Karaoke, Part II

Esta fiestecilla de karaoke ocurrio hace varias semanas, pero no queria dejar de escribir sobre ello y de dejar algunas fotos para el recuerdo :)

Es la segunda vez que organizamos una quedada para ir al karaoke con mis compañeros y las dos veces terminaron gloriosamente, con muchos momentos divertidos para recordar.

La primera vez fuimos a un karaoke en Chinatown en Chicago, donde reservamos una sala para nosotros solos. El sitio estaba bastante lejos de Evanston, mas de una hora de tren, pero yo al menos me lo pase pipa cantando "Waterloo" y escuchando las canciones dark metal de Adam Weingarten y el dueto Pepito-Thomasito con "Staying alive".

La segunda vez fuimos a un karaoke en Albany Park, se llama "Waba" y la verdad es que gusto mas que el anterior. Al igual que la vez anterior hubo grandes momentos musicales entre temas country interpretados por John, rap en manos de Roman, heavy metal por Leonel y los grandes exitos "Jizz in my pants" y "Dick in a box". Andrew interpreto con mucho sentimiento una cancion de Prince, con imitacion de voz incluida. Otros grandes exitos fueron "He-ya" de Outkast, "Hey Jude", "Heal the world" traducido al holandes por Thomas, "Waterloo" interpretada por una servidora y como colofon final, con baile incluido "Macarena". Estuvimos alli unas 4 horas, el precio: 12 $ por cabeza, las bebidas no eran caras y emocionarse todos juntos cantando, no tiene precio!! Para todo lo demas, mastercard!!

This karaoke party happened a couple weeks ago, but I didn't want to forget about it and post some pictures to remember it in the future.

It was the second time we organized a karaoke outing with my lab colleagues. Both times ended gloriously, with many fun moments remaining in our memories.

The first time we went to a karaoke in Chinatown, were we booked a private room for our group. The place was pretty far from Evanston, more than an hour by train, but I had a lot of fun singing "Waterloo" and listening to dark metal songs by Adam Weingarten and the duet Pepito-Thomasito with "Staying alive".

The second time we went to a karaoke in Albany Park called "Waba". I liked it more than the previous one. As the previous time we had great musical moments like country songs sung by John, rap by Roman, heavy metal interpreted by Leonel and the greatest hits of the night: "Jizz in my pants" and "Dick in a box". Andrew interpreted "Kiss" by Prince with voice imitation included. Other great moments were "He-ya" by Outkast, "Hey Jude", "Heal the world" with Dutch translation, "Waterloo" by moi and last, but not least, one of the best moments of the night with dancing performance: "Macarena". We spent about 4 hours for only 12 $ per person, drinks were also reasonable, but the best of all was getting all excited about one same song, all of us yelling and screaming :) That is priceless! 

Andrew and Thomas singing "Chop Suey"

Coreografia de Andrew y Nataly

La mejor cantante del mundo!

MACARENA!!!!!!!!

Time to pay :)

I'm looking forward to go for karaoke again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Estoy deseando ir al karaoke otra vez!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chicago Cubs

Si hay algo que se vive mucho en Chicago son los numerosos eventos deportivos. En mi lista de cosas por hacer en Chicago antes de volver a Europa, se encuentra la asistencia a partidos de baseball, futbol americano, hockey y baloncesto, por supuesto.

Sport evens are very celebrated in Chicago and of course, going to different games of many sports was on our bucket list. So from now and until we go back to Europe we are planning to attend baseball, football, hockey and basketball games.

La verdad es que queria empezar por ir a un partido de la NBA y de hecho, compre entradas para un partido de los Chicago Bulls vs LA Lakers, que se cancelo :( Las entradas fueron muy caras, por lo que ahorrar un poco me vino bien, pero para una vez en la vida que tenia la oportunidad, tambien merecia la pena. De todos modos, ahora tendra que ser otro partido, puesto que se ha reanudado la temporada, pero no hay ningun super partido dentro de poco.

The truth is that we wanted to start going to a NBA game and we even bought tickets before Christmas to go to a Chicago Bulls vs LA Lakers game. Unfortunately it was cancelled :( The tickets were pretty expensive, above 300 $, so saving a bit was nice, but on the other hand, it is going to happen only once in a life time. Anyway, we will have to buy tickets for a different game because the season is back, but there is not a game like that one these days.

Tambien habiamos intentado ir a un juego de futbol americano universitario. La universidad de Northwestern tiene un equipo que esta en el top 10 de futbol americano. Son los "Wild cats" :). Tambien habiamos intentado ir, pero no creiamos que las entradas fuesen a estar tan solicitadas, asi que lo intentaremos de nuevo cuando empiece la temporada.

We had also tried to get tickets for an University football game. The "Wild cats" from Northwestern are in the top 10 :) We didn't know the tickets would be booked so early, so we'll try again for the next season.

Por fin, el domingo pasado nos decidimos y compramos entradas para un partido de baseball de uno de los equipos de Chicago, "The Cubs". El estadio "Wrigley Field" esta a pocas paradas de metro, entre Evanston y Chicago. El tiempo estaba soleado, pero hacia frio y la verdad es que no me podia imaginar lo largo que es un partido y el frio que hacia alli!!!

Para empezar llegamos tarde, pero no me arrepiento. El partido dura unas 4 horas, asi que nos perdimos los primeros 45 minutos. 

Teniamos buenas entradas, al ladito del diamante y abajo, todo se veia estupendamente. Solo hubo un unico inconveniente, el frio!

El ambiente buenisimo, habia muchisima gente apoyando al equipo, que por cierto, no es muy bueno, jeje! Habia mucho movimiento, puestos de comida, camisetas del equipo, familias, bares alrededor del estadio, todo muy animado.

We finally decided to buy baseball tickets last Sunday. We went to a Chicago Cubs game. They were playing against the "Cinccinaty..." I forgot the animal, hehe! Wrigley Field is about 10 metro stops from Evanston, close to Chicago downtown. The day looked nice, very sunny but cold at the same time. At that moment I didn't know how long a game was and how cold it was there!!

We were late to start with, but I don't regret it. The game lasts about 4 hours, so we only missed the first 45 minutes. We had very nice tickets, downstairs close to the diamond. The view was perfect, the same as the environment. There were tones of people cheering for the team (which is not the best one ever). There were all kinds of food tents, shops, families and bars all around the stadium. Everything bright except for the crazy cold!!

Me compre una gorra nada mas llegar al estadio, si hay que animar al equipo se anima, jeje! Aqui me veis en las fotos, con cara de frio y los ojos llorando.

I bought a cap as soon as we entered the field. I wanted to support the team in the best way possible, hehe! Here you can see me on the pics. I was freezing as you can see.

En las proximas fotos podeis ver el estadio desde nuestro asientos. Espero que os guste.

You can see some pics of the field from our seats. Hope you like it!

En uno de los descansos que hicimos nos fuimos a comer algo "tipico", es decir, comida basura americana, jeje! En este caso fue un perrito caliente, el primero de toda mi vida.

We went to get some "typical" food during one of the breaks, in other words, American junk food. This time, we got hot dogs. It was my first dog ever :)

Tambien recorrimos el estadio por dentro, viendo las tiendas y bares, andando entre la multitud. Subimos a las plantas superiores desde las cuales la vista tambien es bastante buena. Incluso habia terrazas al sol en algunas de las plantas, donde se podia comer algo o beber cerveza y disfrutar del ambiente.
We also walked around the stadium looking at the bars and shops, walking among the crowd. We went up to the rest of the floors. The view from there was also pretty good. There were even some terraces where you can eat and drink beer while enjoying the game.

Al final hicimos la foto de rigor a la entrada del campo. Los Cubs perdieron como podeis ver y yo la verdad es que no preste mucha atencion a las reglas del juego, jeje! Pero fue un dia que disfrute mucho y una experiencia mas a nuestras espaldas :)
We took a picture at the entrance of the stadium once the game finished. The Cubs lost as you can see and to be honest, I didn't understand completely the game rules, hehe! But a very good time was had by all and we count with one more experience on our list :)

Field Museum

Hola! Aqui escribo este texto sobre el ultimo museo que hemos visitado en Chicago, el Field Museum de historia natural. 

Hi! Here I write this post about the last museum we have visited in Chicago, the Field Museum of natural hystory.

http://fieldmuseum.org/

Es quiza el museo mas grande de Chicago y suelen tener exposiciones muy buenas. Lo cierto es que no le dedicamos el tiempo que se merecia, asi que tenemos otra visita pendiente.

El dia de la visita compramos entradas para ver todas las partes del museo abiertas permanentemente y una de las exposiciones dedicadas a Genghis Khan, el gran emperador mongol. Habia otra exposicion de momias "Opening the vaults: mummies", pero no teniamos tiempo para ambas, asi que esa sera para la proxima visita.

It is perhaps the largest museum of Chicago and they normally have pretty interesting expositions. The truth is that we didn't dedicate enough time to visit the entire place, so we will come back for a next visit.

The day of the visit we purchased a standard ticket to visit the museum plus one of the expositions. We chose the one dedicated to Genghis Khan, the great Mongol emperor. There was another called "Opening the Vaults: mummies", but we didn't have time for both, so we'll do that one next time.

Thomas at the entrance of the Museum. It is a pretty impressive building.

Aqui esta Thomas a la entrada del museo. La fachada es bastante chula.

Aqui veis a Sue. Es un tiranosaurus Rex. No se sabe el sexo, pero lleva el nombre de la arqueologa que descubrio el esqueleto.

This is Sue,  T-Rex. The gender is unknown, it has the name of the archaeologist who discovered the skeleton.

Una de las areas estaba dedicada a la entomologia. Estas mariposas me encantaron, otros bichitos, no tanto!

One of the areas was dedicated to entomology. These butterflies were beautiful, even though I didn't like other kinds of bugs!

Estas fotos son del centro de investigacion del suelo. 

These pictures belong to the soil research center.

A parte de estas areas que veis en las fotos, visitimos una parte de Egipto y otra parte de mamiferos asiaticos.

Por supuesto, teniamos que echar la foto a la salida, las vistas desde alli son preciosas, al igual que desde el planetario Adler.

Apart from the pictures I've showed you, we also visited a part dedicated to Egypt and another one of Asian mamals.

We took pictures on the way out, the view from there is very cool. The same thing happens from the Adler planetarium.

Despues de la visita al museo nos fuimos a cenar a "The Gage". Era la segunda vez que ibamos por alli y lo recomiendo. El tipo de cocina es internacional, el local es moderno y el servicio bastante bueno. Todos los detalles, en un post especial que estoy preparando de restaurantes/bares de Chicago.
Nos tomamos un buen vino español :) con el famoso "putin" canadiense y delicias fritas de garbanzo. Despues pedi una hamburguesa de ciervo y Thomas, tomo pato.
After the museum visit we went to "The Gage" for dinner. It was the second time we visited that restaurant and I really recommend it. It has international food style, the place is pretty modern and the service is very good. All the details will come in a next post I'm preparing about all kind of restaurants/bars and other places in Chicago.
We had a bottle of nice Spanish wine :) with a plate of the famous Canadian "putin" and chickpea fritter delights. After that I ordered a venison hamburger and Thomas ordered duck.

Cuando ibamos hacia el restaurante pasamos por delante de la estatua de Marilyn Monroe, mide mas de 7 metros y claro, me tuve que hacer la foto :)
On our way to the restaurant we passed Marilyn's statue. It is more than 7 meters high and I had to take this picture, of course!

Fue un dia estupendo, uno de esos domingos, el unico dia que tenemos libre a la semana. La verdad es que fue una semana muy dura por otros motivos y ese dia fui capaz de desconectar y relajarme para disfrutar del dia, aunque bueno, los problemas siguen, pero eso si, durante la semana :)
It was a wonderful day, on of those Sundays we really enjoy our only free day. The truth is that it was a very tough week and that day I was finally able of relaxing and enjoying the day. Problems still continue, but I leave them for the week :)

Chicago auto show

Este evento sucedio hace casi dos meses, pero no queria dejarlo en el olvido :) Cada año hay una exposicion de coches en el centro McCormick de Chicago, un impresionante centro de congresos, realmente gigantesco, al sur de la ciudad.

Para ser franca, yo no soy una gran admiradora de los coches, pero bueno, una vez al año, si que me gusta. 

La exposicion tenia varias salas y aunque todo era muy espacioso, no era tan grande como otras exposiciones que hemos visto en Amsterdam o en Madrid.

Sin duda, lo que mas nos gustaron, fueron los coches americanos :)

This event happened almost two months ago, but I didn't want to abandon it :) Every year there is a car show at the McCormick center in Chicago. It is a huge congress center, gigantic at the South of the city. 

To be honest, I must say that I'm not a car fan, but it is ok to visit the show once a year.

The exposition had several rooms and even though the place was very big, the amount of cars was not as large as the one in Amsterdam or Madrid.

My favorite cars at the expo were the real American ones :)

Mustang Shelby GT500

Ford F1500 Extra heavy duty

Mega coche, se necesita una escalera para subir :)

Dodge

Audi TT

Mercedes SLS

Chevrolet Camaro

Corvette

Porsche Cayman

Porsche 911

Mientras miro estas fotos, seguire soñando con mi futuro Mercedes :):)
While I look at these pictures, I'll keep on dreaming about my future Mercedes :):)