Philly Trip

No way should I be writing this right now. I have homework like I can only imagine. But it's going on a week,and my dear little bloggie has no idea about actual life events! Just snippets of thoughts, and, let's be honest, that's nothing to chew on!

Last Wednesday, Daniel, Todd, Wayne and I headed to the train station to catch the 9:30 train to 30th Street Station. Todd brought biscotti. Todd wins.

Daniel gave a brief (and enlightening, as always, Dan, (no sarcasm here, I promise!)) music-genre study on our ride. Shortly thereafter I fell asleep. I dreamed of homework. Then we were in Philly! Todd brought a map. Another win for Todd.

The day was beautiful and breezy. We walked in the historical district on our way to find cheesesteaks (one word, Google, don't you give me that red underline!) in South Street. Gianna's Grill is a hole-in-the-wall spot known for its vegan cheese steaks. Daniel's opinion: vegetarians should stick to creating their own menu instead of imitating meat--nasty.

Later, the Franklin Institute, where they are featuring Body Worlds 2. That was crazy weird. Real bodies, preserved through plastination. Instead of calling them people, the placards called them "plastinates." It was interesting to me in a morbid way. I was pretty disturbed when we got to the fetuses. The human body is miraculous, certainly. I saw an eight-week old embryo already identifiable as a human, but the size of a dime. Dude. But those little humans did not sign up to be put on display in the Franklin Institute.

We walked through the heart. I saw a brain shriveled by Alzheimer's disease. We played with airflow and inertia and camera angles and got hungry again.

Dinner was Reading Terminal Market, formerly the inner city train station before 30th Street was built. I ate sushi which I thought to be fish-free until I found an auspicious tentacle in the maki roll that fell apart. Also, Bassett's ice cream is everything Bill said it would be.

Back to the Franklin Institute for the IMAX showing of Avatar. We had to switch seats to keep everyone from straining their necks and/or throwing up. The screen fills one's field of vision to the point of certain nausea. Avatar is a wonderful movie, a powerful message about the environment, imperialism, selfishness, [loss of] culture... go see it.

Then the late train back to Lancaster. I slept again. This time I dreamed of Avatar.