Philadelphia, PA

So I took the train to Philadelphia last week for a Fulbright seminar. I had no idea that Philadelphia was such a historically important city. It was the first capital of the USA, the site of the first White House, and the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were signed here. Wikipedia makes the following claim: "The city was the geographic center of the 18th century thinking and activity that gave birth to the American Revolution and subsequent American democracy and independence." Impressive! It is a very beautiful city, although it has some problems characteristic of many US cities: high poverty levels, racial segregation, troubled public school system, etcetera. Oh, and it is the homicide capital of the U.S. (New York City, by the way, is the fourth-safest city in the States - phew!)

Back to schools for a second - there are some schools in Philadelphia in which 100% of the students live beneath the poverty line. We got to visit public schools as part of the seminar, so that we could teach them about our countries (none of the students were all that interested in Canada, although the whole free health care deal always impresses). I visited the Philadelphia High School for Girls, which has been around since 1848 and is one of only two single-gender public schools in the States. Despite being hugely underfunded, the school has some amazing programs, including a ceramics studio and yoga!

The seminar was a lot of fun. There were about 160 students there, from all over the world. I learned a ton about the world in 4 days - about the civil war in Angola, the current situation in Afghanistan, ethnic rivalries in Pakistan, etc. I was lightly teasing one of my friends about his endless collection of University of Delaware sweatshirts - he wore a different one every day, and I made some comment about how he must be very enthusiastic about the school - and he told me that he lost everything in the tsunami. He's from Indonesia, and he lived 3 km from the ocean. So, needless to say, it was pretty crazy to hear about stories like that.

One of the best parts was the night when we were divided into small groups, and local Philadelphians hosted us for dinner. My hosts were this amazing middle-aged couple who took us to a French bistro. After dinner, they took us to Christ Church, which dates back to 1695. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross and many other notable figures worshipped here. The husband works in preservation for the church, and he took us into the archives and showed us a letter that George Washington sent to the church's reverend in 1799. Definitely a behind-the-scenes tour! We also did the standard stuff - the Liberty Bell (no big deal), the Philadelphia Art Museum (yes, we walked up and down the "Rocky" steps; pictured) and had Philly cheese steaks (delicious!)

On the last night, we had a dinner cruise on the "Liberty Belle", although I don't know if the word "cruise" is apt because the boat never left the harbour. It was free booze until 9 p.m. and the dance floor was raging by 8. You would think that, having just met, people would be a little restrained on the dance floor, but that was not the case. It was nuts! I've never seen so many people dance so intensely, except maybe the time that Nada, Jasmine and I went to the craziest club ever, Bulldog in Mexico City. That place was so nuts that people's sweat dripped down on us from the floors above. This was kind of the same, but on a much smaller scale.

One other cool thing about Philadelphia is that it is covered in over than 2500 murals. These murals are the result of a Mural Arts program, initially started in the 80s to encourage graffiti artists to create more "productive" public art. Don't know if it put a stop to graffiti but the murals are really amazing.

OK, hope that's enough fascinating information about Philadelphia for this week!