Exchange Wk11&12 – History and Nature

Here’s what I got up to during weeks 11 and 12 in the US (31st of October – 13th of November).

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🇺🇸 Independence Hall 🇺🇸

On November the 8th, Pennsylvania held its state elections. In an effort to encourage students to vote, the lecturer for my artificial intelligence course offered students who voted one percent extra credit towards their grade. To prove that you voted, students were required to take a photo with their “I voted!” sticker. So that international students could share in this free credit, we were offered the same one percent incentive if we took a selfie at Independence Hall, so that’s exactly what I did!

By the way, you may be thinking that one percent doesn’t seem all that much. Well, with the grade inflation that is rampant here in the US (this will be the subject of a future blog), it is actually quite an appealing incentive in my opinion. Regardless, I needed to visit this historic place before I left back home!

Independence Hall is a really important part of US history, so much so, that this website describes it as the birthplace of the United States. This is because the declaration of independence from the British was signed there, and the US constitution was also signed and created there.

As a bonus, below is a photo of some trees showcasing their beautiful Fall colours – although a picture will never do them justice!

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🏈 Football (The American Kind) 🏟

On the 12th of November, I enjoyed heading to the Harvard vs Penn game. Penn sadly got thumped 37 – 14 😥

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Wissahickon Valley Park

On the 13th of November, I went to Wissahickon Valley Park. The outing was organised by Penn Abroad, which was great, because I doubt I would have visited this beautiful place otherwise! Here is a photo collage!

Also, as part of our bushwalk, we saw a wild deer! I didn’t get a good photo of it, but I’ve circled it below:

Anyway, these are some of my highlights from these two weeks. I hope you enjoyed seeing what I got up to!