Yujian's Exchange In USA: Philadelphia 2D1N

Hi Folks! I'm really sorry for the late blog entry. I was in Philadelphia between the 17th and 18th of August. The 2 days there were really mainly for administration. When we arrived at Phily, we took a metro down towards 40th street in search of UPENN's Office of International Programmes (OIP). Just before i forget, Philadelphia's divided into many many sectors. Broadly, the place that i'll be in can be divided into 2 areas: Center City (where the office buildings + shopping malls are) and University City (needless to say, where all the universities are).

Armed with an address, i searched around for the office with LOTS of bags. It took me about 30mins and a lot of luck to finally find the place. I thought the office was within some administration building. Later did i find out that its actually inside International House (aka I-House), a building the provides OFF-CAMPUS accomodation! Bleahz...

After depositing all my stuff with January Stayton (one of the OIP ladies), there seems to be lots of stuff to be done! I need to collect my student card, create my bank account and deposit my bank draft! Hmm... Nonetheless, before we moved on to do those, we found Houston House (one of UPENN's building) and tried their famous Houston Crepes. Its really nice trust me! if you don't, here's picture to show you the size and the look.

We then proceeded to collect my PENN card only to find out that i can only collect it during orientation on the 29th of August. Nonetheless, we managed to proceed with the processing of my account and banking of the bank draft.

We then took a metro back to Center City. The timing was great for us. As we were supposed to check in to this hostel called HI-Bank Street (as mentioned in the previous entry) only before 11am or after 430pm, we arrived at 420pm and yupz... only needed to wait for 10mins before we could check in.

The rest of day was spent travelling within Center City. Nothing much was achieved except for giving us a rough feel of the place in aid of navigation during the next day. Nonetheless, here's some pics:

the original love sign

penn's landing

historical buildings at Phily

The second day was characterized by much touring. We walked around the historical district and understood a little more about America's history. If you guys din know, Philadelphia was US' first capitol. As such, the declaration of independence was signed in this city and we could also see things like the liberty bell. We also rested at this park and i tried to look gay... wahahah...

May and the liberty bell

gay yujian

Within the Center City, apart from historical areas, there are also other areas such as the Convention Center District, the Washington Square District, Parkway / Museum District and Rittenhouse Square District. Nothing interesting seriously. We just walked around aimlessly just to see the life style there. People are truly very relaxed. We then proceeded to eat the ever famous PAT's philly cheesesteak. The queue is freaking long but trust me, the service speed is the fastest i've EVER seen. Each transaction takes less than 5secs. The chokepoint is you! Right after you finish ordering, the item will be in your face! Here's a pic!