CHI-TOWN!!!!

As of my last post we did not yet have visa approval. So in exciting news, Heidi announced Thursday morning that she had received news that all of them have been approved! So we are now officially going!!!!!! We don’t have a departure date set yet, but it should be sometime in the next two weeks! Having this stress taken care of has allowed me to enjoy this orientation time.

It has been great to be back in Chicago for the past couple of days. It has been even better to be enjoying this amazing city with 49 other YAGMs and the wonderful YAGM alum team.

We have had a lot of quality time to hang out and get to know each other a little better before we each embark on our adventures in our respective countries. We have spent most of our days sitting through presentations about important information pertaining to our year of service. However, our nights have been left fairly wide open, which means amazing hang-out time.

Last night a group of us went to Grant Park to go Cajun dancing, which was a blast. It was great to listen to live music and watch people dance, and occasionally grace the dance floor as well. One of the best parts was that people were not shy about asking us to dance and even though we had no idea what was going on, most of the times they were pretty patient teachers and leaders.

DANCING CREW!

Tonight, the country went with the alums from our countries to have dinner. Well, we had to find our alums at the restaurants following some fairly cryptic directions (Take the 60/2+26-1 bus?), but we successfully navigated our way to Chickpea and ate AMAZING Palestinian food. (Falafel and hummus anyone?) The deliciousness of this food just makes me more excited to be going for a year!

I am pretty excited to be leaving and take off on this new adventure. I am pumped to spend the year with the 5 other amazing ladies who are going with me. We have had so much fun and laughter this weekend, and I am excited to continue that!

Amazing J/WB crew!