Illuminations à Woodstock

Ce mardi soir je suis allée jusque Woodstock (à une vingtaine de miles d'ici) pour voir les illuminations sur la place du village, dans Woodstock square.
Peu de couleurs comparé aux maisons croisées sur la route, mais un beau décor pour un parc ouvert à tous.

Entrée du Woodstock Square, malheureusement la photo ne permet pas de voir les ferroneries...

le pavillon au centre du square



beautiful christmas tree in the street



une crèche... le petit Jésus et les Rois Mages sont déjà là...

Girls evening at Rita's American Roadhouse

Saturday night, a good timing to organize a girl's party !
Let's go to Rita's American Roadhouse in Downers Grove.

No real nice picture of this party but really great moments on the danse floor!

 There was a bull in the club. Everybody went on it, even me (but I don't have a complete working video for the moment), and everybody got a beautiful bell ;)

Monica on the bull

Annie after the bull, with her bell ;)

my bell, proof that I went on the bull ;)

video of me on the bull... only 15sec but I don't know why...

the rest of the video is not working....

College Football match

Impossible to avoid going to a american football match when you are in the US for a long time.
Since the Chicago Bears are really too expensive, I decided with some co-workers to go to a college football match : Northwestern Wildcats vs Illinois.



Ryan Field in Evanston

Une vidéo vaut mieux qu'un long discours ;) J'ai trouvé comment les ajouter !! Ca va donner de la vie à mon blog... Enjoy!



Northwestern won 7 points, the cheerleaders ran the flags danse. 



Great atmosphere. Fine to be in the stadium (even with the cold weather) and to see the football match live. Now I understand most of the rules of american football ;) 

Thanks Dianne, Mario and Tim for coming with me. 

Crazy Black Friday

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, and it is the first day of Christmas shopping. For this occasion, all the shops are opened during the night between Thursday and Friday.

To see what is really Black Friday, I decided to go to Walmart at 11.30 PM on Thursday evening. All the others shops were closed but on Walmart's parking, there were a lot of cars. A lot of people inside, and mostly in line to pay...

On Friday afternoon, I went with Annie to Woodfield, another mall with a lot of different shops!! Maybe this day is not the best one to go shopping, so much people everywhere and long line to pay in most of shops.

the place for Sint Nicholas, where children can go to take a picture with him and tell him what they want for Christmas...

Thanksgiving, the day of eating...

Last Thursday, Thanksgiving day, first day of holidays ;) - even if we leave at noon on Wednesday...

In order to be in the tradition, I spent this day with Monica and her friends. We were 22 and it was really a day of eating : Turkey, smoked ham, smashed potatoes, beans, greens, american cheese macaroni, ... and even more ;)

The house of Monica's friends was already fully decorated for Christmas. Two weeks of preparation to obtain this result!! (Sorry for the quality of the pictures, it seems that I had had some problems with my Iphone)

Thanksgiving is the occasion to cook with the family and friends, to share recipes and to enjoy to be together around a table full of meals. 

American cheese macaronis - special recipe and not really at my taste.



Brussels sprouts - I need this recipe!!



The famous turkey





smoked ham



sweet potatoes

  3:00 PM: the big table is ready. Let's go eating !

Really a good day for Thanksgiving. My first one, maybe the only one, but really a happy memory for me ;) Thanks everybody.

Tuesday's dinner at Portillo's

Tuesday, the day of outside dinner with some co-workers. This evening, Patrick, Dianne, Glenn and me went to Portillo's in Vernon Hills, a place where Hotdogs and american sandwiches are the main menus.

The decorations in this restaurant are quite interesting and unusual... Look up and don't be afraid, it'll not fall on you...

It's already Christmas time

As I mentioned in my previous post, it seems that it's already Christmas time here... Some people already decorated their house for Christmas... Really early for me, Thanksgiving is not even past...

Field Museum in Chicago

Ce samedi, j'ai profité de la journée Corporate au Field Museum de Chicago pour le visiter avec une collègue et son fils.

Le musée se trouve juste à coté du Soldier Field, le stade de football américain des fameux Chicago Bears.



View of the Soldier Field

Le Field Museum est organisé en quatre principaux départements : l'anthropologie, la zoologie, la botanique et la géologie. Il est tellement grand qu'il est impossible de le visiter entièrement en une seule journée...

Parmi les plus importantes pièces exposées, il faut citer :

• Sue, le plus grand et le plus complet squelette de Tyrannosaurus rex actuellement connu.

• De belles séries anthropologiques notamment sur l'ancienne Égypte, les civilisations du nord-ouest du Pacifique et du Tibet.

• Une très riche collection de grands animaux dont deux éléphants d'Afrique.

Nous nous sommes donc limité aux insectes, à l'Egypte ancienne et aux différents peuples américains et artiques.

Le fils de ma collègue admire les vitrines d'insectes

Je ne pouvais bien entendu pas passer à coté des coccinelles,
pourtant tellement petites comparées à d'autres...

Réellement impressionant de voir ces énormes criquets !!

La collection de papillons

Représentation d'un dragon

Peuple africain

Le lion et sa lionne

Poteries des Anciens Americains

un hibou qui a attiré mon attention

Impressionnante la pierre, entièrement sculptée !

de nombreux totems

un bison

des vêtements d'Indiens d'Amérique

les totems du Stanley Field Hall

détails des totems du Stanley Field Hall

 Une très chouette visite qui fut suivie par un excellent repas et une soirée très chouette chez ma collègue en compagnie d'un couple d'amis à elle. Aucune photo pour illustrer cette soirée mais elle n'en était pas moins mémorable ! On remet ça à Thanksgiving ;)