days 10-11

Day 10~ mondaywe spent all day in philly and it was absolutely marvelous. i had most of the day to explore on my own while phil worked on his blog in a pizza place w/free wifi and wicked good mediterranean pizza and salad.while we were still biking downtown from brian's house, we stopped for a few minutes outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art and I started talking to a middle-aged man selling water to tourists. He had a necklace with a huge bicycle and so we had something to talk about right off the bat. I told him a lot about our trip and he was really excited for us, but said he would never be invited to stay at stranger's homes the way we were, because the races don't mix like that. I realized i agreed with him and i also realized that based on my very limited time in philly it still seems super segregated b/c of socioeconomic status. you can pretty much assume that in rougher looking neighborhoods, 99% of the population is black, and that it is white people residing in the nicer areas.we went to the main branch of the philadelphia free library, which is a massive beautiful building like so many others here. we basically only went into the cafe b/c we were hungry and just looking to access the internet. the first thing the lady in the cafe said to me was something like, "I'm feeling so happy right now it shouldn't be legal". These are my favorite types of conversations to engage in. She is 50 and "romance is rekindling in her life for the first time in awhile", and she is pretty sure she is about to be accepted into grad school to become a children's librarian, which is her dream job. I just loved being around her b/c it was obvious how happy and excited she was to be alive.It felt like everywhere I went I was meeting people like this and maybe it sounds stupid but I felt like my roommate Maya's spirit was right there with me all day maybe b/c she has spent so much time in Philly. I felt as happy and liberated and invincible as I did at the OUtdoor School for the first time since the season ended. I just felt really open and receptive to giving and receiving love all day long and I'm pretty sure the feeling is here to stay.I did a very historical tour of Philly and saw places like Franklin's grave, the house where Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the first US Supreme Court house, and the Liberty Bell. It is a very touristy area and I felt like a definite tourist. The Liberty Bell doesn't seem to be in its prime anymore. It is in an artificial-feeling building and it just chills right above the ground at the opportune height for people to snap photos of each other with it. Maybe this is a negative way to look at it, but I felt like a lot of its symbolism was lost amongst people who just wanted to snap lots of photos. Probably I'm generalizing just a little too much here tho.The people we're staying with are wicked nice and funny and Phil's bike got stolen but they said we could stay as long as we need to, or want to. They also offered a couple of bikes to him, gave us sympathy muffins and beer, and are just super fun and nice people, amazing people. So good.But now it is Day 11 and Phil got a new bike and we's back in biznass. THe people in this house are sick, we are at the corner of Federal Street and 6th Street. We went out to a $300 dollar dinner with Phil's relatives who are visiting the states from Jersey, and one of his relatives pulled my chair out and in and kissed my hand at the end of the night. jeezus.