Igniting Curiosity

Today our time in Philly comes to end and the journey to Brown begins!

Our day started off with a walk to breakfast followed with a walk to UPenn to take some pictures and explore the campus.

My favorite part about the UPenn campus is the amount of trees they have. The have grown tall and the branches of opposing trees intertwine above our heads. They are not only aesthetically pleasing but offer relief from the Sun and kept me from burning like a shrimp.

Next we headed out to the Terminal Reading Market. Walking into the market instantly sent my senses into overdrive. Smells ranging from overly sweet to pungent meats hit me like a stack of bricks, which sadly lead to a headache. The market was also filled with many people shuffling around like penguins.

After shuffling around in what seemed like a never ending pool of people I heard over the intercom that they would be holding a free informational session on olive oil. When I arrived to the spot they handed out popcorn, tomatoes with mozzarella, fruits, and a few other goodies that had been covered in different types of olive oil. During the session we covered the basics like what makes a good olive oil, how they should be stored, and the differences between mild, medium and robust. And I even found out that they have a store location in Oakland.

After the market we headed out to retrieve our luggage from the hotel and began our journey to the airport.

When we reached the airport we began our way to get to our gate with the help of an airport prospect named Bukola Ajayi. Now you are probably wondering why I am mentioning her and it is because of her extraordinary loyalty to customer satisfaction and safety. Her job was to make sure Kendra got to the gate by pushing her there in a wheel chair, yet she made sure that she helped the rest of us stay with Kendra. She was very caring and made sure we got what we needed.

After arriving at our gate we find out that our fight had been delayed about an hour. When we were finally able to board we took off waving our goodbyes to Philly.

During the descent of the plane I found that we were really close to the ground and it really made me flabbergasted. Personally, I felt like we were a good 15 feet away from cars.

Next we made our way to find our rental car. On the way we were able to get a ride on the airport cart.

We reached Brown University at around 8:00 PM. After going in to check in for early check in we found that we had all been placed in the same hall (the Perkins Hall). I was placed on the third floor which meant I had to drag both my suitcases up three flights of stairs. When I reached my room I took a peak in the mirror and found that I looked like a bright red tomato.

After checking in and taking a few photos we headed out to see if the Water Fire was still lit. Luckily for us it was still on, we wondered around for a while and I couldn’t help but stare in awe at how calming the fire was with the music playing in the back ground.

We then walked to the Biltmore which in itself was amazing. I felt like I had walked into the past (ignoring the modern televisions and computers). My favorite part was the glass elevator with can be seen as soon as you walk in. It was built in 1978 but is now sadly out of service. Yet the sign on the wall did say it was a time machine maybe it can take me to the first day it opened so I can ride in in all its glory.