We have been in Chicago for a week now and I am loving it all. Last Thursday and Friday was my first days of work which weren't that exciting because I don't have much to do yet but I'm sure it will pick up soon. For most of this month I will be reading policies and procedures, doing computer training, and going to other trainings around the city for workshops and such. Then hopefully I will be going out into the field to work with some clients and shadowing these home visits with my supervisor. Right now its a little boring sitting in my cubicle alone but everyone is very nice and helpful so I am excited to get started.
Now onto the fun stuff. This was our first weekend in Chicago and it happened to be a three day weekend, awesome right? So on Friday when I finally got home from work, my roommates greeted me joyfully and were ready for the weekend to begin. That night we drove to the western part of south Chicago where we had dinner and great conversation with Cap Corps Volunteers who are also serving one year in Chicago. It was a great opportunity to see how they lived, talk to them about their program and just have great conversation with people who are committed to a year of service with another organization. The night was filled with lots of pasta, great conversation, and lots of laughs. Saturday we slept in which was great, had our community meeting, and then Griffin and I went grocery shopping while Molly and MC went for a run. Ok so of course working at Price Chopper for seven years makes me bias to all other grocery stores which usually doesn't bother me but OMG this one was insane!!! It was Saturday afternoon and the store, Fairplay, only had six registers on the front end! The lines were down all of the aisles and it took forever to get checked out. At one point I turned to Griffin and told him that I was having an anxiety attack because one: there were so many people squished around me, two: there was only 6 registers, and three: I couldn't do anything about it. Needless to say my first test of patience was in the grocery store and I refuse to go shopping on a Saturday again. After making it home, we unloaded the groceries, which by the way we only went over our weekly budget by $5, and then got ready for the day. After discussing what we wanted to do, we left the house at 330 and went to the Orange Line or L train to ride into the city. We took the train to the Loop and got off at the Library stop where we proceeded to walk to the Bean and Millenium Park. The day was beautiful and there were plenty of things to look at. The Bean, for those who never heard of it, is a huge mirrored structure that looks like a bean and reflects everything around it. We took some pretty cool pictures of us and enjoyed looking at our weird reflections. 
The next stop was Millennium Park where we saw the Jay Pritzker Pavilion where concerts are played throughout the year. We then proceeded to walk in the direction of the water and found a stream in part of the park. Griffin, MC and I stood in the water to get a picture but then got yelled at by park security who told us that we weren't allowed to be in the water. Go figure, we get in trouble the first weekend but Griffin was right when he said there weren't any signs saying we couldn't go in. After that little incident we went down to the water and walked along the edge of Lake Michigan which is gorgeous by the way. We saw lots of boats and took some great pictures until it was time to go home. We took the train back and stopped at Chipotle for some burritos for dinner. We got home, ate our food, and then got ready for our first night out in Chicago. We ended up going to this place called Sean's Rhino Bar which is about 4 blocks away from our house. The bar was very fun and everyone there were our age or a little older and from the neighborhood. The first hour or so we just sat buy ourselves cause we were of course the new people in town who no one wanted to talk to but by the end of the night we were talking to everyone and having a great time.
Sunday morning we got up really early after a minimal 4 hours of sleep and went to St. John Fisher Parish for 8 am mass, which was very early but hopefully God gave us brownie points for actually going. After mass we met up with one of our neighbors J-Bird and his wife Julie who took us out on their boat for the day. We all pilled in the car, drove to Indiana, and put their speed boat in Lake Michigan. The day was filled of sunshine, great company and an amazing tour of Chicago from the water. We saw all the sights including beaches, Soliders' Field, the Bears Stadium, Navy Peer and downtown. We were so thankful that we have amazing neighbors to give us this unique tour of the city. After driving around for a while, I jumped into the 62 degree Lake Michigan, screamed so loud, and climbed back on the boat after about 5 minsprepared. Julie made an amazing dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, and fruit salad. It tasted so good and we are incredibly thankful for their gracious actions and for showing us around Chicago in a way that no one else could. After a long day on the Lake, we spent the night watching American Beauty and Sister Act before heading to bed.
Today is a new day and we are excited to see what else Chicago has to offer. Hopefully we will go into the city and have another fun filled day before starting work again tomorrow.
Chicago fact: When saying street names you leave out "street," so we live on 104th and Maplewood not 104th Street
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