I am 28 today.
When did that happen?
I shall be having a NJ-centric celebration on the 27th, and a NYC one on the 28th. The dates of all these and my new age are getting all very confusing, and I keep forgetting which is when. Senility creeping up already!
I have now officially moved to Philadelphia. Still not remotely unpacked, though. Spent all of Sunday trying to clean and dust the place. I have a bed and my furniture all assembled, but everything pretty much remains in boxes. Also, no internet as of yet.
I'm a little anxious about the upcoming schoolyear and all the stuff I still have to do, but am really excited about the neighborhood. This is the first time I've lived in a city since I was little (even if the quiet part of a city), and I love that there are so many people and restaurants and things going on all so close by. It's been raining, but the neighborhood is still lovely--the stately Victorians simply look nobly sober and atmospheric in the rain, rather than dingy and sad like New Brunswick houses.
I went out to do some errands on Monday, and took the following photo of a parking lot off Baltimore street:
See? Visually appealing even in the rain and gloom.
I think I like West Philly in the dark and rain the same way I liked Georgetown under the weather: antiquated stone edifices sheltering the sky, acquiring a sobriety to them that carries a certain time-travel mystique as the streets clear, and amber lights flicker with faraway warmth in the recesses of their windows. In the absence of other people passing you by, merely hearing the occasional footfall and whisper of conversation or laughter, it almost seems as though your own next step into a puddle may bring you back a hundred years or more, or as though you are already there and simply have not realized it yet.
I'll post more/better pictures of the neighborhood once I actually get settled. This is not really the most representative, being as it is, you know, a parking lot. But there are lovely painted houses! And lovely stone houses! And trams, as though I was back in Europe! (Although in Europe they are less noisy.)
My only issue now (apart from the myriad various unpacking/semester prepping issues) is that the local co-op is prohibitively demanding. $100 equity, plus $40 yearly dues, plus 2 hrs a month of volunteer work-time in order to shop there. I could possibly swing the money, or the work-time, but not both. Sigh. Well, for now while I'm commuting to NJ, I have my local lovely George St Co-op anyway.
I shall be having a NJ-centric celebration on the 27th, and a NYC one on the 28th. The dates of all these and my new age are getting all very confusing, and I keep forgetting which is when. Senility creeping up already!
I have now officially moved to Philadelphia. Still not remotely unpacked, though. Spent all of Sunday trying to clean and dust the place. I have a bed and my furniture all assembled, but everything pretty much remains in boxes. Also, no internet as of yet.
I'm a little anxious about the upcoming schoolyear and all the stuff I still have to do, but am really excited about the neighborhood. This is the first time I've lived in a city since I was little (even if the quiet part of a city), and I love that there are so many people and restaurants and things going on all so close by. It's been raining, but the neighborhood is still lovely--the stately Victorians simply look nobly sober and atmospheric in the rain, rather than dingy and sad like New Brunswick houses.
I went out to do some errands on Monday, and took the following photo of a parking lot off Baltimore street:
See? Visually appealing even in the rain and gloom.
I think I like West Philly in the dark and rain the same way I liked Georgetown under the weather: antiquated stone edifices sheltering the sky, acquiring a sobriety to them that carries a certain time-travel mystique as the streets clear, and amber lights flicker with faraway warmth in the recesses of their windows. In the absence of other people passing you by, merely hearing the occasional footfall and whisper of conversation or laughter, it almost seems as though your own next step into a puddle may bring you back a hundred years or more, or as though you are already there and simply have not realized it yet.
I'll post more/better pictures of the neighborhood once I actually get settled. This is not really the most representative, being as it is, you know, a parking lot. But there are lovely painted houses! And lovely stone houses! And trams, as though I was back in Europe! (Although in Europe they are less noisy.)
My only issue now (apart from the myriad various unpacking/semester prepping issues) is that the local co-op is prohibitively demanding. $100 equity, plus $40 yearly dues, plus 2 hrs a month of volunteer work-time in order to shop there. I could possibly swing the money, or the work-time, but not both. Sigh. Well, for now while I'm commuting to NJ, I have my local lovely George St Co-op anyway.