I got to sleep in on Sunday for the first time in recent memory. I ended up waking up at about 8:30 AM, which seems late to me now. The trip for the day didn't leave until 12:00 PM, so I had some time to enjoy the morning. I got dressed for the day and went out to get some breakfast at Starbucks. Then, I went to the bookstore, where I spent an hour or so reading a novel about Alexander Hamilton. I picked it randomly, but it was a good read.
After my peaceful morning, I came back to my dorms to get all of my stuff ready for the King of Prussia Mall. This is the second biggest mall in America, and my friend Lizzy who lives in Philadelphia recommended that those of us who had never been should go check it out. She said that it was an experience that we should have while we were here. So, myself and my friends Jack and Reva got onto one of two buses and travelled about an hour to see this place.
There were far less people who had come out for this activity than the one in Hershey Park. This was probably because we'd been given the option between the mall or ice skating, splitting our group into two. There were also some people who just decided to relax. Jack, Reva, and I were on a bus with about thirty other people. On the bus, our discussion revolved mostly around Harry Potter, which we had just realized that all of us liked. We talked about what our houses were, which movies and books were the best, and our opinions on certain plot points. It was pretty dorky, but it kept us occupied during the ride.
As we pulled up to King of Prussia Mall, the RCs accompanying us told us that we would have two hours to explore before meeting back at the place where we entered the mall. This was a bit of a disappointment, since we had expected more time, but that was what we had. In an effort to maximize our time in the mall, we rushed through the first section, only stopping at stores where we knew we could potentially buy something. However, we weren't seeing a lot of stores we liked. After not too long, we had seen everything. We were confused at first, because we didn't realize that the mall was actually separated into four different parts, and that we had to go outside to the part that was home to the clothing stores we normally shop at. Once we had figured this out, it also took awhile to discern exactly which route to take.
Once we made it to the section we were looking for, we had about and hour left to make our purchases. I ended up only buying a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, but I had a lot of fun looking into all of the stores anyways. As I had predicted, they had all of the stores that I could think of, and a few that I had never set foot in before, like the As Seen on TV store. Predictably, our time dissipated quickly, but I had had a good time. Even so, I knew that I had only seen a fraction of what the King of Prussia mall contained. Maybe I will be able to go back some day.
I bought a pretzel at the mall, but I was hungry by the time we climbed back on the bus. For the longest time, I'd been wanting to try Shake Shack, which had been described to me as an east coast version of In n' Out. I had never had the opportunity up to this point to try it. Excited, I convinced Jack and Reva to order it with me. When we got back to the Quadrangle, we did just that. I ordered a cheeseburger with fries and a shake. I was really excited when our food came, and my friends watched as I took the first bite. My meal was really tasty, especially the shake, but I have to say that I still prefer In n' Out. Their portions are larger, and it just tastes like home.
After we were finished eating, the rest of my day was pretty uneventful. We linked up with some of our other friends to watch a movie on Netflix, but I didn't get to stay for long. At 8:00 PM, I went down to take a group picture with the rest of the cohort and to get something to eat together. For the picture, we gathered around the famous Love sign on campus and posed smiling together. Of course, I had already eaten, so I merely accompanied everyone as they went to Bobby's Burger Palace to get dinner to go. It was quick, but it was nice reconnecting with everyone. We see each other everyday in class, but we are all so busy and we haven't seen Mr. Hillyer in what seems like a while. It's crazy to think how it's only been about a week since we moved in, and only a little bit more since the days we spent touring east coast cities together.
I returned from Bobby's Burger Palace with my fellow ILCers; we were all able to navigate the campus by ourselves now! My other friends were still up in my room watching movies, only now the number of them had grown and someone had brought snacks. When my roommate came back, I didn't want to disturb her, so I moved everyone out and went downstairs to hang out with my friend Jana and some people from her class. We walked around the quad, talking about ourselves and our classes. Something I like about this camp is that everyday it seems like I am seeing and talking to new people. It's really interesting to hear all of their stories.
At the end of the night, I ended up going back up to my friend Lizzy's room to hang out with her and my other close friends for awhile. Then I came back to get ready for bed. All in all, the weekend was simultaneously bush and refreshing. By the end of it, I felt ready to go back to class and into work mode on Monday. Sunday was a scale down from Saturday, but together they were exactly thee balance of fun and chill time that I needed.
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