I have an apartment!

I arrived at The Philadelphia Center on Sunday afternoon. There are 48 students on the program and we are currently staying in a hotel, four people to a room. Yesterday we went on a four-hour walking tour of the city. When we set out, it was 19 degrees Fahrenheit; as the day went on it became somewhat less frigid but the temperature stayed below freezing. In the evening, we were all given a list of houses and apartments where TPC students have lived in the past, and the housing search began. Choosing people with whom to live for a semester after having known them for only 1-2 days seemed very daunting to me, but it has worked out. I have four new housemates whom I like very much, and after pounding the pavement all day (we visited five different places all over the city, and did it all on foot, half the time in pouring rain), we have a place to live! We will move in at the end of the week.

I also have classes now. One is "Urban Political and Social Systems, Issues and Practices" and the other is "Exploring Relationships in Fiction and Film: Sex, Gender and Sexuality." I'm excited about both of these. Now I get to start looking for an internship! Details on that to come. And hopefully once I am settled in to my apartment I will have time to write longer posts that are actually about the city and not just about what I am doing!