CHIC-A-GO!!! I had the opportunity for short work visit to Chicago recently. For those people who don't know what or where Chicago is, here are some basic facts.
Chicago is a city in the state of Illinois (roughly pronounced: il-uh-noy, ... silent "s"), which is located almost at the southern edge of the Great Lakes (in this case, the Michigan Lake), in the US.
I was there on company assignment to accompany some Malaysian delegates to the 57th American College of Cardiology meeting.
WELL, so much about the meeting and the delegates!!! This is about a wonderful city call Chicago!!
Like KL who claims to be the "Garden City of Lights", Penang and Hong Kong both claim to be "The Pearl of the Orient", Chicago boasts of their reputation of being "The Windy City", as I came to discover they weren't kidding when they call themselves the Windy City. It was already the end of March, early April when I was there, so, Spring beckons, goodbye Winter!!
WEATHER. I can go on about how cold it was, especially in the wind, but really.... take my word for it, IT WAS FREEZING COLD. I love cold weather... yet somehow, Man vs. Chicago the Windy City, MAN LOST. It was bone chilling (mostly wind chill factor), temperature was good though, like 5-15 degrees Celsius (isn't it frustrating that we can't seem to insert the symbol "degree"). Met an activist on Michigan Avenue, claiming global warming. That was the one moment I can almost believe "Global Warming" is a lie. (keyword is "almost believe"-meaning "ALMOST") Anyway, IT WAS VERY VERY EXTREMELY COLD.
Michigan Avenue. We walked about on our first day, spent most of the daylight hours scouring "The Magnificent Mile"-famous Michigan Avenue, where some of the world's most recognisable brand displays their ware.... McDonald's, Burger King, Star Bucks..... because of the relative low temperature and our vigorous walking, burning plenty of calories, I somehow remember the fast food chain better.
Oh Yeah, there were other international brands like Apple, Garmin, Nike (and Air Jordan), Victoria's Secret, Cartier along Michigan Avenue too.
Anyway, Chicago is a wonderful city to visit, and here's 10 reasons why I like Chicago.
1) Chicago felt safe. We never felt insecured whatsoever in our entire stay there. After watching some movies glorifying the Mob, Chicago was previously branded in my mind as a Mob city and highly crime ridden(thanks to American products like "The Untouchables", "Red Heat", "Scar Face". I was wrong. It felt safe, morning, evening, night.
2) It's a nice, cosy, rather well planned, small city center. You can, pretty much, get around on foot. BTW, the Gotham City in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight is Chicago. Imagine, I went on a self walk Batman Movie set tour.
3) There's no rubbish in sight, they're so clean that in our entire stay in Chicago, we saw no strewn rubbish and mind you, we were smack in the middle of downtown. Chicago gives Singapore a run for its money, in terms of cleanliness.. at least where I stayed, which is the block right next to "City Hall".
4) We never met any rude people, had one crazy cab driver, but no rude people... unless you consider sarcastic waiters as rude.
5) Chicago is quite artsy-fartsy, with lots of public sculptures, monuments and work of art displayed all around the city. Also, for those who like the theater scene, there're plenty of musical and plays, in the theater district. When I was there, the musical "CHICAGO!!" was showing...... wait a minute, did I say "CHICAGO!!!"?
6) Shopping... within an hour of Downtown Chicago, there's this place called the Aurora Hills where the main highlight is "Chelsea Premium Outlets", we call them factory outlets, they simply call them "Outlets". AND WHY do they have "PREMIUM" attached to the word "Outlet", because... they do not have stuff like "Vinci", "Giordano" and what nots. We're talkin' REAL BRANDED stuff, Armani, Timberland, Clarks, Michael Corrs, Banana Republic, and all the brands you usually hear about in "Project Runway". You don't get stuff with their brand or label cut off like "Reject" shop in M'sia. BTW, I bought a pair of Clarks loafers. The moment I tried it on, it was like, "Oh, where have you been all my life" kind of feeling. I regretted actually bringing 2 pairs of shoes (working and snickers), in retrospect, I'd just bring a pair of old work shoes, one I can leave behind AND SHOP LIKE CRAZY. For USD50-60, you can have Italians anytime. Word of advise, if you visit US for whatever reason, bring less stuff, buy em' here.
Ladies, FYI, you'd scream and tear at each others hair in COACH store. They're literally filled to the brim with Asian women, mostly speaking Hongkie Cantonese, but expressing the universal bird language, "Cheeap, Cheeap Cheep".
7) STEAKS, STEAKS, STEAKS!!. Chicago, according to my big sis who resides in San Jose, Northern California, is the land of steaks. Steak joints.... "they're everywhere" (ala 6th Sense), and they mostly serve good steaks. A vegan's nightmare. For the record, I like my steaks medium RARE. Oh yeah, almost forgot, steaks in Chicago generally comes in moderate sizes, mere 16oz for a medium sized steak.... AH.... that's merely 1 pound. Try the "Potterhouse", 64 oz (4 pounds!!!!) of meat, sided with a baked potato the size of your shoes, half a pound of boiled vege.... pictured here is merely a 1 pound (standard size) steak.
8) The American dream, (more applicable to the whole of US than Chicago alone), in my few days stay, I met people from all around the world. A truly plural society, people come from all over the world to make a life of their own in United States. Most of those who are not born in America (that I met), would've emigrated from either somewhere in Asia or Middle East, some parts of Africa and etc. One thing they consistently mention, when they found out I'm Malaysian, "Mahathir Mohd!! Great Man!!", really, no kidding.
9) Michigan Avenue, the "Magnificent Mile", made of one whole mile (or more) of high class retail outlets, wonderful old buildings, cathedrals and churches, the John Hancock Center (2nd tallest in Chicago) and really beautiful looking people.
10) The Great Lakes. North of Chicago, I have a soft spot for big lakes, liked those in NZ? Wait till you see the Great Lakes, they ain't called "Great" for nothin'. Michigan Lake is the one most south of the 3 great lakes. And it's an absolute ocean, we can probably fit the Peninsula Malaysia right into the lake to spare. Since it's technically still winter, I didn't jump in to test the temperature. However, we did have Hagen Daaz ice cream by the lake side. If you measured an ice cream's worth in the time it takes you to finish it, then it makes good sense. In almost absolutely freezing conditions, it took us a LONG LONNNNG time to finish the ice-cream.
CONCLUSION
Having been to the US a couple of times, to San Fran/San Jose/Seattle/Vancouver, Atlanta and now Chicago, Chicago did not disappoint AT ALL. I'd love to have the opportunity to re-visit Chicago, much more than I'd like "not to" go to Atlanta again.
