stateside: chicago

Arriving in the states for the first time in nearly 2.5 years seemed overwhelming, as usual...(this is the 2^{nd time i've been away that long)...i flew into chicago, my friends kelley and jon picked me up at the airport...my flight left kyiv just after noon, i landed in chicago around 8 in the evening...since the flights were all day, i tried my best to stay awake the entire time, though i usually tend to sleep quite a bit on flights...i figured if i stayed awake the entire time, i'd be able to go to sleep on chicago time, and get my body onto chicago time asap...}
kelley knew i needed some food and toiletries, (and she knows i love supermarkets – yes, i'm wierd) so she took me to a supermarket and a cvs pharmacy...who knew there were so many choices for so many objects? I haven't really had so many choices in a while, i was overwhelmed...who needs ten different brands to choose from when it comes to face wash? And within each brand there are more choices...eeeeek!! i loved the supermarket too, i loaded up on fresh produce...

the next night kelley and jon made dinner plans with magan and eric, a couple i met during the ireland trip...it was great to see them again, and catch up on the past year...we met at a ptzza joint famous for chicago deep dish pizza...lou malnatis...i'm guessing a lot of people in the states (chicago, anywho) would recognize the name...tasty pizza, though really filling...

that was saturday evening...sunday afternoon a storm hit the chicago area, and knocked out power for a while...the storm didn't last long, but there was some hail, and very strong winds...tree branches were down everywhere...kelley used to work in insurance, and as she said, a storm like this one would've meant a whole LOT of overtime for the next couple weeks...their house didn't get power again until more than two days later...

if it had been may, this wouldn't have been such a big problem...but it was july, and it was HOT...the heat index was around 110F, and kelley and jon have a dog named meatball...meatball doesn't love that kind of heat, to say the least...we all stayed in the house sunday evening, but by monday afternoon it was too hot for the dog, (and us, to be honest)...kelley and jon's friend andrew (whom i also met on the ireland trip) volunteered to take all of us, so off we went for the evening...meatball and andrew are great friends; kelley, jon, and i are just tolerated:)

the next day (tuesday?) i went to work with kelley, at one of her library branches...i spent the entire time on a computer, buying plane tickets...not too long before her shift was over, my friend laura (whom i met in korea, during my first years there) picked me up...

laura and i went back to her flat, then took the train into the city to an area called bucktown...if anyone reading this is from chicago, you'll know this name...since i'm not from the area, i haven't a clue where it is...apparently it's a trendy neighborhood? Chicago has a good public transport system, though to someone who doesn't live here, it's rather confusing...transfering from one train line to another isn't always straightforward...fortunately, laura knew where to go...

we ate dinner at a pub, then wandered around bucktown...at one point i got distracted by a display counter, and found red velvet cupcakes:)...yum...laura doesn't have the same sweet tooth i do (does anyone?) but she knows how i get about my sweets...i know i don't really need to be eating things like red velvet cupcakes, but i also know that after this summer it could be quite a while before that's even a possibility again...

laura got me on the right train back to kelley and jon's suburb, kelley picked me up at the station...(i dozed off on the train for a while, when i woke up i was seriously concerned i'd missed the stop...fortunately i woke up just in time)...

the next day was 4 july...independence day for my country...i had wanted to go somewhere, or do something, but it was hot...the heat index was something around 115F...not at all fun to even think about going outside...so we didn't...we relaxed all day, not doing much...

the next morning jon drove me to the airport, for my first set of visits...

lao 2

vang vieng is a backpacker town in between luang prabang and vientienne...there is no culture here, only outdoorsy stuff, and a LOT of restaurants with cushions and tvs showing friends/simpsons/family guy...there are a lot of caves nearby, some are interesting to explore...some, not so much...
one day i explored several caves with the same group i had hung out with in luang prabang...our first cave had a big buddha in it, but that was all...our second cave allowed us to do a bit of exploring...thankfully the money taker guy had given us head torches, or we would've had to come back out...(i'm not sure why we didn't think of bringing our own, it's not as if caves have natural light, hee hee)...it was slippery, but still fun...our explorations took longer than expected, so i don't think anyone did anything that afternoon...(layna spent hours in a sauna and loved it)...dinner that night was pizza...i didn't think anything of it, but it kept me in bed for over 24 hours...i couldn't walk straight, not fun at all...thankfully, it didn't affect layna nearly that badly...that's the first "wasted" day of our trip...
we had wanted to go tubing the afternoon after i explored the caves, but due to my late return, we didn't...and i spent the next day in bed, so it didn't happen then either...the third afternoon we finally went tubing...it's basically a backpacker ritual...you hire a tube (the deposit was more than the hire price!!) and they take you about 3km up river...you float down, stopping at any of the bars alongside the river on your way back...there are quite a few bars, and it seemed as though several people were intent on stopping at every one!! i put suncream on my face, but forgot my arms and legs, so i got roasted...one girl we saw along the way said she had used coconut oil, so i can only imagine her condition when she finished...we only stopped twice, and not for long, and we still took 3.5 hours!!! according to another traveler who had done this before, the river was quite low, lower than he had ever seen it...i suppose that explains the slowness...
our next city was vientienne...the capital of lao...quite possibly the only capital i've ever visited where there seemed to be no movement...there were very few people walking around...of course, that's cause it was HOT HOT HOT...apparently april is the hottest month of the year in lao...lucky us...we visited the most famous wat in the country, pha that luang...it's not all that big, but it's covered in gold...it's important enough to be on the seal of the country...on our way to the wat, we walked under a memorial arch...it memorializes the lao people who have died during war...ironically, the memorial is built with cement donated by the US...the cement was supposed to be used for building a runway in 1969...considering the US was dropping a LOT of bombs on lao at the time (in what was at the time a secret operation) i don't blame the people for using the cement for another purpose...the memorial was never finished...it's a bit like the arc de triomphe in paris, but uglier...a good spot to people watch...the other wat i visited in town had over 10,000 buddhas inside!! most of them very small, set into niches in the wall...it is the only wat in town not destroyed by invaders over the years, and needs some renovation...
while in vientienne i took a local bus about an hour out of town and visited buddha park...it's not big at all, but it's absolutely chock FULL of buddhas, and shivas, and other hindu deities...most are pretty interesting, especially the sculpture that allows you to climb up and look out over the whole park...a few monks were exploring as well, it was interesting to see where they were taking pictures...
vientienne is expensive compared to the rest of the country...i guess that's normal for a capital city, but this city didn't have anything justifying the higher costs!!! we ended up sleeping in dorm beds for the first time during our entire trip...unfortunately, mosquitos ate layna each of those nights...(but they left the rest of us in the dorm alone)...mosquitos love layna, she doesn't know why...and i'm surprised they haven't eaten me, as usually they love me...