When I boarded the train, I sat on the top and was really anxious to get to Chicago and down to China Town. The train ride was much shorter then I thought, and on the train we had a nice conversation about the Olympics and school. As the train arrived at Union Station, I became more excited.
Walking through the streets of Chicago, with the wind blowing and the sun shining, I felt like it was a pure Chicago moment. When we got to the Red Line, I was freaking out a little because I have never been on the subway before. Paying for the tickets was easier then I thought, but getting into the station was confusing. My group did not realize you had to pull out the ticket before you tried to get through. Once on the train, I felt better because the cars did not feel as if they were moving that fast. It kind of felt like one of those trains that they use in airports.
Once we were in China town, I was surprised on how it looked. Since I did not know what to expect, I thought if it looked like China its self I would have been surprised. When we went to go off on our own and shop, I was expecting Chinese New Year things that said Year of the Tiger, but to my surprise, I did not find anything of that sort. My group did not want to go into any bakeries, I do not know why.
When the parade started, we had a pretty good view. That was until more people realized the parade was about to start and stood right in front of me...yeah, that was not cool. When the first group came, I was excited. It was a dragon thing, with people underneath it acting like the dragon. But as the parade went on, I became more and more disappointed. I was expecting more Asian things, and not Irish and high school marching bands. I was also not expecting Ronald McDonald there...what he has to do with the Year of the Tiger I might not ever know.
During one part of the parade, the whole crowd thought it was over and started walking away, but no, for some reason things at the beginning were taking awhile to come through. During another part, it seemed as if the parade started to repeat itself; maybe it was because most the dragon seemed to be the same color, and all the floats looked exactly alike.
When the parade was over we walked around and shopped a little more, yet still I found nothing. The whole group met by the cop car and we made our way to the Red Line station. It took awhile for us to get through and board the car, but I expected that. The walk back from the Red Line station to Union Station was horrible, becasue not only were my feet numb, everytime we came to a cross walk we had to wait. And if we did not have to wait for a light the group would get cut in half because the light would change. But becasue of the cold the front half of the group, with Ms. T, just kind of left the others waiting at a light so we could become warm at Union Station.
Once at the train station we learned that we missed the earlier train by like 10 minuets, which was fine with me. So I ate my lunch, which was now more like a linner or a dunch which ever you prefer, with a group of friends. After we were done we walked around and ended up at McDonals, and we watch Princess Dairies Two.
The group met again and we went to see if the train was there yet, which it wasn't so we just chilled up the hallway were it was not cold. While standing one of the ad things fell and down and it was pretty funny becuase Kip said so quietly, "Sir, sir, you knocked it down." I laughed pretty hard. It took three people to figure out how to put it back up again.
When the train came we were kind of slow getting there and there was not a car for all of us to fit in...so they had to open another one for us. When the train left, the tiredness just hit me. I almost fell asleep on the way home. When the train pulled up to the station at Grayslake I was happy the day was over, because I do not think I could do anything more.
Overall I think the day was fun but disappointing, which I wish it wasn't. If I could relive this day I do not think I would, it was a good day overall.
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