moving to a new city Archives

Hello…It’s Me!

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…?!

All Moved In

written by Parita 10 Comments

We survived our move this weekend! And not only are we all moved in, but we’re 95% unpacked as well. It took a lot of work to get us to this point, but we did it!

When we moved from Fort Lauderdale to Miami two years ago, we hired a moving company to load, drive, and unload all of our stuff. This also included breaking down our bed and putting it back together and other tasks like that. And while all of our stuff got to Miami, it was such an ordeal on so many levels. So this time around we went with a slightly different option.

For this move, we rented a U-Haul truck, bought all of the packing material off the U-Haul website, hired loaders and unloaders, and did all the grunt work ourselves. I mentioned packing on the blog several times over the past couple of weeks, and while we did pack here and there, the majority of our stuff wasn’t put into boxes until Thursday and Friday. We also wrapped all of our furniture in industrial sized saran wrap, which sounds like a lot of fun but is literally a pain (my back hurt for days!).

Packing chaos!

But I think all of our hard work was worth the effort because the move itself was relatively smooth. The loaders and unloaders arrived on time, the weather cooperated, the U-Haul didn’t break down on Vishnu, nothing was damaged, etc.

As far as unpacking goes, we pretty much used most of Sunday to do just that, as well as organize all of our stuff. My goal was to get the bathroom, the kitchen, and our bedroom in working order, and we did that plus a little more!

My favorite spot in the new apt!

Something we definitely could have done better is meal planning, and I don’t mean home cooked meals. I wish I had researched options in our neighborhood so that at any given moment when either of us was hungry something could have been done about it. We pretty much ate 1.5 meals on Saturday and 1.5 meals on Sunday. Oh well, you live, get hangry, and learn!

To ensure that the aforementioned scenario doesn’t happen again, we also fit in a quick Target and Trader Joe’s trip (less than a 10 minute drive away!!) on Sunday in between the unpacking mayhem. No one is going hungry around here anytime soon!

Well, that’s all for now! I’ll share more about our new city in upcoming posts!

Thanks for reading!

Exhausted But Happy

written by Parita 26 Comments

Our move is 99% complete! We still have a few things left to do at the old place, but for the most part we are done. You guys, I can’t even tell you the last time I was this physically exhausted. It’s kind of ridiculous. But I don’t really care because we’re happy. And that’s all that really matters, right?

To be quite honest, I don’t think I was as prepared for this weekend as I thought I was. I left a lot until the last minute because we weren’t going very far (or at least that’s what I tell myself). My procrastination led to a late Friday night and an early Saturday morning.

And don’t even get me started on our movers. Let’s just say that if I didn’t take the initiative to call and ask where the heck they were at 10:30 (the time we were told everything would start), we would have been in big trouble. I’m glad we don’t have to go through the ordeal of moving for at least another two years. That just adds to my happiness.

We are currently 90% unpacked and organized, which isn’t too bad considering I was gone for most of the day Sunday.

I also wanted to say thanks for all the good lucks, well wishes, etc. Y’all are the best! [insert virtual hug]

And with that, I’m off to work. No longer having to get in the car and drive for over an hour makes me SUPER happy! Happy Monday!

FLL Here I Come

written by Parita 7 Comments

It feels like I’ve been researching my butt off lately about all things Fort Lauderdale and the area we’ll be living in. I know some of you are probably thinking that it would make more sense for me to wait until I move down there to start looking up grocery stores, gyms, malls, etc. If that’s what you’re thinking, you don’t know me! I am a planner through and through. I also have this need to know attitude. Oh and some control issues but whatever.

Based on my research, here’s what I’ve learned about my soon to be new city…

1. Publix, Costco, and Whole Foods are all located in one central area. This will make Sunday afternoon grocery trips a lot easier. Oh adulthood, how you have changed me!

And for weekends where we want to go really crazy, there are a number of fun farmer’s markets relatively close by.

2. I was a little surprised to learn this, but Fort Lauderdale is home to a good amount of healthy restaurants – vegetarian, vegan, raw. Even from my limited personal experience eating out in the area, most every restaurant has delicious vegetarian options available. It’s going to be awesome!

3. Now that I’ve listed a couple of pros, I feel that it’s ok to talk about a con. So, there are no affordable gyms, yoga studios, cycling studios, etc. near our new apartment complex. ZERO. And the word affordable is key here. I can’t afford to pay $25 a class or upwards of $200 for a monthly membership. No way Jose.

However, if I remember correctly, the apartment gym isn’t all that bad – with a decent amount of cardio equipment and free weights. And I really don’t mind workout DVDs, so I should be ok. Jillian and I are going to be BFFs again!

4. This goes without saying, but Fort Lauderdale is located very very close to the ocean!!! I can’t begin to explain how excited I am about this. I’ve always wanted to live near water. Yay!

5. As far as adventure is concerned, we have a few plans up our sleeves! We’d like to make it out to the Everglades sometime soon. Vishnu wants to do a guided tour so we can hang out with the alligators. Me? Not so much, but we’ll see (Vishnu hates it when I say that). We’ve also been talking a lot about water activities. Oh and cruises! Neither of us have ever been on one, and well, as fate would have it, cruise ships can pretty much be found in our backyard!

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are a handful of things I don’t really like about the city already, but I don’t want to cast too much judgment just yet. I’ll wait until I move down there to do that. Winking smile