City Girl? I think not....

I have had the weirdest experiences since I've been here. Maybe it's because I'm dramatic and make everything sound more glamorous than it really was. Or maybe I'm just a weird-experience magnet. Either way, a few adventures thus far:

Taste of Chicago: 1 million people, lots of food, gang fight that Emily and I walked briskly away from, shooting at the train station. Awesome.

I found a new park last weekend. Found a nice, quiet spot where no one was sitting. As I sat in the grass to start reading, I looked down and noticed a funny (and disgusting) thing. Flying ants had literally attacked my legs and feet. I was covered! I then realized why no one was sitting there- there had been a drink left over from sometime and was attracting these nasty things. I had to go home to scrub them off the bottom of my feet.

I was in the same park (you'd think I would've learned my lesson) and laying on a blanket in a non-ant-infested section. 3 yipping dogs come whizzing around the corner and circling around everyone's blankets and every tree they could find. They were wearing leashes, but no owner was to be found. Finally the old woman that was the owner came around the corner, dressed in a floppy hat and red lipstick, and began screaming at the dogs. "Louie! Come back!" she was screaming in a low, gutteral (is that a word?) voice- which sounded weird coming from her. But she refused to move from the spot she was sitting. Meanwhile the stupid dogs were peeing on this poor latin family's toys. I decided to mind my own business and lay back down. Somehow the family thought I was the one screaming. I guess I look like I have a low voice? They through a ball right on top of me! And then here came the dogs! Bounding over me (literally) and all over my blanket! Thanks latin family. I don't think I'll be returning to that park.

I met someone that lived in Chanute for a few months last summer! I thought he was lying until he started naming the hotels and streets.

My friend Brian and I decided we should watch High Fidelity since he had never seen it (and I thought this was ridiculous- If you haven't seen it, it'll change your life when you do). After 2 Blockbusters, $5 and 20 minutes of driving to find parking we got back to the apartment. Only to find that my computer wouldn't read the DVD player. My landlord graciously offered her DVD player, but sadly no screen. I didn't have the heart to tell her, so we decided to make sure the DVD even worked. We put it in and it played (well the numbers went up anyway). When I tried to eject the stupid thing, the tray came out with no DVD! It ate the DVD and it was somewhere in the body of the thing. We tried tipping it upside down and shaking it. Nothing worked. Finally, we had to take the whole thing apart, get the DVD out and then put it all back together. By the time that was finished it was too late to start the movie!

Saturday I lost my car. Literally could not find it. I walked up and down almost every street around my apartment for like half and hour, and nothing. The night before I had driven around trying to find parking, and by the time I finally parked it, all the streets were jumbled in my head! So I walked to the train station later and not half a block away (but south instead of north where I'd been checking) was my car! Lame Chicago. Lame.

Then this weekend, I waited half an hour for a train that was never going to come. They didn't run on the weekends. Good thing Doug and Danae called, because I probably would've waited another hour or so, thinking they only ran every 2 hours or something.

I have established an interesting relationship with my landlord/landlord's daughter. Her parents are technically the landlords, but they don't speak English. So she did all the negotiating in the beginning. The other night we spent like 3 hours together. I died her hair black, she fed me beans, tortillas and cheese.

I'm not even going to mention the number of times I've gotten on the wrong train/bus, walked down the wrong street or pointed someone else in the wrong direction. That would be embarrasing.

We'll see what this week brings!