This Philadelphia Life

Day 1 in the Classroom

2006-07-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

So today was my first day in front of my classroom. It was a two hour block and I presented it with my partner. Pretty boring stuff really, introduced them to classroom procedures and expectations, had them take a diagnostic and student survey. the student survey results were good for the most part, but as for the diagnostics... let's not talk about that. Tommorow though we move into actual history material and I will be teaching by myself (I have the first hour, then hand it off to my partner for the second hour). Take home point for tommorow: know the difference between a patriot and a loyalist and what mercantilism was in the context of the american revolution. for practice we will identify quotes from historical figures as being either loyalist or patriots and students will make posters. Also we will learn why the Philadelphia basketball team is called the 76ers. Fun stuff, but for now -- bed time.

p.s. thanks for those that sent me e-mails or care packages, ya'll rock. just to put it in context, when we got off the buses from the school sites they had posters, a dj, yet another tfa shirt and a bubble walk of enthusastic interns welcoming us and giving us flavor-ice's .... while the whole thing was being video taped for what i am sure will be one of the corniest end of whatever videos ... but i like cheese so i appreciated it. but after walking through all that maddness, to check my box and see i had packages waiting ... that was just over the top!

Five Guys, One Idea.

2006-07-04T19:17:00.000-07:00

Two-hundred and thirty years ago five guys got together in a building down the street and hammered out the document we celebrate today. That document they signed didn't survive, but its words and the idea it represented has. So today we celebrate and reflect on where we have been and where we need to go as a nation...

My clothes are layed out, my lesson plans written, tommorow I meet and teach my summer school students for the first time...

Happy Fourth.

12 Days

2006-07-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

So I've been in Philadelphia for 12 days now between Induction and Institute and this is what I have to report:

Institute really is as crazy as people make it out to be. But the people are fun so it's not so bad. More good days than bad ones.
The housing search is on now that the roommate question is solved. A cheap four bedroom apartment/house with great access to public transportation is wanted.
It would be easy to write a paper about the clash between Idealism and Realism in Philadelphia. One minute you can be walking by Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and then you can make it to a bad part of town and wonder: What happened to the American Dream? How did we let this happen to our country.
Philadelphia's subway is underground, but really only has two lines. I haven't explored the SEPTA trolleys or busses yet.
UPenn's campus is very nice, and the Graduate School of Education (where I will be attending) is right next to Wharton. Nice.
Temple University's campus is very nice but has so many security cameras. The campus seems to be in the middle of one of the poorer parts of town.
Last night I walked right by two people yelling at each other and no-more then five seconds after I passed them they were in an all out fight ... pretty scary stuff, apparently it was over a girl because she tried to break it up.
Also, a friend of mine's car got broken into when it was parked in the city ... system and cds stolen, not cool.
But all of this, although hard to take, is the reason all of us are doing this. Here is a sobering fact: California has used 3rd grade reading levels in the past to anticipate the need for prison construction because the correlation between literacy and crime is so high. We need to teach kids to read, and to believe in their abilities.

days 1 and 2

2006-06-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

So day 2 of institute is nearing it's end so I thought I'd try and put a post up...

My day starts at 5:30 when I get up. By 6:45 I need to be on the bus that takes me to my school. Somewhere inbetween those two times i get ready and get to the dining hall, eat breakfast and pick up my lunch. I could do a whole post on the system for the lunches.... we got special TFA lunch bags that have exactly fit a boxed lunch and a drink and a pouch for an icepack. Every morning before dinner i pick a lunch, grab the box and pick a drink. Then I go over to one of the packing tables and put them in the bag along with the frozen icepack sitting on racks next to the table. I drop off the used ice pack at dinner. Lunch is a sandwich, chips, cookies, and fruit ... pretty tasty... but i disgress...

I am team teaching a summer school class with another TFA teacher. We will plan the two hours the class meets each day together, but I will only be in front of the class for 1 hour each day. The subject is US history and school starts next wednesday. a veteran philly teacher will sit in the back of the class and provide feedback along with a whole slew of observers who will work thier way in and out of my classroom. in anycase, during the typical day i arrive at the school at 7:15 or so and leave around 4:30. I have 5-6 for dinner before more evening activities and then around 10 or 11 I get to go to sleep ... at least for now, most likely the amount of sleep will drop once I have to teach. For the hours in the day when I am not in front of the classroom I am in class or meeting with someone who observed me.

In anycase, off to dinner ... hope to provide more quality posts in the near future.

institute begins

2006-06-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

so today we moved from the hotel we stayed at for induction into our dorms at temple and i have to say it is the nicest dorm I have ever been in. 550 corps members from other tfa sites in our region joined us so we now have 700 corps members which seems.... insane. tommorow i have to be on the bus at 6:45am to travel to the school i will be teaching at for the summer for the first time. we won't be teaching any lessons this week as the kids don't arrive until next week, but this week of training will be intense. my mailing address is on facebook should anyone want to send me something... i would greatly appreciate it. i will try to update as often as possible, but the schedule is pretty crazy. (in a good way)

thursday update

2006-06-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, the really nice hotel they put us up in (1 block from city hall, across from the free library of philly and the franklin institute) has no free internet!!! So I will wait until this sunday when internet isn't $0.60/min to write a longer post. Thank you all for your suggestions/kind words ... I am having a great time during induction and am looking forward to this sunday when 550 corps members from other surrounding TFA sites join us for the next 5 weeks of summer institute. Until then, I hope everyone is having fun wherever you are!

Induction, Day 1

2006-06-20T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today I arrived in Philly around noon and took the shuttle over to the hotel. Since I got there pretty early the room wasn't ready yet, but I checked in with TFA then headed to lunch with some other early TFAers (there was a ruby tuesday's in walking distance, suprisingly, not in a mall). Very good company from all across the country.

After returning to the hotel I got my room keys, stashed my stuff, and spent some more time downstairs hanging out with the new corps as the last people trickled in. Then we carpooled with 05 corps members to dinner where we met our Transitition Team Leaders (TTL) and TT groups. My group had about eight members. After dinner we walked around the city, talking some more but luckily heading in by 9 so that we could get some well needed rest.

Traveling has me tired, but I am here and we will see what tommorrow holds..

(So far, I like the city.)

Live from JIA

2006-06-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today's TPL comes to you from Jacksonville International Airport where I am waiting to board a flight to Philadelphia. For the next few days I will participating in Teach For America's Philadelphia Induction, a five-day introduction to Philadelphia. This Sunday I will make the move to Temple University to start the five-week Philadelphia Institute (teacher boot-camp). The days will be long but knowing that I will be alongside hundreds of other energetic idealists like myself makes me very excited.

Thank you to all of you for your kind words and encouragement. I will try and update this blog more often, but I am not sure how much internet access I will have during induction.

Live from JIA

2006-06-20T05:23:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all of you for your kind words and encouragement. I will try and update this blog more often, but I am not sure how much internet access I will have during induction.

PRAXIS I Scores

2006-06-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

I opened my mailbox today to find what I've been waiting for. My PRAXIS I score report came. I took the computerized version of the test so I've known I passed the reading and math sections for awhile but I was waiting on the writing section to be graded. To make a long story short, I passed. Now I can only hope the PRAXIS II went as well.

PRAXIS II & More TFA Blogs

2006-06-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I took the PRAXIS II: Social Studies Content Knowledge Test. Why they must schedule a 2 hour test at 7:30 AM on a Saturday I am not sure, but it is over so no complaints there. The test was harder than I thought it would be based on the difficulty of the Practice PRAXIS I took in the test-prep book published by the test-maker ETS. However, there is one issue I do officially have with ETS: No where do they publish a raw-to-scale conversion table for either their practice test or in general. So I know I need to get a scaled score of 157 but I have no idea how many of the 135 questions on the test I needed to get right. All I can do now is wait and see what happens.

In other news, I've stumbled across some more TFA blogs: Viva Miss Jay, Call Me Mr. Bean, From Miss Ball to Miss Ball, & working relentlessly is exhausting. Very jealous of all of you that have already started institute ... now that the PRAXIS is over, all I have to look forward to is cleaning my apartment and packing. But hopefully that time will fly, and in nine days I will be in Philly for induction.

Speaking of jealousy, I am quite jealous of all of the corps members who went through the fall admissions cycle -- they took care of their tests and paperwork a long time ago and already are finding out what schools they are going to be teaching at. The spring cycle is great for people who take a while to decide on what they want to do, but if you know from the start that you are 100% confident TFA is what you want to do ... apply in the fall!!

TFA Expansion & Blogs

2006-06-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

Teach For America expands to Hawaii as part of its rapid expansion plan to grow the annual corps size from 3,500 today to 7,500 in 2010. Naturally, additional sites will be required to place all of those new corps members so look for new sites to be coming online in the next few years. I believe next year's applicants will most likely see Orlando, FL, as an option.

With inductions and institutes rapidly approaching, more and more 2006 CM blogs are appearing on the scene: teaching texas, closing the gap, the beauty of dreams. If you find any more let me know!

T Minus Two Weeks

2006-06-06T05:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 06/06/06 edition of This Philadelphia Life ... well at least for those of you on the Gregorian Calendar. So far nothing bad has happened...

Yesterday I continued with my hiking to an audiobook strategy. I hiked the 5.6mi Yellow Trail at San Felasco Hammock State Preserve. Barely anyone else was on the trail and wildlife was everywhere. Highlights included 7 deer, 5 armadillos and the snake pictured at the end of this post. After the hike I had a strange craving for wings ... it was Monday after all, the day of AYCE (All You Can Eat) Wings at Gators' Dockside (and their Grilled Honey Garlic Wings are absolutely amazing) but I was talked into the cheaper, closer Copper Monkey.

With 2/3 of the nine-hour world history audiobook put away, I need to find somewhere to hike today to finish out the remaining three hours. All of this time on my feet should be good practice for having to stand all day as a teacher.

Studying up a Sweat

2006-06-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

Sixteen days until This Philadelphia Life!! Before I leave I need to finish cleaning up the apartment, pack and rock out the PRAXIS II: Social Studies Content Knowledge test. Yesterday I took a practice test and did pretty well, but noticed when scoring the subsections I could use some improvement in World History. So I decided to make studying a little more enjoyable and purchased a nine hour long audio book on iTunes entitled A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich and threw it on my iPod. After kicking off my Rainbows and lacing up some tennis shoes, I drove out to San Felasco State Park and hiked six miles while listening to the first third of the audiobook. Now some may think this is a bad way to go about studying, but I found it to be extremely productive. I was able to focus on the content (except when the deer jumped out in front of me) and get some exercise at the same time. Definitely my new preferred method of studying.

Space Hotel, Check-In 2010

2006-06-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

In any event, you have my word that myself, and all of us at Bigelow Aerospace, will do everything in our power to transform the dream of a robust human presence in space into a reality. I hope that the whole world will join us in this adventure. - Robert T. Bigelow

Bigelow Aerospace has updated its website. Bigelow Aerospace, founded in 1999 by Bigelow and funded by his Budget Suites of of America fortune, is working to develop an expandable space habitat module. Basically, when it was time to create the International Space Station there were two plans -- one created by NASA scientists and one created by the private sector. Not suprisingly the private sector design was chosen. Bigelow bought up the rights to the NASA design and hired many of the scientists who created it and so far has spent $75 million of his wealth developing it. He has pledged upto $500 million to keep the project going through 2015. His habitat modules could be used to make space hotels, scientific research labs, television studies, etc. But, as the the current situtation at NASA with the space shuttle fleet sadly illustrates, a station is near valueless without a way to get there. So, Bigelow takes the X-Prize a few million steps further and he is offering the $50 million America's Space Prize for creating a craft that can dock with his station by 2010. This is one example of a private individual taking the exploration and commericialization of space into his own hands. I am very excited about his project as it has the possibility of igniting my generation's interest in space. And once we get everyone excited about it, then we can get working on finding environmentally friendly ways to get into space.

A Bagel, A Book & Space Ramblings

2006-06-04T05:31:00.000-07:00

Today I resumed my Panera bagel survey:

Blueberry Bagel. Wild and cultured blueberries mixed into their base bagel dough. Not as bad as I had suspected, but definitely not anywhere near my favorite. Without any other options I would eat it, but not really for any other reason.

Look for the remaining bagels in the next two days. I just finished listening to Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Over 5 CDs Mr. Bryson meanders through how we have come to our place in the universe. From the lineage of homosapians to understanding tectonic plate movement, Mr. Bryson rambles on about scientific discovery after discovery that wasn't appreciated for many years. (If you are planning on reading/listening to the end yourself don't read further.) In the end, Mr. Bryson's conclusion is that all life is a result of a string of extremely lucky events. Species after species has come and gone. We as humans seem to be the first species to be able to enhance and protect life on this planet, but unless we start doing something about it, we will be subject to the same extinction as almost all species that preceded us.

However we got here, we are here. In my opinion, we as a species need to explore and expand the number of planets with life on them. Imagine a planet used as a nature conservatory you could visit like a zoo. Imagine the new cultures, languages, sports, traditions, food and more that each new planet would bring. In my opinion, not thinking about space now is like not thinking about the New World in Columbus' time .... except, as far as we can tell, their won't be any natives who lose out in the process of our colonization.

Back on the Road

2006-06-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, let me apologize for the lack of posts recently -- especially the promised picture tour of Lynn Haven. Time got the best of me and I will be heading back today without many pictures to offer (except a picture or two of a dirt road for you non-believers). I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer so far. I will hopefullt get back to regular posts tommorow when I tackle that Blueberry Bagel.

CST (GMT -6:00)

2006-05-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

After ~260 miles of driving through commerical pine forest after commercial pine forest I finally arrived home in the Central Time Zone. The sign to the right is located on Interstate 10 where it crosses the Apalachicola River. I have decided to replace my daily bagel ramblings with "countryfied" pictures from my home town, so look forward to those over the next few days. But for now its time to go enjoy a home cooked dinner!

Bagel of the Day

2006-05-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

If you are getting a little overwhelmed by all of the dry content I've been posting, don't worry... every once and a while I will throw you a bite:

Cinnamon Crunch Bagel. Today's specimen in my very scientific study of Panera Bagels. Panera describes this bagel as "Cinnamon and vanilla chips flavor this dough and a generous mixture of cinnamon and sugar on top creates a sweet, crunchy shell. " At first I was a little worried about this bagel, worrying it would taste too sweet and not taste enough like a bagel. But, as is common with Panera, I was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn't rank it at the top, but I think it has earned is position on my list as an upper-middle class bagel.

For those of you counting, that means there are 3 bagels left to try including the Blueberry Bagel. I predict I won't like this bagel because it sounds healthy, but that hasn't really worked in my previous hypotheses. I will be at home until Friday so unfortunately there will be no more Bagel updates until at least Saturday. I will try and find some other fun thing to fill you in about until then.

Live Long and Prosper.com

2006-05-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

Last night I stumbled across Prosper.com, a peer to peer lending website. Basically, as I understand it, people who need money post a loan request with the amount they need, the highest interest rate they are willing to pay and the reasons they need the loan. Additionally a credit report is run on them and available for lenders to view when deciding whether or not they want to bid on the loan. Lenders make a bid of at least $50 at a given interest rate. Like eBay, the loans are listed for a certain period of time and when that time expires, the borrower gets a loan comprising of the lowest interest rate bids. Of course there is always the risk of defaulting, so some loan requests don't get funded because they are viewed by the community as too risky. To help build social responsibility within the system, you have the option of joining a group arranged around something common. Members of those group usually recieve a shared reward when one of the members of the group successfully recieves a fully-funded loan. This encourages groups to vet their members and helps establish trustworthy groups for lenders.

According to Wikipedia, Prosper was founded on February 13, 2006, by former founder and CEO of E-Loan (a company that closed over $27 billion in loans) Chris Larsen. The site has recieved a few major stories such as this one from the NYTimes. According to the unofficial Prosper stats site, WiseClerk.com, Prosper has succesfully funded 975 loans so far.

It appears the Prosper has the potential to be a tremendous agent of change should it grow as large as sites such as eBay. By removing the middle man, borrowers can get lower rates (and get out of debt) and lenders can get a higher return on their money. If the site will get popular enough to make a hugh difference in our daily lives only time will tell, but as for me, I think I shall be an early adopter of this technology.

Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

2006-05-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

DonorsChoose is an interesting site that allows teachers to submit project proposals that donors can browse through using a variety of criteria. Progress bars show how much of the proposal has been funded and donors have the option of donating to individual projects or to a general fund that allocates their funds for them. In my opinion the site has plenty of bad projects (overpriced technology requests) and really exciting projects. In my quick survey of the site, my favorite was a project to take Brooklyn 2nd graders to see the Lion King on Broadway:

I am a second grade teacher in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Most of my students come from low-income families and many are raised by their grandparents. Last year I was granted the funds by the WONDERFUL donors of Donor's Choose to take my class to see the Lion King on Broadway. I cannot explain what this donation did for these underprivileged children. As I sat back and watched the children throughout the play, they were filled with so much emotion. They laughed, they cried, and after the show, they stood in applause and amazement. It was an unforgettable experience for all of us. I would love to be able to do this for my class this year. The students that attend my school come from very poor families. These children have not taken many trips outside of their neighborhoods and the majority of them have NEVER been to see a show on Broadway. I would love take these children on a field trip they will NEVER forget! I am writing this proposal for the funding to take my new class to see THE LION KING on Broadway. I will need 50 tickets for this trip -- 24 children, 24 parents (because the performance is on a Sunday), and 2 teachers. I know this would be the experience of a lifetime for these children and I would be so happy if I could enable them to be enriched with the culture and the arts of Broadway.

The total cost of this project is $2,614. At the time of this post it is 22% funded. In my opinion this is a very worthy project that will have a significant impact on the students and parents that participate in it. I challenge the readers of this blog to raise $50 for this project to give one low-income student a Broadway experience. Click on the meter to the right to donate. I look forward to using this tool in a few months to help give my students similar experiences -- but I need your help coming up with them, feel free to leave comments with your ideas for how this tool could be used to open up students' worlds and get them excited about learning.

Issue Funds

2006-05-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

So this idea is a little random, but why don't issue funds exist? I think there should be a website where I can donate $20 and identify that I would like it to be allocated in the following manner:

$5 of it to go towards space
$5 toward the environment
$10 toward education

Every quarter a panel of experts for each issue would discuss how the money designated for that issue should be allocated to non-profit groups working on those issues. The whole process would be very transparent and requests for funds could be put in by non-profits since they know that there is $400,000 available for space this quarter. The reasoning behind needing such a fund is as follows:

I know I care about an issue but I don't have the time to find out all the different organizations working on it. It also doesn't seem to make much sense to spend the time to research all of these organizations when the donation is so small.
Multiple organizations working on the same thing from different angles need to be supported because you don't know ahead of time which way is going to work out.
It's easier to just make one donation then donating to a bunch of different organizations.
Using experts to evaluate requests will hopefully lead to allocations that make the most progress in the issue area.

Any thoughts on this idea would be greatly appreciated. I realize that family trusts/endowments play a similar role but as far as I know they don't accept donations and aren't the most transparent organizations.

Ticket Stubs

2006-05-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

In the last two weeks I've seen 5 movies (Da Vinci Code, X-Men 3, United 93, Duck Season and Just my Luck). I know this because I have the ticket stubs for all of those movies sitting right next to me, along with all of the other ticket stubs for movies I've seen in the last ten years or so. I always intended to make a website where you could enter the movies you've seen, where you saw them and any comments you might have on them but I never quite got around to it. The site could also be expanded to include lists of books you've read, plays you've attended, concerts you've rocked out at, etc. It would seem to me it is obvious for there to be a site like this but I can't seem to find one. Let me know if you know of one, or if you can't find one, let me know your thoughts on the possibility of one. If you can help me come up with a good name and give me a little bit of motivation I might just be inclined to make one.

Clocking in at Panera

2006-05-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

Almost every day for the last two weeks I have woken up at 7:00 AM and made it to Panera Bread by 8:00 AM to "clock in." This routine has had several benefits so far:

I have gotten used to waking up at the same early time every morning and therefore also gotten used to falling asleep at a reasonable time. This should make the transition much smoother to TFA's Summer Institute (affectionately called Teacher Boot Camp by some for its 70 hour weeks).
I have been extremely productive with my time spent at Panera. I blazed through the TFA Pre-Institute training materials and several books.

But most importantly, this time has afforded me the opportunity to become familiar with Panera itself. Aside from consuming their free wifi, I am conducting a very methodical survey of their bagel offerings by trying a new one each day. Each bagel is tested under identical conditions by toasting it at setting 2, topping it with plain cream cheese and washing it down with a small cup of Guatemalan Antigua coffee. Like any good study, a recommendation for extending this study would be to sample the 77 different bagel and cream cheese combinations (Panera offers 7 cream cheeses and 11 bagels), but I do not have the time nor the patience to take-on such an exploration. So, without further adieu, my thoughts on the bagels sampled so far:

Morning Glory Bagel. Flavored with seedless raisins, walnuts, carrot bits, cinnamon chips and brown sugar. This bagel surprised me the most. The description of carrot bits and raisins scared me off at first but this turned out to be one of my favorite bagels!
Asiago Cheese Bagel. Chunks of Asiago cheese are added to their base dough and even more Asiago is grated on top. A Panera classic. It seems they are obsessed at Panera with adding Asiago to everything, but it tastes great so I can't complain. This is one of the Panera bagels made without a center hole and it is as the standard for their hot breakfast sandwiches. [ThisBritishLife argues this bagel is the best.]
Everything Bagel. Their base bagel dough topped with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic, toasted onion and kosher salt. Delicious, yet also bordering on overwhelming. Perfect for those, who like myself, can't decide and have to settle for compromise options such as this bagel or the chocolate/vanilla swirl at TCBY.
French Toast Bagel. Sweet maple-flavored and vanilla chips are swirled into their base bagel dough. Although I am a huge fan of french toast, this is my least favorite bagel. It is far too sweet and doesn't taste enough like a bagel for me. But other people like it so I am glad it is on the menu.
Whole Grain Bagel. Bagel dough made from our mixture of whole spelt flour, millet, flaxseed and other wheat flours is sweetened with honey and topped with rolled oats. Like the Morning Glory, I wasn't expecting to be wowed by this bagel but because of its wonderful texture and hearty taste I have to rank this one among the top of my list. Probably part of the draw is getting to feel healthy while eating it!
Dutch Apple & Raisin Bagel. Chunks of apples, cinnamon, molasses and raisins adorn the dough and sweet walnut streusel decorates the top. When I must settle for store bought bagels, I usually enjoy a good cinnamon raisin bagel, but this bagel just left me unimpressed. Like the french toast it seems you can't judge a bagel by its name and I'm glad this exercise encouraged me to venture to other parts of the menu and discover some much better bagels!
Chocolate Chip Bagel. Semisweet chocolate chips and vanilla are swirled into their base bagel dough. I thought this was going to taste terrible with the cream cheese but it wasn't that bad, just a little odd. It definitely smells great out of the toaster and the melted chocolate chips are a huge plus. I'd put this at a mid-range bagel.
Untested bagels. Unfortunately my study will be interrupted for a few days by a trip home, but the remaining bagels will be tested soon: Cinnamon Crunch, Blueberry, Plain, and Sesame.

Unfortunately my knowledge of Panera's breads will not be very useful for much longer, because although there are 51 Panera Breads in Pennsylvania, not one of them is located in Philadelphia.

This Philadelphia Life begins in 22 days...

[UPDATE: It appears there aren't any Paneras in Philadelphia because between 1993 and 1999 Panera Bread and Au Bon Pain were operated by the same company and Philadelphia is flooded with Au Bon Pain locations. Read more about the connection here. Thanks TBL for the info.]

This Philadelphia Life

2006-05-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

Twenty three days from now I will land at Philadelphia International Airport with little more than a laptop, some clothes and a college degree. I have never been to Philadelphia, but I will be spending at least the next two years there as a member of the 2006 Teach For America Philadelphia Corps. The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my Philadelphia experience -- including and all the random trivia I love to learn and new thoughts I have during my stay. And so begins This Philadelphia Life...