21 July 2009

The Big City

Chicago, Illinois. Population: 2,853,114

One rental car and 6 hours later:

Friendship, Wisconsin. Population: 698

My mother and I arrived at O'Hare and followed the signs to the rental cars like literate cattle. After what seemed like an infinite wait in line, we climbed into our Ford Fusion (we'd requested a compact car but they must have run out) and unfolded the map to find our way to Madison. With a little help from the GPS, we pulled onto State Street a couple of hours later, searching for a Nepali restaurant I'd found on happycow.net, a database of vegetarian restaurants.
I'd expected Wisconsin to be rather barren, devoid of vegan nourishment in a state famous for its cheese. But the young and vibrant university community we stumbled into showed off a wide variety of ethnic and vegetarian restaurants. The lovely evening meant we could enjoy our meal outside. Neither of us had sampled Nepali cuisine before, but Hamal Chuli's delicious and inexpensive meals won us over. The dal and vegetable dish I enjoyed were similar to my Indian food experiences but lighter tasting - the flavor seemed to come from fresh herbs rather than dried spices, and was perfect for the mild weather.
We tore ourselves away from the exciting neighborhood and headed up to Friendship, the new abode of my mother's sister and brother-in-law. My aunt and uncle are farmers who have moved around quite a bit, and visiting them always leads me to a new corner of the United States, from Cimarron County in Oklahoma to the upper-midwest.
After baking some vegan zucchini bread with the squash fresh from my aunt's garden, we went

for a hike up Roche-a-Cri Mound in Roche-a-Cri State Park, as well as a hike to smaller Chickadee Mound. Like the Pioneer Valley, Adams County used to be under a glacial lake, and when the glaciers formed and receded they carved out random rock outcroppings in an otherwise flat landscape.
Photo of bluff
After a few lovely days of catching up and conversation (and a victory in a heated game of Canasta), my mother and I bid farewell and drove down to Chicago. Our destination: the International House at the University of Chicago, where I'd be interviewing and touring the next day. First, however, we had to navigate Midway Airport. In a burst of what we considered brilliance, we figured that not only would we return our rental car a day early and use public CTA transportation to get around, we would return our car not to the distant O'Hare but to Midway, much closer to the University. However, we soon - actually, not that soon; first we circled Midway for about half an hour! - discovered that our rental car agency was the only one whose return location was off-site. We finally found the returns office, and took a bus to the airport and then transferred onto a bus to Hyde Park. We almost got off at the right number on West 55th Street, but decided to stay on the bus because the neighborhood didn't seem like a University. After the numbers went down to zero and began another climb, we realized that the little "E" in front of the address was actually giantly important, and stayed on until our number on East 55th street!
We checked in at the International House (on U of Chicago's campus) and decided to explore. After a long and leisurely walk from Hyde Park through the Park District to Lake Michigan, a colossal hunger caught up with us and we desperately searched for a good place to sample some Chicago pizza! We arrived on the doorsteps of Medici looking for great food, and they delivered. Although our orders were mixed up a little and we had to wait a few extra minutes for our food, my mother loved her four-cheese pizza, and my Mediterranean pizza, so piled high with tomatoes and basil that the cheese wasn't missed at all, made the long wait worth it. The waitress was incredibly kind and insisted that we order something off the dessert menu - on the house, to make up for the delay. We hadn't minded the delay much at all, and were way too full to order one of the desserts. Instead we decided on some coffee to go (to my delight, Medici had soymilk so I could have a delicious cafe au lait), and felt very cool as we walked back the International House wearing sunglasses and sipping our coffees.
The next morning, we found the on-campus post office to mail a postcard and broke a 20 in the bookstore so that we would have the correct fares for our bus and train ride back to O'Hare. The admissions office lay across the quad, and we stowed our luggage there until our departure. After my interview, we ate lunch at the Reynolds Club, a campus building housing Student Activities and a variety of eateries. Our stir-frys from the Wokery were hot, spicy, and filled with vegetables! Nourished and refueled, we returned to the admissions building for the 1:30 tour. Our tour-guide dazzled us with his captivating personality and wonderful information about the University. The whole experience convinced me that University of Chicago would definitely stay on my list: I loved it!
On our way back to O'Hare, we stopped in downtown Chicago and, on a whim, walked into Millenium Park. A giant metallic sculpture captured our attention and we flocked like magpies to the enormous knobbly mirror. Pocketing my camera, we walked up a newly built elevated ramp to the Art Institute of Chicago's new modern wing, connected to the park via the walkway to its open sculpture terrace.
Relunctantly leaving to catch the bus to O'Hare, we sadly bid farewell to Chicago, feeling like pros with our smooth navigation of the CTA buses and trains, fancying ourselves to be well-aquainted with the city because we found the Blue Line station on our first attempt.
Feeling cooler than ever with sunglasses and a summery scarf, we waved goodbye: Chicago, we shall return!