Michael, Entry #5, Philly Bucket List

I'll be finishing up my time in lab this Friday. While thinking to myself on my long commute to Philly every morning, I realized that there are a few things that I wanted to do during my time here that I hadn't done yet. Striving to make some memories, I called up my friends Sidney and Jalen, who presented for their program yesterday, but won't be going back to Texas until Saturday morning. Jalen said that he was down to play some basketball at a park near his dorms (Sidney was tired), so I told him I'd meet him there at 2:00 since it was a pretty easy day in lab.

I took the Drexel shuttle to University City, then walked for ten minutes until I reached the park, which bordered the Schuylkill River. I arrived a bit before Jalen and noticed that the two courts were pretty crowded for a weekday. Jalen came with his friend, Dhruv, a few minutes later, and we headed for the courts. They forgot to bring a basketball, so we asked a group of four older guys if they wanted to have a larger game. They were willing to, so we got set up for a 3-on-3 (one sub for them) game. 

I was a little rusty since I hadn't played basketball in a while, but I regained my touch pretty quickly. We won the first game pretty easily and to the delight of our "coach," a local adult who was in the park and came over to watch the game and give (multiple) tips while reminiscing on his glory days. In the second game, our opponents gained a lead late in the game, but we made a comeback and won that game, too. 

The third and final game was probably the best of the day. It was a close game all the way through, but the other team pulled it out due to their height advantage. We were all pretty winded, and all three games took a little over an hour to complete. The three of us relaxed for a bit in the shade, then headed over the bridge and back towards University City. I said goodbye to Jalen and Dhruv, wished them luck, and walked towards the train station. I picked up a much needed Gatorade on the way, boarded the train, and arrived home at about the same time as usual. 

It was nice seeing the University City portion of Philadelphia. Although I thought I would be working there until about a week before I began at Drexel, I've only been to that part of the city once, when the Philly EXP students met Dr. Peretz for lunch at Shake Shack. It was one more thing I can cross off of my bucket list.