We Heart Philly

My head is still spinning from having one of the best weeks in my short life. It wasn’t looking like that was how it was going to turn out Tuesday night after our tired selves got dropped off at midnight in front of the Penn Tower. There Sel and I stood with all our luggage looking groggily up at the building that looked very much like a hospital and very much not like a hotel. We finally navigated our way into the building only to find out the “hotel” consisted of two floors of ten or so falling apart rooms. Since there were some random mistakes with our reservation, we also had to twin beds to make us feel like we stumbled into an episode of “I Love Lucy”. In true fashion of my very calm and nondramatic personality, I flopped on the bed and declared my hate for Philadelphia and my desire that we never return.

The next day was Sel’s interview with UPenn (he wore that Mikey Mouse hoodie pictured here). He was looking extra sharp and handsome in his newly tailored suit and a lot like he was about to dominate every single other interviewee in that room. He actually had to get to the interview through the floo network, hence him climbing in this fireplace.

 

While Sel spent the next seven hours proving what a stud he was, I spent the next seven hours getting lost in Philly. I explored the beautiful campus for an hour or so and WOW! The architecture on these building is unbelievable. Modern architecture is a joke compared to the buildings of the past. Buildings with enormous amounts of detail instead of the bare minimum for time efficiency. Buildings meant to last hundreds of years instead of until we are forced to rebuild. Anyway, after finding out how beautiful campus was I headed out walking in a direction that looked promising. Luckily, it led to some pretty amazing stuff. I walked 90 or so blocks that day plus however long I was on the waterway (that Rocky ran along mind you). It was really helpful to have thrown myself into the city so the next day Sel and I could properly explore it.

Sel’s interview went beautifully and he held his own against the Ivy undergrads. Our new joke from the interview comes from a conversation Sel had with a girl from Massachusetts. Sel asked where she was from and after she responded she asked him the same question. When he told her he was from Idaho all she said was “Random!” and stopped talking to him. Should we move to the East Coast I will seriously enjoy laughing at some of these types of people. After Sel’s interview we stayed in the College District and found some Ah-maz-ing food at a place called the Hummus Grill. Their falafel was perfect, their pita bread was some of the best we’ve ever had and the hummus was delicious. The next day we got our history on and walked to Independence Hall. We watched a video about the signing of the declaration, took pictures with a giant group of Asians in front of the liberty bell, and took a tour of one of America’s most famed buildings. Our tour guide was a dime. He reminded me a lot of my high school AP History teacher. We even got to go to a room most people don’t because there was a lag in visitors while we were there. Want to hear something ironic? The only big celebration that was ever held at Independence Hall was in 1760 for the coronation of King George III. We loved that little tid bit. After Independence Hall, we booked it up to Christ’s Church (where a whole bunch of revolutionaries went to church back in the day) and Elfrey’s Alley. Both were beautiful and definitely worth the visit. When I told my mom that night how wonderful it all was she exclaimed, "See! This is why history is great!" I was a bit offended considering I lurve history and when I told her that she came back with, "Well, you don't love it as much as I do". Oh, we will see about that muter dearest. (But in all reality my mom is a boss at history. It is freaky to sit next to hear when she watches Jeopardy cause she knows ALL the answers. For reals though. I only remember one episode where she didn't know one of the answers. Still don't know why she isn't on there so she can win and pay for Sel and I to take a year long trip to China, Japan, Africa, India, Romania, Transylvania, Galapagos Islands...)

One of my new favorite quotes about history

Mimicking Ben Franklin's Senior Pic



Elfrey's Alley (Oldest in tact Neighborhood in the Nation)



Elfrey's Citizen honoring the wrong country...

Looking studly in front of the Lib Bell

How we felt about waiting in line

 AND THEN WE WENT TO THE BEST PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE! I have been mildly obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe since I was in middle school. The first thing I remember reading from my pal Poe was his most notorious The Tell Tale Heart. After that, I was a goner. Poe’s house is on the complete opposite side of PA from Independence Hall. Sel was such a good sport to walk such a long way and in some mildly sketchy areas. The house was better than I could have imagined! We went on a self-guided tour and I got to salivate over all the rooms Poe would have walked around in, wrote in, loved in, and cried in. We got to read “Annabel Lee” in the very room that poor Virginia withered away in. I almost cried. My favorite part was the cellar. One of my all-time favorite shorts from Poe is The Black Cat. If you haven’t read it, then you probably don’t appreciate brilliant literature in the slightest. It is all about a man who hates a demonic black cat and how his hate of it destroys his life. In the story, the man buries a body (not telling you whose just in case you haven’t read it) in his brick cellar. This part is the pinnacle of the story and he based the cellar off of his very own! The cellar didn’t have any lighting, it was very low, and there were more spider webs in the rafters than I could have handled if I wasn’t so excited to be there. At the end of our tour, we got to sit in a parlor fashioned off of a satirical article he wrote mocking those who were trying to appear wealthy. In the parlor, we got to listen to a dramatic reading of one of Poe’s poems. Gah, the whole thing was a dream come true. I’ll never quite understand why I love freaky things. I would rather visit Transylvania than Paris. I would rather spend a day in Poe’s old home than in Disneyland. I would rather grow carnivorous plants than roses. I would rather read Dostoevsky and Poe than Dickens or Austen. I was always a tinsy bit afraid the man I married would wake up one day after we were married and realize how odd I was. Sel isn’t obsessed the way I am, but he understands more than he lets on. When we were going around the rooms and I was drooling over Poe’s works Sel knew most of the references I kept making. Yay for marrying someone that at least tries to understand what goes on in this head of mine.

Bahahah, Sel's scared face before we went into the cellar



Being the Black Cat while standing next to where the main character buried the body



Sculpture in honor of The Raven

We finished off the day exploring China town and finding one of our new favorite places in the universe. The Reading Terminal is an indoor market manned mostly by the local Amish community. Sel and I were in heaven! We love the eclectic and the unique and this was exactly that. This place alone would be a huge swaying point should Sel get accepted to UPenn. We could have spent days in there!

Reading Terminal

We had to be up at 5:00AM the following day for our flight and we were a bit bummed about leaving. Philly was so different than what I was expecting. Every single person we met was so kind and friendly. People smile at you as they push along the crowded streets. The city itself is the perfect combination of past and present. The food was ridiculously delicious. Walking and biking are the norm instead of the anomaly. Oh and the diversity. You know you’ve lived in Utah too long when the lack of white faces excites you more than it ought to. I counted 9 blondes the entire time we were there. Nine! And one of those was Sel…OH! And there are so many Asians! Which if you don’t know, I wish more than anything I was Asian. Despite being such a big city, I felt safe the entire time. I even felt safe the day I wandered alleyways by myself. I passed a XXX theater when I was extra lost and the guy selling tickets even smiled and waved at me when I walked by (and shockingly not in a creepy pervert way). We really loved Philly and are so grateful we go to see so much of it in our short time.