Christmastime in Chicago

We took a short trip to Chicago last week and spent three days there. I really wanted to soak in the Christmas spirit just by walking down the streets. It felt nice strolling along Michigan Avenue in the light snow. The Christmas lights were a little more low key than those in SG, and they don't dress up their buildings as much. But we still enjoyed the lights and the atmosphere.

This is a real, living Christmas tree at the John Hancock Tower! The biggest living Christmas tree I have seen so far. Wonder if I will ever see the one at Rockefeller, which I bet is much bigger.

SS was thrilled to see the toy trains chugging along the winding tracks. Hopefully one day we will be able to set up our own! I thought it was fun to see so many trains moving all over the place without hitting one another. This kept us entertained for one hour while we waited to eat at the Cheesecake Factory.

Day 2: We spent the day at the Museum of Science and Industry. It is something like our Science Center, with the Omnimax theatre, but with additional cool stuff like a real U-505 submarine which was used by the Germans in WWII and captured by the Americans.

We went for the tour inside the submarine, where the guide gave us a peek into how it was like to live inside the submarine, and an exciting account of how the capture took place. The thing I remembered most was that there were only two toilets in the whole submarine, one of which had to be used for food storage at the beginning of the voyage. So the crew literally had to eat their way through in order to access the second toilet.

I was really impressed with these Chicago buildings made from Lego bricks. They look exactly like the real ones! The left-most one is the Chicago Spire, which is still not built yet, but when it is completed, I will love to come back and see it.

From left: Chicago Spire and Marina City, John Hancock Tower and the Trump Tower.

One of the main reasons for our visit: The "Christmas Around the World and Holiday of Lights" in the museum features this huge tree, plus 50 other trees each decorated by different ethnic communities! We saw the Chinese one (lots of "double happiness" character cut-outs and erm, CNY lanterns made from ang paos) and the Japanese one (origami!). The European ones had a lot of intricate ornaments, some of which looked handmade. I wished we had more time to go through them one by one.

Another train track! This one is humongous! What you see here is only half of the display. Some of the toy trains which were running were as long as two meters! The programming was done with a lot of detail, coz some of the trains will give way to others when they have to utilize the same track.

A very realistic model of Chicago's architecture and the trains running through them. You can see how 333 West Wacker Drive (my fave building) looks just like the real thing in a photo in my previous post.

After the museum visit, we went to catch James Cameron's Avatar in 3D in the IMAX at Navy Pier. The theater was packed! If there is one movie you want to catch in 3D, this is it!

Our first durian

SS and I were both pretty stressed out last weekend due to exams. So we finally succumbed to temptation (after 2.5 years here) and bought a durian from the Chinese Mart.

We were always suspicious of that lonely-looking frozen durian sitting in the corner of the freezer. Surely it is not fresh or tasty? And where's the supposed aroma that comes with every good durian? We never took the leap of faith until last week.

Last week was a little different. The durians (four of them) were sitting in a carton outside the freezer. Somehow, because they were sitting among the fresh fruits, it made them seem a bit "fresher". SS kept asking me if I wanted to eat durian. I have long learnt that if your hubby asks you whether you want to eat durian, the correct answer is "yes", regardless of whether you really want to eat the durian or not. Coz he doesn't really care whether you want to eat durian or not. He is just asking for justification to buy the huge fruit which he really wants to eat.

So here is that glorious fruit which flew all the way from Thailand:

Lesson learnt: Never try to cut a durian when it is frozen. It took us about 15 minutes of hacking to finally get a slit big enough for us to get our thumbs in and pry the fruit open. Those durian sellers make it look soooo easy...

The end result: a whole tupperware of yummy durian! It actually tasted very good! I guess we got lucky!

Countdown...

Ten more days to end of exam... Almost there!!!

Anyway, there is something else we are looking forward to before that. This weekend, we will be driving to Chicago for a concert -- "Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy", and Nobuo Uematsu will be there! I have never really gotten into playing any FF games, but those around me have, so I am pretty familiar with the music. It has been a while since I have been to a concert, so I am really psyched!

Still dreaming of when I can go watch a Joe Hisaishi concert though...

New blog!

We just set up a new blog, so please pop by! :)

(Link by the side as well)

Chicago Line's Architectural River Cruise

I have been to the Windy City umpteenth times now, but I still love it every time I am there. Yes, the dim sum there is a major factor (W proudly announced that we have accomplished 80% of our "mission" after we finished our brunch at Phoenix), but the architecture is really not-to-be-missed.

So we took the river cruise down the Chicago River (which, incidentally, has its flow reversed so that pollution will not enter Lake Michigan - Chicago's water source), and tried to take some photos. Some of these photos really don't do justice to the buildings!

It was a particularly cold day. Even our car was freezing.

Quirky waterfront house

333 West Wacker Drive - one of my favourites! I feel that the curved green glass makes it a really interesting canvas for the river, the sky and the other buildings.

The balconies poking out of this building makes it look like a gigantic punch-card.

The top of the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower). See the boxes poking out? These are not for the faint-hearted! Known as The Ledge, they are completely made of glass which are half-inch thick.

Here's my grouper!

It was pretty easy to prepare, once I got used to the sliminess of handling the fish. The texture of the fish was really good, but not the taste! I think I may have been a little too stingy on the soya sauce. Mum also suggested that I discard the juice after steaming before adding in the soya sauce next time...

IF... there is a next time...

Anyway, I better stick to smaller fish next time. My wok is too small for this fish... I had to cut off its tail in order to barely squeeze it into the wok...

Cancer

If there is one thing that I remember from my epidemiology class tonight, it is this song by Joe Jackson.

Never thought someone could write a song about cancer!