One month in Chicago
14 December 2008
Well we’ve been here a month already — time is flying here! Not much has happened in the two weeks since we last posted an update. Well, nothing on the scale of our trip to Ikea!
We’ve settled in nicely to downtown Chicago but still can’t get used to the view — seeing the Sears tower each night and morning is somewhat surreal given it’s something of an icon for the city. We’re loving the balcony but can’t wait for summer when we can actually sit out on it! It’s a bit windy (not to mention cold) at the moment. But we still take the time to stand out there and take it all in occasionally.
The ‘chores’ of settling in America are pretty much all sorted. We have Social Security Numbers (without which you can’t really do anything) and bank accounts, and the TV is up and running — much to Sap’s delight! I can honestly say we have over a hundred channels but I couldn’t tell you what was on any of them. Sap’s already found the Friends channel so her days have been full! The electricity (the only utility we have to pay for) is almost setup. I had to traipse down to the local Western Union last week to show them my passport and lease — to prove I was who I was saying I was, if you get my meaning. All for the pleasure of paying a bill each month!
We’re still looking at landlines and cellphones and trying to figure out what we’ll need. Since discovering Skype’s amazingly cheap call rates to the UK (and the US) we may stick with good old modern technology for a while!
I have one more week at work — it’ll be a busy one. We have the company meeting and Christmas dinner on Thursday so I’m looking forward to teaching the US guys how the HW crew celebrate! Then we’ll be winding down on Friday and then we’re off! It’ll be nice to have a break, particularly as it’s our first wedding anniversary soon. Neither of us thought we’d be in Chicago for our first one but here we are!
I’ve been going through our photo library and backing it up to Flickr and there’ll be plenty more photos over the coming weeks — not only do we have parties and Christmas but we also have New Year with Nick, Paul and Nige to look forward to. We actually booked the tickets today so we’re very excited!
The next posting is likely to involve photos of the party on Thursday, for which I apologise in advance…