Hail Penn!!

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As of now, my dream schools are the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University. I pray I get into both, but it will be such a difficult decision deciding between the two.

Dona took her son (Cody), my sister, and me to Penn this weekend. I fell in love with the school once I walked on the campus. We had trouble finding the Office of Admissions and these two nice young ladies decided to go out of their way to guide us and eagerly ask if I had any questions about Penn. It was as if every student there loved being at that school. I did some research once I got home and found out that Penn has some of the happiest students on campus, so that explains it.

The campus is beautiful. It is the oldest university in North America, so the buildings show it and the detail in the architecture had me mesmerized as the tour guide led us around campus. The school of engineering and applied science holds my interest (Biomedical Sciences) and I love that it isn't just Biology, but I still get to take lots of engineering and technology courses in addition to the math and sciences to give me a head start in research and medical school preparation. The tour guide told the group a story about the Penn engineering student who created the Toast Zamboni: a machine that can clean up bits of toast from the entire ground of Franklin Field. You may be asking, "Why the heck would there be toast on the football field and track?" Penn has a tradition of having a toast while singing their fight song, Hail Penn, right after the third quarter of any home football game. Before the drinking age was 21, students would bring alcohol to the field. After Prohibition, students were angered that their tradition may have to end, so a clever student decided that they could throw toast on the field instead of drinking! So a Toast Zamboni was definitely a necessity.

←Toast Zamboni

I saw this group of swingers (a dancing style from the '50s) in front of Benjamin's button on campus (yes, there is a huge, broken, white button on campus) and I thought that it was the coolest thing to randomly see. I think I want to learn how to dance like that.

After the tour, we took lots of pictures and went straight to the bookstore to get Penn gear (we just had to be legitimate)! My hoodie is awesome! I will be known for this hoodie within the next month.

After our frappuccinos from the bookstore's Starbucks, we headed to the largest mall on the east coast: The King of Prussia. Dona got her nails done and gave me a simple task- find some lip balm for Cody and get a snack. I thought, "Okay, sure." I wasn't thinking it was easy peasy after I got back. First I had to find the Rite Aid. The way the mall is laid out is like so: imagine Columbia mall (for those who live in Maryland) x3. Then imagine another one of those as a separate building. Each one has 2 floors. Now imagine that both buildings are connected by a walk way that goes through a parking lot. We were on the second floor on the end of one building. The Rite Aid was on the first floor of the other end of the second building. It took 20 minutes to walk back from the Rite Aid to the nail salon where Dona was.

Afterwards, we headed to Cracker Barrel, one of the coolest restaurants ever. It has an old country theme where everything is given to you how you would get it in the year 1896. On your way out is a store where you could buy almost anything in an old fashioned style. There was old fashioned candy and Hershey Bars. Even the medicine bottles and lotions/body washes were in old fashioned bottles and actually had the word "apothecary" on it. It was so cute. I got some malt balls, which Dona doesn't like for some reason. I tried her favorite candy, Cow Tails, and eckkk! It tasted weird. She likes the caramel and I like the chocolate ; )

I had an awesome time this weekend! Thanks, Dona <3!