Welcome to the Windy City

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I made it! I’ve experienced my first full week here in Chicago, and honestly, I’ve been feeling good. I haven’t cried as much as I thought I would be. I’m feeling a bit at peace with life right now.

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I still have A LOT to unpack. Unpack as in literally unpacking my boxes and not just for my mental health and processing. (By the way, if you want a very chill zen game to play, y’all should play Unpacking. It’s one of the cutest indie games I’ve ever played. It does a great job telling a story without any dialogue.)

There’s piles of boxes still left for me to organize, but honestly, I still don’t know where to place most of these things since the basement is already furnished, but still has my Chicago family’s possessions.

As a New Yorker, here are things that have already crossed my mind now living here in Chicago:

• WTF is validated parking?
• Going around the block is actually driving along a long ass triangle
• WOW, I’m actually driving IN the city and it doesn’t feel congested at all
• People really LOVE their pets here. There’s like a billion stores that cater to your pets like grooming, day care, clothes, special treats, and of course, convenient vets locations
• Waiting 30mins for deep dish pizza will not be a common thing for me
• Yup, it sure is a Windy City
• I hope I won’t get confused with the subway system
• A FREE ZOO!!!

I’m sure there will be plenty more thoughts of adjusting to Chicago life, but as of right now, I don’t feel homesick… yet.

Honestly, the freedom to do whatever I want is quite refreshing. Not that I didn’t have any freedom when I was back in NYC, but since it's a brand new city to explore, it’s kinda fun to check out all these different places. Like I gotta find Chinatown, where’s the best nightlife spots, or even where’s the best food spots to eat.

But I also need to find all the places where I need to rebuild my habits again like finding a climbing gym, a good hybrid gym for strength training, and which is the best grocery store to bang my buck.

Overall, I finally did it. I made my first big move away from home. Let’s see how it goes.

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