24 Hours

I have officially been in Baltimore for over 24 hours now. What an accomplishment :) To recap my day thus far: it goes somewhat as follows.

Breakfast: vanilla almond delight cold cereal, check. Make my bed, check. Unpack, while listening to Hairspray's "Good Morning Baltimore," check. Here is my cute room: my bed, window, closet, and small table and chair. The closet door has no easy way of opening it, I just have to pry it open. Natalie thinks this place was built in the 1920s and my closet door might be one of the original doors. I really like that idea, mainly because of how much I adore the 1920s.

                     

Just for proof that I might disbelieve later, I took a picture of my suitcase BEFORE I unpacked it. See? It all fits in there, somehow. I thought I was pretty clever Tuesday night for making it all fit so neatly.

Meet Willow.
Willow is Natalie's cat that prowls around the house. Natalie never lets Willow into my bedroom, so if the door is barely left open it is like new territory to Willow. The funny thing is that she practically races to my room with me. I've always won so far, that I know of. . . . She is a playful cat and can jump really high. Oh man, I sound like I am turning into a cat person. I'm not. I promise. I love dogs; especially my adorable little dog, Tiki.

Anyway, back to my checklist; shower and get ready, check. Make brown paper bag lunch, check. Pack and repack my backpack, check. Load my pockets, check. Recheck that I have everything, check.

Seriously, that's how I felt this morning. I walked out my front door, map in hand and a giant smile slapped on my face. Time: 9:18 a.m. Good morning Baltimore!

I walked a couple of blocks to find the Charm City Circulator's Green route stop closest to me. This is most likely to be the bus stop that I frequent every morning. I waited at the stop for a few minutes before a bus arrived. Since, I had no idea how frequent the buses came, I decided it would be worth the wait if a couple other gentlemen were waiting as well.

The Charm City Circulator is a free city transportation system that has three different routes; the green route goes from Fells Point and Harbor East to Johns Hopkins, the orange route travels from Harbor East, Inner Harbor, and University of Maryland Medical Center, and the purple route covers Federal Hill to Penn Station with Mount Vernon and Inner Harbor in between.

The green bus stopped, and I hopped aboard. I thought I would see how far my commute would be, so I resolved to ride the loop. At one stop, a couple girls got on and stared at me when I didn't get off at Johns Hopkins like almost everyone else. I think they might have been confused at my consistent smile that I couldn't completely wipe off my face, however hard I tried. I noticed some brochures at the front of the bus, but I forgot to grab one when I got off (some guy was sitting right in front of them, obstructing them from reach). I got off close to my original starting point and walked west a few blocks, just to explore the city a bit. Taking in as many street names and trying to remember how to orient myself was surprisingly not as difficult as I had prepared my mind for. Then again, I did have my map out this entire time. Nothing screams tourist louder than sunglasses, map in hand, and a huge grin.

I made my way to a purple route stop and rode the Charm City Circulator north to Mount Vernon area. I stopped at the Washington Monument and the Peabody Institute. When I talked to Lori (my coworker that came to Baltimore last summer), she told me about the Peabody library. I was sold. I don't even think she knows that I was so interested. Once I got off the bus, I marched right over to the Peabody Institute.

The institute is a musical arts school that is closed for the summer, but the library remains open for tourists. I was so excited! I walked through the doors of the library, and it almost took my breath away. After standing in awe for a couple of minutes, I talked to a librarian at the back. Anyone can read the books, they are all old classics, but no one can check them out, and no one but the librarians can go up the levels. I want this job! I could totally be content as a librarian at a breath taking library retrieving, shelving, and caring for really old, awesome books. Count me in! Since I was there, I had to make them get something for me, so I asked for a book called "Cancer: what everyone should know about it." A librarian retrieved it for me (I think it was on the sixth floor) and set it on these nifty foam cut outs in the shape of an open book. I am guessing that helps keep the binding in good shape.

I spent a good couple of hours reading that book. It was over three hundred pages long, and I only got to page 85 before I needed to get up and move. Since it is really hot and humid outside, (humidity: I've heard the word before, but now I am just coming to understand what it really means . . . its like being where an indoor pool is with clothes on, but all of the time, it's weird) the buildings have the air conditioning turned up to full blast. After sitting in one place for so long, I only could take so much shivering. It is summer for Pete's sake!


Outside I admired the Washington Monument and a beautiful church. Absolutely gorgeous.

I started to make my way back to my apartment. Purple route, change to orange route, change to green route, walk.

I had to laugh at myself today. At one point during my walks in between buses, I glanced down at my map. As a looked at the sidewalk in front of me, I jumped a little when I saw a man sleeping against the brick wall. It would be a rough life to be homeless. I hope he had a bit of luck today.

One other thing I feel that I should mention, during this adventure of mine, I observed that traffic lights are not regularly followed by pedestrians. Actually, they are NEVER followed by pedestrians. People just watch to see whether a car is coming or not and walk across the road. It doesn't matter if the thru traffic has a full green light or not. People just walk.

So, back to my story, I realized that I was standing out A LOT as I would stop and wait for each of the lights to change. A woman on her cell phone walking at half a mile an hour would pass me and just walk into the street. I passed her when the light changed, but she would catch up as I waited for the next light. I was slightly amused. Several blocks later, I don't know where the woman went, I did a truly Baltimorian thing: I crossed the street on a green light!

Now, before all of my dear Utahans get upset at me, please try to see how this is playing out. I am stopping at every street corner and waiting for a light to change even when the coast is clear. Now everyone is thinking I'm crazy (and who isn't in Baltimore?) for not moving when I can. I did look both ways before I crossed. I was safe about this, but I did a rebellious thing to fit into Baltimore culture. Sort of. Ha! Well, in any case, I hope you all smile.

I ate my lunch at home. I know, a paper bag lunch that I took the time to make and then ate it at home anyway. How silly. I had forgotten about food until I got back, and then it seemed a little overboard to go back out just so I could eat my lunch. Oh well, better luck next time.

Natalie got home shortly after that, and I showed her the assortment of brochures I had collected in one day. I ended up getting some on the Charm City Circulator after all, and a cute little summer events calendar for a park by the Peabody Institute.

We went for a walk which was lots of fun. Since this post is getting lengthy, I think I tell you about it in a different one.