Recap of Philly ♪～(╹◡╹๑)～♪

A needlessly detailed recount of our Philly trip ~~

By Pony Pickle and Dreams of Butterflies (mostly D0B)

Jan. 7, 2022

8:00 am- Jandro gets up

• It's snowing outside (first snow of the year!!!) and Jandro sends photos to his friends and family because it's cool
• Chloe is still sleeping

8:30 am- Chloe hits snooze for the 4th time

• She texts Jandro "WHYYY"
• She finally gets out of bed and decides she's going to Uber even though SHE was the one that kept insisting to Jandro that they both subway to the station to offset the egregious amounts they've been spending

9:00 am- Chloe gets in her Uber and is super late

• She is frantically texting Jandro who is already close to the station
• Jandro knows something is wrong -_-

9:15 am- Jandro asks a worker at PENN STATION, "Which train is going to Pennsylvania?"

• The worker is, of course, bewildered...

9:20 am- Chloe is at the wrong station and runs to Moynihan station while calling Jandro

• They meet at Platform 13 and make it to their train

9:40 am- The conductor comes

• He scans Jandro's QR code and it turns out Chloe sent him the wrong ticket
• Jandro borrows the conductor man's cute little telephone and buys a new ticket

10:00 am- Chloe plays basketball via GamePigeon with Joaquin

• She wins (obviously) (by 22 points) (lol)
• Chloe sends a vlog to Joaquin and Tita Kay on Jandro's phone
• Chloe and Jandro discuss the postironic value of the laughing emoji

11:00 am- Chloe and Jandro walk out of the train station

• Jandro leads them to a corridor with no exits
• Jandro comments that he still has a *much* better sense of direction than Chloe
• They drop off their bags off at le hotel and explore da city

12:15 pm- Jandro and Chloe go to the Reading Terminal Market

• Chloe went here with her family in the summer, so she's basically a local :*
• Jandro gets a Philly cheesesteak ($20) at Carmen's as per Barack Obama's recommendation. What can we say, the man knows his cheesesteaks. Jandro enjoys it.
• Chloe gets a plain crepe with powdered sugar. Jandro is confused at her purchase. Chloe delightfully cuts it into 20 mini squares and eats it.
• They try to improv a UPenn and Drexel University student date. It fails miserably.

12:40 pm- Jandro and Chloe walk to LE POTATO CORNER :D

• Jandro gets mega cheese fries
• Chloe gets mega barbecue
• Jandro gets a Diet Coke at a vending machine, Chloe comments on how cool the machine is
• They eat at an indoor food court and talk about **** (Chloe's crush at JIS :O)

1:30 pm- Chloe and Jandro go to Round 1 Arcade

• Jandro pays for the arcade card. Chloe is delighted.
• They play a crane game which Chloe thinks is a huge scam. Jandro plays twice and tells Chloe to try.
• They (aka Chloe) manage to get a cute mushroom cat plushie and jump with joy. They name it Brie for undisclosed reasons.
• Jandro and Chloe play lots of games. Jandro fails miserably at PUMP IT UP (a dance game like kinda DDR which Chloe has been playing regularly for 10+ years). Jandro decides to play the WACCA rhythm game instead. He becomes infatuated with it.
• They play Dance Evolution (another dance game, don't get it twisted with Pump it Up ok) and make a timelapse. It's funny.
  

4:00 pm- Chloe and Jandro walk back to le hotel

• They take a nap because it's been a long day

7:00 pm- They get ready and take an Uber to Royal Izakaya (yum)

• Jandro and Chloe arrive but Chloe left her vaccine card. Luckily Jandro took a photo and mocks her. The waitress lets a couple behind them take their spot -_- so they sit at the bar
• They order hot sake, tuna guac, edamame, ebi shrimp, UNAGI, dragon rolls, and soft shell crab
• The crab comes earlier than the appetizers (???) and they are mistakenly given a kale salad

10:00 pm- Chloe and Jandro are back at le hotel. Jandro is dazed and confused. Chloe has a migraine.

• Chloe asks for Advil and frozen peas (why frozen peas??)
• Jandro calls InstaCart. It arrives at 10:20 pm, he goes down and the deliverer accidentally gives him Tylenol, orange juice, and Hagen Daaz bars. He runs back to return them but doesn't even give Jandro Advil.
• Jandro goes upstairs and gives Chloe the goods
• Jandro gets ice from le hotel and puts it into a bag for Chloe (instead of frozen peas)
• They fall asleep

...

Jan. 8, 2022

8:00 am- Jandro wakes up and annoys Chloe

• Jandro goes to CVS and asks the pharmacy where the Advil is. He finds it and buys Chloe the migraine version of Advil, which she didn't know existed

10:00 am- Chloe takes the Advil and water and Jandro plays three games of League of Legends TFT

• He wins all 3 games (whatever that means)
• Chloe calls and asks for a late checkout. It's a $15 charge which she reluctantly pays for. Jandro smiles with delight.

12:25 pm- Jandro talks to Megan (S-D), which he enjoys

• Megan beats him at all the GamePigeon games

1:00 pm- Jandro and Chloe go back to Reading Terminal Market

• Jandro gets m*at
• Chloe gets an Italian hoagie from Luhv Vegan. She enjoys it but eats half of it and gives the rest to Jandro. She eats a PICKLE <3
• The Reading Terminal Market is noticeably more crowded. Jandro comments on how being a seating usher is such an unnecessarily stressful job
• Jandro looks at the Filipino restaurant called Tamayan and is disappointed with the lack of customers attracted to Filipino cuisine
• Chloe steps out and gets a pecan bar. Jandro is confused because she left him alone (and noticeably alone) for a long time. However, a single bite of the pecan bar washed away his worries. It tasted heavenly.
• Chloe gets a cookie at 4th street on the way out. They agree to stop eating and decide not to go to Potato Corner again

1:30 pm- Chloe and Jandro go back to Round 1 and play more arcade games

• They attempt to get another stuffed animal (but fail)
• They enter a photo booth and become Japanese high schoolers for that brief period of time
• Jandro suggests they play Mario Kart (Chloe loses) 

2:30 pm- Jandro and Chloe walk to Chinatown because Jandro's friend, Sandro, said "Chinatown seems pretty lit."

• Chloe is reluctant to go as she thinks that Sandro has never stepped foot in Chinatown — which is most likely true.
• Chloe comments that she wants a smoothie, they set forth to look for one
• They stop by a Sanrio store. Jandro is confused on why Chloe likes this so much.
• They stop by ViVi and Jandro buys Chloe taro boba, while he gets black sugar. Jandro doesn't think it's that good, but Chloe finishes her's (she got a medium and he got a large OK...)
• Right as they leave, they see a matcha ice cream store and creperie on the same block. They are very disappointed because there's literally a ViVi near Chloe's apartment in New York

4:00 pm- They begin to walk to Elfreth's Alley

• Jandro is very confused because Chloe hyped it up so much
• He anticipated a much cooler street, but ended up in the oldest street in America
• Chloe laughs at his bewilderment

4:30 pm- Chloe does the BROOAADDWAYYYY thing and Jandro is amused. Some quotes from their walk (you had to be there):

• "Meet me at the colonial selfie station"
• "NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER >>>"
• "Why is the crossing light a traffic light? It's so dehumanizing. It makes me feel like an automobile."

5:00 pm- They go to the Betty Ross House and Chloe wants a shirt there, but it's meant for six-year-olds

• They pass the Liberty Bell and Benjamin Franklin grave. Chloe really wants to see Benny's grave but it's closed :(
• They walk for so long and there's an annoying American family behind them

5:30 pm- Chloe and Jandro walk around and go to Brandy Melville. Chloe purchases a white long sleeve and light gray sweatpants because Jandro took her green ones.

• She also checks out a brown scarf for Jandro at Brandy because he's too embarrassed to purchase it himself

6:00 pm- Chloe and Jandro walk around and enter a sketchy mall

• Jandro goes to the restroom, where he immediately hears a man making sexual noises while pooing. He runs out.
• They go to Hip City Veg and order two Impossible Burgers and sweet potato fries
• Their orders take a while, but the food is quite good. They are full and satisfied.

7:00 pm- Jandro and Chloe go back to le hotel and chill in le lobby

• Chloe does Jandro's press brief, which Chloe entirely takes over
• He's confused but satisfied at the lack of work he does
• She does a very good job

7:30 pm- They begin walking to the station to go back to New York

• They arrive 20 mins early
• Chloe does Sehati work and is the tiebreaker in an important board decision :o

8:05 pm- The Amtrak arrives

• Chloe and Jandro sit in a non-crowded train
• They make TikToks with Brie while listening to Dawn FM

Welcome to Pony Pickle

HI EVERYONE :D

Welcome to my blog, PONY PICKLE <3 ponies and pickles are two of the only constants in life, so it's only fitting that this is my blog name. Why did I make a blog?? Well, life is fleeting so we might as well write about it. I'm going to tell you about my life and secret thoughts and share with you my doodles and stories. I should also mention I was inspired by my awesome 叔叔, who has been posting regularly on his blog since 2006. This is the first (of many) blog posts, so stick around to see if things get interesting.

Since I'm contributing to the growing archive of virtual characters, it's only fair that I talk about a book I read earlier this month called Coming of Age in Second Life by Tom Boellstorff. Second Life is an online platform where people can basically create a "second life" through their avatars. You can buy land, build, socialize, shop... pretty much anything you want. It's interesting to see how Second Life residents are so preoccupied with "place," creating a temporal reality that exists only in the virtual.

But what does this say about our increasingly digital world (and even the metaverse)? Boellstorff explores how identity is mediated through the virtual, and he even goes on to argue that this isn't new. He argues that the idea of the posthuman is misleading — it's in being virtual that we're human. So without further ado, the rest of my January recap:

Snow!!! It felt like -700 degrees, but I still walked two miles to get bagels (plain toasted w strawberry cream cheese). Don't you ever get the chaotic urge to do something so difficult for no discernible reason?? Life is just a fun little game.

Anyway, bad decision. I fully contemplated calling an uber when I was only four blocks from my apartment, but I decided to brave through the cold when I saw that a 10 min ride was **$27**. That's enough for five bagels?!!!! Side note: bagel prices were raised by 25 CENTS :( God damn you, capitalism...

A BIG PILE OF SNOW :D 

Me after spontaneously cutting my own hair with kitchen scissors two weeks ago (sorry Mom)

Started my new job at le law firm :3 There's actually always quite a lot of people in the office, which is so different from my other job at a research center. They could work on the snack selection though...

I LOVE EXPLOITATIVE REALITY TV. There. I said it. And you know what... it's O.K. You can read Sartre's Nausea AND watch grown women tear each other to shreds for wearing the wrong shade of white to a dinner party. Deny yourself a matcha oat milk latte then splurge on imported Hello Kitty stationery. Do self-care meditation then sleep at 4 am. Bake your doorman sugar cookies then fight hapless strangers on Reddit. We're complex beings. We can embrace duality. That's what life's all about.

Flowers from D0B !!! They shall be immortalized forever on this blog post.

Forgot to mention these random snow figurines I saw during the Snow Day. I have so many questions for whoever made these... Who are you?? Do you just walk around with a penguin and dinosaur mold? Why did you put them all on this ONE bench? And most importantly: CAN I BE YOUR FRIEND????

Last but not least, the spring semester started last week. It feels so weird to be back in lectures after a whole six-week break. During one of my digital humanities lectures, our prof asked if anyone had thoughts on the reading. A girl behind me raised her hand and — I kid you not — she READ A LINE FROM MY POST ON THE CLASS DISCUSSION FORUM. I thought I misheard her at first because (?) who does that???? But probably also because she has a high phlegmy like she drinks a lot of milk.

Lol everything aside, I really miss my classes from last semester. Howeverrr, I am glad to have a regular routine again. So there's def much to look forward to.

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I think that's all for my January recap ~~ I hope you enjoyed reading my unfiltered thoughts. I might be forgetting a few things here and there, but that's the gist of it. Stay tuned for my February recap (*^‿^*) 

To endless more,

C