Tuesday 16th- China Town and giant shiny bean!

Today I went with Megan and the girls to meet Emma (Bruce and Megan’s niece) and Lauren (Emma’s friend). The girls were really nice and we had a lovely day together. After a little mix up with trains we got to China Town. We went on ‘the L train’ and had a nice lunch in a Chinese restaurant. We walked round several shops, most of which seemed to be full of things nobody would ever want! We also went in a crazy shop which sold knives, throwing knives, those weird things which have a chain in the middle and two big padded things at the end to hit people with and big wooden sticks. After a couple of hours and a rude store owner later we got back on the train and headed into central Chicago. We went to Millennium Park which was amazing! There is a giant mirrored bean which you can walk around and walk under and take pictures against. There are some great fountains too which project people’s faces on and squirt out water from their mouths. There are also gardens and a beautiful outdoor stage called the Pritzker Pavilion. That evening an orchestra was practicing for a concert the next day, I’m so glad I got to hear it. After walking around the park we headed back to the station and got ‘the Metra’ train home. I cannot describe my excitement about this train. It is shiny and silver and two stories, a double decker train! It is AMAZING!! There are cute little staircases up to the second floor and little fold out chairs. There are windows on both floors and then you can look down on to the floor below. It is also air conditioned and really cheap, I love the trains in America! Once we got off the train we walked home to Emma’s house and I saw some incredible houses that looked like castles and giant mansions. Chicago suburbs have some very nice streets. Once I got home to Bruce and Megan’s I had dinner, I had ramen which is this noodle dish that you boil up and is very popular with college students. My friend Cristina in Michigan had told me I had to try it and we had bought some but I had never ended up eating it so I had some in Chicago after Bruce and Megan’s daughter Bridget told me I had to try it too, it was delicious!