Gin-Gin, which way should we go?

I hold to my claim that I have a serious allergy to driving in New Jersey. Every time I attempt it I risk a nasty reaction of getting lost at least twice there and back. I mean no offense to Garden State dwellers and lovers, but I just don’t get things like jug handles or the serious lack of signs forewarning of major junctions. I can’t say I totally hate it, however. I’m not big on sticking to a schedule when I travel and I don’t really mind getting a little lost. It can be helpful to know what’s going on 10 miles each side of that turn you were supposed to take back there. And you can get a real sense of the local flavor (do they enjoy Big Cups or just regular Reeses) when you have to drop in the Wawa to ask what road you’re on.

With that being said, driving is Philadelphia is becoming second nature. When I first moved down here I volunteered to drive everywhere and stared at Googlemaps for hours trying to get a handle of the city. In the past couple of weeks we’ve had a few visitors and, as my schedule is the most flexible, it was upon me to navigate our guests around the city. Truly the ultimate test after having about a month to learn my way around. I’ve got to say I am very proud of myself, and I know my mother the human GPS would be too. Last weekend I took my sister and her boyfriend to South Street and walked all around Old City. I may have copied the exact trip I was taken on just a few weeks ago, but the point is I was able to duplicate it on my own and without making any mistakes. Yesterday’s trip was more of a challenge. Without map or directions I drove my friends and I all the way from Northeast Philly back to Fishtown! If you don’t know the area, just take my word that that took some awesome skill and a firm sense of direction. We wound through some iffy sections of town, but I think it’s safe to say my passengers felt like they were in good hands and were mightily impressed. Tomorrow I am picking Katie up from the airport, psh…no issue. Who needs Tom-Tom when you've got Gin-Gin!

Stuck in the Middle (East)

I don’t know what it is about the Middle East, but I cling to every bit of information I can learn about the people, culture and history of the area. While my US History courses could hold my attention for about a minute, I voluntarily spend hours reading actual history books about countries I can’t even pronounce. I know someday I will go there, I imagine spending months traveling around, living with families and really learning the culture, but in the meantime I amuse myself by learning as much about it as I can.

A few days ago my Israeli penpal and I reignited our email correspondence. I was hooked up with Dekel through my friend from Syracuse, also from Israel, and we have been exchanging stories since the beginning of the year. With my graduating and his world travels we both got caught up in our own lives, but when I caught him on g-chat I put an end to that. Dekel just finished his mandatory 3-year army stint and will be starting college this year. That still blows my mind every time I think about it – everyone being mandated to be in the army. I imagine it is not so unheard of globally, but in my mind being able to serve in the army requires certain personality traits that I know I don’t have. To think that if I had been born in Israel or someplace else, I would probably just be getting out now too! Anyway, in his last email Dekel mentioned that he had been involved in the Israeli election. I had a very topical awareness that an election had happened and I knew there was some drama involved. With Dekel mentioning that things didn’t turn out for his party I decided to look into it.

Did you know that in Israel, after the general election the PM has a certain amount of time to then form a coalition government with the other parties who can refuse to join! After being appointed, Netanyahu had to pretty much broker with the other party leaders to create a united national government. I’m not really sure how the whole opposition thing works because apparently the opposition leaders still meet with the PM. When I first read about it I imagined a much more war-like situation, but I'm glad to learn otherwise. I am waiting to hear back from Dekel to get a real-person explanation of the system and will keep you posted on what I learn.

Purrr

Ever since moving to Philadelphia my life has taken on a decidedly feline theme. One of my housemates is working on an Alice in Wonderland inspired clothing collection and asked me to model as the Cheshire Cat. I spend my days with two feisty felids; Charlie the kitten, who is always getting into trouble exploring every nook of our house and instigating fights with Big Cat, the fastidious queen of the castle. To add more chaos to our growing household (five birds, two cats, four humans and three more on the way), our friend Kandy's cat just popped out four little nuggets of fur and I’ll hopefully be getting one!

With all of the feline energy surrounding me it only makes sense to start channeling it and yield to my own cat-like curiosity. It may have killed the cat, but I foresee only good things for a curious young lady. As I fully embrace life as a college graduate I’ll be exploring and questioning just like little Charlie, living as royally as possible like Big Cat and I may have to cause just a little mischief like the vexing and philosophical Cheshire.