Chicago Day 3

I forgot to mention in yesterday's entry that we walked down Michigan Avenue, which is really Chicago's Orchard Road. The only difference being that Michigan Avenue probably has way many more places that are affordable to all sorts of demographics, like Marshall's, where I blew my US$300 on the suit. But anyway...

Today began with a trip to the commercial exchanges of Chicago, which is probably part of the history behind Chicago's development into today's services centre. Because of TWAT (The War Against Terrorism), most visitor centres are closed. WTF. As a consequence, I abandoned my trip to the Chicago Board of Trade and instead visited the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.



The Chicago Mercantile Exchange started as a location where all sorts of producers and farmers could gather to engage in futures contracts to lock in their prices. Like all services that used to be meaningful, it has now evolved into a global bastion of capitalism, with the vast amounts of scumhood that all of us young budding jedi - I mean traders - seek. Basically, it is now an arena using the 'open outcry' system - a system where hedgers openly makes outcries of rage about the way traders and speculators come in to eat up all their profits.


A great bastion of capitalism and greed.

Check out the very educational pieces below:







Naturally, after this very exciting tour through a small room in the lobby of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, I had to go overcompensate by doing something involving scale. This led your correspondent here to the Sears Tower, only the 4th tallest building in the world. What makes Sears Tower unique is that it was built in 1974 as a feat of architecture and was the world's tallest building for 24 years before being replaced by the Petronas Twin Towers (or possibly something else, whatever). Consider how impressive the architecture is for 1974:



In any case, the visibility isn't great at this time of the year but you're still able to see lots of stuff. They charge you US$12 just to go up and then try to rip you off by taking a photograph and offering to sell it to you at a highly discounted rate of US$21. US$21! I mean, honestly, aren't you pushing your luck there, buddy?

So, a view of Chicago from the top...


Notice the shadow being cast by Sears Tower?


That great body of water is Lake Michigan, which really adds a certain depth to the beauty of Chicago (pun unintended. really). Can you imagine dry land instead of water?


With its famous statue, this was the only possible view of the Chicago Board of Trade today...


...or not.

After spending inordinate amounts of time looking down on the people that should be worshipping the ground that I blog on (okay, so you got it, well done), the next part of the day was spent in perhaps the most meaningful way a Singaporean can possibly approach a new city.

Scouring for food.

Travelling alone, the dynamics of the food search changed quite a bit. Obviously there was no point in finding a fancy restaurant to dine by oneself. In search of fast food, one could come quickly to one conclusion about Downtown Chicago (and perhaps the rest of Chicago too).

There are no fast food joints except McDonald's (and arguably Subway) in Chicago.

I'm serious. If anyone finds me a KFC, a Burger King, a Taco Bell, an A&W's or a Wendy's downtown, then I'll say that you have a career in treasure-hunting. Or something like that. There are no fast food joints in this part of the world except McDonald's. I think that gives some perspective as to why McDonald's is the most prominent fast food chain and is the one that gets all that lawsuit, hatred and jazz. It is the most ubiquitous food chain around the world, even in America itself!

Anyway the rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I returned the 'Bowling for Columbine' DVD to Virgin Megastore (it cost US$10 but about US$6 online - hey, what do you expect me to do, it's this country's return policy). And proceeded to spend the returned money and a bit more on this US$90 (US$99 with taxes) Samsonite suitcase to lug all that junk that I've been buying. And then came back to Stony Island (where I'm staying) where I saw Keith doing his market simulation game and proceeded to teach him to take advantage of fools and corner the market. How appropriate to do something like this on the day where I've gone to the trading pits! (Well, it was as close as I could get, so shush y'all).

Just a final note before I leave you, my dear reader, more pictures of Chicago. Coming from Singapore and staying in an area which isn't exactly all that upmarket, I'm used to the idea of homeless people existing even in very (supposedly) rich parts of the world. But still, to see the amount of homeless people out in the middle of Michigan Avenue, or State Street, or Adams Street/Jackson Boulevard (the financial hub of Chicago), kinda just reminds you that even the richest of the countries in the world has its poor people. No moral message here, just something to think about.


These 2 'corn cobs' are the pinnacle of city living in Chicago. The bottom parts are car-parking and the top parts are apartments, similar to a condominium. Right by the riverside, you have parking lots for your personal boats to go up and down the river. Sign me up already!


This is the place we had lunch at yesterday. Besides an audacious claim, it also has an outlet just down one of these streets known as Pizzeria Due.


Don't you just want to move here already?


According to the CME, yours truly is a 'spectacular speculator'. Did you hear that, you damn investment banks?!?!