Chicago Orientation, Part 1

I have arrived in Chicago safely from Minneapolis! I sure love flying. It has a way of grounding me to my minuscule place on the earth, like the reverse of looking up at the stars. How poetic. *barfs*
Highlights of my flight included....

Channeling Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky:

Seriously, the clouds today were ridiculously beautiful. Here's a photo of them I took from the hotel penthouse when I went exploring (more on that later):

There were two junior high girls in front of me that closed the shade on their window before take-off. How can people not look out the window? We were dodging and weaving and smooshing right through those clouds. It was awesome!!!!

Another highlight: one free airplane Bloody Mary (plus one my Brazilian friend requested when she saw I was getting one. She didn't know the English for it so I was able to start out my English teacher journey right there!)

...and I enjoyed the wonderful international welcome at O'Hare airport:

I was overburdened carrying my bags through O'Hare, although the larger only weighed in at 44lbs and the smaller at about 34:

so instead of going up a bunch of escalators and trying to navigate the trains to get the free shuttle to my hotel that, with my luck, would have just left I would have had to wait another 30 minutes...I took a taxi. Flat rate $29 from the airport to the hotel. (insert expletive) However, it did save me a bunch of time and a sore back, and I didn't have to pay for that Bloody Mary so I paid it forward to myself. (That doesn't make sense, really). I told the taxi drivers about my adventure to Japan, and he wanted to share his knowledge (through a thick, nearly unintelligible accent) about how, "Those Japanese and Chinese, they don't learn the English. They come in here and say, (here he mumbles trying to imitate a Japanese accent), and I don't know what they are saying!" Ok, guy. You know better than I do.

After I paid him and he drove away, the bellhop gave me a hand with my bags, ("I could see that you were straining yourself to carry those," he said. How observant.) He then said, "I hope you're in the right place. Those cabbies drop you off at the wrong place sometimes." Somehow, I was one of the lucky ones that ended up in the right place.

I am all checked in and happy to avoid the clusterfu** room where everyone dumps their checked bags during orientation tomorrow since Friday arrivals won't be able to check in to rooms until after the trainings, if I understand correctly.

I went on an away mission to the penthouse, and I couldn't find any other JETS so it was a pretty lonely away mission, but I'm more or less as competent as Picard so I survived. Here is the Penthouse Grand Ballroom where I predict we will have training tomorrow:

That's all for now. More to come.