Chicago Baby!

Our weekend was so amazing, I had such a good time!

The city and our hosts welcomed us warmly with hot weather and a cold glass of wine. We were at Chicago at eight and after some chatting we went to downtown to Hancook Center to see Chicago at night time. We were there just in time because it closed just after we were ready with our tour. After that we spent some time trying to find some place to eat and finally went to small pizza/bar place and ate traditional stuffed Chicago pizza and were back home about at one am. We were supposed to get up at seven on the next morning but finally got up at eight and had some breakfast. After that we headed to the Shedd Aquarium, missed our stop and walked all through Millennium Park back to the aquarium. And it was huge and so beautiful! We spent there like four hours, went through all the displays and watched a dolphin show. And I loved the sharks! The wall of that aquarium was curved so that it was on you too! And the sharks were BIG!
After that we walked again through Millennium Park and got to Navy Pier. There we ate good ice creams and continued our trip to the NHL hockey game! Chicago Blackhawks against Detroit Red Wings. And it was so easy to yell "GO HAWKS!" :D Oh we were so excited about the game with Kaisa, there was Tuomo Ruutu playing too! And he made a goal too! And of course we won (though Iowa Hawks didn't win, they had game too that day). The game had some different rules from Finnish hockey, after first 20 seconds there was a fight between two players and the judges didn't do anything! And of course there were all kind of shows in American style. But it was fun to yell PERKELE! And to see hockey, which is kind of the only sports I get excited.
After that we went back home and it was again after midnight and we were so tired after all the walking. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot!! Before the game we went to the beach and took some really nice pictures from there! I just have to get them from Meike first.
On Sunday we got up at nine and had some really good breakfast our host family made (stuffed pancakes) and at 11 am we left again to downtown just to walk around and see the Chicago marathon. There were a lot of people and the weather was hot. We browsed some souvenir shops (and the only thing I bought from Chicago was a Chicago magnet where you can put a pic or card...) and headed back at 2:30. And finally left back to Iowa City at 3:30. So I was in time to see Desperate Housewives!

And the host family was so nice! And oh my god their apartment! It was so beautiful and big! We're going to get some gift basket for them. I really felt welcomed!

So the weekend was really nice, I'm glad we went there. But back to reality, I have Endocrinology exam on Wednesday and I really haven't had time to read for it yet, so I'll have to live at the library again for a few days. And then I need to start to catch up everything else. But then it's no exams in two weeks! And on Tuesday morning I have the appointment. Blah. But I really hope that we can figure out things so that I could talk with my parents again!

On our way back home I listened to Poets of the Fall and dreamed about Tarmo. When we were at Savolinna for the first summer we dated, he took me to a rides and showed me all the pretty places there and we listened to Poets of the Fall then. So it always reminds me of our first summer ^^ And when we were at the beach, I drew his name on the sand <3

ps. I'll post the pics when I get them out from my camera... I was lazy now, sorry! And here's an article about the marathon, someone actually died (there were ambulances running all the time...) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071008/ap_on_sp_ot/run_chicago_marathon