Amidst the calm of the storm of papers and midterms in installments of pages and pages of 12pt, double spaced, Times New Roman regurgitation of information, I decided to head down up to Philadelphia to try and learn a little more history. What we got instead was a really pleasant weekend and an opportunity to test out our "winter" clothes so that we may return them if they don’t insulate us sufficiently.
The most obvious learning journey was visiting the liberty bell and the Independence hall. Philadelphia was pretty quiet that Saturday morning, and pretty cold and windy but we managed to walk around without getting on the Metro, passing by these famous attractions. However, the city surprised us with even more tidbits of significant American history as we coincidentally – unplanned – passed by many other elements of American history and culture such as the First Bank of the United States, the Academy of Natural Sciences and City Hall which was constructed in 1871 but remained the tallest building in the city until 1987.
Compulsory tourist photo-op with the bell, a symbol of freedom for many, even those not from America.
Architecturally, Philadelphia had a different feel from Washington DC and passing through the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school, we had a glimpse of a different look at what a college in America might look like. My travel-mates marveled a little at how much (slightly) grander things look and at the stadium lights in the distant. I very much prefer GW, and for a moment I was GW-homesick but it was quickly remedied with a halal Philly Cheese Steak and a good cheap haircut at a local barber.
A travel mate quipped, “Is this based on a true story?” Sometimes, we reify fiction until it becomes real.
We were literally in 16:9 Widescreen because the buildings spread out; which also meant hours of walking.
Arguably, the cheese steak was probably not “authentic”, but it was really good. A night of toilet terror left me weak on Sunday but it was worth it.
Embarrassingly, we enjoyed our time the most eating, staring at the mechanical dinosaur for 10 minutes waiting for it to move and running up the Rocky Steps.