The Deep Dish* On Chicago

*Get it? I made a pizza joke. An ironical pizza joke. Nothing? I made a funny. Wow. Tough crowd.

If you have been following along, you'll know that the final stage of my trip was Chicago for the slaughtering of the USA Eagles rugby team by the New Zealand All Blacks. I don't want to dwell on this too much. But I will. It was a disaster for America. A tiny nation nailed you to the wall. Personally, I'm a little mortified that we let you score 6 points. But then we scored 74 so I felt better. Even better than us kicking arse (well equally as good), I got to hang out with a friend and made her deny her American-ness so she could be on our side. I was surrounded by Kiwis which only ever happens to me in New Zealand and I made friends. I just don't remember them. 

That's not the sun behind me.  It's more of a halo...the halo of winners

But this is about Chicago. I would post pictures but you can't see anything because it's TOO DAMN COLD. That's right, cold affects pictures** so I took some mental ones. Damn, I look good. In my new gloves. How do people live in this? No one*** looks good (except me) because you're all bundled up in layers - you have to wear flats because you don't want to fall over in the snow and then once you get inside, you start baking. So you start to take layers off and then you reach that one layer that shouldn't be shown in public, that you thought you wouldn't get down to. So you have to try and replace that layer with a layer you took off and now you have dislocated your shoulder. Chicago is dangerous.

The Magnificent Mile looked impressive, I hit a Magnificent Meter of it.  I got side-tracked with warm cafes.  I should probably go back in the Summer.  Summer is more my thing. 

I did experience some of the Mid-West hospitality. From New Zealanders. This very nice man bought me my Shepherd's Pie. I met up with a school friend that I hadn't seen since high school. On second thought, no big deal cos that was only a couple of years ago. He also bought my dinner. Then this other guy bought me a drink and paid for my taxi back to my hotel. I basically spent no money in Chicago. It's true, the people there are very nice. And generous.

**I took a great picture of the Wrigley Tower, leaning back to get all of it in. What I got was hot tea in my face. I forgot I was holding my cup. See what the cold does to you?
***I did see a couple of girls who thought it more important to wear a mini dress with no sleeves and no coat. When you take warmth over looks, it's a sign that you're getting older. And sensibler.