Flip Flip Flipadelphia

Having been on the road for the last month, moving consistently from place to place every couple of days, it was a relief to get back to good ol’ comfortable Philly. Having seen most of the tourist sites when I visited the city during camp, I didn’t feel the accountability to get out and see as much as I could every day. Having come from Canton where it was a similar story, I felt like I had checked myself into roadtrip rehab. Rather than getting up at the crack of sparrows every day, armed with my Lonely Planet and a metro card, I slept in, watched cable and ventured outside only when the fancy (or my appetite) demanded so.


Continuing to tread on the kindness of the Carmeny family, Tim again welcomed me into his home in Philly, which he shares with another Appel Farm friend, Julie. Parked on the couch directly in front of the cable, it was hard to tear myself away from marathons of America’s Next Top Model, especially with the fall weather rearing its ugly head outside. I continue to be followed by a literal black cloud, unable to escape the rain no matter where I go.

But that didn’t stop me from grabbing my umbrella and going out looking for food, usually with Tim in tow. We did bagels on South Street, margaritas on Passyunk Ave, coffee on 4th and pizza on 2nd. Not to mention mid-night snacks as we stayed up watching the Top 100 Hits of the 90s on VH1. We burned off the carbohydrates by playing Frisbee in the park where we attempted to teach an uncoordinated five year old how to toss a Frisbee without decapitating our fellow park-goers.

I even managed to turn down a morning with the Gilmore Girls to go and get my haircut – an indulgent necessity I have been battling with for the last two months. My hairdresser – bless her – tried her best to recreate the brilliance of Sydney’s Neil Moody, but alas, cut my hair an inch too short. However, as annoying as this is for the time being, does mean I can tack another few weeks onto the time period before my Rapunzel-like hair once again grows out of shape.

As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one treading on Tim and Julie’s kindness. While I couch surfed, a mouse had also decided to make itself at home in the living room. Each evening as I tried to sleep, I would be awoken to what sounded like something the size of a gorilla building a nuclear warhead. Despite our joint attempts to catch the mouse by blocking its exits and buying sticky traps, the mouse continued to remain evasive - stealing both cereal and my precious sleeping hours.

But before I could say “Out damned mouse”, I was once again packing my bags and boarding a train, bound for Elizabethtown where another greatly-missed Appel Farm face awaited me.

Ciao for now. xo