Wow. The last week has been something different, something awesome, something INSANE.
Last Wednesday, the Philadelphia Phillies brought home a championship, the first pro sports championship for the city in 25 years (multiplied by 4 pro sports teams = 100 seasons). The last champion in this city was... Rocky. And he wasn't real. After the last out was recorded at about 10:10 PM EST, I went outside to see if anything was happening.
There were people were pouring out of bars, dorms, other public buildings! Almost every car on the road was honking incessantly, and people high-fived anyone in sight. 5.5 million people instantly became friends with anyone and everyone in sight. A massive crowd formed to celebrate the occasion on Broad Street (a major thoroughfare that passes City Hall and center city).
Simon, Edward, and I rode our bikes down 25 blocks to witness the madness, at about 11:30. There were massive (drunken) crowds, burning dumpsters, a few brawls, riot police, and thousands upon thousands of red-clad fanatics. Also no enforcement of the open-container law. It was something that you could never imagine happening in Eugene, let alone the entire West Coast. Imagine the celebration if the Oregon Ducks won the National Championship - now multiply it by 100! It was as if a city of millions released a breath it had been holding for too long, and also as if the entire city caught an epidemic all at once. People who didn't even follow baseball went downtown to celebrate! Seeing an entire metropolis celebrating is just an unbelievable sight.
You might think I'm overreacting with this World Series schnooz, but it's hard not to get excited when something completely rocks the city for days.
I also went to the Phillies victory parade on Friday (skipping three classes!), which was more subdued, but still pretty sweet.
Then there was last night! I'm sure you all know what went down. As soon as the news came out, Penn students started celebrating in the middle of campus, and I went down to celebrate with! And then... the crowd moved east. 25 blocks east. Yep, all the way down to City Hall, in a light drizzle. Combining with Drexel students partway through. Blocking off avenues, high-fiving bus drivers, security guards, hobos.. Almost marching expectantly towards City Hall as if something would happen as soon as we did. As if future President Barack Obama would miraculously drop down on the corner of Broad and Market and fill us with comforting, powerful, hopeful words. Too bad I didn't move to Chicago right after the World Series. The march was like a Phillies celebration hangover, as if people now just expected a mass mosh pit in the center of the city. Chants of O-ba-ma, U-S-A, Yes-we-can, Yes-we-did. Even mass-singing of the national anthem?!!
Anyways, it was all pretty awesome. Living in a big city definitely has its advantages. You all should visit sometime.
3 comments:
sweet. that would be incredible to participate in- which is why when i live in europe i will obsessively follow some football team and then go out and celebrate with the masses upon the team's victory. woot.
but i don't understand what you kept saying about going to chicago. were you referring to where many many obama supporters would be celebrating the victory?
Yeah. The election coverage kept showing Grant Park, which is where a huge victory party for Obama was taking place on election night. That would have been awesome to go to.
That's where he gave his acceptance speech, which was amazing. I only watched on tv, and I was very moved. It must have been fun to be a part of those celebrations.
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