Philly (cheesesteaks, shopping, and history)

On Saturday, Tanja, Debbie, Blake, Zachary, William, and I all packed in the van to visit Philly. Tanja is my roommate and the others are the Durtchi Family. They are so fun! Zachary is three and William is 5 mo. They are so much fun! I was so grateful to have little buddies to keep things exciting. Philly was really neat. It is a must-see for history buffs!! :) We did everything all in one day. Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Downtown, South Street, Penn's Landing, Betsy Ross House, Ben Franklin House Site, First and Second Banks, Art Museum (Rocky steps :-)), listening to live actors whose passion is history, and enjoying a philly cheesesteak at a pizzeria, because the famous Jim's had a line around the block and it was 3 pm and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. It was such a neat city :) oh and one more place, the really neat reading market....("redding" market) really neat, the amish had already gone home because it was saturday night :( sad. anyway, life is good here in Maryland. I have one more month in the sticky beautiful place where I enjoy meeting new people, going to almost every YSA activity, learning about American History every day, soaking in regular down pours of rain, walking a mile away from my ghetto neighborhood and almost calling the police to have them pick me up because I thought I was going to get jumped, I didn't know that industrial district was right near my house....scary 'hood. Luckily I found someone's backyard and proceeded to walk right through it to get back to the residential area, but little did I know the dude would be standing in the front yard. awkward....but safe....wheehhw, well what other crazy things do I find in DC?? Well let me think, oh, I was the only white at the gym last night. That was interesting. Ok not really but almost. I love it here. It is like living in a foreign country. Oh yeah, and did I mention I have four roommates. a Chinese, Englishman, Norwegian, and a North Carolinian. and two are dudes. If this is not enough of a shock to you, tomorrow we are going lunch with our research group here, two romanians, a brazilian, and a Pakistinian, all graduate students in Electrical Engineering. The only Americans I meet are undergraduates. Where is our country headed? I hope they all stay here, and become citizens, and improve our country.