Love in the windy city

Yet again, I am getting around to a post well after the post date. What can I say? It seems that the final year of a PhD is just that much worse than all that came before. Still, I can't fly across an ocean and not share a word of it. This trip was a sort of "part two" of a celebration of my two closest friends from Fifth West, my hall in my dorm at MIT. Nearly two years ago, I hopped a trans-Atlantic for one of these two friends' weddings, for whom the other was the best man. This time, the two swapped places.

Brian and Carv, my MIT hallmates and brothers, swapped roles as best men for each other.

As luck would have it, Carv, the groom, was my very first friend at MIT. We met as high school seniors during MIT's campus preview weekend for recent admits and later happened to opt into the same floor in the same dorm, in a campus where most people plant roots for four years and your neighbors become your family. It was at once strange yet perfectly right to be standing here, watching him all grown up and walking down the aisle, a day I'd anticipated for nearly a decade unfolding before my eyes. It took more than a slight internal struggle to hold back tears. There was something surreal about being there at that wedding, all these years later, and seeing the college family I've now left behind for longer than I'd spent living with them. Over pizza between the ceremony and the reception (Giordano's deep dish, what else?), it seemed like nothing had changed between us Fifth Westers yet there was so much to catch up on.

Though I could hardly miss the event, the airline had other ideas for my luggage. My dress, heels, cosmetics, and even the wedding gift from France never made it to Chicago. That made for one hell of a stay in the city... but I got to use the excuse to go for a color that matched Chicago's hot summery weather which we have yet to see in Paris. And of course, with a color so bold, I had to get nails to match. And while we're going all out, can't forget the hair. I loved the style, even if the stylist spent so long that I had to reach the ceremony by packing a spare pair of flats so that I could sprint all the way from the subway to the church in my pretty new dress under the midwest summer sun. But hey, I slipped in (maybe less gracefully than "slipping") a whole minute before the procession, which was what counted.

After the airline lost my luggage, I went all out reworking my wedding outfit to fit Chicago's summer heat.

Besides the wedding and hours spent arguing with Air France, I had a bit of time out and about.

Chicago, at last! This symbol of the city I first met through Ferris Bueller's Day Off, is its most iconic landmark for me, perhaps because I am constantly reminded of it due to the replica that stands just outside of Paris in an artificial downtown district called "La Défense." But this guy's the real deal.

Drawn in, or rather out, by the heat, I couldn't bear to spend any time indoors what with my first taste of summer. The game plan was to hit up some festivals across the city, including a Thai Cultural festival, an outdoor concert in Millennium Park, and a gospel choir music festival. Sadly, Friday's rain cut out the latter two.

The skies were foreboding as I walked through Millennium Park.

I did have an amazing time immersing myself in the cultural offerings from the Royal Thai Consulate, not least of which included free Thai massages. (In a word, I am hooked.) After Friday's rain subsided, I even swung back by the festival for a second day before grabbing drinks with the best man, Brian, and his wife, Amanda.

The Thai Festival hosted by the Royal Thai Consulate was the highlight of my touring around Chicago.

I did have a few other chance spottings across the city, of which these two seemed worth sharing:

The pants/flower pots were going for a stroll outside of the Sears (aka Willis) Tower

I have no idea why the lions outside of the Art Museum were posing as riot police.

To wrap things up, I'll leave with a few parting memories from the reason behind my trip to the windy city.

The wedding party just after sealing the deal.

The first dance

Cutting the cake

Next stop, Philadelphia!