Several Days Later....

My sincerest apologies, this is the first chance I've had to write since Wednesday night. On Thursday, we got home from school and I may have collapsed a little bit onto the bed. Later on that night, we went to pick up Manny from his music lesson, and then we went grocery shopping for that night's dinner. On the plus side, the fridge is fixed, so that may have been the last late night shopping excursion. Also on Thursday, I went to my first GFS Quaker Meeting, which was interesting. It was very peaceful, and I'm sure I can handle two more. I'm amazed that so many high school kids could stay quiet for so long, though. There may have been sedatives somewhere along the line. Anyway, that ended my first week at Germantown! Two to go, and hopefully I'll remember someone's name. So far the classes themselves have been manageable, it's the talking to people, and the navigation, and the homesickness that have been tougher. But I shall triumph! Or at least, survive the next two weeks.
On Friday, I went downtown with Rosa and her friend, Jamie. I rode a bus, and the subway, two very exciting things, and walked a lot, which was a little less exciting. We ate breakfast at a French cafe where the know the owner, which adds to the sophistication by quite a bit. After basically stuffing ourselves, we went to a very large bookstore and looked at Doctor Who merchandise and debated whether or not to deface One Direction posters. (We didn't, don't worry, I'm a law abiding citizen, even in the face of terrible music.) Side note: I've come to the conclusion that stores in Philadelphia are the same as stores in Toledo, only larger. Anyway, after deciding we had waited long enough, we set off for lunch. We, well, I got distracted on the way  by some really cute kittens in a store window. I think I miss my cats more than my sister. Especially since I know I'm going to come home and find half of my clothing missing, and it won't be the cats who took it. Lunch was very delicious, although I ate more than the ballerina by far, and then we went shopping. And shopping is excellent, especially in a city that caters to a wider range of interests. I got a very nice purple sweater, and fell in love with a reaally nice military coat that I could have bought! But in buying it I would have drastically limited my funds for the next two weeks. It was a beautiful coat, and I could probably write poetry about it, but I have a feeling that that isn't exactly what Mrs. Koelsch is looking for. After a tearful goodbye with that wonderful coat, we walked around for a bit, and there was a Doc Martens store! It was beautiful. There were boots everywhere and one of them was decorated like an album I really like and it was signed and it smelled like leather and dreams. Anyway, after I finished fangirling about the shoestore like the giant dork I am, we had to go to Manny's school to be picked up by their grandmother, who was a very sweet, very short lady who told me to eat more. We quickly stopped at Rosa's house to grab our things and shower, then we spent the night at her grandparents. It was pretty relaxed, I changed into my pajamas, which I have yet to change out of, and we watched Doctor Who and terrible reality TV shows until we fell asleep. It was a little less pleasant when I was kind of bitten by one of their massive dogs, but other than that, it was a good night. So tonight I have a (kind of late, but we're not judging) Halloween party at her friend's house, and I've made a deal not to bring a book. So as much as it pains me, I will be making strides towards being the social butterfly of my parent's dreams. I will try to inform you on how it went, but I don't know how late it'll be, so no guarantees on coherency.
-Emma