Independance Day

We started off the day this morning at the reasonable hour of 9:30 with a freshly baked squagel (square bagel) from Cosi. It was both tasty and fun to order: "I'll have a toasted squagel with cream cheese". After breakfast, we packed up our stuff, checked out, and walked up the block to the UPenn campus.

We received our Penn cards, keys, information, and a free T-shirt and then it was up to our dorms to un-pack. The first thing I noticed about my room was that it was air-conditioned (thank goodness). Once I knew that, nothing else mattered, it was good enough for me. Still, we have a pretty nice set up. The rooms are definitely large enough for two, there's plenty of storage space, and our windows overlook the beautiful quad area.

After we were all unpacked and settled in, the ILCers set out via SEPTA to the center of the city for lunch. We decided it was time to try a famous Philly Cheesesteak so we popped into the fist Cheesesteak shop we saw and, after waiting in a long line our tourists, sat down. While we waited we got to look over the counter and see the sandwiches being prepared. One got the feeling the guys who were making them had been doing it for a while, they had a system down. It was kind of amazing. With its nationwide reputation, I was expecting the Philly Cheesesteak to be at least a little but over-rated, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they truly truly earn their fame. The bread was soft and fluffy, the cheese melted to perfection and the meat and onions were very flavorful. It was really very delicious. I look forward to eating more (of course we have to determine the best in the city for ourselves).

When we returned to campus, we said farewell to Mr. Miranda for the night and returned to our dorms. I met my roommate. She is quite remarkable. her name is Noor and she is from Indiana (specifically, "the cornfields," she says) but goes to boarding school in India. Her descriptions of the natural beauty there made me jealous. She also told me that there are monkeys everywhere that will steal your stuff and pull your hair if you're not careful. Our first conversation was probably one of the most interesting ones I've ever had. And she told me I was lucky to live in the Bay Area! I am so excited to hear more from her and get to know about her experiences as the month unfolds. I feel very lucky to have such a friendly and interesting roommate.

In reality, it's not luck at all. Almost every person I have met here has been extremely nice and interested in getting to know one another. The people me and my roommate sat with at dinner were from Manhattan, New York here for the creative non-fiction writing class. The two of them were friends who went to the same high school and they were a very entertaining duo. I met a New Zealander at orientation named Juao "like the sound a light-saber makes," he told me. It's a completely energizing environment to be in meeting so many people from all over the world who are all interested in learning all that they can both from the classes and from one another.

After orientation, we split up to have meetings with our individual floors. I met our floors RA, a gradeschool teacher from LA who is very sweet but will clearly stand for no shenanigans, We sat out on the grass with the fireflies and the fireworks, went over the rules, and got to know each other a little bit. There is a girl from Texas who plays French horn, a girl form Germany who wants to be a dentist, a girl who was born in Michigan but lives in Jordan and the list goes on! Getting to know these girls is going to be quite the experience.

After our meeting, we signed in with the office (as we will be doing every night), ate some milk and cookies and then it was off to bed to get a good nights sleep for tomorrow's classes. I couldn't be more excited. This is going to be incredible.

Philadelphia: The City of First's

Today was our first day completely dedicated to tourism. We met in the lobby at about 10:00 AM to go to breakfast. The four of us walked to a small diner about ten minutes away from our hotel. While we ate we discussed our plans for the day. We decided to take a bus tour and see the sights of central Philadelphia. Because this city is so large, we had to take a trolley from the campus and then connect to the subway to reach our destination. I had never given much thought to how big this sprawling city actually is, but our experiences with public transportation today made me realize it. From breakfast, we immediately headed for the trolley system.

The trolley system is basically Penn’s personal subway. There are several stops around campus where you can board a trolley and they connect to a few different subway terminals. The trolley is all underground, and frankly a little creepy. You walk down a few flights of stairs and you walk onto a dimly lit platform, which was actually smaller than one of the hallways at my high school and littered with a comparable amount of trash as well. The trolley is aptly named though, because it looks almost exactly like other public trams on the outside. It is similar to the cable cars of San Francisco. On the inside, however, it’s like a bus. You pay at the front when you enter, the seating is very similar, and you pull a cord hanging overhead to request a stop. It was interesting to see the product of several ideas of public transportation coming together into one convenient way to get around. Despite the system’s small flaws, this is another plus one for Penn in my book because accessing bustling center city Philly is cheap and easy.

After our first bout with public transportation, which lasted about twenty minutes, we were thrust into what felt like a completely different city from where we had been before. The buildings surrounding us were gigantic, there were a lot more people than I was used to seeing around the other areas of Philly, and things were a lot more fast-paced. The sun was especially bright because the light was being reflected off of all the windows in the buildings. I was very sorry I still hadn’t bought a pair of sunglasses. We walked around to get our bearings on what was around us. We stumbled upon the Ben Franklin Bridge, which looked like a blue version of the Bay Bridge back home, as well as caught a glimpse of the waterfront area. We quickly moved on to go find where the tour busses congregated. Once we found the stop, we bought our tickets and waited for the next bus so we could get some seats on the upper deck. The tour was very thorough with the locations it took us to. We drove all around center city Philly and saw at least twenty different landmarks, ranging from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art that Sylvester Stallone ran up in Rocky to the Pennsylvania State Penitentiary, where Al Capone served his time in prison. Our tour guide, Chris, did an excellent job with the history of Philadelphia. He had a wealth of knowledge about the city and was even able to infuse some of his own personal stories in with the history. His comments were very witty and his guidance was captivating. There were often times when I wouldn’t stop to take a picture because I was listening to what he had to say about a particular landmark. It was a nice tradeoff though. I thoroughly enjoyed our tour today and learned a lot about my temporary home as well.

After we disembarked from the bus, we walked to an Italian restaurant that we had passed on the way to the bus stop earlier that day. We enjoyed some excellent food (I had pesto penne pasta) and discussed what our favorite sights on the tour were. I particularly enjoyed the Chinatown portion of the tour, especially seeing the humongous arch that was a given to the US by China (which can be seen below). That arch does not have a single screw, nut, or bolt on it. It was actually assembled by sliding the wood pieces together like a puzzle. I found it fascinating that something so large, ornate, and beautiful could be put together in such a way and still be stable.

After lunch we agreed to take the scenic route back to the subway. We took a very long detour through the historical living spaces of center city Philly. We watched horse-drawn carriages pull families along the stone paved road and got to see some apartment buildings that were very old. Again, the architecture in this area was mainly composed of red brick buildings with an occasional stone built home or church. We also passed the graveyard where Ben Franklin is actually buried. We had learned earlier that people leave pennies on his tomb because he coined (no pun intended) the phrase “a penny saved is a penny earned.” This very long walk was our first extensive encounter with the humidity of the east coast. The heat had not been too much of a problem until today, but it was noticeably muggy on our walk, even though the weather forecast in the hotel lobby said there would be thunderstorms today.

After our walk, we returned to the subway tunnels. It was actually relieving to be down there because it was slightly cooler underground and there were big fans bolted to some of the columns. We returned to the hotel for a couple of hours so we could shower and get a quick rest before leaving for dinner. After I cleaned up and got settled back in, I downloaded a program called Dropbox that was sent to us by one of the administrators of our program. This is how we will be given some reading that will help us with the guest lecturers that have been picked to speak for the program. At first glance it is a series of articles, but I have not had a chance to look at them yet because it took a very long time just to download them over the hotel wifi. At about 8:00 we left the hotel to go to dinner.

We ate at a more up-scale Italian restaurant very close to our hotel. It was actually right next to the Penn Student Store. We enjoyed a lovely dinner in the nearly empty restaurant. Our host and waiter were both from Italy and had very thick Italian accents. It was fun to talk with them, mostly because they had nothing but wonderful things to say about California. After another great meal, we returned to our hotel for the night.

Tomorrow we will finally be moving in to Penn! I am very anxious to see if they will honor our (mine and Brian’s) requests to be roommates. I cannot wait to start my program Tuesday and I look forward to a hopefully painless check-in tomorrow. Until then, I’m signing off.

Real life Red Coats!

The Ben Franklin Bridge

Betsy Ross' house, with an American flag outside. Interesting...

The aforementioned arch from China

The second biggest Hard Rock Cafe guitar in the world.

Philadelphia City Hall

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (aka the Rocky steps).

It's all too Phun to make Puns about Philly

Today was our day to go out and tour Philadelphia to go get to know the city that we’ll be spending the next month in. We all enjoyed sleeping in a little bit, but we still did a lot during the day. We met downstairs in the hotel’s lobby and walked a few blocks looking for a restaurant. We unanimously agreed to eat breakfast at a classic American diner that looked straight out of the 50’s. I enjoyed the abundance of shiny chrome surfaces reflecting the slightly overcast morning light. I ordered an omelet with hash browns on the side, and within a couple of minutes I was savoring the delicious mix of eggs and potatoes in my mouth. After breakfast, we decided in lieu of a taxi to try out Philadelphia’s subway system. We found a subway station only a block or so away from the restaurant, and after some brief confusion on how to pay our fare and which train line to ride, we rode the subway downtown. The subway station that we exited our train at was located close to the restaurant we ate at last night. Although we already had our hearts set on a double-decker bus tour like the one we had in Washington, D.C. we decided to walk around the downtown area first. We took in a nice view of the Ben Franklin Bridge and Alex, Julia and Mr. Miranda enjoyed some frozen yogurt.

Our stroll downtown with the Franklin Bridge in the background

Soon, we walked over to the starting point for the tourist buses, and although there was one that still had room on the first floor, we decided to wait for the next bus so that we could ride on top. Our wait was definitely worth it because we got to enjoy great views of Philadelphia as well as the company of our tour guide. Our tour guide was great because he knew tons about Philadelphia, but also had a great sense of humor and was therefore very entertaining. Though there were literally dozens of cool things to see, I enjoyed seeing city hall again, as well as all of the places that Ben Franklin was involved with. We saw the firehouse Franklin founded the place where he allegedly discovered electricity, where the constitutional convention was held, and the university he founded-the University of Pennsylvania-. I’m looking forward to visiting the Franklin Institute which is a hands-on museum that set the bar for similar museums. One last fun thing that we saw on our tour was the Philadelphia Museum of Art which is famous for the shot in Rocky where Rocky runs up the steps.

Philadelphia City Hall

ROCKY!

One area we lacked foresight in was forgetting to bring enough water with us on the bus. I brought one small bottle, and in the intense heat, it was gone in about 10 minutes. Therefore, as soon as we got off the bus, we headed straight to the nearest restaurant and ordered a round of ice water and soda. Our waiter was friendly, and we realized it was getting near lunchtime, so we decided to try out the restaurant’s lunch. I had an excellent dish of pasta with pesto sauce on it.

The cold soda in front of me took precedence over everything else at the time

Julia behind Art School gates

We decided to head back to the hotel for a little break from the heat and humidity. The air-conditioned room and soft bed were a little too comfortable, and soon I fell asleep for a couple of hours. Once I woke up, I was disoriented because I never nap during the day, so I thought it was already the 4^th of July and that we needed to move in in a few hours. Alex got me back on track, and I soon adjusted to the fact that it was 7 P.M. not 7 A.M. Soon enough, we decided to head out for dinner. Even coming from the San Francisco Bay Area, I was impressed at the variety and density of restaurants in the area. Because Mr. Miranda had been letting us choose where to eat for the last couple of days, and knowing that he’s into food, we pushed him to decide where we should eat. He picked an Italian place that was only a few blocks away from our hotel. We were awarded for our faith in his restaurant choosing abilities, because the restaurant was excellent. While I was busy enjoying some bread and olive oil, I forgot that I had had pasta only a few hours earlier, and I ordered the cappellini pasta.

Exploring the City

This morning was a very relaxing one (mostly because we got to sleep in until 10:00). On our walk to a nearby restaurant I was surprised at how hot and humid the weather continued to be despite forecasts of possible thunderstorms (which were fortunately inaccurate).

After a lovely omelet, we familiarized ourselves with the public transportation that is available in Philly. Although at first rather confused, we got the hang of the SEPTA/trolley system by the end of the day. It's quite convenient and although the heat makes the low-cellinged stations slightly uncomfortable and the trains suffer from the same unsanitary and crowded conditions as nearly every city's public transportation, it is not much worse than BART or AC transit. The important thing is that it got the job done and we were at the heart of the city soon enough.

Once there, we took another open-top bus tour. This one, I have to say, was far more entertaining than the one we took on Friday. The tour guide was a real person (as opposed to the CD recording that played for us in D.C.) and he was very enthusiastic. On our tour we went past the US Mint (were coins and medals of honor are produced), Betsy Ross' house, Love Park, Logan circle, the Liberty Bell, countless museums, and Chinatown. Although we did not get off at any of the sites to look at them a little more closely, many of the museums and landmarks we passed are on the UPenn calender as optional outings so I am looking forward to taking advantage of that as much as possible.

Our tour guide told us an overwhelming number of interesting facts about the city from its founding as a colony to the last time their baseball game won the world series. One of the most interesting facts to me, personally was that more people walk and bike to work in Philadelphia than any other city in the United States.

Another particularly appealing aspect of Philly is its the amazing amount of public art and murals that are scattered around the city. According to our guide, there is an ordinance in place that requires a certain percentage of the budget of every city project to be dedicated exclusively to the arts. This results in a number of interesting statues and beautiful paintings that more than make up for the trash and graffiti that builds up on some of the main streets. They give Philly a very unique vibe.

After our tour, we set out on foot to explore for ourselves a little. We walked around Old City and saw the site where Benjamin Franklin's house once stood. We also walked past a street from colonial times that holds the record for longest continually inhabited street in the US. We ran into a couple historical re-enactment actors dressed in colonial clothing, some of them in the traditional red-coat uniform of British soldiers. It was entertaining to say the least.

Once we had gotten out fill of Philly and chowed down on some delicious Italian food, we took the trolley back to our hotel (but not before buying some UPenn garb at the bookstore). Today, because of the few extra hours of sleep this morning, instead of napping, I used the few hours of spare time we had before dinner to check out the treadmills in the fitness room and look over some of the reading material we were given for our first week of Penn. I was planning on simply skimming a few articles, but I found it very interesting and ended up reading all the way through a coupe of them. I learned a lot about light waves and vision and the parts that I didn't understand just got me more excited to learn more about it. I genuinely think I am going to have as much fun in the labs and classrooms than I will exploring the city, which is extremely exciting.

Phinally in Philly

Today was a very full and productive day. At 6 A.M. we hopped out of bed, packed our luggage up, and met downstairs in our hotel lobby at 6:15. It was pretty early, and we were in a hurry to get moving, so I didn’t eat at the hotel lobby, but decided to wait until later. We took a taxi that was waiting for us, and we all enjoyed the sights of Washington, D.C. one more time. Soon, we arrived at the large D.C. train station, and once again I was struck by the gorgeous architecture of the massive building. We walked under one of the three enormous U.S. flags, and quickly found our train’s departure gate. Inside, I enjoyed seeing how many people were using the train system. I think that it’s unfortunate that we don’t have a lot more public transportation in California, because riding the train here was a convenient and pleasant experience. As soon as we pulled away from the D.C. station, I enjoyed staring out the windows at the expansive forests and occasional swamps. After a while, I got tired of staring out the window so I dug through my backpack for some sort of entertainment. First, I ate the bagel and drank the orange juice that I had purchased at the train station, and then I started reading a book that I brought with me. The book I read some of on the train was “Fast Food Nation”, a muck-racking novel about the fast food industry that I was assigned to read over the summer for an AP Language class that I will be taking this coming year. I found the writing to be quite graphic, and equally persuasive at scaring me away from fast-food which I already refuse to eat. Soon enough, we arrived in Philadelphia, and we took a taxi to our nearby hotel. It was clear from the start that Philadelphia is a college town, because I saw lots of UPENN flags on the short ride to the hotel. Soon enough, we ventured out into the streets of Philadelphia, and the heart of the UPENN campus was only a few blocks from our hotel. Once we were on campus, I was excited to see several parts of the campus that I recognized, such as the multiple Ben Franklin statues that are scattered around campus.

Soon, we discovered a beautiful botany garden on campus that contained a large pond with dozens of turtles, several ducklings, huge koi fish, and a pretty waterfall. While UPENN is a very urban campus, this pond was a very nicely designed haven from the bustling city of Pennsylvania. We walked around a bit more, and then we found a nice restaurant on campus. The restaurant had a very modern design, a friendly staff, and a killer pepperoni pizza that I thoroughly enjoyed. After lunch, we had a bit of free time back at the hotel. While we have spent a large amount of the past few days on our feet, I’m used to bike riding several times a week to burn off energy at home, so I decided to check out our hotel’s fitness center. Besides the large outdoor pool that I plan to visit tomorrow, the fitness center has a spacious cardio and weight room. I spent about an hour running on a treadmill enjoying the view of the Philadelphia skyline. After that, we headed downtown to a restaurant called Butcher and Singer. The interior was beautifully lit, and we sat down at a table near the entrance. Only a minute or two later, we were joined by June Chu and Margaret Wang. Margaret is a current UPENN student from Guam who was very enthusiastic to talk with us about anything we were interested in. June, a pre-major advisor, was also very willing to tell us tons about UPENN. The most important thing that I took back from the evening was a taste of UPENN’s culture. I learned about the local restaurants, the huge number of student clubs, and that Margaret really enjoys her fellow students at the UPENN campus. With our stroll through the gorgeous Penn campus, and enthusiastic comments about Penn by Margaret, I am even more excited about learning at this beautiful Ivy League School.

Enough Said.



Inhabitants of the Botanical Park

Our First Glimpse of the Place We Will Call Home

My day began at 6:00 this morning. Brian and I were able to finish packing our things before 6:15, the time that we had designated to leave our hotel in Georgetown, and head for the train station. We arrived at Union Station with plenty of time to spare so we grabbed a quick breakfast from the Starbucks, which for me consisted of a bagel and hot chocolate, in the station. After a brief period of waiting to board the train, we were off to Philadelphia.

The train ride was only about an hour and a half long. For about the first twenty minutes, Mr. Miranda and I discussed innovations in learning that have been developed in recent years. This led to a conversation about the age gap between his generation and my own in which we analyzed the benefits and trade-offs of having technology that fosters a constant desire for instant gratification. I enjoy talking to Mr. Miranda very much. He is extremely intelligent and seems like a bit of a renaissance man because he is so knowledgeable about so many different things. We are very fortunate to have him as our chaperone. It is kind of saddening to think that we will be departing his company (for the most part) in just a few days. After my conversations with Mr. Miranda, I began listening to music and gazing upon the beautiful countryside and occasional towns that we passed on our smooth train ride to Philadelphia. Before I knew it, we had arrived in the City of Brotherly Love.

We took taxis to our hotel for early check-in so we could drop off our bags before the information session at Penn. It turns out that our hotel is adjacent to the campus (if not actually within, we cannot quite discern Penn’s boundaries yet). Before today, I only had a vague sense of what it meant for a college to have an urban campus. I had never imagined that it would mean such complete integration into the city. You truly cannot tell where the campus boundaries end and the city streets of Philadelphia begin. I’m still deciding whether I find this appealing or not. After check-in, we took a taxi as close to College Hall (the Penn Admissions Building) as we could. We had to walk the rest of the way, but that certainly is not a complaint because Penn’s campus can be easily appreciated for its ascetics. Upon our arrival at College Hall, we discovered that every person in the Admissions Office left early for the Fourth of July weekend!

Since there were no Penn faculty members, there was neither an information session to attend nor a campus tour to be taken on. Although we were slightly discouraged at first, we decided to take our own campus tour around parts of the campus. Although we were not able to get any of the history of the school or detailed information about what each building housed, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves by taking in Penn’s beautiful architecture, wildlife, and serene inner campus. I think my favorite part about the campus thus far is the architecture. Most of the buildings are either made completely out of stone or bricks, and most are very ornate. Every building seemed to be unique in its own way and it made the campus feel like a living thing that was in no way uniform. After taking our own personal tour, I am very excited to learn more about Penn and am even more anxious to move in on Monday.

Following our self-guided tour, we made a brief stop into the Penn Student Store and then grabbed lunch at a restaurant called Cosi that specialized in dishes involving flatbread. I forgot to snap some pictures, but I enjoyed a flavorful pesto chicken sandwich and a small bowl of creamy, rich tomato basil soup. I will definitely eat at Cosi again at some point this month, after I experiment with the other restaurants Penn’s campus and the surrounding city have to offer of course.

We finally had our first opportunity to relax this afternoon. The past two days have been rather hectic and it was nice to be able to slow down for a moment. Since we planned to do our tour of Philadelphia tomorrow, we decided to take the afternoon off. From about 1:30 to 5:15 we reclined in our respective hotel rooms. Brian and I spent the first couple of hours just hanging out and having some laughs. Then he left to take a run in the fitness center of the hotel and I decided to pay back some more of my sleep debt by taking a short nap. After I awoke refreshed, I got dressed for our dinner at the Butcher and Singer Restaurant with Ms. June Chu and Ms. Margaret Wang.

We left the hotel around 6:00 and taxied to the restaurant. The ride took less time than we thought and we arrived a good thirty-five minutes early. We took the opportunity to walk down to the massive and ornate Philadelphia City Hall. This mammoth building was made almost completely of stone and had dozens of statues and other artistic carvings adorning its exterior. I will have to take pictures from a distance during tomorrow’s sight-seeing so that I can capture it in all of its glory. After a twenty-minute walk, we had returned to the restaurant and were soon seated.

Dinner was fantastic and I am proud of myself for organizing the occasion (thanks for your assistance and suggestions Mr. Ramsey!). Ms. Chu, a Pre-Major Advisor from Penn, and Ms. Wang were both excellent company and very thorough whenever we had questions about the school. It was evident that they both loved the school very much and were happy with their decisions to work and attend, respectively, this university. Over the course of dinner, Ms. Chu was able to inform us about how intertwined the lives of the faculty and the students are and also the numerous pros of attending Penn. Margaret was also able to give us all kinds of inside information like excellent places to eat, fun classes to take (if we apply and get into Penn), and why she decided to go to Penn. Not only did we have excellent company, but also amazing food. The entrees were rather large and the sides were served family style. I enjoyed a tender piece of veal that was charred to perfection. We all shared dishes of mashed potatoes, green beans, mushrooms and onions, stuffed hash browns, and creamed spinach. Each of these dishes brought something exciting to the meal and my plate was a wonderful medley of flavors. For desert I decided to partake in some delectable New York Cheesecake with blackberries and nice blackberry sauce. The contrast of the sweet and bitter made for an excellent dessert. Dinner left me very satisfied, both in terms of my curiosity regarding Penn and in terms of the meal.

Today was a fairly relaxed day, and a welcome one at that. I continue to cherish the time I spend with my cohort because they are all fun people and we’ve really become a tightly-knit family over the past few days. I look forward to sight-seeing tomorrow and spending my Independence Day with our Penn cohort. With that, I am signing off.

Our new hotel room.

A glorious Philadelphia horizon.

A gigantic Penn crest.

Penn wildlife.

Wooden hands are surprisingly comfortable to sit on...

The six of us at Butcher and Singer.

First Impression

It was another early start today; we arrived at Union Station at about 6:45AM. The sheer size of the building was enough to wake me up a little. Compared to the Amtrak stations in the Bay Area, Union Station was a marble palace. It's obvious that trains are a much more widely used form of transportation here on the east coast than back at home. I now wish we had such easily accessible and exquisitely furnished train stations, the trip to Philadelphia was very pleasant. The seats were comfortable and the view out the window of the Maryland and Delaware lakes and greenery were quite beautiful.

Within about two hours, we were checking into our hotel in the exquisite city of Philadelphia. Immediately, the first thing I noticed when I arrived (after the scorching heat) was how very friendly and chatty the people we met were. Compared to the suit-clad brief-case-carrying commuters of D.C., the people in Philly seemed very personable. The trend continued throughout the day.

Before lunch, we strolled to the University of Pennsylvania campus hoping to catch the 11:00 information session and tour. Unfortunately, all the buildings were closed and most of the faculty had gone home for the Fourth of July long weekend. So instead, we showed ourselves around campus. Armed with a map, we found our way around all the amazing arcatectre of the stone and brick buildings that towered high above our heads.

As we explored the campus, I got more and more excited for the start of classes on Tuesday. Not only were the buildings, landscape work and walkways all very pleasant, I also got the feeling that when the campus wasn't deserted, it would be even more impressive and very lively.

On our stroll, we stumbled across a small, tranquil park. Complete with a coy fish pond that housed a multitude of turtles and ducks, a waterfall, and a winding path that passed by many secluded benches. We spent a long time in the shade of the trees taking in the wildlife. We met a very nice couple there who told us a little bit about the pond and how the animals survive during the winter when it freezes over, pointed out the biggest and oldest coy fish, nicknamed "Big Red", and recommended a very good restaurant to eat lunch.

We took their advice and found that the food was, in fact, quite good. They served flat bread that they baked in a huge oven right in front of us, it was pretty amazing.

After lunch we returned to the hotel for a few hours of downtime (an Ivy League Connection first) before hitting the city streets for a short stroll around the town before dinner. We walked past the very impressive city hall, the giant clothes pin, and countless shops and restaurant that all seemed very exciting.

I found myself enjoying the wide sidewalks and sky-high buildings of Philly. The city is great for walking in, an the uniform street layout made it easy to get around. I look forward to exploring it with my fellow ILCers whenever I can this month.

When we sat down to eat dinner, I must admit I was a little nervous. Tonight was the night we were meeting with June Y. Chu, an academic counselor at UPenn and Margaret Wang, a current student. As soon as the two showed up, I was immediately put at ease. Both of them were extremely friendly and quite funny. Margaret shared some valuable information with us about what it's like being a science major at Penn. She also told us which restaurants in the area she thought were good; it was quite a long list. In fact, When Ms. Chu asked her which restaurants she didn't like, Margaret was at a loss.

Ms. Chu also had a wealth of knowledge about the university. It was interesting to hear from her about what she thought set Penn apart from other Ivy Leagues, specifically that Penn makes a point to empower students and be as flexible with their individual ideas as possible. It was an overall very valuable experience and she very generously offered to answer any follow up questions we had once our program started via e-mail.

After wandering the campus and speaking with Margaret and Ms. Chu, I feel very confidant that this program is something that will challenge me as a student and a person, but that if I feel at all lost or confused I have a number of resources that I can turn too thanks to the Ivy League Connection.