Somehow, despite my lack of a job yet, I’ve been keeping extraordinarily busy. The cause was, no doubt, my older sister’s wedding this past weekend. I’ll likely put a couple pictures up from that affair soon, but here’s another one from Chicago. A photo of the modern architecture that Chicago displays so very well. I tried to get picture of whole buildings while wondering around downtown, but I couldn’t do it. The buildings are simply too tall. The downtown of Chicago is undoubtedly impressive, and impeccably clean. I think I saw one stray piece of trash during my entire stay; the streets were beautifully trash free.

I should mention the people as well, because the people make a place. Quite simply, the people in Chicago were incredibly kind to me. Every bit as nice as in small-town Wyoming and equally nice as in Denver. Not that one talks to many strangers in Denver, as all are locked inside their cars. I talked to quite a few random folk in Chicago and they were all very kind and helpful. I couldn’t help but get good vibes on the streets.

A quick aside. While busing to the train stop from the Museum of Science and Industry, I saw a fairly decent looking traffic jam ahead, so I jumped off the bus a stop or two early, as I figured walking would be quicker. I started walking, and I heard a guy yell, “hey dude, come help me push this car.” I see a large black man pushing a stalled car with a woman driver. I agree and proceed to help him push the car a block. He tells me the red line will take me anywhere I want to go, and when we’ve pushed the car into a parking lot, he thanks me for my help. Sure man, not a problem.

As for the down-and-out folk, Chicago hosts plenty of homeless people downtown. Though none in Millennium Park as I would have expected (after all, isn’t the point of huge, centrally located parks to house homeless?), which is likely due to the strong security presence there. But on the streets, there was a fair number of homeless chaps. Their presence was seen and heard on almost every street corner. Though I do say, I haven’t seen as well-off looking homeless folk anywhere except for Brussels. They were never rude, and always said, “God bless you,” as I passed without dropping anything in their cups, which I thought was a nice tactic.

In all, I found Chicago to be an awesome, beautiful city. It’s densely populated (fuck LA, Denver, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Portland, Atlanta and most other American cities), has decent public transit, and I liked the atmosphere. A place I’d certainly like to visit again; now, I’ve just got to make it to that one American city that’s near ubiquitous.