tingyan.: guitar-buying :)

written on 16th August 2014
Today was really fun. I have been looking around downtown Chicago for a place that sells musical instruments to get a guitar. But it's weird man there's like no music shop. It's pretty cool though, I went to school to pick up my student ID and asked the people there if they knew anywhere I could pick up a guitar. There was this guy, Eric, who plays the banjo, who got really excited and was like "do I know where to get a guitar!" And exclaimed about a garage sale up north at Lincoln avenue.

We headed up today! Downtown was getting a little claustrophobic, especially after we spent the week plus in June exploring the area and the past few days this time too. We took the brown line up north, it was a pretty long journey. I thought it was long, dad said it was comfortable. Transport seems a lot less scary and daunting in the day. The train passed through a ton of neighborhoods and the houses were pretty quaint and nice. It's such a different scene from Singapore.

It felt like an accomplishment to finally reach the store- the old town school of folk music store (4544 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60625). They had the store on one side of the road and the school on the other. Once we pushed through the doors, we were greeted by a whole range of guitars, with bright coloured papers showing the discounted prices, and also a ton of people trying things out and stuff. It felt really nice to walk into a place with such life! And I felt immediately invigorated. I walked to the corner with the more affordable guitars, mostly the travel sized ones, and was deciding between two, when one of the shop people came up and asked if I need any help. I was initially about to reject his help and said I'll try them out myself, but he insisted and offered to play for me so I can hear the sound of both. It was pretty obvious the one with the better sound and I decided to take it. He was really friendly and asked like why we were in town and stuff, and when he found out I was going to school at the art institute, he congratulated me and mentioned that his boss' wife is a dean there. It was just such a nice warm friendly conversation that made me feel so welcomed and at home. He helped to grab a bunch of other accessories I would need as well and bid us farewell with gusto. :) managed to get the guitar at 20% off and all the accessories at 15%.

Really glad we made the trip up though it was pretty long. Really worth it though. Meeting nice, warm people makes the day so much better :)