Hello...It's Me! - My Inner Shakti

Hello…it’s me and I’m back!

It feels like forever since the last time I blogged. And probably more so because so much has happened since my last post.

Let’s catch-up a little, shall we?

The biggest update I have is that we moved to Chicago…finally! The whole process of getting here was very long and tiring, but we did it.

We shipped about 2/3 of our stuff using the Amtrak household goods shipping service, which was surprisingly inexpensive and easy compared to some of our other options. I’ll blog about this some more soon because it’s a great option for when you need to move a large amount of stuff across the country.

Anyways, we filled every possible nook and cranny of our car with the rest of our stuff. If you follow me on Snapchat (@myinnershakti), you know what I’m talking about. I have no idea how we did it, but we fit a ton of stuff in our Accord. It seemed impossible earlier in the week, but when push came to shove, we worked our packing magic and made it all fit!

We drove to Atlanta on Friday and made a pit stop at Vishnu’s parents’ house for a couple of nights. My parents also packed up their overnight bags and made their way over. It was honestly the perfect way to spend time before taking on the chaos of unpacking and learning the ins and outs of a new city.

The 12 hour journey to Chicago began bright and early on Sunday morning. It was long and uneventful but plenty exciting given what was waiting for us on the other side…a new city, a new home, my sister and Adarsh, and our friends!

Somewhere in Kentucky…?

We spent our first few days settling in. It was a little hard to not feel scatterbrained because not only was our living space totally unorganized and filled with all of our stuff but we didn’t have any furniture. Not even a bed! Luckily, the bed we ordered for the guest room came in within a day or two.

I started work on Wednesday after taking a few days off. Unlike St. Petersburg, I have awesome coworkers and a beautiful office to go to in Chicago. I’ll share more about the transition soon but so far so good. I love everything about this new routine. An added bonus is that my commute is only 20 minutes. Can’t beat that!

We spent the majority of our weekend unpacking and buying furniture. Hopefully our barren apartment will start to feel more homey soon. I can’t wait to entertain and have people over!

The absolute best part about all of this is that my sister and her husband live 10 minutes away! In fact, we’ve seen them almost every day since we’ve been here. I was telling Vishnu that knowing they’re just around the corner makes this move so much more exciting and fun. Chicago already feels like home because Aek and Adu are here with us!

I can’t wait to experience summer in Chicago! We don’t have many summer travel plans since Vishnu can’t take days off this early into his new residency. After travelling a little more than usual for the first part of the year, I am totally ok with this. I’m excited to spend our weekends exploring different parts of the city (and eating lots of delicious food!). In fact, my parents are visiting this coming weekend, and I already have a list of things I want to do and places I want to visit.

The view from our new apartment!

I have so much I want to share now that the move is behind us. As much as I love sharing updates about my life, I’m more than ready to go beyond that with some fun discussion topics, recipes, restaurants reviews, and more!

With that, have a great Monday!

Tell me – what have you been up to? Any fun summer plans? A trip to Chicago, perhaps…?!