First couple of days.

Monday April 3rd 2017

Today is Caroline’s first day at the lab and her first practice round with the orchestra tonight. She had put her alarm at 7am, because she had also set a date with 2 of her students back home, to call them and talk about their work. One of them had called in sick, so basically she could go back to bed for a little while longer. But she was up already, so she took a shower and got dressed. When she was done, we had breakfast together.

Around 8am she had her conversation with the other student and around 9:30am she went to the lab. We had walked it last Thursday, so she knew where to go. Only thing we did this morning was check where and what time she could get the bus tonight after her practice with the orchestra. That will end around 8:30pm, don’t think it will be a good idea for her to walk back, it will be dark around that time.

After she left I also took a shower and got dressed. I was still writing some new stories for my blog, was done with that around 11:30am…Note to self, make sure I write something every day, or I will be writing for a long time, knowing how I write my stories!!
It was soo funny as soon as Caroline was gone, the music went up downstairs!! I think she is waiting for everyone to leave so she can put up the music. Fortunately it didn’t last as long as last week!

Anyway, when that was done I went out to get some groceries. Before I started I wanted to throw out some recycle stuff. The containers are outside next to the garage, at the side of the house. While I walked toward the containers, the garage door opened!!! That was kind of freaky, seemed like I had triggered something to open the door!!! But no it was Amy’s partner who also wanted to get rid of some stuff.
This recycling business has us puzzled. Back home we really have to collect all paper and plastic separate, so we did that here as well, thinking it would be the same as back home. But when I asked where to put the paper and in which container the plastic went, I could put it all into one container…huh???
So how does that work?? Like at the coffeeshop where we were on Sunday, it also said they recycle, but it doesn’t tell us which bin is for plastic and which is for paper, so everything either ends up in the recycle bin or in the trash, but they’re the same!
I’m not sure what Amy thinks is good to save the environment, but it is funny how she wants us to recycle, yet leaves the lights on in a room where she is not in, there is no stopper in the sick in our kitchen, so we have to do our dishes with the water running and she has given us toilet paper which is soo thin we need to take off extra layers to make sure we can wipe our asses properly (excuse the language!!) so that just begs the question, what exactly is the point in all of this??(No offense!!)

Anyway, let’s not get into that!
This time I walked down Walnut street to the supermarket we found last week on 40th street. But I found another supermarket on 44th street, looked a little rundown, but hey it saved me from walking another 3 blocks, so I was good! Prices and items were about the same as the other supermarket, so it was all good.
This time I brought my empty backpack and a larger bag from Caroline, so I could divide everything. But I still felt like I was lifting weights!! The weather was good too this time, the sun had come out and it was really hot, so I was really glad when I got home!!

I put away all of the groceries and had some lunch. After lunch I just sat in a chair and read for a while, until about 2:30pm. That’s when I decided to go out for a walk again. It was really warm outside, but there is a strange wind.
I went to the thrift store I had seen earlier that morning, pretty big, but mostly clothes and furniture. Then I walked up to 40th street, where I’m now having a cup of tea at Saxbys, the coffee shop where we were on Sunday. But this time I’m definitely not the oldest person in the room!! It is nice and busy, but the music is up a little bit too loud for my taste, so I don’t think I will sit here much longer. Just having tea, writing in my travel diary and typing this story!

When I was done, I walked over to the Fresh Grocer to get some dinner and walked back to the house. After dinner I just finished the book I was reading and Caroline came home around 9pm, after her practice class with the orchestra.
We chatted for a while, but went to bed early anyway!

Tuesday April 4th 2017

Caroline’s first day at the lab was kind of strange really, she said the professor was there, but she hadn’t talked to him all day. And then one of the people she worked with, kind of left without anyone knowing he had or where he had gone to. So she didn’t really get started on her project yet. And her first practice with the orchestra went fine! All the members are pretty young though, she told me that the girl she said next too could only say “Oh cool” to everything Caroline told her…so that kind of gives you an idea of who they are! But there were at least 10 other viola players in the orchestra, which Caroline is very happy with. They were playing two pieces, the one was really hard, but the other was went pretty well, so she’ll be a professional at the end of her 2 months here!!

Today we got up around 7:30am and Caroline went to the lab around 8:30am. As soon as she left, I also took a shower and got dressed. Looked some things up online and around 10 am I wanted to go out. But before I left, I took a Swiffer through the room, using the wet towels that come with it. I don’t know if you have ever used any of these, but I’m telling you they are really wet!! Good thing I did this before I left, so the floor had time to dry and I wouldn’t have to wait on a carpet before I could walk on it!

As I went outside it started to rain, I thought it wouldn’t be that bad, but it did get worse. So I went back to the house to get an umbrella and guess what??? Yes, it stopped raining!! (in fact I didn’t need the umbrella for the rest of the day!!!)

I walked over to the train/subway station on 46th street, which is not too far from here. There I took the Blue Line into the Old City, this line takes you further then the trolley we have been using so far. I wanted to go to the Benjamin Franklin Museum, which is on 4th street and this line stops pretty close to it.

From Market street you walk through a small alley that leads up to the place where Franklin’s house was. They say it is the original alley he used to walk through in his day. But the house has been demolished in 1812, now they have put up a steel construction to show you what the house must have looked like. And they were able to dig up some of the foundation of the original house, which you can look at through plexi glass.

I was taking pictures of the alley and stepped aside for someone who was also taking pictures, then he did the same for me. We were just in time, because a couple of seconds later there was this large group of teenagers in the alley!!!! And of course all of them went into the museum, shit!!! I sat outside and wrote in my diary for a while, I definitely did not want to be in the museum with them! By the time I went inside, they were already on their way out, so that was perfect timing!!

Before I came to Philadelphia I read “The first American” by HW Brands, which is a biography on Benjamin Franklin, so everything looked familiar, but it was very nice to see! Very interesting guy!! The museum was set up in a nice way, there were little movies that explained things, you could answer questions about him and there were objects you were actually allowed to touch.

Like I said he was a very interesting guy, he came out of a family of 17, he did not really go to school, but taught himself everything he knew, by reading as many books as he could his hands on. He ran away from Boston to end up in Philadelphia, where he started his own printing business, he started the Philadelphia Gazette, wrote Poor Richards Almanak and in between all of that, he also set up several things for the city. For instance the first organized firefighters companies, the first lending library and the university. He also invented several things, like the Franklin Stove, so people didn’t have to make fires in the middle of the house anymore, he made himself the first bivocal glasses, so he could see both far off as read his papers, without having to take the glasses off. And he was one of the first people to experiment with lightning and electricity.

Besides all of this he was also an ambassador to England, he managed to get help from France during the Independence war with England, he helped Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution and put his signature underneath both. So he had a pretty interesting live, al 84 years of them!! It was really nice to see what I have been reading about!

I can’t remember what time I went into the museum, but I left around 1:30pm. Time for lunch, which I wanted to have at the City Tavern, said to be the oldest place in Philadelphia. It took a while for me to find it and when I did, it turned out to be a pretty fancy place, whereas I just wanted to have a sandwich. So that was kind of too bad. I went back to Market street, where I had some tea and croissants at a small place….but I shouldn’t have taken the croissants. I always forget they don’t taste like home and I don’t really like them, just wanted something to eat and fast!!
O well, they did have a nice couch to sit in and the tea was very nice too!!

So I sat there for a while and decided to go to Elfreth’s Alley, said to be the oldest original alley in the city.
And to be honest it wasn’t all that big a deal. I mean it was nice to see, but the houses looked like they could use some fresh paint and it was in the middle of a normal area with tall buildings. The worse thing was that there was some construction work going on right opposite two of the houses, belonging to the alley.
Still it would be nice to live there and be able to say you live in a very old house!

Then I went to the Christ Church graveyard, where Franklin and his family are buried. They charged $2,-, which isn’t all that much, but I only wanted to see his grave. There were other prominent people buried there, but I didn’t feel like seeing them all. Best thing was, that there was a wall around the graveyard, but just at the point where Franklin’s grave was, there was a fence, so I could put my camera through that and take a picture!!

In the meantime the weather had gotten really hot. I have brought my “in-between” jacket from home, not exactly knowing what kind of weather to expect. This jacket really is meant for “in-between” weather, so when it is really cold, this jacket is not going to really keep me warm and when it gets warmer, with this jacket on, it is going to be really hot!!!
So I decided I wanted to go and buy a summer jacket. I had seen some signs of a mall, so I thought I’d go there and get one….NOT!! Turned out that there was only a food court, because they were doing some construction work inside!!!!

So I then I just walked back down Market street (passed the Dow Corning company by the way!) to the Blue Line stop. There were some other big buildings that were also malls, but they were also under construction, not to open until next year!!
So I just had it really, it was time for me to go home before I was ready to do some serious damage!

I found the Blue Line stop and I was back in the house around 4:30pm. I was glad I was there! I had something to drink, got me some chocolate and sat in a chair to write some postcards!!

Caroline got home around 6pm, she practiced on her viola for a while and around 7pm we had dinner. I made some quesedilla’s, which my friend Paula taught me how to make. They were really good!!! After dinner we watched something on Netflix and read our books for a while. Lights out around 9:30pm for me, I was so tired!

Love,
Linda and Caroline