All kinds of STUPID

So, Judith and I managed to have our big movies, pizza and drinks night on Saturday because her host mum was out of town and we were both free for once.

Here's where the "all kinds of stupid" part comes in.

We go to the supermarket to buy some alcohol, and because Judith's only 19, I buy it, obviously. Judith was just standing near the door waiting. So they ask to see my ID, then ASK TO SEE JUDITH'S!!! They refused to sell it to us because she didn't have her ID on her. I was just laughing in a "what a stupid country" type of way and we went to find a liquor store. But, I mean REALLY! I've gone shopping for alcohol back home and haven't had everyone with me questioned for their ID. It's bad enough that you have to be 21 here to drink, but to refuse to sell me alcohol because someone with me is under 21?? What if that was my sister and I was just hanging out with her? Sure, she's blonde and German - don't judge my family!!!

So yes, that was Saturday night. Saturday day was Jack's First Communion and John's family flew in from Pittsburgh and Frances' mum came down from Wisconsin. It was fun. Those of you I sent photos to, sorry about the size. I was just going to send them to Frances and John so they could print them (and that's the size the camera takes them at) so I thought I've loaded these buggers up, why don't I just add more email addresses. So I did. =)

I can DIE now!

Or, at least I can on Thursday after 12!

I JUST GOT TICKETS TO A TAPING OF OPRAH!!!!

*swoons*

Yes, that's right. After 11 months of trying, it's finally happened!

And to think, I was *this* close to giving up! But I didn't, and Oprah didn't fail me.

Now I'll be struck by lightning or something crap.

Art Institute of Chicago

Each museum has a day where entry is free, so Tuesday I went to the Art Institute. I don't know why I've waited so long! It was just fantastic.


I was lucky because they have an exhibit that ends in a week or two called "Chezzane to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde" so I was able to see that, and it was lovely.


Mostly I was just shocked that they have so many famous artworks in that gallery! I'm just going to post photos of my favourite paintings, and some that I just took because they're famous.

Monet:

American Gothic, Grant Wood:






Georgia O'Keefe:



Two Sisters (on the terrace), Renoir:




Here's some that I've forgotten the names of and their artists (I've got it all written down somewhere). I just really liked them:

Getting there....

I've been terribly lazy of late for no real particular reason, other than the fact that I procrastinated with the NY post which has just put me far behind, which makes it difficult to catch up... especially when you don't write ANYTHING! =)

I'll just talk about last week.

Last Sunday, 15th April, the weather was BEAUTIFUL! It really was perfect, especially since it was still quite chilly the week before. So a few of the girls and I went downtown to take advantage of the weather. We had no idea what to do, so Vera had the idea that we should go to the cultural centre and see if we could get a tour with one of the Chicago Greeters. I had never heard of this, so I was really excited. Let me just tell you, even if we had had to pay for the tour, it would still have been excellent value for money!

Our greeter was lovely and took us on an hour-long tour of the Loop, starting with the Cultural Center itself.

Not the world's best picture, but this is the Tiffany domed roof of the cultural centre. It's so exquisite!

Here is the view of Millenium park from inside the centre.

Here's us girls on State Street, that Great Street (Frank Sinatra, anyone?). All over Chicago, for Spring, there's tulips, which is MY FAVOURITE FLOWER. =) If the gorgeous weather weren't enough to make me happy, that would have pushed me way over the edge! L-R: Me, Miriam and Vera.

Our greeter took us on a tour of the famous artworks and sculptures in the Loop. This mosaic's by Chagall, titled 4 Seasons:

This is "Untitled" by Picasso, and everyone just refers to it as "The Picasso":

Apparently it's supposed to be of his second wife. If my husband made me this and said it was me, I'd be feeling a little insecure about my appearance. That is, until our guide showed us a different angle:

I would never have noticed this profile if it weren't for our wonderful guide!

Here's another sculpture across the road from The Picasso, but I forgot who made it:

After that, we went and got some free Garrett's popcorn after getting a voucher from our guide (it's way famous and very popular, especially after being named as one of Oprah's favourite things), and then went to hang out at the beach for awhile. It was really just the perfect Sunday!

My birthday

Sorry this post is so late - there's just been a whole lot of drama lately.

So here is the birthday post. I can honestly say this was the best birthday I've had in 6 years. Perhaps even more. It was just great.

EXCEPT THAT I WOKE UP AND IT WAS EFFING SNOWING!!! WTF???????? I've said it before and I'll say it again, whichever gods are up there, EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM HATES ME.

Anyway, for my birthday we went to Medieval Times, somewhere I'd wanted to go ever since I saw the Cable Guy. Basically it's this big arena with a jousting performance in the middle. I thought it would just be that, but they have this whole story with a king and princess and wizard and bad-guy and all these knights competing to win. It's all pre-planned and incredibly well rehearsed. The winner is based on whose side cheers loudest. There are 6 knights and as you walk in you're given a paper crown with the colours of the knight that your section will be cheering for. We were cheering on the black and white knight.

They give you food to feast on while the knights are jousting and you eat it the way they ate it back in those days - with your hands. Too much fun.

So our knight didn't win, the yellow knight did, which was obvious from the start because their side cheered loudest cos it was a school group of teenagers. Don't worry though, our family did our knight proud. My voice was so hoarse by the end of the night. =)

I figure the best way to explain everything is just to put some pictures up and let you see for yourselves.


The procession of the knights.


Cheers!


Our b&w knight.


Judith and I striking a pose.


Part of the theatrics.


It's called a lance. Hello!


Go Black and White Knight!!!


More theatrics.


Mmmm... chicken! I wanted to pull the skin off and do a Jim Carry from The Cable Guy and say "silence.... of the laaaaambs", but I knew no one else would get it, and you guys probably don't either. =)


The hand-to-hand combat was so well choreographed! It was so much fun to watch.


Judith and I lookin' pretty.


My knight in shining armour..... that he took off and substituted for a dress.

So yes. Awesome night. I thought that was my present, and I was so grateful because it was expensive and they also let me take Judith along, but then on Saturday night we had a cake and they gave me some really good gifts. I was so surprised! It was an awesome birthday.

Drama last week was that one of the old au pairs emailed Frances to say they're sorry about hearing that she and John were getting divorced. So of course Frances went off at me, and all I could do was apologise. Meanwhile, I really do feel like I did nothing wrong. BACK IN JANUARY I had emailed Nicole, the previous au pair, asking for advice because John told me that they were getting divorced. She told this other au pair, Tina, and TINA WAITED 3 MONTHS to contact Frances about it. Bloody hell. Firstly, why would she wait that long to say anything, and secondly, why would she ask about it BEFORE THE PARTIES INVOLVED EVEN TOLD PEOPLE??????????? Hello?? It's called tact. Even if you heard about it, you wait until you're told by the people themselves. I know it might seem silly that I don't think I did anything wrong, but Frances doesn't know that John told me that they were splitting up, and I thought I'd better not get him in even more trouble, so I just said I noticed the tension and sought Nicole's advice on what I should do because I was worried about them breaking up when I'd only just gone through this with my parents.

I think things are OK now, or at least, Frances is acting like it's OK. I really don't care anymore. The day she received that email was the day I found out that my grandpa is in hospital very sick. I think my rock beats her scissors.

The Concert

So the Sunday I arrived home from New York I was due to drive Judith, Natalia and Andrea up to Milwaukee to go see a concert. Matt Kearney was headlining, but it was also featuring Rocco Delucca and the Burden, and The Feeling. I had no idea who Rocco Delucca and the Burden were, but I was obsessed with a few Matt Kearney and The Feeling songs so I had to go.

By the time I picked up the girls, my 2 hours' sleep wasn't an issue because I was at that point where you're beyond tired and have way too much energy and enthusiasm.

First thing we did when we got there was go to this pub called Moe's and eat some food (I was positively starving, because all I'd eaten all day was a cupcake from Magnolia's Bakery). Here's all us girls at the pub:

L-R: Andrea, Judith, Natalia and I.

The concert was great! Rocco Delucca and his band kicked it off, and even though I didn't know any of his music it was still my sort of stuff so I enjoyed it. Actually, I lie - I knew the last song, Colorful. I think it gets a lot of radio play.

Next up was my fave band of the moment: The Feeling.

This band's from England and their music is quite mellow at times, sometimes pop-ish, a bit rock. It's good stuff. Here's a link to their site where you can hear samples of their songs. My favourite songs are Sewn and Rose. They were so different in concert than how I imagined they'd be after hearing the album. They're actually rather theatrical and are great on stage. My photos didn't turn up that well, but here's another of their lead singer:

At the end of their set the drummer threw one of his drumsticks into the crowd, and it bounced off Judith's head and was coming straight for my eye, so I caught it. That was fun! =)

After The Feeling left, I went to the bathroom with Andrea during the break between bands and came back to find a group of the tallest guys in the entire world standing in front of us. Judith was furious. They'd apparently just walked in front of us and decided to just stand there. We'd had the perfect spot in the middle with no tall people in front. Not happy, Jan. I asked them if we could stand in front of them or something and they were like, "We'll work something out", but nothing ever came of it and we were stuck behind them. Bastards. We eventually managed to move around them to the side but it was still a crap view compared to what we had.

Anyway, Matt Kearney came out and he was fantastic!! Here he is with his band:

Yeah. It was just great. He sounded exactly like he did on the album (don't worry - no lipsynching) and he was so into the music. =) It was just awesome.

That's him close-up.

These photos are the only semi-good photos I have of Judith and I. Sorry if you don't like them, Judith, but they're the only nice-ish ones I have - send me yours!

Somewhere around 10:30 I started to feel the lack of sleep. Poor Judith - I was practically falling asleep on her standing up! The wave of exhaustion was like being hit by a train, it hit me with such a force and I was so unprepared. But soon after, it left, or I forced it away and I got back into the music.

I was worried about driving home, but it was fine. I knew that if I needed to, Judith would take over driving, but it was OK. I just karaoke-sang along to my ipod the entire way home and it kept me awake. I feel sorry for the other girls in the car though, lol.

So yes, Sunday, even though it started out so shit, had an awesome ending. =)

And now, for the post you've all been waiting for!

NEW YORK, take II

Tuesday 27/3/07

I arrived at the hostel at 3 and immediately started talking to one of the girls in my room. At this stage, at the beginning of my trip, I had planned to make a friend at the hostel to hang out with in the evenings or something. The beginning of our conversation, after the initial greetings, went like this:
Me: So, did you just get here?
Her: Yeah. I have a daughter you know. (Because I would know, of course)
Me: Oh, really? That's nice.
Her: Yeah, but she lives in Virginia. I don't take care of her.
Me: Oh, OK.

Should've clued me in on the sort of person she was. Not that abandoning your child to persue the supposed "bohemian lifestyle" she kept telling me she was living makes you a bad person. No, wait....

Anyway, she was nice enough, and I don't like eating alone, so we had lunch and then she decided to accompany me on my quest for tickets to Les Miserables. She was really bugging me, because she had apparently lived in Manhattan for 3 years (said the girl living in the hostel) and knew everything there was to know about it, and because I didn't know the cross-street for the theatre she was getting annoyed at me. I told her repeatedly that she didn't have to come with me, that I was more than happy to find the place on my own. I actually was pretty sure I knew where the place was, seeing as it would obviously be in the theatre district, and since it was W44th St it would be near Times Square. But of course, because I didn't know the cross street, I knew nothing. (Meanwhile, when we got there it was totally where I knew it would be.)

I couldn't get tickets for that night (I was trying for standing room because I'm poor) so I said let's go shopping on 5th Ave, so we went there, and I said we should head uptown because that's where all the shops were (like Tiffany's and Saks 5th Ave), but the girl said that they're all downtown, because she knows Manhattan. Guess who was right???? In the end we walked more than 40 blocks back to the hostel because we were headed that way anyway, but not before stopping at an internet cafe because the girl had to post something for work. I was totally confused, because she'd told me that she worked in a call centre, so I had no idea why she had to post something on the internet. Turns out that this was for her other job. Her I-give-relaxing-massages-in-the-nude-but-I'm-not-an-escort job. Ah. She needed to post her ad on craigslist.com. Yeah. These are the people I attract.

Anyway, she was really annoying me, so I was glad when she got a call and had to go to work. Let's just say it wasn't her call-centre job. Oh, and not before asking me if I wanted to come, so I could make some money while I'm here. "Sorry! Can't - I just want to vacation. I need a break from work..."

I saw a few things that day that I had wanted to see at least.

The Flatiron Building

Washington Square Garden. For those of you I've told the story to, those are the guys that were, in the girl's words, "playing some weird ball thing. You'd never see that anywhere else in the world, that's Manhattan for you." They were kicking a soccer ball around. Only in New York!!!! (You guys have to come here! Look at the crazy things they do in that crazy city! /sarcasm)

Wednesday 28/3/07

So I got up early and had an overpriced breakfast near Grand Central Station. Realised that I was at Grand Central so took a photo of the famous main terminal.

There are constellations of the zodiac signs on the ceiling. Wow. I dunno. I was just kind of unimpressed, especially since everyone says it's a "must-see". Frankly you're life wouldn't be any better or worse off if you hadn't seen it.

Then I went to the UN building. Here's a pic of the Chrystler Building on the way:

Ooh, pretty!

Here's the UN building:

Ooh, ugly!

I did a tour of the place. It was really interesting.

Here's Natalia, our guide. She's from Columbia, hence the clothing.

We went and saw all the conference rooms they have, like the Security Council:

Economics Council:

And the one we normally see, the General Assembly:

After that I decided to go to the Museum of Natural History. I'd been there last time but had seen hardly anything, so I wanted to see it again. Unfortunately, I still didn't have that much time (just three hours), and I still didn't see everything, but I got to see something that I'd REALLY wanted to see last time, but didn't:

Hey, dum dum! Give me gum gum! (Night at the Museum fans, anyone?????)

Here's how hot I looked that day. That's what 3 hours' sleep and hot lil ME looks like. Rowr! (I just felt like I had no photos with myself in them. It may have been for the better, judging by this one...)

That night I accomplished one of my main goals, which was to see a Broadway Musical!!!!! I got standing tickets (smack bang in the middle) to SPAMALOT! for only $21.25. It was just so funny and I was so happy to see it. I'm not that big a Monty Python fan, but this is the sort of thing that could make me. ;)

Thursday 29/03/07

Woke up early and went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You might remember that I had also been to this museum last time, but I loved it. This time I was there from 10:30 - 2:30, and I still barely scratched the surface.

Some of my favourite artworks:

Monet

Elizabethan Bedroom (not an artwork, but a work of art! Perfectly reconstructed - I WANT!)

Van Gogh

Monet.

It was a lovely day wandering the museum. I would have stayed even longer, but I had tickets to go see THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, my favourite fake news show. =)

It was a funny episode and I was so excited to be there. =) So Thursday was a good day.

Friday 30/03/07

So, Friday was the day that I was going to meet up with Jemma, an au pair from Australia who I know here in Chicago. She was meeting up with two friends from home in NY, and staying with me until I went back to Chicago. That meant having to switch hostels. When I booked the hostels I was really just worried about cost, and whoever would take me for the time I was there. The hostel I'd stayed at up until now was in the East Village (14th St) and cost me US$37 per night for a 6-bed dorm. The hostel I had to go to was in the Upper West Side (83rd St), was costing Jem and I US$29/night for a two bed private room. I still cannot believe the price difference, especially when I got to the new hostel and there was an semi-detached room off our bedroom with a full-length mirror, a sink, a fridge and a microwave, not to mention DOUBLE BEDS!!! Value for money. =)

The hike across town on the subway with my suitcase was not so fun though. Everyone knows that I have no idea how to pack light, but I had a valid reason - April in NY is completely unpredictable! The first day I was here the weather was in the high-20s, then it just kept getting colder and colder, and on the last day it got down to about 10 (still not as bad as the weather now though!).

Jemma hadn't arrived yet, so I thought it was the perfect time to explore Central Park a little and maybe get some window shopping in on 5th Ave.

Pics from Central Park:

Belvedere Castle

Me at Turtle Pond

The Plaza Hotel - Home Alone 2, anyone?

Turtle Pond and the Upper East Side

After this I wandered along 5th Ave and went to FAO Schwarz. I'm not a little kid, but I have the maturity of a little kid, so it was so awesome! I didn't have a chance to have a go on the giant keyboard, but I did wander through it all and wanted to buy EVERYTHING, especially the lifesize stuffed wooly mammoth they had. ;)

Jemma called while I was in there so I made my way back to the hostel. We had lunch, then went to meet up with her friends at Times Square. This was late in the afternoon by then, so we decided to watch a movie (Blades of Glory), went to a bar, then made our way to this comedy club to have a laugh. Some of the comedians were very funny, some were very not, but at least it was something to do.

Saturday 31/03/07

So Saturday we slept in a little and then headed uptown to the Seinfeld diner for brekkie. Saturday was my least favourite day of them all because I ended up playing tourguide and seeing a bunch of things I'd already seen last time.

Here's Jemma and I on the way there:

After that we went back to the World Trade Center site (like I said, least fave day) and spent far too long for my liking there and in the chapel across the road.

From there we went somewhere I actually wanted to go: Wall St.

Here's the NY Stock Exchange:

After this we went to Greenwich Village so Jemma could see Carrie's stoop and so I could get more cupcakes from Magnolia's Bakery. I was the only one game enough to brave the huge line, so I split up from the others. This was actually the highlight of my day. Once I got my cupcakes I could window shop to my heart's content, and didn't have to worry that I was boring anyone.

I met up with the others back at the hostel at 6 and we spent forever trying to decide where to go. This was SO frustrating, so I ended up grabbing my travel guide, seeing there was a pub close by and said we were going there. It was pretty boring, and I had to get up at 4am the next day for my flight, so I left at 10:30pm. I couldn't sleep at all that night. I fell asleep at 1am and woke up at 2am when Jemma got home (not her fault but her bed's fault for being weird and squeeky) and didn't sleep again after that.

Sunday 01/04/07

Eventually got up because I was bored of lying and waiting for sleep to come. Got a taxi to the airport, went to United, waited in line for 40mins to find out that my flight was operated by US Airways and I had to go there. ARGH!! Seriously, this was the most stressful morning EVER, made worse by the lack of sleep and the COLD! I had to powerwalk with my suitcase, handbag and cupcakes literally 2kms to the US Airways terminal, only to wait in line for another half hour because the people at the counter was super slow. All the while I was stressing that it would be too late to check in my bag. Finally got to the counter at 5:15 for the 6am flight, and luckily they let me check my bag. Spent about 15 mins at the counter with the lady because she couldn't find my details (stress levels: rising) and eventually it was found and everything was done.

Here's how I looked after my ordeal and an hours' sleep at the gate:

I know. HOT.

Here's a photo of Manhattan at dawn from the plane:

Manhattan is the really packed strip in the middle.

Anyway, I slept a little on the plane home, but it was hard cos I had to stopover in Pittsburgh for an hour and a half. Fun. But other than that it was all good. Got home without any hassles. Here's Chicago from the air:

I don't know if you can click on the pic to enlarge it, but if you squint through the clouds, you can see the Sears Tower dwarfing everything. I realised as I was flying over that this would be the last time I flew into Chicago for a very long time, if not forever! The next time I see it I'll be flying OUT!

So yes. Overall my trip was FABULOUS. I realised that I actually like traveling by myself so I can do things my way, unless I'm with someone who loves museums as much as I do. :)

I didn't get to sleep when I got home because I had to wash my clothes so I had something to wear to the concert that night, which is the next post. Sorry this took so bloody long!!! I hope it was worth it.