"One Cheesesteak, American, With"

This is the appropriate way to order an authentic Philadelphia Cheesesteak with American cheese and onions. I failed to add the “with” and so I received no onions. However, my first Philly Cheesesteak was delicious! In case you haven’t grasped it by now, I went to PA for the weekend. Actually I stayed in Camden, NJ but it is 15 min. from downtown Philadelphia. My dearest friend, Blair, is with Urban Promise ministries working to start an afterschool program for kids in Copan, Honduras. He lived there last year and has seen a need for these kids to have a place to spend their free time. Such an amazingly wonderful thing and if anyone wants information about how to help get this wonderful program started, please let me know and I’ll forward you the details.

My trip to Camden was a very spontaneous decision made Thursday night. I went to Port Authority Bus Terminal Friday (10/31) after class, and bought a ticket on the Greyhound to Philadelphia. Apparently, there are several buses to take to nearby cities for as little as $1, but we’re talking buses that pick you up at some random corner in Chinatown where they barely stop, no one speaks English, live chickens are onboard… okay maybe not the chickens. I’ve heard funny stories about these buses, so I will try to take one the next time I leave town and tell you all about it, but I didn’t have time to deal with all that. Port Authority is madness! I’ve never experienced a bus terminal of this magnitude. Its just huge and there are so many different buses going to so many different places. I found the Philly (this is what the cool kids call it, so go with it) bus easy enough. The boarding reminded me of a Southwest flight cause there are no assigned seats, its just first come first serve. Once I got in line I didn’t want to leave, but as they started boarding I realized I really needed to use the restroom. What to do?! Leave the line and be left with the least appealing seat on the bus? I stayed in line and 10 minutes into the trip I had to crawl over the sleeping woman beside me (how does someone fall asleep so fast?) and try not to fall into people on my way to the restroom. I swear the driver was trying to knock me over with his swerving!

I arrived to Philly just as the World Series Championship Parade had ended. This simply means that I was the only person in Philadelphia not wearing red & white and I was the only person who was sober… at 4 in the afternoon! What a welcome! Shortly thereafter I hopped a subway to Camden and to the quite of a neighborhood. Blair and his friend Matt were house-sitting for a friend, which meant we had an entire house complete with dogs and a car, all to ourselves for the weekend! Such a blessing! I needed a break from the City. This was the most darling little house with a yard surrounded by a fence and a little swingset in the backyard. I never thought I’d miss yards. I was such a bum cause all I wanted to do that night was enjoy the comforts of a home: laying on the couch watching TV, playing with dogs, walking from one room to another simply b/c there were rooms to walk into. My life exists in one room, so that is why multiple rooms was so exciting. Sad, huh?

Anyway, Saturday we decided to utilize the car and took a road trip to Lancaster, PA (aka Amish Country). As we got closer and closer we started spotting a few Amish folks in their horse and buggy! We’d yell, “Amish! Amish! Amish! Amish!” It was fun. We stopped in a place called Intercourse, PA for some grub, but all we did was buy a Shoo-Fly Pie. Excuse me, a famous Shoo-Fly Pie. Has anyone ever heard of these? I felt like I was totally out of the loop, but no one else in our party had ever heard of Shoo-Fly Pies, so we decided they were only famous in this particular part of PA. We were in search of an authentic Amish experience, meal and buggy ride and all. We drove into Lancaster only to find it exactly like every other small town in PA. We discovered at the Visitor Center that most of the Amish community lives on the outskirts of Intercourse. Does anyone else find this ironic?! It wasn’t even the original name of the town… it was changed to Intercourse!

Anyway, we drove around to several other little stops and picked up various snacks. I couldn’t believe how cheap everything was! I bought an 8” pie for $5! In NYC that would cost $20 easily AND this was homemade. SO much better! We met some very nice Amish folks and I received little verse packets with my purchases. Lovely. We returned to Philly and got some cheesesteaks for dinner and watched Texas play Texas Tech. What a great day!

Sunday, I had to catch the noon bus back for work, but we got up early and went into to Philly to walk around the historical parts. It was beautiful, despite the chilling wind. Philly is a liveable city. I could never live in NY, but I think I could handle Philly. Anyway, we went on the most uninteresting tour of Independence Hall. The tours are free so sometimes the tour guides are less than good. Our guide was not engaging at all and the information she told us was stupid stuff like, “We don’t really know how this was exactly set-up but we think this is how it would be arranged. Of course, all the furniture in here is not from that time period, but is similar in style.” That is the first thing she told us and that is when I stopped listening. We left the tour early.

My weekend holiday from the City was so relaxing and normalizing. If I can schedule one of those every couple months, I think I can maintain my sanity! Next destination is Boston or maybe Upstate NY or maybe Vermont. “It should be lovely this time of year… all that snow.”