"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained."

- Marie Curie


(I stole this from a friend's blog because I love it THAT MUCH!)

The day I met Betsy Ross.

So last Monday, one of my roommates and I decided to spend our morning off as tourists of Philadelphia.  We set off nice and early, ready for an adventure.  We got into the subway station and BOOM, it started to pour! Luckily, we had brought our umbrellas, and decided that we had already gotten up and ready pretty early (we left at 8:45am after having gone to bed around THREE, per usual), we would brave the storms.  When we got off the subway, though, we were pleasantly surprised, as the storms had turned into just regular rain, and then just a drizzle.  By mid-morning, the rain had worn off, and as an after-effect, it wasn't quite as hot as it had been the past few days!

Our first stop was to get our tickets for a tour of Independence Hall.  Here's the rest of the day in pictures...

(PS, everyone who knows my directional abilities, or lack thereof, should be incredibly impressed, because we walked around a good bit of Philadelphia using just a MAP to get to where we were headed.  No GPS. That's what I call growth.)

The Liberty Bell

Betsy Ross' House, where we met the real Betsy Ross.  Ha.

This was obviously a children's museum.  So, we acted like children. :)

To finish up our walking tour of Philly, we stopped at Jim's, home of THE BEST Philly Cheesesteaks.  They even had a vegetarian option for me! It was every bit as good as we had heard!

This is in honor of...

This is in honor of Kelley, who brought me a Diet Coke tonight and saved me from my exhaustion-induced headache.

This is in honor of Sona, who showed me how awesome the Office is.



This is in honor of my incredible, amazing OOT team member Marquita, who always plays "Hey, Soul Sister" when I'm not in the best of moods. :)



This is in honor of my sweet (sometimes) sister, who turned SIXTEEN on Sunday.

And this is in honor of all of the incredible Corps Members I've gotten to know over the past 5 weeks.  And of course, the Ops team :)

Be kind.

Always, always be kind.

(ps, this use of "kind" is dedicated to Stacey, who has single-handedly brought the word "kind" back into my vocabulary.)

Seven courses of awesomeness.

Marrakesh lived up to every outrageous, outlandish statement we had heard about it.  The atmosphere was incredible, the food was even better.  To set the scene, Stacey, Sona, Virginia, and I headed off in our own cab to meet the others at the restaurant.  As if an omen of the wonderful night to come, I found a heads up penny on our way out, and saw a spectacular sunset as we drove through the streets of Philly.

Part of the incredible-ness of Marrakesh is that it is tucked in an unassuming alley off of South Street.  Our directions were literally to look for the green awning and knock on the door.  And so we did, of course, eagerly anticipating the magic that awaited us.

The woman who opened the door led us past tables surrounded by carpets, pillows, and wonderful food, up a tiny staircase to a room where the rest of our group was waiting.  Marrakesh is one of Philly's many BYO's, meaning you can bring your own beverage of choice.  We all chipped in and brought various wines for the night to enjoy during the dinner.  

We all crowded inside what I can best describe as a big, round booth (think about a booth sized for about twenty people) with tapestries and pillows and dark lighting until the last stragglers of our group arrived. Once our group had all gotten to the restaurant, about seven of us split off to a smaller booth behind the big booth (but still in the same room) to make room for all of the food to come.  Here's our menu:

The Three-Salad Platter- Cooked Eggplants in Tomato Sauce, Cucumbers and Bell Peppers in Mediterranean Seasoning, Oasis Carrots with Cucumber.

The B’stella- Layered pie with chicken, assorted nuts, almonds, eggs, parsley and onions, topped with confection sugar and traced with cinnamon

The vegetarian version of this was made with egg instead of chicken, although I'm pretty sure that it was the same spices.  It was a surprisingly delicious mix of savory and sweet (literally, powdered sugar on top!).

Main Dishes

Chicken with Lemon and Olive & Spicy Chicken in Cumin Sauce

The main dish for the vegetarians was a spinach pastry thing which was ALSO incredible--a close second to the eggplant dish, in my opinion. 

Second Main Course

Tajne of Lamb with Almonds and Honey & Lamb with Chick Peas and Onions

I can't remember the vegetarian option for this.  But I promise it was incredible.

Third Main Course

Couscous Grand Atlas Topped with Vegetables, Chick Peas and Raisins

Desserts: 

Basket of Fresh Fruits, Hot Mint Tea with Moroccan Pastries

We ate everything with our fingers, using the bread (which was like pita bread) to grab meats or soak up the delicious sauces.  My favorite by far was the eggplant in the 3-salad dish.  It almost tasted like barbecue sauce with a twist.  Holy deliciousness, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

And the baklava.  Ohhhh the baklava.  Holy honey and pastry deliciousness.  I actually ate TWO AND A HALF of these huge pastries, which were dripping with sugary honey.  While some people just couldn't handle all the sweet, I feel like these were made for me.

(I also felt like I was going into a food and wine coma after this incredible meal, but that's the price you pay for such a glorious, out of body experience, right?)

Proof that this has happened.

So this summer, we've actually been really good at taking pictures of EVERYTHING.  We've had adventure packed weekends, really making Philly ours.  It's been fun.  Here are some pictures to prove it, from where I left off:

(PS. One day I will ACTUALLY finish my 4th of July post.  It's too epic not to finish.)

So like I said, last Saturday, we explored the South Street area of Philadelphia.  But first, we had quite the subway adventure.  There was a man hustling everyone on the subway.  Of course, he headed over to our area of the subway. It was me, Sona, Stacey, Virginia, Jace, Luciano, and Luciano's friend from Duke.  He came up to each of us, of course allowing us to win the first time, and then shoving a $20 bill in our face and saying, "Showing me $20, and you can have this!"  We all told him we didn't have cash.  All of us mostly ignored him.

Mostly.

Two of us, who shall remain nameless (Sona and Jace), decided it would be fun to give him FORTY DOLLARS (hence the title of that post: Give me $40).  And decided they could beat him.  Um, no.  While one of the innocent suckers was distracted, he switched the cups, and asked for an answer before any of the  wiser crowd could let her know.  And so we lost $40.  But it was worth it.  It was HILARIOUS.  We're pretty sure 2 of the other equally sketchy looking men were in on the gig, especially when one told Jace to give him MORE money so he could win back his money.  Because, yeah, I'm sure he would have played fair this time.  Not.

So we actually ended up getting off a stop too late because we were so enthralled with the game.  So we walked through Philly, went past one of our boss' high school (the one she went to, not the one she teaches at) and some other cool places (for more pics, see the Show me $40 post!)

We also got our first Philly cheesesteaks at Ishkabibbles (the line at Jim's was too long!), although those who had been to Jim's confirmed the rumors--Jim's is the best.  We also walked past the magic gardens (pictured above, which Stacey and I went back to yesterday afternoon before work!) and saw some more of Philly's great murals.  We headed to the Philadelphia Academy of Art, which had been the point of our trip, but arrived only 15 minutes before the closing of the exhibit, and spent some time in the gift shop instead :).  All in all, a successful afternoon.

We headed back to 1300 and freshened up (aka took naps until 5 minutes before we had to leave...) for Marrakesh.  Marrakesh is a Moroccan restaurant where you are served traditional Moroccan food in a traditional Moroccan atmosphere by waiters dressed in traditional Moroccan garb and... traditional Moroccan belly-dancers. Our fellow interns from UPenn, Steve and Cristina, had RAVED about this place and its 7 course meal.  That the food was TO DIE FOR (seriously, not joking here).  Could it live up to their words?

IT. WAS. INCREDIBLE.

Unfortunately, I've run out of time yet again.  And let's be honest, a meal that epic deserves its own post.

Eleven Days.

In eleven days, somehow, my time in Philly will be done.  I have no idea where all the time has gone, but I have had SUCH an incredible time and have met SUCH beautiful (that's for you, Rachel and Ryan) people.

In eleven days, I have quite a bit to pack in.  Here's what's on the schedule:

• Another school visit, hopefully.
• Visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Renoir exhibit
• Go back to Reading Terminal Market
• Find some dresses for Recruitment (oops.)
• Figure out how the heck I'm going to move into my new house in Athens when I haven't gotten anything other than the bare bones and won't even be back in GA till August 4th and start working on the 5th.
• And most importantly, spend every possible moment with the friends I've made this summer.

Like I said, I have loved loved LOVED this summer.  And there are quite a few things I'll miss, like having our bosses sing to us at every staff meeting and bring us treats like popsicles, ice cream, and giant Reese's cups.  I'll miss getting a thank you note on my door for even the smallest thing I've done.  I'll miss my OOT team.  I'll miss mega bed. I'll miss being in Philly and getting to ride the sketchyyyy subway.  I'll miss running down Broad Street, seeing the transformation from the shady temple area to the glossy center city and land of museums.  I'll miss our tradition rendition of SHOUT! in the copy center every night at midnight.  And I'll miss the 18 interns and countless other incredible staff members and corps members I've gotten to know.

(I probably won't miss working till 2 am, though.  Just a thought.)

Speaking of the corps members, this is their LAST week in the classroom.  They've spent the last five weeks essentially doing a crash course in teaching in some pretty rough areas to get ready for the next two years of their lives.  The beginning was rough.  Everyone was sleep deprived, anxious about finishing lessons, and scared about being in front of a class of students for the first time.  But after my three school visits last week, I have no doubt that these CMs have become incredible teachers.  It was crazy to watch them really transform INTO teachers.  They developed connections with their students on the first day.  They became really invested in their successes, and were able to share with us their excitement over their students' ability to overcome obstacles and succeed in the classroom.  In the classroom, they seem like they've been teaching for years.  Yes, everyone has hit obstacles.  Everyone has had bumps in the road or days where they haven't been 100%.  But they've come back every day, ready to give 100% again, and that's what matters.

Before this summer, I knew I wanted to apply to TFA.  Now, I'm sure.  And so I'll spend the next few weeks trying to come up with a personal statement that somehow captures my desire to become a part of this movement and convinces the powers that be that I belong here, too.  That I can fight for these kids, too.

"Show me $40."

Part 1 of our weekend in pictures...

Spent Friday night hanging out at good ole 1300...

Wandered around South Street and attempted to see the Renoir exhibit, but we came too late... maybe next week!

Mosaic Garden

We tried our first Philly cheesesteaks!

Beautiful sunset on our way to dinner...

Knocking to get inside the Moroccan restaurant...

More on our Moroccan adventure later!