Week Four!

Sorry for the lack of post this weekend- internet in my appartment has ranged from none to atrocious!! However, now it is back and I have lots to report!!

Besides Chicago work and play to tell you about, I went on business trips to both Kentucky and Indiana last week. I am going to start by telling you about those!

So, last Sunday we flew to Kentucky. A little over an hours flight- while I was sitting there I just had time to work out it was my 23rd since last summer... sorry Polar Bears!! 

Our 3 days in Kentucky were brilliant. I very much enjoyed my first official business trip! We attended World Trade Day in Lexington, where we did lots of networking and prosperity related calls. We  fitted in a trip to the University of Kentucky too and met with an Ambassador to talk about the US Presidential race in the state. We also found time to eat Pizza at an awesome little place that had been converted from an old gas station and sampled Kentucky bourbon. 

On Tuesday we drove down to Louisville. Louisville is the real cultural and entrepreneurial hub of Kentucky, where everything is happening. It is a great city, and the meetings we had there (including one with a US army colonel) were fun and memorable. We even got a tour of the Frazier Arms Museum, which was brilliant. They are opening a Princess Diana exhibition there so they thought we might be interested- it all felt very British and quite bizarre that we were in the middle of Kentucky, but I am very glad we got to see it all the same. 

The couple of visits that I had set up went smoothly, much to my relief and although the hours were long, it was fantastic to get to see such a different state. Only an hours flight from Chicago, it felt like a different country. The culture, climate, landscape, accent, food... everything was a world away from the windy city. Although Kentucky is officially part of the Midwest, it is widely considered a Southern state, with a largely Southern mentality and that is where you see the real differences. The area is also fairly rural, with an abundance of horses, farms and, of course, the Appalachians (the oldest mountain range in the world.) It was eye opening to see how much the US varies from state to state and what a diverse country it is. 

I didn't take many photos as I was in serious Diplomat mode (ha!) but I did snap these two to show just how different the buildings and landscape are from Chicago! Everything was so tiny and sweet!

We flew back from Louisville on Tuesday evening, Wednesday was spent in the office in Chicago and then off we went to Indiana come Thursday morning.

The exciting part about Indiana was that I had written the speech for the Deputy- Consul General's presentation. We managed to arrive an hour early because we had got the time difference wrong (not my fault, phew!) so had a little time to explore. Those of you who knew me in my childhood might remember my love for a certain film called The Wizard of Oz. Well, I was convinced I was in Kansas. Wooden houses painted all different colours, farms and barns... all I needed was to see Toto and I might have burst into a rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. It was very funny and, once again, a completely different state with its own unique (unique-ish, very Kansas-esque) characteristics. 

The speech went really well, my work was done so I got to eat and watch(the event was a luncheon) while the Deputy Consul did his thing. A very enjoyable day in Kansas Indiana.

So... back to Chicago! Apart from an almighty storm at the weekend, the weather has been amazing. At the weekend I went with a couple of friends to the Bucktown Arts Festival. It was 33 degrees, there were kids selling lemonade outside their houses, and live country music blaring. Yep, definitely in America. We saw lots of lovely paintings by local artists and then sunbathed the afternoon away on the beach. Pretty great.

Besides the beaches, I have found a new favourite post-work hangout spot. Rooftop bars. These have just become trendy in LA and New York, but Chicago has had them forever. When the weather is nice, there is no better place to admire the views and soak up the sun. Most are fairly small, with seating for only 20-30 people, but that's the best part. Most people don't know about a lot of them so they feel kind of secret. I spent two evenings last week watching the sun set from a rooftop bar with a couple of colleagues. Pretty spectacular. I will have to track down pictures as they are on my friends phone. 

For now, here is how I spent my lunch break today. This is the beach behind the Consulate.

This coming weekend is bank holiday here in the US (they call it Labour Day) so I am looking forward to my 3 day weekend and will post an update following it!