Greetings from Chicago everyone! It’s amazing how fast time flies! I’ve been here for about a month and a half, and I can’t begin to describe how much I love it and how much I’m learning. God has definitely been good! So, to update everyone:
Where do I work? I work in the mail room. So I’m basically one of the people who picks the orders that people send, pack them, and send them. We also do a lot of collating. I can honestly say that there is much more physical labor involved in the mail room than you would at first think, and I have a whole new respect for those people who work in any kind of mail room! I will never again order things online without sending a prayer for those people who pack those odd and multi-sized book/material orders! ;P
Where do I stay? When I first got here, I stayed in a house. (IBLP owns half of the houses in this neighborhood) but a few weeks ago, Savvy (my roommate) and I moved from 5 Cheval (our house) into Heritage. Heritage is kinda like the girls dorm. It’s really nice and I love living there.
What do I do other than work? For meals, they provide lunch every weekday, and dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have staff meetings every morning and on Tues. and Thurs. we have evening staff meeting. I enjoy going to all the staff meetings, and I learn a lot from them. The past few mornings we have been going through a video series about the Gospel of Luke. It’s been very interesting and very good.
Of course, it’s not all work and no play. 
On Friday evenings they have volley ball at a park close by that has a sand court, (super fun!) and on Saturday afternoons they have Volley ball on a hill on the property. It’s a lot of fun, and though I’m not very good, I think I’m slowly getting better. Practice makes perfect after all, right? There’s also the town Hinsdale we can visit. It’s only about a 20 minute walk away. It’s a really nice town and one of the really cool things about it is that it has a train and station there. It also has Starbucks which is a Godsend for some of the people here.
How’s the weather? The weather is usually pretty good. But of course there are some days when it’s just miserable. It’s usually the most humid when it’s going to rain soon. (of course ) It has also been raining here quite a bit too. And though I love the rain, I think I love the rain in Abq more. I don’t know why, but the smell of rain in Abq is so much cleaner and fresher, and I just love it! Thankfully, all of the really bad raining has always happened while I’ve been inside somewhere or at night. (I walk everywhere, so it’s nice when I don’t have to get to wet.) It is pretty neat though to get to see God’s fireworks show (aka, lightning) some nights. Last night was quite the show. Lots of lightning and thunder. And all right outside our window.
Other news, my Dad is coming up for a business conference and so he’s going to come see me!!! I’m sooo excited! I can’t wait to see him! I’ll take lots of pictures and hopefully be able to post them sooner than later. Speaking of pictures, yes, I have been taking them (though not as many as I should) and I will try to get them up sometime soon so you can see where I live. This is getting to be a rather lengthy post, so I will sign off now, but if you all have any more questions or anything, feel free to ask!
Love you all!!
Tasha
