A colleague invited me to spend the weekend at his country house in upstate New York. It's totally different from anything I've seen before in the States.

Garbage on New York City streets hasn't gone anywhere. Plus, during COVID they suspended routine rat control operations. As a result, rats multiplied so much that the city hall was looking for an entire director of rodent control back in December 2022 (they took down the posting now, probably found someone, but the job description promised a salary range of $120-170 thousand a year).

It's surprising that one of the world's largest cities can't solve such a straightforward garbage disposal problem. If they put trash bags in containers instead of on the street, it would be harder for rats to get to them. And the rat population should naturally decrease. But this measure would noticeably reduce the number of parking spots. Apparently, the authorities aren't willing to do that. Maybe I should've sent them my resume?)

I guess I got a bit caught up in work, sorry about that. New York is still here, it's not going anywhere.

Winter around San Francisco is warm and there's no sign of snow. But if you really want to see a snowy winter, you can drive about 300 kilometers to Lake Tahoe and there it is.

It's a really popular spot—everyone loves having that controllable weather where you can turn on the cold for a couple days and then head back to the warmth. Plus you can ski and snowboard there too.

We got a ton of snow this year. On the north side, there's easily 3-5 feet piled up, so some of the hiking trails and parking areas aren't very accessible right now. We'll have to come back and check them out sometime in the summer.

The US is a very religious country. Sometimes this shows up in unexpected ways.

For example, the California fast-food chain In-N-Out Burgers prints Bible verse references right on their packaging. I'd heard about this for a long time, but I finally saw it myself. It's actually true.

Since they're a private chain, they can do whatever they want without worrying about others. It's trickier for public companies, but some of them want to do something similar too. For instance, Alaska Airlines used to include prayer cards with the meals on their flights. But these guys trade on the stock exchange and have to listen to their shareholders. The shareholders started complaining that this practice might come across as disrespectful to people of other religions, and there are plenty of those in America. So they ended a practice that had gone on for over thirty years.

PS. The burgers are pretty tasty though.

This is what the local music scene looks like. A hundred years ago, this industry in Chicago was booming. And a big part of that was thanks to the mob and Prohibition.

One of the most iconic spots from that era is the Green Mill lounge (the name is a nod to the Moulin Rouge). It's still operating and they play jazz every single night! For over a hundred years now. The Green Mill has been through its share of ups and downs. It even had a stint under the management of Al Capone's associates. Their methods were pretty brutal—they actually cut one famous singer's throat because he refused to perform there.

These days everything's civilized and pleasant. The only reminder of those wild times is the tunnel the mob used to escape through during police raids.

PS. Oh, and they've made it their thing to only accept cash. They also close at 1:11 AM.

I checked out a bunch of different landmarks. Overall, it's pretty nice walking around the city. It's not as crazy and hectic as New York. But still, it's the same concrete jungle. I don't get how people live here (:

I've gotten a bit out of the habit of that mode where you can see a bunch of stuff in one day and then dump it all here (:

Stumbled into a Chicago library by accident. Setting aside the fact that you can't bring weapons inside, two things really surprised me:

1. You can borrow not just books, but DVDs too, and even good old VHS tapes (does anyone still have players for those? o.O)

2. There's a room with pretty decent computers with internet access. You need to sign up in advance, but it's completely free.

Maybe I just haven't been to other libraries in ages. But VHS tapes are definitely the best.

Made it to Chicago. It's really convenient when there's a metro connection from the airport to the city.

I decided to get off at an earlier station and take a walk around. As I was leaving the metro and hesitating for a second about which exit to take, this girl suddenly comes up to me and starts asking where I'm headed so she can give me directions. After I tell her the address, she goes: "You've got another whole station to go, don't get off here, there are way too many crazy people on Chicago's streets". And it's like, literally just a 15-minute walk (and it's not that much closer from the next station anyway).

When she realized I wasn't going to listen to her advice, she made me promise to be careful on the street (though honestly everything was fine, the neighborhood seemed pretty decent).

PS. Other than that, so far it just looks like your typical American city with massive skyscrapers and huge cars.

I'm kind of losing my mind over the prices here. I forgot to bring an adapter for local outlets. At the first store I came across, they wanted $50 for it. I walked around a bit more and found one for $18. Which, you know, is still a lot, but I paid it thinking "well, it's not that bad" (: