And it begins!

Day -2

As I begin this new adventure, it is as good of time as any to try my hand at this blog thing. I figure this will not only help keep in touch with family and friends, but also keep a record of this amazing experience that I am about to embark on. I will try to post as much as possible. I encourage everyone to ask questions, as that will give me prompts to write about and also clarify my amateur writing. Here we go!

Today, I woke up at 5:30am and said a brief goodbye to my loving wife, Emilia. Although I will be returning on most weekends, this marks the beginning of what will be a very exciting, yet extremely challenging time for both of us. At least we get to ease into it for a few months nearby in Chicago before I go to Germany and the tough part of it begins. I have a strange bittersweet mix of emotions and nervous energy, but can't help to be so excited to get started.

Anyway, I arrived at Midway at 8am and picked up Ryan, one of my roommates and his wife. Our airbnb was not quite ready so we stopped at Star Cafe for some coffee and breakfast. It is a great coffee shop right down the street from our place. The stand out item for me was Barrel Aged Coffee. That's right, they take the green coffee beans and age them in different barrels before roasting. They roast the beans themselves nearby and usually have 2-3 different varieties each week. It was outstanding and I will be stopping there regularly to try the different roasts, oh and to study of course. *Note to self: check to see if anyone has made a barrel aged beer in a whiskey barrel that was used for this type of coffee bean aging. If no one has then I will be an innovator and make one, and if someone has then I'll make one anyway. The process will probably pose some risk for some weird infections in the beer, but at least have to give it a shot.

After breakfast, we get into the airbnb and with the exception of some unknown pet hair, everything looks good. Some of you may be aware that I am quite allergic to cats, so I am not thrilled by this finding. The landlord came by and cleaned it up and reassured me that it was not cat hair. So far I feel ok, so I am keeping my sinuses crossed. On the plus side the heater is rocking and the toilet passed the #2 test.

Ryan and his wife left to visit the Museum giving me some time to get settled. Besides writing this blog, I also logged in to my Facebook (gasp). I do not like Facebook, not one bit. However, it will serve a purpose similar to this blog. Not sure how the two interface yet, but I will at least post on Facebook when I make a new blog post. Well, time to get the remainder of my stuff out of the car and check out the neighborhood (ah! good idea to cover on next post). Our other roommate, Jarrod will be arriving later this afternoon. We are planning on having our first dinner together at a Chicago deep dish pizza place (shocker) and considering why we are all here, we will mostly likely end up getting to know each other over a pint or two of the local product.

Cheers!
Mike