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| We went out to breakfast Wednesday morning |
Leah and I spent the beginning of class rewiring Titus’s car, again. We had made a slight mistake when originally wiring the buttons, we hadn't taken into account the specifics of the parent controls. Because of this we had to rewire our acceleration button and add another switch to the system, this switch now serves at the primary on and off switch. We then made sure everything else was working correctly concerning our car. It all looked good, so we finished up in the classroom and headed to the computer lab.
There we each started working on posters which would show the process we went through making the cars. Unfortunately we weren't able to finish these posters, but just starting them was nice as it gave us time to reflect on the class as a whole. It was also interesting to see what everyone else went through making their own cars.
After class we had some free time, I decided to just hang out with some girls from my floor for this.
We had our last SOFT time that night, I went to the bookstore and Ben and Jerry’s. I had a really fun time with the three girls I was with, and as always the ice cream was delicious.
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| We weaved a "friendship web" during our nightly meeting |
Thursday was fun filled, exciting, and emotional.
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| Titus's finished car |
In the morning our class delivered our cars to the kids we were working with. It was a bit nerve-wracking, considering we had spent three weeks working up to that moment. We ended up having to do a few modifications after putting Titus in the car, adding a bit more padding and adjusting the straps for more trunk support. After lots of careful adjustments, it was finally time for Titus to try to drive his car. He was able to make it go a bit, but found everything quite overwhelming, so we decided it would be best to give it a break and send him home with his car. Titus’s mom was really exited about the car, and she promised to send us updates on his usage of it. I’m really excited to see how Titus does with the car, and I hope that the mobility it provides will benefit his development.
After finishing up with the car delivery we did our final concept map and took a survey about our VSA experience, these were fun activities as they made us reflect on what we have learned in and outside of class during VSA.
We had some time left over, so our class decided to fill up the white board with some of our favorite memories of our time together. I enjoyed reliving the past three weeks though this and also seeing what moments stood out to others in the class.
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| Our memory filled whiteboard |
Next, we had Closing Ceremony, where we listened to a few brief speeches and watched a slideshow. It was a bit emotional, there were many laughs, smiles, and even some tears.
Later on we had our last dance, this as also pretty emotional as it was our last activity with all of VSA. I spent most of the night playing board games, as I’m not much of a dancer.
We had our last proctor group meeting, again, it was emotional. Some tears were shed. Actually, many tears were shed. We talked about our favorite memories at VSA, I relived some fun moments that I had forgotten about. Our meeting lasted much longer than it was supposed to, but I was happy about this, I was happy that I got to spend more time with the girls that have become my family during these past three weeks. It was hard to think about leaving, but I'm so thankful for the time I've gotten to spend at VSA.
Friday morning went by entirely too fast.
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| Bye Vandy |
I woke up around 6:30 AM in order to finish up packing before breakfast. I struggled to get my comforter cover and sheets into a space bag, one of my friends kindly offered to ship it back to me from her house in Dickson (so I have more suitcase space!). And then I headed downstairs for my last breakfast at VSA.
At breakfast I sat with some girls form my proctor group, it’s really crazy that just three weeks ago they were strangers to me and now they're some of my best friends.
After breakfast we had about five minutes to say our final goodbyes to anyone that wasn't living on our floors, all of us ran around trying to hug as many people as possible in the final few minutes.
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| Me and some of the girls from my floor with Livvy's new puppy, Fredrick |
Before I knew it, Jennifer was picking us up, and all of our luggage was loaded into a bright pink cab. I looked back at Hank as we departed for the airport, sad to leave but happy with the memories I’ll come home with.
Soon enough we were at the airport and checking our bags. A few of ours were slightly overweight, but with some quick shuffling of items we were able to sort it out and go through security. We eventually made it to our gate, on the way there we even ran into some of our fellow VSAers who were also flying out of Tennessee, one of them even ended up being on our plane.
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| I couldn't resist taking this picture |
We arrived in Chicago only to find that our flight had been delayed for about an hour, making our layover now two hours long. We took this extra time to have lunch and find outlets to charge our phones before boarding our next plane to Philadelphia.
Our plane ride to Philadelphia was really fast, but a but bumpy at times as we were going through some bad weather.
Upon arriving in Philadelphia we quickly got our bags and picked up our rental car. From there we drove to the Sheraton Hotel.
The hotel is really nice, it’s a tall building with a very modern design inside and out. Our room has a very comforting feel to it, and I think the mattress is a bit better than those at VSA (not that I didn’t love my bed there). I’m happy that we get to stay in such a nice hotel for our time here in Philadelphia.
After settling in we headed to Disterito, a modern Mexican restaurant. The restaurant had a very fun atmosphere, with the pink walls, silly signs, and swings that were scattered through out. After mulling over the menu for a while (everything looked so good) I decided to get a quesadilla with carnitas, a meal which was delicious. Joceline and I also each got horchata, they were really good, not too sweet but still sweet enough. We finished up dinner and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for a nice night’s sleep, one that is long overdue for me.
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| My amazing dinner |
Looking back, the last three days, and three weeks, have gone by so quickly. They've been full of new experiences, new ideas, and new memories, and I'm excited to continue our trip and make new memories in Philadelphia with a tour of U Penn and some sight seeing tomorrow.
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