More Evanston Fun

I went to Evanston yesterday primarily to help Shewara do some apartment hunting for fall when she starts at Northwestern, but I also needed to do some research at the Herskovits African Studies Library for some papers I'm writing in the coming eight weeks. After an hour or so of poking around some old and unexpectedly helpful books, I drove south to Main Street to check out a cool fabric store she recommended. I ended up purchasing an awesome "African print" (no more specific location was given, but I'd bet a small chunk of change it's Nigerian) - it's a nice blue color with an abstracted snake design in light purple and yellow. I'm going to use it as a divider between my main room and office in my new apartment.

After the fabric store, I went next door to a place I believe was called Dave's Rock Shop, an awesome establishment dealing in an assortment of rocks, precious stones, fossils, and Native American artwork - typically NW Coast masks and Kachina dolls. The best part was that the store had a "Museum of Prehistoric Life" in the basement which featured a surprisingly thorough assortment of artifacts, many of them excavated (and all of them acquired and curated) by the owners of the store. There was even a cheesy, low-budget narration in the background to guide you through the space.

After my rock fun I met Shewara at the train station to commence the apartment search. We saw a few studios, nothing overly impressive. The best of the night was a potentially fantastic 1-br place, but its location directly above a dry-cleaners means that, according to a UK study, any occupant will have a 400% greater chance of lung cancer later on. So we passed.

Tomorrow I'm heading downtown to check out the new Field Museum's installation of the Americas Galleries, as well as an African architecture exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center, plus eating out at a new Mexican bakery on Shewara and I's favorite block of retail establishments on Earth.