CHICAGO

I was so frickin TIRED!

Okay, so on Friday, I could actually kinda sleep in a little. After I had had breakfast, Yuki from Japan and Liise from Estonia, two other exchange students (Yuki goes to L'Anse Creuse North and Liise goes to Henry Ford II in Macomb) arrived because Sheila was going to take all of us to the bus stop in Ypsilanti. We left around 10 and arrived there a little early, but some other exchange students and two of the chaperones were already there. So we checked in, Sheila left after a while, then the bus arrived and we took off for Chicago.
Most of the exchange students on the trip were German or Asian (the Asian people were from Japan, China, Thailand and South Korea), but there were also some students from Skandinavia (Sweden, Finland and I think even someone from Denmark) and well, Liise as the only Baltic student. Oh, and there were a couple girls and guys from South America... from Chile and Mexico. They were fun, but they spoke Spanish almost all the time which was kinda annoying.
When we arrived in Chicago in the afternoon, we went to the Christkindlmarket first. It's like one of those German christmas markets, it was funny to see that... but everything's way too expensive, exspecially the food (they had German chocolate, marzipan potatoes, gingerbread hearts,...). We also had time to go shopping. I went with Liise and Ai (South Korea I think) but I didn't buy anything because the stores in that area were pretty expensive.
We met back at the bus and went to Navy Pier next. It was so beautiful in the dark because it was decorated for christmas. I love that place. We had dinner at Bubba Gump which is this really cool place that is kinda connected to the movie "Forrest Gump". They had stuff that's in the movie all over the walls and on the tables, they had this metal signs that said "Run, Forrest, run" and if you wanted something, you would flip them around to "Stop, Forrest, stop" and one of the waiters would stop by. We could choose from chicken sticks, chicken salad, veggie pasta, something else that I don't remember and fried shrimp, all of that served with fries, dips and some salad. I got the shrimp, it was really yummy :)
After dinner, we had some free time at Navy Pier and I went shopping for souveniers with Liise. I also found some christmas presents already ;)
Later, the bus picked us up again and we went to the hotel (Springhill Suites by Marriott) which was about a 20 minutes drive away from the city's center.
The hotel was awesome. I shared a room with the two Japanese exchange students Midori and Moyu. We had two huge beds like in the hotel in Washington (I shared one with Moyu) but our room was bigger than the rooms in Washington. We even had a little kitchen area! Of course, we didn't really need any of those extras for only 2 nights, but, oh well, a little luxury is nice. The hotel also had a little pool but I never used it... I don't know, I don't really feel like swimming when it's freezing, raining and snowing outside :D
The next morning, we left at 9 after having breakfast in the hotel lobby (their breakfast was good... it was kind of buffett like, and they had many different things... fruit, cereals, bagels, waffels...).
First, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was cool to go there again... I remembered the fun time we had in there years ago when I got lost with Lisa. This time though, I didn't get lost ;) since we only had about an hour to walk around in the (huge!) museum on our own, Liise, Soo-Jin, Jinny and I didn't go to far away from the entrance area. In this area, they had a special christmas exhibit: Christmas trees from all over the world! We found the South Korean one for Soo-Jin and Jinny, the Estonian one for Liise and the German one for me and took pictures in front of them. However, the German christmas tree didn't look too German to me...
We also went to some kind of cookie baking show... not because we wanted to see how to make cookies from all over the world but for the free cookies xD (they were good)
Then, we met in the entrance area with the whole group again and we visited the special Star Wars exhibit that's there at the moment. It wasn't as cool as I thought it would be... they had costumes and other stuff from the movies in big glas cubes, but that was pretty much it.
When we left the museum, it had started snowing. When the bus took off, there was already some snow on the ground and it was getting more and more. It was so pretty! We rode around on the campus of the University of Chicago and our tour guide told us some interesting facts about it. That university is amazing... the campus is so beautiful, the houses are built in a rather old style and it is close to the lake as well as to the city's center. The tour guide (she was German, by the way, and her accent was HORRIBLE!) said that it's a very expensive university but that they give scholarships to very bright people. Of course, that made me curious... :P I mean, even if it's that hard to get a scholarship... you can always try! She also told us that the university is a very well protected university. Not only the usual Chicago police cares for the students' safety there, but also a special University of Chicago police. That's because it's so expensive, and the area is so expensive to live in, so the people that live on the campus are rather wealthy.
I don't know if that university has a good engineering departement, though. I'm gonna find out about that.
Next, we went back to the city's center for lunch. The bus dropped us up in an area where there was the Hard Rock Cafe Chicago, a Mc Donald's, a hot dog and other stuff like that place and something called the Rainforest Cafe, so we could choose were to go. Since I didn't want to pay that much money for food but I also didn't feel like going to Mc Donald's, I went to that hot dog place with some people. That place was so cool... inside, it looked like an old, dim street in the West with two big food stands on the side of the street. The tables and chairs were on the "street", and the "food stands" were the counters where you could order your food. Above those foodstands, there was even a facade with windows and clotheslines hanging around. I got some really good spaghetti for lunch, I was hungry since I hadn't really eaten much for breakfast.
After eating, we still had enough time to go over to the Hard Rock Cafe. This place is just sooo cool. Of course, I bought a Hard Rock Cafe shirt (you can't go to a Hard Rock Cafe without buying a shirt!).
When the bus had picked us up again, we went to Michigan Avenue for - shopping! We had a couple hours to experience this amazing shopping street with all it's malls and huge stores - everything from incredibly expensive to rather cheap. Unfortunately, the snow had turned into a slight rain and it was very windy between the skyscrapers, but it was still fun. I got a really cute scarf at H&M (it's creamy white with tiny golden stripes and goes perfectly with my coat), we went to Starbucks for some really good speciality coffee (I had a caramel macchiato), I got 2 pairs of original Levi's pants (we just went into the Levi's store to look at the stuff, I mean, it was incredibly expensive... but then I found those cord pants in a corner and they were on sale - they had dropped the prize from 70$ to 9.90$! So I got a creamy white and a grey pair - 2 pairs of LEVI'S!! jeans for less than 20 bucks... awesome deal I guess!) and I got some more little souveniers at Wallgreens.
Everyone was pretty exhausted from the long day, the weather and the shopping when we got back on the bus around 8 or 8.30. We went back to the hotel and had pizza and salad for dinner which the chaperones had ordered. After dinner, I talked to Midori in our room for a while, then we went down to the lobby to play cardgames and soon, many other exchange students had joined us. It was so much fun, and we played until we had to be in our rooms at midnight.
Unfortunately, Midori and Moyu decided to talk Japanese when we got back to our room, that was kind of stupid because of course, I couldn't understand a word. But around 1, I went to bed anyways.
After breakfast the next morning, we had to leave our hotel rooms and get our luggage on the bus already. Then, we went back to the city to go straight to the Sears Tower. It was still raining a little (sometimes a little more) but that was alright since the bus dropped us off right in front of the tower. Just like 2 years ago, I watched the movie about the construction of the Sears Tower and then went up to the 103rd floor by high speed elevator. It was amazing to be up there again although this time, we didn't have such a good weather... it was really misty and foggy outside. I took a lot of pictures anyways.
When we left the Sears Tower, we headed out for Chinatown. To keep up with our schedule, we only had an hour there so we didn't really see much of it. With Liise, Peggy, Soo-Jin, Jinny and other - I think all Asian - exchange students I went to a Chinese supermarket. They had all kind of Asian food there and I got some Japanese rice crackers. They are really good... kind of sweet and salty and ricy at the same time.
Then, I went to a really cool Chinese restaurant with Liise. It was very modern-looking and bright. Since we weren't hungry yet, but had to get some lunch for the long ride, we got some Chinese food to go (I got some spring rolls... love those). We also met the South American people in there.
On our way back to the bus, we stopped at some little stores - they had really cute, but expensive purses; Chinese looking ones as well as brand name ones - and took pictures of the gate that leads to the old and historical part of Chicago's Chinatown. But then we went back to the bus really quick because this scary homeless guy came over and started talking to us and begging us for money for a bottle of water and he wouldn't leave us alone... fortunately, the bus was parked only one street corner way and so the chaperones helped us to get rid of that guy when we got their. I mean, I did feel sorry for him, I feel sorry for every homeless person, but he really got pushy.
The ride back was ridiculous.
About an hour after we had left Chicago, we hadn't even reached the first bus stop - Paw Paw - yet, our bus broke down (something was wrong with the brakes) and we got stuck in the middle of nowhere at the roadside in Indiana. They told us the bus would either be repaired or there would be a replacement bus in 1 up to 4 hours. It got really hot in the bus after a while without the A/C, then the bus driver told us we could just open the emergeny exits for some fresh air, so after a while, it got really cold, we closed them, and it got hot again...
It took more than 4 hours until the replacement bus finally arrived. I think we were stuck there for over 5 hours actually. At some point, the chaperones decided to order pizza and have it delivered to a gas station we had passed about 1 or 2 miles before we had gotten stuck, and so some of the chaperones took the people who needed to go to the bathroom the worst and walked back to the gasstation with them. When they finally got back with pizza and pop, we had a kinda weird dinner on our stuck bus and then we waited a couple more hours.
When I finally got home 7 hours late (Yuki's hostmom gave me a ride home because that's what we had planned anyways), it was 2 in the morning. I went to bed immediately after setting my alarm and deciding that if I could somehow get up the next morning, I would go to school, and if not, who cares.
I actually was able to get up after about 2.5 hours of sleep, don't ask me how. Sheila was shocked, she said I should stay home ^^ but I had already taken my shower and was getting ready, so it didn't really matter. I made it through the day with coffee, coke and caffeine mints and that was alright. Last night, we decorated our big christmas tree that we got on Thursday... it is so pretty! It's decorated mainly in white and silver.
The prize for ignoring my tired body yesterday was that I overslept today. So did Courtney, and we ended up missing the bus so Sheila had to take us. But we weren't late for first hour, so it was alright.

I'm still uploading the pictures, it's taking forever. If I get that done tonight, I'll put them on here, if not, you'll probably get them tomorrow.