Monday began the first day of a working week for me. I was up before 6am to ensure I ate and had enough time navigate my way by bike to the construction site I would be working on. This continued for the whole week each morning. I was treated to a different sunrise every morning and very different weather conditions too. Some mornings it was warm and some mornings it was freezing. Either way, the bike got me to where I wanted to go! As for the construction work I was doing, I was a general labourer on a 6 story building that was being transformed from a warehouse to an apartment complex. As I was considered an unskilled worker, my responsibility was keeping the floors swept in the hallways and soon to be rooms, but also assist with any movement of materials and just generally keep things organized and tidy. It wasn’t the most thrilling job, but it kept me busy for a week and I shared some interesting stories with other workers on site. I would like to say that I made a difference in the week that I spent there.

I spent a couple evenings training with the local team or down at the gym to ensure that I kept ticking over and was ready for opportunities when they came, if they came. I also was fortunate enough to see another performance on Friday evening also, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It was an incredible show and really showed the difficulties and complexities a young boy had with autism, which translates across all ages and genders too. Understanding autism is a difficult thing, because every case is different, but just seeing how ones brain that is impacted by autism can process thoughts and emotions is a great learning experience.

On Saturday, both Anne and I headed to the gym to do our different types of training, and she was sporting a new outfit we have shopped for the previous week. After our workouts we headed down to Reading Terminal Market, which was suggested to me by a friend as a place to visit while I was in Philadelphia. It was a great place with all sorts of stores, mostly food and treats, but just the amount of people in the place was insane! An experience for sure.

Sunday was a day where things took a turn. After doing some research, things kind of fell into place a little bit and I was soon booking a flight to Chicago for Monday. Because of this, I spent most the day organizing all my things and repacking my life into my suitcase and carryon as I was about to embark on a new adventure. I will talk more about the opportunity the has arisen next week after I have begun the experience.