Welcome to my blog. Thanks to all of you who saw me off. It was really wonderful to see that so many people cared. That said, I am here! Here is a rundown of the events of the first week....
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This was my first impression of the city. My fault completely. After driving for 2 days with minimal sleep, I decided that I would go by the new house just to make sure I knew where I was going when it was time to meet the family. Mistake... somehow, my exhausted brain didn't register the fact that it was 12:30 at night and I would be driving through downtown Philadelphia... The GPS took me through probably the worst neighborhood in North Philadelphia and my instant reaction was... holy shit, I feel like I am in real life 21 Jump Street. What I saw... 3 drug deals, lots of wary stares at the dumb kid who obviously doesn't belong, 2 police officers with bullet proof vests ON THE OUTSIDE, and more tagging than I would ever have cared to see. I got out of there as soon as I could and called Mom on my way out of town. For a few minutes, I seriously contemplated calling ASU and accepting their DMA offer. Thankfully, Mom told me to go a little bit out of town, stay the night and go back in the morning. Good call Mom. Lesson learned.
In the morning, the site was quite different. Truly awesome and obviously full of history. This building is down the street from the Temple music building and is a sorority house. It is fairly typical of the buildings in this corner of the city.
When I pulled up to meet the family, I was beyond relieved. They are absolutely wonderful and showed me around the real Philadelphia (the good parts). First stop, the new house. Second, the co-op (so popular here, you only have to work 9 hrs a year!?!) :)
The house. The house is this spectacular old house from c. 1850. Including the basement and the attic, there are 5 floors! My apartment is on the 3rd floor, the old maids quarters. The picture on the left is the dumb waiter elevator (original to the house) that goes from the first to the 3rd floor by way of a rope pulley system, right through the middle of the winding staircase. The painters have been here for three days taking down the old floral wallpaper and painting the bottom 2 floors. The family will move in starting next week. (Officially in 2 weeks). They currently live only 2 blocks away and I've met up with them daily. Don't worry, the house has an alarm system so I'm safe on my top floor apartment. If anyone were to break in, I would hear all 40 stairs creak (I would laugh hysterically if they tried to use the noisy elevator. It takes several minutes to pull it up and they would have to lower it first.) Anyway, here are a few pictures of the inside of my apartment. It is full of treasures. My favorite so far is the cassette tape of Heavy D & the Boys (a personal fav.) and the book "Optical Mineralogy" printed 1933 and owned by a Harvard professor.  |
| The Fresh Grocer |
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| Southern Yams |
As a last thought, I am interviewing to be the music teacher for the Regina Coeli Academy (a private Catholic Liberal Arts primary school) so keep your fingers crossed! Also, there are SEVERAL professional musicians in my neighborhood including a pianist next door and a flutist down the street, so here's hoping they can help me find some students.
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| On of the many abandoned buildings in Philadelphia. |
