Have you missed me?!?

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I haven’t updated in long while (and thanks for the reminder Mom!).  Midterms got insanely hectic and this semester is proving to be much busier than my previous ones.  Classes are going pretty well, especially since the insanity of tests, quizzes and various projects has passed for now.  I’m as good at working under pressure as the next person, but with everything due within a week or two of each other it can be a little nuts.

Besides all of the classwork I’ve been doing, I have been pretty busy with extra curriculars as well.  A couple friends and I were extended bids to the honor’s fraternity on campus called Phi Sigma Pi and we are currently in the midst of our initiation semester.  I never really thought that I would be involved in any type of Greek life in college, but I’ve really enjoyed my initiation thus far and I hope this semester works out!  PSP is different from other fraternities on campus because it’s an academic organization and its co-ed.  But we still have a lot of the same rules as other Greek organizations and of course we have bigs and Greek families.  I’ve really enjoyed getting to know everyone thus far and I’ll definitely keep everyone updated on the different events we’ll have going on this semester!

My Big David and I

My "family" within the fraternity, the Broad Street Bullies

Even though I’ve been spending a lot of time getting involved on campus, I’ve also had sometime to get out into the city as well!  Last weekend some of my friends and I got tickets to go see MIKA at the Electric Factory.  If you don’t know MIKA, he’s an eccentric pop-artist from England and he has an awesome stage performance.  The show was great and he sang all of my favorite songs from his new CD, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, and some of his older songs too.  I didn’t have much of a voice for a couple days after the show, but it was totally worth it! Hopefully, I’ll get to see some more shows at the Electric Factory soon.

Halloween’s coming up so my roommates and I are going to go out and find some costumes this weekend.  Still haven’t figured out what I’m going to go as, but I’ll get some pictures as soon as I have everything together!  Well, thats all for now.  Till next time,

-Taylor

I want to ride my Bicycle…

Hi Everyone,

Finally the end of another long week.  Classes have been going pretty well, but the workload is definitely starting to increase.  More late nights and more papers than ever, oh the joys of school sometimes.  Still, I try and find time to get outside, especially now with the great fall weather.

I’ve been using my bike a lot to get around campus and to other places in the city, but its fun to ride around the city and just enjoy the sights.  Philly has a lot of bike lanes and paths that a great for that and drivers…well they’re getting used to bikers.  It can be a little difficult to share the roads, but if you’re smart about it, it can be a fairly simple transition from paths to Philly streets.

A study just recently came out saying that Philadelphia is one of the Top 10 biggest cities for biking commuters, even larger than NYC and Houston.  Biking in general has significantly grown in the Philadelphia area,  increasing awareness, support for bikers on the roads, and more blogs and websites about urban cycling.  One of my favorite sites is http://blog.bicyclecoalition.org/ because they have great links to maps, info about bike safety and forums about cycling in the city.  Definetly check it out if you want to start biking in the city or want to bring a bike with you to school. 

Well, thats all from me for now!  Till next time,

-Taylor