Blogs from Pennsylvania, United States, North America

I have been talking a lot lately about my plans for this summer! Josh and I will be taking a 5 week roadtrip across/around the country. After months of talking about it, we finally sat down yesterday and planned a route and a basic itinerary. So this is what our route looks like.... Since I am terrible with google maps....and just overall terrible with anything computer related....this extremely long URL is all that I could come up with to show you where we will be going. So if you are so inclined....copy this monster....paste it into the URL box (?? that long box to type things in ? ?) and then scroll out on the map until you can see our highlighted route! Sorry for sucking so much....if anyone would like to offer some free computer ... read more

I am currently outside Philadelphia airport.... Why am I here? I turned up at the airport at 8am for my 9.30am connection flight to Newark for New Orleans. Then the flight was delayed first by 30 minutes, then by 45 minutes.... So I approached the front desk to ensure I would be able to catch my connecting flight. They assured me I would be flying within the hour.... Then the flight was delayed by an hour..... Then suddenly the flight was delayed by three hours, which then led to a queue as long as the passengers on the plane. As everybody has different connective flights. Then all the machines went down with the printers, it was then I knew this was not going to be my day... I was not surprised then when the words canceled ... read more

I officially attempted to assimilate into American culture today... I went to a baseball game. The Philadelphia phillies at the citizen bank park taking on the Chicago cubs. What a Phillie is I can't tell you, it is rather unimaginative but it is one of the oldest franchises in baseball and most importantly hasn't moved around with the frequency of most other American teams. It's history I appreciated, and it instantly made me like them that little bit more. The stadium seats over 40,000 fans, and it was quite a surreal experience. My 30 dollar ticket got me a seat in the nose bleed section, with no protection against the cold winds of an April evening. The first 5 innings passed with little aplomb mostly strikeouts and quick innings despite this it did pique my interest. ... read more

I graduated college and feel pretty alright about that. Didn't attend the ceremony and instead spent the entire day with a stray dog that Benny and I found the day before. Leeloo stole my heart. Of course two days before I leave Philadelphia - after 5 years of residency and 23 years of yearning for a pup in my life - I stumble upon this loving and loyal little pooper. There was a going away party for Brent and I. It was great to see everybody one last time, though I really wish I had had more time during the semester to hang out. I immediately whipped out my Rodenbach reserved for the occasion. Good times. Lots of hugs. Leeloo was showered with love and soaked it all in. Now I am home. Fitting in last ... read more

I am nearing the end of my stay with Kayla and Brown bear. And in commiseration or perhaps celebration, we went back into Philadelphia. To visit one of my favourite places. But first we travelled to south street. This street can only be described as eclectic, and wonderfully bohemian. It's a great street to just people watch, from antique shops selling cupboards of taxidermy to Rastafarian inspired tobacco shops. I couldn't help but think of both Gabi and Ruth, knowing they would love this street. There were also comic book and record stores, so my inner geek squealed in delight. Shockingly though there were a rather inordinate number of sex shops including Condom Kingdom..... I was surprised by the blatancy of it all, vibrators in shop windows, as well as other overt sexual items. The shop ... read more

Today we ventured to Camden Aquarium, surrounded by small children and for some reason the entire Jewish population of new jersey. My attention span lasted all of about 45 minutes there are only so many fish you can be awestruck over before you come to the conclusion they are still just fish. Though the penguins were pretty cute if not also completely stupid I was overwhelmed by the urge to push one of them over and watch them attempt to self right. Kayla told me that the penguins wouldn't have appreciated that even if she would also find it hilarious. I stroked a string ray who seemed to be enjoying human contact a little too much. After much persuading Kayla, my American mother, agreed to let me wander around Camden unaccompanied so I could see what ... read more

Gotta say that today has been the best day of the tour so far. We travelled from Washington DC (am over Monuments and Cities at the moment so this was good) and headed north towards Lancaster and the Amish Community. Beautiful farming country (dairy) with gentle rolling hills. On our way we stopped for an old wooded covered bridge..what a treat. It has a story about being a kissing bridge so couples have their photos taken having a kiss. Beautiful setting (will post pic) My understanding of Amish living has been challenged. There are about 30,000 Amish people in Lancaster...who knew there was that many. I had thought (although probably didn't give a great deal of thought really...lol) that they lived in an almost 'sheltered' or 'closed' community. Duh...very wrong as they live side by side ... read more

No program for today. Just lazed around, watched a few episodes of a serial called 24. Was quite good. Had dal, beans poriyal for lunch. In the evening went to Trader Joe's and Target to pick up some groceries. Then Poornima dropped us off at a huge mall at 5pm where we spent time till 7pm. Had frozen yogurt which R has been raving about all the time. Pashanth picked us up on his way home from offfice. Watched one more episode of 24 and an episode of House snacking on baked onion rings with dip. Had roti and nutrela gravy for dinner.... read more