Day in Chicago

The entire bus ride to chicago was fantastic, I got a good 6 hours of sleep, woke up when we stopped in Madison and Milwaukee but I fell back asleep right away. I was kind of weirded out when I woke up at 6:30 to this lady totally sprawled out into my row though...


I arrived at 7:45 and immediately got on the bus around the corner to the Chinese Consulate. I was talking with my mom while I was on the bus and missed my stop and had to walk back 7 blocks. Got to the consulate at 8:45 and was 5th in line. By the time I left at 9:15 there were at least 30 people in there.



I was told to come back at 2pm to pick up the visa which is perfect because my bus doesn't leave chicago until 3.

I used the bathroom to brush my teeth and clean up, random chinese guy walks in and asks if I came from a different place in mandarin while I had a toothbrush in my mouth. I totally understood what he said but I haven't spoken to a stranger in years in chinese. It feels bad since I spent 3 1/2 years learning it.

The first and only place I wanted to go to kill time was to Chinatown to grab some lunch at Joy Yee Noodle, one of my favorite restaurants in the whole city.


I intentionally skipped breakfast and took the subway red line there which was about 15 minutes and arrived exactly at 11am when they were unlocking their doors.



I ordered the coconut curry chicken with rice. I had to be consious about how much I was eating because i wanted to save part of it for dinner and I wanted to order a drink as well.



I got the avocado freeze with small bubbles...so delicious

After lunch I ducked into a Mariott hotel near to the consulate and killed about 45 minutes online. I got back to the consulate around 1 and they made me get out of line because the visas weren't ready. At 1:55 I jumped back in line and they handed me my visa for $170 including 1 day rush processing.
I heard this in my head when I got my visa just because I was nervous about possibly getting turned down:
Zelda - Treasure Chest Open

Right now I'm back on the bus and it's about 3:30pm, arrival time will be midnight. My dad called and said that my credit card arrived this morning which is great news because I won't have to worry about money so much on this trip.

This will definitely feel like a longer trip since I'm not so tired so if I think of something I'll add it to this post.



For now, here's a neat panorama picture of the bus.