Chicago, as most of the cities in the US, is fairly young. Despite that, the city is very ripe with diversity. Big communities such as Indians, Ukrainians, Italians and Polish have been here for over a century. Chicagoians are laid back people, with a deep sense of fine arts and design. This gives the city the status of the main art & cultural hub in the US. Perhaps this is also why you can see sculptures and futuristic design elements throughout the entire city.

It takes a person up to two months to gather enough information about non-touristic places in this city. These include good dining venues (not burgers), speakeasy bars dating from the prohibition era (1920), legendary blues & jazz bar performances and also comedy places. Comedy is very characteristic for Chicago, especially improvisation comedy style. The Second City improvisation comedy school from Chicago is one of the most famous schools of its type. Some of the most famous alumni of the school are Jimmy Fallon, Steve Carell and Robin Williams. After attending one of their shows, I decided to follow an eight week course in improvisation comedy as well. It turned out to be a hilarious activity to do and made me wonder about my engineering career choice.

The host company during the five months of my internship was Argonne National Research Laboratory. Working close with the Department of Energy, their main research direction is energy (all types of energy). I was part of the Energy Systems group, transportation division conducting research on connected and automated vehicles (CAV’s) which is the holy grail of future transportation. Ignoring the fact that the laboratory is twenty miles west from Chicago and a persisting predominant French vibe in the group, Argonne is an amazing place to work. Salaries are higher compared to the Netherlands however you have to work over time to prove yourself. One tip for future possible candidates - get a crappy car, the gas is cheap and distances here are huge.

Many things happened during my stay in US. I made lots of new friends, visited stunning cities/national parks, gained a lot of experience, lifelong stories and Trump became president elect.