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.