One of the great things about going to college near a city is the city! As a freshman, I was able to explore so many things; I saw my first professional play at Philadelphia’s Fringe Festival, tried new foods in Chinatown, and went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. My most memorable experience, however, was going to my first concert. In the middle of a frigid February, I saw Twice, a K-pop girl group consisting of nine members, at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.
It all started a couple days before, when my friend had mentioned Twice was going to be in Philadelphia and she was looking at concert tickets and asked if I wanted to go. I was a little surprised at first because she asked me with little advance notice. Also, the concert was on a Tuesday night and therefore I had to think about if I had time with my classes and work. So, I did have to think about my schedule for the next two days, reorganize some of my tasks, justify going out to the city late, and then finally, I happily said yes.
The city itself can be a little daunting especially for someone like me; I spent most of my childhood growing up in a small town. Coming from a rural town, the ability to go to a concert was more out of my reach. In general, navigating cities, large crowds, was a novel experience. Until attending Swarthmore, most of my typical scenery has been cows, horses, rivers and lakes. However, navigating the city was not that difficult!
To get to the concert arena, we got on the regional rail line that takes you from Swarthmore to the city. It lies on the edge of campus and was around a 10 minute walk from my dorm. SEPTA, the region’s public transit authority, has an app where I tracked the time of departure for the train. We also used the college’s free SEPTA key pass, providing free SEPTA use for all students. We spent the 30 minute train ride going through the setlist for the concert. Then, we got off the train at a Suburban station, and then had dinner at Five Guys– another thing I had never had before. Then, we took a train that took us directly to the stadium. Following a crowd of some people dressed up, some people not, but all excited to see Twice, we went through security and found our seats. Given how late we bought the tickets, we were pleasantly surprised at how well we could see the stage! The group’s performance was great and the atmosphere was even better with everyone else at the concert.
My friends and I waiting in our seats for the concert to begin.
View of the stage from our seats.
Afterwards, we took the same route back to Swarthmore. Fortunately the rail line from the city to Swarthmore runs late into the night. We took the last train and arrived on campus at around 1 am. Exhausted but still running off on adrenaline I promptly took a shower and collapsed into bed. It was a night well spent.
