Background & 1-week visit. Saturday 5th Feb 2005
Well, Gordon finally got the official job offer in late January, after several weeks of speculation and uncertainty. So it was then definite - we are moving to Chicago! There is sooo much to do to prepare - sell all electrical stuff as it wont work with the different voltage system, sell our cars, rent out our flats, thin out belongings to reduce shipping costs - already done one car boot sale and got another one planned. A mind-blowing amount of stuff to do, and that is only half of it!We are now visiting the area for a week to check it out - for areas to live, to get an idea of what the cost of furniture and household stuff is to buy, as opposed to the cost of shipping it out. We got here Wednesday after an 8-hour flight. I have still not managed to get my body clock onto local time, and am waking up around 3am every morning (9am UK time). Then can only snooze on and off til it is time to get up. The hotel is fairly good though. It has a pool and jacuzzi, and our room is clean. So I have used the pool a couple of times when woken in the early morning, leaving Gordon sleeping (which he does so well!).
We have spent a couple of days driving around, looking at areas we might want to live. Libertyville comes out top of the list, from what we have seen of it so far. But it is hard to say really about anywhere from just driving up and down a few streets. But the firm is arranging an apartment for us for the first month we get here, so that will give us time to get more of an idea before committing to anywhere. And we have also checked out a few furniture stores, and found (thank God!) an Ikea.
We have been meeting up for drinks and meals with various people from Gordon's new office. Today we went out for lunch with Mike and Jodi (absolutely lovely couple who have done sooo much to help us this week. Gordon will be working alongside Mike). Whilst there I had a bizarre American experience in the bathroom. I got talking to a woman over the hand-basins (as you do), and she was telling me how she has lost loads of weight recently. When I asked her how she had managed it she gave me all her tips on not eating anything after 6pm, not drinking beer, etc. After our 5/6 minute conversation, she gave me a big hug before we went our separate ways back to our tables. I imagined her returning to her table and telling them how she had just hugged (and therefore probably freaked out) an English woman!
Tomorrow we are going to lunch with Chris and his family. They have very kindly offered to store some stuff that we brought over this time. So we brought our maximum baggage allowance with the plan of leaving most of it here for next time. Then we have been invited to a genuine Super Bowl party tomorrow afternoon/evening. For those of you who don't know (and I didn't), it is American football, the final of, though I have no idea who is playing, nor will I understand it if and when I watch it tomorrow! But the point is it seems to be a huge part of American popular culture, so will be quite an experience anyway.
We are out for dinner Monday night with various office people as it is our last night here and is also Gordon's birthday. Then we fly home Tuesday afternoon, to arrive back in UK Wednesday morning, back to the rush and chaos of getting ready to move here permanently!
