Tuesday, July 7

Chicago

It's been my backyard for 3 years now. I'm finally able to take the El without busting out my CTA map (though i still feel better keeping one in my purse everywhere i go). When I'm walking on Michigan Ave, I like to think that I have now acquired that look that those city people wear - confident, carefree, and never touristy (but I still fail to conceal my blush when I have to turn around because I've walked in the opposite direction - give me a break, I get lost in Troy). I feel comfortable taking my friends around the city, knowing exactly what sights would excite them, what they should eat, what goes on where. Funny, it is when I play tour guide with my friends that I fall in love with Chicago again. I began to see those things that I take for granted that my friends awe over. I discover new things about Chicago that I didn't bother to explore before.

Even now, I feel very much like a tourist every time I'm in Chicago, in awe of new things I see (and how hopelessly lost I can still get). I love public transportation, it gets me everywhere with only $2.25. Today, on my way to Chicago, I passed by a beach, which I've probably passed by at least 20 times before but never noticed. It looked like a piece of Miami copied and pasted onto the north shore of Lake Michigan. I googled it later and found out that what I saw was the fabulous Oak Street beach, known for its imported palm trees and hot babes with fit, tanned bods. Half an hour later, I am on another bus with a less glamorous crowd. Every time I go to the Community Health Clinic, located in a predominantly hispanic neighborhood, I like to survey the people on the bus and take note of each person's dress, ethnicity, and demeanor. It's amazing how diverse the crowd is depending on the day of the week and time of the day. There're occasionally business men in suits and rich ladies with shopping bags, but as the bus travels more westward, farther and farther away from Michigan Ave, I saw more people of lower socioeconomic class. During the whole ride, I can't help but feel slightly out of place as often the only Asian on the bus. I always wonder what kind of judgments they make about me... Then the NU intercampus bus ride is a completely different scene; I can overhear 3 different Mandarin conversations simultaneously.

My friends seem to love visiting me and they seem to love Chicago. "Everything's better in Chicago." They remind me of my first feelings when I first came here. How I admired everything about this city that I've now taken for granted. This place has somehow grown on me. I'm not the type to want to stay any one place for an extended period of time. But I can really see myself enjoying Chicago for a long time.