I'm back in a normal hostel that isn't tear inducing! Woo!

After being told I couldn't actually check in until 3pm yesterday, whilst I had all my bags surrounding me like backpackers tends to, I stored my rucksack and made my way to good old Panera for breakfast. As you may have guessed from my description of the hostel it didn't provide breakfast: my stomach is grateful for this, as I can only imagine the state of it! I ordered a power breakfast sandwich, sounds good right? Wrong. It was half a sarnie with a slip of ham, cheese and egg. There was no power rendered from that sandwich! Oh Panera you let me down.

To make matters worse I couldn't change my clothes until 3pm, which meant wearing the same tops as I walked around Grant Park, down to the Chicago Fire House, across, way across, to the Chicago Fire Academy, which was a major disappointment, and all the way back to the hostel! It was an unseasonably warm day, which every local will tells me every time they hear I'm visiting. I wasn't a pretty sight by the time I actually did check in!

I did try to find the studios where they film the Oprah Winfrey show, but I had no luck at all - I found out that I was looking at number 9 on my map when in fact the studios were number 8. Clever girl. I used up the last few hours of my pass this morning in a quick trip to the Chicago History Museum: free on Mondays! It wasn't too big so I was able to look at all the exhibits with time to spare, although those pesky schoolchildren were there again getting under my feet! Their company was better than that of my current dorm dwellers though: as I'm back in the dorm I stayed in last week some of the same people are in there too. One of them is a French woman who coughs at every opportunity, doesn't speak much English, and to my horror does not wash her hands after using the bathroom... and then proceeds to eat with the same set of hands! Of course which others would she use, but you catch my drift!

Off to the free Aquarium this afternoon, but unfortunately the free ticket didn't entitle me to see the Beluga whales. It did show me some unhappy looking fish and very cool crabs though, which isn't bad for nothing! The walk down there had started off being as warm as yesterday, but I was freezing by the walk back: I think Chicago's unseasonable weather is becoming seasonable!