Goodbye, Work. Hello, Work!

Today is officially my first day of no work, now that my 1700 (actually, 1704, thank you very much) hours of service for Americorp are done.  Unfortunately, today is also Assumption day or something like that, the feast day for the order of nuns that started my agency, so since I didn't take my birthday off last year I would have gotten today off anyway.  Note to self:  plan these things better to up the excitement factor.  Now I just have to pack up all my stuff, deep clean my room, finish all my paperwork, and do a ton of laundry (I've been waiting for the dryer to get fixed...for about a month.  I think I'll just have to figure something out).

a giant...thing...previously built in front of the church next door.  I guess it's an Italian thing to carry it around with a band on it.  It's really tall and solid wood.

 This summer has been rather crazy busy, so sorry for the lack of updates.  I went to DC for again, visited a friend of a friend in Baltimore, interviewed in Philadelphia, and had my final (finally) retreat.  I went to three awesome outdoor concerts, saw a sunset movie on the Hudson, checked out an art festival and a water festival.  I helped one of my supervisors prep to be on the local CBS affiliate's news series on bed bugs, tried to get twelve fifth through seventh graders into reading, and helped a random chaperone recover after passing out from low blood sugar in the Tenement Museum.

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 the oldest continually occupied street in the US.  Of course it's in Philadelphia.

I had an extended conversation about how awesome Quakers are (seriously, everyone awesome from history class was a Quaker.  They were the first ones against slavery, the first ones in favor of equality for women, and a constant voice against wars.  I mean, they have some interesting ideas about dancing and buttons, but those are just details), kind of got told I would not be saved in the End Times unless I join the Bible study a couple of random young women (probably a little younger than me even) were promoting on the Upper East Side, and had my altruism complemented by a stranger after about a 45-second conversation (maybe it showed in the dress I was wearing).

 Philly is apparently known for its murals, which is awesome, although I think Belfast might object to its claim of mural capital of the world

So, I'm just going to put up some more pics from my time in Philly.  I'll try to update some more pictures from the rest of the summer in the Photobucket account that links in the upper right.  More later, and hope you've all had a lovely summer as well.

 apparently the Philly school system could use a review in reading class

 too much work.  We skipped Independence Hall (where they signed the Constitution) because it was even MORE work than the Liberty Bell, for presumably comparable results.

this is out of order, but we visited the Little Sisters that are in a nursing home, and this is the view down the Hudson toward NYC from the solarium

(...back to Philly...) "Yo, Adrian"

  I've never seen "Rocky"...can you tell (also, I'm standing still in this picture.  But I look like I'm running, right?)

She's way too excited to be taking the tourist trolley over the regular city bus (it was the same price, but the driver was way more enthusiastic, and buses shaped like trolleys really are a little more exciting)

Founder of the Navy, born in Scotland, immortalized in front of Independence Hall

the ferry to Governers Island approximately 3 seconds after we got back from Philadelphia (or 3 hours, but it felt like 3 seconds)

we had to wait a long time for it to start moving, which was fine because I thought we had missed it completely at first

"please don't rain, please don't rain, please don't rain" (just guessing what was going through my head)

it didn't.  Here's Josh Ritter, playing the concert as planned.

OK, next time I need a break I'll maybe put up some pics on Photobucket.  Now I'm back to work!