I had been to Chicago the last week of 2005. This visit, being my first trip outside of Bloomington to see the ‘the real US’ as some people tell me. Considering that I had pretty much flown into Indianapolis in the middle of the night and that I had stayed at Bloomington all semester I pretty much had not seen any more of the US than most Indians had in the movies.

One of the many reasons that I was looking forward to seeing Chicago was that I was looking forward to seeing some of what was considered ‘big’ in American terms. I don’t know if this is easy to understand, but back in India what most people who visit US for the first time tell me is that the thing they notice most is how much larger everything is. Larger stores, larger roads, larger people, larger potatoes etc etc

Well Bloomington, didn’t spook me out in that way – it was all too beautiful to be scary. Bloomington seems like it has sprung straight out of an Enid Blyton novel, for those of us who grew up reading Enid Blyton novels (no I didn’t, I just happened to make certain observations about those who did. So there.).

Chicago was well, uummhh… large. I was kind of spooky to be surrounded by all there large buildings and one was walking along the streets staring up at a partitioned sky. I also remember noticing how on the average people looked more harangued than folk back at Bloomington. And also how everything was so much more hurried. People seemed also seemed more necessitated to fend for themselves instead of the ‘you first, no you first’ courtesy of Bloomington. I also remember thinking that with buildings like that the only thing that the place lacks is Godzilla to go tearing between – just to complete the picture. Many things were more expensive, or at least it was considerably easier to find yourself more expensive things that it was in Bloomington where most college students would not have much use of finding themselves lots of expensive things. There were also many poor people on the streets, many holding up signs that said something like “I am just Hungry”.

But anyway, that’s not what this post is about. This post is about the St Pauli Girl. Chicago can wait, I didn’t know I’d have much to say about it.

Of all the pictures I took in Chicago, the one that seemed to catch my attention the most is this random picture I took of a neon sign in a shop window. The St Pauli Girl:

I don’t know what it is, but that picture held a certain inexplicable appeal. It even stayed my wallpaper for sometime. See, I am not much of beer person, then why? I do have googd friends who really like beer, but not me. Not yet.

I finally decided to google for it and sure enough, I found my explanation. Now for the benefit of my below 18 readers who are trying to understand the true nature of all of computer science from reading my blog, I shall not quote these here, instead I shall provide the links here.

Scroll down and read the section titled Don't Fear the Reaper

http://www.purpleroom.com/travel/kenn6.htm

and

http://beer.emptyfree.com/index.php?p=7

Cheers! Hic!