Buy a warm coat : check !

I am flying to Chicago for a few days after the New Year, so I needed to buy a very warm down coat before going there because it is really freezing cold and windy.

After going to the Reading Terminal Market (covered market, absolutely amazing place, great for a walk and a meal), I stopped at Macys and made a great deal: Calvin Klein down coat, dark brown with a faux fur hood, for the equivalent of 75euros.

Also, there are not enough mirrors in Macys, which is quite a problem when trying a dozen of long down coats. A little stressful to leave my hits on  the side while migrating to the mirrror - I swear, people were lurking on my selection of coats and approached them the second I walked away.

A Friend in Philly

Old City

Old City

Visitors are always a great reson to get to know Philadelphia more. My friend Helene, doing her internship in New York came for a week end during which we explored the old city together and went to the PMA, which is pay as you wish every first Sunday of the month. 

Washington DC

Washington DC is only at a 3hours bus ride from Philadelphia. With a cheap megabus or bolt bus ticket, it is worth going even for a day. Of course it's too short to see enough of the city or even have an opinion, which in ly case is absolutely true. I will have to go back to see more and am actually going there for 2 days during winter break.

Last time I saw the very cute District of Georgetown (where the University is). I wanted to try Mobidick, an Iranian fast food restaurant I had heard of. I wasn't disapointed it was quite good and cheap.

Hmm and also I was a very bad photographer that day and almost took none. All apologies, this mistake will be repaired next time, promise!

A car ride after thanksgiving dinner

Dinner ended very early, at 8pm, because we started eating around 4. However our stomachs and sleepiness made us think it was 10..

Alexa's mom kindly suggested to go for a car ride in New York. The city's street were abnormally empty due to thanksgiving break. It was a very smooth and nice car ride we went for, stopping at some of New York's highlights: lincoln center, rockfeller center and the public library.

Lincoln Center has a very cute garden behind the building -  Reminds me of the Stravinsky fountain in Paris behing Beaubourg

Rockefeller ice skating rink - October 1998 memories!

After observing this policeman for a little while, it appeared that he was indeed talking to this horse. Least threatening police authority ever

Thanksgiving break

Thanksgiving is a great reason to have a break during Fall semester. Some exchange students spent thanksgiving in a host family in Philadelphia, an event organized by the university so that foreigners can experience the traditional thanksgiving dinner. I was lucky to do so as well as my roommate invited me to spent few days with her family in New York.

Tukey and stuffing

Turkey!

Alexa and me

Dinner was superilicisous of course with the main course being Turkey with baked sweet potatoes and potatoes, cougle, homemade cranberry sauce, gravy sauce of course!, pie and ice cream for desert.

Accounting101

There is something special about people in accouting101 Wharton course. They're not like everyone ,and not in the good way "different". After a semester observing them, I've been thinking more and more of describing the stereoptypical Wharton student. 

The auditorium is fairly divided into girls and boys, but for some reason I only see reasons to target boys. They are most generally of the "fratty" type, meaning frat brother stupid looking. However I would lie if I said they aren't smart, they understand quickly but let's put it this way: they don't bear the looks of the refined minds. They all dresshe same, in such an unoriginal way I can't even think of specific words to describe it. Same with harcuts. I'd be very surprised if I heard them say something interesting.  I'd be very surprised if I heard them discuss something else than campus or greek life. Another reasons to target boys is that they are the ones to eat gross food at 9am, filling the auditorium with a now on characteristic smell of cheese omelette bagel sandwich. Oh the power this sandwhich has to instantly disgust me!

I now wish to tell the story of Drowsy Blong Guy. I couldn't think of a more passive looking person. Maybe it's the early hour in the morning. Maybe he's just like that. The mystery will remain, as I only have accounting at 9am twice a week. He is tall blod boy with a childllooking face, a baby who grew up too fast and it's a little montrous. But undoubtly, his sleepy eyes are the best way to describe him. The class isn't that big and you eventually spot faces (let's not lie, even went you concentrate hard in class, people watch still has a fair amount of your attention). I noticed him because he seems to come in class to fall asleep and  frankly, it annoys me because it makes him look even more stupid. Not that long ago, I sat behind him, or more precisely he arrived late and sat in front of me. That day I thought I would have a peaceful class, because I had managed to escape sitting next to a morning sandwich eater this time. But by the middle of the class, Drowsy began to drowse, his head going back, and forth again as he waked up. No exageration, the movement would resume the cycle every 4seconds, keeping my concentration away from the professor. I was annoyed. I laughted a little with my neighbor and said quite loudly "it's soooo annoying". Miracle ! Drowsy heard, said sorry and put an end to it all. "You were falling asleep on my desk", I explained to him, in a  rather kind way to balance my initial tone.

Why am I telling the strory of Drowsy, the guy in accounting ? - one can wonder. Well, I think it is a perfect example of bad time management, a relatively common flu here at Penn. Why isn't he just taking a good rest one morning, instead of insisting on coming in class to fall asleep? 

Maybe he just doesn't want to miss the morning smelly sandwich. 

Vote ! Michelle Obama at Penn

Mayor Michael Nutter

Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama came at Penn to tell people to vote the next day. It was a cold day and we had to wait long hours before she arrived. Other democrats such as Philadelphia's mayor Michael Nutter, spoke before her. Similar speech about the Republicans being the bad guys. By the time the First Lady arrived I was to frozen to appreciate her speech. It was nothing very extraordinary anyway. A lot about being a mom and caring for the world your children will have to live in;

College housing

Kitchen

Living Room

My bedroom

Thanks to my lovely roommates our kitchen is super equiped as you can see on the pictures.

Rain boots fever

Trying to resist the trend. As soon as a grey cloud shows up in the sky, girls rush to their rain boots. Black, green blue, plad, spotted...every version can be found out there. I was told it should be a key component of my wardrobe to survive in Philly's rainy autumn and muddy winter. But how is it that boys do well without these uggly plastic shoes? Makes me believe it might be nothing more than a fad. I'll wait and see if my feet really get wet before purchasing a pair of these.

CSSP - Community School Student Partnership

I joined the family ! I had read about the CSSP ( Community School Student Partnership) even before arriving here and I  am not disapointed about the additional information I now have.

From now on, on every Friday from 3 to 6 i'll be a after school mentor in a community school of West Philadelphia.

Community School Student Partnership offer to Penn students the opportunity of tutoring in community schools of West Philly where the rate of children able to read is disgracefully low. Students can volunteer or be work study in one of the programs (after school tutoring, reading initiative, recess program ...). 

Why "family"? Because CSSP tries to create this kind of atmosphere and to be full of positive energy. As a future mentor I went to training sessions to learn about the culture of the organization. It's basically about being positive (this includes chants, dances and vocabulary all staff member and children know and use to communicate with each other).

What is a comunity school ? 

According to a reliable source (i.e. wikipedia, hmm hmm) : 

(...) don't read everything unless you are very curious, the key concept is the idea of school as centers of community life. I guess you can identify it to a movement, its supporters do try to influence politics. 

"According to the Coalition for Community Schools, a branch of the Institute for Educational Leadership, a community school is "both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources" with an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, leadership, and community engagement. Community schools are generally public, i.e. government and tax-payer funded, though many private and charter schools have also adopted the model. One of the difficulties the movement has encountered is the sheer diversity of institutions claiming to be community schools. This, coupled with the decentralized structure of American education, has hampered efforts to quantify the number of community schools nationally extant.

The movement gained momentum in the Chicago area, where the Federation for Community Schools is working to disseminate the model throughout the public-school infrastructure. With the appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, to the post of Secretary of Education, the concept of "schools as centers of community life" has become part of the national education agenda. Currently, many local, state, and national organizations seek the establishment of community schools throughout the country. Of these the most prominent non-profits are the Coalition for Community Schools, Communities In Schools, Schools of the 21st Century (an initiative of Yale University), the National Community Education Association (NCEA), and the Children’s Aid Society. The United States government (through the 21st Century Community Learning Center) and various state governments also provide funding and policy support for community school initiatives."

Italian Market

Every Saturdays and Sundays the Italian market takes place in South Philly. Last week I went to have a look. Not surprinsingly, it turns out the market is nowadays held by Mexican people. Fruits and vegetables are really cheaper than elsewhere and you get to walk in really cute streets. However, it's not very close from University City so it's not something you can do in a regular basis. It's also a great place for brunches but the waiting list is long. The best thing to do is register on a list and have a walk around but you have to be careful not to miss your turn like it happened to me ! 

The sandwich I eventually ate after missing my turn on the waiting list for brunch

Rooftop

It's the best place to study at night. Located on the 25th floor of every high rise. 

Best view of Philly and the pleasure of deep silence surrounding you. 

 

Rodin, rooftop: the view, my reflection and my laptop

 

View from Harnwell

Fall Semester

NSO switched to the beginning of fall semester very suddenly and one can say that the fun is over.

Add and drop period is starting, it means every student can "shop around" (i.e. go to all courses he wishes to even if not enrolled and then finally drop the class or try to get in it). I and going to begin by enrolling in 5 courses :

-Finantial accounting (Wharton)

-Contagious Marketing (Wharton) 

-Intermediary Persian (School of Arts and Sciences)

-Iranian Cinema (School of Arts and Sciences)

-Media and Politics OR Islam in the modern world.

5 courses represent a little amount of hours, but I might be keeping only 4courses as they are all quite demanding. Yet I also want to have time to devote in other activities such as getting involved in an organization. 

NSO - understand New Student Orientation

NSO is a week during which exchange as much as freshmen are introduced to campus life. Penn administration and student staff are organizing it. 

Last night one of the events was the night at PMA - Philadelphia Museum of art (conscious of it or not, you already know the PMA, it's where the famous rocky scene with the stairs takes place).

Pictures now - sorry quality is poor as I'm using my phone for the moment.

Susi, another French, in front of the majestic stairs

American Freshmen dancing on improvized dancefloor as Fench just watch

Fire works were shoot when exiting museum, American orientation is "cray cray" (= crazy, lol)

In addition to fire works, there was also a bulding enlightened with Penn's colors while going back to campus by bus. I think we can say Americans know how to say welcome. NSO explains a lot about why tuition fees are so high in the US.

The unrealistic moving-in atmosphere.

I'll post some picture of the place very soon. But for the time being, I have to describe the very special atmosphere growing here on campus as people are moving in, for the first time or after leaving for the summer.

Young Americans come with their parents, their cars loaded with the adequate and miscellaneous objects to furnish their housing. In a very palpable way, streets and buildings are getting more and  more busy and many unusual scenes can be observed if you take the time for it. From the unusual by itself, two boys doing capoeira on the grass by 10pm; to the surrealism of observing so much diversity happening so naturally. Imagine the scene. Gaggles of people hugging hello; while a groups stands outside by the modern art sculpture outside; while a boy walks back in, looking determined, listening to music, a big birthday cake in his hands - probably bought at the 24hours opened Fresh Grocer supermarket).

Ultimately, the rush in which everyone seems to know exactly what to do and where to go so smoothely makes me think of a beehive. Really, this atmosphere is special, interesting and exciting.

First impression in Phily

A little bit more than 24 hours after landing in Philadelphia's International Airport, here I am in my appartment using wireless Internet to feed the blog. Of course things have been rushing in the last few hours. I guess it feels weird, but I feel too tired to meditate about that. 

This is the story of the freshly arrived new students - which includes both the exchange and freshman (first year) students.

Between yesterday and now all have probably : gotten their home keys, fetched their PennCard (Student ID card), formated their computer to make it accessible to the university's wireless Internet, opened a banking account, bought a phone and gotten a little and strange jet lagged sleep (considering the exchange students cases).The phone point most particularly surprised me, with a prepaid card one actually has to pay to receive text messages and phone calls...

Tomorrow the New Student Orientation (NSO) week will begin. Many social events aiming at integrating us to our new environment and prepare us to life on campus are going to take place. This evening already, "small group dinners" took place, i.e. we had at campus local restaurants in an informal way with groups of exchange student an d a Penn full time student.

We were all prepared to campus life by reading reports written by previous exchange student, but once on the spot everything goes so fast.. Suddenly many details you wouldn't have bothered with become crucial : exact location and correct entrance of a building, which room to go in the building... Everything happens in a flood of more urgent formalities to coordinate with, it is tempting not to deal with less compulsory projects such as tutoring French courses at Penn to earn a little money. It might not be the priority to deal with at the moment, but later would mean to late. Happily, things will soon settle down for the best.

D-4 : excitment is increasing

Now I am technically at 4 days from my departure because its past midnight. 

Details such as "where is the information center located ?" "Where should I get my keys ? " are occupying my mind constantly. So I'm both excited and nervous.

As days in France are reducing, the situation becomes more and more real. Google Map is very useful to picture my future environment. Here are some bits of it. 

Rodin College House is located on Locust Walk. I will be living there in an appartment with Inna, Diya and Alexa, three American girls. I haven't met them yet but I'm looking forward to meet them because they seem to be very nice persons. 

Rodin College House, one of the three high rise buildings at Penn

A view of Locust Walk 

D - 11 before departure and it it hard to realize that a very different life is about to begin so soon. The last details are being coordinated while some time is left to read this guide of Philadelphia, a thoughtful birthday gift I received from friends.

Reasons why I am getting started with this blog

This blog might catch your attention if you wish to follow me in my exciting adventures accross the Atlantic Ocean, in land of the Yankees.

The state of Pennsylvania was founded in 1681, but it had been colonised long before by the Dutch and the English. Maybe this land is condemned to being invaded because once again, it is about to experience a new kind of inhabitant : frogs. And I'm about to be one of these lucky frogs, as in two weeks I'm leaving the country of cheese and wine (which I actually rarely consume myself) to study during the following academic year U Penn, in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't really believe my presence is going to have the same impact as William Penn's few centuries ago. To be quite honest, I am even aware that life in Pennsylvania might have much more substantial effects on me than the other way around.

Anyway, the story begins here.