Thursday - Chicago Stock Exchange

hi y'all. well today was our second to last day in the great city of Chicago but for the most part we didn't think about it much. we were too busy straining our heads to see the top of buildings as we walked along - still very much looking like tourists wth our matching polos and backpacks on! Anyway, great weather, a sunny day and warm and we were driven into the city by our day hosts in order to see the Chicago STock Exchange. This was incredible, not only did we stand and view the trading and have it all explained to us by a wonderful rotarian, but then we were also taken onto the Trading Floor. This was amazing, 70,000 square feet of craziness,paper everyhwerere, people shouting and it takes 10 hours to clean each night. Apparently there are approx 150 trades every third of a second, thats 2 billion trades per year and involves approximately $1000 trillion US dollars!



As i write this one day later, the markets are in free fall across the globe and so who knows what the world will look like in the future. In the hour and a half of trading before we arrived at the Stock Exchange, General Motors stocks fell about 19% and now this mroning Ford shares are the same value as they were in the 1950's! There are stories all around us of college Funds that have disaperared, car loans refused and businesses and families under immense strain. Obama says that now is not the time to be democrat or republican but to be an american and band together.
well as a team we banded tog ether and after the stock exchange we headed to museum of science and industry and toured a german submarine and the biggest model train you've ever seen with a incredible model of the city of chicago. Then dinner as a team by ourselves (our last supper) before going to the comedy 'Second City'. THe political situation was a frequent topic for the evening's comedy. But right now its not a laughing matter.
I'm sitting here writing this wiht my bags all packed, we're going to head off to a shopping mall before heading to the aiport. This action packed wonderful warm and friendly american adventure is coming to a close.