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Hello from Chicago,
The city is amazing and I'm really enjoying my time here! This is probably helped by the fact that the weather is great - blue skies, sun and very warm, and I'm staying with my mum's cousin, Elizabeth, who has an apartment right in the centre of Chicago - along the bustling Michigan Avenue. The views from the apartment are stunning - like nothing I've ever seen from a living room window, and when you step out onto the street you're right in the centre of the action. Chicago is architecturally stunning, the skyscrapers are immense and because the streets are fairly wide and there are lots of green and artisty spaces, you can really look up and appreciate them. Its a highly planned city and it really flows, a lot of care is taken to keep up the 'sidewalks', gardens and flowerbeds. I've only explored the city centre though, the suburbs and 'South Side' are vast and quite different I guess.
It's been nice to relax here for a bit and catch up on things (including washing - aah my clothes have never smelt so sweet and my shower on Sunday night was one for the record books!). I've really gone for the American experience as well - I had Dunkin' Donoughts and coffee for breakfast yesterday, shrimp with tomato ketchup and horseradish sauce, barbeque ribs (my friends will be impressed with that one!), bagels with salmon, the local Chicago beer (interesting), and a cocktail on the beach (Chicago is right on the Edge of Lake Michigan which resembles the sea). I did a mammoth walk yesterday - out onto Navy Pier, through Millennium Park, Grant Park and into the Art Gallery - very exciting as they had a whole area devoted to Impressionism and a new section of modern American art (and an Earthwork which you'll see in my photos and probably wonder what is so exciting about it! - It's just something I studied for my degree). I also headed up Sears Tower - it's the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere - there is a 'skydeck' glass ledge which extends out of the side of the building - amazing but very unnerving, I just about held for a Saints' shirt photo!
My trip over to Los Angeles starts tomorrow so I'll try and update at some point soon. We go to Madison first and then very quickly out into the National Parks so I hope there is Internet connection somewhere! All the best in the meantime,
Grace
(I've uploaded some photos onto a memory stick so hopefully they'll work on here too).
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