Chicago - Day 2 (June 11) Part one

I was supposed to meet Tue for dinner only because her work got busy and she couldn't catch the Blue Man Group show. I was talking to my friend Sarah and we decided to get lunch. I read about this cheap Indian restaurant on Devon that had good food. Sarah was a little wary, but when I told her the name--Ghareeb Nawaz--she said she had read about it and was willing to try it. The restaurant is named after an 8th century saint of India who cared for the poor, and the name literally means "Sustainer of the Poor". So we decided to meet up and beforehand I went to Beans & Bagels to read and drink an iced coffee. It's right under the Montrose stop on the brown line, so it is convenient to stay there when it's raining.

Reading @ Beans & Bagels

Sarah arrived at the coffeeshop and we headed on the train and bus to get to the restaurant. It was on Devon which is the Indian/Pakistani main street in Chicago. I didn't take any pictures of the area because it was raining, but i get get a couple shots of the restaurant.

The front of Ghareeb Nawaz

As you can see from the storefront above, a lot of meals are quite cheap. It seems that the vegetarian dishes are around $2 and the meat dishes are closer to $4-5. I ordered chicken biryani and two pieces of naan ($0.50 each), so it was about $5 in total. The dish of chicken was huge, much more than i should have eaten and the naan was quite large as well!

Chicago - Day 1 (june 10)

I woke up at 7:00 to get ready to leave for the airport at 10 o'clock. Everything proceeded smoothly at the airport, and I made it to Chicago around 11:30. Then, I caught the blue line train to downtown to meet Hannah for lunch. It wasn't too tricky, but I found out when I arrived at the right stop that apparently cell phones are blocked underground, so I was frustrated for a few minutes while trying to figure out which street to exit the subway on--and as it turns out, it doesn't matter too much. When I came up the stairs I was able to call and then met up with Hannah. We walked to a place called Pastoral which is a sandwich, cheese & wine shop downtown. I got the Parisian sandwich, and it was delicious. The cheese on the sandwich was quite good, but I cannot remember the name. It was the best sandwich I've had in quite some time. I would even go so far as to say that it rivals Wheatfields here in Lawrence.

Parisian Sandwich

Hannah @ Pastoral

 

After Hannah went back to work, I went up to meet Peter & Tricia at their work to get a copy of the key to their apartment where I am staying. I took the brown line train up and got off at the stop. When I was leaving the station, it was in the middle of a neighborhood, so I was confused for a little while on which direction was north, but soon realized I was walking the right direction. Ten minutes later and I was at the church office where they work. Peter took a break and drove me to their apartment and got me situated. When he went back to work, I walked to a Jewel grocery store to buy some expensive things that are more difficult to bring on an airplane (such as razor blades, shampoo, etc) and granola bars. When I was walking around the streets around their apartment to see what was around, I heard someone say, "Joshua Shireman...?" I looked and it was my friend Ian who I have not seen for about 8 years since church camp in Colorado. We talked for a few minutes and said we should meet for lunch on Friday.

Peter had invited me to go to a BBQ that they were going to at night and since I didn't have any plans, I went with them. We ate hamburgers and played a card game and it was one of the most relaxing times I've had in a long time. It was a good start to the trip.

Peter drinking some wine

 

Peter's friend grilling

 

Nothing else too exciting happened. Got settled in.

Chicago Trip

 

So I just got back from Chicago last night, and I loaded ~600 pictures onto my computer. Over the next few days, I'm gonna be writing up my trip and giving some commentary along with the better photos. Stay tuned...