We ain't ever gon' get to Chicago!

I felt my first ever visit to the USA should be incredible, and where better to lose my virginity than Chicago?  We only booked a couple of weeks ago as a sort of spur of the moment, you only live once trip, and ended up booking it so late that the coach had gone down by $100, woooo yeaaahhh.  The coach only took about 8 hours travelling time, plus an hour spent trying to get over the border which was suitably terrifying.  Americans are SO strict!  There were legit signs prohibiting smuggling aliens.  Seriously wish I had photo evidence.  We crossed in Detroit at about 6am and I was not in the mood to watch Chinese people get interrogated before it was my turn.. turns out the Americans do actually love the Brits and they laughed and joked with us and gave us a green card.  Easyyy.

The relatively sleepy and uneventful journey suddenly changed when 7 fucking insane deer ran out onto the highway, bearing in mind we were in the fast lane I saw one dart through two lanes of traffic before getting mowed down by our coach.. sorry to be graphic.  It felt like we'd hit a car and we were all in total shock whilst the deer sort of lay by the roadside half dead and the driver drove off.  However the locals from Detroit barely blinked and one large black woman sat opposite me sits up in her seat all angry when we hit the deer and goes 'We ain't EVER gon' get to Chicago!' then sits back down all pissed off.  Took all my strength not to die laughing in her face.

After our first cab ride and wowing at the amazing hostel we went straight out sightseeing on very little sleep and very empty stomachs.  The weather the entire weekend was absolutely perfect, not a single cloud, a gentle breeze and not too hot or cold, we were the luckiest ever.  Our first meal turned out to be a similar experience to the rest; the Americans we met in Chicago were not the friendliest!  Being used to Canadians and living in a small city where people obviously have more time for you, the people who served us barely gave us a second look, and as we discovered later, our British accents actually seriously worked against us!  A guitarist sang a few English songs for us as we ate, and we made our first stop at Millennium Park, which contains Cloud Gate, or 'The Bean', a big concert ground, ice skating rink and various sculptures, all alongside Lake Michigan.  Cloud Gate totally tripped me out and I fucking loved it, it was much more impressive than I expected, I was so in awe.  The city is so clean and vast, the land they have isn't stuffed with every possible thing they can fit in, instead all the attractions are spread out and beautifully presented which I really did love.

We then headed down Michigan Avenue, or the 'Magnificent Mile' as it is famously known; this is basically Chicago's high street with all the major shops and attractions.  The main aim for the day 1 was to explore the mile but not go in any shops, as at the end of the mile sat the John Hancock Tower, where we wanted to visit to get the recommended best view of Chicago!  Our impressive willpower meant we only popped in a couple of shops, and I was beyond excited to go in them properly.  Chicagoans have impressive style, and I found myself wanting every single thing I saw, both in the shops and on the people walking around the streets.  The walk took longer than we thought though, as we were all just wandering and staring at all the buildings and shops and people, the buildings in particular are beautiful.

By about 3.30 we made it to the John Hancock, with the idea of going up still in sunlight and waiting until it turned dark to get views of day and night.  This was the best idea we had, the view as we went up was absolutely gorgeous, all hazy and sunny, and the tower was situated one block from the lake so the views stretched right across the city.  Everyone got snap happy and we waited for the sun to go down, there were plenty of attractions to busy ourselves with for an hour or so, and I managed to get a spot inside the bar/cafe area where the view looked right out over the sun setting.  The sunset was a bit of a 'wow' moment for all of us I think, it was like a huge red orange pink ball and it was potentially one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen, in such a different way to the natural landscapes and scenery I've seen so far.

At the bottom of the Tower conveniently sat The Cheesecake Factory, so it would have been rude not to go in for a meal!  Meals out were very cheap, and I managed to get a pulled pork sandwich, drink and the BIGGEST slice of cheesecake you've ever seen for less than $20.  And it is DEFINITELY no lie about the American portions!  I actually hate cheesecake but had the Red Velvet and fell in love.  Oops.


Considering we'd been up for over 36 hours, night 1 was spent passing out ready for Day 2.. shopping!  We first stopped off by the Buckingham Fountain and for a peek at the lakeside, unfortunately the fountain was turned off as the cold weather is approaching, but the lake front basically looks like the city is on the coast and we got some gorgeous views of the skyline!  Shopping was hectic but AMAZING.  Absolutely my favourite ever day shopping, never have I had to stop myself buying so much stuff!  The shops are so cheap when you convert them back to £, with the exception of Topshop.. I actually wanted to cry wandering around looking at everything I needed in my life and realising the prices were literally double what they are at home.  Second homesick moment since moving here!  Macys felt like Selfridge's but I did treat myself to a little bit of Mac.. it would be rude not to.



One of my favourite things about visiting the city was listening to the accent.. Chicagoans have SO much attitude and I had to stop myself laughing on so many occasions.. personal highlight was wandering past a 14 year old boy frantically shouting in his mum's face 'IT'S 2.15 MOTHERFUCKER GRAB YO' SHIT'.  Almost died on the spot.  I also loved their style, and the performers on the streets playing music.  Also the fact that every McDonald's was decorated as thought it was a proper restaurant.. I suppose as it is the birthplace I should have expected that!

Saturday evening was spent watching the Christmas Lights Parade!  The parade was the perfect length of time and the floats were suitably over the top and incredible, with Mickey and Minnie Mouse leading the way shooting sparks out of their float at the end of each section to turn that street of lights on!  Wish I'd been five years old again so my excitement was appropriate.  We also got talking to some locals who recommended us the best deep dish pizza (think Chicago Town pizzas on the huge scale and not from Sainsburys..) and it was only one block away at Gino's East!  We skipped an hour long queue and were seating in five minutes.  The restaurant was so cool, every single possible surface had been graffiti'd on, my personal favourite saying 'Dave loves Jessica (crossed out) Mindy (crossed out) Kim'.  Good luck Kim.

However this was where we discovered a pattern in our meals out.. at the Cheesecake Factory we'd been shortchanged $20.. luckily Greg spotted it and the waitress instantly handed over the $20 without questioning it which made us suspicious.  Then this evening we counted properly, as the bills are all identical and so confusing.. yet still ended up being short about $15.  We all paid the extra when I realised I'd put in $20 instead of $1..  and we didn't get that back.  The combination of student + tourist + British definitely = easy target.  It was the only fault of the weekend!

The newly lit streets made for a stunning and Christmassy walk home, and we ended the night playing the most hilarious night of Cranium in the hostel seeing as we aren't 21 and were fucking shattered.  The last day saw us splitting in the morning, four of us went to the Shedd Aquarium away from the downtown on the waterfront.  We paid just $5 for General Admission just to see the basic attractions.. yet realised security is not tight whatsoever and we literally got to see the entire aquarium, only with the exception of the dolphin show!  Sea Life Centre seems like a puddle compared to it, we saw penguins, otters, every single fish you could imagine, giant turtles, frogs, stingrays, dolphins, and the most amazing Beluga whales, a mother and its two pups.  Jenny almost cried.  It was hilarious.  Being overexcited and underestimating the length of roads as is usual in North America, we met up with the others at Navy Pier a little late.. Blackpool pier eat your heart out, it was so huge we couldn't even be bothered to walk right to the end!  Poor form from us.

We were all feeling gutted that hometime was calling soon and went exploring all the rest of the Mile that we'd already missed, making sure we made the use of every last minute.  Our coach was at midnight and checking out was at 9, so with some creeping around the hostel and sneaking off for a final deep dish pizza, we timed everything perfectly and were fortunately not homeless tramps in downtown Chicago.  Not ideal.

The weekend was absolutely perfect and we were the luckiest people ever in every possible way, I am desperate to go back when I'm 21 and explore the bars and clubs!  At 6am changing in Detroit we got chatting to a girl who goes to McGill in Montreal, yet her job involves hosting parties and looking after celebrities.. she'd just had an all expenses paid weekend in Chicago staying at a $700 a night hotel and attending parties with Richie Hawtin and Loco Dice.. I almost died!  Turns out she's bezzies with Richie and was determined to show us the best of Montreal, as it's exactly one month today until I get there, and swapped e-mails promising to tell us the best of the tourist attractions and to get us into the best of the clubs and DJ nights.  Excitement would be an understatement!  LOVE YOU CHICAGO.

Empty Buckingham Fountain

Greggles at Lake Michigan

TJ?!?!

Immature as always

Beluga whales!

What's the story in Tobermory?

Last weekend was spent hiking in Tobermory, which is about 5 hours from London.  Since our retarded house which looks amazing but decides to break in some way approximately 10 times a day decided to surprise us with no heat or hot water, Friday was an extremely rushed day.  Rushing to Greg's to shower, rushing to uni to print off forms because I'm too much of a tramp to buy a printer, rushing to some random guys house to sign up for the ski trip.  The ski trip is basically Leeds' Snowriders trip at home, why I've signed up to it I have no idea as I've never ever skiied in my life.. but I figured if I should learn anywhere it should be in Canada, especially with people who will get me so hammered that I'll still have some Dutch courage in the morning rolling down the slopes a la Bridget Jones.

I was actually so glad to be picked up to set off on the trip, especially as the new improved cubby hole snuggle seats meant the car was a million times warmer than my hideous ice cube house.  We arrived several hours later, not without some mandatory Tim's stops, a ticket for speeding and a rousing chorus of 'Fuck the Police'.  Arriving last meant we didn't have to sort out a fire so spent the night chatting with everyone and eating spider dogs and s'mores - both equally weird but incredible - a spider dog is a hotdog you roast which splits into eight like spider legs.. genius!  And a s'more is melted marshmallow, chocolate and graham crackers sandwiched.  Amazing.

A luxurious breakfast of eggs and bacon set us up for the 13km hike of Day 1; Tobermory borders Lake Huron and we were hiking along the cliff tops next to Georgian Bay.  Whislt 13km seems like nothing, the terrain was so so rocky and steep in places that it was much more difficult than I expected, got myself some gorgeous blisters and potentially broke my ankle again.  However the views were stunning, I still can't believe that these lakes are lakes, they're so huge they just look like ocean to me.  The trail is no trace, and it felt like nobody had ever walked there before, I was basically Bear Grylls.  It was even snowing!  I do not recognise myself.

Even though the group wasn't huge, we obviously ended up splitting due to pace, and by the end we were all dead.  I honestly thought the end would never come, and we finally come across a sign saying 'Caution: Bear in area' right next to a long rope trailing down a ridiculously steep hill.  Surely we wouldn't be camping here? No, obviously we were.

We weren't allowed a fire that night and all had to sleep on raised platforms across the hillside, it was without a doubt the most basic camping I've ever done.  Jesse had cooked the greatest chilli I've ever had in my entire life, so I went to bed feeling pretty content.. only to wake up in the morning with SNOW next to my head.  Freaking SNOW.  When I left England, there is no way I'd ever be camping unless it was the middle of summer, and now I'm camping in snow?  On a mountain.  With bears.  Of my own accord.  Literally do not recognise myself.

Anyway the hike back was much easier than we all expected, and the day ended with visiting the Grotto, a huge cave with beautiful pools where you could get right down by the water.  I just watched as the bravest/stupidest of us went jumping off the top of the caves and swimming, I was literally freezing my arse off at this point so huge congrats to the maniacs who went in - Chloe and Jess in particular for representing the Brits!

So basically.. I went hiking this weekend, and I am just as amazed at myself as my parents are, but Canada is literally the most stunning place that I think it's the best way to see it all.  Camping trips are pretty much over as the snow's definitely coming, I'm already wearing my warmest outfits so I'm screwed for when proper winter comes.  Aaaand nothing else to report.  Except on the way home we went for a meal and I had a pulled pork sandwich and it was the greatest thing I've ever had in my mouth.  Ew.  Sorry.

Spider dog!

High fashion

jc'in on a cliff

Supporting a soggy Jess

I'm a mouse... duh.

This is an extremely belated Halloween post due to midterms/laziness/me being away frolicking in some hills this weekend like a true Canadian.  Before I even came out to Canada people were telling me how amaaazing Halloween over here is and how much effort everybody puts in, and when I did get out here, people were telling me the same still.  Last year I dressed up as Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter, and I did actually look quite good, I remember people outside Maxi's getting takeaway getting outside my house freaking out when I was coming back from the house party I went to.  Great success.  So I thought being British it'd probably be a decent costume to recycle and it was fairly easy to do, so I actually brought the long black skirt and boots I wore out with me. 

Turns out going as Bellatrix Lestrange wouldn't be the best idea, when I told people out here what I was going to be, they were like "Uh, like a slutty Bellatrix?".  Errrr no, because last year, I looked like this:

Naaaaat too slutty.  Yet according to the people I spoke to, everyone on Halloween is a slut (their words not mine).  Or to quote Mean Girls; 'Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it'.  Basically, I'd be Lindsay Lohan in the scene where she goes to the party, and nobody wants to hear 'scary mask bro' yelled at them.  I tried to compromise and go as Dobby the house elf, only to be asked if I'd be putting a belt round my middle to be a slutty Dobby.  I can't even comprehend the thought of a slutty Dobby.  How could Dobby even be a slut?  So, determined to be somewhat Halloweeny, I went out and bought a shitload of spiders and webbing, some face paint and spiders-web eyelashes.  And a child's nurse outfit.  Just to get into the spirit of things (and it was like $12). 

But when I went shopping properly, I kind of realised what people had been saying.  The Halloween stores here are absolutely incredible, they literally have any kind of costume you could think of, my personal favourite being a fried egg.  I wish I'd taken some pictures, but honestly if you could think of any costume, they'd have something for you.  I realised that actually Halloween doesn't mean you're a slut; it just means you can be anything and everything.  So this concept isn't something I'm actually used to, because obviously at home, absolutely everybody is dressed up scary for Halloween, the scarier the better, but here it seems the more random the costume the better.

Too many choices (and lack of funds) meant I bought the pretty generic costumes mentioned above for the parties over the weekend.  Some of the girls here threw a party on Saturday night, and they'd gone all out.  The house looked incredible, one of them had even paper-mached eyeballs to hang from the ceiling!  And as for the whole idea of a slut theme, that had been totally exaggerated.  Everyone had made so much effort with costumes I'd never thought of making, my favourite was a unicorn, so good, and being seriously honest, nobody was dressed like a slut at all.  Thankfully there were no Lindsay Lohan moments and I got suitably hammered as always, being on the champion flip cup team didn't make me any more sober but definitely made my night.  Ryan was up again but out with his housemates and we met up with him at home where we bullied Jenny for a bit, then they went and got two taxis to Subway whilst I passed out on the floor in his monkey onesie.  Kudos to Jenny for forcefeeding me lettuce and filming it.

Wednesday was actual Halloween and I now wanted to Halloween up more than ever but had stupidly bought the most standard costume ever, a nurse.  Bloodied up and with a giant syringe I didn't look too shit, still would only give myself a 3/10 though.  Poor form from me, but in my defence I'd spent the entire day cramming for the 9.30 exam I had the next morning (and just found out I got 88% in, yeaaaaah, definitely doing exams hanging more often).  We got warned to be downtown before 10, which I thought was too early, but then again I know shit all.  The 9.30 bus from campus was horrendously busy, apologies to the guy clearly coming home from the library and feeling suicidal who we decided to terrorise.  And the queues downtown were crazy, even longer than Homecoming, I thought we'd end up back home and drinking within the hour.  With the after effects of Sandy meaning the rain was seeping through the plastic bag on my head, we make a quick choice and went to Jacks and ended up paying $5 more for getting straight in and into VIP.  I need to keep reminding myself than $5 is NOT £5 and I'm not always getting ripped off, and it was good inside, and FINALLY we found that the second floor doesn't play hip hop only, I actually felt at home with the music #luvinlyf.

Aaaaand in Jacks I realised the whole Halloween slut commotion, there were girls dressed like they were straight out of Ann Summers, but really, I don't care, they do that in the UK!  Well most weekends in Blackpool anyway, never mind Halloween, in Blackpool who needs an excuse.  Fair play to them braving the cold and still turning out dressed up like that, they're definitely braver than me.  But anyway, Jack's was fun as always, and Halloween definitely did live up to expectations.  I even saw event invites for Halloween afterparties this weekend, whyyy?!  Surely when it's over, it's over?  Apparently not.  Canadians don't do anything by halves!

Flip cup champions! yeaahhh