Chicago's answer to Reading or Glastonbury just without the camping occurred this weekend past. Been looking forward to this weekend for a while now. Chicago is famous for its many festivals during the summer but if I could only go to one this was the one I'd go to.
I saw many acts over the weekend most of which I had either never heard or had only heard a few songs. The list includes: Wavves, The Constellations (my favourite new band of the weekend), The Big Pink, The New Pornographers, Neon Trees (who played a set in the Hard Rock Cafe car park, which is 2 blocks from me, the next morning), Chromeo, a little bit of Lady Gaga, The Strokes, Rebelution, Stars, Social Distribution, Slightly Stoopid, Switchfoot, Minus the Bear, MGMT, Arcade Fire and my favourite act of the weekend Green Day.
The Constellations are an act from Atlanta who describe themselves as a Psychedelic soul-rock explosion. They didn't have the greatest slot of the weekend (1pm on the Friday on a minor side stage) but they certainly gave everyone a good show. Their bassist looks like John Belushi with Jeff Lynne's hair. Their album is called Southern Gothic and I'd advise everyone to check them out on Myspace
Neon Trees are a band who have released one single which is getting a fair amount of airplay. The song itself is called Animal and is a decent indie pop song. When they appeared on stage what I wasn't expecting was to see that the singer looks alot like the male singer from the Scissor Sisters and certainly has a similar stage presence. They put on an excellent show which I got to chance to experience again the next morning. I was lying in bed when I heard music from the Hard Rock Cafe. I recognised the song and went to my window to see it was Neon Trees soundchecking. About an hour later they played a full set a very random experience but a good one.
The small amount of Lady Gaga that I watched from afar was certainly interesting, which is to be expected. I wasn't really interested in seeing her but as The Strokes started half an hour after she did I figured I'd have a look. Her stage show takes the form of a musical play more than a normal gig. She would play a song and then tell part of some story. It did get to the point where I was thinking just shut up and play a song.
By far my favourite act of the weekend was Green Day who played an incredible two and a half hour long set. I am normally someone who maintains that smaller venues are better than larger ones. However this set made me reconsider, being outside you can definitely do things that you can't do inside. The ridiculous amount of fireworks being a good example. One defining part of the set was the amount of people from the crowd that the band brought up on stage. One guy was brought up to sing the song Longview, he then became the most envied person in Grant Park when Billie Joe Armstrong (the singer) gave him his guitar. Other memorable moments include the sheer amount of fireworks, the size of the production and the guy dressed in a pink bunny outfit staggering on stage and downing beers before the show. I was certainly hurting the next day, concerts can be quite an effective workout. In fact my feet have only just stopped aching after the punishment I inflicted upon them over the weekend.
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
My return to the UK and Stanley's return to Chicago
Wow, just realised how long it's been since I've updated this thing. Where to start!
Well I guess one major thing that happened since I last updated was me returning back to the UK for a few weeks. The fact that I've been in the US for well over 6 months now is a scary idea. I very nearly didn't make back home because of Icelandic volcanoes and striking cabin crew. But amazingly I made it back with no trouble at all, even managed an emergency seat. Being back home was a great if slightly odd feeling. Driving on the left and having a clutch pedal to deal with being some of the adjustments that had to be made. During my 2 weeks back home I caught up with friends, went to Twickenham to see the IRB Rugby 7's and attended Kit's wedding.
The IRB 7's was my first foray into the seven man code and I had a fantastic time. The weather was sunny and warm and the rugby was awesome. Possibly the best moment was when Kenya beat France, you'd think that England had won the World Cup again the roar from the crowd was that loud. Unfortunately SA lost to Australia in the final but never mind you can't have them all.
The main reason for the my return to the UK was to attend the wedding of Kit and Ellie. Drove up the night before for a little reunion with all the university friends. A fun evening cut short due to the rehearsal dinner happening at around 11pm.
The next morning we were up bright and early looking sharp. The wedding ceremony was in the morning at a beautiful little church near a manor house which served as the location of the reception. After the wedding we had a champagne reception followed by lunch followed by the speeches and more champagne, followed by a blessing ceremony, more champagne, a hog roast and a samba band. A long but extremely enjoyable day. My congratulations to the newly married couple.
After 2 weeks of reunions and a wedding it was time to return to the states, again my flights were threatened by striking cabin crew but the flight still left on time so it was all good. Managed the emergency exit seat again.
One major event that was occurring when I went back to the UK was the finals of the 2010 NHL Play-offs. I was a little worried I'd miss them as Chicago was playing against Philadelphia for the Stanley Cup. Chicago hadn't won the cup for nearly 50 years, the longest of any other team so it was a big deal. Chicago were 2-1 up in the 7 game series when I got back to the US. Philadelphia evened the series in the 4th game but then Chicago won the 5th. This prompted me to organise a night out to watch game 6. A group of 10 of us went to a sports bar to watch the game. Chicago were looking ahead but Philadelphia managed to even the score at the end of regulation time. Extra time in ice hockey runs on the golden goal rule. 3 minutes into extra time Chicago scored and the place went nuts. People were jumping and hugging and singing. Chicago plays Chelsea Dagger whenever they score so we heard that song a lot. Afterwards we went out around Chicago and celebrated, me and a friends ended up in Wrigleyville where the streets were packed, extremely festive atmosphere that reminded me of Mardi Gras.
Finally the last big event was Mary visiting me from the UK. Activities in Chicago included a Cubs (baseball) game, boat tour on the lake and marvelling at the magnificent thunderstorms that blew through Chicago. Mary's visit also brought about my second major trip outside Chicago, New Buffalo in Michigan and then Niagara Falls.
New Buffalo is a quiet little lakeside town in Michigan state just across the border from Indiana. Spent a quiet day on the beach and exploring the region. We then spent a day driving to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls is quite an awesome sight. It's not the tallest or widest set of waterfalls in the world but there is an enormous quantity of water flowing over them. I could spend ages just standing and watching them. The first night was spent on the Maid of the Mist tour which is quite an experience and I'd definitely do it again, only the next time I'll put my contact lenses in. Other things we did included going behind the falls, checking out the local attractions, dinner at a revolving restaurant and walking about both the Canadian and American sides of the falls.
That's the reduced update, plenty of other things have happened but these are the main ones. Thanks for reading
Til Next Time,
Well I guess one major thing that happened since I last updated was me returning back to the UK for a few weeks. The fact that I've been in the US for well over 6 months now is a scary idea. I very nearly didn't make back home because of Icelandic volcanoes and striking cabin crew. But amazingly I made it back with no trouble at all, even managed an emergency seat. Being back home was a great if slightly odd feeling. Driving on the left and having a clutch pedal to deal with being some of the adjustments that had to be made. During my 2 weeks back home I caught up with friends, went to Twickenham to see the IRB Rugby 7's and attended Kit's wedding.
The IRB 7's was my first foray into the seven man code and I had a fantastic time. The weather was sunny and warm and the rugby was awesome. Possibly the best moment was when Kenya beat France, you'd think that England had won the World Cup again the roar from the crowd was that loud. Unfortunately SA lost to Australia in the final but never mind you can't have them all.
The main reason for the my return to the UK was to attend the wedding of Kit and Ellie. Drove up the night before for a little reunion with all the university friends. A fun evening cut short due to the rehearsal dinner happening at around 11pm.
The next morning we were up bright and early looking sharp. The wedding ceremony was in the morning at a beautiful little church near a manor house which served as the location of the reception. After the wedding we had a champagne reception followed by lunch followed by the speeches and more champagne, followed by a blessing ceremony, more champagne, a hog roast and a samba band. A long but extremely enjoyable day. My congratulations to the newly married couple.
After 2 weeks of reunions and a wedding it was time to return to the states, again my flights were threatened by striking cabin crew but the flight still left on time so it was all good. Managed the emergency exit seat again.
One major event that was occurring when I went back to the UK was the finals of the 2010 NHL Play-offs. I was a little worried I'd miss them as Chicago was playing against Philadelphia for the Stanley Cup. Chicago hadn't won the cup for nearly 50 years, the longest of any other team so it was a big deal. Chicago were 2-1 up in the 7 game series when I got back to the US. Philadelphia evened the series in the 4th game but then Chicago won the 5th. This prompted me to organise a night out to watch game 6. A group of 10 of us went to a sports bar to watch the game. Chicago were looking ahead but Philadelphia managed to even the score at the end of regulation time. Extra time in ice hockey runs on the golden goal rule. 3 minutes into extra time Chicago scored and the place went nuts. People were jumping and hugging and singing. Chicago plays Chelsea Dagger whenever they score so we heard that song a lot. Afterwards we went out around Chicago and celebrated, me and a friends ended up in Wrigleyville where the streets were packed, extremely festive atmosphere that reminded me of Mardi Gras.
Finally the last big event was Mary visiting me from the UK. Activities in Chicago included a Cubs (baseball) game, boat tour on the lake and marvelling at the magnificent thunderstorms that blew through Chicago. Mary's visit also brought about my second major trip outside Chicago, New Buffalo in Michigan and then Niagara Falls.
New Buffalo is a quiet little lakeside town in Michigan state just across the border from Indiana. Spent a quiet day on the beach and exploring the region. We then spent a day driving to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls is quite an awesome sight. It's not the tallest or widest set of waterfalls in the world but there is an enormous quantity of water flowing over them. I could spend ages just standing and watching them. The first night was spent on the Maid of the Mist tour which is quite an experience and I'd definitely do it again, only the next time I'll put my contact lenses in. Other things we did included going behind the falls, checking out the local attractions, dinner at a revolving restaurant and walking about both the Canadian and American sides of the falls.
That's the reduced update, plenty of other things have happened but these are the main ones. Thanks for reading
Til Next Time,
Monday, 8 March 2010
Fat Tuesday
Last time I was settling into life as a shift worker and am now well adjusted to not having a set schedule. So many things have been happening at work to screw up my shifts that I don’t think I’ve managed to complete a full 2 week cycle. Does mean that I can quickly adjust to a new schedule pretty quickly now.
Life in the US has been good recently, plenty of socialising and new activities. A few of us went and played a few games of whirlyball a couple of weeks ago. Whirlyball is basically a mix between polo, lacross and basketball played on bumper cars. A tremendous amount of fun with much screaming and shouting, I highly suggest it to anyone who finds themselves in the Chicago area for whatever reason.
A fairly large group of us recently went on a one day ski-trip a couple of hours away in Wisconsin. The place was called Wilmot Mountain. I’m not 100% certain what the definition of a mountain is but this place definitely wasn’t one. Still I had a great day zipping up and down the small runs. The most amusing part of the day was spent watching one particular friend who suffers from a slight over-confidence problem attempting to ski. He perfected the method of stopping where you fall on your back and spin around. How he didn’t hit anyone, I will never know. I also had my first experience as an instructor guiding two friends, who had never been skiing, down a slope. Can’t say I was the greatest instructor, but they got down in one piece.
I also had my first big trip out of Chicago last weekend. For those of you who don’t know what Fat Tuesday is allow me to call it by it’s more common name. Mardi Gras.
Have to say that New Orleans way of celebrating the beginning of Lent is much more amusing than Shrove Tuesday. A group of 6 of us made the trip down. After looking into flights it was decided that it would be better and cheaper to rent a car and drive down. 14 hours and one speeding ticket later (not me I hasten to add) we arrived in New Orleans and prepared for the 4 day extravaganza that is Mardi Gras.
The first night we spent at the parade route. Mardi Gras has no shortage of parades that get bigger and better the closer to the actual Tuesday you get. This parade was nothing special. The floats drive by and throw beads at you. The atmosphere was extremely festive, everyone was out to have a good time. After a dinner at a Chinese restaurant (I say Chinese and I say restaurant, the food was so bad I’m not sure if I can call it that) some of us crashed at the hotel and the rest went out to Bourbon Street, the local party area. I was in the group that crashed, 14 hour drive combined with the inability to sleep in cars meant I was shattered.
The next day we decided to do some touristy things so we went on an airboat tour out in the Louisiana swamps. Fantastic fun, the guide was extremely knowledgeable and funny and he managed to catch an alligator, so we all got a chance to hold it and have our pictures taken. One woman on the boat was completely freaked out and it was only after some teasing from her husband that she decided to hold it. Afterwards we were directed to a local Mom and Pop restaurant where we sampled the local cuisine. The evening was once again spent at the parade route. We picked a spot along the main route and discovered that Sean Payton was on the balcony just above us. Sean Payton is the coach of the New Orleans Saints, who had won the Superbowl a week before. So he is considered royalty in New Orleans now. The parade was much the same as the previous night’s one. One highlight being the float with Drew Brees on. Drew Brees is the New Orleans quarterback, so he is also royalty in that city. The rest of the evening was spent on Bourbon Street. We found a very amusing karaoke bar called the Cat’s Meow. The atmosphere in this place was that of a small gig with an extremely popular band. The difference being the band was whichever drunken person got up the courage to go on stage and perform. Fantastic fun especially when people were clever with their song choices. By this I mean they chose songs that the entire crowd would know, therefore they didn’t have to sing and just acted out their rock star dreams on the stage.
Monday was spent wondering around New Orleans, after lunch we wondered down to the riverside and chanced upon a small stage with some bands playing. This was the Lundi Gras festival (Fat Monday) we decided to stay and watch for a while. The MC got on stage and announced they had a very special guest. The guest was the rapper Ludacris. Admittedly I’m not his greatest fan. But it was still pretty cool getting someone as big as that as a guest performance. After his 30 minute set, we went to a nearby casino, where I managed to only lose $10. Another one of us lost $90. He wasn’t that happy with himself. The evening was spent in a club called The Beach. An entertaining club, that played a large mix of music. They were playing standard club dance music, then completely out of the blue Enter Sandman was played, followed by a couple of songs such as Limp Bizkit and Iron Maiden. Then back to dance music, very odd.
The final day was spent again wondering around New Orleans. As this was the actual Mardi Gras, there was a parade that seemed to go on all day, made getting around the town quite interesting as there were very few places where you could cross the parade route. During this day we encountered a very entertaining break dance toupe. A second much smaller parade and a guy who made fantastic paintings using spray paint. The evening was again spent at The Beach.
That’s the update for now. Hope you are all well and thanks for reading.
Life in the US has been good recently, plenty of socialising and new activities. A few of us went and played a few games of whirlyball a couple of weeks ago. Whirlyball is basically a mix between polo, lacross and basketball played on bumper cars. A tremendous amount of fun with much screaming and shouting, I highly suggest it to anyone who finds themselves in the Chicago area for whatever reason.
A fairly large group of us recently went on a one day ski-trip a couple of hours away in Wisconsin. The place was called Wilmot Mountain. I’m not 100% certain what the definition of a mountain is but this place definitely wasn’t one. Still I had a great day zipping up and down the small runs. The most amusing part of the day was spent watching one particular friend who suffers from a slight over-confidence problem attempting to ski. He perfected the method of stopping where you fall on your back and spin around. How he didn’t hit anyone, I will never know. I also had my first experience as an instructor guiding two friends, who had never been skiing, down a slope. Can’t say I was the greatest instructor, but they got down in one piece.
I also had my first big trip out of Chicago last weekend. For those of you who don’t know what Fat Tuesday is allow me to call it by it’s more common name. Mardi Gras.
Have to say that New Orleans way of celebrating the beginning of Lent is much more amusing than Shrove Tuesday. A group of 6 of us made the trip down. After looking into flights it was decided that it would be better and cheaper to rent a car and drive down. 14 hours and one speeding ticket later (not me I hasten to add) we arrived in New Orleans and prepared for the 4 day extravaganza that is Mardi Gras.
The first night we spent at the parade route. Mardi Gras has no shortage of parades that get bigger and better the closer to the actual Tuesday you get. This parade was nothing special. The floats drive by and throw beads at you. The atmosphere was extremely festive, everyone was out to have a good time. After a dinner at a Chinese restaurant (I say Chinese and I say restaurant, the food was so bad I’m not sure if I can call it that) some of us crashed at the hotel and the rest went out to Bourbon Street, the local party area. I was in the group that crashed, 14 hour drive combined with the inability to sleep in cars meant I was shattered.
The next day we decided to do some touristy things so we went on an airboat tour out in the Louisiana swamps. Fantastic fun, the guide was extremely knowledgeable and funny and he managed to catch an alligator, so we all got a chance to hold it and have our pictures taken. One woman on the boat was completely freaked out and it was only after some teasing from her husband that she decided to hold it. Afterwards we were directed to a local Mom and Pop restaurant where we sampled the local cuisine. The evening was once again spent at the parade route. We picked a spot along the main route and discovered that Sean Payton was on the balcony just above us. Sean Payton is the coach of the New Orleans Saints, who had won the Superbowl a week before. So he is considered royalty in New Orleans now. The parade was much the same as the previous night’s one. One highlight being the float with Drew Brees on. Drew Brees is the New Orleans quarterback, so he is also royalty in that city. The rest of the evening was spent on Bourbon Street. We found a very amusing karaoke bar called the Cat’s Meow. The atmosphere in this place was that of a small gig with an extremely popular band. The difference being the band was whichever drunken person got up the courage to go on stage and perform. Fantastic fun especially when people were clever with their song choices. By this I mean they chose songs that the entire crowd would know, therefore they didn’t have to sing and just acted out their rock star dreams on the stage.
Monday was spent wondering around New Orleans, after lunch we wondered down to the riverside and chanced upon a small stage with some bands playing. This was the Lundi Gras festival (Fat Monday) we decided to stay and watch for a while. The MC got on stage and announced they had a very special guest. The guest was the rapper Ludacris. Admittedly I’m not his greatest fan. But it was still pretty cool getting someone as big as that as a guest performance. After his 30 minute set, we went to a nearby casino, where I managed to only lose $10. Another one of us lost $90. He wasn’t that happy with himself. The evening was spent in a club called The Beach. An entertaining club, that played a large mix of music. They were playing standard club dance music, then completely out of the blue Enter Sandman was played, followed by a couple of songs such as Limp Bizkit and Iron Maiden. Then back to dance music, very odd.
The final day was spent again wondering around New Orleans. As this was the actual Mardi Gras, there was a parade that seemed to go on all day, made getting around the town quite interesting as there were very few places where you could cross the parade route. During this day we encountered a very entertaining break dance toupe. A second much smaller parade and a guy who made fantastic paintings using spray paint. The evening was again spent at The Beach.
That’s the update for now. Hope you are all well and thanks for reading.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Double Negative
Greetings to you all,
Once again it's been a while since my last update, so this has the potential to be a long one.
I believe my last update was just after Thanksgiving as I was preparing to go on my first night shift. Now that I've done a couple I can say that they actually aren't that bad. The worst part is the two days (nights?) off I get between shifts. The question is do you attempt to switch your sleeping pattern back to days or stay as a night creature. I've been a night creature. Problem is you can't really go out cause everything is closed. It still feels really odd going to bed as it's getting light and getting up in dark when it's not going to get lighter for another 12 hours. I've been a little unlucky with some of my shifts due to equipment breaking down right at the beginning of the shift meaning that the plant cannot run. 12 hours is a long time to spend doing online training.
I enjoyed an amusing birthday celebration with friends from work. Spent the beginning of the evening at my apartment before heading out on the town. Going to bars is a slightly different experience here. Most bars have an entire fleet of waiters/waitresses and it's pretty awesome not having to fight your way to the bar. Some of you might be thinking "Hang on Terry, you didn't like been waited on at Cloud 23". Let me explain, the waiting staff at Cloub 23 were crap and you weren't allowed to order at the bar. Here the staff are awesome, I don't often have to wait long with an empty glass and frequently they ask if I want another drink before I've even finished my previous one. Plus if you want to go to the bar you can. I entered in a raffle at one bar to win a free happy hour and won. 3 hours of free drinks, plus my mates paid $20 and got the same. I've now been offered a night bartending at the place. Haven't decided if I'll take that one up yet.
One of the most pressing problems I had when I arrived which got resolved very quickly thanks to Chris was where I could watch rugby. Thankfully there is a bar mere blocks from me which showed some of the autumn internationals. A very nice Irish bar (there's no shortage of them here), plus it's fairly cheap. You can get free refills on soft drinks. Seeing as the matches started at 8.30 I wasn't prepared to be drinking that early. I once spent 6 hours in that bar and essentially only bought one drink. It was awesome. Although it didn't show the Scotland Australia game which was a pity. Plus I only saw one SA game, probably good thing in hindsight.
Christmas brought snow and family, it's been cold here. I once left work when the temperature was -28 C with wind chill (-20 without). When the Americans are talking about negative temperatures you know it's cold. There has been no shortage of snow, although living in the city centre means that you don't see as much. Out in the suburbs the snow hasn't gone and the first snow was nearly a month ago.
Christmas was spent with the family. They arrived a few days before Xmas and left on New Years Eve (celebrating new years on a plane). Had an excellent few days exploring old haunts including our old house and schools. Went to a Basketball game which is excellent fun and also saw the Harlem Globetrotters (an exhibition team). New Years for me was spent more traditionally than my parents, partying at a friends apartment until 6am. Due the low temperatures we left the beers out on the balcony, which resulted in frozen beers.
Well I said this could be long one and look, it has been. For those of you who made it this far congratulations. Hope you all had an excellent Christmas and New Year. And here's an amusing video I found online. I should add that I haven't met an single American who is this stupid. Although I did meet one who tried to convince me that our accents were the same because he was from New England.
http://www.studentbeans.com/video/europe-is-a-country.html
Til Next Time,
Once again it's been a while since my last update, so this has the potential to be a long one.
I believe my last update was just after Thanksgiving as I was preparing to go on my first night shift. Now that I've done a couple I can say that they actually aren't that bad. The worst part is the two days (nights?) off I get between shifts. The question is do you attempt to switch your sleeping pattern back to days or stay as a night creature. I've been a night creature. Problem is you can't really go out cause everything is closed. It still feels really odd going to bed as it's getting light and getting up in dark when it's not going to get lighter for another 12 hours. I've been a little unlucky with some of my shifts due to equipment breaking down right at the beginning of the shift meaning that the plant cannot run. 12 hours is a long time to spend doing online training.
I enjoyed an amusing birthday celebration with friends from work. Spent the beginning of the evening at my apartment before heading out on the town. Going to bars is a slightly different experience here. Most bars have an entire fleet of waiters/waitresses and it's pretty awesome not having to fight your way to the bar. Some of you might be thinking "Hang on Terry, you didn't like been waited on at Cloud 23". Let me explain, the waiting staff at Cloub 23 were crap and you weren't allowed to order at the bar. Here the staff are awesome, I don't often have to wait long with an empty glass and frequently they ask if I want another drink before I've even finished my previous one. Plus if you want to go to the bar you can. I entered in a raffle at one bar to win a free happy hour and won. 3 hours of free drinks, plus my mates paid $20 and got the same. I've now been offered a night bartending at the place. Haven't decided if I'll take that one up yet.
One of the most pressing problems I had when I arrived which got resolved very quickly thanks to Chris was where I could watch rugby. Thankfully there is a bar mere blocks from me which showed some of the autumn internationals. A very nice Irish bar (there's no shortage of them here), plus it's fairly cheap. You can get free refills on soft drinks. Seeing as the matches started at 8.30 I wasn't prepared to be drinking that early. I once spent 6 hours in that bar and essentially only bought one drink. It was awesome. Although it didn't show the Scotland Australia game which was a pity. Plus I only saw one SA game, probably good thing in hindsight.
Christmas brought snow and family, it's been cold here. I once left work when the temperature was -28 C with wind chill (-20 without). When the Americans are talking about negative temperatures you know it's cold. There has been no shortage of snow, although living in the city centre means that you don't see as much. Out in the suburbs the snow hasn't gone and the first snow was nearly a month ago.
Christmas was spent with the family. They arrived a few days before Xmas and left on New Years Eve (celebrating new years on a plane). Had an excellent few days exploring old haunts including our old house and schools. Went to a Basketball game which is excellent fun and also saw the Harlem Globetrotters (an exhibition team). New Years for me was spent more traditionally than my parents, partying at a friends apartment until 6am. Due the low temperatures we left the beers out on the balcony, which resulted in frozen beers.
Well I said this could be long one and look, it has been. For those of you who made it this far congratulations. Hope you all had an excellent Christmas and New Year. And here's an amusing video I found online. I should add that I haven't met an single American who is this stupid. Although I did meet one who tried to convince me that our accents were the same because he was from New England.
http://www.studentbeans.com/video/europe-is-a-country.html
Til Next Time,
Friday, 27 November 2009
Thanksgivings Greetings!!
Hello all,
Just realised how long it's been since I updated this, so I figured I best write something.
I've been in Chicago for about a month and have settled in well. Chicago is an extremely easy city to find your way around. You get to most places downtown by only making one turn (if you're walking, the one way streets mean you can't if you're driving). My time has been spent either working, exploring or setting up a new social circle.
Work is going well, I've been placed on shift so I work 12 hour days but get more days off. In fact at the moment I'm enjoying a long period of days off due to Thanksgiving. I last worked on Tuesday and am not working again until Monday evening. The major downside to shift work is I go on night shifts next week which is guaranteed to mess up my sleep cycle. But I have holiday left over so I'll be taking a few shifts off. I'm working on a pilot plant based in the main office which is great cause I'm not stuck at a desk. I can get my hands dirty and do some hands on work.
Thanksgiving was yesterday and I celebrated it with some people from UOP. Had them round my apartment and enjoyed an amazing roast chicken dinner, which was well cooked by Chris who is leaving Chicago to go on the road tomorrow. He's also from England and enjoys introducing me to people at UOP as "My replacement as the token British guy". The great thing about Thanksgiving is I get 2 days off for a holiday that doesn't really have any significance to me, plus it also means that you don't get Christmas adverts as early as we do in England.
Well there are loads of things I could write about but it would result in a stupidly long post that you'd get bored reading. The countdown to Christmas had started and the festivities have started in Chicago. Various parades and things for the turning on of various lights etc. No snow yet but it's starting to get cold so shouldn't be too much longer.
Til next time,
Just realised how long it's been since I updated this, so I figured I best write something.
I've been in Chicago for about a month and have settled in well. Chicago is an extremely easy city to find your way around. You get to most places downtown by only making one turn (if you're walking, the one way streets mean you can't if you're driving). My time has been spent either working, exploring or setting up a new social circle.
Work is going well, I've been placed on shift so I work 12 hour days but get more days off. In fact at the moment I'm enjoying a long period of days off due to Thanksgiving. I last worked on Tuesday and am not working again until Monday evening. The major downside to shift work is I go on night shifts next week which is guaranteed to mess up my sleep cycle. But I have holiday left over so I'll be taking a few shifts off. I'm working on a pilot plant based in the main office which is great cause I'm not stuck at a desk. I can get my hands dirty and do some hands on work.
Thanksgiving was yesterday and I celebrated it with some people from UOP. Had them round my apartment and enjoyed an amazing roast chicken dinner, which was well cooked by Chris who is leaving Chicago to go on the road tomorrow. He's also from England and enjoys introducing me to people at UOP as "My replacement as the token British guy". The great thing about Thanksgiving is I get 2 days off for a holiday that doesn't really have any significance to me, plus it also means that you don't get Christmas adverts as early as we do in England.
Well there are loads of things I could write about but it would result in a stupidly long post that you'd get bored reading. The countdown to Christmas had started and the festivities have started in Chicago. Various parades and things for the turning on of various lights etc. No snow yet but it's starting to get cold so shouldn't be too much longer.
Til next time,
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
I Don't Drink Coffee I Take Tea My Dear
You can hear it in my accent when I talk. I'm an Englishman in ....... Chicago!
Admittedly those aren't the correct lyrics but I have been struggling to get that song out of my head recently. Been a fairly tiring few days in my new home. I'm sitting here in my new apartment in downtown Chicago, looking out over the city. I'm on the 18th floor so the view is quite nice.
The apartment is really nice. It's fully furnished complete with kitchen equipment (apart from a kettle, I have a coffee maker instead). It's located a few blocks away from Michigan Ave (the main shopping street in Chicago).
As I mentioned in my last post I flew out to Chicago on Sunday. My flight landed in O'Hare around 3. After a hour waiting an hour in the queue at immigration I looked for the carousel to get my bags to find the flight wasn't up on the screen. There was a flight with a similar number that also flew from Heathrow so I figured the was a mistake somewhere. However after waiting for a while I noticed my luggage on another carousel. The screens above this carousel had no flight number or anything on it. Bit odd but the important thing is that everything I took arrived with me.
A taxi ride later I arrived at my hotel for the next few days. After settling into my room and more importantly taking a shower I met up with Angela, another employee at UOP (me and her had our interviews on the same day) and Alberto (another UOP employee). We then went to a very nice Argentine restaurant not too far from Wrigley Field. I got back to my hotel at around 11 (or 4 in the morning according to my body clock). Straight to bed for me.
5.30 the next morning I was up again getting ready for work. As the office is in Des Plaines which is a suburb of Chicago we leave early to avoid traffic. We arrived at the office at 7.3o. The day basically consisted of lots of taking and meeting people. Head was spinning a bit at the end of the day. I found out I'm going to be based in Operations for the first few months which is good cause I won't be stuck at a desk. In the evening I explored Chicago.
That brings us to today. Again we left for the office at 6.30. The day was spent sitting around. I wasn't allowed in the pilot plant because I was wearing contact lenses so there wasn't much I could do apart from going to buy my safety shoes. Tomorrow should be more interesting and involved.
That's the quick update. I moved into my apartment today so spent the evening unpacking. It's Halloween this weekend and some of the decorations are quite something.
That's it for now, hope you enjoyed reading this.
Til next time.
Admittedly those aren't the correct lyrics but I have been struggling to get that song out of my head recently. Been a fairly tiring few days in my new home. I'm sitting here in my new apartment in downtown Chicago, looking out over the city. I'm on the 18th floor so the view is quite nice.
The apartment is really nice. It's fully furnished complete with kitchen equipment (apart from a kettle, I have a coffee maker instead). It's located a few blocks away from Michigan Ave (the main shopping street in Chicago).
As I mentioned in my last post I flew out to Chicago on Sunday. My flight landed in O'Hare around 3. After a hour waiting an hour in the queue at immigration I looked for the carousel to get my bags to find the flight wasn't up on the screen. There was a flight with a similar number that also flew from Heathrow so I figured the was a mistake somewhere. However after waiting for a while I noticed my luggage on another carousel. The screens above this carousel had no flight number or anything on it. Bit odd but the important thing is that everything I took arrived with me.
A taxi ride later I arrived at my hotel for the next few days. After settling into my room and more importantly taking a shower I met up with Angela, another employee at UOP (me and her had our interviews on the same day) and Alberto (another UOP employee). We then went to a very nice Argentine restaurant not too far from Wrigley Field. I got back to my hotel at around 11 (or 4 in the morning according to my body clock). Straight to bed for me.
5.30 the next morning I was up again getting ready for work. As the office is in Des Plaines which is a suburb of Chicago we leave early to avoid traffic. We arrived at the office at 7.3o. The day basically consisted of lots of taking and meeting people. Head was spinning a bit at the end of the day. I found out I'm going to be based in Operations for the first few months which is good cause I won't be stuck at a desk. In the evening I explored Chicago.
That brings us to today. Again we left for the office at 6.30. The day was spent sitting around. I wasn't allowed in the pilot plant because I was wearing contact lenses so there wasn't much I could do apart from going to buy my safety shoes. Tomorrow should be more interesting and involved.
That's the quick update. I moved into my apartment today so spent the evening unpacking. It's Halloween this weekend and some of the decorations are quite something.
That's it for now, hope you enjoyed reading this.
Til next time.
Monday, 19 October 2009
Leaving My Adopted Homeland
Hello All,
First post in a while, simple reason being a lack of interesting things to write about. However I do have some news. My flights have been booked and I am leaving the UK on Sunday the 25th. Been getting quite excited about this. There's been a few set-backs and delays and I still don't have a place to live at the moment, but bring on the adventure. Packing has started, my visa has been obtained, flights have been booked and shipping has been arranged. Hopefully I will have plenty of interesting things to write about once I arrive.
Till next time,
First post in a while, simple reason being a lack of interesting things to write about. However I do have some news. My flights have been booked and I am leaving the UK on Sunday the 25th. Been getting quite excited about this. There's been a few set-backs and delays and I still don't have a place to live at the moment, but bring on the adventure. Packing has started, my visa has been obtained, flights have been booked and shipping has been arranged. Hopefully I will have plenty of interesting things to write about once I arrive.
Till next time,
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