Chicago

Today is the 6th day I am in suburb of Chicago.

One thing unbearable is the climate. During first and second days, the temperature were about 35 F. It was cold and always windy. No wonder people call Chicago as windy city. Especially since it is located by side of lake Michigan. Pheww ... for people like me who live in tropical country, this weather is cold. It is not up to snowing yet. Lately they have some showers and by coming Saturday, it forcasted to have snow flakes. My goodness.....

Fortunately I brought a thick winter coat. I bought at a very cheap price (around USD 7) somewhere near my office. I was in doubt to buy it since it looks so fluffy but it turned out to be very useful. Without it, I will definitely be frozen out there.

Towards 5 pm every day, the sky is darken and it feels like 7 pm for me. It makes gloomy feeling. Ouch ...

We manage to get the cheapest and most convenient means of transportation to get around. So, we take advantage of free hotel shuttle from hotel to airport or train station. We also take subway most of time, although sometime we gave up in searching the nearest subway station and put up our hands to hail a taxi. By all means, the transportation system is quite convenient. They have connected the airport to downtown by subway and to some other destinations to small cities nearby with railway.

At first, we were in consideration to rent a car. The cost itself is affordable. However, after thoughtful thinking, we realize there will be the cost for gasoline (unless the car will run on plain water) and parking fee. Average gasoline price in this state is USD 2.23 per gallon. We take a peek on parking fee. In downtown, it will cost USD 9 for 20 minutes or less and USD 19 something for one hour or less. Wow .... my finance will kill me for this. Perhaps in some other area, the cost is not this high and in certain area is even free to park. But hm ... in compare with my hometown, I can park 5 hrs in shopping centres for just almost one USD and sometimes, I still call it expensive (yes, when the stingy me poop in). Understood this is not a fair comparison of course.

Overall I enjoy the city and the ride with their train and metro. They are nicely scheduled. This is something that my city doesn't have it yet. Just overheard recently they are planning to increase the fare by early next year. After all, I will try to enjoy the city view and other things by this weekends before fly out on next Monday to Mexico.

One thing noticeable, is the serving of their foods in restaurants. For the first night, we dined out in a shopping centre. The restaurant was very crowded, full packed with people. We had to wait an hour to set a seat and they gave us a pager so we do not have to wait inside the restaurant ckckckck .... When we get the table and our food, we were quite surprised. The plate was quite huge for us and so was the food. We ate as much as we could then in the end admit the reality that the serving was too big for both of us.

For two days straight afterwads, we had pizza delivery to hotel. People said Chicago is famous for their pizza, so we give it a try. During first delivery, we ordered 14 inch thin pizza of all meat with extra cheese, add side salad and chicken wings. Both of us ate it until we were sick of it. It was too much. Ouch ...

The second delivery, we guessed 10 inch thin pizza of classic supreme should be enough with side order of onion rings. This time the plate came out clean but I am sure will not touch any pizza after I return back home, at least for a couple months or so. The problem is, we were visiting exhibition every day from Sunday to Wednesday and my lunch main menu was pizza. Don't get me wrong. The pizza in here taste good, but after have it everyday for almost one week, I am done with it.

This noon, we had lunch meeting of seafoods with customer. Yes, the servings were in extraordinary size for us. So as our dinner just now, half ribs with mashed potato and gravy, one piece of garlic bread and a plate of salad. Imagine the half ribs were big, mashed potato was a lot, garlic bread was long size and salad in medium-size plate. Gosh .... No wonder they are the biggest-size nation in the world. I will gain much weight during my trip this time.

Strange anough, I do not experience any jetlag. I hope I won't have it after the trip.

I have to sleep now. There will be a meeting still waiting for me the next morning.