Hello World! I am the second blogger to be gracing this space. My name is Victoria; I am a junior studio art major, and very excited to be here in the city of Philadelphia! So this weekend was a lot of fun, my first real weekend in the city, since last weekend I was in Grantham. Friday night started out casual, with Chinese take-out from Temple Star around the corner, and watching Mean Girls with my roommates. Basically, the perfect girls’ night in.

Saturday morning I attended a Messianic Synagogue, Beth Yeshua. I am a Messianic Jew so finding a synagogue to go to on Saturdays is very important to me. Luckily I already had some connections at Temple. I love the fusion of Judaism and Christianity. Services keep the Jewish traditions, like Jewish dancing and reading from the Torah, but still preach that Jesus is the Messiah.

After I got back there was a trip to South Street to see the Magic Gardens. I have only passed by this place, never have I gone inside. The Magic Gardens are mosaics of found objects, mostly broken glass, mirrors, and a lot of bicycle wheels, surprisingly enough. Anyway, it was beautiful, and perfect for spontaneous or should I say not-so-spontaneous (I made sure to wear a cute outfit) photo shoots with my roommates. After the gardens, Meg generously treated the group to some Dairy Queen. I felt some apprehension accepting this gift seeing as I have worked at Carvel, DQ’s sworn enemy, for the past two summers. To justify this I convinced myself I was just doing some research on the competition. After that my roommates and I spent the rest of the day exploring South Street and Center City. Notable stops included Retrospective, a really cute thrift store in which I fell in love with a pair of brown Steve Madden pumps but had to let them go. Guys, quit reading for a sentence or two as this might bore you. Ladies- you know the feeling of getting emotionally attached to an article of clothing or a pair of shoes. It’s beautiful, fits perfectly, it looks great on you, and you start making potential outfits with the rest of your wardrobe in your head. This pair of shoes was one of those items. Unfortunately, they were $24 and I could not justify that purchase. So I left the store with my heart broken, but this falling in love with clothes seems to be a daily occurrence with me.  Okay boys, you can tune in again.

Another landmark of the day was visiting Love Park. I have been to Love Park several times, and it always disappoints me more each time I go. Is it just me or are the letters actually getting smaller? The way people talk it up I always imagined huge letters towering over the fountain, but they really aren’t that great. Of course, this did not stop my roommates and me from taking the quintessential picture in front of it with our disposable camera. Saturday ended with delicious pizza from Maxi’s. Maxi’s is on Temple’s campus and makes the best pizza. I got a slice of bruschetta and a slice of cheese steak, and they both were sooooo good.

Okay, on to Sunday. I decided to sleep in since I didn’t get to on Saturday, but my roommates went to Epiphany church. Hopefully, Sarah can fill you in on that experience, but to quote Jackie Burke, “I’m done searching for my church.” After hours of homework, a group of us went to Circle of Hope church for their evening service. The place was small and loaded with hipsters. Their claim to fame is that both The Psalters and MeWithoutYou attend. Despite being a thirty minute walk, the experience was well worth it. Worship was great and had many songs in different languages. It is always interesting to realize that I can still worship the Lord even in a language that is not my own. The message was about Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and how it is a metaphor for the life of Christ and how the title is a reference to Jacob’s dream in which he sees an actual stairway to heaven. Obviously, the preacher was a Led Zeppelin fan as he kept making references that went over my head.

Phew, this was a long weekend. Until next time Philly! Stay Phresh.