After a weekend of moving and unpacking, I've gotten most of my stuff in order in the new apartment. Fortunately, I had diagrammed how the furniture would fit in my bedroom, because it's a very small space. All of the furniture is packed in there--particularly my bed, which is wedged between the desk and the chest of drawers. As you can tell from the pic, it actually turned out looking quite nice (although I haven't hung the artwork yet).



And yes, that's a fan in the left corner--the apartment doesn't have central AC. That's not really surprising, considering it's in a building constructed in 1856. That's fairly old by DC standards, but Philadelphia had already been around for over 150 years. While it was once America's largest city--and the second largest in the British empire after London--New York had already surpassed it by the 1850's. So, what was happening in Philadelphia at that time? Apparently, it remained the industrial center of the country with a focus on textiles.

The drive into the city from the south is still surrounded by factories and refineries, but in my new neighborhood, it's mostly boutiques and restaurants with the occasional high rise apartment building. Being an older city, the streets are very narrow in places--it kind of reminds me of Boston. I've been able to do all of my errands so far within a few blocks' walk from here, but I need to try to figure out the public transportation soon!