J'ai reçu un email dernièrement m'annonçant la suppression imminente de mon blog si je ne postais pas rapidement.

Ce que je fais donc, et je vais en profiter pour donner de mes nouvelles.

Plus de quatre ans après mon départ pour Chicago, mon envie de voyager n'a pas diminué et je suis actuellement en thèse à Singapour (Nanyang Technological University). 
Pour ceux qui voudraient suivre mes nouvelles aventures, il y a un nouveau blog, disponible à cette adresse:
http://voyage-singapour.blogspot.sg

A bientôt!
Loïc

It’s been more than one year since I’m in Chicago, and now it’s time to leave. I’m pretty sad about that. However, this article is not about being depressed.

It’s about the fact that things almost never go the way they are supposed to, and sometimes it’s a good thing!

Fifteen days ago, I was thinking that my trip to Boston would be the last before leaving the US. Mainly for money reasons. But at a party on the 18^th, Yoann approached me and told me about going on a road trip to Canada. It would be cheap.

My motivation was here, and if it’s cheap, there’s no reason not to go!

After many changes of plans (due to visa and time problems), we ended deciding that we would take a plane to Denver, and then rent a car to the Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone. Result: a trip more expensive than expected. But also way more awesome, with the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen.

 So finally, even though I’m lazy, I’m going to write a bit about Salt Lake City. I went there primarily to visit a good friend of mine, Clayton. On Friday night, I was supposed to take off at 7:10 pm, but due to bad weather conditions, I had to wait 4 hours and I finally took off around 11. I arrived in Salt Lake around 1 am (if I remember well), and we went camping downtown, because of the parade of the 24^th of July, which is some sort of second national day for Utah.

On Saturday morning, we watched the parade and then went to the park.




In the afternoon we “shot the tube”. Under a highway, there was a huge pipe which is used to transfer the water (from the mountains, hence very cold). People from Salt Lake are actually using it for fun. You get something like a surfboard, you go up by walking in the freezing water and in the dark, and finally you go down the pipe by sliding with your board. I can’t say I was the most motivated for that, because when I tried to get into the water it was so cold that it was hurting real bad. And I realized that I was almost the only one to feel that way. Whatever. I still tried, and when I was almost down the pipe, I used my hands to stop because I didn’t want to get into the freezing water. Lame huh. I don’t care. That was still fun and I had a good sunbath.

Then, at night, we went up a hill to watch the fireworks. Actually, the fireworks were kinda small from up there, but I really enjoyed the view of Salt Lake!

Sunday was church day, because Clayton and his family are Mormons. We went to a concert in the morning, and then we went to church. Finally, at night we went to a party related to the church. It was nice, even though it was a “dry” party.

On Monday, we went to the lake where I managed to stand on a wake board for the first time! (I had tried already and I had miserably failed twice) There even is a video!


That was fun. Then we went working out, and finally we tried to go to a party but it got canceled because of the rain L.

On Tuesday, we went to a city in the mountains called Park City. There was a big slide going down the mountain, and we did it! It was lots of fun. 

Thank you Clayton for all of that!

 I did a lot of stuff recently. I went to Salt Lake City, Boston, and between the two, I was going out in Chicago.

I’m kinda lazy now and I don’t feel like describing what happened in Salt Lake City or Chicago. However, I’ll talk a bit about my stay in Boston.

We left last Friday, around 9 in the morning.


A Serbian student hosted us during the whole week end. We actually didn’t know him before leaving to Boston. We had two options for our stay: hostel or “couch surfing”. The hostel was not that cheap so Jonas contacted 5 persons who could potentially host us for free (the principle of couch surfing).

Se we ended up meeting Alek, who quickly became more than a stranger who was about to host us. We spent a lot of time with him and he gave us a lot of his time to make us visit.

On Friday afternoon, before meeting with Alek, we went to Harvard. It was nice, even though I had expected more fancy buildings.




Friday night was kinda crazy: I don’t know exactly what the others did because we lost each other many times. I know that I’ve been to three different places. I remember taking three cabs. I remember walking a lot, and talking to different persons in different places. Actually I’m not that confused about this night but the details are not important.

On Saturday, we spent our day walking with Alek. He made us visit Boston, and I thank him for that.



For lunch, we ate in a restaurant at Chinatown. It was a good occasion to try a lot of different foods!


Then Alek left and we decided to take a look to MIT, where the greatest minds in the world gather.








On Saturday night we went out again, but we were tired so we went back home early.

On Sunday, Jonas and I went on a “Duck Tour”: we were riding amphibious vehicles around the city. The “captain” was a disco king (dressed up) and he made a lot of good jokes and relevant comments about the history of the city. We finished in the water.

Then, we went to the museum of Science. It was nice. Lots of buttons to push.

Some things were really fascinating.


The day after, we just went shopping, and then we took off around 7 pm.

Now here I am, in Chicago, back to iit!

 I'm supposed to be doing some research. But:
1) I'm not paid +
2) This project is not mandatory for me
= I can work whenever I want.

My mom came to visit me last Tuesday, and she'll be back to France tomorrow.

Before she arrived, we went to the botanic garden. 

In the Metra with Guillaume (it was so far north)


In the garden, a couple was born (Emir, BK)



It was fun.
Since my mom is here, I'm doing so much stuff every day. Unfortunately, I didn't take so many pictures.

She left today. Yesterday, we've been on a boat cruise. I took some pictures.

The Trump Tower.



The Skyline from the lake.



Then we went to the Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower), which is the highest building in the United States (and during a long time, in the world).

On the balcony (383 m above the Chicago streets)



Finally, we ate at Damen in a bar-restaurant with a very good atmosphere (surrounded by young rich people).



Sorry for the strange faces. I think that I do them because I feel uncomfortable just posing (especially 383 m above the ground, or in front of a hamburger bigger than my face).