Well, I had to take care of some business in Chicago recently and I thought I would make a trip out of this opportunity by visiting my very good friends in the area, namely Jay in Chicago, Will in Milwaukee and "the Fekade's" in Minneapolis. The trip started with an 9-hr drive to Milwaukee when I listened to Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat and learned the value of audiobooks, not only in an educational sense but in battling my costly tendency to speed [and get ticketed] during long trips.
Milwaukee::
Once in Milwaukee, I settled in the beautiful Whitefish Bay suburb where Will and his family live. Within an hour, I decided to ride Will's bike a mile or two from his house where I was at the edge of a hill overlooking Lake Michigan. For someone who is not fond of the beach and all the heat, burning and nudity that comes with it, there was nothing better than feeling a cool breeze and serenity of the lake. The next day, we went to a Mexican festival and loved everything except for the afternoon sun which made me quite miserable. The highlight of that event was the live mariachi which I got to truly appreciate for the first time. Downtown Milwaukee was beautiful in everything from its parks to the art and science museums and all sorts of activities it provides along Lake Michigan. A day later, I hibernated at Caribou coffee shop in preparation for my business and headed down to Chicago to see my friend Jay who is a student at the University of Chicago.
Chicago::
Jay was generous enough to let me crash at his university-owned studio and spend quite a bit of time to show me around. Lets not forget the twice-daily serving of French press coffee. The night I arrived, we ate at a nice place called Leona's right around Chicago's somewhat notorious south-side. The south-side seemed considerably more run down than some other parts of Chicago I have seen, however University of Chicago which borders the south-side has a beautiful campus showing quite a bit of modernity as well as history and prestige. We visited some neat parts of the campus like the James Franck Institute where Jay's office is located, "the quadrangle" which is a nice area confined on four side by some significant campus buildings, and last but not least a little shop in the school of religion where "God has coffee". I think God deserved better coffee. That day, I had to go to downtown to take care of my business and quickly learned how to navigate through the subway system after a minor mishap or two. The Metra system was great and I only wish more cities would finance systems that are as convenient and extensive so that traffic and pollution problems are lessened. At night, we walked around for a little bit and decided to dine at the Medici on 57th where we had some delicious Italian/Mediterranean food. I would go on to spend two more days in Chicago, mostly hibernating in a coffee shop bordering the UoC campus called Third World Cafe. While the days were relatively uneventful, the nights were anything but. During the first of these two nights, we went to Evanston to visit the Northwestern University campus, and the second night to explore Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline as significant parts of life in Chicago.
Jay and I walked through the beautiful campus of Northwestern University after an adventurous 30 mile drive from Chicago to Evanston which took well over two hours, thanks to the horrible traffic. After walking around there, we decided to walk down the main street, Chicago Avenue, and eat at an Ethiopian place called Addis Ababa Restaurant. Not only was the food fairly average, it was overpriced and significantly lacking in portion. You can clearly tell the place was not exactly intended for your average Ethiopian/Eritrean clientele and I was probably the only Habesha in there excluding the servers. Anyway, we had some decent Ethiopian food and the signature honey wine (Tej). On the way back, we stopped by my kind of coffee shop on Chicago avenue called Kaffeine. There, I constantly complained about the unsolicited service of waiters when I can pick up my coffee from the counter myself without having to pay tip and what not. Nonetheless, Kaffeine had a very atmosphere and I would strongly recommend it to anyone.
My last night in Chicago was spent walking along Lake Michigan's side closest to University of Chicago, checking out the Chicago skyline
from a prime position and looking for bars where I was to be introduced to the "white Russian" that the Dude feasted on in The Big Lebowski. Needless to say, it was all quite enjoyable.
Minneapolis::
I drove back to Milwaukee to join Will and his family for a semi-spontaneous trip to Minneapolis for the Labor Day weekend. Among the motivations for this trip were the desire to visit the Mall of America, the largest mall in the US, or perhaps the world, and the prospect of seeing my good friend Selassie thanks to an amazing coincidence that could turn a quasi-non-believer like myself into a religious fanatic. So, Selassie lives in the Bay Area in California while my two good friends Selam and Aman, the siblings of Selassie live in Minneapolis. Somehow, when I called Selassie to tell him that I will be visiting Selam and Selassie in Minneapolis, he revealed that he had already bought his ticket to Minneapolis for the Labor Day weekend many months ago and that he will be there at the same time as I was. In one fell swoop, I was to reunite with my dearest friends from Athens and Atlanta that I had not seen in more than four years.
Saturday morning, we packed all our stuff into Will's Honda Civic-hybrid and headed for a 6-hr trip to Minneapolis which turned out being more like nine hours. Upon arriving in Minneapolis, we were wiped out and headed straight into our hotel after spending an hour or two exploring on our lodging options. At 9PM or so, we decided to walk around our hotel and explore downtown Minneapolis which I really loved for it not being too crowded while having the lively atmosphere of other big cities. Minneapolis was much larger that I originally thought and I later learned that it is headquarters to companies like 3M, Target and Northwest Airlines. After dinner at Applebee's, we did a little more
walking and headed back to our hotel to rest in preparation for the eventful day that was to follow.
On Sunday, we drove to the Mall of America in Burlington which is a quick 15 minutes drive from downtown Minneapolis. The mall was absolutely huge with some four or five floors each extending endlessly. I don't forget my coffee shops and I clearly saw two Starbucks, a Caribou and one or two not-so-recognizable coffee shops. While there were no shops whose "sale" would come close to convincing me into buying anything, I did enjoy looking around and visiting a landmark I can add to my resume. Around noon, my friend Selassie and his pal, Addisu, picked me up from the mall for what was to be an action packed fourteen hours.
We went to Selam's and David [Selam's husband's] place and met some Aman and friends (Tedi, Yared) who had free tickets to a horse race. So, we went to the Canterbury Park for my first ever horse racing event. Aside from the people smoking indoors, I loved the environment. At the higher floors, lots of people, I assume friends and family, had individual tables where they talked and bet on horses. Others were outside seeing the action from close range and enjoying a breezy afternoon. I had better ways to spend the little money I have, so betting was out of the question for me. Selassie and some of our company bet little money and broke even for a large part. Well, that was not to be the end of firsts this particular night though -- I was to go casino gambling for the first time. David thought it would be great to go casino gambling in one of the Indian reservations and that's exactly what we did. We drove some 15 minutes to the Mystic Lake Casinos where you entered for free, got all sorts of cheap food and drinks and bet your heart out at as little as one cent increments. Despite Selassie's insistence that I gamble away his five bucks, I could not muster the courage to be so wasteful. Almost everyone else did blow some five bucks each just for the fun of it. Inside the bright and flashy lights surrounding the dim lights of the casinos, I saw quite a few sad and sullen souls, smoking heavily and wasting away moments of their lives, and for that reason, I left the place feeling sorry for the people mostly senior citizens, who presumably spend quite a bit of their time locked up in that smoke-filled hell.
For me, it has already been an eventful day, but for everyone else it was only beginning. Next in the plan was a trip to a Habesha restaurant called Kilimanjaro after meeting up with Beza. The place is supposedly owned by an Ethiopian and Eritrean and the environment there was very warm and welcoming to all. Gathering around a plate with eight other Habeshas including David was a truly magical experience reminiscent of the last time when I had dinner with Selassie and his family before they sadly left Atlanta. While I am normally annoyed by Habeshas and usually go out of my way to avoid any Habesha congregations, events like this really remind me of the element that really makes me feel so happy to be around. Selassie and I reminded each other there was nothing like being around the right Habeshas. At 11:30PM, we left Kilimanjaro for yet another event. What exactly would take more than an hour to agree on but it was finally decided we would go to a reggae bar and dance around until closing time which was somewhere between 2-3AM. People moved and danced in the wildest of ways as the DJ blasted some deafening music and I loved it. I have to coordination of a retarded person, so dancing w/o instructions was out of the question for me. The few times Selam led me through the motions, I moved a little here and there, but most of my time was spent standing upright in the middle of a busy dance floor with my hands crossed across my chest and looking down at the wild woman around me from my moral high ground. Most people thought I was not having fun, but being in that environment with dear friends was itself blissful for me. Anyway, we left the club and headed home where we talked and checked other people's Facebook pages until 4:30AM. The next day, I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed downtown to join Will and his family for our trip back to Milwaukee. The trip back was pretty interesting as usual -- me trying to argue my unorthodox viewpoints and Will, intentionally or unintentionally taking the opposite point, making driving a lot less enjoyable. We intended to stop by Madison, WI on the way back but time was simply not on out side. Instead, we stopped by an outlet mall to buy a few bargain items.
The next day, I drove back home, making a stop in Chicago to buy some Habesha food to share with my folks. All in all, this trip will go down as one of my best and I would like to thank my good friends, Will, Jay, Selassie, Selam and Aman for making it what it was.
Milwaukee::
Once in Milwaukee, I settled in the beautiful Whitefish Bay suburb where Will and his family live. Within an hour, I decided to ride Will's bike a mile or two from his house where I was at the edge of a hill overlooking Lake Michigan. For someone who is not fond of the beach and all the heat, burning and nudity that comes with it, there was nothing better than feeling a cool breeze and serenity of the lake. The next day, we went to a Mexican festival and loved everything except for the afternoon sun which made me quite miserable. The highlight of that event was the live mariachi which I got to truly appreciate for the first time. Downtown Milwaukee was beautiful in everything from its parks to the art and science museums and all sorts of activities it provides along Lake Michigan. A day later, I hibernated at Caribou coffee shop in preparation for my business and headed down to Chicago to see my friend Jay who is a student at the University of Chicago.
Chicago::
Jay was generous enough to let me crash at his university-owned studio and spend quite a bit of time to show me around. Lets not forget the twice-daily serving of French press coffee. The night I arrived, we ate at a nice place called Leona's right around Chicago's somewhat notorious south-side. The south-side seemed considerably more run down than some other parts of Chicago I have seen, however University of Chicago which borders the south-side has a beautiful campus showing quite a bit of modernity as well as history and prestige. We visited some neat parts of the campus like the James Franck Institute where Jay's office is located, "the quadrangle" which is a nice area confined on four side by some significant campus buildings, and last but not least a little shop in the school of religion where "God has coffee". I think God deserved better coffee. That day, I had to go to downtown to take care of my business and quickly learned how to navigate through the subway system after a minor mishap or two. The Metra system was great and I only wish more cities would finance systems that are as convenient and extensive so that traffic and pollution problems are lessened. At night, we walked around for a little bit and decided to dine at the Medici on 57th where we had some delicious Italian/Mediterranean food. I would go on to spend two more days in Chicago, mostly hibernating in a coffee shop bordering the UoC campus called Third World Cafe. While the days were relatively uneventful, the nights were anything but. During the first of these two nights, we went to Evanston to visit the Northwestern University campus, and the second night to explore Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline as significant parts of life in Chicago.
Jay and I walked through the beautiful campus of Northwestern University after an adventurous 30 mile drive from Chicago to Evanston which took well over two hours, thanks to the horrible traffic. After walking around there, we decided to walk down the main street, Chicago Avenue, and eat at an Ethiopian place called Addis Ababa Restaurant. Not only was the food fairly average, it was overpriced and significantly lacking in portion. You can clearly tell the place was not exactly intended for your average Ethiopian/Eritrean clientele and I was probably the only Habesha in there excluding the servers. Anyway, we had some decent Ethiopian food and the signature honey wine (Tej). On the way back, we stopped by my kind of coffee shop on Chicago avenue called Kaffeine. There, I constantly complained about the unsolicited service of waiters when I can pick up my coffee from the counter myself without having to pay tip and what not. Nonetheless, Kaffeine had a very atmosphere and I would strongly recommend it to anyone.
My last night in Chicago was spent walking along Lake Michigan's side closest to University of Chicago, checking out the Chicago skyline
from a prime position and looking for bars where I was to be introduced to the "white Russian" that the Dude feasted on in The Big Lebowski. Needless to say, it was all quite enjoyable.
Minneapolis::
I drove back to Milwaukee to join Will and his family for a semi-spontaneous trip to Minneapolis for the Labor Day weekend. Among the motivations for this trip were the desire to visit the Mall of America, the largest mall in the US, or perhaps the world, and the prospect of seeing my good friend Selassie thanks to an amazing coincidence that could turn a quasi-non-believer like myself into a religious fanatic. So, Selassie lives in the Bay Area in California while my two good friends Selam and Aman, the siblings of Selassie live in Minneapolis. Somehow, when I called Selassie to tell him that I will be visiting Selam and Selassie in Minneapolis, he revealed that he had already bought his ticket to Minneapolis for the Labor Day weekend many months ago and that he will be there at the same time as I was. In one fell swoop, I was to reunite with my dearest friends from Athens and Atlanta that I had not seen in more than four years.
Saturday morning, we packed all our stuff into Will's Honda Civic-hybrid and headed for a 6-hr trip to Minneapolis which turned out being more like nine hours. Upon arriving in Minneapolis, we were wiped out and headed straight into our hotel after spending an hour or two exploring on our lodging options. At 9PM or so, we decided to walk around our hotel and explore downtown Minneapolis which I really loved for it not being too crowded while having the lively atmosphere of other big cities. Minneapolis was much larger that I originally thought and I later learned that it is headquarters to companies like 3M, Target and Northwest Airlines. After dinner at Applebee's, we did a little more
walking and headed back to our hotel to rest in preparation for the eventful day that was to follow.
On Sunday, we drove to the Mall of America in Burlington which is a quick 15 minutes drive from downtown Minneapolis. The mall was absolutely huge with some four or five floors each extending endlessly. I don't forget my coffee shops and I clearly saw two Starbucks, a Caribou and one or two not-so-recognizable coffee shops. While there were no shops whose "sale" would come close to convincing me into buying anything, I did enjoy looking around and visiting a landmark I can add to my resume. Around noon, my friend Selassie and his pal, Addisu, picked me up from the mall for what was to be an action packed fourteen hours.
We went to Selam's and David [Selam's husband's] place and met some Aman and friends (Tedi, Yared) who had free tickets to a horse race. So, we went to the Canterbury Park for my first ever horse racing event. Aside from the people smoking indoors, I loved the environment. At the higher floors, lots of people, I assume friends and family, had individual tables where they talked and bet on horses. Others were outside seeing the action from close range and enjoying a breezy afternoon. I had better ways to spend the little money I have, so betting was out of the question for me. Selassie and some of our company bet little money and broke even for a large part. Well, that was not to be the end of firsts this particular night though -- I was to go casino gambling for the first time. David thought it would be great to go casino gambling in one of the Indian reservations and that's exactly what we did. We drove some 15 minutes to the Mystic Lake Casinos where you entered for free, got all sorts of cheap food and drinks and bet your heart out at as little as one cent increments. Despite Selassie's insistence that I gamble away his five bucks, I could not muster the courage to be so wasteful. Almost everyone else did blow some five bucks each just for the fun of it. Inside the bright and flashy lights surrounding the dim lights of the casinos, I saw quite a few sad and sullen souls, smoking heavily and wasting away moments of their lives, and for that reason, I left the place feeling sorry for the people mostly senior citizens, who presumably spend quite a bit of their time locked up in that smoke-filled hell.
For me, it has already been an eventful day, but for everyone else it was only beginning. Next in the plan was a trip to a Habesha restaurant called Kilimanjaro after meeting up with Beza. The place is supposedly owned by an Ethiopian and Eritrean and the environment there was very warm and welcoming to all. Gathering around a plate with eight other Habeshas including David was a truly magical experience reminiscent of the last time when I had dinner with Selassie and his family before they sadly left Atlanta. While I am normally annoyed by Habeshas and usually go out of my way to avoid any Habesha congregations, events like this really remind me of the element that really makes me feel so happy to be around. Selassie and I reminded each other there was nothing like being around the right Habeshas. At 11:30PM, we left Kilimanjaro for yet another event. What exactly would take more than an hour to agree on but it was finally decided we would go to a reggae bar and dance around until closing time which was somewhere between 2-3AM. People moved and danced in the wildest of ways as the DJ blasted some deafening music and I loved it. I have to coordination of a retarded person, so dancing w/o instructions was out of the question for me. The few times Selam led me through the motions, I moved a little here and there, but most of my time was spent standing upright in the middle of a busy dance floor with my hands crossed across my chest and looking down at the wild woman around me from my moral high ground. Most people thought I was not having fun, but being in that environment with dear friends was itself blissful for me. Anyway, we left the club and headed home where we talked and checked other people's Facebook pages until 4:30AM. The next day, I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed downtown to join Will and his family for our trip back to Milwaukee. The trip back was pretty interesting as usual -- me trying to argue my unorthodox viewpoints and Will, intentionally or unintentionally taking the opposite point, making driving a lot less enjoyable. We intended to stop by Madison, WI on the way back but time was simply not on out side. Instead, we stopped by an outlet mall to buy a few bargain items.
The next day, I drove back home, making a stop in Chicago to buy some Habesha food to share with my folks. All in all, this trip will go down as one of my best and I would like to thank my good friends, Will, Jay, Selassie, Selam and Aman for making it what it was.
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