Hangin with the Homo's
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2001
1
6
Trip End
Dec 19, 2001
New York, New York, United States
Sunday, September 22, 2002
I'm assuming my Road Trip sequel was a box office flop given the very few
replies I recieved. Even so, I will grace you with what will probably be my
last emails before I (hopefully) land safely home in 9 days time. As
promised, I'm writing to regail you of my thanksgiving break in DesPlaines,
Chicago. I will keep it brief by my own verbose standards as I have finals
to study for.
I arrived on the Wednesday evening, far from fresh from my 21 hour journey
from Florida. Upon my arrival, Frank (the yank who was putting me up)
swiftly informed me that we were due at the local Italian for a reunion meal
of the DesPlaines posse. As we entered our private room at the restaurant I
was greeted by what seemed like a thousand loud voices, a wall of cigerette
smoke and a room full of strangers. At this point I was wondering what I'd
let myself in for, but I was quickly embraced by the group. It always helps
when you're introduced as "my friend from England" - people are instantly
more interested, so it doesn't take long to lose your obscurity. Following
the meal, we headed for the local houseparty (everyone's a minor, so this is
the main outlet for alcoholic entertainment). I was keen to get a few drinks
inside me - I was just about holding my own in this big group of strangers,
but a bit of social lubricant was a welcome hand. So, needless to say, I got
fairly drunk, made new friends, then went home to count some sheep. That was
Wednesday.
Now, I could give you a breakdown of the other 5 days of my stay, but they
would follow a rather similar pattern to the previous paragraph - play
Playstation 2, drink, go eat, go to a houseparty, drink some more, leave,
eat some more, go to bed. A simple formula, but one that I found worked. So
instead, here are some of the more interesting activities that infiltrated
this rigid regime:
Thursday was thanksgiving day. This essentially consisted of drinking
copious quantities of beer, eating turkey, watching the football game, and
watching the many films that were on TV that day. It was much like Xmas, but
without the tree and presents (and the Queen's speech of course).
On Saturday night, I met up with English Jon (who was staying with one of
the other Desplaines-based Western students), and we went to the Circus.
This was pretty entertaining, especially as it was at the United Centre
(home of the fallen giants, the Chicago Bulls, and former home to the great
Michael Jordan). The highlight of the show was the impromtu toilet break of
one of the elephants - right in the centre of the main stage. Unfortunately,
I forgot my camera and have no pictures of the circus show.
On Sunday, Frank took me to the local shopping mall (which has the largest
shopping space in the country) for a little bit of retail therapy. Therapy
should not cost $350, but it did. $100 of that was for a half-price suitcase
(the largest I could find), so at least I should be able to get all my stuff
home with me to England.
And that was that. Which brings me right up to the present: 4:40pm on
Sunday, Chicago Bears have just blown it against Green Bay in the race for
the play-offs, I've done no revision, and my finals start tomorrow. By
Thursday afternoon it will all be over. By Friday afternoon I'll have said
goodbye to Macomb and Western forever, by Monday evening I'll have said
goodbye to Illinois and this whole experience. By Tuesday afternoon
(hopefully) I'll be saying hello again to some of you guys. Until then,
Tom
p.s hmm, didn't quite manage to keep it brief - sorry about that!
