Trip to Chicago to visit Hao, Day 1

Ed and I went on a trip to Chicago to visit his old roommate, Hao (who you might already know as someone with whom I frequently play League of Legends).

We got on the train to travel from our home village to the Chicago city area. In the photo you can see Ed’s chin and his headphones, artistically obstructing the view out the window.

After completing our train ride and taking our first steps of the day into Chicago, we came across this structure. Ed said that it was the “Olympic torch for giants.”

Olympic torch for giants

Then we noticed that it was actually called the Batcolumn.

Batcolumn

Ed decided that he likes the name “Olympic torch for giants” better.

While we were walking from the train station to Hao’s apartment, we walked across the highway.

Highway

As well as this brilliantly named restaurant – El Famous Burrito.

El Famous Burrito

We also walked across this truck whose logo resembled a Pokéball.

Chicago Corporate Photography

After a bit over a mile of walking, we finally made it to Hao’s apartment.

Apartment hallway

After leaving all our stuff in Hao’s room, we headed out for a tour. Our first stop was one of the main University of Illinois in Chicago buildings. This building (as well as a lot of buildings in UIC) were architecturally designed for the utility of a prison. As a result, this building’s base is narrower than its peak, in order to make it more difficult for people to climb.

Building

We also encountered a camera-shy squirrel that turned its tail on me when I tried to take a photo.

Camera-shy squirrel

Apparently this building was under construction for a really long time. Ed let me know that once they finally finished construction, the only difference was that they added these random white tubes to the outside of the building.

White tubes

There was also a random telephone stuck to the side of the building. Need to call for emergency help? Better know how to pick a lock first.

Telephone

Our next stop was a Dunkin’ Donuts where we ate breakfast. This was the fish aquarium located behind where we were sitting and eating. If you look really closely, you can see the reflection of my hands and camera on the glass.

Fish aquarium

This is Ed failing at eating a donut and making a disastrous mess everywhere.

Eating a donut fail

If at first you don’t succeed … try something easier. A donut with no filling? Can’t fail there.

Eating a donut

After eating breakfast, we went on for a longer walk. We came across this area. What happened here? A tornado, obviously.

Fallen trees

After some more walking, we finally made our way to a restaurant where we would have lunch. For some reason, Ed was terrified of a platter of ketchup that our waitress brought to our table. As a result of his strange reaction, we obviously made fun of him for the remainder of the meal.

Ketchup

This was my lunch.

Lunch

Ed and Hao didn’t finish all their food, so we asked for a container to pack it up and bring it with us. This is Ed being really happy about holding food (or something like that).

Ed with leftover breakfast

As we continued walking, we came across this brilliant and kind sign directing the UPS man to the proper location. And that is Hao’s finger pointing out a very basic grammar error.

Grammar error

We went past some more UIC buildings, and came across this. I asked Ed, “what is this?” His response: “art, obviously.” “Even the random shrubbery growing on the wall?” “Yep.”

Art

We came back to Hao’s apartment to watch some football (better known by Americans as soccer). Unfortunately, even getting the television on was difficult, and figuring out how to change the channel was work designed for a rocket scientist. This is Hao struggling to try and figure out how to change the channel. “Challenged,” as he would say.

How do you change the channel

This is the view down Hao’s window, from the fifth floor. Something Hao has been thinking about for a long time is what animal he would be able to drop down from his window and still have it survive. His best solution so far is dropping a whale shark. Because whale sharks are around 40 feet, the distance it would have to fall from the fifth floor, relative to its body size, is small compared to other animals. If it is dropped vertically, it wouldn’t have to fall far, and it would just plop down into the courtyard, surviving.

View from a fifth floor window

This is Ed practicing his koala bear skills.

Ed practicing his koala bear skills

This is a random dog we saw on the side of the street tied up to a post.

This is the same building you saw earlier (with the narrower bottom and wider top), but at night. And with Ed and Hao standing in front of it.

Building

“I’m walking in the middle of the road. I feel like a car!” -Hao

Hao is a car

For dinner, we went to Thai Bowl, another restaurant in the area. On the menu, they had some yum-yum …

Yum-yum

… and some rice-rice-rice.

Rice-rice-rice

Ed got this strange-smelling soup.

Yellow soup

And I got this fried meaty chickeny stuff.

Sweet and sour chicken

On our way back from dinner, we stopped by this lemonade stand to get some Italian ice.

Italian ice

To finish off the day, we sat around in Hao’s apartment building’s lobby to chat, went back to his room and played some games, then went to sleep.

Apartment lobby

Want to see all these photos in their full-size glory? The entire album has been posted to Google+.

https://plus.google.com/photos/101330767311420885425/albums/5882698829527708641

 

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