Carissa Gan: Chicago Day 2

It was Thanksgiving morning when my friends and I stepped out of our hotel onto East Erie and North Michigan Ave.

Because it was Thanksgiving, most of the shops weren't open. The city was strangely empty as most people had gone home to spend the day with their families.

We did have things planned for the day, but were disappointed that several of our destinations were closed, such as the Navy Pier and the Cheesecake Factory. Well, at least the Field Museum was open.

Walked through a tunnel in the park

This was on the outer wall of the tunnel. I thought it was pretty cool. Are those... blueberries? :P

We had to walk through a park to get to the museum. And mind you, it was really cold. It was probably 5'C as we were walking. The wind wasn't helping either. It blew straight at us and right into our helpless layers of clothes.

And finally, we saw the museum up ahead. I was so excited about two things:

1) Finally visiting the infamous museum for the first time

2) Finally getting out of the cold and into some warmth

The Field Museum hosts many artifacts, from dinosaurs to ancient Egyptian mummies; you name it. It was so huge, we couldn't cover every exhibit even though we were in there for 4 hours.

They had Sue the T-Rex on display in the lobby.

We journeyed through a long exhibition of ancient anthropology in the States, describing the various artifacts and lifestyles of the people of the olden times. I'd read about the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods back in high school. And now here I was, face to face with some of the original carvings of the past that looked familiar - I knew I'd seen them in my Form 4 history textbook.

Frankly, I can't remember what period this was... but I'm just gonna throw out "Neolithic."

These were the kind of clothes people in the past wore. Very aztec. Hmm, now where have I seen those designs? FOREVER 21!

Do you see what I'm talking about? :)

I'm actually a fan of aztec prints myself. So I was really excited when I saw the ancient boots and sweater on display. I'm sure the people of that time would be glad to know that aztec prints are still in style ;)

We saw a lot of exhibits. I can't list them all, obviously. Haha. There was the gem display, featuring various stones from the different states in USA. I was browsing and suddenly spotted this pretty quartz from ARKANSAS! It instantly became my favorite one.

There were lots of Chinese tourists in the museum that day. There was an ancient Chinese exhibition on the second floor of the museum. Saw groups of Chinese people gathered around a display about some Chinese sword. Must be pure irony that the visitors from China came all the way here just to look at exhibits about their own country.

My friends and I watched the 3D story of Sue the T-Rex. Before we went into the little cinema, we stopped to check out this large enclosed room with all the funky devices in there.

It was a room compete with microscopes and other advanced scientific gadgets, and a woman sat near the window with her back facing me, as stiff as a stick. Initially, I assumed she was a dummy designed to illustrate the everyday workplace of the scientists at the museum. I thought the whole thing was another exhibition. I was about to say how impressed I was that the museum took time to design this work space and even put a realistic-looking dummy in there. It must have cost them a lot of time and money.

And then I saw her hand move an inch and I jumped.

"OMG did you see that? The dummy moved!" I whispered.

"That's not a dummy! That's a human!" my friend laughed.

Turns out the lady was a scientist herself, and the whole room was indeed her actual work space. I felt so silly. Haha. But with everyone crowding around the window watching her, she might have as well been a part of the exhibition too.

Anyway, after the 3D thing ended, we made our way to the basement for the Egyptian exhibition. The exhibition was a little creepy. When I was 7, I watched The Mummy with... my mother. I thought the movie was just a fiction like all the other horror movies but my mom said it was based on the true Egyptian culture. I freaked out. Since then, I've always had a thing about mummies. I'm fascinated with them but spooked out at the same time.

That's a real corpse of a young boy.

Here's how they mummify a corpse.

I zoomed in and took this picture. It's a good thing you can't see my lens's reflection on the fiber glass.

I wonder if the mummy-makers those days knew that some of their mummies were going to be placed in big museums and be viewed by millions of eyes. I wonder if they looked at the corpses lying on the table, waiting to be mummified, and said, "One day, you're going to be a very famous artifact." If they knew, they'd probably make their mummies more appealing. Just saying.

I heard a tale about how cruel Pharaohs were back then. Like if they didn't like someone, the person would be sentenced a horrible death. He'd be mummified alive and forced into a coffin with several flesh-eating scarabs and then they'd close the coffin on him, so he'd suffocate in there while being eaten alive. It's so gross and inhumane!

So anyway, before we left the museum, we spent the last 15 minutes in the souvenir store. Unfortunately everything in there was severely overpriced, so I didn't get anything. I was tempted to get one of these cute puffy owls, though. But I looked at the price and my common sense got in the way.

I couldn't help wondering if the exhibits in the museum come to live at night, like in Night at the Museum. Hehe. Oh please. Don't roll your eyes, I know you were thinking the same thing too!

We left at 5 pm, but I didn't know that. I looked at the sky and thought it was already 9 pm. Well, although it was still technically autumn in Chicago, it felt like winter. Misty mornings, gray afternoons, indigo-skied evenings.

The museum looks better at night than in the day time, doesn't it?

There's a majestic glow to it here.

The sky was really pretty that night. And I love the glittering skyscrapers. LOVE them.

So we started walking and after what seemed like an hour, we finally arrived in Millennium Park, home of the outdoor ice skating rink and gigantic bean.

It would've been better if we'd taken pictures of the bean in the daytime, because the lighting at night was horrible and it was tough getting a good, clear shot of it.

I'm sorry it's underexposed and tinted yellow. :(

The bean was a mirror-shaped sculpture called the Cloud Gate. It looked clean from far, but when I got real close to it, I could see fingerprints all over the polished surface. Lol. Still pretty cool though.

And yes, the outdoor skating rink.