God bless American men!!! The Frats!

I have to start by thanking the American boys for providing me with content for this blog!

This week I officially discovered the meaning of 'Frat boy'...




Please note this is from Google Images and I do not know
these guys - for illustrational purposes only!!! LOL


Went out for a date this week with this guy. Not only did he not understand my accent (very frustrating) but after further conversation I uncovered that this guy lives with his 'bro's' from college and thinks making his bed is too much effort. In fact so much so that the last time he washed his bed sheets was around 6 mnths ago... 2 words... ewwww and gross!!

To top it all off he gave me the brush off - it got to 10.30pm and he says "its getting pretty late, I'm tired shall we wrap it up". Lets just say its the only time I was grateful for getting the brush off!!

A necessary experience I feel to helping me learn abut these types of guys...won't be making that error again anytime soon LOL!

Golden Globes. Best and Worst of the dresses!

Best Dressed...



How could you cheat on this!!!




Kills me to admit but she does look stunning



And the worst...




Rocky Horror Show??




How could Heidi get it so wrong!




Going for the barbie look??



First Week Back...

So been back a week now and have to say its been a tough week! I found it very hard to leave family and friends after such a lovely Christmas. Its very difficult to explain as people immediately assume that because you are in an amazing city with an amazing apartment life is easy...not always the case. I feel like the luckiest person ever to be able to have this experience but I have found it at times very lonely and going to be trying even harder to network and expand my group of friends this year - even when work is crazy busy.

So my first week I think the best way to round it up is...They say it comes in 3's...


1) Airport madness


It must have been a surprise for O Hare airport that people from outside of the US were arriving! My flight was amazing I actually got to sleep really well although wasn't impressed with the films and food choices! Then... I walk from the plane to get through immigration...BANG the queue was halfway around the airport! I waited 2 hrs to get through immigration. I wouldn't mind but when I actually got to the desk it was the shortest entry interview I have ever had.


2) Broken Screen
It only got worse. I got back to my apartment over 2 hrs later than planned to find that my laptop (a.k.a my life in a box) had broken - the screen has completely gone. Therefore my entire Monday was taken up with ringing around different places to see if they could fix my computer. In the end I went to Best Buy and bought a completely new laptop.

3) Realisation that men are indeed from Mars

Match.com man turned out to be a loser...aren't they all. I can't seem to find a guy who is able to to communicate their feelings like an adult human being! Is it too much to ask someone to just be honest! Anyway won't go into too many details but needless to say my guard is well and truly back up when it comes to men...unless of course Michael Bublé  becomes available and that is whole different story! And girls I am well and truly certain that men are the same no matter where you are!


Ending on a high!

After all that I thought the week was well and truly a right-off especially with Carrie out of town and the brief appearance of snow but as luck would have it I made a new friend - Molly -  who is sooo lovely and spent Friday with her and a group of her friends. We had so much fun and I introduced her to the wonders of Sambuca! Those wonders came back to haunt me today though! I have had the hangover from hell. Luckily a trip to Maccy D's and a home cooked spaghetti bolognaise brought me back down to earth (p.s one was dinner and one was lunch - no need to join USA Biggest Loser's just yet)

Looking forward to starting this week on a high and get back to healthy eating - boot camp at 8.30am tomorrow morning should do the trick! Wish me luck!

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!