Sunday, July 5, 2015

Guess Penn Rained on Our Parade

We had sort of a late start to our day, meeting down at the lobby at around 10:20. I was very excited about today because Fourth of July is one of the best holidays out there. Everyone does it big and there is always something fun to do. I had very high expectations for today and almost all of them were met.

at the train station
I coordinated my outfit today so I had a little bit of Red, White, and Blue going on. We first took the train down some blocks to a cute diner. I ordered a Belgian waffle with a side of bacon because John said it would be a good idea to eat light due to the heavy walking the day had in store. Once we finished our breakfast, we walked out of the diner and was surprised with a parade. Different groups, such as firefighters, beauty queens, and bands walked the streets despite the light rain. The parade made me fall in love with the Philadelphia area even more. There is so many different communities in the city and I believe that they were represented pretty well in the Parade. My personal favorite part of the parade would be Rudy's short dance contest with one of the performers.

Where Benjamin Franklin's house would have been
We walked around Philadelphia for some sight seeing. We saw the First and Second National Banks of America, Benjamin Franklin's house, and the Liberty Bell. All of these really small parts of history was really cute to witness in person. I like learning history and being in the center of where America was essentially born was nice. I also liked looking at the architecture and locations of buildings where "big" things happened for our country. Overall, Philadelphia is a really cool city. I think that I am a Philadelphian at heart. Everything about the city impresses me, there is always something to do or see.

We stopped by Jimmy G's Cheese Steaks up in North Philly. I have never had a Philly Cheese Steak before so it was nice to actually try one in Philadelphia, where it was authentic and delicious. We took the rest of our food with us and made our way back to the hotel for a small break. The girls decided to utilize the hotel's Fitness center, but we just ended up sitting and talking on the patio. Jun and Elexis actually worked out a bit. We also got a head start on our blogs. Our blogs were hard to start up and the Sheraton's WiFi wasn't making it any faster for us. The WiFi is very weak even with Ethernet cables, and is very hard to work with.

On, the bright side, we all got together at around 8 o'clock for the concert. I thought that the line up for the concert was kind of weak, and there was only about 2 artists that could possibly put on a decent show. Miguel was the most anticipated artist so he probably performed last. We didn't stay long enough to find out. The smell of smoke and greasy food made it hard for me to focus on the concert itself. We separated ourselves from the crowd and looked for a a place to sit for the fireworks. The fireworks started later than we anticipated and we were on our way back to the hotel when it started. Most of our view was covered by trees but the part that we did see, was beautiful. For me, Fourth of July fireworks are not always the best part of the holiday. I like seeing everyone else's inner patriot showing. We witnessed a group of college boys shouting USA, USA, USA, at the top of their lungs; and that's what I think Fourth of July is all about. That is probably why it is one of my favorite holidays. We stopped for Pizza on our way back to the hotel, and I guess one could say that I got to deal with someone with authentic "Philly-tude." The man serving us our pizza just did not seem happy, I guess when you think about it, who would be happy serving a bunch of strangers pizza at 12 o'clock at night, on a Holiday?

Our second day in Philly was definitely an adventure and I would not change a thing about it, even the things that went wrong. The rain during the parade, the rowdy teenagers, and the bad music is probably what we'll remember in a couple years and laugh. I like making memories, and this will probably be marked as a good day for me in my memory bank (was that cheesy?)
Happy Fourth
Tomorrow is our check-in day for our academy and my only fear is that my roommate won't be nice. I've already accepted the fact that my class will be hard, however, I can deal with a hard class; I can accept the challenge. But, I don't know how well I can deal with a bad roommate for three weeks. Hopefully my anxieties are not proved right when I meet her for the first time tomorrow. 

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