The Bare Necessities

It certainly has been a whirlwind the past few days. This last weekend I packed up my life, or as much would fit, into 4 suitcases and headed to Philadelphia. We flew up here Tuesday morning which would give me about a week to get settled in before starting the fellowship. Thank goodness my mom came with me. I certainly couldn't have done this without her.

Tuesday was mainly a travel day. Because of the Wright Amendment, Southwest can't fly direct from Dallas to Philadelphia. We had a layover in St. Louis but we didn't have to change planes thankfully. Our flight left Dallas at 8:55 CST and we arrived in Philadelphia at 2:15 EST. Once we got all of our luggage which was ridiculously heavy, we boarded the ever trusty Lady Liberty shuttle. Door to door service. Very clean. Highly recommend it! They took us straight to the hotel, which conveniently is only around the corner from my apartment building. You can actually see my apartment from the hotel window. After getting checked in at the hotel, we headed to the apartment to sign the lease. It's sort of weird to have two apartments. I had just talked to my Dallas landlord and was now signing with a new one. The manager didn't have everything ready so I couldn't get the keys that day, but she did let us go up there and see the apartment since we were planning on shopping the next day. My first reaction when we walked in (but I kept it to myself) was "I don't remember it being this small". It is only about 300 square feet. But, for 6 months, it will work.

Wednesday morning we got the keys for the apartment, measured to see what furniture would fit in there and headed off to get the ZipCar. ZipCar is a car rental group that isn't your average car rental. There is no office you go to. They have cars parked at different parking lots all over the city and you have a card that is linked to your account. When you reserve a car, you go find the car, place your card on the widow, and the car unlocks. The keys are already inside, so you are good to go. They also have all sorts of cars. Mazda coupes, Honda CRVs, Mini Coopers, even BMWs. We reserved a Honda Element because we knew we could fit all of the furniture in it. In South Philly by the river, there is a strip of shops. They have a Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Staples, Target, and Ikea. We hit them all. First stop was Ikea to get a futon and a TV stand. I bought a desk from Ikea and then we hit up the other stores for odds and ends. The hard part was getting it all back to the apartment. Thankfully there is a freight elevator that we could use. Everything made it into the apartment just fine. Shopping took a lot out of us, so we called it a night. Everything would get put together another time.

This morning, we headed over to the apartment to start putting everything together. The TV stand didn't take too long to put together. A few minor mistakes, but it is holding up just fine. The desk was a nightmare. It came in about 30 different pieces and I made quite a few mistakes. I put pieces together wrong and I used different screws in wrong places. Again, it's holding up nicely. There is supposed to be a drawer but after messing with it one too many times, I said forget it and put the drawer in the closet. The desk only took me about 3 hours to put together. Next was the futon. I'm not too sure about sleeping on a futon, especially after owning a Sleep Number bed. But, it will work for 6 months. Once everything was put together, the apartment surprisingly looked larger. It's still very small, but at least I can put some furniture in it and make it feel a little like home. We still have quite a bit of work to do, but it's coming along. Tomorrow we plan on doing a little more shopping and try to finish everything out.

The Living Area




The Kitchen




I can also wish everyone a very Happy New Year! I don't think I've ever not celebrated in Dallas, so this is a new thing for me. 2010 is going to be a very exciting year. Well, at least the first 6 months are. I've been given an amazing opportunity to come to Philly and learn under amazing surgeons and therapists. That in and of itself will make 2010 one to remember. I'm excited about what is ahead. Happy New Year, 2010!