UPenn on Ice

Sundays have become my favorite days of the week here at Penn for the sole reason that they are the one day I occasionally get to sleep in past 9 o'clock. Today was no exception. Those of us who were going ice skating got to stay in till 10 at which time we are at a little cafe that sold some delicious croissants. At 11 we met in the quad and loaded up on the school buses that took us to the rink. After a short drive (very short compared to yesterday) we arrived, got our skates on and hit the ice.

We had managed to convince the two European guys on Brian and Alex's floor who had never skated before to join us on the trip, so we tried to teach them. Two of the RC's who came with us played ice slating sports so they helped instruct them as well. They mostly stuck to the walls in the beginning but by the end of the day they could skate fairly decently and even joined in the congo lines we made, only causing one major pile up (that fortunately injured no one). They also avoided any collisions with the multitude of small children that are always present at the edges of the rink.

Since the rink in Oakland shut down, I haven't been able to skate very often at all so I am really glad it was one of the activities they offered for our day off. We had a lot of fun messing around on the ice and teaching the two newbies was also quite entertaining. The ice also gave us a nice break from the sweltering heat. It was the first time I actually started shivering since I left the Bay Area.

Once we got back, we got some lunch at a Mexican restaurant on campus where we sat and watched the Woman's World Cup as we ate. We left when it went into overtime to check out some shops on campus. I bought a CD for a dollar at a nifty bookstore we found. We spent a lot of time checking the place out actually. It was quite cool. It even had store cat that let me pet it.On our walk back home, we passed by the restaurant we had eaten at and stopped to watch the penalty kicks through the window. We walked away disappointed when the American team lost.

When we got back it was almost 6, so I had just enough time to do some lab surveys, lay around and enjoy some prime Sunday free time before heading down to the dining hall before it closed, playing some Frisbee in the quad, taking care of the laundry that's started to pile up, and watch a movie in the lounge before getting to bed to get some rest for another eventful week.