Favourite so far

Chicago is definitely my favourite place so far on this holiday. It has a great mix of city and seaside, although it's more ike a collection of small towns and it's a lake not a sea. It's probably been better here because my brother has friend's here through his band stuff and straghtaway we met up with them and were told what to do and what to avoid.

Saturday night we met up with John and Mindy, had some really nice Mexican food then went to see John's show which was fantastic. The idea is that each member of the group writes so many plays (really, really short plays - 5 minutes max) and the audience call out which play they'd like to see. Every week a member of the audience rolls a dice and they bin that number of old plays and write some new ones. The ticket price is also determined by a roll of a dice. Each person rolls the dice and they pay that amount plus $7, so it could be $8 or anything up to $13. Some of the plays were funny, some were rude (although I think a British or European company would have taken far more risks) and some were quite thought-provoking. It was a really good night and hopefully I'll see some other things they're doing during the summer.

Outside the downtown area where all the big hotels are heading towards the north of Chicago there are lots of little neighbourhoods which are quite similar to the West End or Merchant City but a lot bigger. This makes the place seem very friendly and more personal than New York. The people here are also fitness obsessed with gyms and yoga/pilates classes everywhere - even on the beach! I've found some aerial classes to go to as well as the dance stuff I already had organised. Can't wait to get started and now I've moved into my rented room I'll be able to cook normal food as well not the Giant Haystacks portions we've been getting so far.