23 Hours

Currently, I’m sitting in the Warsaw airport waiting to get onto my flight to Paris. My only source of entertainment is watching people struggle with scanning their boarding pass to get the free WiFi code (I swear the scanner's broken. I stood there myself waving my boarding pass in the air for a good five minutes). It didn’t work. So I improvised and decided to start this baby off early on Mike Word. By the time I upload this post, I’ll already be at my host mom’s apartment. I’m so tired and physically drained from not getting enough sleep the past few days that I can barely process any emotions right now. 

These last few days have been crazy to say the least. In the past three days, I spent my last night at my apartment on New Year’s Eve with my roommates and best friends, packed, moved out of my apartment, packed some more, and then hopped on a bus to Chicago to see Saskia for 23 hours after she got back from studying abroad in Hong Kong. 

We had no agenda (except to gossip and find food) and ended up at a tapas restaurant called The Purple Pig. We ordered a few plates to share. Everything was savory and amazing and I’m absolutely going to hunt down a similar restaurant in Europe.

The entrance

Both of us cleaned our plates so naturally we were in a major food coma afterwards. We barely made it to the Chicago Riverwalk before heading back to our hotel and getting into bed by 8pm. We are officially old ladies. At 11 pm, I got a text from our friend Ryan asking us if we were still in Chicago after he saw our Instagram pic by the river. Turns out, not only was he in Chicago also, but our hotels were less than a block away from each other. I told him to come on over, and Saskia and I ate foie gras in bed while we waited for him. It was a lazy but spontaneous evening and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I loved spending my last night in the U.S. with them.

By the Chicago Riverwalk

Casually eating foie gras in bed

The next day, the three of us went to breakfast at Eataly, a new Italian grocery store two blocks away from our hotel. There was a Nutella shop inside so of course we had to try the pane con Nutella. 

Heaven on sliced bread

^Truth

So true that we took a picture with it

Afterwards, we did a little bit of shopping on Michigan Ave. (I only bought a Passport cover from J. Crew because I could not fit anything else into my suitcase). It was so cute though and I’m obsessed with the gold lettering with the mint color. 

We said our goodbyes to Ryan and met up with Saskia’s roommate Davina for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Davina had actually just gotten back from Rome recently from her study abroad and so she gave me tons of helpful tips of how to do Europe property. 

I had to say goodbye to them for five months again after seeing them for really just a hot second. I waved to them as I got in my cab destined for O’Hare Airport, and headed out on my big adventure…