A Blogger's Debut

Hello to friends and family! At the request of Momma Max I am going to start ‘blogging’ about my new adventure Chicago. I am hoping it will follow the same trend as my Spain emails from a few years ago with a journal-like entry and a few pictures to capture my life here.

For those who haven’t heard yet, I recently moved to Chicago (by recently, I mean a week ago) to pursue a master’s degree at Loyola University in Public History. ‘What’s that?’ you ask. It’s taking the academic field of history and interpreting it for the public sphere (think museums, historical societies, libraries). However, I don’t start classes until the middle of August, so I won’t bore you with all that right now.

With the help my BFF from the Wyo, Jen, I found a great 1 bedroom apartment (the closest space was selling point) in a neighborhood called Lakeview, and like the name suggests, I am 2 blocks from the lake shore where there is a nice park, bike/running trail, marina, dog beach and tennis courts. My neighborhood is next to Wrigleyville, named for the Cubs stadium, and I also live near what is known as Boystown, the Gay Community of Chicago. So I live in a primo location because of its great places to eat, shop, watch baseball and it is very safe! Visitors welcome!

This is my building from the street.

My Kitchen.

This is my living room, walk in closet in the left corning, hallway to bath/bed room to the right.

Another view of the living room, the kitchen is to the right and the far wall is all closet, eat your heart out, ladies.

And is this a view of my bedroom from a small hallway that connects to the living room and also the bathroom.

No I am not just kickin’ it in the Windy City, I am a working a hodge-podge of jobs to keep me busy this summer. I am working at a family run restaurant and catering business called Zig Zag’s Kitchen, I am training to be able to take delivery orders AND to wait tables. (I have to admit I am not very good at this, because I am either too attentive of a waitress or don’t check on my tables enough, so I am trying to learn the balance.) I am also working on my Spanish because that is the entire kitchen staff’s first language and we have to communicate somehow (so all those Spanish classes and my semester abroad are paying off!)

*Fun fact about the place I work, they (by they I mean Michael Mann and Hollywood) are filming a Johnny Depp and Christian Bale (hotties!) movie across the street at a famous theatre AND in the restaurant where I work. (No celebrity sightings yet, but I will let you all know if I stumble upon Mr. Depp!) It’s called ‘Public Enemies’ and its based on the gangster John Dillinger, so when it comes out next year, go see it and know that’s where I work. The locals are going crazy about it because they have redone the entire block to make it look like 1930s (I have included pictures below.)

This is an image of Zig Zag, it's being used as a part of the movie set so the tables, chairs and wall hangings were brought in by the set people.

This is the famous theatre where they are doing most of the filming, it's across the street from the restaurant.

This is a street view, you can see how they changed the facades of the block and layed down fake brick down the middle.

I am also working as a baby-sitter for a family that has 21-month old little girl, a 10-day old baby girl (Nora and Aster,) a mutt and a Great Dane puppy (Dirk and Hank). I will be helping out their mom, Jen, two mornings a week and evenings once baby Aster gets a little older. And I am interviewing at a Doggy Day Care on Tuesday for a part time position, so keep your fingers crossed. (I am working on getting my dog fix because Brutus didn’t make the move to Chicago with me). I’ll be a busy girl this summer.

I named the ‘blog’ on the fly so if any of you have any suggestions for a title pass them along! I love updates and comments, so feel free to leave a few thoughts. Hope you enjoyed my first entry and I look forward to sharing this new adventure in my life with you all. (If you know of any who would like to hear about my time here, please pass it along.)

xoxo
Amber