Helllooo! The past week has been all sorts of busy and exciting. I officially started my job at Group Two Advertising in Philadelphia! Although I spent most of my time last week getting settled into my new job and trying to learn everything, I tried my best to do as much exploring as possible.

Two things are for sure: I am so happy to be working for an awesome company with such a great culture and I absolutely love Philadelphia. Although I have only been to Philly once before, I really feel like I fit in already, as weird as that sounds. There's such a great vibe here. I am living with my co-worker in Old City.

Some fun facts:

• My apartment building was built in 1735.
• George Washington's funeral happened right across the street from our building.
• Betsy Ross's house is only a couple blocks away.
• The oldest synagogue in Philly is right next door to our apartment.
• The oldest inhabited residential street in America, Elfreth's Alley, is a couple blocks away.
• The office right below our apartment is a gay pornography company. (not kidding)

It's really cool living in such a historic little corner of the country! There's so much culture. There might be ghosts in my apartment actually, who knows.

So I moved into my apartment last Sunday, had Monday to unpack a little and started work on Tuesday. On Thursday night, I met my cousin Sara and we went to an event called Night Market, which is basically when there are about 5 entire blocks blocked off in the city and FILLED with every kind of food truck you can imagine and probably every human being in the city. It was crazy but so much fun and I got some great pizza.

On Friday we left work early to play Escape the Room. If you've not heard of Escape the Room, you basically get locked into a room and have an hour to get out based on clues to find a key. It's extremely clever and so much fun. After Escape the Room, we had a fun happy hour at a restaurant called Alma De Cuba. The sangria was delicious!

The weekend went a little fast, but I got to enjoy some more tastes of Philly. Saturday morning I went to Continental Diner with a friend for a late brunch and sat in these awesome hanging basket chairs.

Saturday night Michael and I took a stroll and ended up at a restaurant/bar called Varga, which was a fun little place! We ordered a gouda cheese plate, duck confit chicken wings and lamb lettuce wraps. The cheese plate was my favorite part. On Sunday, we just kind of walked all over the place to try and see more of the city!

My goal this week is to NOT spend anymore money on food. I get a little carried away with all of the fun new restaurants to try.

I hope everyone is having a great start to the summer! I will try to post more pics and updates soon! Also currently trying to find a gym. There's a million different gyms here, so I decided to buy a ClassPass, which allows you to try out all different kinds of fitness classes throughout the city! Ideally, I want to be able to teach somewhere, but this will do for now while I scope out exactly what kind of gym I want to join. I'm trying a rowing class today after work!

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

- Rach

What's your favorite city? 

Happy Sunday and Mother's Day to all the momma's out there. I am currently sitting at my gate waiting to board my flight to Philly! It still hasn't hit me that I'm moving. It feels just like it did last summer when I flew to NYC for the summer, I just feel like I am coming back. It's a strange but great feeling. This past week went by WAY fast. I thought I would graduate and have all this time during my week off, and it went by in the blink of an eye. Now it's May 10 and I start my job Tuesday morning. CRAZYYY!!! I cannot wait, and I am beyond thankful for this new opportunity.

I spent the last few days with close friends and family. Friday night, my sister and I went to Blu sushi downtown with my dad and treated ourselves to amazing ice cream from Daddy Dee's. The place has been there for 41 years! P.S. if you're from SW Florida, it's just as good as Loveboat Ice Cream.

Last night was a great last night in Ft. Myers. I spent it with close friends and family at Tarpon Pointe Marina for a little party for my mom's 50th birthday. We enjoyed lots of mini cheeseburgers and champagne. Gotta live a little!!

[Shoes are BCBG, Shorts are JCrew]

Okay, getting ready to board...

Can't wait to take tons of new pictures and write all about my new home in Philadelphia! I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

-Rach

Where does the time go???

Hello friends! How is everyone's week going? This week has been such a nice 'break' week for me. After graduation, I headed home to Ft. Myers to literally just chill out. I move on Sunday, so I have been really enjoying some down time and hanging out with all of my Florida family. May is always such an exciting month, and this year even more so. I graduated, my sister graduates high school at the end of the month, and then there are three family birthdays this week: my mom, grandpa and grandma.

My grandpa's birthday is May 5, so he has a tradition of getting his free birthday meal at Iguana Mia amongst the masses of people who go there to celebrate Cinco De Mayo - which I could NEVER understand. Iguana Mia is just a chain, but I guess people really want to celebrate with non-authentic enchiladas and Coronas. Anyway, he always enjoys it despite the long wait times. He's 83 and still partying!

Yesterday was my mom's 50th birthday - another big one. We went to Season's 52 in Naples for dinner, one of my all time favorite restaurants EVER. P.S. the dress I'm wearing is from Forever 21 and I love it because I can make it dressy or super casual. And they're cut off but I finally found a pair of nude heels by Dolce Vita that I LOVE.

She's having a party this weekend because why stop celebrating? I started with a Caesar salad ordered the oak-grilled filet mignon with yukon mashed potatoes and a red wine sauce as my entree (I get it every time) and it was incredible.

After that, we ordered a bunch of their mini deserts. I got the carrot cake and peanut butter chocolate one but my favorite was actually the Mocha Macchiato one! They're heavenly. The waiter told us people just come to the restaurant to sit at the bar for a glass of wine and a flight of deserts. Not a bad idea.

And today I just finished a tough group fitness class and I am heading out to go to the beach with a couple close friends! Lots of exercise, sun, family & good food this week - all of my favorite things.

And I'll leave you with something to laugh at...

- Rach