On culture and ice cream

There's a new experience every day here in Chicago! Yesterday (Sunday) I went with some CS friends to the Chinese New Year celebration in Chinatown. I must say, it is a bit of a culture shock, going from my small town parade to a big city parade. Normally, the parade in my home town is done in less than half an hour. People stand and walk along the main street from the old firehouse to about the funeral home (probably less than a quarter mile), and watch kids on bikes and tractors go by. This parade had three high school marching bands, dozens of floats, people dressed in dragon costumes, dignitaries and politicians, and even dancers. We stood outside for about two hours - one while we were waiting for the parade to happen and another while the parade actually happened. There were hundreds of people there (probably more than that, but it's hard for me to tell), bunched into a couple of city blocks. And despite the fact that we ended up like popsicles, frozen in the city streets, a good time was had by all.

In one of my classes today, we talked a little bit about Chinatown culture. Apparently, the original Chicago Chinatown was located more north on VanBuren. Chinatown has mostly been inhabited by poor Chinese from a certain area of China, and became famous for its chop suey, which was Americanized to make it more marketable to the Chicago people. I also found out that many of the people who moved to Chinatown later were unable to speak to the original inhabitants - they came from a different part of China and didn't speak the same language. In fact, many of them could only communicate using English!

I just had to throw this picture in... Yes, there were Irish men in kilts with bagpipes playing at the Chinese New Year celebration. Why? I have yet to figure it out.

In other news, I think I'm starting to finally grasp the idea that I am living in Chicago. I'm starting to meet people who live in the city - we went to a Superbowl party at a friend of a friend's apartment, which was a lot of fun (except for the part where the Cardinals lost, sad day), and today one of my roommates and I went out on an ice cream run. We walked all through Uptown after dark without getting mugged... go us! Sadly, we had to walk half a mile for good ice cream, but that's because we were picky and the stores were crowded. Meh.