Toronto, ON - Chicago, IL

Today was another of those ‘commuting’ days. From Toronto (newly christened T-O) to Buffalo, NY to Chicago. The short story is I made it without any problems. Even at the US border I was waved through faster than anyone else on our bus. I had all my documents ready and I wasn’t even asked for them. Bugger, eh?!

I have to say though, in my limited knowledge of the place, Buffalo is a bit of a hole. Now that could have been because my experience is solely related to the bus terminal, but it just didn’t scream “visit me” like so many other cities have. It was dirty, unsafe and really cold!

Other than that, everywhere was pretty non-descript. Chicago’s O’Hare airport, reputedly the busiest in the world, definitely lived up to its reputation for being big, annoying and busy. This place is HUGE and the signage is limited. The problem stems from the fact that it has built up over time. This makes all the links between terminals and with the public mass transit system cumbersome and non-sensical.

Upon arrival at Arvinds' (another NUSer) place, however, I felt immediately at home. We went out immediately and hit two bars and a 24hr breakfast place (Golden Nugget) before crashing at 3am. I was so tired before arriving at Arvind’s that by the time I got there it was just nasty. The specific details of the evening are a bit hazy, but I do know that I had an awesome amount of fun, didn’t spend nearly enough money (Arvind! How dare you pay for all my drinks!! [Thanks though! ]), and met some cool people. I also remember that the portion for my 4-egg breakfast omelette-monstrosity was HUGE. This thing covered my 2am breakfast and my brunch the following day. I’m clearly back in the States!