Philly Day 2

My Philadelphia trip is turning out highly distinct from my trip to Chicago, but in a way that is equally enjoyable. In terms of sightseeing, it's really not quite the place to be, as the ever-enthusiastic UPenn students would tell me. In terms of catching up, this time has turned out to be pretty priceless, and it's good to get a bunch of my friends together (not that they don't know each other to begin with).

Kelvin, a friend studying at Duke, arrived this morning and is also enjoying the kind hospitality of Ansel and Grete...Esther, I mean. For those of you who didn't get it the first time, Esther is my friend. She is not part of a random American family hosting Asian hobos for Thanksgiving. She's also Kelvin's friend, which explains why we're both staying here for our time in Philly. You hear that, Mr Sam?

Today turned out to be pretty pleasant - lunch was spent trying out the supposedly infamous Philly cheesesteak. Essentially, it's just a sub with melted cheese and lots of meat stuffed onto it - nothing overly fantastic but I suppose not every place is like Singapore, laying claims to fame via food. Our lunch was joined by Chee Won, who I think hit it off pretty well with Esther, and of course, Kelvin, who he had not seen in probably 7 years?


The legendary and highly underwhelming Philly cheesesteak.


Old classmates Chee Won and Kelvin catching up.

The afternoon was then turned over to our preparations for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner - celebrated by 5 Asians in some weird part of America. Essentially, that translated into a trip to the grocer's and getting chicken (because it's cheaper than turkey and tastes better) and other items that we could remotely cook without messing it up. Costly, but doable.

Took the time to meet up with Darren and had a pretty good chat about everything in general at a coffee house - Buck County was the name, I do believe. Darren is a nice chap by and large but that guy should stop acting so innocent and guai all the time. Liar. Haha.

Dinner was subsequently held at a Japanese place called Ajia - home to a sushi buffet that cost about upwards of US$20. Apparently, that is cheap by American standards, particularly if the sushi tastes edible and decent. Goddamn yankees should learn to make cheap decent food, man. For those of you currently in the States, have a look at a picture of our wonderful dinner:


From left to right: Esther "Gretel" Lee, Chee Won "Don't call me by my slave name Chris" Lee, Virginian Hobo, Kelvin "Insta-haircut" Ho and Ansel "I don't even know these guys" Unknown-last-name. Look at all that sushi!

Philly is turning out to be pleasant - I don't recall the last time I've had the chance to talk to so many friends, especially ones that I've known for such a long time, over such a diverse group of topics, with so many of them over such a short time period and just having the kind of good old-fashioned bonding that makes you think that maybe not working a 100-hour work week and just being able to chill might not make for an unhappy existence.