Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - July 14th - The past few days

The past few days have been a lot of fun, and I've gotten back in touch with a lot of people. I have also heard about 6 different friends who are getting married over the course of the next year. Wow, that was a surprise... Anyway, it would be silly to try to write about each day at length, so here are some of the things which I have been doing:

On Saturday, some friends came in from the suburbs and we all went to the Folk and Roots Music Festival in one of the neighborhood parks. I can't say that it was all that impressive. We spent a lot of time sitting on the lawn and playing cards. At one point it started to sprinkle, but we were able to avoid it. We heard a Colombian band as well as a men's chorus which was singing fishing songs. It's not that they were bad at what they did, it just wasn't the folk music I was expecting. But like we discussed, they never said whose folk music we would be hearing.

Sunday I went to church where Brian and Libby go, and we then went out for a great breakfast at one of the best greasy spoon restaurants I have eaten at. Had my second omelet of the trip and left feeling quite satisfied. My good friend Jon also came in from Washington DC where he was training for a research program he will be doing next year in Egypt. We picked him up and went to the Chicago History Museum, which I found very thorough. It covers Chicago from the time it was a trading outpost to the present, and houses items such as one of the original elevated, or "L", train cars. Again, something I wish I had my camera for.

Jon was going to be taking the 10:20 Greyhound down to Urbana to see another friend, so I just went downtown with him. He ended up missing the train, so we got some coffee, played frisbee in Grant Park, and watched a live performance called "Strange Fruit". Strange Fruit is a group of four Australians who perform as mimes would on fourteen foot stilts. They are dressed as if they come from the 1880's and interact with each other to classical music. Anyway, Jon left at 1 to get to his new train and I walked down to the Adler Planetarium. This was also well put together. In total I spent about 3 hours there. After that it was definitely time to get back out in the sunshine.