Philadelphia's not a far drive from Syracuse.. just about 4.5 hours or so. I have lots of Syracuse friends from the Philly area too, and SU Admissions takes many trips there. But somehow, until last week I hadn't visited since I was about 9 years old. On the way down my dad and I reminisced about that visit (now more than 15 years ago)-- we visited all the sites, the Liberty Bell, independence hall... and Dad at the time working for the American Steel industry had a connection at the Philadelphia mint... and we got to walk the floor sticking our hands in the newly printed coins... we also got a first look at the State-by-State quarter series that was about to release... remember before American quarters had State images on them, they had eagles? Yeah, I told you this was way back in the day. At nine I knew this was a special trip... not many kids get to visit the mint and see the plans for American currency for the following decade. But I think it was a little side story that Dad told me about our Philly trip that stood out to me the most the other day.
When I was nine, I saw my first homeless person in Philadelphia... now you may be surprised by this, but remember where I grew up... and vacations we had taken before this were often to family's suburban homes around the States. This may very well have been my first big city trip. Apparently I was struck by this man's misfortune and bombarded my parents with questions, exciting my brother with curiousity and before they knew it.. I desparately wanted to feed this homeless man my sandwhich. I don't remember anything about this part of our trip, but aparently to my parents it was quite a part of the weekend's discussions. I'd say at nine I was demonstrating qualities of my future composed self: intense curiousity and an unwillingness to give up on satiating it, an overwhelming concern for others almost never putting myself first, and an openness to asking questions and exploring similarities and differences in people.... and yes, I got all that self-analysis from a side story about a homeless man and my sandwhich from a trip to Philly when I was nine.
This trip to Philly was quite different. While yes, I did see some homeless people... there wasn't much touristy-exploring. Instead there was a 1pm arrival, and some lunch at the Reading Terminal Market... definitely visit this place while you're in town, and then some work in the hotel room. The iSchool once again hosted an evening presentation on social media... this time at the Comcast Center's (definitely check out the super cool video wall in the lobby) Table 31 restaurant. Back in the hotel around midnight, we were on the road again at 8:30am. The quick trip definitely peaked my curiosity though, and I'd love to go back soon... with lots of sandwhiches.
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