At the end of last June, my awesome/excellent/fantastic friend Alex came to visit me and Mike. Alex is from Germany, but we met in Hong Kong while we were all studying abroad. Actually, Alex is from Germany, did his undergrad in Scotland, studied abroad in Hong Kong, and did grad school in London. Confused? So am I. Here is a chart to better illustrate.
To make it even more confusing, he's now living in Switzerland. GAAAH!Anyway, the last time we'd seen each other was December 2006, so it was quite a wonderful reunion to finally see each other again in June 2010. Mike picked him up from the airport on a Wednesday night. I had to work on Thursday and it was KILLING ME all day long knowing that Alex and Mike were hanging out WITHOUT ME. I could not drive down to Chicago fast enough. When I finally walked in the door, I couldn't believe he was sitting there on Mike's couch!
Complete with a 312!We had a lot of fun making Alex eat and do American/Chicago things. Especially because he does not like patriotism (anybody's...not just America's). This just made me EXTRA patriotic.
Red White and Blue chips and salsa! Although Alex said they were black, red, and yellow (for Germany). Pfff, we know the truth.
Eating a cheeseburger with extra bacon...very American.
A burrito the size of your head from Chipotle. Very American. Slash Mexican. Slash American.
The Firkin was VERY decorated for the Fourth of July! They don't call it Libertyville for nothing!
What's more American than Bass Pro Shop?!
We went mini-golfing at the tackiest place we could find. Side note: When we were in Hong Kong, I may have sort of "promised" my sister Beccah to Alex. It was an absurd conversation we were having about how he and our other friend Garrett should be my brothers. Then I started promising my sisters away (I'm such a good feminist). My other sister, Tess, is promised to Garrett. Well, she was, until he decided that instead of being my brother-in-law, he wanted to be my step-dad. Then he started hitting on my mom in postcards. It's OK, she thinks it's hilarious. Anyway, when I made these promises, it never occurred to me that these people would ever actually meet each other. So it was a little awkward when Alex and Beccah did actually meet. Luckily everyone has a sense of humor and Beccah hung out with us a lot anyway.
So noble, just like George.
Alex visited Gurnee too and met my whole family! We had a nice dinner and watched the World Cup. It was an intense couple of hours when Germany was playing England. I was a little worried that if Germany lost, Alex would run out of the house and stagger around Gurnee in a blind rage. I think he was pretty worried about that happening too.
Starbucks! We decided to get Starbucks as we were leaving the grocery store. I started locking the car, and Mike said, "Aren't we driving there?" Alex and I were like, dude, what is wrong with you. Starbucks was on the other side of the parking lot. I mean, I know we were trying extra hard to give Alex an American experience, but driving across the parking lot WAS NOT NECESSARY.Of course, having met in Hong Kong, we had to go to Chinatown. It's not too big, so we just wandered around a little while, took pictures, and ate lunch. The cafeteria at our school in Hong Kong always served barbecued pork on rice, so we all got that, along with some delicious green vegetable. YUM.
None of us had ever been to Oak Park, and we heard it was pretty and had some historical stuff, so we went. It was very cute! We visited a record store, ate ice cream, saw lots of cool houses, and visited Ernest Hemingway's birthplace. Unfortunately it was closed, so we wandered around the backyard and sat on the porch.My future SUPER PATRIOTIC house!
We did a pub quiz one night, and ordered an absurd nacho plate. Yet another American thing that Alex could eat!
My favorite time with Alex was when he and I had a beer on the front steps of Mike's apartment at 11 in the morning. Luke, Mike's roommate, drank with us too. It would have been even better if Mike had been there, but he was at class. However, when he came back, we went to the beach!
On the way to the beach, we saw this statue. It was too high for me to kiss it, but Alex felt inspired enough to climb it.
Apparently it was news to Alex that Chicago even had a beach (I think that's news to a lot of Americans too). He was EXTREMELY excited about going the beach.
His grad school program in London made a CD of all their work. They each had CD's to leave in various places to get people to check out their work. He left one at the beach.
Alex was nice enough to cook dinner for us a couple times. Both were pasta dishes, and both were REALLY good. He also brought a couple bottles of wine from his region in Germany, which were EXCELLENT.
Alright! That's the first part of Alex's trip the U.S. At this rate, hopefully my next installment will be complete before April! Up next: A trip to Starved Rock, ANOTHER Hong Kong friend visits all of us, and Alex (the most unpatriotic person ever) celebrates the Fourth of July! YEEHAW!
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