First Day in Trinity

We rocked up to Trinity on Monday morning and met Felix, the Associate Dean of Students, who we have been liasing with for our visas etc whilst in australia. Felix was super nice and even though we didn't have an appointment sat down and talked with us and got us some letters to show that we were students at Trinity. Apparently in the US it is extremely difficult to get anything done (eg finding a house, buying a car, hooking up utilities, opening a bank account) without a SSN (social security number) which we can't apply for until term starts on January 14th and which doesn't get processed for about 6 weeks after that. You are basically a non-entity until you get one. At least we have a mobile phone (May Yen's -Chris' wife's phone) and an address (Chris' place) to give out to people..... which Chris didn't have when he arrived - thanks Chris for coming early to Chicago to set up!

We then went to have a look at some apartments (a one bedroom apartment on campus and a one bedroom apartment in Highland Park which is about 10min from campus). Both were what you would call "charming,cosy and in original condition" in the real estate industry. We have decided to go with the campus apartment which will be so much more convenient and which will also allow us to meet more students.

After viewing the Highland Park property we decided to have a look at the great lake - Lake Michigan, which was just down the road. Sadly this is where I had my first experience with black ice. As you can see from the picture (the one where I'm smiling) there were happier times before I had my fall on the ice covered walkway. Praise God that I only have a red and purple bruise on my knee and not broken bones as a result of my fall. I've started to look intently for a pair of snow boots and now take a lot more care when I come to any icy patches on a path or on the road.

Sunday at Willow Creek

Went to Willow Creek church on Sunday - apparently the second biggest church in America. It was huge - it had three tiers and everyone was super nice! The amazing thing was that they were singing "light of the world" and then sang "saviour king". So cool to sing a Hillsong song all the way in South Barrington, Illinois - to have a little piece of "home" halfway around the world! Shout out to my little bro who is loving Hillsong and living in Sydney.

The picture of us with Chris and his family is not in a department store but is in the foyer of Willow Creek. They even have their own food court/ cafeteria and at least 2 cafes. Bill Hybels will be preaching in January on the family so we may attend those .... but Jono's dream is to go to an African American church.

We did some more shopping and headed to the cheesecake factory ..... which sells more than delicious cheesecakes but has some really nice food as well. The portions are quite generous and Jono & I ended up sharing a Chicken Madeira and a Steak Diane .... the plate was meticulously cleaned at the conclusion of said meal. The waiter was really attentive and served some chocolate bread and sour dough bread at a starter ..... the weird thing is that bread is super sweet ..... even the plain white or wholemeal bread you buy from the shops (a bit like the KFC buns in Australia).

Chilly in Chicago

Hi everyone!

We have arrived in Chicago (Sat 27 Dec) after stopping over in Korea.

On Friday night Ellie, Daniel and Evan took us around Seoul which is beautiful with all the Christmas lights. We had these awesome rice paper wraps with bbq pork belly-yummy! even the Kim-chi was nice (or so my husband tells me:o) It was -8C in Seoul .... so it was a great stopover to give us an indication of what to expect for Chicago; which was experiencing -15C to -30C weather before we arrived. So we were out shopping for warm jackets until 2am! Weird shopping at 2am in the morning.

When we arrived in Chicago they were having a heat wave - well a heat wave by Chicago standards .... it was a top of 15C - natives tell us that normally it is about 1C. As you can see Jono is in his shorts and t-shirt! Only the previous week they were hit with a bad snow storm and there was a bit of snow left over in Chris' f(our friends from Melbourne who have also moved half way around the world to study at Trinity) front yard. Praise God! It was a really nice introduction in terms of weather to Chicago, the windy city.

We hit the ground running and went shopping. I can't believe I didn't listen to my husband to cram all my worldly possessions into 1 suitcase and bring an empty suitcase - shopping is pretty good ..... yes, even with the dismal exchange rate!! There is an outlet store called TJ Maxx which seems to carry all the end of season lines of brands like Ralph Lauren, DKNY, Kenneth Cole, Marcs, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger etc. Jono got a great deal a British Colombia outdoor jacket that we saw in Cairns for AUD$400 for only AUD$50. It has been fantastic arriving in the US during post Christmas sales and when everyone is trying to encourage people to spend to give a boost to the flagging economy.