back in business...
hello all! i trust that everyone has recently missed my irrelevant postings of inconsequential matters that occasionally occur in my boring life. i have been on pseudo vacation for this past week; in fact, i am still in the land of texas as i write.
well, i call it a pseudo vacation because for most people, as well applied to most of my audience here, vacation is when you get a complete time-out to some place extraordinary, foreign, beachy, watery, extravagant, mountainous, OR snowy. well, all summer i wanted for somewhere with beautiful sand accompanied by irridesent sparkling sea water, and lots of affordable top shelf booze. well, unfortunately, i guess it just never panned out. like the cubbies would say, well, there's always NEXT YEAR! wooo! there is always the popular cruising season around christmas time!
well, anywho, even though i only got to go to philly last week, i really had tons of fun. just amazingly, it really doesnt matter what we do or what we get stuck doing (HA!) when carol and i are hanging out, we always manage to have load of fun. awwww... the pictures will be ready in a few wks for posting :)
tuesday i arrived on tuesday late morning. of course, as soon as i got off the plane and everyday thereafter, i get at least ONE phone call (3 on tues) from starbucks. um, christine, can you work? christine! we're severely short staffed, call us back asap! better luck next time, i say! HA! PHL airport is comparatively quite old and small. eh. carol came to pick me up; we wanted to stop by trader joe's downtown for some groceries. unfortunately, we see the store but we could not for the life of us figure out how to get to the parking lot behind the store which is on a completely different level. oh well.
in the afternoon, i went with carol to this pool party luncheon hosted by her school. oh, i forgot to mention that it was her orientation week at drexel. the party was held at this cricket club not far from the med campus. wooo, frou frou! we decided to walk, as the map said it's only 0.8 mile away. well, baaaaadddd choice in the hot sun at 2pm, we nearly passed out. luckily, kegs of beer frat style came to rescue at the party. i was amazed by how big her class is- ~250 kids. some were playing volleyball; some in the pool swimming or sunning; some just trying to make friends. man, i have to say, why is it that in my experience med students tend to look better, physically, as compared to other similarly brilliant individuals!? many of the guys there obviously took care of themselves in/out of the gym and at clothing stores. again, very casual outing, but what you wear and how you wear can make a huge difference to other's eye sight. on the other hand, maybe the dorky kids i see in class is because we all have known each other for long; and two wks into the semester most people drop from "making an outfit" down to "picking whatever is clean and decent." the party was fun. we didnt go in the pool as we didnt bring our flashy suits. ha! it was nice meeting random people with carol.
in the evening, the school took us out to the ball game! and how excitingly appropriate: phillies vs. cubs! the game was very VERY slow until the last 2 innings. miraculously, cubs won! the citizens bank ball park was another somethin' though: the stadium is very new VERY big. there were thousands (if not more) of food vendors. i kinda felt like it took away from the ball game, but hey americans love to eat! afterwards, many from the class went to this irish pub, fado's, near downtown. (interestingly same as the fado's in chicago) mmmm, beer. we left earlier than some as i was getting incorrigibly sleepy from having been up for 20 hrs and the beer loading.wednesday carol has a long day at school from 8:30-4:00. what do you mean i had to fend for myself!? she left me the car so i could go around as i wish. i was gonna go swimming in the morning, but their apt complex posted a note with water shut-off and plumbing repair issues from 9am and on. well, can't not shower after swimming! so, after i dropped carol off at school, i came home and slept more instead. i didnt eventually leave her apt until 1pm; didnt leave me much time for anything. i stopped by the phila mus of art very briefly and ran up the rocky steps. woohoo! toured around the area and then went to the heart of downtown to explore. man, their streets are ASS NARROW!! every street is one way and tiny as you can imagine. parking was rather hellish but not impossible. i went to walnut street near some frou frou stores to just walk around. unfortunately, no parking after 3:30 (rush hr) so i just headed back.
got carol at school; we came home to change to get ready for the philly trolley tour and harbor cruise. the trolley tour was quite interesting; learned some interesting info and it was a nice overview and short history for the city. the wooden benches, however, were a killer for the bums. ugh!!! then we arrived at penn's landing after ~1.5 hrs of trolley touring. the school had for us some appetizers and open bar on the cruise. we set sail on the delaware river. the view was... well... second to many, but being on the water enjoying a downtown skyline was still awesome. did i mention open bar!? after more mingling and explaning to people that im not in their class, we went to the bottom deck for some dancing. it's so silly but so fun. i still have to learn why i always have so much fun with carol even at the most strange places. HA!
thursday more furniture arrived today. yay! i swear, my purpose at philly was to help assembling furnitures. luckily, i dont mind. in the afternoon i went around by myself again. i went to jim's for an authentic philly cheesesteak sandwich. mmmm, tasty. i think every book talked about this place. i wanted to do some boutique shopping near the harbor but ran out of time.
instead, i went to the liberty bell, which is now behind velvet ropes in a glass bldg, and we had to go through security before entering. on my way back to the car, I FORGOT WHERE I HAD PARKED!!!!! it was a metered spot so i was worried that i'd get a ticket too. i knew i parked in front of a quizno's, but people directed me to the quizno's other than the one i wanted! ahhh!! near an hr later, i thought of some keywords that i remembered seeing and located them on my map. finally found the car and luckily, no ticket! wheee!! next, i searched for bassetts ice cream, originated in philly, apprently famous in the NE area since 1961 started by some amish people. besides my hellish time to find parking, the ice cream was chewy and delicious!met carol at her apt to wait for the lovely ikea people to deliver her furniture. lots of stuff! her mom and sisters also flew in that day so we went to pick them up at their hotel. her mommmy found this place, monks cafe, from her guide book so we went to check it out. i guess near that same area there're many other very cute and tasty looking cafes; next time i come back i will have to check them out. monks was good-- mussels, pheasant, rabbit... ewww... but tee hee so good. *LOTS* of belgium beers.
friday my last day here. in the morning we went to the rodin museum. well, not the real one as in paris, but duplicates. as we learned from the trolley tour-- each year thousands of wedding couples have their wedding pix taken in front of the museum entrance, which is conveniently ornated with rodin's "gates of hell." hmmm, do they know or are they stupid!? HA! nevertheless, i think at this age i can appreciate rodin more; i used to find his sculptures quite boring. this time i actually find many of the motion sculpts (what oxymoron!) very powerful! afterwards, we took mom, lucy, and yi to jim's again for some tasty cheesesteaks. man, i could eat that everyday! :)
as carol and fam went back to the hotel to get ready for her white coat induction ceremony, i also had to get a cab and go to the airport. how sad. still, it was fun the days i was there; since chicago--philly flights are cheap i think i'd go there more. :)
now, back in the land of texas, i am as bored as ever. too hot to go outside, not wanting to do anything, having nothing to do. thank god i am leaving for chicago tomorrow. wooo, i have to remember to get some lime cheetos!
