The Room Where it Happened

Yesterday was my final day with my cohort in Philadelphia. We woke up a little earlier than Saturday for breakfast at Spread, where I got another wheat bagel but with a different spread on it. 

After breakfast, we got our luggage ready to leave at the hotel while we continued our tour around the historic area in Philadelphia. We then made our way to pick up our tickets for the Independence Hall tour. We arrived rather early so we walked around the visitor center for a while, reading information from several small exhibits. 

Bottom view of Independence Hall

We went through security to wait in line for the tour and soon enough we were getting rounded up to enter Independence Hall. The tour began with the room on the left, which happened to be the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania at the time. Just like the courts today there were pews for the jury and it was obvious where the judge sat. The biggest difference was that there was a cage in the middle, where the person being put on trial would stand. We discussed how guilty a person might look, already standing behind bars. There was also the witness stand, which was literally just a place for a person to stand. Because court hearings were a public thing, there were no doors just doorways where people could stand and fill up the room.

The next room across the hall is the more exciting one of the tour because that is where both the Declaration of Independence and the Consitution were created. That room did serve several other purposes since it was one of the bigger buildings in the area and could be rented out for events. The room itself doesn't seem too grand but they had the actual chair where George Washington sat, which I find pretty exciting. It's also simply interesting to think that something so significant happened in that same room so many years ago. 

The iconic room where it happened

The tour itself was just those two rooms, so it was really short. Afterward, we went to the Liberty Bell exhibition. It went over the significance behind the Liberty Bell and what it later symbolized for different groups of people. They even had x-rays of the bell, where they found more internal problems other than just the crack that didn't allow it to function anymore. At the end of the exhibit, they had the actual Liberty Bell so of course, we had to take a photo with it. 

We did a bit more walking until hunger, as it usually does, got the best of us so we decided to get lunch at the Reading Terminal Market. I think that indoor market does a great job at representing how diverse Philadelphia is. Quite literally all the food smelled so good and it had many stands with nifty souvenirs and random artifacts. Cammie and I decided to do a lap around the market before finding something to eat. We came across a bookshop that had a very unique selection of books, Mein Kampf in paperback included. There was also a Philadelphia souvenir store, where I got a mandatory Philadelphia Pretzel t-shirt. 

Once we had our souvenirs we decided to get some actual food. There were too many options to choose from, and somehow we ended up getting Pad Thai. Although my noodles lacked tofu, I was still very satisfied with my lunch. By the time we were done eating, it was time to meet up with the whole group and head back. 

On our way to our car, we stopped by Thomas Jefferson's house, but we didn't spend too much time there since there wasn't much there but it was a nice sight from the outside.

We also went by to the cemetery, where Ben Franklin and several others significant to Philadelphia are buried. There were pennies on top of his grave, but I cannot remember why people put them there. After a few minutes of walking around there, we finally got to the car to go get our luggage from the hotel.

It was a short drive to the hotel and then to the airport, where we had to say goodbye to the beautiful Philadelphia. 

The flight from Philadelphia to Chicago felt pretty short, and yet again I sat with Evan and Cammie. The layover in Chicago left us just enough time to get something to eat, but there was no pilot yet so we actually had to wait a little to get onto the plane. I was pretty ready to get on though because I was really hungry.

The flight from Chicago back home was one of the longer ones we had taken in a while, which gave Cammie and me plenty of talking time along with donut eating time. This time Evan didn't get to sit with us, and the guy next to the window was pretty interested in taking a nap. He made it evident by closing both of the windows next to him. 

Arrival at El Cerrito High School was pretty exciting, and I was really looking forward to getting some sleep. It was also bittersweet though, having my last ILC experience come to an end. We took some last cohort photos and said goodbye, at least for now.

Last cohort photo

A Bittersweet Homecoming

After an amazing three weeks, yesterday it was finally time to head back home. Our flight didn't leave until around 5:00 PM, so we still had some time in Philadelphia on Sunday.

I started off my day bright and early, waking up around 6:00 AM so that I could shower and finish packing. I had to sit on my suitcase, but eventually I was able to close it. It seemed like it had more in it than it had when I left for Tennessee just three weeks ago, but felt lighter at the same time.

After all of my stuff was together, and Maddie and Joceline were ready to go, we headed downstairs to meet Evan and Jennifer for breakfast. We decided to go to our local bagel shop, Spread, again. I had a cup of coffee and a cinnamon raisin bagel with mixed berry cream cheese, it was delicious.

My yummy breakfast

After breakfast it was time to go to the historical district for a tour of independence hall and some other sight seeing. We arrived at the visitor center a little over an hour before our tour was scheduled to start, so we had time to pick up our tickets and check out some of the smaller exhibits within the visitor center. I really enjoyed reading about some of our country's early history and seeing some minor artifacts that were on display. There were also a few costumes that people could try on, it was fun to see Jennifer dressed up as a park ranger.

Independence Hall

Soon enough it was time to head over to Independence Hall as we had to go through security before our tour. The security was really fast and easy, within no time we were waiting in line for our tour to start. The tour itself wasn't very long, as it only included the two downstairs parts of Independence Hall. The first of these was the court room, it was really interesting to see just how similar it was to modern court rooms. It just goes to show how little our trial process has changed in so many years, at least concerning formalities such as the layout of the court room. Next we went across the hall, to the room where the Deceleration of Independence was drafted. There the tour guide gave us a brief explanation of how exactly the Declaration of Independence came into being, it was interesting for me to contrast her explanation with what I've learned in history class. 

The tour was over a lot faster than we had expected it to be, so we decided to go check out the Liberty Bell. This was one of my favorite parts of the day, I really enjoyed the exhibits that sought to explain why the Liberty Bell has so much historical significance. It was also interesting to read about how its famous crack might have come into existence and what attempts were made to repair it.

My delicious lunch

By the time we were finished at the bell everyone was hungry, so we headed over to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. There Jennifer gave us each some money for lunch, and then let us go off in groups of two for an hour to explore the market and get food. Joceline and I spent a while walking around the market and trying to decide what we wanted for lunch. We stumbled across a small gift shop where we each bought some souvenirs for our family and friends back home. I also bought some honey sticks from a small vendor, as I'm an avid tea drinker and also a honey enthusiast. We settled on Thai food for lunch, and each got delicious bowls of pad thai. Before we knew it, our hour was over and it was time to meet up with the rest of the group.

We made our way back to the car, stopping at a few sights along the way. And eventually we were back at the hotel and picking up our bags. We quickly loaded the bags into the car and were off to the airport in no time. 

Upon arriving at the airport we got our boarding passes and checked our bags, then headed to security. Evan and I were TSA Pre, meaning we got to go through a much shorter line and didn’t have to take off our shoes or take our laptops out. This was really nice as I, along with everyone else, really don’t like having to go through airport security. 

An obligatory wing tip picture

We then found our gate at the airport and within what seemed like no time we were boarding the plane and leaving Philadelphia. We had to fly through Chicago, so our first plane ride was relatively short, but the flight from Chicago to San Francisco was pretty long. We had about a 40 minute layover in between flights, which was just enough time to grab some dinner before we had to leave. Joceline, Maddie, and I all got paninis which we ate on the plane. Joceline and I also got some donuts as an after dinner snack, getting those was a great idea in the end. The flight was pretty late so we spent most of it dosing off, in between eating our donuts. We were all exhausted and ready to be back in California soon.

Arriving at SFO felt great, the cool air, the familiar surroundings, and knowing that my family was nearby. We quickly picked up our bags and then boarded the shuttle that would take us back to El Cerrito High School, where we had started our adventure roughly three weeks ago. 

We arrived at the school at around 11 PM, and were greeted by Don taking photos of us getting off the shuttle. My mom and Evan’s dad were waiting for us, both Evan and I ran to give some much needed hugs to our parents. We finished up with some pictures of the whole cohort, and then we were sent home.

I ran to my room as soon as I stepped inside my house, happy to be back and ready to get a nice night’s sleep in my own bed. I'm happy to be home, but also sad that the experience is over as it went by so quickly. 

Cheese Steaks and Prison

Today was a day of early rising and we walked down the street to the bagel shop across the street first thing in the morning. The bagels were really dense but it was still very good. We had some small talk and it was a very pleasant time being together in the morning for the first time in a while. At one point I just started laughing so hard I probably would have snorted my orange juice if I was drinking it while some of the jokes were being told.

Evan speaking with Ben Franklin

Then afterwards we went to UPenn to go to the site visit. The admissions officer, Kim, was very nice and engaging. So was Louis, the student taking us around on a tour, but Penn didn't speak to me as much as Vanderbilt honestly. It's just a little too much on the urban side for me. Everyone else seemed to like Penn more than Vandy though.

After a quick lunch near the campus we went to the Eastern State Penitentiary and had a tour with a tour guide named Angelina. She was very nice and knew exactly what she was talking about. Probably the most interesting fact I learned today was that Al Capone was actually held in this prison.

One of the towers at the penitentiary

As we were leaving the penitentiary to go to Spruce Harbor Park, we saw a taxi cab that had the number (215) 666-6666 on the side of it, which we decided to dub "the taxi cab to Hell." It became the running gag for the rest of the day, honestly.

Once we were at Spruce Harbor, we hung around by the water with a snack and just had a conversation about what we did while at VSA as we played games. It was quite interesting hearing about what everyone else had done, because we were all in different classes, groups, and houses. It was especially funny how everyone's group chats from our respective proctor groups were blowing up and giving us more conversation fodder before we went to go to dinner.

Evan and Ms. Hansen playing giant Connect 4.

Dinner was delicious. We had cheese steaks and I was really surprised with how good they were. They were just everything a hot sandwich should be and it was really nice. After dinner we just stopped by the bookstore before heading back to the hotel, and that was the day in summary.

CHEESE STEAK.

Getting to Know Philadelphia

After arriving in Philadelphia last night, we woke up bright and early in order to tour the University of Pennsylvania. I was really excited to see a school I've heard so much about, and I know the rest of the cohort was looking forward to it too.

My delicious bagel

But, before our tour, we had to stop and get breakfast. We went to a cute bagel shop called Spread, where I got a plain bagel with mixed berry cream cheese. I was pretty excited to try an east coast bagel, as I've been given rave reviews, and they definitely lived up to those expectations. Also, the coffee was really good, much better than Commons coffee. 

Soon enough we were heading to Penn, we arrived at the info session location about 15 minutes before it started. There we were given wristbands, for building access, and ushered into an auditorium where we found our seats for the presentation. As usual, it was an admissions counselor who gave the presentation, Kim outlined three of the most important factors to consider when applying to Penn. Those being academics, social life, and the application process. The academics really stood out to me, at Penn you have such a wide range of options concerning majors, and you can choose to double major in different departments or even do a dual degree. This lenience really appealed to me as I'm not quite sure what I'd like to pursue in college at the moment.

We next went on a tour of campus, this was probably my favorite part of the day. Our tour guide, Luis, was really interesting and was clearly passionate about the school. He shared his personal experiences concerning his academic and social life at Penn, and gave us the other basic tour information. He explained that he came to Penn as a pre-med student, but is now a political science major with a math minor. This only enforced my prior feelings about the flexibility that Penn gives it's students.

Locust walk

The campus itself is beautiful, Penn is one of the oldest universities in the country so most of the buildings are, also, really old. They've preserved most of the buildings, and kept the architectural integrity of the campus by doing so. As an architecture nerd, I loved seeing how the buildings were constructed and what sort of style each one had. One thing that was really apparent was the excess of brick, something that (even though there isn't much around where we live) felt really homey. 

Sadly, our tour came to an end eventually. We had some free time before our next scheduled activity, so we did a quick photo-op with the famous Benjamin Franklin statue and then checked out the bookstore.

After some time perusing the store we had lunch at a comfort food restaurant called Cosi. I had mac and cheese, a meal with never disappoints.

One side of the prison

The next item on our agenda was touring the Eastern State Penitentiary, one of Americas first solitary confinement style prisons. We had a guided tour of the prison, and our tour guide, Angelina, was very knowledgeable about the buildings history. It was built in in 1821, and closed in 1971, only to become reopened to the public as a historical sight in 1996. From 1971 to 1996 it remained vacant and abandoned, which is the main reason it is in such a dilapidated state now. By dilapidated, I mean that many of the walls are incomplete, with chipping paint or gaping holes, broken furniture is littered throughout the buildings, and much more. This only adds to the already spooky vibe the prison has stemming from the medieval and gothic architecture. Though it was a bit intimating to walk around in, the prison was really intriguing. Throughout it there are small exhibits set up, dedicated to specific inmates (such as Al Capone), famous events (such as the escape of five inmates via underground tunnel), or artifacts from the prison (like the mummified animal collection). I loved getting to learn about all these stories and get a glimpse into what life was like at the prison when it was open so long ago. 

The outside of the penitentiary 

After we finished up at the penitentiary we headed to Spruce Harbor Park, a grassy stretch along the water with hammocks, games, and concession stands littered through out it. There I got an iced coffee, the caffeine was much needed, while we sat and enjoyed the scenery for a while. I think we all missed seeing the water while we were in Tennessee, at least I did, so it was nice to just be able to relax and talk about our time at VSA in such a comforting place. 

The view from the park

We were all getting hungry, so we decided to go get dinner at Jim's steaks. Upon arriving at the restaurant we were greeted with a pretty big line, so Joceline, Evan, and I decided to go check out some shops while Maddie and Jennifer waited in the line. We stumbled across a pet store, where we befriended a cat (how exciting!) and went to a small consignment shop which we browsed for a while. Soon enough Maddie and Jennifer called us to let us know it was almost time to order, so we headed back to Jim's.

Naturally, we all got cheesesteaks. I was a bit on the fence about them, worried they would be overrated and somewhat disappointing, but in the end I had nothing to be worried about. It was delicious, one of my favorite meals we have had on the trip. And to top it off, I also got a black cherry soda to go with my sandwich, one of my all time favorite drinks. That meal made an already great day so much better, I hope that in the future I'll have the chance to come back to Jim's. 

After such a busy day, all of us were ready to go to bed as we have an early morning tomorrow and a big day ahead of us, I think we're all ready to be home and in our own beds tomorrow night. 

A City Almost as Beautiful as SF

After much anticipation, we had our first full day in the University City of Philadelphia. We began our day by having breakfast across the street from the hotel, at a bagel shop named Spread. I had a very simple whole wheat bagel with peanut butter spread and jam. I accompanied that with an iced coffee that I had really been craving for a while now. Most iced coffees I had been having were sub-par.

Once we were all done with breakfast, we walked over to the Irvine Auditorium, less than a 10-minute walk away from our hotel, for the Penn information session. The auditorium had a very cathedral-like architecture and seemed pretty grand. It differed greatly from the student life center that we had the Vanderbilt information session at. 

The entrance to Irvine Auditorium

The information session began with a video that conveyed what life at Penn was typically life and provided a vast amount of information on the university's history, like the fact that it's the United States' first university. It also pointed out some notable alumni like John Legend and Elon Musk. After the video, the admissions counselor, Kim, began the full information session. I felt like it was different from other information sessions because it didn't have a powerpoint to go along with it. 

Kim addressed several of the most important topics: the four schools at Penn, student life, the admissions process, and financial aid. In the pamphlet and throughout the session, the interdisciplinary way of education at Penn was definitely emphasized. The four schools are the College of Arts and Sceicnes, the Wharton School of Business, Penn Engineering, and the School of Nursing. There are over 50 majors in the College of Arts and Sciences, and last years graduating class of 2400 had 1700 different combinations of majors and minors. That's overall pretty impressive and shows how everyone can really have a broad way of thinking at Penn. Additionally, no matter the school someone is in, they will take classes across the other schools as well to fulfill different requirements and electives. 

Furthermore, we heard a lot about how busy a Penn student usually is since there are so many activities and organizations to be a part of. Additionally, Philadelphia is a great city where there are lots of things to explore. Not to mention, the countless food options to try out. Kim mentioned that there is such a thing called restaurant week at Penn, where some of the best food places have highly discounted prices. It's an event that both faculty and students at Penn look forward to. Housing at Penn also makes it easy to meet new people and try out new things with the different themes the dorms have. There's a dorm that is essential for people who want to explore Philadelphia and really love the city. There is also the women in leadership dorm, among several others that cater to people's interests.

More on student life, there seems to be a great support system for the students at Penn. They have several cultural resource centers, where students of different backgrounds can have a "home away from home" and access to staff members that support them. Unlike other colleges, these resources aren't just online but have physical buildings on campus that students can go to. One of the ones that obviously grabs my attention is La Casa Latina. Being able to find a Latinx community in college is something of great value to me and I feel as though Penn can definitely offer that. 

There is also Penn First, which is a student organization dedicated to providing support for the first generation and low-income students. Our tour guide, Louis Lin, is a rising sophomore at Penn and he shared with me the importance of Penn First to him and how helpful it was for him in terms of getting to Penn. He's also involved with FGLI, a program that facilitates the transition to college for those low-income and first generation students. 

Another big topic was the admissions process and how the admissions counselors review the applications. We didn't talk about this a lot with our tour guide, but Kim did go into some detail about what Penn looks for in its students. There are 5 things to be submitted and then they get sorted into 3 "buckets." There is the one with the transcript, test scores, and teacher recommendations. Those are important, and it's important to have a teacher who can speak really highly of you and not just a teacher who says the student got A's on every single test. That doesn't say much about the student. Then there's the "impact" bucket, which looks at what extracurriculars and other things students are involved in. Kim saying that for students who do sports it's understandable if there are not another 10 things on top of that. Every student is different and some will only be heavily involved in one activity while others will do several.

The most significant thing I got out of the "2nd bucket" bit of the session was that Penn cares that a student is doing something they love. Love seems to be a huge thing in Philadelphia. But, it made me feel a lot better about the extracurriculars I take part in. I personally do value having community involvement and doing team and character building activities, but sometimes I worry I'm not doing enough. Today I sort of realized that there isn't really such thing as "enough" but whether or not I love what I do, and I do love it. I love my busy and slightly overwhelming schedule. 

Kim touched very briefly on financial aid. The pamphlet also provided a breakdown of the cost of attendance for the class of 2019, which looks pretty good for family incomes of less than $100,000 a year, where they only have to pay about 85% of the tuition. Also, Penn's financial aid packages do not include loans and several students are able to graduate without debt. For someone of the community I come from, being able to afford college tends to be a difficult thing so when schools like Penn have strong financial aid, it makes things a lot less stressful. 

If it wasn't evident in these past paragraphs, the site visit at Penn was extremely successful and I retained a lot of good information from both the tour and information session. The campus was also one of my favorite's, being in the middle of a city and still feeling slightly urban but not so sprawled. Louis mentioned that almost all the buildings are about a 10-minute walk from each other, and the city itself is rather bikeable.

After what felt like a pretty quick tour, we decided to grab something to eat near the bookstore. The nearest thing was a sort of grab and go type of restaurant named Cosi. I personally liked it because the options were on the healthier side. I got a smart fit Chicken Noodle soup bowl. Usually, I'm skeptical about the vegetables in Chicken Noodle soups, but these were very edible and delicious.

Once we were all fed, we made our way to the Eastern State Penitentiary. I was a little baffled by the fact that the once-prison was right in the middle of a busy part of town. It also almost really seemed like a castle, we later found out the architect had planned it that way. The penitentiary was Benjamin Franklin's (and some other fellows) attempt to reform the prison system, so the architect made it seem very ominous with the very high walls to deter people from committing crimes. It also was designed to be a solitary confinement prison, in order to make the prisoners think about the crimes they had committed. 

The castle like penitentiary

We learned quite a bit about how the system at Eastern State was planned out and how it actually worked out. What I found the most interesting, though, was that they had this big 3-d chart of the incarceration rates in the US throughout the decades. They also broke down the prison population by demographic. On another side of the graph, it compared the incarceration rates across different countries and listed the ones that had the death penalty. It led to some discussion about why the rates were as such and whether or not the US prison system focused enough on rehabilitation as opposed to punishment. 

After learning a lot at the penitentiary, we decided to relax a bit and visit the Spruce Street Harbor Park. Unfortunately, it seems like it is best to arrive early to the park because all of the hammocks were taken up. It's important to note that there were a number of hammocks to choose from too, so it's a very busy park. Despite the lack of hammock time, I enjoyed the atmosphere of the park because seeing the Ben Franklin Bridge and the Delaware River reminded me of being in Sausalito overlooking the Bay and the Golden Gate. It's rather "insignificant" things like that that can draw a person like me to a college so far away from home. We got some snacks at the park and hung around the huge connect 4, Jenga, chess, and lego blocks. 

The cotton candy sky over the Ben Franklin Bridge

Eventually, hunger got to us and we walked a few blocks to Jim's Steaks. The walk over there allowed to see a more historic part of Philadelphia, although the whole city is pretty historic itself. What was so nice about it that specific area was that most of the road was cobble stone and the architecture of the houses exclaimed 18th century to me. We couldn't help but take photos of the streets and even in front of one of the houses we really liked.

Something about these houses is so
attractive to me

The area where Jim's Steaks is at is also a very eccentric area that I strongly recommend being checked out. Again, it reminded me of back home, like Telegraph Ave in Berkeley. There was a lot of traffic but everyone still got around walking and it was just a busy street with several quirky shops. They even had a greeting card and gift shop like the store Greetings on Solano Ave, but we couldn't go inside because they were closed for the weekend.

We explored that block for a bit until we were able to get inside of Jim's Steaks, the Philly Cheesesteak joint that so many people speak highly about. We all came to a consensus of ordering original Philly Cheesesteaks with Provolone cheese. Just being in line made my mouth water, it smelled so good inside. I didn't' feel like that line was too long and soon enough we had our trays with sandwiches ready to go enjoy them on the upper level. 

I don't usually like onions on my food, but there was no way I was saying no to some grilled onions on my first Cheesesteak sandwich. It was significantly juicy and the bread was perfectly soft. I'd give that sandwich a solid 11/10, just like all the famous people that had dined there before. 

Once again, very full and satisfied, we made our way back to Spruce Street to get the car and drive back to the hotel. Once we were back, we crossed the street to the Penn bookstore to pick up the oh-so necessary Penn gear. It always intrigues me how some college bookstores will have apparel that is cheaper than others, for no apparent reason. 

That was essentially the end of our full day in lovely Philadelphia, and I can certainly say that it is a city that is very easy to love. 

Philadelphia in the Day Time

I Woke up about 7:30 AM, and we all went down at 8:00 to Spread Bagelry, where we had bagel sandwiches (I had the egg white, with a whole wheat everything bagel.) It was pretty different from commons food, for sure. Commons food wasn't too bad, but having the same selection day in and day out started to get a little old. I'm sure during the school year they have more options though.

After eating, we walked back to the hotel to brush teeth and get whatever we needed. I was surprised at how different the weather was from Nashville - I might actually be able to wear a jacket outside here!

Turns out I was able to, because it started raining on the way over to UPenn and stayed grey the rest of the day.

First impression of UPenn.

The walk over for our tour was pretty quick, and we arrived with some time to spare. I was struck immediately by the brick architecture and detailed stonework. I could pretty easily tell it was an Ivy League school.

We first had a presentation from an admissions officer named Kim. It was in Irvine auditorium - an impressive, grand place that reminded me of the inside of a church. According to the pamphlet we got, it houses an 11,000 pipe organ, and a bunch of shows and performances are shown there. It looked like a good place for it.

Our tour guide's name was Louis Lin, and eh was from Merrick, New York. He's a rising sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences studying political science and health in the community. He was a nice guy, and pretty helpful too. He wasn't able to answer my question on whether Penn had a mountain bike team, but he was able to answer everything else for me. I was really interested in the engineering/business school dual major, and it turns out Elon Musk actually graduated from that program! That was a cool thing to learn, as Elon Musk is someone I personally respect.

Plenty of trees here.

The tour took us around campus, as tours often do, and Penn's campus was really nice. It wasn't a national arboretum like Vanderbilt, but it had plenty of trees anyways. The brick buildings and walkways were also cool to see, because a lot of the time on the West Coast there just isn't that amount of red brick anywhere. I liked the feel of it. I don't know if I'll be applying to UPenn, but I have another year to decide that.

After the tour, we went to bookstore and looked around. We didn't buy anything, but we found some stuff that we might want to buy later. We then went next door to lunch at a restaurant called Cosí. The portion sizes were a little weird (their mac & cheese was smaller than their salad) and everything came in to go containers no matter what, but it was still pretty good food anyways.

We then had a quick jaunt over to the hotel, and I got to read the WSJ a little bit in the lobby before we headed over to the Eastern State Penitentiary.

The Eastern State Penitentiary looked like a castle. High stone walls, towers on every corner and a massive imposing gate all added to the effect. It was pretty cool. It closed in 1970, but reopened as a museum in 1994.

Inside the penitentiary

Inside, it was a little less castle-like and more like a prison. Our tour guide's name was Angelina, and she was pretty good in showing us around. We got to see cell blocks, learn about the prison's history, and we even visited Al Capone's cell during his brief stay there. It turns out it was a pretty nice cell. Not sure I would want to stay there, per se, but it's better than a regular prison cell for sure.

After touring around the penitentiary for two and a half hours, we went to Spruce Street Harbor park, and walked around a little bit. We got some food in my case but coffee and ice cream in everyone else's case. While we ate and drank, we sat down on a barge that was tied to the shore that acted as an extension of the park, which was pretty cool. When we decided to move on, we found a big connect-4 board and I challenged Maddie and Ms. Hansen to a few games. That was a lot of fun, as I grew up playing connect-4 with my dad.

Oh yeah, baby.

When we had finished with a few games, we headed over to Jim's Steaks, an authentic Philly cheese steak place. It was really good. I wasn't sure about Philly cheese steaks going in because I hadn't had one before, but it was super good. I highly recommend it.

On our slow walk back to our car, we passed through some very classic, older looking neighborhoods that I really liked the look of. I think as a city, Philadelphia feels more like San Francisco than Nashville did (although they're all quite different). I really am enjoying the cooler weather here too, let me tell you.

After we had made it back to the car, we drove back to the hotel, parked the car, and walked a couple of blocks to the Penn bookstore to pick up a few souvenirs. I got a running t-shirt, and everyone else got some Penn gear too.

Beautiful sunset.

We wrapped up the day at the hotel, and tomorrow we go home! It was a great three weeks, but I think I'm pretty much ready to be back now. Still, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell tomorrow should be great.

This Isn't Goodbye, it's See You Later

My lab partner Bernice and I

The last few days of VSA were a blur, that’s for certain. Wednesday was all putting together research papers based on the data that we had found with our research in the laboratory, which unfortunately wasn’t as much as we had hoped for. I wholeheartedly wish we would have had even just a week’s more time for this program just so we could gather more data and have a more solid idea of what exactly happened with our experiments. There were so many questions left unanswered that we never got time to figure out due to the time crunch. It makes me a little bit bummed out and frustrated honestly (side note: when I told Dr. Sutton this she just smiled and told me I ‘caught the science bug’) We also had our last SOFT night on Wednesday, but frankly I spent it doing laundry and hanging around Hank with a few of my new friends.

Thursday morning was prep for the oral presentations and my class spent about half of it goofing around together in the computer lab in all honestly. We didn’t need long to put together the reports and once they were finished and we had prepared with our groups for the oral presentation we were free to do what we wanted to. Meanwhile, Dr. Sutton called us to speak with her one on one. She told me I did a pretty great job in the class for not having taken chemistry beforehand. That really made me feel really glad because honestly at the beginning I was struggling so much to keep up with everyone else before I got my head down and did some research of my own on the topic in order to at least get up to everyone else’s level.

In the afternoon, we had our presentations and I think everyone did a very good job on their presentations, accounting for our holes and whatnot that couldn’t be filled. Then we had to go to the closing ceremonies, which was honestly one of the hardest moments of this whole program. But my house, A House, won the house cup just like Lizzy really wanted, so that was really great.

Throw back to some pre-class shenanigans ft. Josh and Audrey.

That night there was a party and it was honestly so hard towards the end because it would be the last time we’d all really be together having fun. Afterwards we had the last proctor group meeting and stayed up laughing till midnight and it was really hard to say goodnight. I knew about a third of us would be gone earlier in the morning to catch flights and I sort of was not ready to face that this morning.

This morning was all tears and the afternoon was flying to Chicago and then to Philadelphia. Everything was such a blur after Thursday night honestly. It probably should not have been, but it was.