Monkey Madness: January 2007

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She came, she saw, she shopped her ass off!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Shin Yi arrived in Chicago on December 18th 2006, shortly after 4pm. I hid from her view until she was at the luggage claim, and popped out suddenly saying she could save $3 (for the luggage cart rental) if she will let me carry her bags. The look on her face as she came toward me for a hug is a vision I hope to never forget. It was as if we had not been apart for a year. We talked as she located her luggage, and I carried it along to my car.

Midway airport is a fairly long drive south of where I live, so the ride back toward my area offered us a chance to talk a lot. The traffic was a bit busy, so I offered to take her out to eat for her first meal in Chicago (the general Chicago area). I decided to find a restaurant I had been to a few times, that serves huge burgers, and great fries or onion rings... you will likely see a picture of it on her blog soon. It felt almost surreal to sit across from her, and order food with her, at a place I had only been able to talk about with her online in the past. It was a good choice, and she really enjoyed the food.

With food in our stomachs, we were able to continue our drive to the rental which would be her home for the next 2 weeks. It was a decent place, reasonable price, but I ended up not being real happy with the management of the place, so I will take a pass on giving them some free advertising here by saying their name. When we arrived at the rental, it took all of 20 seconds to give a tour (not a huge place), and show her where I put things like extra towels, snacks, cups, and so on. Shin's version of unpacking was to lay two suitcases side by side on the floor, and open them. They stayed like that the entire time she was here. She did use some hangers though.

We didn't stay there long, as the drive back, and dinner took up a lot of time. I wanted to bring her by to meet my parents, so they would know everything worked out ok with the flight and rental. It was nice watching my parents meet her for the first time. I have to give a great deal of thanks to my parents, as my mother contributed toward the cost of the rental, and my father gave us so many restaurant gift cards that we barely paid for any meals. We ate really good too! Shin has lots of pictures to prove it.

Shopping.... that's probably the understatement of the year! I believe we visited 2 Old Navy stores (including downtown chicago), 8 different Walmarts, 4 Sears stores, 2 or 3 JC Penney stores, 3 or 4 Targets, TJ Maxx, Macy's, Lord & Taylor... there are more, and some of the stores we went to multiple times. We went to so many places, that I put nearly 1000 miles on my car in two weeks (thats nearly 1600km). I have lived here all my life, and have not seen some of the places we went to before she arrived. Some of it was just as new to me, as it was for her. Shin will go into a lot more detail, and have pictures, so I will probably not use pictures in my posts about her visit.

to be continued...

posted by Robert @ 5:15 AM 1 comments

Welcome to Monkey Madness: January 2007

Name: Robert
Home: IL, United States
About Me: I live near Chicago.
See my complete profile