First Day at UPenn

Today is the day that we checked into the program. Of course I’m very anxious and all the worst case scenarios are crossing my mind, but I try my best to push it to the back of my mind in order to be positive. I had an extra couple hours of sleep today just to make sure I would be well rested. Once were downstairs, we walked a couple blocks over to sign in.

I was the first person in my room so I got to claim one of the beds in my room. All I did was make my bed before I met everyone else down by the quad. We walked over to lunch but the place John planned for us was closed. I was really disappointed because I was craving barbecue but we settle for a Mexican restaurant. I ordered a burrito that was way too big for me, and I had butterflies so I just wasn’t feeling food at the moment.

We made our way back to the quad and said our final goodbyes. I think that’s when it finally hit me that this was it. No more traveling and sleeping in hotels with our cohort. It’s sort of bittersweet, but mostly bitter.

I was mostly nervous about what my roommate would be like but I had nothing to worry about. My roommate, Lisa, is from China and heard about the program from the internet. She came to Philadelphia yesterday with friend. She plays the flute and travels a lot with her Orchestra. She is a very frequent traveler, and has been to Europe, Japan, and different states around the country. She’s very easy going and it’s not hard at all to have a conversation with her. I think I lucked out and I’m happy with who I ended up with so far.

After our dinner in the 1920 cafeteria, we all met in the quad and played some ice breaker games. I don’t think the ice breaker games were very efficient because I don’t remember most people’s names. The groups were too big so it was hard to remember so many names at once. My roommate and I sort of stuck together throughout the games. Most of the people in my RC group are all still kind of awkward but I guess that’s what happens when you meet people for the first time. I just can’t wait for the awkwardness to stop so everyone can be comfortable with each other.

Our laundry/blogging party

I met up with Jun, Justeen, Joanne, and Elexis to do some laundry and blog. We decided to make a pact and try to hang out with each other whenever we can. We are looking at the calendar provided and trying to do some of the events planned together.

Overall, I’m very excited for the new experience. I’m nervous for my class tomorrow but I guess that’s a problem for tomorrow. 

Walking in the Light and Shadows of Philly

I slept at 2 A.M. last night and took advantage of the fact that we didn't have to wake up early in the morning. I already knew that it was July 4th and wasn't quite excited about the date. I was more excited about the stuff we were going to do. There's a lot to explore in the city and it's very historic so  there's a lot of learning to do. The weather was like a regular day in the Bay Area, in the low 70s, except more humid. 

Everyone met at the lobby and we went off to eat breakfast. Mr. Hillyer took us to the subway which was underneath the city. He said that every ride was $2.25 no matter how close or far we went. We left on 34th Street and our destination was on 2nd Street. The subway felt like there was no ventilation so it was very humid and hot. It looked run down and old but the trains arrived very fast.  Mr. Hillyer found a restaurant called The Continental which was a bar and restaurant. I ordered a Belgian Waffle with seasonal fruit and a side of bacon. I usually don't eat food other than eggs and bread in the morning so this was new to me. The food was refreshing and made me full. Time after time, Mr. Hillyer does not fail to disappoint with food! 

Lucky for us, after we walked out of the restaurant the parade had just started. We stood on the curb watching the parade and got to see the Mayor of Philadelphia, Miss Philadelphia 2015, Miss USA, Miss New Jersey 2015, the police commissioner (who was named Charles Ramsay), and much more. It had started to rain but thankfully the rain was light. It was great to watch the parade because it showed us how diverse Philadelphia was and how special each group was. After watching the parade for about an hour and a half, we walked to Old City in Philadelphia. We went "inside" the structure of  Benjamin Franklin's house and looked under these glass windows and saw remnants of Benjamin Franklin's house. Mr. Hillyer told us that in the colonial times, people had holes dug outside their home in order to use the bathroom and then would cover it. Their version of a plumber was somebody who removed all the waste from the well occasionally. It's nice having a history as our chaperone because Mr. Hillyer told us a lot background information about the buildings. 

Group pic in front of the parade

Independence Hall

Every historical building was within walking distance and it took us at least 5 minutes to walk to another historical building. We went inside the Carpenters' Hall which held the first Continental Congress. Everything was well preserved and there were even people portraying famous leaders from the colonial. I talked to the impersonator, whose name I forgot, and thought that he was Benjamin Franklin. If he was Benjamin Franklin, I was going to say "Can you get me some Benjamins?" but he said that he was not and I could find 18 other Benjamin Franklins on the street. Mr. Hillyer took a group picture of us with him and thanked him for all the things he told us. Mr. Hillyer took us to see the very first national bank of the United States but unfortunately it was not open. I was impressed by how the beautiful the columns were and that they were hand crafted because nowadays most are usually carved by laser. Then we walked to a small courtyard and rested for a little while. The courtyard was dedicated to President Lyndon B. Johnson's wife; it was well maintained and calming. 

Carpenters' House held the First Continental Congress

The bathroom

Mr. Hillyer could see that we were getting hungry so he took us down to the subway and decided to get Philly Cheesesteaks in North Philly. He took us through the subway, which was like a maze, to get to the train that would take us to North Philly. All the subways were very dim and narrow and almost felt like there is no room to stand or sit if it was full. When we got off the station, the Philly Cheesesteak was in front of us. I ordered a mushroom steak with Provolone cheese. We saw how the cooks cooked it and it seemed very simple but making it ourselves is one thing and observing it is another. I remember Mr. Hillyer said that the neighborhoods in Philly change very quickly and while sitting down and eating my cheesesteak, I could see that on the left side there were nice buildings towards City Hall and on the right side the building were run down and abandoned. It was a very eerie sight to see because of the inconsistency. 

An authentic Philly Cheesesteak

We went back to our hotels and rested for the next three hours. Rudy decided to go to the pool to swim while Chiamaka, Jun, Elexis, Justeen, and I decided to have some fun in the fitness room. We pretended to work out but really we were just testing out the equipment and having fun. Everyone met up at 8 P.M. in the lobby and walked from the hotel to the Museum of Art to see the fireworks. We walked towards the food trucks to a large T.V to see the concert which was almost inaccessible.  I wasn't familiar with the bands who were playing in the concert tonight. We waited until 12 A.M. to see the fireworks and it was amazing. But too bad they didn't do a firework that had the American flag because that would have been very awesome and right for the occasion. Right after the fireworks, we walked back and the whole streets were crowded. People kept pushing and shoving each other and drivers were being so aggressive to the point that their cars were on the crosswalk. 

Happy Birthday America

I Saw The Lights!

 Today I woke up to a horrible phone call from my friends in California, I was kinda happy they called even though they were rude and called me at 7 am. I went back to sleep and got up at 9:35. I goot ready and went downstairs by 10 as told by John. I was feeling a bit sleepy but nonetheless I was feeling great! We had a little meeting and went to 30th station which was on 30th street. We took the train down to 2nd street and it was a very different experience than that to taking Bart or Muni in the bay. The stops were much closer together and they were much quicker.

And So Begins Another Wonderful Day Without Sunshine!

Once we got to 2nd street we were all hungry and ready to eat! We found a diner and had a very lovely breakfast. As soon as we exited the diner the parade passed by! We changed plans and stayed to watch the whole parade, it was my first time watching a 4th of July parade and it was awesome! We saw everything from a wawa sponsored floats to all the fire trucks in Philadelphia. Although it rained through most of the parade we had a lot of fun and even danced with some people that were in the parade! The fun didn't end there, we then went to see Benjamin Franklin's home although it wasn't there there was an outline of where it would have been and we saw the excavation of the original house. We then walked through the historical parts of Philadelphia and saw many places that were old and beautiful as well as important like the first continental congress building or the first American bank building. We went to try to see the liberty bell but the line would have taken ages to end so we just waited and listened the 13 rings today. They sounded wonderful and smooth with a low tone. We walked to the mall where we explored and then headed back to the hotel, on our way to the hotel john asked if we wanted to eat Philly cheese stakes and we all agreed to go get some. It we switched trains though what seemed like a maze and got to the right spot right away.

There is Beauty in Everything

Broken up Panoramic

The Fresh Prince of Bell Air was Right! Philly Cheese Stakes are The Best!

The stakes were no joke, they were scrumptious! We finished relatively fast and headed back to the hotel. It didn't take long even though we missed the second train when we transferred, they only take about 5 minutes to pass. We got to our hotel and had 3 hours to ourselves, I spent that time by going swimming for half of it and then coming back to work out a little before taking a shower. I then watched Netflix till it was time to leave. We left and walked across the bridge and at the side of the river. When we were passing by the river john told us that there were fireflies there. I looked but didn't see anything yet until the whole grass area was lit up by three radiant green lights that dashed up and sideways on top of the grass. It was beautiful and it was followed by more shinning green lights the whole grass area was filled with them! I saw the lights and everything else and it was all so very beautiful. 

John and I being silly

We continued walking to the concert and took a bathroom break before we entered the most crowded area. The concert was fun and exiting although I don't know all of the songs that were played and couldn't make sense of most of the lyrics. We all had fun for a while and then headed back to see the fireworks that were supposed to take place at 10:30. It wasn't that way but we got to hang out with each other as group for a bit longer. As we were giving up hope and started walking back we heard a loud sound wave and looked back at various stripes of light. The fireworks had begun! The show was amazing there were happy faces and even an "A". It went on for about half an hour and the last part light up the whole area, it was like a rain of multi-colored lights making the atmosphere happy and cheerful as well as beautiful.

Our Cohort!

We ended our night with a slice of pizza and we were all exhausted. Once I got to my room I turned off all the lights, put music on, said goodnight to my loved ones and worked on my blog but fell asleep before finishing. What a great way to spend America's birthday!!!

Happy 4th!!!

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. 

Celebrating Like It's 1776

After last night’s “blogging party,” we were all exhausted and ended up sleeping at around 1 AM. If we had to wake up early, I think I would’ve died today, so I’m just happy that we were able to sleep in. I ended up waking up 30 minutes later than when I was supposed to wake up, but it’s not much of a big deal because we still got out on time. I just quickly took a shower, and we headed out for breakfast by 10 AM. It was weird getting up and not having to lug our luggage to a shuttle, but I still have to haul it over to UPenn tomorrow.

Septa token

Mr. Hillyer had a lot of plans for us today, so we first went to the Septa train station on 34th street to get to downtown. This train system was pretty straightforward, but once it got to the rest of the stations, that's where it got confusing. The train we rode on was similar to BART, but not quite. Instead of a ticket, we used a token, which was worth $2.25. On the train, it opened and closed the door much faster than at BART, and you only had a few seconds to find a seat or hold on to something because it was going to go whether or not you were ready.

Yum!

We got off on 2nd street, and we found a restaurant called the Continental. I expected this place to have huge portions because of all the restaurants that I've seen here in the East coast, but they were actually reasonable sized. I ordered french toast with a side of bacon, and I am positive that I made the right choice. Their bacon was cooked to perfection, and their french toast had just the right amount of sweetness. It was delicious.

After breakfast, we walked outside and we were greeted by the sound of a marching band playing on the street. We really do have the perfect timing, because right when we walked out, the parade was just about to begin. There were so many marching bands playing, as well as different groups and organizations walking right behind them. Firetrucks and police cars from different cities were even joining in on the parade. Seeing this actually made me miss home for once, because I would generally watch the parade in Vallejo for the Fourth of July every year. Anyways, while we were all watching and enjoying the parade, it began to rain until around the time it ended. It was truly unfortunate, but the show must go on! This is where I realized that people in Philadelphia, or the East coast rather, were not as energetic as the people in the Bay Area. The only ones cheering and clapping were basically our cohort, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time.

At the parade

Afterwards, we walked around the area. This was such an exhausting walk, but I was able to see all of the beautiful, old buildings that were within walking distance. During the walk, we were able to see the outside of Independence Hall, the First and Second National Bank, Carpenter’s Hall, as well as the remains of Benjamin Franklin’s old house. Being with a history teacher as a chaperone, we even learned a little about each of the buildings. There was so much to see around the city and I was fascinated by how gorgeous these old designs were. We also went to a mall that was nearby and just prowled through the area, even though most of the stores were closed.

Benjamin Franklin's house

Carpenter's Hall

  We were going to head back to the hotel after we had finished touring the places, but instead, we took a detour because everyone was starving. As a solution, Mr. Hillyer took us to one of the Philly Cheesesteak places in North Philadelphia. We took the Septa train again and got off at the Fairmount station. I didn’t know what to expect because I’ve never had an authentic Philly Cheesesteak before, but once I tried it, I fell in love. I know I’ve been saying how much I love everything I’ve eaten these past few days, but what can I say; I love food.

Once we were all full and ready to go, we simply went back to the train station and headed back to the hotel again. It was around 4 PM when we finally made it back to the hotel, and Mr. Hillyer let us relax in the hotel until 8 PM. In the meantime, we just stayed in our rooms and went to the gym to “work out” until it was finally time to head to the concert.

Mr. Hillyer gave us two choices; we either walk the extremely long way to get a good spot for the concert, or we could walk a few blocks and only hear the concert from a distance. Since I was already exhausted from the walk this morning, I definitely did not want to walk from 36^th street all the way to 15^th, so our cohort went with the easier route. When we finally arrived in downtown Philly, the place was pretty empty. I wasn’t surprised, considering the fact that it was raining yet again.

Once we were neared the location of the concert, we began to see a massive amount of people. We could not even get relatively close to the stage itself, but we were able to find a screen that showed the concert live. Again, the people were not as energetic as us, and it felt kind of awkward, but that was no reason to stop. We were there to celebrate America’s independence, and that’s reason enough to act lively. Honestly, the concert was not as great as I expected. I was probably expecting too much, but none of the performers were known, other than the Roots and Miguel Pimentel. Also, the people were rather rude to us when we were just waiting around and talking with each other. I can definitely see the difference between the people from Philadelphia and the people from the Bay Area, and it was clear contrast.

Keeping ourselves busy while we wait

When we got tired of just standing around in one spot and listening to an unknown artist, we just kept moving around in order to find a good spot where we could just sit down and wait for the fireworks. We thought we would be able to go home by midnight, but the fireworks didn’t even appear until after midnight, so we ended up waiting by the grass for around 3 hrs. Thankfully, we found a patch of grass to sit on next to the Schuylkill (Skoo-gull) River. I know that it is a rather weird name, but according to the people that are from Philly, that’s actually how to pronounce it.

It was around midnight when we finally got tired of waiting for the fireworks, so we left, but right when we started walking, the fireworks went off. Our group has such perfect timing, don’t we? Anyways, after the fireworks, we went started walking back, and encountered even more individuals that were grouchy or rude. Before we went back to the hotel, we stopped by Axis Pizza and grabbed a bite to eat, thus ending the day at 1 AM.

Today was extremely exhausting compared to the other days, but it was also the most fun. I was actually able to explore the city, and the rain wasn’t too much of a hassle compared to the other days. The other days were spent cooped up in either a hotel or an airport, but today, I actually got to explore a lot of different places, as well as celebrate the fourth of July. I didn’t really want this day to end, simply because I enjoyed it too much, and I was actually nervous about moving in to the dorms tomorrow. I’m just worried about whether or not I’d be able to make new friends, or keep up with my Physics class. Tomorrow is going to be a nerve-wracking day, but I am as thrilled as ever. 

Happy July 4th!

The weather was pleasantly surprising. We exited our hotel with cool breeze within the air (really reminded us of California) and a cloudy sky. I was contented from last night's sleep because I got a good seven hours of restfulness. The comfy bed made heaven close yet Chiamaka, who was sleeping adjacent to me, said there were bed bugs. I was horrified when she showed me her scar. Well well, I don't think I'll be getting a good sleep tonight.

We met at the lobby at 10:15AM to follow Mr. Hillyer off to breakfast. The Philadelphia morning didn't have much of a Independence Day spirit, which was unanticipated. We walked several blocks before settling to a breakfast place next to the parade street. I ordered scrumptious Belgian waffles with a side of smoked bacon.

I was feeling diary so I ended up ordering a cup of warm milk while others went for hot chocolate and iced tea. The breakfast place was decent but they could have sprinkled powdered sugar onto the waffles instead of giving us a cup and having us do the work. I'm not much of a pro so everytime I "sprinkled" sugar onto the waffles, it ended up sitting on top of the waffles like a mountain. I coughed after trying to eat it. Not the best Belgian waffle experience.

Upon exiting the restaurant, the parade commenced without delay. The weather started getting a little jiffy but regardless of the rain, people running the parade was happily continuing. We interacted with several of the groups and we received delighted responses.

After watching an hour of the parade, we decided to go visit the national monuments instilled within the city, one being Benjamin Franklin's house. The remnants of Franklin's house were bricks and cement. Mr. Hillyer explained that after the demolition of the house, we built back the basic framework of the house to get an estimate of how grand his house must have looked in the past. We then toured the First US National Bank and various statues displayed throughout the city.

At 2PM, we started to get really hungry so Mr. Hillyer took us to one of the best cheesesteak place around town. I ordered the Buffalo chicken steak. It was the best steak I've had. We headed back to the hotel around 4PM and I decided to do a little exercise before heading off to the concert at 8PM. I was excited to hear some of the local bands play. All the artists were decent despite the fact that this was a free open concert. Mr. Hillyer said the fireworks usually blossomed around 10AM but this year's Independence Day fell on a weekend, so they postponed it until 11:30PM. While waiting for the fireworks to start, I started yawning and my right contacts fell out. Worst part of the night. No matter how hard I tried to put it back in, it just wouldn't work. Why, why, why. So while others are watching the awesome fireworks in HD, I'm having trouble with 144p vision. We were all hungry after the fireworks so just before heading back to the hotel, we stopped by Axis Pizza to grab a slice of late dinner. I was already falling asleep while munching on my Hawaiian pizza so I quickly stuffed the rest into my mouth and stared off into space while waiting for others to finish.

Tonight would have been perfect if not for my half-blindness but hey, Happy Birthday America!

What's U.P with the University of Pennsylvania?

Today was an amazing day overall but the day didn't start out like how it ended. It was because last night I had the hardest time going to bed after I posted my blog.  The bed was pretty comfortable but the pillows were so hard and there was a large amount light coming into our room because we couldn't close the blinds. I was able to go to sleep but I was unable to get up when the alarm went off.
We planned to wake up at 7:30 a.m. to be able to eat to get breakfast with having some time left over to be able to make sure we had not forgot anything and we had time to load our luggage on the airport shuttle. In actuality I woke up at 8:13 a.m. which was sort of late because the front desk sent a wake up call at 8:00 a.m. yet, I was able to finish getting ready by 8:45 a.m. This gave me a reasonable amount of time to eat breakfast because the airport shuttle wasn't coming until 9:00 a.m.

 For breakfast I had two pancakes, a sausage patty, a cup of orange juice, and a bite of a delicious cinnamon roll. I was sort of disappointed because I didn't have a chance to finish my cinnamon roll but the food I was able to finish was pretty good.

The shuttle came on time, yet the thing that came at the wrong time was the storm! Right after we got on to the shuttle the rain started.It was light for about 2 or 3 minutes then it started to shower. And shower hard! So, we knew that our flight might be delayed depending on how long and how bad the storm was. It turns out that the storm was so bad and lasted so long that we ended up having change our flight to a direct flight,from Atlanta straight to Philadelphia. Which was really cool although we had to sit in the airport for 5 hours.

Watching and Waiting

 Now, I bet your wondering what we did in an airport for 5 hours? I'll be glad to tell you that we did what anybody would do in a large airport terminal. First, we all kind of sat around on our phones talking to one another. Chiamaka, Jun, and I  decided to go "exploring" for a great place to eat. We walked from end to end and only found two restaurants that actually sparked our interest. One, was the Sweet Georgia Juke Joint which happened to be serving the famous chicken and waffles! The second was Five Guys Burgers and Fries. When we walked back over to the group to report what we had saw nobody cared what we ate. We had one hard decision to make but what made it way easier was that a very reliable source (Chiamaka) informed us that Five Guys has large burgers and that it was like the huge version of In-n-Out. At that moment everybody was sold on the burgers.
 The cohort did not have food for a couple of hours and were stranded at the airport. So

We ate lunch at about 12:00, which was perfect because the meal was able to bring us through the remaining 3 hours we had to wait in the airport and also the 1 hour and 30 minute flight. The food was delicious I think it was been the best burger I have had in my entire life!

I finished the whole burger.

We headed to our gate after eating and watched the workers throw our luggage onto the conveyor belt. We were all very slighted by how rough they handled our belongings. Shortly, after we boarded the plane I looked for a seat and found it in the back.

The man who I had to sit next to immediately fell asleep, which caused me not to be able to talk to him the entire flight. The flight actually went by really fast to me, I'm assuming that is because of how long our other flights had been. When we landed in Philadelphia I was really excited because it is where I'm going to school!

We had to wait around for the shuttle for a little while because the airport was so full due to the holiday. The wait wasn't that bad because we all just talked like we did in the other airport. When the shuttle arrived we grabbed our bags and made our way to it. After, we loaded up we found out that we would be doing ride sharing which meant that some other people would be in the shuttle with us. Which I thought was really cool because it was an opportunity to socialized but it turns out the couple didn't speak English.

When we got to the Sheraton we unloaded our luggage and brought it to our rooms. John gave us 15 minutes to be ready for some sight seeing. Justeen, Joanne, and I were ready on time and we even had time to give Jun, Rudy, John, and Chiamaka a small tour of our hotel room. After, everyone looked at our room we went over to Johns' suite. To be totally honest I got a little jealous but our view makes up for the lack of space. We also, went up and saw the pool which was on the roof and the fitness center.

Next, we went out into the streets of university city to do some major exploring. The first place we went was the Wawa. Imagine seven eleven having secret a love child with subway! That is the only way I know how to describe it so far. I still have yet to try one of their hoagies but the time shall come.

"The path of knowledge"

Then, we went over to the Penn bookstore which happened to be two floors, it was huge. We also went walking on the campus. John showed us where our dorms will be but we couldn't see the inside just yet.

The Quadrangle

I'll have to wait until Sunday a.k.a move in day. We saw many beautiful places more than I can even describe in one blog. In the end the campus was so beautiful and the funny thing is, is that I'm really anxious to see the rest of it because of
how nice the part I did see was.

After, we our sight seeing we went out to eat at an amazing restaurant. Distrito, is a modern Mexican food hot spot. It was created by iron chef Jose Garces in order to share the Mexico city style cantina cooking with Philly. I ordered the carne kobe which was basically a flat iron steak with onions cheese and cilantro.

It was amazing but, I didn't have room to finish it due to the amazing entrees they had. We shared a vegetarian nacho platter

 ,a pork nacho platter, and chips and guacamole.

Another cool thing was that I got to try my first virgin margarita.

The icing on the cake of my night was the dessert! I ordered a tantalizing marshmallow,delicate chocolate slice, espresso ice cream creation. Ironically, I couldn't finish my tacos but I finished that.

The best part of my day!!!!

I had an amazing day with my cohort and I know there are many more to come!!!!

Oh My 'Lanta!

Emory University and Atlanta had a lot to offer from BBQ to convenience. It was too bad that we couldn't stay in the city for another day because we could have went out and explore the city. I am considering about applying to Emory University but it's probably not going to be my first choice. 

I started my day by going down to lobby and eating breakfast. Mr. Hillyer told us that there would be a storm today and that we should be prepared in case anything would happen. We had to finish packing our stuff and eating breakfast by 8:55 A.M. and get on the shuttle to the airport at 9:00 A.M. Halfway through the drive, it started raining heavily and we heard thunder. Seeing this, we knew that our flight was going to be delayed and after arriving at the airport and checking in, the Southwest Porter told us that our flight was delayed. We were all very disappointed and didn't know what would happen next. Chiamaka and I had TSA Pre-Check so we were able to get through security quickly. We waited ten minutes for the others to come and then went to the plane train to get to our terminal. Since our flight was delayed, we were able to get a flight that would directly fly to Philadelphia instead of flying to Orlando and transferring to Philadelphia.

The consequence of this flight was that we had to stay at the airport for five hours. Some stayed behind and started on their blogs and others walked around the airport. At noon, we walked to Five Guys to eat lunch and I ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger. After arriving at our gate, we all sat by the window and enjoyed watching the workers aggressively throw people's luggage onto the plane. I did feel disrespected but at the same time it was my source of live entertainment for the day.

Our luggage. It really was our luggage.

We boarded the plane at 3:20 P.M. and the plane left the airport at 3:30 P.M. Chiamaka and I sat next to New Yorker named Kris. He gave us a lot of financial aid advice and told us really look for scholarships and state grants. Chiamaka and I informed him about the ILC and he was very impressed that our school offered this scholarship and thought it was good that we joined the program. We talked throughout the plane ride and before we knew it, we were in Philadelphia. Our luggage was out within 15 minutes after the flight landed. I have been looking forward to Philadelphia for the last two months and finally we were here. We waited almost an hour for our shuttle to take us to the hotel. We checked into the Sheraton Hotel by UPenn and walked around the campus after dropping our bags off. The campus is beautiful and I just fell in love with it. I can't believe that I will be taking classes here next week. Mr. Hillyer took us to the famous Wawa which is a mixture of  Starbucks, 7-11, and Subway sandwiches. Since Wawa is opened 24/7, I think I will be able to go there if I decide to take a break from studying.

We are moving in on Sunday!

 Gym

Mr. Hillyer took us to an Iron Chef restaurant called Distrito. We ordered some nachos and for the entree I ordered a Mahi Mahi. I didn't think that the taco was very special but when I took a bite out of it, it was amazing. All the ingredients worked very well together and there was the right amount of acidity. I thought that for the quality of the food, we paid a reasonable price. 

DESSERT! Coffee Cheesecake

Mahi Mahi Tacos

Tomorrow is 4th of July and I can't wait to celebrate the birth of the greatest country in the world, America, in her birth place. God Bless this country and may she continue to be great.