<p>johnnyk: oh no, it's not a new essay..its the page 217 one, i just did page 217 in my life was while i was still going to penn.</p>
<p>Also, if you like to exercise or just take a nice walk kelly drive is a beautiful place to walk, run, skate, or bike.</p>
<p>regarding safety, last fall there a million muggings in september. it seemed like every day we'd open the DP and there was another mugging. it was really kind of an anomaly and i doubt it'll happen again. besides that month, i've never felt unsafe.</p>
<p>and it may be my imagination but after that month, i think they increased patrols. i remember seeing many more bike patrols when i was out past midnight.</p>
<p>regarding shopping, i'm not from philly and i kind of felt the way angel girl did too. since most of the stores in center city are concentrated in like 2-3 blocks by 5-10 blocks, it just seems small. also it's odd because there's no department store and the most upscale shopping is in the suburbs. </p>
<p>and i know it's not a fair comparison, but i'm studying abroad right now in one of the 10-20 biggest cities in the world, and philadelphia seems incredibly tiny now. </p>
<p>what i like most about philly is the restaurants. philadelphia has a ton of great restaurants with entrees around $15-20. a lot of times my friends and i are all busy and we try to catch up by going out to eat at a new place every few weeks.</p>
<p>Transient-</p>
<p>There are Dept stores downtown. Lord and Taylor is HUGE.....and is a nice, upscale store. It's at 13th and Market or Chestnut (you can enter from either side). I also think you might be missing the upscale shopping in town.....or maybe the upscale I am thinking of is more upscale than you need....I don't imagine that you would need Tiffany, Coach, lagos, Victoria's Secret, Ann Taylor, Anthropoligie, Bebe, Benetton, Diesel, Express, Inguz, Shepp, Jones NY Store, Knit Wit, Izzo, MaxStudio, Nicole Miller, Wet Seal, Talbot, J. Crew, Aldo, Bandolino, Jos. A. Bank, The Body Shop, Crabtree and Evelyn, Aveda, etc.....and I only included some of the names you would regcognize nationally....there are many unique boutiques that carry all of the brands you might want.</p>
<p>Even if you aren't 21, a trip to 2nd and Market for dinner is an experience in itself. try the Continental Diner!!</p>
<p>lol </p>
<p>wetseal is not upscale at all..sick</p>
<p>don't get me wrong, i'm not even a big shopper. i've been enjoying my time in philadelphia and always found anything i needed. with king of prussia philadelphia has a lot of places to shop. but angel girl, a number of my friends from different cities, and i have all found philadelphia's downtown to be kind of small. </p>
<p>my hometown of seattle's not really a shopping city but it has a comparable number of boutiques and huge things like the flagship nordstrom and pacific place that are just flat out nicer than anything in center city.</p>
<p>another thing that kind of irks me is the septa stations are dirty. in seattle the bus terminals are very clean and a more diverse segment of the population uses public transportation.</p>
<p>but philadelphia's restaurants, historical sites, museums, and theater/performing arts are a lot better than seattle's. the gallery kind of feels like an upscale target though.</p>