Post 10- Chicago

The first thing that I did when I arrived was go the the bike shop called "On the Route". Jon and Margaret told me to meet up with their friend Heather, who in turn had a friend named Chris that works at the shop. He wanted to know all about the trip and wished that he could do it, but he was very helpful and even gave me a bike map of Chicago. I then ate dinner and met up with my host, Justin. He was the most active person that I have ever met, and he was also able to give me a place to stay on short notice. We went to a comedy show called Barrel of Monkeys put on by a group called the Neo-Futurists. They do thirty plays in sixty minutes and they are all plays that children have wrote and were adapted by the comedians. It was one of the funniest performances that I have ever seen, I actually hurt from laughing for so long. I met one of Justin's friends, Jaimy Klinko who invited me to stay at her place for a couple of days. I was relieved to have another plaee to stay because I hadn't made arrangement with anyone else yt.
I packed my things in the morning and brought my things over to Jaimy's apartment. Then I met her and Issabella (the girl she nanny's) for lunch. After eating, I headed for downtown but didn't make it more than a few blocks before I bumped into a famous eatery, Jay's Beef. So I got a hot beef sandwich and ate my second lunch. I took Milwaukee Ave towards the city, which cuts at an angle and has a bike lane of sorts. The first thing that I saw was the Sears Tower, and then I headed to Grant Park. I had a good time there, checked out some crazy sculptures ("THE BEAN"), mediated for a while and practiced my juggling. I had dinner with Heather and her roommate and we met up with Chris at the bar they work at, The Shire. I made it back to Jaimy's, stayed on the futon and slept in. I had contacted another guy, Michael through the Couchsurfing network and he agreed to let me stay through the weekend.
I found a Polish resatuarant that was highly rated, ate the sampler platter with meat galore, and Michael greeted me at his house. We made some food, and then met up with Stacey, his girlfriend. We went to the local bar by her house and had a good time. the DJ was horrible, he basically just had a laptop with a horrible play-list, so we just went home.
There was a Couchsurfers event that night at the Neo Futurists, which was organized by Justin. Over a hundred people showed up for the event and I was seriously impressed by another great show, this one was for the adult audience. I got a ride home from one of Justin's friends. Friday was also fun, I rode around the Navy Pier and then went to Critical Mass (thousands of bicyclists that take over the streets for a few hours). I then met up with Jaimy for dinner and drinks, and stayed at on the futon again. Jaimy told me about her friends that live in Cleveland so I was happy to have another place to stay. I ate breakfast with Jaimy and then went back to Michaels' house.
Me and Michael got cleaned up and went to the International House Music Festival. The funny thing is that when we got arrived, there was a State Fair going on and we didn't notice that the parking lots next to the Fair was where the house music was happening. We finally figured it out and as we entered, there was a Drum and Bass section, House and Techno sections. The DJ's were actually really good, and we stayed for a few hours. I was going to go the the Bike Messenger Prom that night, but I decided to hang out the Michael and we went to a club to go dancing with some of his friends. I was able to borrow a nice shirt from him and it turns out that we are both a shoe size 44, European. The music at the club was like a video game on crack, and un-danceable so Michael went home and I went with his friends to a place called the Lizard Club, they actually decided to just go home, but I wanted to dance so I just got out there. I had a good time and walked three miles home because the train was under repairs.