philadelphia along chestnut

I am back from a wonderful weekend in Philadelphia! I stayed with my friend from our Chicago ASB three years ago, and since she is studying at Wharton, she hosted me for this long weekend (I'm gonna call her Smarty K).

The weather was uncharacteristically mild (40's and 50's). It was drizzling a bit when I flew in Thursday night, but by Friday morning the skies had cleared into a beautiful day. I attended my interview Friday where I chatted with current dental students who are so accomplished and yet down-to-earth. The dental building was nice, but in particular, the entrance to the library right outside the main clinic was breathtaking- central staircase with a chandelier hanging from a high ceiling.

There are so many churches scattered around University City. This one was right across from the International House of Philadelphia.

Since my friend Smarty K assured me that this University City neighborhood is safe, I strolled around the huge Penn campus and its surroundings. Unlike Rice, the Penn buildings are scattered in the city with streets running across buildings and quads, so it is sometimes difficult to tell if a building belongs to Penn.

There are two central streets: Walnut and Chestnut which are both one-way streets. Since the streets are numbered systematically going up from East to West, it was easy to navigate the city. I walked across the river to downtown for a little shopping and hopped on the bus where I met two Dalton guys who shared my opinion on the ramp down to the new Penn stadium (dangerous but give me some wheels!).

Greek row houses

We also spent a day exploring the historic side of Philadelphia including Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Carpenter's Hall. I got to walk along the very places I had read about in history class! Maybe because today was President's Day, the lines were unusually long.

Living in the pages of U.S. history

We also checked out Reading Terminal Market where we grabbed the most delicious Italian sandwich and finished the meal with apple dumplings from the Dutch House (tastes better than apple pie).

Inside Reading Terminal Market

City Hall

Schuylkill river 

My friend’s friends felt so much older, so much more grown up, sophisticated and intelligent. They were in serious relationships, hosting dinner parties, discussing classical music and hopping over to cities for weekend trips. Philadelphia is only an hour away from NYC and two from DC.

In addition, I got to check out the Philadelphia Orchestra and the swing dancing scene. Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 was fun (but not overwhelming) to listen to, and I thought the pianist would fall off his seat quite a few times! Smarty K and I also went swing dancing Friday and people had traveled from Maryland and Delaware to enjoy an evening of belboa! The instructor was teaching in NYC next week, so did everyone want to gather up and take the train together?

Great weekend meeting great people, all thanks to Smarty K. My fortune cookie had predicted weeks ago that I "would be the guest to a gracious host" and the following week I was invited to interview at University of Pennsylvania.