Back from Chicago

So I am back from Chicago.... Actually I've been back for a while but there have been tons and tons of things going on.

My feelings about Chicago
1) Naturally I was just excited to be in a new place
2) I made some great friends that I am most certainly going to be keeping in touch with
3) I learned to play volleyball. I'm not great at it but I actually do like to play
4) Beach Soccer - I still think the idea was crazy but it was a lot of fun, a lot of sun, a lot of great weather, an opportunity to pick up new skills and play with another fun group. It was also great to find out our team won the overall games. One key lesson, never sign up for a 12 week league... It's absolutely ridiculous
5) Taxes.... not a single person's best friend - apparently Chicago downtown's tax is10.25%. So in as much as it was great being downtown, you ended up paying for it regardless of if you bought the basics or if you went shopping
6) Found a new shopping place... I always feel like all the young ladies at work look alike... somewhat true because we shop in the same places. Being downtown allowed me to venture into some new stores and I ended up finding more unique pieces
7) I learned to appreciate snacking.... hey, I did work for a food company after all
8) I missed Texas BBQ.... so as soon as I got back to Texas, my first stop after groceries was Texas BBQ
9) I loved living downtown. I was close to all the basics, was on the 39th floor, had a good number of friends from school visit and also had a lot of time and good weather to go walking downtown
10) I actually enjoyed the 2 weeks of living by myself before my roommate moved in. I had a great time with it... and now I'm looking forward to doing that again once I graduate
11) I enjoyed having time on my hands, in the initial phase, I think I was worried about all this newly acquired free time... what am i supposed to do? what do people do with their free time? (I had a consulting background). It didnt take me long on figuring out what to do...
12) Tapas... My new best friends... I can go for Tapas anyday now
13) I loved my church and its members. I had a lot of young adults I could plan events with and hang out with... Bowling and beating all the guys was also fun...
14) Towards, the end though, I began to miss home... I guess when you know that you are living somewhere only temporarily then you would always be looking forward to going back to your "base"
15) I enjoyed working with my manager and my mentor. We had a great time. he gave me a lot of pointers on what to go check out and he had a great personality and was great to work with

In any case I am back on school grounds and things have started off crazy already. I have a lot on my plate already and I am not quite motivated to do much yet. I am guessing that once assignments and everything else become due, I'll become motivated....

Mmm.... I've actually missed updating my blog...

Enjoy,

E