Saturday, Sunday, and Monday

Saturday

This morning was a lot of fun. We spend a few hours at Ayuda, a community organization, helping setup and run a family day. Beyond the mundane moving tables and picking up the streets (it was a block party), we got to help distribute food and run activities. I spent a lot of time running the big blowup jump cage thing. It was fun interacting with all the local kids, and then the rest of the day was readings and food.

Sunday

Today I got the chance to meet up with a friend of mine from Messiah, Michael Craig, and go visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I was proud of myself for being able to find the train station where he got off at, and then get us to the museum, but I suppose that’s another story. There was a bike race going on right at the museum, so there was extra activity going on outside.

Once inside, we spend a lot of time at the swords and armor in one exhibit. The rest of the time was split between European and Asian art (including the tea house exhibit). Highly enjoyable overall. On the return trip, I saw the same con artist running the same act on the subway as before. Needless to say, I didn’t fall for the same trick twice.

Monday

Going to Open Borders today, our group was able to navigate the subway with a new level of mastery. This mostly came out as being able to emerge from the subway on the right side of the street to get the connecting bus, but it made the difference between missing and getting our bus.

We’ve also been finding that our bus on the return trip doesn’t come often, and walking is quicker. It’s quite a few blocks, through a pretty poor neighborhood, so we see a lot of sad sights. For as much of the culture as we we’re exposed to on public transportation, there is still something to be said about walking places.