A Ride to Penn

Today was our earliest morning. We had to catch a 7:25 AM train from the Pennsylvania Station which means we had to get up extra early to catch the Subway and then have time to pick up some breakfast. The train ride from the Pennsylvania Station to the Philadelphia is roughly an hour and a half.

The Philadelphia Station is almost as breathtaking as Grand Central Station. The architecture was amazing. There was a very impressive sculpture that was created in 1895. It was titled Spirit of Transportation.

From the train station we separated into two groups and took separate cabs to Independence Hall. Emily, Anmol, and I were in one cab and everyone else was in the other. The drive was pleasant until we reached our destination and had to pay the cab driver. He was not very nice. There was some confusion on his part regarding change. He insulted our intelligence (we were right by the way). Luckily when Mrs. L noticed we were not getting out of the cab (we were negotiating with the driver), she came to the rescue and saved us.

Though we had an unfortunate encounter with a rude cab driver, we did not let it put a damper on our day.

(Right after the incident we all just laughed about it, the whole thing was a bit ridiculous.) We were at Independence Hall! We had to admire this historic landmark from afar; we didn’t have tickets unfortunately. We stood on the same street that was once tread by the legendary men who built our Constitution and ran our early country.

We then took a short walk to the National Constitution Center museum. Since we were short on time we could only see part of The 1968 Exhibit. I really enjoyed this exhibit it was very informative and set up in such a way that was entertaining to look at and walk through. It was all about the Vietnam War, hippies, scientific advancements (like Apollo 8), and the life style and pop culture of the year.

After walking through part of the exhibit we watched a short movie/performance thing titled We the People. It was about the creation and moral ideas behind the making of the Constitution.

Then we headed over to a cute little modern-Mexican restaurant for lunch. There we met up with three current students from UPenn and two admissions officers. Not only was the food really good but so were the conversations. After talking with Frank Cabrera, an admissions officer, and Dyana So, a rising sophomore at UPenn, I feel so much more confident in what I need to put in my applications in the fall. They provided so much insight into not only the curricular benefits of UPenn but into the whole college experience. They were very helpful and really sold UPenn as a school.

After lunch we walked over to the campus for a tour and an info session. The tour was led by Dyana and Briana Williams, who was also at lunch. It was very informative and interesting. UPenn has such a beautiful campus. I loved seeing all of the old buildings with exquisite architecture. The UPenn campus is so much larger than Sarah Lawrence.

After the info session, which was nothing special (nothing was said that we didn’t already learn from our company at lunch) we went down stairs to this amazing cookie place that Dyana and Briana told us about. Insomnia Cookies is the best cookie place I have ever been to. We each got a cookiewich; mine was double chocolate mint cookies with vanilla ice cream. Too good.

Luckily our scheduled day ended earlier than the previous days have. We have had time to relax and hopefully go to bed at a reasonable time. We all just bought some pizza and hung out and ate it in Simon and Bryan’s room. It was fun.

It is absolutely amazing that today has only been our third day in New York. After everything that we have done it feels like we have been here for at least a week. Mrs. L is a miracle worker when it comes to planning extremely fun outings and time management. I can’t wait for Vassar tomorrow!