Oh, Chicago.

Yeah, it was a bit different from Costa Rica.

Chicago was awesome. Chicago was incredible. Chicago was beautiful. Chicago was full of fun experiences. I loved Chicago.
There. That's my description of Chicago because I'm too lazy right now to come up with a more creative intro. Truth be told, I could live there. Actually, I desperately want to live there one day, which works out perfectly considering I never want to own a car or a house. I'm pretty sure the average Chicagoan does not own either. 
My flight arrived in O'Hare around 4:00 pm on Friday, and just as in any other major city, the traffic was horrible (on trains and on the interstate). I took the Blue Line from the airport to the Loop, and then transfered to the Brown Line, which I was supposed to take to Fullerton, get off, and walk a short distance to my hostel. This was great, except by the time I got off the Brown Line it was pouring down rain and dark and freezing cold and, of course, windy. On my walk to the hostel I took a few wrong turns, which wouldn't have felt life-threatening if it weren't for the rain and all the angry people sprinting by and my suitcase getting more soaked with water every second. But finally I made it to the hostel, checked in, and took a nice, warm, long, hot shower. 
I stayed at the Chicago Getaway Hostel and it was pretty impressive. The staff is super nice and friendly, the rates are reasonable, the location is great, and everything is kept immaculately clean. So if you're ever in Chicago and need a cheap place to stay, look them up. 
Saturday was a blast. I woke up, took a run around Lincoln Park, and went to the museum of Science and Industry. (Just a note: I love museums, and I have recently developed the obsession to read every poster in every exhibit. Lucky for you, I'm too lazy to document all my findings. This should keep my blog posts at a reasonable length.) I learned lots at that place. Did you know that happiness is 40-50% genetic? Or that everything in and on our planet either begins or ends in granular form? This is why the study of avalanches is so important. The MSI also has a baby chick hatchery where you can watch chicks hatch. And you can look at cloned mice. I also put my hand under this magnetic machine and saw the blood moving through the veins. Yeah, that was pretty cool. And I saw how robots make toys (I already knew how the robots worked, so the museum worker was a little embarassed when I informed him of their operations. He obviously did not learn the X, Y, Z coordinate planes in geometry.) I also watched a few silent films and watched an IMAX movie on the Hubble Spacecraft. I stood in the wind tunnels in the Space Storms exhibit. They weren't very interesting, considering they just messed up my hair. 
But the best part of the Museum of Science and Industry? The gift shop. Normally I hate gift shops, but this one had a special on very cool T-shirts. I got one that says PLUTO (and then it has a picture of Pluto), and has the years 1930-2006 listed. Below that it says, REVOLVE IN PEACE. Best shirt ever. And now I own one :)
Saturday evening was also quite marvelous. You see, I'm traveling on a budget, so I have to eat cheap. I set out in search of a cheap eatery on Clark St. after my museum adventures. I saw this enormous sign for OODLES OF NOODLES flashing around rapidly in many different colors. To me, that screams WE HAVE CHEAP FOOD! COME EAT NOW!, because nice restaurants don't have those signs. So I go to open the door. Except that there were two identical, unmarked doors beside each other. I tried the one on the left and opened it, assuming it was Oodles of Noodles. The place was packed, and as I made my way up to the counter to order I realized it was not at all a noodle shop, but rather a gourmet cupcake shop. 
I'm not talking about just pretty cupcakes (they had those, too), but I'm talking cupcakes filled with cheesecake and topped with blueberries. And peanut butter filled with Nutella. And chocolate filled with raspberries. And butterscotch filled with caramel. And they had one called Cookie Monster. And they had one called Tiramasu (but it was a cupcake). And many, many more. I felt like such a fat kid. But at $4 a cupcake I had to limit myself. I chose the peanut butter Nutella one, and it was the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. After I devoured the beautiful cake, I realized that I only had $6 left to spend on dinner. So, being the super smart person I am, I went across the street to the Supermarket and bought a pack of Ramen Noodles and a bag of pretzels. I got my cheap noodles after all! And my dinner only added up to $6, which goes to show that junk food is much, much cheaper. 
Sunday morning I took the train out to St. Charles, a suburb west of Chicago. The Awana Summit Convention (which I've attended for the past three years) was being held at a resort out there. This was my "senior year" (if you want to call it that), so I recieved my citation (like a diploma from Awana) at the big ceremony with two of my greatest friends, Toni Groff and Erin Giest. We were all in the same Awana program at Crab Creek Baptist Church when we lived in North Carolina, but over the years we have all moved up north; Toni to Minnesota, Erin to Iowa, and me to Maine. So needless to say, it was a lovely reunion.

Toni, Erin and I with our Citations!

Monday was pretty cool. I went to Millenium Park in the morning and the Field Museum in the afternoon. I was quite impressed with the Field Museum. They have a bunch of cool exhibits, like the one with hundreds of pairs of shoes from all over the world. And they have the largest, most complete skeleton of a T-rex named Sue. I watched a 3D movie about Sue, which was pretty cool. I'm not a huge fan of 3D movies (I think the last one I saw was SpyKids 3D), but this was neat, especially with the loud dinosaur roars. Sue was found in the Black Hills in South Dakota, and is named after her discoverer, Susan something-or-other. She suffered from diseases and from arthritis, but otherwise lived a good life. She was only found in 1990, so she hasn't been on display for very long. Sue also helped scientists discover that T-rexes had a wonderful sense of smell (so don't believe that scene in Jurassic Park where the T-rex is super close to the humans). 
They also have this special exhibit called The Horse. At first this didn't appeal to me since I hate horses. But the exhibit emphasized on horses' impact on civilization and animal domestication. Horses actually used to be smaller than dogs, with multiple toes instead of hooves. And horses originated in North America but migrated to Europe and finally died out in the Americas. That's why for centuries the only horses could be found in Europe. And wild Mustangs are actually escaped horses from settlers from way-back-when, just in case you were wondering. 

Sue's head.

After the Field Museum I took the Metra back out to St. Charles for the night. You see, the Summit Convention has many events: Citation ceremony, Bible Quiz, Fine Arts, Volleyball, and Awana Games. Normally I'm a participant in Fine Arts and Quizzing and Games, but this year I just tagged along for the Games with Flemings Chapel Baptist Church. I've played with them since my sophomore year (I'm surprised they always want me back) and it's always a blast. Last year we were 4th out of 30+ teams, and this year we were 6th out of 26 teams. But this year was better, because for the first time we beat our biggest rivals: Community Heights. Nothing else mattered when we beat them in the semi-finals. I'm pretty sure every one of us didn't care what happened next because, for the first time in what seems like a century, we beat Community Heights. Whoo hooo! (I completely understand that if you don't know what Summit is, you're probably very confused. That's okay, just play along.)
So Tuesday night I took the Metro back to the hostel in the city and made another journey to Molly's Cupcake shop. It was a wonderful night of relaxing and talking with other travelers at the hostel. Oh yeah, and packing. 
That brings us to Wednesday, my final day in Chicago. I was torn between two museums, the Museum of Surgical Science and the Adler Planetarium. I didn't have enough time to do both because they opened at 10 and my train left at 2 pm. So I did Eenie Meenie Miney Mo. And I chose the Museum of Surgical Science. It actually turned out to be awesome, especially if you like anatomy. They have lots of cool displays of all that anatomical stuff. It was bascially a refresher of everything I learned from my Anatomy class last summer, but since my class was online it was nice to see things in real life. And the museum was smaller, so there wasn't lots of pressure to whiz through and cover every topic. 
So basically, Chicago was incredible. The only things I didn't do were go to the Planetarium, the Navy Pier, or the Willis Tower, which is fine because now I have an excuse to go back. And maybe next time I'll go when it's a little warmer, like during baseball season so I can see my Cubbies torture their opponents for 9 innings :)