First Time Living in the Second City

by Nikki Howard

Hello, reader! My name is Nikki, and I’m a student at Briar Cliff University currently attending the fall section of Chicago Semester. I am a Writing and English double major hoping to further my education through an internship and the worldly city of Chicago.

I arrived at my current housing, Canterbury Court Apartments, a couple Sundays ago in the morning to avoid the terrible city traffic. If you’re ever moving into somewhere in a big city, arriving in the morning on a Sunday will give you less stress. Life Tip #1. Anyway, the apartments are small and old-fashioned, but honestly a big step up from dorm living because of the kitchen, closet, and bathroom. The kitchen and bathroom are self-explanatory, but the closet is a pleasant surprise with how large and spacious it is—at least when you’re the only person in it. Two people trying to get dressed in that space is difficult, but one person is a perfect fit. If you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited about the closet.

Moving into the apartment was a breeze because of the awesome staff on hand, so there’s nothing very interesting to re-tell about that. I’m saving you from lots of boring stuff, trust me. We all know how moving into a place is exhausting but exciting at the same time. So after all of that stuff, the Chicago Semester staff and students met for a pizza dinner get together, which is much more fun to talk about. I tried authentic deep dish pizza for the first time, and I also got to meet the people I’ll be hanging out with for the next three months. I thought it was a really nice way to start the new chapter in our lives by experiencing the culture of Chicago and sharing it with others. Overall, it was a pretty brief dinner and meeting, but that was actually really nice after the long day. I still can’t tell if I’m lucky or un-lucky to be on the second floor with a concrete wall view, but the muted outside noises at night definitely benefit my sleep schedule.

The next morning was our first day of orientation, so we all did our best to make it to the Chicago Semester building on time. We were given very detailed directions at the pizza dinner, so overall it was a big success. The first day of orientation was a lot of information about Chicago; how to live in it, how to get around, how to stay safe, and how to get the most out of our experience. If you thought reading that was hard to follow, then imagine a whole day worth of information—and then imagine hard copies of that information being given to us in beautiful folders I like to lovingly call in my head: ‘Everything You Need (and Just Realized You Need) To Know About Chicago Semester And Living In the City.’ It’s long, but it works. I kept that close to me during the whole orientation, and that was the key to successfully learning everything.

While orientation was the main focus for those first few days, I made sure to still get out and familiarize myself with the area. Canterbury Court Apartments is located in a very commercialized part of Chicago, but it’s also comforting in that way because there’s so many familiar things like Walgreens, Starbucks, FedEx, and (my favorite) Barnes and Noble close by. It’s also just a ten minute walk from the main area of shops on Michigan Avenue, which has basically everything. It’s not the heart of the true Chicago experience that we’ve all heard about, but it’s still a large part of the city that is fun to check out, and it’s a good way to start your exploration.