Full-Fledged Philadelphian

Four months I’ve lived in Philadelphia. I’ve biked miles around, bar-hopped night after night, eaten at the finest and crappiest local diners, yet still I feel no connection to the city. The streets of Philly are devoid of sentiment, and the relationships formed there, though valuable, are ephemeral. This is partly due to the nature of my stay. I’m only here for nine months, why bother getting attached? However, I know I will regret it if I leave this city without ever having lived in it, so I’m making changes. No more looking back, no more yearning for home, no more dreaming of beaches.

After a soul-soothing month at home, I’m en route to Philly again, and the minute I land, I am a full-fledged Philadelphian. I will eat hoagies, hate the Yankees, put Cheez Whiz on everything, and ride my bike on the sidewalk. That is, if Penn leaves me with time to spare.

Fall Colors

If there's one thing California is missing, it is a real fall. This is my first time living (year-round) in a region with real seasons, and even though I prefer milder temperatures, the past few weeks in Philadelphia have been absolutely gorgeous. The weather has been fluctuating between warm and refreshingly brisk, and even though sun has been scarce, the gray weather only adds to the vibrancy of fall. I really wish I had a camera to capture this, sadly I haven't bought one yet, but I will share my friend Heather's pictures of fall in Fairmount Park to give you an idea.


One memory I will always cherish is ambling through Penn's Locust Walk (lined with trees and gothic brick buildings), wrapped in a scarf, kicking up piles of orange-red leaves and laughing at Landscaping Services' futile attempt to clear all the leaves as hundreds more fall.

:-)

Learning How to Fish

I had heard that classes in graduate school had a different dynamic than undergrad, but I wasn't aware how contrasting they would be. The most noticeable (and welcome) change is that classes aren't textbook-centric anymore, but are literature-centric. Two of the three classes I've attended so far (because we started on a Wednesday, haven't had Monday or Tuesday classes yet) have over 30% of the class grade based on in-class discussion and presentation of research articles. Also, by allowing us to bring in papers we find interesting, we can gear the curriculum towards our personal interests. The goal of classes isn't to lecture at you, but to teach you how to find and critique the most relevant, up-to-date literature so you can teach yourself. My professor this morning described it in the best way "we're not going to give you the fish, we're going to teach you how to fish."

Being treated like an adult at school makes me feel more like an adult. Having swapped out my jeans for khakis and my backpack for a Penn tote bag, I really feel like a graduate student. And I must say, it feels great.

:-)

Philly, to the power 24

In my last post, my sentiments about this city were lukewarm. There was culture, but no crazy. There was personality, but no pizzazz. Turns out we were just looking in the wrong places. After the busiest and most fun 24 hours in the city of brotherly love, all of my reservations about this move have been eliminated (well, except for the winter, we'll see about that in a few months). Let me take you through my day.

Saturday night, the ladies and I Yelped "Philadelphia nightlife," threw on our dancing shoes, and headed out on the town. First stop was this new place by campus, The Blockley Pourhouse. Opened recently, this place is shiny and spacious, and although the crowds are missing, it has great potential. Because it's new, the bartenders are all trying to buy loyalty and a crowd of "regulars" with free drinks galore. Needless to say, we liked. Buzzin' off of free booze, we hopped into a cab and told the cabbie to take us to the party. He did just as asked, and took us to THE place to be on a Friday or Saturday night, meaning 2nd @ Market. This two block strip was spilling with people coming in and out of the 10-15 bars, clubs and restaurants to fit every need. There were the grungy Irish pubs, the swanky clubs and upscale cocktail lounges. We found our place at the perfect combination of these 3, called Plough & The Stars. It was casual bar meets club, with two levels of dancing, and packed to the brim. Hours of dancing and meeting the locals = night of success.

Sunday morning, with a few survivors from the night before, we headed over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is free on the 1st Sunday of every month. Getting to the museum involved walking along the beautiful bike/run trail along the Schuylkill River. The museum itself was nothing short of grandiose (and actually more impressive than The Met), and located in the lush green Fairmount Park, it was the wow factor I had been missing.

After the art museum, we found ourselves on a spontaneous, self-guided tour of the Parkway, i.e. the Museums District of Philly. This is essentially the culture center of the city, housing several museums and libraries, city hall, and the stately Cathedral Basilica of Saints Paul and Peter. Even walking around, this is the most safest, most beautiful, spacious part of the city, with historical buildings, water fountains in every direction, and the flags of the world lining Ben Franklin Parkway. I can see that I will be spending many weekend afternoons exploring this district.

We got back to campus just in time for the Graduate Student Center's "Gnome Hunt/Happy Hour". I can't say enough how much I'm love the GSC. They have this ridiculous obsession with gnomes, which seemed absurd at first, but after this event, is very impressive. The entire GSC building is sprinkled with gnomes in the most random places, and they have pictures on the wall of the gnomes all around the world with them (Rome, Paris, California!). Our goal was to run around campus finding all the hidden gnomes, in the mean time, forcing me to go to many important places on campus I would have never known about otherwise: Fine Arts Library, Botanical Gardens, Penn Museum (which houses the 2nd largest collection of Egyptian artifacts after Cairo), Penn Bookstore, etc. Running around campus sweating profusely for an hour, and ending with an exquisite banquet and happy hour! :-D

Banquet ended just in time for Brittany and I to scuttle over to the first ever Philly Naked Bike Ride! I am officially a part of this city's history. I thought I'd done my fair share of crazy things, but this surpassed anything I'd done before. We collected at the Schuylkill River trail again, only to see hundreds of bikers and LOTS of flesh!

Entered the body-painting tent, stripped down and started painting! Once we were all decorated, it was 90 minutes of riding through every neighborhood of the city, yelling and screaming whilst being naked. The best way to describe it is a Critical Mass where everyone's naked. The reactions of unaware people on the streets were to die for, some of my favorites being the wedding happening along the Schuylkill, the hundreds of people having outdoor dinners at the upscale Rittenhouse Square restaurants, and a random guy on the street "this is the best f*****g day of my life!" Finally, the city has personality! I rocked a map of Cali on my back, and thus met many people from California, which is always great!

Finally, I got home, finished off the night with painful yet hilarious karaoke and salsa lessons with the building, washed off the paint, and passed out.

:-D

A Moment to be Pennsive

Although not quite done with my first week in Philadelphia, I have done enough exploring in the past few days to give me a sense of what I've gotten myself into. I now feel I can give a rudimentary judgment of several aspects of my new life.

The School:

Classes haven't started yet, so I can't say anything about the academics, but the campus itself is gorgeous. Taking my afternoon strolls to and from orientations have always left a big smile on my face. With the tree-lined cobblestone paths and the rustic red and gray brick buildings, I found myself thinking several times "ahh, its good to be back on the east coast." With art displays all over campus (notably the Peace, Love and Broken Button), and well-maintained landscape, you can tell it is an Ivy League.

I got my first exposure to Ivy League brats when my professor warned us, as TAs, to "watch out for the donor kids." Yowza, if children of donors are significant enough to mention during a TA meeting, this must happen often. On that same note, EVERYTHING at Penn is sponsored or donated, from entire buildings down to a stairwell in the BioE (here called BE) building.

My favorite part about the school so far is the Graduate Student Center. It is an embarrassingly well-funded organization that puts together very fitting events for graduate students (happy hours, city tours leaving you to do your thing downtown, "gnome hunts", salsa nights). With so many Master's students, it makes it a blast!

The City:

I was warned about Philadelphia's safety before coming here, but I brushed those warnings off thinking "meh, I lived in Harlem, how much worse could it be?" Turns out, a lot. UPenn, like several other schools located in crappy cities, has its own bubble in the middle of West Philly, which is the second worst part of town (coming in after South Philly). Inside the Penn Bubble, life is great. Students and upscale shops all around. Ten blocks east and west of where I live, you don't want to be caught alone. While every school warns you "never to walk alone at night," here doing so would mean risking your life. Luckily, we have been doing group tours and exploring the sketchier neighborhoods of town in safe numbers. Just two days ago, two women were raped (by the same man) two hours apart in Fairmount Park, which is immediately east of us. Today, two of my friends were followed around a Kmart by a sketchy man who purchased nothing and was just browsing for girls out alone to attack. Needless to say, I am on my guard, and very happy staying inside my Penn Bubble.

Safety issues aside, during the day and in groups, Philadelphia is a pretty cool city. It's no New York in culture, but there are several cool districts with lively restaurants and bars. And of course, the history isn't lost of me, although I was more impressed with Boston in that aspect. But everytime I pass by a food cart or walk into a subway station, I am happy to be living in a city again.

The Liquor Laws

Not that this defines my lifestyle or anything, but the peculiar liquor laws of Pennsylvania are worth mentioning. For starters, grocery stores don't carry alcohol at all. Beer must be purchased from special "Beer Distributors" where it's only sold by the case, and wine/hard alcohol from "Wine & Spirit Distributors." However, one AWESOME side effect of these prude laws is that, because liquor licenses are so difficult to obtain, many upscale restaurants are Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB)! I haven't tried one yet, but I am excited to.

My Housing

Ahh, my biggest disappointment so far, and the reason I broke down into tears on my first night...my housing. I signed up for university housing because I figured it would be the safest, cleanest deal, based of course on Cal's on-campus housing. I am living in Sansom Place East, the graduate high-rise apartments, or as we like to call them, the Graduate Student Projects. The apartments are tiny, the building is grungy overall, and I think I was just cursed with the worst apartment. My walls are dirty, my kitchen has obvious marks of a huge fire, the previous resident was a smoker, and worst of all COCKROACHES come creeping out at night! Ugh. After 4 days of serious cleaning, and asking the facilities repair for an exterminator, I am finally getting comfortable in this shit-hole. Never again will I take on University housing blindly. My quality of life has definitely dropped, from my awesome, well-stocked apartment this summer to eating soup and most-likely a dining plan at Penn.

However, aside from the actual apartment, the building has great amenities. There are group activities regularly, where I have met most of the people I now hang out with. There is a computer facility, free laundry, and this amaaazing view of downtown Philly on one side (I am the 10th floor), and phenomenal sunsets on the other.

The advantage of shitty housing is that it encourages you to stay out, which is pretty much what I've done all week. The weather has been beautiful, the people and events great, it's pretty much been a mini-vacation. I'm sure this euphoria will die quickly once school starts and the weather heads toward winter, but I am enjoying it now!

Peace, Love and a Broken Button,

Kiran

Can't Wait for UPenn!

My excitement for Philly and UPenn is increasing, helped along by the numerous awesome invites I keep getting, like the following:
----
We cordially invite you to attend our annual SUMMER BARBECUE!
Here’s all the details...
DATE: Friday, July 17th
TIME: Noon to 2:00pm
WHERE: In Front of Levine Hall
FOOD: Fresh grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, corn on the cob
DRINK: Beer from Penn Engineering Alumnus Mark Edelson, owner of Iron Hill Brewery.
----

I approve!

Privatization of Public Assets

From elementary school to community college to Cal, I have always prided myself on being a product of public education. I have always been a strong supporter of public education and do not see the need to pay the big bucks for success. I realize that, as a Californian, the bar for public education is much higher than other states and I'm fortunate in that aspect.

With that said, off I go to University of Pennsylvania, which is not only a private university, but also an Ivy League. I was always hesitant towards the Ivy League because (in my mind) it represented the incompetent, silver-spoon-fed heads of political (i.e. George W. Bush) and corporate (i.e. Rick Wagoner) America. My summer at Columbia shattered this illusion, but replaced it with the reality that Ivy League schools are run by incredibly disorganized administrations with elastic budgets and ill-defined goals. Public universities are more streamlined, more resourceful, and more efficient simply because they have to compete with private universities on a fraction of the budget.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great school and the opportunity is amazing, but part of me feels like I'm cheating on my values- paying for the brand name education in hopes of easing myself into a job based solely on prestige of my school.

What prompted this post? This past week, I officially became a Quaker. PennKey in hand, housing assigned, and classes picked, my excitement is quickly rising to join UPenn's Bioengineering community and Philadelphia in general, so I'm not exactly sure why I'm writing this negative post. Maybe it's to ease my guilt of leaving Cal. I may be a Quaker for a few years, but I'm Bear for life!