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
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