On my first trip to Philly...

My first (of two for this year) trip to Philly sure didn't disappoint!

It started a little rough though... with 2 hours of getting through baggage checking and security with our large group, a rocky landing at the airport, and a bit of confusion with transportation to the hotel... followed by walking in the wrong direction in an attempt to eat a late lunch at Geno's and Pat's once we got to the hotel, resulting in an hour and a half of walking rather than the 15 minutes it should have taken (ugh). But we got our Philly cheese steaks and a beer and all was good.

The first night was the Rally of Champions opening ceremony for the competition. Everyone sprinted into the auditorium when they opened the doors to get the best seats; our team was front row! We were by far the most spirited of all of the teams there. It was a fun night, with dancing, singing, and speeches from some very powerful people in corporate America.


SIFE is such a huge and positive organization. There was a sign hanging that I felt really encompasses SIFE:


Monday and Tuesday were competition days. We didn't make it past the first round; we were all pretty shocked. But we made the best of it anyways. We watched the other teams compete and got some great ideas for how to improve on our program for the upcoming year.

Tuesday we spent the day site seeing. We went to the Rocky steps, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and literally walked all over the city looking at anything and everything.

We got back and rounded up the rest of the team for a sushi dinner before heading out for a night on the town. It was our last night in Philly, so we had to celebrate! The first bar we went to just happened to have an open bar! We spent some time there dancing and hanging out before moving on to the next place. We had a ridiculously fun time dancing like fools that resulted in my sandals breaking and me walking home barefoot (gross). Haha.

I really had a great time. I went on this trip with 29 other people, really only knowing about 3 or 4 of them, and walked away with so many great friendships with amazing people. We have a pretty international and diverse group. On the way home, I sat with one of the team members I didn't know much about, Offa, who is from Cameroon. He moved to the States 10 years ago. I asked him if he enjoyed living here or if he missed Cameroon. I asked how different the two places are and if he had a hard time adjusting; he said he was actually disappointed when he arrived in the States! He said, "Of course I'm exaggerating a bit, but I was expecting flying cars or something really awesome. Everything here is pretty much the same as the big cities in Cameroon." I guess the common perception of most place in Africa is that they aren't very developed, but Cameroon (as well as many other African countries) have cities that are just as developed as many of the large cities here, with sky scrapers, huge highways, cars, and public transportation systems.

Here's a picture of the team:
I'm looking forward to heading back to PA in two months!