Don't you realize? Vienna waits for you.

So it’s been nearly 5 days since I first stepped foot off that train and into what would ultimately be the stage for my next/new but exciting/scary stage in life. I sometimes hate to get melodramatic about things (and have been characterized as so), but I must answer back with “with what authority do you have to judge my reactions? Are you out here where I am?”

guess this makes it official.

And so it’s not like I didn’t make the realization before, but I think it really started to hit me that I’m taking a radically different direction in life than I was, say, 2 months ago. February 4, 2009, I was knee deep in the grind of things, working a full-time job, living from paycheck to paycheck just to pay the bills and rent, and would spend my evenings watching re-runs of I Love Money and Scrubs over cooking whatever it was I was making for dinner, so I could eat, and browse some off-the-wall articles on digg and reddit before I would pour myself a glass of merlot to put myself to sleep, so I could wake up 6 hours later to start the process all over. April 4, 2009, I Love Money and merlot are still there, but at the very least I can say I’m doing it in a different part of the country.

But it’s definitely different here. No, I can’t say that. That simplifies it way too much. It would be immature and one-sided for me to say that this place is different in the sense that it’s just not California. Sure, the differences are obvious. The weather is colder, the transit is better, the bars are a little less posh and there just aren’t as many Asians, mind you. But like every other American city, and really, like any other city in the world, you’re gonna find that everyone has one thing in common: we all struggle. And we struggle to do the same thing. Everyone’s struggling to pay for something, no matter where you are. In Manila, you may be struggling to pay to feed your family, while in LA you’ll probably be struggling to pay off your BMW. The rat race is everywhere, to what extent and how intense is the biggest variable.

Let’s take into account something I noticed last night, as I spent my first Friday night here in the Windy City at a bar with a pool table and a bunch of 35+ folks. Was definitely not my scene. But why wasn’t it my scene? Well, yes, I was much younger than everyone else there, but it was a simple detail that I failed to notice at first: I’ve never played pool in a bar in Los Angeles, and I can’t recall ever seeing a pool table in a bar in Los Angeles in the first place. Now that may seem like a simple and minute detail. But my uncle made an interesting point when he mentioned that it seems in LA everyone’s too busy with trying to advance themselves that no one takes the time to slow down, have a beer, take off that tie and relax for goodness sake. There’s nothing wrong with trying to make money to make money to later squander it on your designer bag or your lease to your sports car, but there are a lot of other places where there’s less money circulating and the dollar is harder earned, and likewise, priorities are different. With that said, drop some quarters on the table and let’s play some pool.

I think what bothers me most at this moment is everything and everyone I left behind. Maybe I’m only saying or feeling this because I haven’t really met too many people out here yet (and really, it has only been 5 days), but coming home at night at around 9 with my family already asleep leaves something to be yearned for. No longer is there someone to see or hang out with a few blocks up the street, 10 minutes up 280, or even just in the apartment downstairs. And although the wonders of the internet (thank you twitter) have ensured that I will always know what everyone is doing at every single hour of the day, I think right now it’s not helping when I would much rather be at that LA pillow fight, at that Duke Ellington tribute concert, or even at that formal.

Eh. Can't dwell on that forever. Anyways, all that depressing prophetic philosophical shit aside, let’s get onto the interesting stuff: Chicago sightseeing!
Fortunate enough with a lot of time on my hands to explore this small town in the Midwest, I was able to take the time to take the train somewhere, get off randomly, and wander around aimlessly until I no longer had the motivation to. The skyline is beautiful and the architecture is amazing (and I like my architecture).





What does suck, however, is the lack of hills or mountains from which I would be able to get a higher vantage point of the city. The whole area is flat, and while that’s nice for walking or biking long distances, it sucks if you’re trying to look for a view similar to the one you would find from the Coit Tower, the Hayward Hills, or the Hollywood sign.

Of course, one of the first things I looked for was a place to finally get that coveted “Chicago-style” pizza (it’s just called pizza here though). Without any suggestions from anyone, I figured I would drop by the first place I saw as soon as I got hungry. Kinda ironic that the place where I get my first taste of Chicago-style pizza is a place called “Rosati’s Authentic Chicago California Style Deli ”

The pizza was…alright. This sausage deep dish variety was fairly dry, the crust was nothing to die for and the meat scarce. I suppose this is what I should expect for $4 at a fast food “California” grill. I’ve since gotten suggestions for better places to find pizza, even a place that will, for a fee, send a pizza via mail to an address of your choice (so I WILL be able to follow through on my promise to send everyone pizza!)

Wandering around further led me to the Lake Michigan waterfront, the closest thing to a beach I’ll find out here. But don’t get me wrong, it is definitely a nice waterfront. On good days, I hear you can even see across the whole great lake and even see the shore of Michigan. Michigan. Eh. Been there, seen that, not impressed.

But something that stuck out at Millennium Park on the lakefront was a large, metallic, kidney bean shaped structure that is so aptly named the “Cloud Gate.” Many, though, have already dubbed it the "Chicago Bean." Even the postcards refer to this sculpture as the bean. Inspired by liquid mercury, it is said to be shaped in the form of a gate to welcome visitors to walk through and under its mirror-like surface, which itself reflects the Chicago skyline.



But to me, it’s still just a fucking bean.

"...and we'd be like 'daddy, why do we keep cooking fresh chicken for dinner when we never go to the store? and why are there only 3 chickens in the back now?' "
-SM