January was a generous month. A bump here and there, but overall, very generous. I got my hair cut in the first week; a routine snip turned into a last minute request for bangs. The same week, I had dinner plans with Aisha. She's working on her postbacc in New Jersey so chances of meeting up are rare. We had our traditional Cheesecake Factory dinner and caught up as much as we could in the given time. I find it humorous trying to find where we 'left off' from our last talk; questions like, 'did I mention I'm moving to Chicago?' or 'so how did that pharm exam go?' are par for the course but I've realized that in the answering of the questions, I see how much we've both accomplished since we last saw each other. It's a good feeling.

I started training new hires at my job this month too. I was in their place a little over a year ago, still wondering what the next year would like...and here I am, waiting to start school in May. It's surreal. The point is being hammered home little by little. Actively searching for apartments was a pretty good indicator that the ball was rolling.

And much like how people in love can't stop bringing up their significant others, I cannot stop bringing up Chicago! And January, sweet January, involved two visits to the windy city.



The day after I finished everything I needed to do, i.e., visiting campus, meeting future classmates, apartment shopping, and trying another ramen place, was a snow day. I figure native Chicagoans don't usually hope for snow on a day they want to go out, but as not-yet inducted Chicagoan, I think I can get away with wishing for it this time. The plan was simple: eat pizza downtown and see the bean. We figured parking would be hellish and overpriced but it was not so! We found Lou Malnati's right in the middle of the city and we found a public parking area nearby that could be validated by the very same pizza place.



Eating Chicago-style pizza needs some getting used to—it's just so much cheese!—so I limit myself to one slice with appetizers. I started to crave some chocolate afterwards so we looked for the closest thing that we could get to on foot and found Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland which was a couple blocks away. It was cold, but the snow had let up some, so I made the executive decision to keep the car in the parking space and walk there. It was manageable until the final block where we turned a corner and were suddenly grappling with wind so strong we were both being pushed back. My hood kept flying off, snow was rushing in to coat my face and neck, and I was wondering how the weather could change so quickly around the corner of a building, of all things. Quite frankly, I was ready to turn around and say no chocolate was worth this battle but it was when we turned around the other corner that we were right in front the 8th tallest building in Chicago; a skyscraper that was a shopping district: 900 North Michigan Shops.




The famous Teuscher was located on the 5th level so we took a bunch of escalators to the top while we shivered off the cold. I wanted to visit every store in there, even though some were not foreign to me. Before making a beeline to the awaiting chocolate, I noticed a place called space 519 in the corner of my eye. It had a lot of varied pieces, including an amazing set of sunglasses, books, and maps of cities. There were shelves of candles and I found one that I was so tempted to take back with me but held off because I could just buy it when I'm actually living near the city.

Realizing that a pretty hefty parking bill could be waiting for us, we hurried over to Teuscher to see what they had to offer. Turns out? A lot.



The salted caramels were an immediate must-buy but hearing one of the customers talk about the 'world's best champagne truffles', I had to snag some for myself as well. I've never had to pay for chocolate this expensive (well technically Ben paid for it, but the idea is still there!) so I was expecting it knock me off my feet. And it did. And Ben's too. It took immense effort to make it last the trip to Dallas to visit Ben's family but I was able to polish it off eventually.

We made the trek back to our car which wasn't as punishing as it was in the other direction. I was mentally cringing at what our ticket would be but the parking guy just asked for nine dollars. NINE DOLLARS. Thanking my lucky stars, I took this as a sign to try visiting Millennium Park and see the bean, a.k.a, Cloud Gate. The official parking costs $21 which was ridiculous so we drove along the street and got parking for $3.50. Another score! I took many photos/videos and while I wondered if this was what frostbite would feel like, I was overjoyed.






We had another dinner with Ben's family where we celebrated his birthday early. His aunt and cousin purchased a delicious tiramisu from a local Polish bakery. It was scrumptious! Our flight was the next day but I didn't feel bummed about leaving the place. It felt like I spent an amazing four days in the city, more than enough good feelings to hold me until May.