One of the things that has been a little grinding about this lifestyle is that we never know how things work. We’re like perpetual toddlers, landing in a new city and having to figure out everything from scratch. How does money work? Where does trash go? Are those unintelligible sounds meant to convey meaning? Where does food come from? What’s going on with the hot water? Is that really enough spoons? Do you think they’ll mind if we hem the curtains so they’re even? And just as we’ve figured out how a place works, we’re usually getting ready to leave.

One of the things we’d been looking forward to about being back in the US is being in an environment we can navigate like natives. So here’s the funny thing about Chicago. We’ve never lived there. We’ve never lived in our new condo. Or any kind of condo. We don’t know where food comes from. We don’t know where trash goes. We largely understand the speech, which is not an unalloyed benefit, but we have no clue whether the condo association is OK with hemming the curtains. We’re struggling with the local currency (“That can’t be how much burritos cost”). Once again, we’re in a brand new environment figuring it out as we go along.

Obviously, it’s not quite the same. Once we do figure it out we’ll be able to leverage that knowledge in the future. Sussing out Marrakech didn’t really give us a leg up in Istanbul. And while navigating what the condo association will permit is challenging, it’s also a one-off. We’re going to do some renovation at the front end of this process and then ride the apartment out until death. It’s not like we’re going to Winchester Mystery House our condo.

Moving In

Our transition to the new apartment was super greased. We bought a unit in the same building that my sister, Nef, lives in, and she and her daughter Amber set the apartment up so it was gracious when we arrived. Rather than a completely empty apartment, there was a little sofa and a couple of barstools. There was a bed with linens and towels in the bathroom. There was butter and eggs and cheese and cereal, dishes and flatware. There was bourbon and beer. We arrived with our suitcases and didn’t have to immediately find a grocery store for provisions and a Target for necessary housewares. It was a lovely greeting and a welcoming, civilized start to our stay.

And especially helpful because our first official act as newly minted Chicago residents was to come down with Covid. I thought it was a brutal case of jet lag, so it took a couple of days to recognize, and then, of course, Dorothy caught it. Because we share everything. It definitely slowed our entry.

Which was fine, because a slow entry actually worked out. We’d sold or given away almost all of our lifetime accumulation of WTF prior to launching and what was left, the choice bits, fit in a 10’x15’ storage facility we rented in Chicago. So instead of hiring movers and swimming, Scrooge McDuck-like, through all of our belongings, we borrowed a car from family and moved over a carload a day. One day’s stuff could be absorbed into the apartment the day it came over, and we dealt with trash and recycling in real time, so we were never living in that move-in morass of boxes and garbage.

Our apartment is on the fifth floor of a hospital that was refurbed into housing, but the wing we’re in doesn’t have trash chutes on the fifth floor. I knew that before we bought the apartment, and it was a definite negative. But when we got here and moved in, we were all, “OMG, the trash is only one floor away!” We didn’t have to walk it to the corner two blocks away and just leave it on the sidewalk (Carthage). Or walk it three blocks to the parking lot and ask for Cuco (Guanajuato). Or walk it four blocks to the closest dumpster (Marrakech).

We are committed to retaining our childlike wonder at the world’s marvels. Like a trash chute that’s only a floor away. We’ll see if we can avoid becoming jaded, entitled burghers. Stay tuned.

The Apartment

The apartment is lovely. It has 10 1/2 foot ceilings, so it feels nice and spacious. It also has exposed ducting and concrete beams, so it’s a little industrial from the neck up, but the rooms are graciously proportioned. There’s a master bedroom with a walk-in closet and a smaller second bedroom, which will be Dorothy’s workroom. The main living area is open plan, which we love, with the kitchen an integral part of the living room/dining room space. The bathroom is split with a sink and toilet in one room and the tub in the other. So guests don’t have to be confronted with the army of unguents and potions that occupy the modern bathroom.

One final curiosity. The very first property we ever purchased, in 1992, was a condo in the Renaissance East in Spanish Harlem. The very last property we’ll ever purchase is a condo in the Renaissance Place in Hyde Park. Nothing like a little unaccountable symmetry to wrap things up in a neat bow.

Money, Money, Money

One of the things I’ve been most interested to discover is whether it’s truly more expensive to live in the US than the other parts of the world we’ve visited. I keep a detailed budget, so I can compare month to month costs and make sure we’re not ridiculously overspending. In order to compare apples to other apples I factored out our move-in costs, which are all one-time, one-off. Mattress, vacuum cleaner, table and chairs, movers… They’re functionally capital expenses to set our home up, not operating expenses.

Turns out, July, our first month in Chicago, was not our most expensive month so far. We spent more in Tunisia in April, because of the life-changing, expensive, week-long Sahara tour, and we spent more in Istanbul in June, because of multiple road trips and one very costly rug. But those two months were well above average for us, and our Chicago month is also near the top. I’ve updated the post on our spending with a broader range of locations, and included our Chicago month, so you can see where the money goes. July picked up the tag end of our Turkey trip, so if August looks more representative I’ll swap those numbers out.

Chicago Its Own Self

Getting here, getting Covid, going to our summer camp, physically moving in… We definitely haven’t been able to enjoy Chicago yet. At least we know where the trash goes in our building.

Chicago certainly seems to possess all of the benefits we imagined when we picked it as our Final Resting Place. As we learn yet another foreign city I’ll post about our adventures here. To date, though, moving in has been our primary adventure.