So my sense of time is all disjointed right now due to the ‘everything is new’ feeling, which makes piecing together a blog post about what’s been going on harder than normal. Of course, the working week is still the working week of – y’know – going to work, which is a comforting routine to have. I know some people found the idea of relocating without a resting period strange, but actually it’s been nice to get into ‘normal life’ mode as quickly as possible. And work is cool, anyway.

Some of the highlights beyond that: there having been far too many ‘Dominic celebrations’ recently, birthday drinks on Thursday night consisted of an utterly lovely and relaxed gathering outside Motel Bar. Thanks to those who made it happen, and everyone else for your birthday wishes! I am now 25, which feels imposingly significant, as in ‘halfway to 50’. But at least I have gained 6 extra hours from the timezone switch, which are mine to bank for as long as I’m here.

Not pictured: drink encased in coaster

Nolan took me along to a house party on Friday night, at which I was surprised to learn that ‘naming all 50 states’ is not actually so straightforward for citizens either. (Although props to the girl who could rattle them off in alphabetical order without so much as taking a breath.) And then on Saturday night I was honoured to be invited along to Todd’s birthday – Todd being a beloved Grouponian – which included these very fetching coasters. Not pictured is any drink actually encased in said coaster, because by the time Leah, Alex and I left the second bar my phone was definitely dead. But it was a good night.

There aren’t really many bad points right now, Chicago being a pretty friendly and relaxed city with lots of things going on. It’s been easy enough to catch a train or a bus downtown and enjoy the final day of the Blues Festival, or grab some tasty food, or just wander by the water:

Perfect to sit, read, think, get attacked by a crazy bird

The drawback is really that when it starts to rain, it really rains, so the British ‘oh well, it’s raining, that’s a shame, let’s carry on anyway’ spirit doesn’t work. Having the admin hassle of applying for everything from scratch can be tedious (top candidates for tedium are ‘getting a Social Security number’ and ‘opening an account with T-Mobile’ – the latter in particular has turned into a marathon of phone calls with unhelpful customer service agents). And there’s been a fair bit of turtling*, too. But overall, I am settling in, and the next big challenge will be finding somewhere permanent to live from August. Hello, Craigslist…

*Note: I’m not using this to mean mean any of the things described on Urban Dictionary.

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