Last week was my first week with my new position as Program Manager, Customer Success at Responsys. For the first week, I was out in Chicago for training. It was a week long with information coming at me everyday, and by the end of the week information was flowing out of my ears. But, it was a great week - fun people, great weather, awesome city, and lots of good learning..

Although we were in training all day and lunch was provided, I did manage to get out and have some fun in the evenings. Monday and Thursday night, the company treated us to dinner. Tuesday and Wednesday nights I got to meet up with family.

Monday we had a welcome dinner at Rivers. It was good, but mainly it was close to the office and had decent food. I had some grouper (fish) and veggies. Afterwards, a few of us went out for a drink at a cool bar along the river called South Branch - very posh, trendy stuff.

Tuesday night my Uncle Terry picked me up at the hotel and then we met up with Beth at a very cute restaurant called Janes. Beth and I usually both like the same food and again we both saw two dishes that sounded good. So, naturally, we each got one and split. We had a fig pork chop and goat-cheese chicken with marsala pasilla. I'd definitely go back here. Not to mention, good company and good conversation.

Wednesday night Beth picked me up and this time meet up with Uncle Chris. We headed to the West Loop area (I think - I'm not the greatest with the neighborhoods - I just looked it up on Yelp though) and ate at a place called Vivo's. We enjoyed the awesome, warm weather with a table outside. Who'da thought we'd be sitting outside, without jackets, in Chicago during March. Crazy. So we enjoyed our meals al fresco. Good times with the family as always.

Thursday was graduation dinner. Yay - I graduated! (or, whew, I made it - j/k). We all headed over to Rock Bottom to celebrate. We had a great last night together and let loose. A great evening. Here's all of us:

My last day, Friday, was short. We finished up training by 11:30am. I hopped on call for client, then I went and got lunch on my own. It was another great day (have I mentioned the great Chicago weather? Like 80F, crazy awesome). I picked up lunch at Med Kitchen, then found a nice spot in a park in the sun and soaked up some rays. Then I roamed around a bit, saw a green fountain, and then headed to the airport.

That was my first week of training in Chicago. Now, I'm starting up my first day at the Seattle office. Wish we luck!