First Bears game

I have been wanting to go to a game ever since I came to Chicago and luckily Carrie managed to get us free tickets today. Unfortunately the weather was insane today and the Bears didn't too well lol - but still I had a great time and it was more about the whole experience!

They were up against the New England Patriots which includes the lovely Tom Brady (married to Gisele Bündchen).

I honestly did not have a clue what was going on but determined to learn more about the game whilst I live here. It was inspiring how dedicated the fans were to support there team through snow storm!!






Final score:

New England Patriots 36 - Chicago Bears 7 

New Band from Denver...Tennis

I have had one of the best weekends ever in Chicago...just sad to say it's my last week here before Christmas now.

Tennis

To start the weekend off I not only discovered the most amazing burger place...DMK, but went to a great gig at a bar called Schubas. I wasn't too sure about the warm up band... My Family Portrait but the main band Tennis were great. The band are made up of a married couple from Denver; Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley,  who decided to start playing music together after a seven-month sailing voyage along the East Coast.

The funny thing about the two bands (well maybe not for Family Portrait) is that Tennis used to be the warm up band but now they are so popular it is the other way around!! They assured everyone there is no love lost!

For me its all about Alaina, she is so cute and her voice is phenomenal! They only have 1 album which you can pre-order from Fat Possum records but you can check out some of their videos and their MySpace using the link below:


http://www.myspace.com/tennisinc

A couple of my favourites:
http://pitchfork.com/tv/%23/episode/2840-tennis/2
http://vimeo.com/13010675

They are now touring all over too including London on 7th and 18th Jan.

First date stateside! Is the grass really greener??

It's funny wherever you go it seems the grass is always greener. For example, when I first arrived my US friends were all intrigued to find out what the guys were like in the UK - I think they secretly believe (or want to believe) they are all like Hugh Grant! They seem to have given up on guys here. In their words there are no true gentleman and they are all douchebags (my all time favourite US slang word!!)

Although if you asked any girl from London/UK the same thing you would probably get the same answer...except douchebags would most likely be replaced by tossers!!

I've come to the conclusion therefore that it has nothing to do with location, these days you just have to uncover the diamonds in the rough! With this in mind, and in a mission to meet new people I decided to join the US version of Match.com. I have never ever thought of joining anything like this before (I guess I always thought I was too young!!) so its all new to me. The good thing is though its not just people looking for LOVE!! There are people who are new to the city (like moi) looking for friends.

For people that are specifically looking for THE ONE I would have to say this is worth a try. The site allows you to cut through a lot of the usual crap you never know when meeting someone in a bar.What do they do, what do they like, do they want kids, do they HAVE kids etc etc.

As you can imagine I have had some gems of emails already. I think the funniest I have had so far is a guy who couldn't quite work out why it was I hadn't replied so decided to email me again a few days later asking if my internet was broken! No...its not broken, I haven't had an accident or lost the use of my hands...I just didn't want to reply...sorry!

So anyway, last night was my first official date eek! I must admit I was nervous as hell and wasn't sure what to expect but it was great! The guy I met is far from being an axe murderer (just one of the notions running through my head). We met and talked for hours...now I can't even remember what about!

I'm mostly pleased because I wanted to see what it was like to go on a date with an American guy. And sorry, to all you US girls out there I hate to crush your stereotype but he was a true gentleman and you know what... he is far from being a douchebag LOL!!

Watch this space for the next date...

P.S Tried out a new place..Old Town Social in Old Town (would you believe!!!) and its great. the service is good, the music fantastic (there was a guy playing guitar and singing some TUNES!!) and the food...amazing! We shared a plate of pure heaven...cheese, meats and bread! Life can't get any better!

Can I have some added fat with that popcorn!!??

I went to the cinema this week to see the new Harry Potter movie (great by the way but SCARY) and although I have been to the cinema here once before this was the first time I bought popcorn and it was an experience to say the least! Its not like the UK when you have the choice of sweet or salty here they only have butter flavour. They give you the popcorn at the till and then you have a pump which basically pumps out the butter onto the popcorn - its like pouring pure fat onto your food lol!

My 1st Thanksgiving!!

So I got to celebrate my 1st Thanksgiving and it was lovely. I was so chuffed to be invited to spend it with Carrie boyfriend Nick's family, who live about 30 mins from downtown Chicago in a place called La Grainge ( A Chicago Suburb) 

To give you a little background Thanksgiving Day is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November and has been an annual tradition in the US since 1863, when during the Civil War, President Ab Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated. It is created to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims if the Plymouth Colony survive their first brutal winter in New England. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days.

The morning of Thanksgiving I got up to check emails and try and get through work before heading over to Nicks in the afternoon when I suddenly heard a loud banging! I couldn't for the life of me work out what it was until I looked down State Street and saw a parade. I was so excited I grabbed my coat and ran outside!

It really felt like Christmas. The day before, people were winding down and leaving around lunchtime (just like Christmas Eve) all the lights and Christmas decorations were up and after the parade the streets were practically empty! I felt all festive and dreamy!!

We headed over to Nicks in the afternoon and again it felt like Christmas day. His mum was in the kitchen cooking away, the table was all set and every sat round chatting and watching telly whilst the rest of the family arrived.

When we did eventually sit down to eat (me and Carrie were close to eating our hands we were so hungry!) it was more food than I have seen for a while. We had lots of different courses some of which inspired by the Polish side of the family.

Round 1
Chili cheese dip and chips, coleslaw and freshly baked bread

Round 2

Crusted fillet of Veal 
Round 3

Pierogi - sweet cheese, Cheddar cheese, horseradish
Kapusta - pickled cabbage

Round 4

Turkey
Stuffing
Corn
Mash Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Cranberries and Gravy

Round 5

Banana cream pastry

Some of the gorgeous desserts!
Notice the English influence bottom right - mince pies donated by moi!!

Round 6

Champagne
Deserts of all kinds; cupcakes, pumpkin/apple pies, creme brulee


Food comas all around as you can imagine. When we got to Round 6 I could not physically fit anything - drink included into my belly!

Uncle Tom reading out some of the answers!

We also had a great laugh playing the dictionary game (one of which I am introducing to my family this Christmas). The leader of the game goes through the monster dictionary and picks crazy words and their meanings. The players then get given a piece of paper to write a silly explanation for what they think it might be (you want the other players to pick your answer). The leader then reads all of them out including the correct one. The players have to pick what they think is the right answer. If you get the answer right you get 2 points and you get a point for every person who thought it was your answer....it was hilarious!

Lovebirds - Carrie and Nick



Me and Carrie



The whole family

The day was so lovely and I felt like one of the family, Nick's mum even bought me a little gift

Definitely a great 1st Thanksgiving experience all round!

Pub Crawl - Chicago style....in a Trolley!

Had the most hilarious night Saturday...I got to experience a Trolley!! Its basically the Chicago term for 'pub crawl'! When we turned up Carrie and the girls were already drunk - the Trolley basically drives around ( a bit like a party bus) whilst the guests get merry! We then ended up at a place called 'The Hangout' which plays the best 80's music. We bopped the night away to Bonjovi and Tony Basal's 'Oh Micky your so fine'!!!



Me, Carrie & Corey



Corey, Carrie & Whitney




Me & Whitney



Magnificent Mile Lights Festival Parade 2010

Every year in Chicago they hold the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival and its the official kick off of the Christmas season in Chicago. They have a Mickey Mouse parade illuminating over one million lights along Michigan Avenue.

It was such a perfect day. Although it was the first day I had to pull out 'the coat' by this I mean the winter coat which could double up as a duvet!! It was so 'Christmassy' and the fireworks were amazing! Plus I got to spend it with a friend which was lovely.

Good ol' Mickey Mouse!

LA baby yeah!!

So recently treated myself to a little bit of LA love! Wow what a place! Its completely the other end of the spectrum from Chicago. Here I live downtown where I can walk to everything, you can't do that in LA you need a car for everything so convertible Mustang it was - only the best!! Here its been an average of 50-60 degrees, in LA it was an average of 80 degrees!!

I managed to squeeze a lot into the few days there:

Checked out Hollywood and mingled with the stars!

Then headed out to Santa Monica. Now this is a place I could see myself living. sun, sand and shops...heaven!

And shop heaven....

But most importantly I just chilled!

Well not all the time!

Getting together with friends is the same no matter where you are!

Carrie introduced me to more of her friends last night. Loads of guys she went to Purdue College with. We had such a great night and it was just like being back at home with friends. First we all went to this guy Ron's house and he had cooked a yummy dinner. Carrie then introduced me to the delights of Scotch –A- Roo’s! It's the most yummy desert but god only knows how many calories are in it!

Ingredients

1 cup sugar 

1 cup white karo syrup 

1 cup peanut butter 

6 -cups rice krispies 

6 oz pkg semi-sweet chips 

6 oz pkg butterscotch chips 

Preparation

1. Put sugar & karo in a large pot. Bring to small boil, at the sight of 1st bubble, turn off heat and remove pot from stove.
2. Stir in peanut butter.
3. Pour mixture into bowl with rice krispies, mix well.
4. Pour into pan.
5. Melt chips together in microwave, start with 1 min, stir, do 2nd min, stir and repeat until melted, do not over cook or will burn.
6. Spread mixture on top of krispie mix.
7. Let completely cool before cutting.



Lovely Carrie making the Scotch-A-Roo's

We then sat around drinking and playing card games. I learnt how to plays 'Kings' and didn't do too badly!
Once we had got through most of the drink at Ron's we headed over to a bar in Lincoln Park - The Lion's Head. It's really cool you can buy long tubes of beer which sits in a little cone holder on the tables. It has a tap on it so you and your friends don't have to keep going to the bar.

The whole night was really fun - slightly hazy from The Lion's Head onwards however and HANGOVER CENTRAL this morning!!!!

Hot Chocolate 5K

I took part in a charity race at the weekend and it was really fun! It was organised by RAM Racing in aid of the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute.


The race started at 7.40am so had to get up at 6am! Not ideal timing if it had been on the Sunday then it would have actually been light outside at that time (clocks went back an hour Sunday morning). Therefore 6am = pitch black + freezing cold!


Luckily the night before I had gone to Old Navy (added onto the Rachel's favorite shops list!) and bought a thermal/fleece jumper and gloves.

It was really fun and lovely to be so near the lake that early and see the sun rise. The only thing that I would say is that the course was not that well thought out; there were 35,000 people racing and lots of bottle necks, in particular when they were giving out the Gatorade.

The best part of all was the end...not just because of the obvious but we got this....

Hot melted Ghirardelli

Election day - Candidates rip each other to shreds!!

November 2nd = Election day in the US (It occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November. The earliest possible date is November 2nd  and the latest possible date is November 8th.

One noticeable difference in the run up to Election Day here has been the marketing campaigns used by each candidate. I just had to share some of the commercials as it is quite unbelievable what they are allowed to say. The marketing laws in the UK are very different!

It's been particularly bad recently and especially before and after the news. I have to admit a lot of them make me laugh more than anything!! A lot of them could be mistaken for a Jerry Springer commercial!

First US Halloween!

So I have had my first Halloween in Chicago! It was really fun. I went out with Carrie and her friends and we dressed up as girls from the 80's. The girls were in 80's sporty gear and I went for the Madonna look.