A Little Chilly in Philly

This morning I said goodbye to my Dad after the continental breakfast and then met up with Laura and Heather! We got the chance to check into our room for the week which was nice so I didn't have to make the poor bell hop take care of my four bags...

Lots of walking was done today, let me tell you. First we went down to Rittenhouse Square to check out where Laura's student teaching will be at 22nd street and then took the subway up Broad street to where Heather's placement will be. Then, we decided to walk all the way back to the hotel which was long, mind you, cold. We did see Love Park and the City Hall area on the way back as well. Overall, good but long walk. Also, ending with IHOP for lunch.

After hanging out in the hotel, we met some other people that were going to be at the Philadelphia Center as well which was cool. At 4:00 our orientation to the program began and we had the original icebreaker session with some discussions on city safety and housing desires, etc.

After being fed some delicious "hoagies" or in Michigan lingo, subs, we went on a walk down South Street to check out the "night culture" so to speak. Pretty interesting, but a lot of us decided to just walk back through Old City and we were able to see what the historical side of town was like at night--haunted. It just felt creepy. Just to "prove" this, we passed one of the ghost tours which are highly advertised around town.

Tomorrow we have the city walk which takes you on a perimeter of the city--a lot more walking! Apparently this will also give us a better view of the neighborhoods we could live in. Anyways, the students are really fun and very diverse in regards to what type of internships we want. It's nice to be around people from all different schools (though Hope and Earlham are dominating with 17 and 16 vs. 1 or 3 people from other schools) and different areas of the U.S. Anyways, I'm very excited to get to know the students and the amazing faculty that seem so quirky.

I'll update you on the foot pains of tomorrow later, have a great night!