Sorry it's taken awhile!

Well, I know I moved in on the 1st and it's the 6th and I'm finally getting around to writing my first offical "i'm in Chicago" blog, but I have no internet in our apartment yet (for you guys who know me well, you know what a strain this puts on my social life haha) so i've been just checking my email at work and that's it.
My first week in Chicago is almost offically over! Whew, what an adventure these past few days have been! First off, it took us 13 hours to get to Chicago. We didn't meet too much traffic, so that was a relief annnnd, we found my apartment without too many problems. My apartment is very small but I like it. You have to actually get through 3 different doors just to get inside of it, so it makes me feel pretty safe. My roommate's name is Alicia and she is very quiet but very very sweet.
Our apartment is located across the street from Garfield Park and the huge Conservatory they have. I can't wait to go check it out because i've heard it is amazing in there. My first adventure out on my own was on Monday. I just jumped on the "green line" train and got off on a random stop. Alas...I had found my first Chicago Starbucks, which of course warranted a cup of coffee because of my success! It tasted like pure joy...(for all you coffee drinkers, you know exactly what i'm talking about for the rest, I feel for you!). I walked around the city and got a first taste of big sky scrapers, people walking their dogs, and of course-the river. It was all breathtaking for a farm girl. Hahaha...i'm being overly dramatic here, huh? Anyways, it wasn't exactly downtown (we're going downtown tonight! yay!!!!) but it was cool to actually get out of our specific neighborhood. After exploring for a little while (and drinking a nice frapp) I said goodbye to the nice skyscrapers and jumped back on the green line. And, went the wrong way. It took me the exact opposite direction I needed to be, but I found a silver lining to riding a train for an hour the wrong direction-I got a chance to see the whole city! I finally made it back to the original stop and headed back in the right direction.
My next adventure wasn't so successful though. I decided to try and find my bank. Well, what was supposed to be only 3 miles away ended up being an hour and half driving time. I was about to quit when wait...there it was sitting on the corner of North and Harlem. I was perturbed but happy I had finally after over an hour of searching found one (yes, one there are about 4 around my area-only one of which i could find!). I also drove by a wal-mart (which for all you southern folk know that I felt at home when I saw it), many many wal-greens, a PANERA BREAD!, and about 3 or 4 Starbucks. These were all places that made me squeal with glee because you never know when you have a potato soup craving that can only be fixed by panera or gotta run and get some tampons and don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it at "Dominicks" (rip off city with their prices!!)...so again, a silver lining with all the frustration it caused me looking for a needle in a haystack, which is how i feel half the time driving around this huge city.
Anyways, on to work. I love it! Well, I will love it even more once the kids start coming but I do love the people I work with. My co-workers are great and my supervisor is awesome. I think I will fit in just great with all of them. I am running the computer lab and excitedly the age group I'll be working most with is 6th-8th!!!!! YAY! My favorite age! I was very happy to hear that. I am also helping out with the soccer team (ha) and teaching bible study on Monday. Next Tuesday it starts, so please pray I won't freak out because as of right now, i'm still not sure what to do or how to do it with the computer lab! Tommorrow we leave for a retreat-which will be fun. Meet new people and get to go kayaking, canoeing and hiking. I can't wait!
Anyways, some sad things are that I still don't have internet in my apartment, we don't have cable (no football games, sad sad sad), and our gas isn't turned on yet-so very very cold showers, NOT FUN. But all in all, i'm trying to be very positive about everything. God has blessed me with this incredible opprotunity and I'm not going to start complaing about it because I didn't have to get this great internship and have this experience.
I miss everyone at home. I think it is going to be a little hard meeting new people but I know it will just take time. My phone bill is going to be huge because of all the time I spend on it, but I think this first month, I'll be okay with it. I think I've typed myself out but I will leave this blog with one scripture i've been meditating on lately:
"Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible." 1 Cor. 9:19
God bless and I love you all!