If it has the word 'fly' in the title, it's probably not worth eating.

Tuesday 4th September 2012 - 7.16pm

Friday evening rolls round and in turn so does the 4 hour journey to Chicago 'the windy city'. With Starbucks in hand and Burger King consumed, Mitch and I tackled the weary task of following an interstate. I wouldn't deem our attempts to navigate an American Highway a particular success as they only ended in hilarity, an prodigious waste of fossil fuels and a subsequently late arrival to everywhere we went.

Once on the outskirts of Chicago, settled with our bags off-loaded in the seedy 'Super 8' hotel, we resolved a quick trips to Chicago centre was in order. Driving into Chicago at around 9pm on that Friday evening actually made me realise how lucky I am. Everyone had been promoting Study Abroad for near on a year and it had seemed too long in the planning to be a reality however driving into this beautiful twinkly city alongside the river, watching the beautiful twinkles reflect light across the water, framing the moon mark on the water made it all very real. As queer as it sounds I would really like to take this moment to thank my mommy for this, (she is the blogs biggest fan ;) so I know she's reading this somewhere over the pond in GMT). Thank you for always being ready support these ludacris but life-changing ideas I have like trans-Atlantic moves at the age of 19 and scaling mountains in the jungle even though I am a 'spoilt little girl' and a 'idle cow' (your choice of words, not mine) I do greatly appreciate it.

Not of the photographs we amatures attempted to capture did this city justice, so included one carefully selected from Google Images. So we explored and dined and returned to our much welcomed beds. The following morning, due to my inconvenient need to sleep and Mitch's inability to locate actual food, we skipped breakfast in favour of the mall. Whoever gave me a sum of money and a couple of shopping centres is a fool but moving swiftly on. Saturday afternoon, we embarked on a Gray Line bus tour around Chicago. The stops included: Sear's Tower, Hilton Hotel, Shedd Aquarium, Art Museum, Navy Pier, John Hancock Tower, Millennium Park and Hard Rock Cafe Chicago. 

Both of us would have liked to ascend the Sears Tower, however it was far to overcast for it to be worthwhile. Instead we took pictures of it from the car park - intuitive right?

The tour guide revealed a heart warming anecdote about the Sears Tower; a man waited until the completion of the tower and for snow to fall, he then located a field that can be surveyed from the higher floors of the building. Once he had heedfully selected his field he ventured out and stomped out the message "Sarah, will you marry me?". Unfortunately, his commendable efforts were wasted as the memo was lost in the distance. Nevertheless, he valiantly awaited the next snowfall but this time he brought reinforcements. A team of several men and machinery laboured over the message, this time making it clearly visible from the heights of the tower. Our hero took beloved Sarah to the top of the tower and of course, like any hormonal woman in receipt of a hopeless romantic gesture would, she elatedly obliged. To the couples surprise, the office responded with tremendous applause and bottles of champagne, they were then swept off to the John Hancock building for a complimentary meal on the 94th floor only to end up honeymooning in Italy, courtesy of the employees of Sear's Tower. And people say romance is dead.

This fun-filled day was concluded with a trip to the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre to evaluate Kelly Clarkson's tits and casually listen to the Fray. Kelly was spectacular live, one of the best concerts I've been to by far and I've attended my fair share of gigs. The Fray were also outstanding. I feel the need to include a visual representation of how delectable Kelly looked.


I'd give her one. I'd give her ten.

The following morning was time for our commute to Indiana when I developed an inexplicable compulsion for counting and identifying the intermittent road kill. We could tell small town Nappanee was incoming as we soon found ourselves surrounded by endless cornfields where all international corporate companies began to disappear. There was something slightly unnerving about driving through America without seeing a McDonald's or Wendy's on every corner.

On check-in the hotel claimed we had not made reservations which lead to a quest to investigate whether the money had been liquidated from my account and generally an all round caffuffle. Once this was resolved, the Amish fun could begin.

Amish Acres introduced us to our new surroundings with a musical in the theatre named 'Plain and Fancy' highlighting the key values and differences of Amish communities. We were issued old-fashioned looking programs masquerading as newspapers which explained a little about the imminent performance and the actors involved. Reading of plays such as Throughly Modern Millie, Hot Milkado, Avenue Q, Arsenic and Old Lace, Cats and many more got my blood pumping with anticipation while we waited for the show to commence. At that very moment, I realised what a theatre geek I really am. The performance was very well-equipped with aesthetically pleasing mise-en-scene that not only made the play visually enticing but was also educational and enlightening as the settings and plots were very accurate in their representation of the Amish household. The costuming was of a high standard too.

The night was completed with a traditional Amish meal. In spite of the Amish reputation for fine home-cooking, the cuisine I digested that night was not distinctly palatable. We had some form of bean soup which tasted of watery cardboard and kidney beans. The main was enticing - a selection of meats served with vegetables and gravy but questionably accompanied by savoury noodles resembling tagliatelle. Not so enticing. My scarring food experience was completed with 'shoo fly pie'. This is a traditional Amish recipe containing an undisclosed ingredient so sweet it attracts flys - which is were the name is formulated. Shoo fly. I figured when in Rome however this was the day I learnt that if a dessert has 'fly' in the title, it's probably not worth eating.

Labour was the closing day of our road trip and consisted of a partically hungover walking tour of the Amish homes and a wagon ride round the grounds. With all of the informational touring complete we packed up our bags and made tracks for Bowling Green, Ohio.

And so ends my first American road trip.