Photos of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The pictures i promissed. I forgot to take pictures of some other interesting pieces of art.

 

That is my favorite piece of Art.

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

That is my favorite armor.

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

  

I really wanted to see more swords.

 

 

Those are wedding clothes, the left for the bride and the right for the groom.

  

 

This represents Lucifer when he was banished from heaven. 

  

 

This sculpture represents the end of human life. The artist meant that every one dies, including kings.

General things about Chicago.

I'm already one week here and I noticed some interesting things not only about Chicago but about the American people. There is a bowl that you put Pennys to help other people with the change, if you need you can use it too(this is really a great idea). One thing I didn't like here it's the fact that everything here is capitalized. For example, I was in a disco and they said that I was obligated to let they store my jacket. It is fine for me except the fact that I had to pay for it. So, wait a minute, I pay to enter and I have also to pay for something I'm obligated to do? This is really weird. Another weird thing when I was traveling to get here, inside the airplane they don't offer food. If you want to eat you have to buy the food they sell. The airlines in Brazil offer food and if it is a long trip they offer food two times. At the airport I saw other strange thing, if you want to use a chart to put you baggage you have to pay 5 dollars(In Brazil the charts are free too).

Inside the subway of Chicago I saw that is forbidden to gamble and I didn't understand why. The fact is forbidden to eat I understand but not to gamble. Another thing there was the constant message to be aware of suspicious behavior or of unattended bags. People here are really afraid of terrorism and this kind of stuff.

Here everything is so clean and things here really work. The subway has a screen to tell when the metro will arrive. The time between the metros are really close and you can get really fast to places using the public transportation system.

Here the weather is really cold and dry but stable(Unlike Orlando where there's a huge change of temperature during the day). In the first days were hard for me to live in a such cold place, but now I am getting used to it and learning how to fight against the cold. If you let your body parts unprotected you might experience some dormancy (I don't know this word in english) and some kind of pain if you are exposed for some time.

I miss my home in so many ways. I miss the juices (mango, "goiaba", orange, "caju", "abacaxi" and others). There's orange juice here but the taste is different. I also miss my family, friends, the warm weather and even the problems there that we like to complain about.

Fruits and vegetables here are strange because they look so perfect. I don't know if they are genetically modificated but they really look perfect. I ate an apple once, but It didn't have much taste so I wonder if the other fruits and vegetables have.

Everything here are so super sized. The clothes, the foods and drinks. For clothes you have from XS(Extra Small) to XXXXXL(I don't know how to say that). In Brasil we only have P (small), M (Medium), G (Large) and GG (Extra Large). Here we find gallons of Milk and Juice(it might exist a gallon of soda but i never saw).

A visit to the Harold Washington Library.

We visited the library (I don't remember which day) and the most interesting thing that I saw was the 3D printers. You design a figure using a software and the printer will make the object. 3D printers are cool and I will go back there to learn how to make the figures and make one for myself. There are controversies about those machines because some people are making fire arms with it.

A visit to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Yesterday i was at the art institute, i'm not very interested in paintings but i saw some cool stuff there. I saw some dragon statues (small but it's still a dragon), one beautiful Japanese box that i will take photo when i have a camera or something like that. I saw a demon statue (some people might not think it's cool, but that's OK), some cool Indian statues, some american Indian clothes and stone knives. I also saw a statue of a owl stepping a skull with a crown( Reeeaaaly cool). But the most interesting part is the medieval armor exhibition . A lot of armors and weapons (few swords unfortunately), and a knight wearing full armor with a lance on its hand and riding an armored horse . There is also some spears with different blades.

 I might have forgotten something but when i go there again(to take pictures), i'll post what i didn't post here.

Introduction

Hi, My name is Elias, i am 22 years old and i am participating the  ELI Workshop Winter 2014. I am Brazilian and was born and raised in Natal. I live with my mother and my two brothers, but i also have two sisters. I study International Relations at UNP( i am at the second year). My hobbies are listen to some music, play games and go out sometimes.

I came to Chicago to improve my English but i won't be satisfied with just it. I want to know the city, see things i never saw and experience the things that i could not in my home city ( like snow).