chicago: where the wind slaps you sideways and history whispers
so here i am in chicago after what feels like a 47-hour journey with zero sleep and a bag of questionable airport pretzels. i just checked and it's... -6.27°C and feels like -12.49°C right now, hope you like that kind of thing. honestly, my toes went numb before i even got out of the cab. they say the city spans about 25 miles north to south and 15 miles east to west - basically just a giant flat expanse where every direction is either lake or train tracks.
look at this place - it started as a tiny settlement by the chicago river which apparently connects to the mississippi river somehow? wild. someone told me the name might mean "strong" or "great" but honestly it just means "cold" to me right now. the city divides into three sides - north, south, west - with like 77 community areas or something. i got lost in the loop trying to find coffee and ended up in some industrial zone by the calumet river.
so the population is 2.74 million? feels like it all crammed into the train with me during rush hour. the cultural tapestry thing is real though - you hear polish, spanish, tagalog, all kinds of stuff on the street. and if you get bored, skokie, cicero, joliet are just a short drive away. skokie’s got that big jewish community, cicero’s where al capone set up shop, joliet used to be all factories. chicagoland goes all the way to wisconsin and indiana apparently.
someone told me the loop got its name from streetcar tracks making a square? now it’s just where the trains go overhead. weird. and the commercial heart is along north michigan avenue by the lake. tried to take pictures but my fingers froze. the whole place is basically a giant transportation hub - trains, planes, automobiles, you name it. they say it’s the third-largest metro area but right now it just feels like the windiest.
honestly? i’m exhausted. pressure’s at 1030 or something and humidity’s 81% which means everything feels wet and cold. the highest point here is 672 feet? barely a hill. i came expecting jazz and deep dish but mostly just found concrete and confusion. maybe tomorrow i’ll find that famous local dish everyone talks about… or maybe i’ll just drink too much coffee and stare at the lake. either way, bring a parka.
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