That meant I had to find an air pump to be able to use my bike. Naturally there was none in the laundry room downstairs where the bikes are kept in this place. Naturally, the one-dollar-store didn't have any either. Naturally, the gas station's pump did not have a barometer so I couldn't really be sure not to instantly blow up my tires. All that was left in the little time I had left before having to meet Borat was that ridiculously overpriced hardware store on 55th that I actually had to leave $11 at to get an air pump.
Oh well. With pumped-up tires I cruised towards the hospital with my one-speed bike that is way too small for me and met Borat. We did meet up with the secretary but that was just about as much use as calling her. We did find out that we couldn't expect to get a student ID from her and even with the hospital ID she seemed kind of reluctant to make any steps towards setting things in motion with the nurse who apparently was in charge of them. When we asked about the Ratner Athletics Center that was primarily for students that Borat and I did want to sign up for she did say though that we should try and sign up anyway.
We would try that, but only after we had met CS at noon in the hospital.
She took us up to the fifth floor, where the apparently recently-built residents "hall" was - a tiny room crammed with people in white coats sitting at and hacking into computers. We left our jackets there and followed CS on one of the wards, where she explained the computers and patient records to us. No rocket science there, really. Interestingly though, even though we were on a normal cardiology ward and not the ICU, every patient was hooked up to monitoring that was displayed at the nursing station.
Other than that, we were only introduced to one fellow resident. The rest of the staff gave us sometimes curious, sometimes irritated looks - at least that's how it appeared to me. We'll see if that changes once we wear our terribly demeaning white coats as well as shirts with ties.
After leaving Nema and CS behind with an attending that she was supposed to present a patient to for practice (Borat and I aren't scheduled to do that until next week, when we have already started our rotations), Borat and I went to the Ratner Athletics Center and after a nice chat with the manager we were allowed to become members. Not as regular students, which would have been free, but as non-registered students which came to $60 for the two months we are here. That's a very good deal I think - in Germany I am used to paying much more for much smaller facilities.
After the sign-up process we met Nema on the street by chance and she came over to my place to eat. Borat still had to do something before we would meet again at my place to go out. Because today was the day that the Chicago Bulls were to be squashed by the Detroit Pistons and that we - thanks to yours truly :D - had tickets for.
But I realized I hadn't brought gym clothes since I hadn't expected to find such a nice and affordable gym right across the street from my apartment. So I asked Trillian, Nema and Borat whether we could leave half an hour earlier
to re-visit yet again the Bestest Store in the World (tm).
After I had bought two pairs of sweat pants and swimming trunks (yes, Ratner's has a pool!) we returned to the L-tracks, where the view was beautiful today,
and headed east, past strange places.
(I wonder what they treat .. actually feminism? Do they make women better people by changing their sex? Heheh.)A few more blocks to the south-west was our goal - the United Center! Yes! United! The people that gave me Filet Mignon and a massaging-chair on the flight here :D .
Yeah, we did want jerseys. Then again, we did also like our ability to afford food.
Which Nema and Borat did.
I actually missed my chance to get food because we were waiting for this guy.
He was going to draw a picture of us. For free. Compliments of the Bulls. Of course I'd get something for free at the UNITED center. I love those guys.They also gave all four of us free Chicago Bulls umbrellas. I have no idea how I will transport that thing home but it's a very cool souvenir.
The guy actually took an entire hour to draw us.
Really. An hour. We missed the start of the game, because we were still sitting there with him.
But after a short chat with him - he wanted to practice his not-so-shabby German with us afterwards - we did make it all the way up to our seats.They were "cheap". Only $46 per person. So they gave you a great .. overview.
But it was OK. You were actually still able to follow the game from here.
They really made much of a show out of it, including showing random people in the crowd, multiple sponsored lottery-style events, the mascot trying to score with his back to the basket from center court in order to win $3000 for someone, the InflataBulls and of course the luvaBulls, the Cheerleaders.
The game itself was quite exciting in the end actually, as you can see from the scoreboard below. 81 to 81 in the fourth quarter with 9.8 seconds to go.
I do have a video of the final three minutes that followed (still three free-throws and a time-out to go :) ), but uploading that to youtube is currently not something I'm willing to try with this line.The ride back using buses was surprisingly easy and unfrightful.
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