Thursday, July 5, 2012

Let's Hit The Streets Of Philly

Today, class was going to be different from our usual morning lecture, lunch, and afternoon trip. We were going on a whole-day-long field trip. We had a long day ahead of us, and we got started right away. 

Our first stop was on the steps of what once used to be one of the first hotels that brought blacks and whites together.   Father Divine, the founder of the hotel, also held many feasts for his guests. Feasts may not seem so significant, but what was significant was that Father Divine managed to throw many feasts during The Great Depression. The feasts' main purpose was to feed those who were struggling through the hard times. He also offered a room accompanied with food to anybody who was in need of shelter, and it was all for $9 a night.

Next on our list was Eastern State Penitentiary. What I found most fascinating about the whole place, was the way its prisoners lived. They adopted the isolation system in the jail after realizing that keeping all the inmates in one big room was definitely not a very good idea. The isolation system meant that the inmates each received an individual cell, along with another additional empty one connected to the back of their main cell for a daily hour of exercising. That may not sound too harsh, but these inmates were kept in those cells, completely alone, for their whole sentence.

After a lunch stop at a nice pizza place, we went to a liberty museum. The museum was very informative. They had so many different stations, and their stained glass was incredible!
Eastern State Penitentiary
Once we were all back on campus, Mariko made sure we did our laundry. Actually, she volunteered to do everybody's laundry for them. We couldn't take advantage of her, so Chloe, my roommate, and I joined her in the laundry room. While waiting for our laundry, we decided we might as well go get some dinner. After we all ate, and all the laundry was done, Mariko and I decided it would be a perfect time for a work out. We went to go check out the gym that is available for us to use (but you have to be sixteen or older to be able to use it). They gym was five stories! It was the perfect place for workout-aholics like Mariko and myself, I felt right at home on the elliptical machine. We worked out until we could barely  move our legs, then headed back to our dorms for showers. 

It has been a fun filled day, and I have a feeling tomorrow won't be any different!

1 comment:

  1. I know this picture from some other place--that’s right, it’s the hallway outside my bedroom. Yeah, I live in a dump. All my money goes towards the ILC.

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