My first time brewing beer

I decided to homebrew this week for the first time! I have a friend who has only brewed once before and we decided it would be fun to do together since we are both still learning the process. We stopped in the Brew and Grow after work, which is conveniently only about two blocks from my apartment. That store was unexpectedly overwhelming! If I knew enough to be dangerous I could have some fun in there, but I am not comfortable using the mill yet. The mill is like the cereal in Whole Foods where you pour exactly what you want into a bag and you measure it on the scale. I would really need to do my homework to know what I need from this section of the store, right now I am not prepared for such an open-ended project. I do know that I want to brew a porter or stout since these fall temps are dropping, so we settled on purchasing a starter kit. It turned out to be a comfortable choice since the directions were broken down very easily for us - yes, of course, it probably won't be the most interesting beer I've ever had, but this week is for learning the basics. 

I will say that brewing wasn't as interesting of a process as I had hoped. My friend compared it to fishing - and patience has never been my strong suit! We spent most of the time prepping and cleaning all of the things, and then you boil the wort for an hour while you wait and eat homemade pierogi. After the boil was finished, we carefully poured everything into a bucket that was sitting in an ice bath. Dad, since you are my only reader - I will let you know how the beer turns out in a few weeks!