Reading Terminal Market

On Saturday I was able to take Marissa to visit a few of the Philadelphia sites.  Marissa is my "mentee" in the PA program the year below me.  I was able to interview her last year and be part of her acceptance into the program when she was applying so it was really fun to also be matched as mentor/mentee this year.  The really cool thing is that Marissa is deaf.  The program has never had a deaf student so naturally there were some hurtles to overcome when figuring out how to integrate her into already established curricula but I am really excited that our program took on the challenge and look forward to seeing how Marissa can help change the program at Phily U and at other schools as well in order to help more people with challenges like hers to be able to become health care practitioners.

We were able to spend a few hours hanging out at her apartment and she told me a lot about how she became deaf (she was a premee and got an ototoxic dose of an antibiotic while in the NICU) and about her family and some of the things she has done over her life to get her to where she is now.  Then we went down to Reading Terminal Market, an historic amish market in the city.  They were actually having the Amish festival that weekend so they had a ton of extra stuff.  Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.

 

Me with the cows.....I love cows!

Marissa and I hanging out at her apartment

An out house in the street outside the market.  I have been to the market several times and never seen an outhouse so I'm sure it was just there for the Amish festival.  The sign at the top says "supply your own toilet paper please".
We had a great time and ate some really great food.  I look forward to being able to spend some more time with Marissa throughout the next year as she goes through the program.