Becoming More American

So this weekend I feel that I have fulfilled a certain American requirement. I finally got around to going shooting (at a range!!) with one of my friends and two girlfriends. The two guns we (he) brought were a 9mm Jericho and a 22. I personally liked the 9mm better, but the other two girls are quite fond of the 22 because it was smaller and didn't have the kickback. I was incapable of being very accurate with that one hence I was not as big of a fan. It was surprisingly tiring!

I should have quit after my frist go though as I got a bullseye on my first magazine with the Jericho and it was all downhill after that...

As everyone else at the range looked semi-hick we decided we just had to take a cutsy girl's picture...

Greta may look cute and innocent, but she was the best of all of us including her brother! It was only her second time going as well.

The other main event from the weekend was going to the Lighting Ceremony downtown where they had musical performers and turned on all the Christmas lights along Michigan Avenue. We apparently missed all the good musical performers because we were in the wrong section (and since we couldn't hear a description of what was going by us we left) and left for dinner. We at least got to see the end of it on a tv at the restaurant we went to. The place we ended up was called Feast and it was DELICIOUS and was fairly reasonable as well. That may be one to check out again some time soon...

In other news, last weekend Brendan came to visit! :)

Missing Europe and traveling, I'm tempted to try to figure out a way to go this spring... All I need to do now is to get on a project so that I could determine a schedule! The roommates want to do a "spring break" trip though, I'm going to have to start saving up a lot!

Life in the City

Even though I can only dream of where my next travels will be, that doesn't mean that I will let my little project die. In the mean time I am living vicariously through my friend Alex who is currently teaching English in the greater Paris region. Her website can be found at HABs75.wordpress.com, but as a word of warning she probably at least a PG-13 rating (though always highly entertaining). A fun fact is that she ran into Evan Sharply (Brady Quinn's backup quarterback) recently when she went out to the bars.

At the moment I am living downtown with my two dear roommates Kristin and Agatha who are good enough to put up with me. I started my (real) job on Sept 19 and subsequently went through 4 weeks of training. Two weeks were a combination of orientation sessions and computer training and two weeks were at a conference center nearby. I can happily say that all of the training was well worth my while and the latter training even allowed me the opportunity to meet people from all around the world. The way things worked out due to travel schedules and a bit of luck, American's actually only made up about 1/3 of the trainees. Long story short, they were all amazing people and I hope to visit them very very soon! ;)

Create your own travel map - TravBuddy

Just a few pictures from training




In the mean time, Kristin, Agatha and I have begun a bucket list of activities to do while living in the city. It includes everything from going to see Second City and baking homemade lasagna to throwing a Christmas party. Every time we manage to check something off this list I figured I'd document it here. Thus far we have:
Had a drink in the Trump Tower



Make Agatha's homemade lasagna (which I did not get a picture of unfortunately)

(Help) Host a Halloween Party


Make Pumpkin Pie (substitue for Kristin's Birthday cake)


And our most recent one, to have Kristin Run a 5k, which came in the form of the Hot Chocolate 5/15k




Next Up will likely be a girl's dinner in Chinatown and possibly making Christmas cookies!

Until then, things have been going well and life is good. It's been a hectic few weeks getting the hang of the new job in the midst of football season. This year I went to the USF, Michigan State and USC football games. The first game Claire, Nicole, Mary Liz and I actually hosted a tailgate.




At Michigan State I went to visit Jack's MBA friends for tailgating.




And at USC our family actually had one all together. Unfortunately due to training I was unable to go to the Air Force game although Karl flew into town in order to go to it.




A few other exciting things that happened between Europe and the start of work included:
A spontaneous trip with my mom and dad to the Epcot and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter




Sailing Adventures, including the Chicago Air & Water Show





A spontaneous hiking trip out to Colorado with my friends Cristina & Shawn


And going to OshKosh for the EAA Airshow with my parents where we got to see the new Dreamliner



That's all I have for now! Shorter and more frequent updates in the future, I promise. :)