It is Friday afternoon. Now that the week is over, I can take a minute to reflect on how it went. Let's go in order, shall we?
Saturday, July 3: Moving day.
Things went off without a hitch today. Well, mostly without a hitch. The U-Haul was ready when we went to pick it up, everything fit and we made it to the new apartment by noon. I did forget my business casual clothes for the first days of school, but luckily I remembered them only about a mile from our Madison home.
Moving in took about four trips in the freight elevator, though we had stagger our moving due to a few other people moving in. The apartment is a lot smaller than we remembered, and the L is a lot louder. Kyle and I can link arms and stretch out our opposite arms and that is the width of the studio. The kitchen is a wall on the left end, and the closet and bathroom are on the right end. The full bed, chair and TV fit snugly in the space in between. I hope to get some pics up soon. We were all moved in, U-Haul returned, sated and exhausted by 6pm. By about 8:30pm, we got our second wind and took a nice long walk to the supposedly closest Dunkin Donuts. It was a nice, probably 1.5 mile walk, but the next day, we found a DD right by the L, about 2 blocks away.
When we got back (around 9:30pm), our toilet was constantly flushing. A quick visit by Mike the maintenance man turned up a broken valve. Solution? Dump a bucket (or two) down after use. We did this until Tuesday morning. On top of the toilet woes, the outside temp held strong at about 85 degrees for the first couple of days. This means it was about 85-90 degrees in here. Broken toilet + lack of AC on the 8th floor + cramped space = cranky Petersons. Luckily, we were too tired to be kept up by the L running all night long.
Sunday, July 4: Happy Birthday America!
I woke up with a HUGE migraine, so Kyle let me sleep in. and then ventured out to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials. We rode the L around explored our neighborhood, Edgewater. We also went downtown, mostly to find my school and play a big game of Where's Waldo? The Taste of Chicago was going on and we accidentally wandered in, and, as quickly as we could, ran out. We found a great, cold pool of water to stick our feet in; it was approaching 90 degrees and sunny. Water was next on the agenda, and on our way to 7-Eleven, we found Waldo! Turned out it was a classmate of Kyle's from high school. As the afternoon progressed, we found Wenda and the Wizard. Pretty fun.
Couscous tacos for dinner. To pass the time until fireworks, we watched an episode of LOST. We walked the few blocks to the beach of Lake Michigan, and even though it was sprinkling, we set up camp on the beach to watch fireworks. We moved twice more to get the optimal view, and ended up on the pier. The rain stopped and we were treated to not one, not two, but three firework shows! One right in front of us, Navy Pier's display and in the distance, 63rd Street's (I think). Ice cream was acquired on the walk home, more LOST was watched and (sweaty) sleep followed.
Monday, July 5: Practice
We got up early in order to practice the rest of the week's routine. Our plan was to get on the L by 7. We got up at 6:40am. Ooops. Thank goodness it was just practice. We did get out of the door by 7:30am, and got to school by 8:15am. Rode the Red Line the whole way; since then, we've found a faster and less walking-intensive route. From school, we walked to Union Station, about four or so blocks away. Thankfully, Nuts on Clark was open to fill our craving for cheesy & caramel-ly popcorn mix. After wandering around a bit, we headed north, back to our neighborhood.
We got off at Berwyn this time so I could stop in at a Starbucks that contacted me about a position. Thankfully the manager was in and he hired me on the spot! Yay! I was feeling like with just going to school in the afternoons, I would get a little stir crazy or become a hermit. More about working and school later.
(I am having a hard time remembering the rest of Monday. Hrm.)
Tuesday, July 6: Day 1, Week 1
For my first day of school, Kyle got up with me and rode the L all the way downtown to drop me off. (We woke up on time today, thankfully!) It felt like the first day of elementary school all over again, though we opted for no picture in front of the building due to the high volume of people walking by. For the rest of the time I was in school, Kyle wandered around downtown.
I picked up my name tag and followed directions to go upstairs. I joined my 71 classmates at 3-person tables, arranged by 2 morning and 2 afternoon classes. The director greeted us, we were introduced to the staff and then flowed with our class through four, hour-long sessions to go over classroom expectations, grading, volunteering/staging (st-AGH-ing), uniforms, financial aid, and receive our toolkits and uniforms. By 1:30pm, we were all on information overload, but were rewarded with the best croissant and pain au chocolat I've ever eaten. They even rank over the ones I had in France, they were that good.
First impression of my classmates: good. We are a very varied group. Lots of career changers, others fresh out of high school, and even one professional chef and another classmate who is opening a bakery (as in signing a lease soon) to open her own place shortly after graduation. The professional rubbed me the wrong way. Or maybe it was the way he was presented and favored by the staff. I'm all for professionals, home cooks, whomever to be in school, but no one person should be favored over others. You never have a second chance to make a first impression, and that's unfortunate in this situation. I hope it gets better.
Kyle picked me up, thankfully, as I had a large and heavy bag full of uniforms as well as a large tool bag full of fancy new pastry tools. I also brought a large purse and an additional bag for my change of shoes. Needless to say, I needed help getting home. Thank goodness for my hubby.
When we got home, we had some lunch and planned a trip to Target to return a few things we ended up not needing. We saw a new Target around the Wilson L stop, so that was our destination. We got off at Wilson, walked down about four blocks just to find it that it opens on July 25. Ugh. Back on the L with a large oscillating fan and bag of various goods in 85 degree heat and almost 100% humidity. An iPhone would have been nice to have so we could have just headed to another Target, but instead, we went home to look up the location and transportation to another one.
We found one on Peterson (ha! That's our name!) and the bus was the most direct route. It turned out to be one of the easiest trips I've taken since being down here. Dangerously easy, in fact. Can't make that a habit. Lest I forget that I had to give up Target for Lent only a few years ago due to my frequent trips.
Dinner time! We planned to eat out on the cheap tonight. Our pick? Patio Beef in our neighborhood. Kyle got an Italian sausage sandwich with sweet peppers, dipped, with a side of cajun fries. I got a footlong Vienna beef hot dog, Chicago style, and regular fries. Kyle's fries were better than mine, and I didn't get a chance to taste his sandwich because it was so good and he was so hungry he devoured it before I could get a nibble. My dog was delish, with a good snap and with all those veggies! YUM. Didn't think I liked hot dogs, but in Chicago, I do! Couldn't finish the whole thing, but at $5 for my meal, I couldn't pass it up.
It was an early night for me as 5:15am came early on Wednesday.
Wednesday, July 7: Day 1 Sanitation Training
Thankfully for Kyle, I put on my big-girl pants and took myself to school today. Got myself up on time, showered, clothed, made a sandwich and got out the door on time. Or what I thought was on time. I got to the L just a minute or two after my train left, so I waited for the next, for about 10 minutes. I still got to school with 5 minutes to spare, but still. Note to self, leave a little earlier.
Mr. Stolis was our sanitation teacher. I would guess he's in his late 60s or early 70s. Raised in NJ, then the Army, then Baltimore and now Chicago, he's a feisty dude. He has a photographic memory and is all about getting us certified through facts, facts, facts. Through numerous news clips, newspaper articles and a dry text book, we got through 8 grueling hours unscathed. Well, except for not wanting to eat due to all those clips being about outbreaks of E.Coli, shigella, salmonella, etc. Blech.
Kyle met me downtown and we walked all over. He showed me some of the places he found the day before on his solo adventure. Grant Park, the Chicago Cultural Center (gorgeous, by the way!), the AON Center courtyard and more. We made our way up to the Hancock Tower, actually a shoe store in the tower. Coupon or no coupon, I found out I don't like Danskos. Too tall, too loose in the back, feel funny on my feet. Not worth $100 to me. We headed home, stopped at Jewel for a few groceries, and made bacon, egg, broccoli and cheese scrambler for dinner. Yum. I hunkered down to study how to wash my hands and various food borne illnesses. Soon it was time for bed to rest up for all that sitting and test taking for the next day.
Thursday, July 8: Test & Tears
Day 2 of Sanitation was a bit harder to take. More clips and such, but none really related to sanitation. We really just had a few more chapters to whiz through, but still took a good 7 hours to get to the test. 90 questions in about 30 minutes. Hope I passed because I don't want to sit through that again.
During lunch, I took my Bistro Crocs to the staff to see if I could wear them in the kitchen. These are my FAVORITE kitchen shoes. Low to the ground, comfortable, and kitchen approved. Good enough for FPS? Turns out- YES! I am ecstatic. Called hubby up to have him meet me at the tailors near our apartment after work with my uniform pants. Woo!
I came right home after school today. Kyle planned to leave tonight to head back to Madison- TEAR! I know I'm in school and he's alone all day, but I love coming home and seeing him, eating dinner with him, taking walks, watching LOST, and just being around him. Guess that's why I married him, huh? As far as I've come this week with getting myself to school, finding new things in a big city and feeling more confident, I wasn't ready to be on my own. I haven't really been alone- living and working alone- in my whole life. College was with a whole batch of people on a small campus; in India, we were supervised or traveled in groups, and in St. Louis, I had a roommate, TFA buddies, and Lottie. Chicago is a new experience altogether. My own place, public transportation, new job, school... EEK!
Nevertheless, Kyle had to go home to get some things done he could only do in our hometown. We made dinner, ate and then packed up his things and headed downtown to the bus. You know me- I cried. A lot. Blubbering tears in public is always attractive, let me tell you. I put Kyle on the bus and had to walk away or I would have jumped on the bus too!
He made it home in about 3 and a half hours. I made it home in about 45 minutes, did some homework, watched a little TV and went to bed too late. I was putting it off because I didn't want to go to bed alone. I haven't been away from Kyle since we got married, so this is super tough for both of us. Thankfully, he's coming back next week.
Friday, July 9: Butter is 82% Fat
Woke up alone around 5:15am. Found NPR on my radio, showered, got ready and was out the door by 5:55am. I was hoping to catch the earlier L and I did! On the L by 6:02 got me to school around 6:35am. Wow! This is a lot faster than the train right after. Gotta remember this when I want to hit the snooze button :)
In fact, I was so early that I had time to stop at Starbucks for a much needed Americano. Once at school, we were moved into an actual classroom for the day's lecture. We met a few chefs who were in Phoenix competing/judging at the World Pastry Cup earlier in the week. Chef S lead lecture today. Lots of funny stories and anecdotes to make rather dry material more interesting. No pastries today, but we did get a full hour for lunch. I headed to Jimmy John's for a sub, saw a classmate there and we walked to a nearby greenspace to eat. Met up a few other classmates and had a good chat in the sunshine. Back to the classroom for more lecture on sugar and what to expect on Monday. We were done by 2:05! This is 2 hours earlier than we thought we would be done. Free couple hours! Woo!
I made my way home, taking my first train with T, a lovely lady in my class. We had a nice chat until I had to switch trains. I've been home for a couple of hours, tooling around on the interwebs, looking up a nearby Hancock fabrics, a Weight Watchers meeting for tomorrow and trying to figure out how to get to Sarah's wedding shower on Sunday. Phew. Going to be a busy weekend!
In conclusion, I've hit the ground running. The first week turned out to be pretty good overall. It doesn't feel so much like I'm at pastry school, just school so far. Hopefully this will change on Tuesday when we head in to the kitchen. Basic skills for the first week and then my class starts with cakes (not the wedding kind- that's two weeks later!) I'm getting settled in the studio and neighborhood and finding my place in this big city. I think it will be a fun, quick 6 months!
