Things I love about Chicago...

After spending a decent amount of time in Chicago - both a month in 2008 and now 6 weeks in 09, there are some things I have come to love about Chicago. Here is what comes to mind.

• I love that a vast majority of the men here have wonderful manners. They open doors for ladies and allow us to go first.
• I love that even in a building of 30 floors, people in my apartment say "have a nice day" when you get out of a shared elevator.
• I love that pickles are served as a side dish to pretty much everything. I'll thank my Canadian mother for giving me a taste for those treats growing up!
• I love that as soon as the temperature rises above freezing, people celebrate by wearing thongs (flip flops) and t-shirts. It's still only a couple of degrees above zero but hey, who am I to judge? Hahaha.
• I love that I have seen women in floor length mink coats riding the public buses alongside girls wearing slippers and dressing gowns.
• I love that my gym has ipod devices on the treatmills, so that you can not only listen to music but watch movies or TV shows that you've brought, plus you can save your workout details to a USB stick to map your progress. Let's hope this technology comes to Australia soon!
• I love that anyone medical wears those blue cotton tops and pants made famous by shows like ER. Gives me confidence in them somehow.
• Finally, despite the struggle for some people to understand me, I love the fact that once someone realises I'm from Australia, they always have nice things to say about our country. It's great to be from a place that everyone loves.