Saturday, May 26, 2012
Back in Philly Again
Hello everyone!
We may have just had the wonderful opportunity to see many of your lovely faces in person as we were just in our sweet homeland- Minnesota! After a long 21 hours or so, traveling non-stop, we arrived back in Philly successfully this afternoon. It was so great to be home, see family, and just have a little time to relax before getting back into the swing of our life here. I was even fortunate enough to celebrate my 24th birthday surrounded by a bunch of family. (and for everyone at the birthday brunch who loved the cake, you can find the recipe here: )
We spent the last hour of the journey back speculating nervously about what we would find when we opened the door to the apartment. Rory was most concerned about finding a group of cockroaches had invaded and made home in our apartment while we were away. For me, I was most worried that my plants, which I had to leave behind, would be all dead. Well, the first thing we discovered upon arrival made me quite unpleasant. No, it was not the plants- it was the weather. We stepped out of the car and into a thick, heavy, humid air that makes me very worried that the impending summer months may be somewhat unbearable. But, as Rory has the great ability to look on the positive side of things usually, he told me that if we keep sweating this much we should have no problem reaching our weight loss goals. Aw well, I am just hoping maintenance will come and install our A/C soon!
Then, when we opened the door to the apartment it was good news all around. The apartment was just as clean as we left it, and, despite being a bit dry, all my plants were alive! And the cockroach count was very manageable - one dead in the kitchen sink and three alive but easily killable ones in the bathroom. So, overall it was a very successful trip home and then back again.
Please keep in touch over the summer. We plan to highlight the best of summer traveling (well at least as good as our time and money can get us) on the East Coast and Pennsylvania. Enjoy your Memorial Day weekends and happy unofficial start to summer.
Best,
Danielle
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Philadelphia Flyers
What an exciting day! Despite the name of this post, it did not involve seeing Philadelphia's professional hockey team - but the name will become clear by the end of the post.
The first and biggest part of the story is that I drove in Philly for the first time! I have been so scared to drive here because the drivers here, as many of our past posts describe, are not great. The pace is generally much faster and the drivers can be a little inconsiderate of those around them. I have been especially hesitant about driving on one of the main roads here - Highway 76. To get on from our place involves using an on ramp from the left of the road instead of the right like usual. And, as we all know the left most lane is the fast lane, so it is no place for a timid driver like me to enter, not to mention the fact that we almost got smushed by a big truck while going onto it and I saw my life flash before my eyes. Luckily, there is another on ramp not far and there was a lot of traffic, so it wasn't too hard to get onto it. Overall, I'd say it was a successful first trip.
The best part of it is that I was able to get back in the saddle in time for our long drive back to MN on Tuesday. That's right, we will be rolling into the great state of Minnesota sometime on Wednesday afternoon and we couldn't be more excited. Hopefully we'll be able to see many of you while we are there!
Now on to the flyers part of this post. Last month, Rory and I attended the PIE (Public Interest Experience) Grant Auction. It is a really fun auction event that raises money for PIE grants that support selected students who are doing public interest work for the summer. Fortunately, I was one of the selected recipients of a grant! But that is neither here nor there, the really fun part of the night was that I, along with a group of other students, bought a bird watching expedition with one of our professors. So, today was the day we cashed it in and went for a fun hike with our professor.
We met at Wissahickon Park, a beautiful park in northwestern Philly in a cute little residential neighborhood. We hiked around for a couple of hours with our professor pointing out the different birds we were seeing in her book and learning how to better use binoculars as we went along. After weeks of being cooped up inside studying for finals, we were all very happy to be outside and enjoying the fresh air. We saw a cardinal, baby geese, baby ducks, some wood ducks, grackle, and some more common warblers. The excursion ended by joining our professor, her husband, and son at their house to hang out and drink some beer while sitting on their deck enjoying the nice weather. All in all, it was a perfect ringing in of the summer and closing of the school year. Now I can relax for a few weeks before starting in on my internship.
And, as I said, we are very excited to spend some time in MN over the next few weeks and maybe even to see some of you. Hope everyone is well.
This is for the birds :)
-Danielle
Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most.
- Joseph Wood Krutch
The first and biggest part of the story is that I drove in Philly for the first time! I have been so scared to drive here because the drivers here, as many of our past posts describe, are not great. The pace is generally much faster and the drivers can be a little inconsiderate of those around them. I have been especially hesitant about driving on one of the main roads here - Highway 76. To get on from our place involves using an on ramp from the left of the road instead of the right like usual. And, as we all know the left most lane is the fast lane, so it is no place for a timid driver like me to enter, not to mention the fact that we almost got smushed by a big truck while going onto it and I saw my life flash before my eyes. Luckily, there is another on ramp not far and there was a lot of traffic, so it wasn't too hard to get onto it. Overall, I'd say it was a successful first trip.
The best part of it is that I was able to get back in the saddle in time for our long drive back to MN on Tuesday. That's right, we will be rolling into the great state of Minnesota sometime on Wednesday afternoon and we couldn't be more excited. Hopefully we'll be able to see many of you while we are there!
Now on to the flyers part of this post. Last month, Rory and I attended the PIE (Public Interest Experience) Grant Auction. It is a really fun auction event that raises money for PIE grants that support selected students who are doing public interest work for the summer. Fortunately, I was one of the selected recipients of a grant! But that is neither here nor there, the really fun part of the night was that I, along with a group of other students, bought a bird watching expedition with one of our professors. So, today was the day we cashed it in and went for a fun hike with our professor.
We met at Wissahickon Park, a beautiful park in northwestern Philly in a cute little residential neighborhood. We hiked around for a couple of hours with our professor pointing out the different birds we were seeing in her book and learning how to better use binoculars as we went along. After weeks of being cooped up inside studying for finals, we were all very happy to be outside and enjoying the fresh air. We saw a cardinal, baby geese, baby ducks, some wood ducks, grackle, and some more common warblers. The excursion ended by joining our professor, her husband, and son at their house to hang out and drink some beer while sitting on their deck enjoying the nice weather. All in all, it was a perfect ringing in of the summer and closing of the school year. Now I can relax for a few weeks before starting in on my internship.
And, as I said, we are very excited to spend some time in MN over the next few weeks and maybe even to see some of you. Hope everyone is well.
This is for the birds :)
-Danielle
Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most.
- Joseph Wood Krutch
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