27 Nov First few days in Chicago

A few days ago, I arrived in Chicago. My parents came along with me to help me adapt quicker to the city. It's been pretty interesting so far, but it is **very** cold. When we checked in to the airport in Taipei, we were told that the flight would not be too packed. So my parents stayed in economy class, where armrests could be lifted and it would be possible to sleep laying down. I sat in an aisle seat in the premium economy class, and there were only around 5 people in the entire cabin.  I slept on the flight, something I now know to be wrong. I should have adjusted my sleep schedule to the destination time zone. The flight was quite nice. I drank a lot of water and walked around often. The window shades were closed on the plane, but I opened one and saw an incredible sunset as we were approaching Illinois.  Landing in O'Hare marked the beginning of my new journey in Chicago. It was also the first time I set foot on American soil in over a decade.  Chicagoans are a diverse bunch. Having been surrounded by the Chinese language and culture for half my life, it felt a bit weird to hear and speak English everywhere again. We arrived at our corporate temporary housing provided by Google at around 10pm. We stayed on the 34th floor, and the view was fantastic.  The John Hancock Center can be seen from our balcony.  We went to sleep at around 12am. And...we woke at 2am. We bought breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, something I wanted to eat for a **very** long time. The apartment provides free Starbucks coffee every day. So we got some coffee in anticipation of the long day ahead. The destination services consultant brought us to see several apartments in the morning. By 2pm, we were all ready for some sleep. My dad and I took the L into West Loop at night. The L is quite unsettling. The stations are dark and dirty, and stations in the Loop are even more so. I found myself missing Taipei's MRT, which are clean, bright, cheap, and fast. We also saw the Chicago Theatre, and returned the next day for a better picture.  On Thanksgiving, we ate Chicago's famous deep-dish pizza.  It was very tasty and extremely salty. And it was the first time I ever tipped someone serving me food. I don't like the tipping culture in the US, but that's for another blog post sometime. The meal was almost $40, and I tipped 20%. Today, it was finally sunny. We walked the [Magnificent Mile](https://www.themagnificentmile.com) located on Michigan Avenue.  We passed the Chicago River into the Loop.  There, we finally saw the Cloud Gate at Millennium Park.   It was a really nice park, and there were people ice skating too! Anyway. Chicago is quite nice. I will be moving in to my new West Loop apartment next Monday. And I will be in Mountain View the Monday after for Noogler orientation. Hopefully I'll have time for another post after starting work!

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