Chicago Week 13

On Wednesday, I went to a traditional Mexican restaurant recommended by a friend to eat their famous chilaquiles. There was a queue at the door at 11 o'clock, and I had to wait for half an hour to get in. I heard that this store is very old, and it used to be a place for funerals. There are many religious decorations on the walls inside. There are generally two types of chilaquilles in Mexico: red salsa and green salsa, but there are many kinds in this store. I ordered the spiciest chilaquilles al diabla. It is really not spicy, but it is delicious. It is similar to what I eat in Mexico. The best chilaquiles are out there. The portion is so large that it is rare to have to take it out without finishing it. I also ordered cafe de olla, which is a bit sweet.

There are various activities in the city center as usual on weekends, so there are so many to choose. On Saturday afternoon, I went to the Thailand Cultural Festival with my couch-surfing friend whom I just met this week. It was super hot and exposed to the sun, and I felt similar to when I was in Thailand 5 years ago. There are a lot of Thai snacks and small commodities sold here, and there are muay thai performances on the big stage. After Muay Thai, my friend bought a khao soi noodle, which should have fried crispy noodles, but it didn't, but the taste was good. Afterwards, there was a presentation on how to make som tam, a Thai green papaya salad. I have done it a few times before, but this time I watched this Thai aunt do it. In addition to a bottle of fish sauce, I also used another Thai sauce that I have never seen before. This Thai aunt finished cooking and distributed it to some viewers watching. They didn't prepare a few paper plates, and I got the last paper plate. Fortunately, the paper box of the noodles my friend had just eaten was not thrown away, so we each filled some and tasted it. My friend came from Mexico two months ago and seldom eats Thai food. She ate some small Thai chili peppers, but she didn’t expect this salad to be so spicy, it made her almost cry. This salad is really authentic, I think it is very spicy, but it is very satisfying. After eating, I saw that a small plate of this salad was sold at the stall next to it for $15, and we both felt that we had earned money by eating it. Ha ha.

Leaving the Thai Cultural Festival, we took the bus to a couchsurfing event at Montrose Beach. I found out that this is actually a beach dancing social event of a Latin American dance group, and the person who posted this event on the sofa surfing software is one of the members, so the sofa surfers who came were only a very small part. What's interesting is that most of the couchsurfers (about ten people) who came here were already acquainted, and they came to Chicago from all over the United States to meet and party this weekend. Some of them came from the capital Washington, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles and other places. It's all friends I met at a couchsurfing event elsewhere. I can see mutual friends on the software, and I saw that one of the girls and my mutual friend turned out to be a couch surfer I met in San Cristóbal, Mexico, and later became my Spanish teacher. They met at a big sofa-surfing party in another part of Mexico, and she pointed to another guy who also knew your Spanish teacher. Talk to him, he said that when he went to San Cristóbal last year, my Spanish teacher received him. Interestingly, yesterday I just received a message from the proprietress of a Chinese noodle restaurant in San Cristóbal, saying that she just found out that one of her salsa dancing partners turned out to be my Spanish teacher. Today, I took a picture with these two sofa guests who knew my Spanish teacher and sent it to him. He also told me that after the dance class was over a few days ago, he went to the Chinese noodle restaurant for dinner and told the proprietress that I strongly recommended him to go. Eat her home noodles. The world is so small. Here I also met a guy from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago who works in Miami, and a girl from Kazakhstan, which is very interesting. Because I just went to the Thai Culture Street, and the short-sleeves I wore were bought in Thailand, with "Thailand" written on them, many people thought I was Thai.

Then I took the car to Millennium Park, and there's the Chicago Blues Festival this weekend. People brought blankets and picnics to eat and drink to enjoy blues music performances on the lawn, the weather was nice and comfortable. Afterwards, I went to Art on the Mart by the Chicago River. It is said that this is the world's largest long-term art projection exhibition, and it will be screened every night from 9:00 to 9:30 in summer. When I arrived 15 minutes early, there were already many people waiting on the benches by the river. Within half an hour of the projection, there were many cruise ships, small boats, and small kayaks passing on the river.

Temperatures plummeted Sunday with drizzle. Went to her gym with a friend for a Zumba class, then dropped by Millennium Park to see today's blues festival. It was too cold, and I didn't wear enough clothes, so I went home after watching it for a while.

A couple of Chinese landlords who lived in Chicago about 10 years ago happened to have dinner with some friends on Sunday night. They hadn’t seen each other for a long time, so they invited me to have dinner with them. I went to a Cantonese seafood restaurant. I haven’t eaten or cooked Chinese food for a long time.