By now we hope that you have settled in as best as possible into the groove of life in the USA. This mail is primarily to give you some information, which should be helpful to get by the first few weeks of your new life away from your home in India. By the end of this time you should be comfortable enough to find your way around Chicago.

(1). For Indian food and to buy Indian spices and stuff Devon Avenue is the best (and only) place. Here's how to get there. Board the CTA Red line train from the 35th Sox station and travel northbound and get off at Loyola. Outside the train station at Loyola catch the CTA bus # 155 going towards Devon and ride till you get till the place you want. The train ride will take around an hour or so and the bus ride is around 15 minutes or so. So make sure you have at least 4-5 hours to spare before you set out to Devon.

(2). The public transport system in Chicago is one of the best in the USA with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) buses and trains providing transportation to almost all places required. The CTA trains system uses Elevated Trains (called the El - Trains), with color-coded routes to get you from one place to another. There is an El Train Station right in the middle of Campus. It is located on the South end of the Campus, right in front of the IIT Research Institute on State Street. This station is the CTA Green line station - 35th Bronzeville IIT. You can get a free CTA system map by calling toll free at 1-800-9687-282 and requesting for it. Another important CTA train station to remember is the CTA Red line station located behind the Main building - 35th and Sox. For riding either the CTA Trains or Buses you will require a CTA transit card. Traveling costs $ 1.5 the first time you use the card, $ 0.30 if you use it again within the next 2 hours and any subsequent rides are free for the 2 hour period. You can get this transit card from any of the train stations by putting dollar amounts in the card vending machine and getting the card in return. You, however cannot buy the cards in the buses, and, will have to pay exact amounts for bus rides. Once the fall semester starts however, people from the CTA will come to the campus and issue CTA U-Passes to all the students, which allows for unlimited free rides as long as the term lasts.

(3). As far as grocery shopping is concerned, there are mainly 2 places which are accessible to us IIT students, one is Jewel-Osco and the other is Dominick's. For those of you staying at Prairie Shores or Lake Meadows, Jewel will be the nearest place to visit. This is located on 33rd Street, just next to the last building of Lake Meadows. There are couples of stores adjacent to Jewel but on the back, which are good places to know. One is Ames where you can get good deals on home appliances like telephone instruments, bedding stuff, house lamps, clothes etc. This place usually has sales as often as once in a couple of weeks so you may want to go there once in a while to see what they have to offer. The only advice we have to give you is not to go to these places alone especially after sunset, as it may not be too safe. Going in groups, however, is totally fine. To get to Dominick's the best thing would be to take the IIT Shuttle bus, which will drop you off right at the store. But you will have to coordinate your arrival at the store and your shopping so as to be able to catch the next Shuttle bus (Ask Bus Driver), which can drop you off home. The shuttle bus schedules can be obtained online at http://www.iit.edu/directory/shuttlebus.html.

(4). Here in the USA, your primary identification is your Social Security Number (SSN). During your orientation week, people from the Social Security Administration will come to the campus and take your application for Social Security. They will give you a phone number where you can call them after 5 days or so and get your number, whereas, your actual SS card will arrive around 3 weeks later. Your SSN will enable you to apply for telephone connections, credit cards and bank accounts. As far as bank accounts are concerned, a couple of banks, Bank One and Lake Shore Bank to name two, will come to campus during orientation week and help you open accounts with their bank. You can open accounts even if you don't have an SSN. They will use your Student ID as identification. They will set up your account here and then you can go to their branch around 3-4 days later to deposit your money. Almost all branches of Dominick's have a Bank One branch inside - so you can take the IIT shuttle bus and get off at Dominick's and open your account there too While you are here be sure to visit the Dollar Tree store. You can get a lot of things there at cheap rates. Clothes hangers, laundry bags, glasses, plates and stuff like that. You might want to check it out.

Well these tips should, hopefully get you past the following couple of weeks here at IIT. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact ISA or contact any of our volunteers.

Good Luck!!!

Indian Students Association