Oh, Chicago! (H.S)

4th chapter.

After a good night of sleep, I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to explore the new city I was studying and living in. Today, I was going to buy some groceries, check out the university itself and walk around the city, since I hadn't been able to do it yet.

I stretch my arms and rub the sleep off of my eyes, adjusting them to the light coming from the window next to me. I grabbed my phone, checking to see if I had any messages and to check the time. Quickly responding to everyone, I decided to get up and get ready for the day.

Picking up a simple outfit, I went to the bathroom to take a quick shower and get ready. I didn't wear makeup, since my Italian genes blessed me with long and thick eyelashes, and my acne products were an actual miracle, making it useless to wear foundation or anything else.

Making my way towards the kitchen, I noticed that Maddie's room door was closed. I decided to knock on her door, knowing that it wasn't too early and that she was probably hungry for some breakfast.

"Yes?" I heard her sleepy voice coming from inside the room, and I was almost sure that she had just waken up.

"Do you want to grab breakfast? We need some groceries as well, so you could tag along to help me out." I say hopefully, since carrying a bunch of ingredients by myself was not going to be easy. I waited a few moments for an answer, and I was starting to think that she had fallen asleep again.

"Sure, why not? Just give me 10 minutes to put on some clothes." She says, still sounding as tired as if she had stayed awake during the whole night. I sighed softly, sitting on the couch as I waited for her to get ready and come out of her room. While I waited, I went through my social media, uploading a picture of the view from the airplane that I took the day before. I heard her coming out of the room, walking towards our kitchen to grab what I figured it was a glass of water. "Let's go!" she says, grabbing her purse and putting some sunglasses on top of her blondish hair.

I stand up from the couch, grabbing my warm jacket from the hanger near the front door. Walking out, I make sure the door is really locked and safe, scared to lock it the wrong way.

"The door is locked El, you don't need to check it a hundred times." she rolls her eyes as she crosses her arms under her chest. She could be a real bitch sometimes, but she was still my friend, and even though she has made me feel a little insecure a few times, she has also been there for me during some bad moments of my life.

"I don't do it on purpose. It's my anxiety acting up, I'm sorry..." I say quietly, making sure no one is hearing us since the corridor had a few people going in and out of their dorms. She nods and apologises quietly. As we make our way out of the dorm block, we walk side by side, saying hi to a few of our classmates that were staying in different places.

While walking around the small neighbourhood outside the campus, we we were able to find a decent restaurant that served cheap breakfasts with iced coffee. And that was exactly what I was looking for. We ate our breakfast, chatting about everything and anything. After that, we made sure to find a good supermarket to buy enough food for at least two weeks.

As a culinary student, I can confirm that grocery shopping is extremely important for a good meal. If the pasta is not made with the right ingredients, or if the oranges are more acidic than they should, the dish will turn out to be completely different than expected. Therefore, I always make sure to know exactly what ingredients suit better for a certain dish. While shopping for food, I decided to buy a few extra ingredients to try out some new dishes I had in mind. The one I was the most excited for was a dessert, a lemon mousse with condensed milk and mint. It could go amazingly well or terribly wrong. But taking risks inside the kitchen is a step ahead to grow as a chef.