I’m losing track of how many times I’ve been up to this great city. I finally found out just how windy this town gets while I was driving near Northwestern, when the car shook while at a red light. I was quite surprised.

Once again, much food was consumed, just like the last time I was in the city. Regardless of how expensive a deep-dish pizza can get at Gino’s East ($20… wow! At least it fed me for two meals… and I only had half of it…) or how amazing the wings at Buffalo Joe’s were (best wings… ever… at reducing the numbers of your life… taste-wise, also) or how interestingly familiar Pho was (even though I’ve never had it before) or how attractively packaged and priced the 짜장면 and the 탕수육 was (oh, how I miss Korean food… even though I have it all the time…), they were all great experiences that I will once again only dream about until the next time I go back to Chicago.

But alas, it wasn’t at all just about the food. I had a nice bonding time with a great friend of mine, John Kim. I was so thankful that him and his family took me in for a couple of days as I used Evanston as home base for a couple of days. Visited yet another library… not a bad library, but I’m still amazed at the Schaumburg one… And a very nice Sunday service at his home church, University Bible Fellowship.

Oh right, and the shopping. I did get to visit Woodfield once, but I got to visit Westfield AKA “Old Orchard” twice with John for Christmas shopping. It was a nice atmosphere, since it was a mall without innards; instead, it opted for a nice open-air environment with nice Christmas decorations all about. It did drizzle a bit the first time we went, but man, it was still very nice. Oh… and Woodfield gets just a bit smaller every time I visit.

Let’s see… I met up with Sharon, Jason, and Dave (my future roommate for a semester) for a movie at the theater in Woodfield. “A Night at the Museum” was a fun little movie… definitely a family slash Christmas-y movie. I definitely fell asleep for about a quarter of it though, seeing how, for some reason the entire time I was up in Chicago, I was dead tired…

I did meet up with Chuek at the Panera at Old Orchard. This kid… narrowly missing the 4.0… I felt so bad for him… and to see Shang with how little work he put into his semester pull off the four-oh… (No, Shang… I know you tried hard, you just play it off like you didn’t try, to seem cool… I know it’s all about your clever ploy to get the ladies) Yeah, but it’s so nice to see Chuek away from school… doing… school-ish things. That kid needs to rest a bit. I think I should send him to an uninhabited island, with NO books and NO internet. I hope he gets to rest up a bit before yet another semester.

Oh, and can’t forget the karaoke. This is definitely up there with consuming alcohol for some strange reason on the “vice-o-meter”. The way I pictured the atmosphere of the 노래방 is one of smoke-filled drunkenness. While it was definitely smokey to a certain degree… it was just all about having fun and trying to hit the high notes with passion. Oh the random pop songs of the 90′s… the disney favorites… the K-Pop hits… Yikes. Let’s list off some artists and songs… (Started off with Semi-Charmed Life… Deli Spice was somewhere in there… I had to sing Kim Jong Gook, as well as HOT… Sharon’s rendition of Britney Spears was well done… John pulled background singing duty for like 80% of the songs, which was hilarious… Definitely ended the night with “Bye Bye Bye”) All in all, I definitely found this to be an experience worth remembering. Definitely expensive… but too much fun. If only I could buy one…

Then I realized… it’s pretty much like DDR or Guitar Hero. It’s just another music game that I must conquer. It’s time to brush up… on my singing? Maybe later…

Another weekend, another set of lessons to chew on. Yummy.

I’m so sorry if I didn’t get to visit you. I didn’t really announce I was going up anyway. I might go up before UIUC’s break is over… just give me a place to live, and I’ll gladly take you out for a meal, wherever I haven’t been to. I’ll even share my life experiences with you, for all it’s worth. Double Yummy!