Thanks for sticking with me through this semester in Philly! It's been crazy busy, but I've learned a ton and have gotten to do so many cool things! I want to share some of my favorite moments with you, and at the end of this post, I'll put some pictures :D (ooh so exciting I know haha)
Fun Thing #1—Travel!
During my time in Philly, besides all the exploring I've done in the city, I've also gotten to check out Chinatown, Delaware, and NYC. I've loved coming to all these places because random adventures always ensue! Here are some of my favorite memories...
Chinatown:
So a few weeks ago I decided to check out the shops, restaurants, and culture in Chinatown. I really miss being in China, so it was amazing to have the opportunity to hear Chinese and observe the culture again! I went into this restaurant called the Happy Noodle Bowl and checked the menu for anything that resembled the noodle dishes I had when I was in Xining. When I asked the waitress if they had anything from the QingHai province, she freaked out and asked how I knew that name. I told her I'd been there, and then we started talking about China, food, and Philly. Unfortunately she had to get back to work, so we swapped numbers and said we'd meet up later—and we did! She's one of my favorite people now and we hang out multiple times a week!
Two days ago, I went to the opening Phillies game with Nikki and some of her friends, and we had a blast! I convinced Nikki to get a caricature with me, and that, dear reader, is picture #1. :)
Lesson learned from this experience (#1a):
Always be nice to your waitress...JUST KIDDING! The lesson is to always be open to meeting new people. You never know when you might meet a new friend!
Delaware:
I'm trying to get to all 50 states. When I arrived in Philly, I just had six left: Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, and....Delaware. Yeah. I know. Seriously??
As I'm sure you understand, I was determined to not live 10 minutes from the Delaware boarder for three months and not ever cross it! (I mean honestly, when will I ever be this close again?? People fly across the country to go to Hawaii and Nevada, but no one tries to get to Delaware. It's one of those things that just has to happen.) SO! I got a group of friends together, and we planned out a few things to do while we were there.
We found a Brewery in Wilmington that had tours and stuff (and since that was like the only thing there) that became our destination! However, we ended up missing our first train, which wasn't initially a big deal because another one came 10 minutes later. The problem was that the bus we were connecting to left 5 minutes before we got there and another one didn't go out for two hours...yep. No worries though, we did what any delayed college students do while traveling: we got food! And it was good food too :)
When it was finally time to leave the station, we all filed onto the bus where we had an invigorating two hour debate with a man about diversity, civil rights, and contributing to society. (Haha this is back to lesson #1a: always be ready to meet interesting people and make friends).
The next hurdle we had to overcome was that the the bus stations weren't very well marked, so we had no idea where we were or where we were supposed to get off. We watched the signs and tried to figure out where we were, and we decided that we must be in Wilmington by this time, so we hopped off the bus, and I have to admit, I did quite the happy "I'm-in-Delaware" dance haha
We walked into a McDonalds to figure out exactly where we were annnnnnnd low and behold, we were still in Pennsylvania... Yep. haha that happened! We called a cab to take us to the brewery, and by the time we got there, we were three hours late, and the tour was just finishing up. This turned out to be in our favor though because we were going to have to pay for the tour, but since we missed it, we got to jump straight to the FREE beer tasting! Score. (Enjoy picture #2) The people there were so fabulous and after chatting with them for a while, they offered to give us a ride to the restaurant we were going to eat dinner at! That was awesome, because we didn't have to pay for (or try to figure out...) public transportation (since we had such a great track record so far that day.)
The restaurant was a fantastic fish place and omg. It was amazing! I highly recommend that everyone go to Wilmington so they can try the Big Fish Grill! YUM!
Lesson learned from this experience (#1b):
Don't sweat the small stuff! Even if your travel plans get skewed along the way, just roll with it. Things will probably work out better than they would have if everything had been "perfect" anyway, AND you'll have a better story to tell :)
NYC:
A few weeks after the Delaware trip, I realized that I'd been having fun on weekends and had been doing new and interesting things, but that I hadn't done anything "major" in a while. I decided to spice up my life... with a solo trip to the Big Apple! Oh yeah :D
I woke up on Saturday morning, walked to the train station, and asked the man at the window for a ticket to New York. He told me there was a train leaving in 1 minute, and I said "I'll take it!" haha flawless timing if I say so myself. I hopped on my train and away I went. I planned on just chilling out in Central Park for the day. Maybe rent a bike and check out the trails or something. HOWEVER, as so often happens, my plans changed—for the better! I texted my friend Jackie who is doing a semester in New York to see if she was free to grab a cup of coffee and catch up or something. She ended up being free all day and was like: LET'S HANG OUT! so we did!
We spent the day seeing all her favorite places in the city. It was so cool because I always want people to come visit me in Philly so I can show them my city, and then I got to be that person for Jackie. It was fantastic! I saw where she works, we went to her favorite pizza place (picture #3), saw Time Square (where I got scolded for being so friendly to the people handing out fliers and stuff on the street corners....Jackie was right, they apparently really do just want your money!!), we got some free chocolate at the Hershey store, walked by Rockefeller Center, and spent some time in Central Park—where we saw the most bizarre thing! There was a person dressed in a Big Bird costume who was sitting on a bench holding a Cookie Monster and and an Elmo puppet. He was doing a puppet show for himself. There was also a group of about 15 people in military fatigues sitting on some rocks. Each of these people was only wearing one shoe. A few individuals were also carrying several members of their group across their shoulders...If that wasn't strange enough, they walked over to the Big Bird, circled up, and took a group picture with him at their center. Then they all got up, picked up their person again, and walked away. Big Bird went back to his bench to continue his puppet show. It was truly one of the most bizarre experiences of my life...
After this, Jackie and I went to her favorite place in all of New York. It was Madison Square Park by the Flat Iron building. It was so peaceful there! And, the building and park were both designed by one of Jackie's ancestors! I thought that was so awesome, and it explained why she felt such a connection to the place. I loved just getting to visit with her and hear about her life. It was fantastic :D
Lesson learned from this experience (#1c): Expect the unexpected...it's much more fun that way!
(This post is turning out way longer then I thought it would be, so I'm going to just do one more "fun thing")
Fun Thing #2—Growth
I've been very faithful with my Bible study this semester. It's been tough though because I've been asking a lot of really hard questions. I've learned a lot and I think I'm stronger in my faith because of it. One thing I really love is that I've gotten into the routine of reading my Bible right when I get home from work. I love that even when life in the city is so crazy, I have the stability of knowing that my Bible is still by my bed, and I'll spend some time with it every day. It's really beautiful I think!
I terms of the Big Challenge, I've kind of fixed myself into study and prayer currently because I really want to cement these things in my life. I think I will practice fasting next though. I've never done this before, and I really want to try it out.
Lesson learned from this experience: Prioritize the quiet and reflection times in life. They are so valuable and necessary for living a life balanced with both fun and thought. I love that.
I think that's it for right now! Congrats for sticking with this post... I know it was super long!
Rebekah
