Thursday, June 10, 2010

Chicago


Some of you might know that I'm spending the summer in the windy city for an internship I'm doing for Hartford design. Did I get this internship through SCAD, hell no! I found it on my own through a book I often refer to called 1000 Type Treatments. I emailed them my portfolio, and the rest is history.

So before I went I made sure I had a place to stay when I go there. I met this guy online named Kyle, who told me I could live in the extra room in his loft for just 400$ per month. Not only that but it came with gym access, pool access, and was only 2 mi from work. He even sent me pictures, gave me the address, the whole shebang. He claimed that he was a graphic designer, so naturally we became friends, he even told me over the phone he'd show me how to do some javascript stuff for web.
When I flew up here with my mom, I tried calling Kyle, no answer. I tried texting Kyle, zilch. I tried emailing Kyle, nada. He evaporated., disappeared off of the face of the planet as far as I could tell. I thought maybe he lost his phone, but then why didnt he answer his emails. Later I saw that he had been getting on Facebook. He was just ignoring me. This evil prick promised me an apartment for the summer, and was now leaving me homeless in a new city. He could have at least contacted me in some way or form informing me what happened, but no he took the passive aggressive douche sandwich approach and just decided to ignore me.
I found a place with two boys living in the Ukranian District. I think it's for the best, since Kyle was obviously a spineless whack job. My apartment is cool, I got a kitchen, my own room, a bed, a desk, a window and even (dare I dream it) a laundry room. Having a place with a laundry room has always been an ultimate goal. Destiny fulfilled.

So while this went on, my mom and I were staying in a really shady motel on the wrong side of town that she found off of Priceline. Usually we have good luck with Priceline, but it appears that it's run dry. We were in the ghetto, there's no nice way to put it. Some guy on the street called my mom "snow white" when we moved our luggage in. It also had this funny red lamp in the bathroom which i later learned was a heating lamp for the cold Chicago winters.
Things were fine the first three nights. Then on the fourth, at 5am someone came by and started kicking out door, trying to break in. My mom and I held the door shut, me only protected by my skivvies. when it finally stopped, we put furniture in front of the door, and I put my jeans on. When daylight hit we fled the motel. It was quite an experience. I keep wondering if whoever was breaking in had a gun or something. Otherwise what would they have done if they got in? They had to have thought about the people inside. It was really scary, like shit your pants scary.

I havent let those two bad experiences throw me, probably because Chicago is so effn cool. I mean look a it! it's in a bubble!
Not really, this is a picture from the Bean in Millenium park.
This is the view from the Hancock tower that everyone thought was a view from my "loft" when I posted it to facebook. Yep, I stay in a loft that's taller than every other building in the whole city. It's on a cloud!
This tower had a tour voiced by Ross from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. "dununununu nah nah nah" There was an adult version (which I can only hope involved porn) and a kidz version which I ended up choosing. where the Bean sculpture talked with a 1940's hollywood actress voice, and explained that she (yep it's a girl) preferred summer heat to the winter cold. Interesting.
The best way I can describe Chicago is "it's like New York but clean and with less rude attitudes" So far everyone I've talked to (minus Evil Kyle, and the motel from hell) have been extremely nice and helpful. The Ukranian District is so cool. It reminds me of Austin what with all the unique resturants, bars, thrift shops, and HIPSTERS GALORE. There's even a wig shop called Wigs & Plus ( i think the plus is sexy lingerie) right next to where I get on the bus, feels like home.