I have officially been in Phily for over 36 hours right now. I spent today wandering around my new home, specifically between 15th and 5th on Market. Today I visited Independence Hall, and then went to the Constitution Museum, which was sweet. They had a room that had life-like statues of all of the Framers, and (Nerd Patrol) I almost cried. It was really cool. Additionally, they had a cool presentation about how the Constitution shaped our culture, and they have a really neat area with different exhibits about our Constitution. It was definitely worth the $12.
One of the really suprising things for me was the number of homeless people I see. They seem to be everywhere in the city. I saw two to three on every block that I walked down today. It was definitely eye-opening.
One of the people I met at my Sojourners conference told me a story. He worked in Philly for a year, and said that after September 11th, one of his friends commented that she was scared that something would happen in the city. But then, he said, “she looked around, and said “but then I realized that we had already been bombed, and no one was paying attention.” I’m beginning to understand what they meant.
Also, on the topic of creepy. At the end of my Sojourners Conference last week, as I was walking out of my hotel, I saw the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The headline was “Aspiring Teacher Killed.” It turns out that a 23 year old man from Austen, Minnesota had moved to Philly to become a teacher through the Philadelphia Teachers Fellowship, a program similar to TFA. He was shot and killed, police now believe, for his I-Pod. Now, as a soon to be 23 year old who went to college 90 minutes from Austen and is here with TFA, it was kind of a combination wake-up call and reality check. It was weird, and a reminder that but for the grace of God…
Interviews on Monday. Induction on Tuesday. Institute in one week. TFA, here I come.
