Apple Store, Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL

The weirdos on the left here are bicycle activists, and the weirdos on the right are Apple aficionados. I came down to Chicago to see the opening of the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue. This was one of the first stores that Apple announced, and I’d been planning to apply for a job there _to make money for my year in Japan_. To give you some perspective, I got back from my year in Japan seven months ago. So it’s been a while. Anyway, I called up Brad and asked him to accompany me. I thought that after having conquered the Tokyo train system, getting on the CTA Orange Line to go downtown would be a piece of cake. Well, it’s hard to find places when there are no informational postings whatsoever. We eventually got there and found a line going around the whole building twice. Brad held our spot while I went to Walgreens, where the rudest clerk I have ever been “served” by sold me some pretzels and pop. While we were waiting in line, this huge bicycle herd came through. We were yelled at, “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING IN LINE FOR!!” dozens of times as the cyclists went by. Apparently on the last Friday of every month they ride through Chicago weaving in and out of traffic and yelling about how awesome bikes are. It was a pretty weird clash of subcultures.