on friday, brooke went out with a friend, and i came home and had my german interview. it feels like it was a million years ago now ! i was nervous, and the person interviewing me was a german woman from GERMANY (or maybe austria or something) !!! she was super super nice and helpful and fun to talk to, and had a really beautiful speaking voice, so that made it easier. at the end, she told me i did really well and that i should continue on with german because i have the potential to sound really nice in german !
after the interview, i finished some other assignments for german and intended to do my final exam, but i re-read the instructions (in german) and realized the exam wouldn't be online until sunday. so i knitted and hung out with brooke when she got home ! brooke, christina, and i had the best time because we are all the weirdest ever.
on saturday, brooke and i went to the benjamin franklin underground museum, which is my favorite museum in the city. it's free, and weird, and so crummy and charming. unfortunately, the (totally stoned) park ranger told us it's closing this year. i'm bummed, because the utter lameness was the best part ! it was especially sad this time because the cool hallway was dismantled- here's a before and after:
we did see this, though, which made our lives:
we are going to start a history blog called COOL THOUGHTS, buttttt that name is taken on every blogging site and is mostly like, a couple of confucious and jim morrison quotes. booooo ! there was also a ben franklin film at the museum and we had to leave cause we laughed so hard that a 9 year old glared at us.
after the museum, we stopped to get some colored pencils. the security guard at rite aid, a middle aged self-described CRAYOLA FANATIC (cutest) suggested we check out k-mart for a better deal, and he was correct. i ended up getting the 50 color box:
we met up with christina after that and went to the girls rock philly camp showcase. oh my god, cutest best coolest most inspiring ever. if you aren't sure what they do, check out their website. the bands were all super good and all sounded like music i already listen to. most of their lyrics were about being strong and cool and smart. my personal favorite was called burrito daydream and they had songs about how awesome food is. like, the power of seeing young women proudly and unabashedly talking about eating and food was almost too much for me, because most adult women i know can't do that.
NOT girls rock philly, but very cute
brooke and i had good talks about this, related to a blog post by jen twigg- this camp is such an amazing thing because women are judged so harshly and made to feel so unwelcome in music that most adult women i know wouldn't feel comfortable doing what these little girls did, and it's a bummer. like, how many dudes do you know who totally suck at their instruments who feel comfortable and entitled to be in bands? and how many women? women are judged so harshly and judgments are made about their gender related to their capability ("i just don't like female voices," "girls suck at guitar") that they basically aren't allowed to have fun and fuck around and make cool music, and it fucking sucks. i hope all these girls are empowered by this experience and somehow remain untouched by all of that.
anywayyyyy after that, we got my broken glasses repaired and went to dinner at singapore, my personal favorite of our 20392093 vegan chinese restaurants, with sarah jane ! i was happy to see her, because she's hilarious and i don't see her enough.
it was especially fun because she and brooke were both raised pretty religious and got to talk about weird religious stuff that is endlessly entertaining to me, like not showing cleavage so you can be a good sister in christ and not be a stumbling block for christian males. p.s. religions are stupid.
after dinner, we went back to west philly and got gelato with mouse, mike, and benji ! we sat in a park at 40th street and fed swedish fish to rats who were being oddly brave and friendly. i've never really seen rats act like that !
then we went to a bookstore, where brooke got a biography of general sherman and i got... nothing. i got too overwhelmed by all the weird kid and YA books i wanted and just didn't buy anything, which is actually okay because i spent a lot of money this weekend.
on sunday, we met up with lesley, jess c., and sarah jane at abyssinia for ethiopian breakfast. it was great to actually HANG OUT with lesley (i've only met her once, at a bar, when it was loud and i didn't know what was going on) and meet jess, who is the sweetest/cutest. i haven't had foul in awhile (fava bean stew with ethiopian cheese, ghee, jalapenos, tomatoes, and onion, with baguettes) ! lesley got a kind of fitfit that was just baguettes soaked in tomato sauce and it was totally delicious.
then brooke and i went to green line for awhile and knitted while we waited for mouse- eric was working and i forgot how great he is (because i hadn't seen him in awhile). he showed me some pictures of his cat and talked to us about knitting. we met up with mouse after that and saw ben franklin's grave (covered in pennies? "a penny saved is a penny earned" = "please throw a penny on my grave") and finally went to the constitution center. wow. what a beautiful building and what an utterly boring museum. and i say this as the biggest dullest nerd ever.
i had fun though because there were some buttons i could press, and brooke and mouse are funny ! after the museum, we ate at monk's, which was open despite being hit by a SEPTA bus last week.
we got vegan burgers and frites (my vegan burger had blue cheese and leeks :O) and brooke got to have a monk's sour flemish AT monk's ! ooOOooOOoooOOOOOOOoooo. after dinner, we came back home (in a cab, cause i had to poo) and i took my german exam. it was surprisingly easy- things finally clicked for me with cases, and i was feeling confident after my interview on friday.
on monday morning, i checked my grades, and i got As in both of my classes !!! to celebrate, we got breakfast at the green line and went to the mutter museum. i assume most people who aren't in philadelphia have seen the mutter museum on the discovery channel, but it's a museum of medical oddities, old medical equipment, gross models and busts, and pieces of bodies and junk.
i've been there a bunch so i was kind of "over it" but going with brooke was a new experience because 1) she is hilarious and we are the most hilarious (well, after me and mouse) and 2) it was like seeing the museum for the first time through a gross child's eyes. we cracked up at everything, even though i got queasy at the eye infection/injury/anomaly wall (i hateee eye stuff) and kept gagging at all the jars of preserved tissue. i reallllllly hate those because i imagine having to bite them. we decided to get a bff tattoo of this little guy:
then we met up with jeanne for a delicious lunch at citi marketplace. i never went there because the font on their sign sucks
but they had an extensive vegetarian menu with lots of made to order vegetarian and vegan options. also they're a bodega type place so i got to get whatever drinks i wanted and junk ! i'm so glad brooke finally got to meet jeanne- i was so excited for her to meet mouse and jeanne because i've been talking about them for years ! we walked jeanne back to 17th street after lunch, and then headed over to loop. i needed another ball of yarn for my craft swap project and i wanted to show brooke how fucking awesome loop is. i got a skein of sheep shop #1 in "wood":
to make the herringbone neckwarmer for myself, which i'll never wear
we got delicious gelato after that (brooke got tamarind and lime sorbettos and i got dark chocolate and cream cheese gelatos) and stopped in a pet store to pet these kittens. they were siblings up for adoption, and this guy's name was larry !!!!!
he was obsessed with licking our fingers. he was GREAT. when we got home, we relaxed for a little and then jeanne came over to eat thai food and hang out. christina made appearances too but she had to write her paper. brooke and i stayed up super late since it was her last night here (boooooooooooo) and watched legally blonde and shark week stuff and waited until we were super exhausted to the point of delirium to go to bed.
yesterdayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy was her last day. we got breakfast at green line and mostly planned her next visit, and how i want her and julz and max (and sombra) to move here. ahhhh, i can't even really express how much fun we had. i was so happy and proud to show someone philadelphia, and bursting at the seams with happiness to have all my favorite people hang out, and lkasdjlaksd. brooke is like... the funniest coolest smartest weirdest.
i know i probably forgot a million things but i've been super distracted reading heidi montag's wikipedia all morning.
oh yeah, i was accepted to LPS and found out this morning and now i'm going to school in the fall.
p.s. i'll fill in loose ends tomorrow !!!!
p.p.s. eajsdlkasjlfkhg best weekend.
Here's a fact for COOL THOUGHTS that you may or may not already know - Race St used to be called Sassafrass St!
ReplyDelete"2) it was like seeing the museum for the first time through a gross child's eyes"
This is the best compliment I have ever received!!! Our bff tattoos are going to be the coolest; i can't wait.
As I've said a million times elsewhere, this was basically one of the best weeks of my life. I really can't express enough how wonderful it was to be able to spend so much time around such awesome, interesting, hilarious, intelligent people and to be able to like, relax and have fun instead of spending every moment waiting for someone to say or do something fucked up. I am so psyched to come back and have a pretzel and wudder ice and demand more hugs of everyone!!
<3
ahhhhh i had the greatest time with you and i can't wait until you (definitely) move here !
ReplyDeleteNow I feel guilty because I don't like high/women vocals (Shangri Las being the exception). But at least 40% of the music I listen to is female vocals so I don't feel too bad. I watched some of those videos and they're pretty awesome.
ReplyDelete