Visting my Host-sister, An!

Can you believe it has been 6 years since An left Juneau? Well, in the intervening years, she got a degree in business, a Master's in finance, did 6 mo in France and Peru for academic exchange and landed a job an an auditor at a large international chocolate and bakery supply firm. Although she has only been doing the job a couple months, she has already spent almost half of that away, she spent two weeks in Toronto last month, and is in Philadelphia for two weeks. Which is in Pennsylvania, which is where Matt and I are. So of COURSE we drove out to see her.

Matt and I arrived fairly late on Friday night, so we met An at her hotel in the morning. She is just as energetic as ever! After breakfast over wifi, we formulated a plan to take the train from New Jersey (where our hotels were) into the city, catch some patriotic sights, visit some local joints and see what there was to see. The train dropped us just blocks from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We also found Ben Franklin's grave, and the US Mint. We probably managed to trample another half dozen historically important sites, but because Matt and I never had proper US history, most of this was lost on us.

All the tramping made us hungry, so we headed down to see the indoor market. Mom, I am pretty sure that this is where we went for the ISEF events, except that now it was full or people and food from all over the place. An saw her first Amish people and to remember why American cookies are so delicious. I saw a chocolatier pouring a chocolate mold, which gave An a chance to tell me about the 'Chocolate school' she had to attend for her job. Essential training for an auditor. Matt just went ballistic for all the different kinds of food- he loves the mixing of people and smells and tastes at these markets. There were fresh meat and fish stands, several greengrocers, bakeries (oh! the bakeries) and all kinds of places serving up foods for lunch. Imagine the spread. while eating an Indian samosa, Matt pressed An into trying the BBQ place Oprah said has the best Mac'n'cheese in the whole world, along with her first BBQ ribs. I went in for Peking Duck and a duck roll (crispy, but it melts in your mouth!) with a homemade Pakistani pomegranate Lassi to drink. Matt picked up a falafel and fresh squeezed juice, and we enjoyed the whole bonanza in front of the guy playing ragtime piano. The weather was alternately blowing fiercely and raining, so we spent most of the afternoon holed up at a Starbucks just catching up, until we felt motivated enough to make the hike south for cheesesteaks.

A note on cheesesteaks- although the Philly cheesesteak is ubiquitous around the city, there are two places in town that claim to be the best, and locals line up every night to support their favorite. This is a classic Betty or Veronica choice, made all the more difficult because the two places, Geno's and Pat's are across the street from each other. We decided on Geno's because we thought we'd like a cheesesteak with provolone better than 'Whiz. We are pretty sure Geno's is the place Palin tried for her first cheesesteak, based on the pro-America, pro-military conservative paraphernalia. Although I don't normally eat beef, we went in for "3 provolone- with" onions, of course and some cheesefries, since none of us could bring ourselves to order the freedom fries. High quality beef, with fried onions on a big fluffy hoagie with the cheese melting right in- I don't think this should be a habit.

After a long day of trekking the city in the elements, we decided to catch the train back to NJ, get some drinks and cozy up in front of our fireplace. An (and us too, if we're being honest) were impressed by the enormity of the Wegman's we stopped in at. We picked up some junk food and oggled the Halloween candy- An says Halloween is starting to come to Belgium, but has not yet reached the height of tacky that is available in NJ. Once we were carefully settled with the cozy fire and a hard cider, we even got to call Mom and Dat to share our adventures.

This morning we got up for a hearty Bob Evans Breakfast before heading down to a big mall for some window shopping. Matt wanted to be sure she got to experience these essential American experiences since she had this second chance to see the states. She said she was glad to have someone to hang out with instead being cooped up at the hotel all weekend. We took off in the early afternoon to drive home. It's about a 5 hour drive, easy thing for the chance to see An again!