The day was definately packed with all kinds of interesting things. We started out yesterday morning with a visit to Christ Church, which is one of the first churches in Philly, the first congress worshiped here and a few of the declaration signers are burried there. It's a modest church, just what you'd expect from protestants who left Europe because they were being persecuted. Fun Fact: As I was walking through the church there was a pastor talking to two small children and their mother, and he said: "Do you realise how young this country is, why you're children are the 12th generation of this nation." How weird is that?!
After a coffee break, where I had the most delicious warm milk with pumpkin spice (This was amazing, I think it should be shipped out internationally.) we went to have alook at the old city hall, the liberty bell, and the independence hall visitor center for tickets for the tour. Then slightly hungry we went to get a cheese steak. Now this is a local delicacy... if that's what you can call it. It's bread with cheeze wizz, and cooked beef. It sounds disgusting, I know, but in truth it's fantasic.
While Sasha and Stephan were off getting that, I went to the physick House. Doctor Physick was a very promenant doctor, who not only did a lot for the community there, but also for medicine. Instruments, such as the ones he created for eye surgery and dentistry are still used today. He also made the first American Soda after reading about the work of schweps in europe. The house in itself is very beautiful and is run by the great great grandson of the docotor. The family apparently lived in the house until the late 60s, which makes it even more amazing that it's in such good condition. Fun Fact: The curator had a fun time showing me around and giving me tons of interesting little facts. I'm not going to list them all, but these were fun. Apparently back then when you were dying they'd bleed you. The idea was that they needed to get the bad blood out of you. Usually this just killed you quicker. However in some cases you didn't die, but fell into a coma. Thinking you were dead they'd start arranging a funeral, but just to be on the safe side they'd leave you out to be viewed for a few days, which is why it's called a wake. It's just in case you wake up... and sometimes people really did. If you were still sure that your loved one was dead they'd burry you, but just in case they'd put a bell topside with a string going down into the coffin. So, if you happened to wake up and find yourself burried alive all you had to do was ring the bell. The guy that came to dig you out was called the graveyard shift... a term still used in hospitals for example. Also, two people who you think look alike are called dead-ringers. This is because, someone who's rung the bell and been dug out, if you saw him a couple days later, people would say: "Wow he's a dead-ringer for the guy we burried a couple days ago."
After our cheese steak we went to independence hall. Which was all of two rooms. There's an upstairs but that's only open in the spring. The only rooms you get to see are the courtroom and the congress room, where both the declairation and the consitution were signed. Unfortunately everything except George Washington's chair isn't authentic. After a 20 minute tour we headed to the Rosenbach house.
The Rosenbach brothers were the first people to create a library in their own home and open it for others. They in essence became the first lending library. In it there are thousands of interesting and abnormal books, such as the diary of a well worn hankerchief. It's considered to be the first book written in the United States. Also there were rooms dedicated to Sendak, an illistrator, who illistrated some of my favorite childrens books: Where the Wild Things Are, Chicken Soup with Rice, and Jacque and the Lion. It was interesting to see where his inspiration had come from and how he went about with his drawings. A couple years ago he illustrated an opera and the bad guy who in the opera is a quasi-hitler was drawn exactly so. In the pictures he became a sort of hitler/napolien clown in a very italien comedy del art.
Afterwards we went to the Obama office, where we got a small course in phone banking... not my cup of tea. As most of you know I'm not a call center kind of person, so this definately wasn't my thing, but I called 3 people and had done my duty for the day.
Then Sasha took us to the most decadent place I've ever been. It's called Naked Chocolate, and if there's any place on earth that's bad for you, it's here. A cup of chocolate milk is just a melted down bar of chocolate. The cups luckily are the size of espresso cups, but even that was almost too much to take. I in any case didn't finish it.
With a chocolate haze around us we met up with Sasha's parents and sister for dinner. We ate at a place called Cuba Viva, and looked like the set of Much Ado during the trip to Stratford. The food was amasing and the company was great. It was fantastic to see everyone and be able to catch up, especially considering the atmosphere around us. It's definatly a place I'd love to go back to. Afterwards a hop to a bar where the obama people were watching the game, which we stayed for about half of before I decided that I was about to fall asleep.
I didn't even finish the game when we got home, I was so tired.
But it's a new day and the penetentary awaits. So I'm off to prison.
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