First week

Coffee shops on every corner, more places to get your haircut than you could possibly imagine and bars ranging from dive to upscale and everything in between.

These are the majority of businesses, along with vintage stores, restaurants and bike stores that line the streets of my new neighborhood of Uptown in Minneapolis. After my first week here, I have been able to explore just a small portion of my new city but I am loving each new area that I walk in. To me, my area of town is what Madison would be like if there were less corporate stores and more room. There are tons of ethnic restaurants, burger joints and places to get a beer. Basically, all of my favorite things.

My apartment itself (pictures to come later) is old. Like, really old. I don't have air conditioning (which will be brutal in the coming weeks), but I do have hardwood floors and a ceiling fan in every room, which helps cool the apartment a little. The only major problem with where I live, and this is temporary, is the major construction going on outside of my building. It is almost as much of a pain in the butt as the Big Dig was in Boston (look it up). They have already broken a water maine and there is a lot of beeping early in the morning.

That is just a brief introduction to my first week. More to come as I start work and explore more!

Getting Ready

Since arriving home from Israel early yesterday morning (and subsequently getting the standard Ben Solochek plague), I have suddenly been hit in the face with all of the responsibilities I will have to face come moving day and beyond. I not only have to pack my life away into boxes, build the furniture from Sweden's greatest export, Ikea, but also set up electric and cable, as well.

Having to go through these chores made me think about how nice it was living in a furnished apartment in college and having roommates to share some of necessary house goods with. Now, I have to buy it all on my own and actually furnish an apartment. This is just another step in the long process it will be for me to move from the bubble of college into the real world.

New Blog

Hello friends,
As you know I am moving up north this summer to start work for General Mills (aka, The General). As I move start work and acclimate to living outside of the Madison bubble, I will update my blog and tell everyone in Madison, the Chicago land area and beyond what I am up to, how the new job is going, how I am acclimating to a real life 9-5 job and I how my adaptation to life without the Cubs, Bears and Badgers is going.
Also, I would like to use this blog as a forum for people who are also moving on to different life adventures to see how their experience compares to mine, whether it be Teach for America, starting a new job or starting the job search process. I would like to feel that I could impart some useful advice to people, but I know my experience is fairly limited. So, I would call on others to answer questions that I possibly could not.
Overall, I would like to use this blog to stay connected with people I was able to forge relationships with during my four years at Wisconsin and beyond. I hope that we can all stay in touch and use sweet, sweet technology to make the distances between us seem shorter.

-Ben