Monday, January 25, 2010

where am I now?

After four months in Europe, including England, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Latvia, Spain, and Germany....

I arrived in Philadelphia on January 13th, super excited to be reacquainted with my wonderful friend and ex-roommate, Sophea who I met at university, and also looking forward to living in a proper city for the first time. Along with that excitement came the strange realization that my American citizenship is real now. I live in America. Whaat?!

I've been here for a week and a half. There have been two days of pouring rain and other than that, it's been ridiculously warm and sunny. Never colder than 5 (41F) and getting up to 15 (59F). Incredible. I keep reminding myself that it's January and this season is winter. The city itself is quite nice -- people seem fairly friendly and I'm loving all of the brick buildings and random wall murals. Sophea and I have done a bit of wandering...including traipsing around the city in search of jobs and pretzels. We only found the latter though so far. I can't wait until I have a job and can feel less guilty for spending a bit of money exploring the city. There are a bazillion restaurants, coffee shops, pubs that I want to try out. That being said, I did manage to take in a concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Centre (Center) with Sophea and her dashing boyfriend, Aleks.

One of my first days here I somehow sprained my foot, which made proper exploration painful and difficult, strangely though, the pain is lessened when wearing heels (only 3" or higher seems to work though). Thanks to the interweb, I've done a lot of job-searching anyways, applying for jobs posted on craigslist and the like. So far though, the hunt has only been disappointing and fruitless.

Today started out miserably. I had a job interview at a temp agency. It was pouring rain. By pouring rain I mean the sort that drenches a body to the skeleton within a second of exposure. And I generally love a proper downpour. Especially since it was SO warm. But it's much less enjoyable when you're trying to look decent and hire-able rather than drowned kitten-ish. And then there were taxi complications, a disappointing interview, computer malfunctions resulting in poor general testing outcomes, and finally, a lecture from the home-bound taxi because I somehow suddenly became dyslexic and told him my address was 1069 when it's actually 1609. Shame. Thank goodness for Sophea, sunshine, big macs (which actually made me feel really sick after, but the idea ALWAYS makes me feel good), and rum and root beer.

Also in the news: I'm going to Sarasota, Florida next weekend with Sophea. We'll see her mother, some friends, a sandy beach and loads of sunshine. And then we'll take over the family truck and drive back to Pennsylvania. Life is pretty darn good at the moment.