Wednesday, July 21, 2010

And The Winner Is...

I woke to the sound of three different alarm clocks. I wanted to be sure that I was on time to breakfast. We ate at the hotel restaurant and coffee was readily available so no complaints from me.


Right after breakfast we, the students, walked with Ms. Kronenburg to the campus of UPenn only a few blocks away. The info session was followed by a tour led by a rising senior who was studying language at UPenn. She was wonderful at explaining the feel of campus life. I loved hearing of the unique traditions. At football games the students throw toast onto the field in order to keep their age-old fight song alive. An engineering student even invented a Toast-Zamboni to clear the thousands of pieces of toast off the field. I was impressed with the architecture and level of academics they claimed to have. I thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful tour.

Unfortunately, those who didn’t join us on the tour did not have as wonderful a time. In a sad turn of events Mr. Miranda’s wallet went missing and he and Mr. Ramsey got wrapped up in the process of replacing all the necessities that were in that wallet. Looks like between spillage and potential theft our luck hasn’t been too good.


However, the train rides to Trenton and then Princeton were rather fun. For the first time on the trip we took Amtrak. It was a fun experience and the five of us, the other students, Ms. Kronenburg, and I, had a wonderful, laugh filled ride.

Once arriving at Princeton it was clear that the feel was very different. With gothic architecture and a different type of info session, I did not feel the same connection as I did with UPenn. The tour guide was fabulous but the university didn’t fit my style.

Fitting with our train adventures we took four different trains back to our hotel. Since there were so many different connections to make we really became a team, laughing, taking pictures, and sharing music along the way. Unfortunately we took a little longer to get back to Philly then we had planned…

With only fifteen minutes to get ready for dinner it was a race against the clock. However, it was all worth it once we got to the amazing restaurant Mr. Ramsey had chosen for us. We had two amazing guests from UPenn that were wonderfully open and willing to answer any questions we had. I was blown away by the food, especially the desserts! I thoroughly enjoyed every bite.

Leaving the restaurant we were shocked to find it was raining! Luckily our first encounter with the east coast summer rain was quite short. Hopping into a cab we zoomed back to the hotel.

After a brief meeting Ms. Kroneburg joined Brandon and I on a stroll around Philly at night. It was great to finally see the late city lights. I can’t wait to see the famous New York skyline for the first time tomorrow.

All in all it was a wonderful double hitter of a day where UPenn came out on top in my book. Although both colleges were lovely I was much more impressed with UPenn. I felt the connection to the campus and loved the culture of city life as well as student involvement. I hope to be as impressed with the colleges coming up in the week.

3 comments:

  1. Marisol,

    You’re aren’t the first to mention this thing with the toast but exactly is it with the toast? Why do they toss it on the field and how does this perpetuate their fight song?

    That restaurant sounds like a winner. By any chance does it have a name or should the next time we’re in town we should just ask about this great place we heard of where they don’t dump wine on the customer’s head?

    Too bad about the rain, though, but at least you all brought your umbrellas—didn’t you?

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  2. Don,
    The UPenn students used to do a lot of drinking at their football games. Naturally, the cheer they used during the football games had a line stating that they toasted to the win. At this moment all the UPenn students would raise their glasses. When they changed the rule so no alcohol was allowed, the students had to change tactics. Instead, as a protest, they now throw pieces of toast onto the field at that line.
    As for the rain, I actually enjoyed it. Yes I had my umbrella which made it more manageable but the humidity disappeared, making the weather much more enjoyable.

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