A Historic Night, A Declaration Written and Universities Visited

Today was a beautiful day.  The sun was out for most of the time we were in the city and it didn't get too hot.  We really couldn't have ordered a better day for campus visits.
A bus ride opened the day and involved our usually trick of cramming our entire group on a city bus.  We then got on the commuter train to head into the city.  The students were very excited to be riding on the train and to get to ride the subway for the first time.  We headed in the direction of Philadelphia University to start off our day of college tours.
This is a smaller university, with a true focus on the students.  They are known for the undergraduate programs in architecture and fashion merchandising.  Their class sizes are all under 40 students and the professors are typically the ones that are teaching them.  This was a great school to start our day off with and gave the students a wonderful comparison to Drexel and Princeton.  PhilaU is located in a suburban area about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia's city center.
Drexel is located very near the heart of the city and is truly a urban college campus.  They rolled out the red carpet for us on this visit, including a free lunch in their dining center.  The students were able to fill up on the great all you can eat cafeteria food.  They followed it all up with a visit to the bookstore.
Drexel University was our longest tour.  They took us into most of the buildings on campus and showed us what their typical residence hall looks like.  The tour at Drexel was great.  It gave our students a lot to think about and many of them are now understanding that these trips are meant to help them start to understand what they want from their university and what they need to do to get there.
After Drexel, we headed to Old Philadelphia, where most of the historic sites are located.  We got our arm bands for the Independence After Hours dinner and let the kids do a little souvenir shopping.  The dinner was so much fun.  It was really neat to have the meal hosted by people playing historic figures.  Our meal was at the historic City Tavern, where many of the founders of the country spent their time while in Philadelphia.
After we ate, we walked back to Independence Hall, where we got to go in and see the room where the Declaration of Independence was created, edited and signed.  It was really interesting to see actors recreating historical moments and to hear part of the Declaration being read.  I know our students really enjoyed the evening and it will hopefully be one of many highlights from the trip.
Tomorrow will be a day of sight seeing.  We are going to Franklin Institute, a science museum, in the morning and then will head to historic Philadelphia for the rest of the day.  Areli has spent a lot of time putting together a great scavenger hunt for the students and they will be working on that tomorrow afternoon.  The winning team is getting a great little prize pack.  It should a great day!
I leave you all with some pictures from the day.  There are not many group shots because we didn't have a lot of time together as a full group.  Hopefully we will have more of those tomorrow.

A Rainy New Jersey Day

We spent our day in the Garden State.  This was the first time that many of our students got to see the ocean or visit an Ivy League college.  This was my first visit to New Jersey, and I have to admit that I found it to be very pretty, even with the constant rain.
We were picked up at 8:15 by a big yellow school bus and our driver Dwayne.  We headed straight to Princeton, NJ, where we got a nice tour of campus and visited the bookstore.  Princeton's campus is beautiful and I think it made an impression on many of our students.  It is always so amazing to think that many of those buildings have been there for a couple of centuries.  Lots of beautiful stone work and stained glass windows.
We headed back to the bus after the tour to make our way to Seaside Heights, NJ-home of the Jersey Shore cast and house.  Of course, the first place many of us headed was to the Shore Store where the cast works and around the corner to see the front of the house.  Some of our students were able to see the cast while they were at work.  And our intrepid leader even went in and bought a t-shirt from one of them...without realizing he was "famous".
Even though it was rainy and cool and lot of our students took the opportunity to play in the ocean a little bit.  It was nearly impossible to drag them out for dinner.  They begged for just 10 more minutes!  It is great to see all the students blending together and finding things to do in groups that include students from other schools.
Dinner was 24 inch pies from Maruca Tomato Pies on the boardwalk.  Great pizza, and we were able to bring home all the leftovers for the crowd to munch on while we were having free time at the motel.
All in all, a great day, even with constant rain.  The students were troopers through it all.  They asked great questions on the tour, behaved well on the bus and were generally on time (some were a little late thanks to the cast of Jersey Shore).
Tomorrow is a full day of college tours, starting with Philadelphia University and ending at Drexel University.  We have our Independence After Hours tour tomorrow night.  We will be the only people on the tour, which means we get a private show at Independence Hall!  I know the adults are really looking forward to the evening adventure and I am hoping the students will be too!