chicago

i went to chicago from november 14 to november 17. it was my first and last trip this year since i was so busy this year with apps and jobs, but this trip made me like wow why didn't i travel already!? i feel like not traveling for so long has made me dull to the wonders of exploring unfamiliar places. it felt surreal even to get out of california lol i definitely should explore and travel more. kind of sidetracking but my elementary school friend came to united states to do exchange student program this january to may, and she definitely traveled to places like new york city, michigan, chicago, and canada that i have not even traveled during my 10 years of immigrant life. i should really get out of california (to travel)...

we stayed in allison's apartment in downtown chicago, and it was really nice. thanks allison! i do not know what i expected from chicago's apartment, but i think the expectation was on the floor because of what i had heard from other people about city apartments and affordable housing crisis, especially in new york city. i remember watching a youtube video of someone showing his roughly $1,200-a-month apartment in new york city, and i couldn’t believe how small and unsanitary the room was, with a shared restroom for the entire floor and a window that looked directly onto the wall of another building. fortunately allison's apartment in chicago was very nice and cozy.

sohee and i arrived to chicago at night. although the city was dark, i could still see the cityscapes, and it was phenomenal. i guess it's because i lived in irvine for too long; any building above 10 floors easily amazed me. 2nd day morning was slightly cloudy, but that gloomy weather was very fit for chicago.

we rode the blue line to logan square to go to lula cafe in logan square. i did not know initially but i guess lula cafe was a famous well-known place! the line was an hour and 10 minutes, but we still decided to stay. meanwhile we walked along the logan square, which reminded me of boston for their red brick buildings. also since it was autumn, it was prettier with red/yellow leaves on the trees and the ground.

when we entered lula cafe, interior and ambience was amazing. i really liked how they splitted their big space into two rooms so that the visitors can feel more cozy inside.

pastry on the left was on the house for waiting over an hour! it's cranberry & apple fig leaf danish with cranberry glaze and pistachios. it was probably one of the nicest pastries i've ever tasted. it was lightly sweet and soft on the inside.

i got the “royale” lula breakfast sandwich series (pictured at the bottom) that has adobo pork belly, grape pesto, muenster, baked egg, pickled red onion all between the sesame buns. it was more of a burger than a sandwich because of the buns, but it tasted amazing. since pork belly was hard to bite off, i was digging in with my knife bahaha

friends got smoked trout scramble (pictured top left) and breakfast burrito (pictured top right). i was kinda surprised how much egg was inside that burrito lol but ultimately it was tasty! i don't really go to breakfast places, because of how disappointing their foods are. generally brunch foods never amaze me (except the classic egg benedict in beachcomber, laguna beach) but this place was great! i would definitely come here again when i come back to chicago. if i can come with people who can wait in long line...

the service was great as well - our waiter was friendly. he had a snoopy shirt with snoopy tattoo on his R arm. pretty random but pretty cool.

by the time we left lula cafe, it was slightly sunny.

below are more pictures of logan square area. again, the autumn was a perfect weather that painted the area all colorful. i was surprised by the clear division of four seasons in chicago. in irvine ~280-290 days in a year are sunny so clearly i was surprised by the clear characteristic autumn displayed in its timing.

after logan square, we went to a cafe called milli by metric located near belmont station, few station south of logan square. their signature menu scared the heck out of me: "harvest party", which is a warm, spiced latte made with sweet potato curry and milk (sweet potato? curry??), saigon steamer, which is an aromatic drink featuring spirit's saigon herbal tea infused with appled cider reduction, vanilla, and cinnamon, served hot with milk (i understood 30% of the description btw), and milli mule, which is a bold and refreshing iced drink combining ginger beer, grenadine, lime, and a shot of espresso(?). i ended up just getting a latte lmaoo

after we arrived back to downtown from logan square, we walked to the museum of contemporary art (mca) because sohee wanted to see the exhibition that opened about the works of yoko ono. while walking, we stopped by the bean (spoiler alert: went to the bean 3 times) and passed by dusable bridge.

mca was interesting: i could see different ideas of human manifesting in different media. i didn't know that yoko ono was a performative artist: i thought her of plainly as john lennon's wife and a woman that most beatles fan despise due to her impact that led to friction within the band.

her message was straightforward: peace; hence the lyrics of her husband's opus magnum "imagine". the white chess was interesting (pictured right) - how during the course of chess we don't know who the enemy is - ultimately everyone is on the same side, there is no war or hostility. interesting thing was also her performative art instruction guide named "grapefruit". in the book, ono instructs by writing the direction of what performers should do. for example, there was a performer who performed the "laundry piece" in "grapefruit". she sat on the chair in front of the audience with her full laundry bag - then she started to grab her old yellow apron and started explaining what this soiled apron means to her. it was quite interesting as i am the person who tends to not understand modern art. frankly, there were many pieces - like 80% - in ono's exhibition where i was like wtf is she mad? but also i liked how she was able to express whatever she wanted in the form of art. very random, but i was walking around mca while listening to alexander von zemlinsky's "die seejungfrau". ecstatic piece.

after mca, we kept walking north to oak street beach. as a californian, i have seen a lot of beaches - but a beach with skyscrapers right next to the beach? never seen. because of this it was unique and pretty. also it was time for sunset. it was weird knowing that the water body that lines the horizon is a lake not an ocean, but still it was very pretty.

then, it was time for chicago symphony orchestra! in this day, only the strings were performing three pieces: divertimento k137 by mozart, mahler's string transcription of beethoven's string quartet in f minor, and vivaldi's four seasons.

might be a hot take but i hate classical period music lol - especially mozart and early beethoven. people praise their genius, which is undeniable, but i think the emotional gravity of late romantic music from schumann, rachmaninoff, tchaikovsky, bruckner, mahler and the musical magic of pieces from ravel, scriabin, schoenberg, prokofiev are far more interesting, amusing, and touching than bland, repetitive scales in mozart's music. i love sharing orchestral music with people around me, but i was slightly disappointed that these pieces were the ones that were introduced to my friends. many people think classical music is boring, but i think these pieces unfortunately made it to that category lol. i wonder how my friends would've felt when there was a full orchestra with the symphonies and concertos from rachmaninoff, ravel, prokofiev, mahler, tchaikovsky?

cso was great though, their playing was meticulous yet emotive, especially in vivaldi's four seasons. we sat on the highest floor, so we couldn't clearly hear the harpsichord, but listening to baroque music life had its vivacity and motion. overall, i was impressed by cso string's performance; i am curious now how full cso would sound like in its entirety.

third day, we went to allison's church, which was park community church south loop, and met up with christina, her boyfriend jeremy, and elizabeth. it was kinda crazy cuz christina was the upperclassman in berkeley that handed down her ucsf research position to me and we did pacific symphony youth orchestra together back in high school hahah and i see her in the most randomest times and this was the one. apparently allison, christina, and elizabeth go to church together and i was happy to see that allison had christ-centered community that would encourage her to grow spiritually. anyways it was pretty random lol the church sermon was about the sacrifice of isaac. it is pretty well-known story but i was able to slowly meditate on what God intended through abraham's tribulations. God provides tribulations to us to perfect us and sanctify us, as in James 1:2-4, it says: "consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." "consider it joy".. during trials and tribulations? it is the opposite reaction that a normal human would do in trials, but knowing that the Lord has plans to shape us, teach us, to make us durable among temptations and other trials that may hinder our faith and character. we are ultimately trying to be more like Christ - our direction of our heart should be more like Him since he has fulfilled the mosaic law and showed us what a holy life entails. and it is such a blessing that God is present and working actively in our lives to transform our filthy sinful hearts into gold, sanctified sons of God. during this trial, abraham believed with faith although both abram and sarai were reaching their elderly age and can not biologically have kids. then, God provided them with isaac and commanded abram to sacrifice him on the mountain. although conflicted, abram did not even hesitated and head to the mountain with isaac. the thing that i was very surprised about was the fact that abram told one of his servant that "we will worship and return to you" (Genesis 22:5). wow. we, as in abram and isaac, will worship and return back to you, the servant. even before abram started climbing that mountain to sacrifice isaac, abram knew that God will not literally let him kill his son. that is quite tremendous amount of faith that he has to God. and Hebrews 11:8 retouches on this triumph of faith: "by faith abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.". faith is not faith when we can clearly see something. faith is "assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen". through faith in His son who gave all to atone for our sins that we commit daily, we are saved. grace is not cheap. grace is something that is so undeserving to us who put ourselves as our lord and commit filthy sins everyday with our eyes, hearts, and hands. recognizing the amount of grace and power that God has, the faith that we put, the assurance that He is the Lord of this entire universe and our hearts and He is the Father who loves us and would save us was something that i reflected on this sermon. basic gospel but i first felt the importance of faith and how ungrateful we are of this opportunity to believe in Him, and i also was impressed by how much faith abraham displayed, which allowed God to bless him according to His promise.

then we went to qing xiang yuan in chicago chinatown and ordered some dumplings. i honestly thought it was as good or sightly better than din tai fung but friends disagreed hahah maybe it was because i was hungry.

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