Philadelphia is an adventure. Like I said earlier, some of it's good, some of it's different, and some of it's going to take some getting used to. In fact, one of the girls in our ward said it took about a year to completely adjust to Philadelphia and like living here. Oh, I hope it doesn't take that long. So far Philadelphia has been mostly good.
Our first day here was a bit of a shock. Let me paint you a picture of where we live. Our apartment is pretty nice. We live in the second story of a new building. 2 Bedrooms, hardwood floors, dishwasher, and best of all, central air (which is super hard to find out here.) However, the neighborhood we live in isn't the nicest. Not that it's scary, but you can just tell when you reach this different part of town. Since the first day arriving here and we've been getting out of the house more, I've realized that most of Philadelphia is like this. Unless we live in the suburbs (longer transit time) or in the middle of Center City in a high rise ($$$), this is about as good as it gets. We are very glad that we have a nice place to live. Unpacking is making it feel more and more like home and is helping me to come to terms with this new situation.
There are great things about Philadelphia as well. The neighborhood that is just south of us in University City and in Center City is very much a downtown area and I've really enjoyed exploring it. It's a different experience to walk out your front door and get exactly what you want so close to you.
Love Park in Center City (I want to go back and explore)
Another great thing about Philadelphia is the history. There is so much here! Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Valley Forge, Betsy Ross House, Franklin Print Shop, just to name a few. We've been able to see only a little bit of what the city offers in our first few weeks and it's amazing how much history is here. You may notice that I've added a new page to our blog called, "Phillie Bucket List." This is something I started compiling when we knew we were going to be moving to Philadelphia. We're hoping we can get through a lot of the list before we leave in 4 years.
And the food! Part of moving is the "eating out until you want to puke or you have the kitchen put back together" stage. Which means we've successfully found the nearest and least scary food establishments in our neighborhood (our poor waistlines are showing it.) We're had cheesesteaks at Gooey Louie's (so, so messy, but so, so good) and at the Reading Terminal Market. Every chinese restaurant (at least that we've seen) has exactly the same menu and is not very good. This is very bad for chinese lovers like me and Brad. We eat chinese food like it's good Southern soul food. Chinese is our comfort food and we are going to search high and low for a good chinese restaurant here in Phillie. Also, we've been sad to learn that there isn't really good Mexican out here. They have Chipotle and Qdoba (which are both good), but if we want family style Mexican, we're making it at home.
Our favorite food discovery has been water ice. No, not ice water. Water ice. It's hard to explain. It's like ice cream, but with snow cone ingredients. In fact, it's scooped like ice cream. But oh so good when it's been 103 outside.
Other funny things about Philadelphia. No right turns at red lights signs at pretty much every intersection. This can be a bit annoying. If it's red, you can't go. If it's green, there are pedestrians in the way. And they are serious about it. The cops will ticket you for turning on a red light.
You have to cash on you. Our first indicator was the toll roads only taking cash. Then the little water ice place only takes cash. When we asked about going to the Reading Market we were told the only payment accepted in the whole place is cash. A lot of places out here deal only in currency. Which is a little weird. I used to never carry cash. Now I ask Brad before we leave the apartment if we have enough cash. It feels like we went back in time to when we got paid for doing chores with cash and that's all we had.
We are still figuring out Philadelphia, and I'm sure there will be more interesting things to tell you about here on our blog. But for now, we are enjoying the adventure.
Gooey Looie's Cheese Steak
Our favorite food discovery has been water ice. No, not ice water. Water ice. It's hard to explain. It's like ice cream, but with snow cone ingredients. In fact, it's scooped like ice cream. But oh so good when it's been 103 outside.
Pineapple and Strawberry Banana Water Ice with Gelati
Other funny things about Philadelphia. No right turns at red lights signs at pretty much every intersection. This can be a bit annoying. If it's red, you can't go. If it's green, there are pedestrians in the way. And they are serious about it. The cops will ticket you for turning on a red light.
You have to cash on you. Our first indicator was the toll roads only taking cash. Then the little water ice place only takes cash. When we asked about going to the Reading Market we were told the only payment accepted in the whole place is cash. A lot of places out here deal only in currency. Which is a little weird. I used to never carry cash. Now I ask Brad before we leave the apartment if we have enough cash. It feels like we went back in time to when we got paid for doing chores with cash and that's all we had.
We are still figuring out Philadelphia, and I'm sure there will be more interesting things to tell you about here on our blog. But for now, we are enjoying the adventure.
1 comment:
Good for you for just diving in and getting to know the place!
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