I'm on Drugs

A disappointingly non-castley building at Penn

My day began with a DayQuil and ended with a blogging party. (Donna and Gwennie's room's air conditioning is broken and possibly on fire-- it's unclear. Anyway, for the time being they've taken refuge in our room.) After yesterday's adventures, I was glad for a chance to sleep in today, which is exactly what I did. When I woke up, Julia and I went to the ever so convenient and charming Wawa for breakfast and met up with everyone else for a brief tour of the Penn campus. Penn's campus is beautiful, gorgeous, and pulchritudinous. There are lush and verdant lawns everywhere, an overabundance of historical statues, and half the buildings look like castles. I was excited to learn that I will be living in a castle for the next three weeks. However, the Pemberley-esque campus is second among my reasons for wanting to take up residence on the East Coast, the primary reason being the glorious entity that is Wawa. The Bay Area has no equivalent to the Wawa, and I am convinced that it is Philadelphia's most effective cultural ambassador. The best thing about Wawa? Not only do they sell excellent sandwiches, they also have DayQuil, NyQuil, and cough drops! 

After concluding our tour through the Penn campus, we returned to the hotel, relaxed for a while and prepared to go to the Philly Fourth of July Jam, or as I called it, America-fest. At this juncture, I would like to take some time to appreciate Other Julia, for being a fabulous room mate. She has been consistently patient, hilarious, and has not freaked out about the piles of kleenex and other sick-person detritus that has been accumulating on my side of the room. Not even once. She is more Jane Bennet than Jane Bennet.

The cohort at America-fest

Our walk to America-fest, took us over the Schuylkill River (pronounced Scoogle,) which was beautiful, and I had a great dinner of corn dogs, french fries, and cotton candy. We were going to get funnel cake, but after waiting in line for at least 45 minutes, we were stymied by a minor stampede. After quickly deciding that I didn't want to die for funnel cake, I grabbed Julia (with the intent of saving her from imminent trampling,) and we ran for high ground. Unfortunately, just then, the stampede dispersed and my efforts were for naught, except for to lose our hard-won spot in line. Fortunately, America-fest also featured fireworks, which was easily my favorite part of the day.