Philadelphia

Well, I've now checked into my hotel for staging and where I will be until flying out tomorrow afternoon to Charles de Gaulle in Paris and then to Niamey, Niger. And, even though my trip has just begun, I must say that I have already learned some things about myself and Philadelphia.

1) It is no fun to arrive in the evening in a large city one is unfamiliar with and the apartment at which one plans to stay just to find out that the apartment keys do not work.
2) I have an allergy I didn't know of before. Both times I walked through Chinatown, I was sneezing uncontrollably.
3) They have some really cool architecture hereabouts. I mean, really cool.
4) They also have some very nasty smells hereabouts....and dirty streets and sidewalks (at least, compared to RC). Also, many of the sidewalks are gone to the dogs. Seriously people, take some time to repair the things.
5) Mt. Rushmore has bigger fireworks.
6) Philly has bigger crowds at their fireworks.
7) Philly drivers are fairly good at parallel parking. Oddly, they have this insane habit of automatically swerving whenever someone blares their horn. Strangest thing.
8) Most of the city is within walking distance of where I was staying (by UPenn campus). Made it rather easy to walk around. SEPTA was easy to take as well ($2 to get across town, not bad).

And yeah, that's pretty much my thoughts for now. I have some pictures, but the computers at the hotel don't have a port to read the SD card, so no pictures to be put up for now (maybe they'll have something at the Philly or CDG airports.

So I think that's about it from me.
Toodles.
Alex