It seems to have very suddenly turned to fall here in Philadelphia. Not too much more than a week ago it was so hot and humid that all you could stand to have on you was shorts and a tank top. And today, a hoodie sweatshirt and jeans are the proper attire. With the fans finally turned off in my room, I hear a lot more of the city sounds at night, especially the bird-like chiming of the crosswalk. I love the fall weather–it always feels so crisp and clean. I am looking forward to fall in the city, but I wonder if it will be as pretty as the country in the fall.

This new cooler weather made another day in Center City very enjoyable on Saturday. We showed friends from Grantham all the hot spots, and did some shopping as well. As for the story of the hat, it has a happy ending. I yet again got to the GAP fifteen minutes after it had closed and so had decided that the fates just did not want me to buy that hat. But upon arriving back to campus, my boyfriend presented me with an early birthday present. It was in a GAP box. Autumn love in the city.

This is my first time blogging and I’m not really sure what I am doing. In fact, I am not sure if I will even post this successfully. But I guess everyone has to join this modern age of the internet at some point.

I have been in Philadelphia for about 3 weeks now and I, a country Maine girl, feel like I am already falling in love with the culture of the city. My class schedule is FINALLY straightened out (I know a lot of students experienced a lot of scheduling stress) and I am happy to be getting used to once again seeing my boyfriend and friends everyday (when you live in the boonies of Maine all summer, it’s easy to feel like home life and college life are two completely different worlds).

There is so much to do in the city. There are no good excuses for being bored. In fact, I wonder what my friends and I ever did in Grantham to amuse ourselves (this coming from a girl who lived an hour away from the mall and movie theater all her life). The other night, for instance, a few friends and I took a subway to Center City with no particular plans in mind, just wishing to get out and explore the city. We ended up finding solace from the heat in the air conditioning of GAP, where I stumbled upon the most beautiful hat I have ever seen. It called to mind Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, a black wool hat that if tipped jauntily at just the right angle, looks classy but not you’re-trying-too-hard-to-be-chic. For sixteen dollars and fifty cents it could have been mine, but I was reluctant to spend the unnecessary money (I was in the I’m-a-poor-college-student frame of mind). During a delicious dinner at Cosi’s (I think that’s what it was called), a Panera Bread-ish restaurant, I decided that I should buy the hat and count it as a birthday present from my parents, as my birthday is a couple of weeks away. But alas, by the time we got out of the restaurant the GAP was closed and I could only gaze longingly through the window at the beautiful hat. The store had closed by 8 o’clock–why does the GAP in central Maine stay open later than a Philadelphia GAP on a Saturday night?