So, I’ve been a bit slack at updating my blog… Life got very busy, very fast here at Penn. Assignments and exams started to pile up, and on the 20th of October, I had three exams, including one that started at 7pm! During this time, blogging wasn’t a priority. It was really important to me that I didn’t push myself too hard with other commitments so that I could get through the stressful period.
I’m going to briefly recount what I got up to on my 8th and 9th weeks here in the US, which was from the 10th of October to the 23rd of October.
🐐 The Amish Village
On the 15th of October, I had the pleasure of visiting The Amish Village, a trip organised by Exchange at Penn! The Amish Village was made up of various different building that you’d find in an Amish village, including an Amish farmhouse which was originally built in 1840. I enjoyed the guided tour of the house, where the tour guide explained the origins of the Amish to Pennsylvania, as well as explaining the traditions and lifestyle of the Amish community.
After the tour, we were free to look around the village. In particular, I loved looking at the livestock. Some were behind cages, but they had heaps of chickens and ducks roaming around which was really cute. However, it does shame me to share that I had some barbecue chicken for lunch whilst I was there… I was very hungry though…
Another highlight was buying a Whoopie pie, which one of my friends in the Christian Union told me about. Essentially, it is a cake sandwich, with cream in the middle. They are yum!
Overall, it was a great cultural experience! Also, a shoutout to the exchange student friends I spent the day with! I love how I’m able to make friends with people all over the globe here!
🏈 Penn Football Vs Yale
On the 22nd of October, I went to the Penn vs Yale football game. Prior to going, I didn’t think very highly of American football, but now that the rules were explained to me by my American friends, I think it’s a great sport!
It was a really fun afternoon, made even better by Penn clinching the game in the closing minutes to win 20-13.
A very unique part of the game was that at the end of the third quarter, we threw toast onto the field! As I so eloquently explained on Facebook, “[the toast throwing] comes from a tradition where they banned alcohol at the oval, and to compensate with the inability to have an alcoholic toast, we now yeet toast onto the oval.”
⭐️ Other Highlights
Unfortunately, if I spent time writing about everything, I’m going to never finish! Here are some other fun things I got up to:
- Went to watch Smile at the cinemas with a mate! Very scary…
- Christian Union Brogram reveal night! This is an event in the CU where we get paired with an older or younger bro (bro here is gender neutral). We all got dressed up, and shared a meal, before finding out our bros! I got an older bro who is an absolute legend!
- Blutt Band Slam where a group of musicians from the Christian Union played, and won!
- Church at Resurrection Philadelphia! The sermon was excellent, and actually answered my prayer about being anxious about university grades. I also enjoyed eating Pad Thai at a lunch with some members of the congregation afterwards!
