Chicago Trip!

Hello this is Kenji.

From Friday, August 13th till Sunday, August 15th, I visited Chicago, Illinois, to see my old friends!

I lived in Chicago for five years from when I was thirteen years old till eighteen years old.

-Friday, August 13th-
As you can see, I left on "Friday of 13th", I knew something not great will happen :(

On Friday, my plane took off at 7:10PM. As my plane was approaching Chicago Midway Airport, the captain said that there was a storm in entire Chicago area. So the captain decided to circle around to wait the storm to pass away, but it unfortunately did not.
Obviously, the plane will run out the gas for circling around for hour, we had to go to Rockford Airport (18 minutes from Chicago Midway Airport) to refill the fuel. ughh.
We had to wait about one hour to refill and get ready to go to Chicago Midway Airport.
Finally, the weather in downtown Chicago got better, so we could finally arrived our destination.
I was supposed to arrive in Chicago just for an hour, but it took almost four hours. ;'(

Well my friends who came to pick me up waited extra two hours, so I could meet them, thank you! :D


I went to McDonald for dinner, and arrived at my friend's house at 1:00AM

-Saturday, August 14th-
I slept until 11:00AM. After that I went to Panda Express with my friend and his girlfriend. I was surprised about the amount they served me, because I could eat all them up when I was a junior in high school.
After eating, they dropped me at Woodfield Mall, which is one of the biggest malls in the nation, while my friend had a football practice. I went to Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, Gilly Hicks, Starbucks, Godiva etc. I also met five friends there and I chatted for awhile.


After that, one of my friends drove my around where I lived, so I could see my house where I used to live! It was really weird that I could go there.


Then I went back to mall to get picked up from friend who went to football practice. We went to eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill, watched Inception, went to the high school I used to go and went back to his house.


-Sunday, August 15th-
Again, I woke up around 10:00AM. I was packing all the stuff I bought at mall, and waiting for another friend to pick my up to drive me to Midway Airport. Prior to going to airport, I went to Mitsuwa Store, which is a Japanese glossary store. We ate lunch there and headed to Chicago Midway Airport.

I rode airplane successfully and Chuck, who is my RA, came and picked me up at St. Louis Airport.

Overall, my weekend was just awesome! I already miss time in Chicago. My friends promised that they will visit Japan someday, and I am really ready to guide them up in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka!


I only have ten more days in UMSL, so I will work hard on our business plan. In addition, I can't wait to go to host-family!