Alex at penn

I decided it would be in my best interest to take a short break from studying. I've been up since about ten. Mostly reading cases, articles and textbook material. My eyes need a rest from small print. So, I'll entertain the masses with a post of this past weekend.

Last weekend, I met up with a friend of mine. Edan works in the city so I met him for dinner down town. We ate at Continental one of Steven Star's restaurants. Steven Star is an entrepreneur who decided Philadelphia needed more flavor. He opened several trendy restaurants with different themes. Continental was a fusion type restaurant. It was a nice time down town but I didn't get to spend nearly enough time exploring the area.

This weekend some people on my floor got together to head to a different part of downtown. South St.

Here's the group (minus me)

Jacob is in the back on the right. He makes that face in every picture.

I'm starting to get use to the public transportation here. We needed to take the blue line to get downtown.


Stephen's girlfriend goes to Penn State. Penn State's campus is a few hours west of Penn's campus. She stayed for the weekend.


When we got to South Street we made our way to the World Famous Jim's Steaks.

I came...


I saw...



I conquered!



This is where everything ended up. I am a true Philadelphian now.

(that's my belly/shirt/new home of the Cheesesteak)

Someone stole my camera temporarily and took this picture. It's us going down the stairs at Jim's Steaks. The seating for Jim's is upstairs, above the line, grill and register. The building is old and like most old buildings in Philadelphia, Jim's is tall and skinny because buildings were taxed based upon the width of their street facing wall. So We had to walk up and down these steeps stairs to eat our food and leave the restaurant. We were walking off the calories.


We also went to a Psychic Palm reader downtown. She had only good news for me! I'm going to be successful, happy and die very old!


Here's Jacob and Peggy doing her best impression of Jacob.


We took the bus back to campus and called it a night after a movie in the room.


Last night we went to Penn Football's home opener.


All Penn Football games take place at historic Franklin Field.

Capacity at Franklin Field is over 52,000. Our total campus population including faculty is somewhere near 12,000. We do not fill our stadium. It is so large because Penn Relays are hosted here every year. Penn Relays is the second largest track and field competition. The Olypmics is the only event larger. Franklin Field is the country's first two-tier stadium. The first radio broadcast of a football game was a broadcast of a game at Franklin Field. The first NFL televised game was filmed at Franklin Field. The first televised college football game was filmed at Franklin Field.

Our academics and history make up for the lack of performance in the athletic department.


Stephen and his girlfriend Leah.

There are many songs that have been played at Penn football games for years. One of them has a line that says, "Here's a toast to dear old Ben!" Students in attendance at the game would raise a glass of Champagne to toast Ben Franklin, the founder of Penn. Well, the administration realized that alcohol, sports and college students are not the safest mix (especially when the home team is performing poorly) and then the federal law raised the drinking age to 21. So, naturally we could not drink champagne at the games. Instead we "toast" Ben Franklin during the song between the third and fourth quarters by throwing actual toast towards the field.

All those speckles are pieces of toast!

I bet you're wondering how they clean up the toast. There is only one answer: A Toast Zambonie!


So, that was my weekend! Back to work!