chicago-trip - Journeys and discoveriesBlog dédié à mon séjour d'un an à Chicago, dans le cadre d'un échange académique.Cowbloghttp://chicago-trip.cowblog.frWed, 30 Apr 2014 03:51:37 +0200180Nouvelles récentesWed, 30 Apr 2014 03:51:00 +0200Wed, 30 Apr 2014 03:51:00 +0200http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/nouvelles-recentes-3264448.htmlLoic
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
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last trip in the US (before the next one?)Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:22:00 +0200Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:22:00 +0200http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/last-trip-in-the-us-before-the-next-one-3033276.htmlLoicIt’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 18th, 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.

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Salt LakeThu, 05 Aug 2010 07:42:00 +0200Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:42:00 +0200http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/salt-lake-3025665.htmlLoicth 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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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. 

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Thank you Clayton for all of that!

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BostonTue, 03 Aug 2010 22:43:00 +0200Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:43:00 +0200http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/boston-3025360.htmlLoicI’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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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

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Some things were really fascinating.

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

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

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Research projectMon, 28 Jun 2010 20:18:00 +0200Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:18:00 +0200http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/research-project-3013337.htmlLoic 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)

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

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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.

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The Skyline from the lake.

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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)

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

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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).

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HolidaysWed, 12 May 2010 19:49:00 +0200Wed, 12 May 2010 19:49:00 +0200http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/holidays-2996253.htmlLoic Yesterday, we went to the contemporary art museum, and this morning, we went to the aquarium.

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Why watching tv at home when you can do it in a museum?

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It was the second time for me, but Clayton got us inside for free thanks to his museum of science and industry member card.
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Blues legendTue, 11 May 2010 22:08:00 +0200Tue, 11 May 2010 22:08:00 +0200http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/blues-legend-2995697.htmlLoic
Buddyguy is simply a blues legend. And this bar is his. And I saw him, and I took a picture with him :). I'm such a groupie.

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Spring break and after (EN)Mon, 10 May 2010 05:17:00 +0200Mon, 10 May 2010 05:17:00 +0200http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/spring-break-and-after-en-2994889.htmlLoic
I was lazy, and busy. 

I made the decision to write in english, because I want my friends from here to be able to read (if they want to). 

I have many things to talk about, but actually I'll be short, and there won't be any pictures.
I just need to write that to remember later :).

For Spring Break, we went to South Carolina. I can summarize the whole stay by using some words: beers, jacuzzis, cards, drinking games. 
We spent almost every afternoon playing drinking games, and when I see the videos, I can confirm that some of us were kinda drunk :).
It was a long time ago already, and last Saturday I spent a part of my evening watching these videos (No, I didn't go out because I had to study, these two last weeks have been really busy), and sometimes I couldn't stop laughing.

Here is the only picture I have from spring break. I also have 8 videos.

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I did a lot of different things recently, and I made the decision to stay in Chicago over the summer. 
I'll do a research project, I'm supposed to begin tomorrow.

Three days ago it was my birthday (the 6th). The evening of the 5th, I studied for the exam that I had on Thursday, at 8 am. Then, I went to the room of my girlfriend and on the way, almost all my friends were waiting :).

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That was awesome.

Then I was ready to sleep for my exam. My exam went well, so I could enjoy the day of my birthday :).
The first thing I did after the exam was to have brunch with Carolyn :). It was good, but she was disappointed that I already knew the place (I went before winter break). I helped Emir moving out. Finally we went to the cinema to see How to train your dragon in 3D!




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Pause now. We're going to watch a movie.

Ok the movie is over (2 days after).

What happened after?

I had to prepare my exam, so I went to bed at 4 in the morning.
On Friday, we went to Crown Hall to see our achitect friends' creations.

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Me teaching architecture

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One of my students speaks about her masterpiece.

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Here we were taking a look at Yoetzin masterpiece, which is a house in Bordeaux. Unfortunately, you can't see it because of Clayton.

In the evening we saw Iron Man 2, then went to MacDonald's, and ended in my room, where we made too much noise. And the neighbor was pissed off. So we went in another part of the floor, and another neighbor was upset, but she was so brave that she just wrote in on facebook, and we found out the day after.

Saturday, shopping with Jerome and Clayton, then italian restaurant with Sua (her last day in Chicago), Antoine, and Bk.

I didn't party after because I was exhausted and I had to begin to pack my stuff.

Sunday, we just went to the Celtic Festival, which was kinda boring to me because I don't like this kind of music.
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Day 2Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:21:00 +0100Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:21:00 +0100http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/day-2-2957413.htmlLoic Les cookies étaient bons et pas chers, contrairement aux gateaux qu'on a essayé (4 dollars pour quelque chose d'écoeurant).

On est allés se poser pour manger à Central Park. On a voulu la jouer connaisseur et du coup on a coupé à travers les bois. Après s'être fait reluquer de la tête aux pieds par des mecs qui avaient pas l'air très normaux, on a décidé de faire le reste en mode touriste. 

On chest pojés chur un banc tranquillou.

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Après on s'est baladés, on a traversé central park d'un côté à l'autre. On a encore vu des dingues, comme cet exhibitionniste:


Central Park
Uploaded by timoboll88. - See more comedy videos.

Puis on est allés à Bryant Park où nous avons mangé un délicieux sandwich Subway. Ca change de l'Europe!

Puis on a cherché la gare centrale sans succès, mais ce n'était que partie remise.

Après on est allés à Wall Street, on a vu ground 0 (l'endroit des tours jumelles). Puis on a pris le ferry, et on est allés sur l'île de la statue de la liberté!

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Puis après on est retournés à l'Apple Store, où j'ai redécouvert avec émerveillement la qualité des ordinateurs Mac!

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Puis on est allés manger au macdo, et retour à l'hostel dans le quartier où on se sent plus en sécurité quand il fait nuit (il y a moins de mecs qui te regardent comme s'ils voulaient te tuer, parce qu'il y a moins de mecs tout simplement) que jour: le Queens! 
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Day 1Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:59:00 +0100Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:59:00 +0100http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/day-1-2957179.htmlLoic http://chicago-trip.cowblog.fr/images/jeromepresentation.jpg
Bon j'espère pour lui qu'il y aura d'autres photos. Celle là j'étais obligé de la mettre car c'est la seule dans l'avion. Au moment où on était jeunes et fous.

Nous arrivâmes et décidâmes de manger à Little Italy, après un bref passage à Chinatown où nous fûmes alléchés par les senteurs aphrodisiaques de fruits exotiques.

Puis on a bouffé des pâtes au restau des ritals. Et là c'est bête on a pas pris de photo :(.

Après on a fait ce que presque tous les touristes font en premier en arrivant à New York: non non pas l'Empire State Building! Ce que font beaucoup de touristes, c'est... se perdre.

On s'est perdus à Union Square. Jerôme avait probablement déjà 1000 photos mais je ne me rappelle rien de marquant pour l'instant.

Puis on est allés shopper à l'Apple Store. Enfin on a rien acheté on a juste regardé nos mails, comme 90% des gens.

Puis on a décidé de monter en haut du Rockfeller center. Du coup j'vais mettre quelques photos.
Pas mal la vue sur celle là même si ça vaut pas la vue que j'ai de ma chambre.

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Et de là on a vu où on voulait aller après (pour plus se perdre on allait toujours en haut d'un gratte ciel avant de décider où aller).
C'est là où ça brille.

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En suivant la lumière nous avons trouvé un KFC (est ce que c'est ça le paradis?). On y a mangé puis on est allés se balader sur la rue la plus ouf que j'ai jamais vue (apparemment Las Vegas c'est bien plus ouf mais bon moi je viens de Castelnau le Lez hein).
Times Square.

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Puis après je suis allé me coucher. Et je vais répéter cette action dès maintenant!
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