No, this isn't some deep philosophical question. I'm not that kinda gal. Basically, my bestest friend in the world, Vicki, is flying in from her home in London sometime this summer to visit me! We met in college and were best friends since day 1. In our last year of college, we decided that at some point she would come and visit me in the states, so we needed to save up some cash for when her trip. We were working in the same restaurant at the time, and each week we put aside £5 of our tips into a "trip fund." Thank god for the US economy being shit and the dollar being weak, because we changed that money into dollars and now we have $620 sitting in the bank for us to spend!!I was talking to Vicki on Skype the other day and we were starting to plan the trip. At one point she said, "I want to do really American stuff!" My response was "uhhh.....what is American? Eating fast food and watching TV?"
Some of her suggestions included going to a baseball game (obviously), a rib joint (?), and she going to Medieval Times (which, if you think about it, is completely un-American!). But other than that, I need to come up with absolutely amazing stuff for us to do. $620 worth of amazing stuff.
I have had some friends come visit from the UK before, but they were boys. I don't know what that has to do with anything, but I just feel like I have more freedom with Vicki and we can do more fun and ridiculous stuff. SOOOOOO, I need your help! Here are a few things I have thought of so far, but I need many more! (Keep in mind that I live in Chicago and things like rodeos and pig wrasslin' are not readily available.)
MY IDEAS SO FAR:
-Eat deep-dish pizza and Chicago style hot dogs
-Baseball game
-Beach
-Drive-in movie
-Have a BBQ
-Zoo/museums/Art Institute
-Baseball game
-Beach
-Drive-in movie
-Have a BBQ
-Zoo/museums/Art Institute
-Road trip to St. Louis or Milwaukee
-Shopping
These are all WAY too boring, as you can see, and they won't make for 10 days of fun. Please help me give my British friend the best time she's ever had! Suggestions??
15 comments:
Your list looks good to me. Maybe plan one outing a day and relax in the evenings??
If you want to do something really american, you both should watch me eat and watch my stomach keep getting fatter and fatter...hehehe... hey, you have some good stadiums in Chicago, like Tinly Park (I know I've been there a couple of times)...see if she can schedule to come in when you have a really good concert in town to go rock out to! And wait, you have a beach in Chicago?!
Well, the BBQ is a good idea, that way she can meet all of your crazy friends.
And you'll definitely want to take her to a Cubs game.
If she will be here when it's happening, take her to Summerfest. If not, I would skip Milwaukee because it really isn't that exiting. St. Louis is better.
And I have been sitting here for 10 minutes trying to come up with things, but all I can think about is things I do with Siren when she visits, which is paint pictures with our boobs, drink A LOT, have dance parties in my living room, drink some more, play beer pong, shoot army men in the basement, go to strip clubs, drink, and a few other things that I can't post online, but I am sure you know what I am talking about.
Go see Oprah (doesn't she do some live Friday's thing in Chicago - actually I wouldn't really know - firstly, I'm Australian and secondly, I watch Oprah once a blue moon).
If it were me... I'd wanna go see some dirty dingy bar with a good band. Perhaps hit a strip joint. The one thing I wouldn't wanna do? Eat that disgusting orange stuff you pass off as cheese. Ewwww!
I agree, if she's there during Summerfest a trip to MKE is in order! Otherwise I think your list is pretty good. Sounds like "american" stuff to me!
Mmmm deep dish pizza. I'm drooling. Don't you know I'm on a diet and am highly sensitive to key phrases like "hot dog" and "deep dish pizza"? Haha.
Sounds like you have a great start. Live music is always great too.
I was going to say Oprah if she's filming at that time... but I don't know if she does year round filming??
Have her come over 4th of July... there is nothing more American than that!!!
America. Oh maaaaan do I miss America. I miss Target. I miss WalMart. I miss making fun of people with huge cars. I miss walking down the road and being able to read everything I see. I miss speaking Spanish. I miss plowed roads.
Take her to Target. Or www.peopleofwalmart.com
Do it.
What she means is, she wants to live it up via Friends/Frasier/Cheers et al. Soooo...cool coffee shop where every shouts your name as you walk in (you'll know a place that would do that for you, right...? ;O)
So, if I were coming to America from Scotland to spend time with my bud, the drive in movie would be a definite, I'd want to get my nails done because I believe it's quite cheap whereas over here, you need a mortgage payment. A 'rib joint' definitely....oh, how often we hear that phrase on sitcoms and wonder....do they actually sell ribs? And if so, bring it on!
Also, the Field Museum, definitely, going to the mall, Wrigley Field, the pub....
If she wanted to really act like an American then have her sign up for a credit card and then proceed to max it out during the trip...how much more American can you get? Oh, and be sure to head out to the suburbs for a foreclosure party...
So I was just reading in Maxim that beer pong is an American born game. So you MUST bring her over for beer pong and teach her all about Team Victory.
I think your list looks good. To be fair, I hardly ever get out of the house so Wal Mart is exciting to me.
I'm not American, but I think a day at a shooting range could be a nice slice of North American life in general - we do love our guns!
You left out catfishin' and apple pie... and maybe driving around with a shotgun in the gunrack window of your chevy pickup truck while flying either an American or Confederate flag...
...and some fireworks.
The only thing else I can think of is watching Sarah Palin and Oprah on TV doing some interviews.
Stopping by from SITS. Hmmmmm...American. Well, if there's an amusement park nearby, that's kinda an American thing, right?!? Otherwise overstuffing oneself with really bad junk food is way American.
I think it's harder for Americans to come up with American stuff, since we live it everyday. Hopefully some readers from other countries will chime in with what they think American stuff is!
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