Day 25 of social distancing due to the Corona pandemic, here I am doing a throwback to my winter break moment when I was in the United States in 2018 to 2019. For the record, I was in the United States as a scholar grantee of an exchange program for ten months. I lived in Orlando, Florida, and studied in a college for two semesters. On my winter break, I and my three Indonesian friends spent our winter break together, and our first destination was the windy city, Chicago, Illinois.
DAY 1
The first day of our winter break was December 17, 2018, and we had planned this vacation three months in advance. Somehow, I had made a stupid mistake just on the first day of the trip. So, I left Orlando at 10:27 am and arrived in Chicago at 12:29 pm. When I landed at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, I texted my friends who I thought would leave Phoenix, Arizona for Chicago at 7:30 am. However, I was mistaken, they actually would leave Phoenix at 7:30 pm and arrive at 12:30 am (midnight). That was a dumb mistake which made me waiting at the airport for more than 12 hours, alone. I was thinking about going out to downtown Chicago by myself but I was kind of afraid as I was alone and I had some bags with me that doesn't sound easy to travel around with. However, I also didn't want to just sit at Starbucks and do nothing for the next 12 hours waiting for my friends, so I finally challenged myself and bought a round-trip train ticket to downtown Chicago. I had no idea where I was going, so I just stopped randomly to any station around the downtown. Once I stepped out of the subway exit, I could finally experience the winter weather for the very first time in my life. It was around 3:30 pm and the weather was -2 degrees celcius. I was freezing but still incredibly happy at that moment. I looked around me and I was fascinated by the landscape I saw: a downtown with a lot of tall buildings, bare trees covered with yellow lights, and people walking in their winter coats with a hot coffee in their hand. It was a scene that I typically see in American movies but not in the tropical country where I come from. At that moment, I really didn't know where to go, so I was just wandering around the downtown and admiring everything I saw. It wasn't easy to carry around a carry-on suitcase, a backpack, and a sling bag on super cold weather alone. So every once in a while I stopped at any stores just to warm myself up as it was warmer inside. That was another odd situation for me because in my country that's totally the opposite; we normally go inside stores because we want to cool down in an air-conditioned room. It was only 5 pm, but the sky was getting dark because it was winter. I also started to feel tired and could barely stand the cold weather, so I got to the nearest subway station and headed back to the airport. That's pretty much my solo tour of downtown Chicago, short but very memorable to me. I arrived at the airport around 6 pm, and the next 6 hours I was just waiting for my friends at a Starbucks before they arrived at midnight. Once they landed, we went to the pick-up point because we had my friend's friend who picked us up and let us sleep at their place.
DAY 2
The next day we woke up early and got ready to explore Chicago. Our hosts who gave us a place to stay were really nice guys from Pakistan. They even made breakfast for us and gave us a ride to Millenium Park, where they also accompanied us wandering around there. That day the weather was very nice, it was sunny and not too cold. It was already winter but there were still some colored trees left from the fall. Chicago has many beautiful architectural buildings that I have never seen before. We visited the iconic The Bean statue that was made from stainless steel plates. This statue is called The Bean because of its shape that resembles a bean. I loved the view of the surroundings that was reflected in the stainless steel statue, very fascinating. Around the Millennium Park, there were many beautiful architectural buildings. I just fell in love with Chicago. After that, we walked around the Chicago River that is colored green every year on Saint Patrick's Day. There were a couple of small boats for tourists who wanted to sail through the river. After a few hours of walking around the city, we stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch. After that, we continued our journey around downtown and stopped by at the souvenir shop to buy some souvenirs. In the evening, we walked around Millenium Park again and we saw people ice skating on an ice rink around The Bean. It was only 4:45 pm but it was getting dark and we started to feel the colder weather. So, we took a subway and return to our friend's apartment. Traveling during the winter wasn't easy for me because I couldn't really stand the cold weather. Maybe because I didn't get used to it and I was tired of walking. I got hungry and tired easily. Overall, I loved my trip to Chicago, and definitely would love to come back again next time!
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