Take me out to the ball game

Well didn't I just look the part last night, seated in a smoky pub on North Lincoln eating my burrito and drinking beer poured from seemingly endless pitchers?!

I had been invited out with Brad, Rokesh, and Rob to learn a little more about this nation's current obsession: the baseball. The fact I was the only girl at this little testosterone-fest didn't seem to bother anyone; in fact, the boys were rather impressed that having me there meant we all got served our beer faster. Nice one!

The Chicago Whitesox played the first game of the World Series against the Houston Astros (with me so far?) and we won! The whole place erupted! I had absolutely no idea what was going on half the time - well, more than half - but I was able to cheer when the crowd cheered and by the end of the game, I knew that we'd won. So that's something, I guess.

One guy had been on his feet the whole game (baseball cap turned backwards for good measure) and was slamming chests with his buddies when the Sox did a good thing. When we won, he was right up to the big screen, hooting and carrying on. I thought he was going to go straight through the screen! Some people just get quite passionate about the sport, and they let it proudly show.

After the game, Rob drove us to a cool club on the Gold Coast (yes, even Chicago has a Gold Coast) where we caught up with Caroline and some more of her friends. But this Gold Coast is just a suburb, and can in NO way be confused with our tacky piece of paradise in Queensland. Chicago's Gold Coast is a collection of clubs, restaurants and coffee shops in between rather dinky little houses. But boy, the club I went to last night was very cool. After much scrutiny of my passport and particularly the diplomatic visa, the crazy Russian bouncer was convinced I was a spy. But somehow that raised the calibre of his club so he ushered me through personally. Weird.

And here I am on Sunday morning, with bleary eyes, a dry throat and an empty purse. If the White Sox continue their winning streak, this World Series is simply going to take it out of me!