Introducing Our Home For The Next Month

Today was eventful but not too stressful or rushed. We got to sleep in, meaning I got to be in bed for eleven hours! After not getting much rest the night before, I'm glad I got the opportunity to catch up on sleep. We met down in the lobby at 12:30 PM to walk a few blocks to the UPENN campus for our tour. The room we first entered was very crowded with lots of high school aged kids who were also taking the tour. Realizing how crowded it was, one of the tour guides suggested we move outside.

While waiting for everyone else to get checked in, two of the tour guides did a small "trivia game" with us, asking questions like "Who founded UPENN?" or "Which is the oldest building on campus?" and when they ran out of questions, they had us guess what type of iced coffee one of them was drinking. They were very nice and entertained everyone successfully as we waited in the hot sun. Luckily, one of them ended up being our tour guide, Ben!

Ben told us about the history of UPENN, campus life, and all about Philadelphia. He grew up here so he knew pretty much everything there is to know. He also told us about some of the statues and art around campus, such as the button that flew off of Benjamin Franklin and the unlucky-before-finals compass.

After the tour we listened to a very knowledgeable woman tell us about the application process and some more information on the school. She knew a lot and was very helpful. At the end of this, we went back to the hotel. Audrey and I looked at some of the nearby shops and found it was very expensive. Later, I got some advice on where to find good deals from someone from the dinner.

That brings me to my next part of today's story! We all met at 6:00 PM to go to Butcher and Singers for dinner. It was raining so we all brought our umbrellas. We took the subway, which was similar to BART except for that it took prepaid tokens or cash only. Also, it was all underground whereas BART has both above and underground sections. We found our seats in the restaurant and when everyone arrived, gave brief introductions.

I had the pleasure of sitting between Kerubo Mokaya and Audrey. I talked to Kerubo a lot! She was from Kenya and had been a part of the similar program to Ivy League Connection for women who excelled in Africa. They helped her apply to Ivy Leagues and she decided to come to UPENN without ever actually seeing the campus in person! She says she is very lucky to have found such an amazing school. I also got to talk to David Toomer, who works in the admissions department. He gave both Audrey and I some great information about the application process and how they make decisions. I feel really lucky to have been able to meet people from the admissions department because that is not very common, especially since we live in California. This is just another example of how grateful I am for being part of the Ivy League Connection!

Now, I should get some sleep! Tomorrow we have a big day visiting Princeton!