Philadelphia Italian Market @ 9th and Washington

I always say that one of the reasons I love going to school in Philadelphia is because the food here is so good.

There is hardly a restaurant downtown that I don’t enjoy (unless it’s La Viola West three times in two weeks). But when it comes to food on campus, there is something left to be desired.

Though my friends at more isolated schools will call me “sustenance-spoiled,” I don’t care. Because it’s true: I’m sick of the menu at Greek Lady, tired of the sluggish service at Marathon, and can’t bring myself to eat Qdoba more than once a week.

Izzy and Zoe’s has fallen to a level so far below acceptable that I try to forget it exists.

Even though Gia and Metro add some quality to the overall food options on Penn’s campus, we have a serious dearth of selection when hunger strikes… and it strikes a lot, considering that thousands of people in the Penn community eat three times a day.

Fed up with my options (and not willing to wait more than an hour to order something online from campusfood.com or 20 minutes physically in line for Magic Carpet in 40 degree weather), I finally mustered up the energy and ambition to do the unthinkable: cook. In someone else’s kitchen, obviously.

It. Was. Delish.

(more…)

...call for thrifty measures

Our parents’ investments have probably been shrinking with the rest of the economy and I’m betting many adults are just as nervous as seniors are about whether they’ll have a job this time next year.

Times are tough outside the college bubble, but what about inside? Is there a significant “trickle-down” effect occurring or are students in denial while the rest of the world is learning how to budget?

In true Palin-esque style, a few of my friends claim that they’ve single-handedly kept the economy kicking, though others have admitted to reining in their personal spending.

College Senior Meredith Fineman said that she and her friends go out to fewer expensive dinners and emphasize pre-gaming over spending money on drinks at clubs. She visits discount sites like Gilt Groupe, ideeli and bluefly for shopping and “borrows dresses for date parties instead of buying them.”

Similarly, Wharton and Engineering Senior Andrea Biernat said that because there are so many sales going on, “Buying something full price seems like a waste.”

And while studying abroad may seem like the perfect ticket out of this country’s mess, the weak dollar may only buy you a scoop of gelato for dinner. College Junior Tracy Dubb, studying in Rome for the semester, said she has adjusted her spending habits. “We cook dinner almost every night instead of eating out, walk everywhere rather than cab, and never ever shop,” she said.

(more…)

Reaching new levels of productivity

For all you Pottruck fiends, this invention may be your dream come true. For the rest of you about to enter the real world, I’d pray every night that your future office doesn’t implement these contraptions.

Ladies and gentleman, introducing to you America’s latest attempt to make you healthier. No, it’s not some extreme protein-only diet or a new amphetamine that will suppress your appetite. Rather, it’s the combination of two worlds that should never meet: the gym and the office.

If you’re imagining treadmills attached to functional desks and computer stations, you’re right. This technology encourages walking while working and its developers at the Mayo Clinic see it as the “Office of the Future.” According to a New York Times article a few hundred of these Walkstations have already been sold to nationwide companies.

I’m scared.

(more…)

A familiar site for many Penn students

Gmail rocks my world. And my friends’ worlds. And my Mom’s.

I don’t know what I love most about it. Is it the endless storage space? The quick and easy search capability? Or the smiley face that winks at me in my Gchat conversations?

Just talking about it makes me giddy.

The truth is, I love it all. Google hit the mark on so many levels with Gmail, I don’t even know where to begin to sing its praises (So the following list is not in any order):

1. I can be lazy and still feel organized: The labeling function is a great way for people with OCD to spend their time. Other users can still feel the satisfaction of quick results without any organizational effort. Gmail’s powerful search capability enables one to find a needle in a haystack. For me, this includes the entry code to the DP building, every Sunday.

2. Gchat is Gmazing: Forget AIM. Whether it’s on the record, off the record, popped in or out, this feature is where I go to chat online. Deborah Shnay, a college senior concurs. “I love Gmail, because with the Gchat function I can Instant Message with my friends when I’m bored at work without getting in trouble”, she said.

(more…)

The "skinny arm" as second nature

The amount of picture taking in life has reached an absurd level. I blame Facebook. And girls.

For some reason, us girls are significantly more involved in this life-documenting behavior than our male counterparts.

To verify this, I looked at the past 500 albums recently updated or added by my friends on Facebook and found that only 38 of them were created by guys; that’s 7.6% male participation.

Statistics aside, I think most would agree that picture taking and posting has become a pretty girly practice.

It seems as if every group of friends has their designated “photographer” who willingly snaps photos of the group’s social outings (drunk at a bar), innings (chilling on the couch) and in-betweenings (walking on the street, inside the cab). It’s getting to such an extreme point that I feel that girls are increasingly living their lives for the purpose of it being captured, posted and tagged.

And beyond the number of photographs we post, what is happening in the photographs has become a point of interest as well.

Sure, straight up grins are cute, but we’ve come to realize that smiling in every tagged picture is boring. Girls have been trying to spice it up ever since the photo application was added.

(more…)

Without wireless, productivity prevails at vp

Dear AirPennNet,

I can’t go on without you.

It’s Sunday, so it’s time to do my work. But without you here to help me procrastinate, I actually have to do it now.

I can’t read the blogs bashing Sarah Palin, I can’t check my friends’ uploaded photo albums and I can’t see what the 10-day weather forecast is for Philadelphia, so I don’t know if and when I need my umbrella…

* * * 

As soon as I realized that AirPennNet wasn’t working for anyone in Van Pelt, I expected riots, bidding wars on Ethernet cords and endless lines behind the computer stations that had the coveted connection. Perhaps the South Park episode where the Internet disappears lowered my expectations of humanity to a far greater degree than reality, for today I witnessed a natural calm where I foresaw disaster.

During this unacceptable wireless calamity I saw far more people reading books and highlighting notes, their laptops folded in resignation on the desks before them, than rioting. It was as if the whole community of students became intellectually re-awakened without the distractions of the World Wide Web.

(more…)

Things aren't lookin' too hot

It looks like the financial world has been sucked into a vacuum of disaster.

One of our very own Penn alums turned up on the front page of the New York Times business section, her desk at Lehman Brothers packed into a sorry-looking box. During these troubling times, one question we seniors must ask is whether our bright futures are on the line.

While our class may have lucked out in high school by just missing the new SAT on steroids, it now seems like our good timing may have come to an end.

Looking for a job in recessionary times is no walk in the park. And though many of us may be bummed about what we expect to be lower-than-average hiring rates, I truly feel this sorry state of affairs may be nothing but a blessing in disguise: a time to look inside, rather than on PennLink, and truly evaluate what we want out of life.

(more…)

I let out an annual sigh of relief after hurricane season passes.

Not because my neighborhood wasn’t damaged or none of my family members hurt by one of the year’s storms (for which I’m also routinely grateful), but because the meteorologists didn’t assign my name to one of these catastrophic monsters.

Honestly, imagine how much it must have sucked to be named Katrina in the fall of 2005.

Not that they could help it, but those girls must have felt a sense of connection, or perhaps even empathetic guilt, with the event. I know I would if for six months straight I heard continuous news reports of the colossal damage and devastation that “Rachel” inflicted on millions of people. Perhaps I would have gotten more involved in the relief efforts. Or requested I be referred to by a nickname, as many Katrinas became Kat in 2005.

(more…)

Sure, they are nicknamed “Crackberries” by Penn students, but has anyone taken a moment to realize the accuracy of this comparison?

Of course not, we’ve been too busy “BBM-ing” our friends to see if they want to meet us at Gia after class.

That’s of course the prime reason a large portion of the Penn community has invested in this fancy phone: BlackBerry Messenger. While former DP blogger Eric Sukuraman and columnist Mara Gordon pointed to email as this device’s central function, I believe students choose BlackBerries because of their wildly convenient communication system.

BlackBerry Messenger is essentially AIM unplugged. Literally. It’s taken the addictive concept of Instant Messaging and put it in your pocket. And there is absolutely nothing healthy about that.

Jaclyn Cohen, a College senior, said that without this unique service her BlackBerry isn’t that special. 

“BlackBerry Messenger allows you to reach any of your friends with a BlackBerry within seconds. Barely an hour goes by that I don’t use it,” Cohen said.

As with any addiction, there are consequences.

(more…)