A Busy First Day

2 Sep

A fairly early start got us into town and to my new place at 10:30 a.m. After a brief greeting (we’d all met before, fortunately) we wasted little time in unloading the van and hauling stuff up. Hindsight tells me that we should have spent a little bit more time just saying hello and such, but oh well. Thanks to the super athletic Bonnie and Jeff and my family, we managed to get everything, and I mean everything (except what I forgot in the hidden storage compartment) up two flights in fewer than twenty minutes! I had anticipated a bit longer…

If getting things up took no time at all, arranging things and setting up stuff (the bed, A/C) definitely took some time. Thanks to my “measuring” and my innate genius, I managed to bring the wrong size bed frame. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I made Saket and Dad unload almost the entire van once just to make room for them! Alas, I truly was not cut out to be an engineer. Or an architect. Or anything involving basic tape measure skills. Jeffrey was a HUGE help in setting up the A/C since none of us had ever done it before the and the directions given weren’t exactly the clearest. He knew exactly what he was doing and I shall give him all the credit for the ensuing coolness. As you can see from the pictures on my Facebook account, I still haven’t arranged or unpacked everything, but it’s a work in progress.

We left the condo around 1:30 to head into the city and Devon Street. Devon Street, which is actually Devon Avenue, is basically Chicago's Little India/Little Pakistan. The street has been given two additional names, depending on which part you’re on: Gandhi Marg (the India
side, translates as Gandhi Road) and Mohammed Ali Jinnah Way (the Pakistan side). The street is full of sweet shops, restaurants, clothing stores, saree stores, electronics shops, jewelry stores, and VHS/DVD/VCD/CD stores. The sights, smells, and sounds are just like Mumbai. Even the trashy sidewalks, unfortunately. We wandered along this tantalizing thoroughfare looking for a place to eat chaat, or fast food. We tried a place that was pretty good, and then went exploring for more. We ended up at a spot named, quite appropriately, “Swati” which is, of course, my mother’s name. The food there was delicious and we filled up on some excellent junk food. While we ate, I got in touch with Kevin to see about a visit soon since my folks decided that they could really just leave the next day instead of leaving on Tuesday. Kev was free, so we went to Evanston and Northwestern’s campus after leaving Devon Avenue.

It was great to see him again, and we drove over to downtown Evanston for some coffee and ice cream (the ice cream being, of course, Kev’s idea). After a lovely and amusing chat, we dropped him off on campus and headed south to Chandrika aunty’s house. She is a childhood friend of my mother’s who is visiting her two sons who live here in Chicago. They are right near the heart of downtown and a mere 20 minutes from my place. They made us a lovely South Indian dinner and we enjoyed talking with them and watching a sky diving video of one of the son’s. We ended up leaving around 11 and unfortunately got back after B&J had already gone to sleep. This was most unfortunate seeing as Jeffrey was leaving the next day for India where he will be for the next nine months. They are so sweet, though, that they made up the sofa sleeper outside so nicely and left the light and fans on. I’ve really lucked out this time.