Quote:
Originally Posted by HomrQT
The general consensus I've gotten from dozens of people I've talked to all over Europe is that they know Chicago exists, they've heard the name before and that it's somewhere in the US, but there's usually a hard stop there. Showing people pictures of our skyline for the first time has dropped quite a few jaws. For those I've talked to that have visited Chicago, they always appear to be very much in love with our city.
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A week ago I was showing pictures of the new Apple store to my co-worker in NYC (who is originally from India). He had only been to Chicago once, years ago, but out in the suburbs for work and the only thing he did in the city was go to the Field Museum. He didn't walk around or anything. Literally went to the Field Museum and then back to his hotel near O'Hare.
His first question was "Is that river photoshopped in there?" When I said no, he's like "wow that looks really nice." So I showed him a bunch of pictures of Chicago. Downtown, the lakefront, the river, etc. He kept saying how beautiful it looks and even commented that the lakefront looks like parts of Miami and he was shocked. This coming from a guy who's been in the US for 15 or 20 years. I bring up Chicago from time to time at work - he's kind of made fun of me for it. However, when he saw these pictures of the city itself he started being serious about it and talked about how much nicer it looks than NYC. I think he wants to visit Chicago now after seeing the pictures.
As far as other people go, it's been the same - international visitors. Most I've met have said the same thing "I had no idea!" and a lot told their friends that they should visit Chicago. Almost all of them were shocked at the city and how different it was from what they expected.