The sunsets. The Bulls. And the Blackhawks. In this photo, all at the same time in front of the United Center in Madison.

Colors of Chicago neighborhoods. And handsome Chicago gentlemen. Here murals of Wicker park.

Places you have to take the El, the elevated rail system that makes a big racket between streets and skies. After at least a half an hour ride to any direction, there is a whole new life waiting.

The skyline. Here pictured from the South, me and my love in Hyde park.

Spring in Chicago

In March, Miku was visiting but on our trip to Canada, Riin diagnosed him with a CRS syndrome*, so instead of his report, I am giving you a short overview of what has been going on.

Miku arrived with a hot summer breeze of +30 degrees in the middle of March that according to all scripts is more than unusual. First of all because it was March and secondly, because it was Chicago. Luckily, when Miku flew back to Europe, he took the weather back with him. I don`t like summer in the middle of winter season, so aitäh.

Together we all flew to Edmonton, Canada (for the money that could have taken all of us to Switzerland, Estonia and back). But it was worth every Canadian dollar. Edmonton that most only know by the ice-hockey team Oilers has been a home for Riin for some time now. Maybe because of her I got a somewhat biased picture but I felt great sympathy towards this vast, gray, industrial working class city. Mainly probably because Riin lives in a very cool historic neighborhood Old Strathcona where the food is simply amazing and where they have more bookstores on one street than in the whole Chicago and its suburbs.

After getting to know Riin`s lovely city and people, we took off for a road trip in the Canadian Rockies. The budget car rent had offered us a free upgrade to a huge family van that comfortably fitted all five of us and our egos.Escaping snow storms that had arrived in Edmonton due time we went from plus 30 in Chicago to minus 20 in Jasper national park. More impressive, however, was the change in landscape on an elevation around 1400 m.

Clerg drove us to Jasper, a small village full of hotels and restaurants, and tourist traps of all sorts but the first Italian (Greek-Slovak-Polish-Spanish?) diner filled our empty stomachs well. The next day Miku and Clerg and I took a tour around and got some other pleasant experiences - the post office there must be the nicest one in the whole North America and people in shops fill you up with all sorts of knowledge, who needs Lonely Planet anyway.

The next day mostly consisted of white mountain tops and many photo stops on the road. As I wrote on many of our postcards home, to the Engadine, the Rockies looked as if they were the grandmother of the Alps. Giant, and very quiet. Of course the latter was also because we were there in the middle of the seasons so that the skiers had left and hikers could not come yet.

After stopping at Lake Louise, sister to Lake St. Moritz, a wonderful dinner at a restaurant that used to be the local railway station we reached Banff, another town in the national park. No one believes me but I really saw a real deer snacking on some bushes in front of the high school there! On the road back to Edmonton we stopped at Calgary. For me, this is Canada - I guess my (very one-sided) picture of the whole country has always been a mixture of the 1988 Olympics and our great aunt Aino`s stories of her family. (As a side remark - in Edmonton we visited the Alberta`s Estonian Heritage exhibition and learnt that hundreds of Estonians settled in the area in the 19th and 20th century)
This trip was only some weeks ago and now it seems like a dream far away. In Chicago it`s spring. This time the real thing - with flowers, blooming trees, fresh smelling air and light, crispy evenings. Like the whole city is your friend.
*CRS - can`t remember shit

So, Chicago. Jessy`s Review.

When people asked me how Chicago was, they were met with a grin spread across my face and a report of the amazing shopping, the interesting people watching, the beautiful weather, the fantastic exhibits at the art gallery, the unbelievable heights the basketball players reached with their jumps, the strangeness of "the bean", the delicious food, the amount of walking I managed to exhaust Andreas with, all of the running Andreas and Katrina managed over a week, the CUTE LITTLE ANIMALS AT THE ZOOOOO, and of course the wonderful planning and the great time we had with our lovely family, Chris and Katz!

We arrived in Chicago to beautiful smiling faces, a bit of a scary taxi drive, and a shocking -3 degrees; which after leaving the blazing sunshine in Zurich, was quite the shock!After bundling up and Chris and Katz took us on a lovely walk around a little part of Chicago, not missing "the bean" which is probably the most famous landmark in Chicago...obviously the picture taking began here! It really is quite a cool structure, and who really cares if it broke the estimated cost of $6 million by almost $17 million(!) It looks awesome!

If you're planning on visiting Chicago, take your walking shoes; not only is the city made for exploring by foot, the shops down "magnificant mile" alone will take you hours to walk through and peruse! I'd also advise to taking an empty suitcase, if you're anything like Andreas or I the amount of things you'll want to buy will make up for leaving everything at home! On Sunday Katz took us around Chicago's shopping highlights...my goodness! Needless to say we returned every day throughout the week to get "one last little thing" from our favourite shops!

It was a good job I walked and Andreas ran so much as the food was great. Of course we had the famous deep dish pizza, which has not been overrated! (take my advice, and don't eat anything for at least 5 hours before this! And please, please, don't forget your ID for beers unless your boyfriend is a superstar and will run back to the house and get it for you!) Mexican food, hot-dogs, sushi (not Anti...are you kidding?!), Ralph Lauren food, big America breakfasts., AMAZING mini-burgers..etc. But we also ate like kings in the house, with the Team making delicious breakfasts of pancakes, crepes, eggs, home made bread, fruit salad..and lots of other yummies. Not to mention the expertly made chilli and lasagna. If Katz wasn't doing so much running, I'm pretty sure she'd be the size of a house by now! Speaking of running, over the course of a week Andreas and Katz ran a total of 42km, with a nine mile (14.5k) run in just over an hour and a half on the last day to end the week in style. Such a great achievement!

We had a couple of great trips, we went to the zoo, the very very impressive art gallery, which alone was worth the nine hour flight, a cute little Swedish place for breakfast, the beach for a few minutes (far too windy to stay!), some really high building for awesome burgers and a equally awesome view of Chicago and Michigan Lake, but by far the highlight of the trips was our trip to watch the basketball. I'll leave this part to Andreas...

And that's our trip! I think that we managed to sucessfully complete 3 week worth of activity into 1 week thanks to the planning, and had the best time!
Thank you so much!

Chicago Goes Green on St. Patrick`s Day

It`s Spring, It`s Summer, It`s Busy

I have been feeling really guilty the past days for not blogging anything. Actually it is not totally my fault, because Jessy`s entry should be here to report on our wonderful week together with Anti and her. So I hope she will feel guilty, too, and send me this piece of writing. Here is a teaser:

Meanwhile, let me give you a quick update on how the things are in South Water Street, Chicago. It is warm outside, so warm that the spring seems to have skipped and we are in the middle of summer here. It was 28 degrees yesterday and the forecast does not promise anything much below that for the coming week. I am not a big fan of summer, I like spring, but I guess it is fair to say that this year`s winter in Chicago - the warmest in like the last hundred years - has already served as spring. We have been busy - Clerg had his second set of exams and is now on holidays but took a part-time position as my editor-in-chief. I can slowly see the light at the end of the tunnel with my thesis and this means there is a lot of text to be read and criticized and he is doing a great job there. But good times are coming, too - today we picked up the long lost son Miku at the airport and after the upcoming wild St. Patricks Day in Chicago together, we are to have a re-union with Riin and O`Neal in Edmonton and a road trip in the Banff area national parks. This is also the reason we have not yet been able to pack our winter stuff, we are expecting a serious fallback to minus degrees. I promise to keep you updated with the green Chicago river tomorrow and of course inevitably, pics from my St. Patrick Day Race I will be running on Sunday.