first days.

as i first walked out of the airport, i saw a man driving his exposed jeep wrangler. he was an older gentlemen, with a belly large enough size to hold all his wisdom and experience, smoking a big ol' stoggie in between his bearded lips. 

i have arrived in philadelphia. 

my first days here have been quite a wild one (well, after everyone else showed up). our first dinner was at ralphs - an authentic italian place in south philly. food was great, accents were delicious, and i found myself held speechless just trying to soak up all that was around me. 

there are five other people doing internships with me this summer:

jessica is from texas and just finished up her freshman year at texas a&m. she will be my bachelorette buddies as much as we can keep up this summer. but we already share the same favorites for jillian. we also share a deep sex appeal for justin timberlake - although i clearly told her this evening that he is mine and she is not allowed to make-out with him.

katherine is from wisconsin (and yes they do really love cheese there). she just graduated and is planning on going to seminary in boston this fall. she was also home-schooled and was an irish dancer for years and teaches girls now. she is nerd and loves star wars and star trek, and lost - so of course we have already connected on deeper levels than most can understand.

megan is from canada, eh?! just like our lovely friend jillian (see above, in the "jessica" section for reference). she reminds me of my dear friend reed reeder and his green card. her family was like one of the first people to start the salvation army church, or something crazy like that. she has already learned new things about our country - like the first amendment and what the oregon trail is, both the actual event and the game.

josh is from virgina, but goes to school in goshen, indiana. his family is mennonite and he reminds me of a freshman phil westlund. he is studying a political science of sorts, and art (which just adds to his phil-ness). 

jon is from michigan. he is the tallest of our group and is reminiscent of a deeper-voiced will ferrell. he's got that good wholesome boy humor about him. 

tim is our associate director, he lives in philly full-time now, but is from chicago. he's been the one i've been in most contact with since i got the job here. his ethnic background includes chinese, swedish (or that general area), and hawaiian. he has been mistaken for jon from jon and kate plus 8 (but i don't want to talk about them now). 

justin the is the new city director, although he's been a director for csm in the past. he's a shorter stockier guy and is very much what i would think of as a typical nice-boy from philly (well actually new jersey). he has very kind eyes and i think he will be a great support for our team.

his wife krista just had a baby, jack, and was originally going to be the director of sorts for philly this summer, but wanted to be able to stay home full-time and be a mom. she is from a greek family and claims "my big fat greek wedding" to be a perfect depiction of that. 

i bring up justin, and krista especially, because one, looking at their child's scowling face i swear i was looking at nate berrian, and two, we had dinner at their place tonight and it was awesome. totally what i think we all needed, and a great way to get to know each other all a little better.

two of the best places to get to know people - around food and around a campfire.

no i have not shown a lot of my crazy yet, it's still too soon people. but i did have a pretty classic tricia moment. basically we were talking about conservative kids not kissing before marriage and how awkward it was (specifically that family on tlc with the crapload of kids). and transitioned into a book i read, FOR SCHOOL, that talked about what churches used to believe about sex. basically it had to do with blood boiling and emitting out of the body, and the phrase in the book said something about it being "kind of like the human espresso machine". well no one laughed, someone walked right in as i said that, and justin had to explain that we were all talking about something fairly harmless and "tricia just took it to another level." 

oh what will the good Lord do with me?

we ended the evening with the prayer tour. this is a time where we drive around different areas of the city, talk about who lives there, and pray for those people and the ministries reaching out to them. it's a really great time to see the city in one big swoop and experience the big picture before we get into the grit of it all. unfortunately on the way to our last stop, a car came over the bridge way too fast, and in our lane. it sideswiped us and then proceeded to continue driving. no one was hurt, although a little shaken up. as justin called his insurance company, megan made a comment about not being able to tell her parents about this event; katherine agreed and added that hers would buy a ticked home; i on the other hand, stated that my dad would simple respond with, "welcome to philly."

welcome to philly indeed. i am glad to be here in the land of my ancestors and am excited to explore the city more and continue to see the people as God does. there are two full weeks of training ahead for us all before groups arrive.

the picture i've posted is a collage exercise we did this morning as kind of a way to show who we are. this link (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=77848553638) will give you a better description of what everything means but i encourage you to look at it first and see what significance you can guess on your own before you look at the answers. 

i'm off to bed now. 

so good night good friends. 

good night sweet city.