Romanesque

I ride my bike for eight blocks and pass 3 Parthenons. I look around and ask myself, where am I? I am not in Greece or dancing in a bath with Romans. I am a Philadelphia man enjoying his city. But I am confused about the age and history of my city because of such contradictory architecture.
An array of colonialist red brick buildings are dotted along the one side of the street but on the other lies an ancient bank with six marble columns. Just look for example at this creation by William Strickland, the Merchants Exchange built in the early 1800's. The architect based the building off of a monument he saw while studying in Athens. I don't know what to make of this fangled history, but it sure does make for a delightful afternoon bike ride.

The Caterer

I've been living in South Philadelphia for three months now, and I'm getting tired of it. Here is a picture of where I live, on Broad & Tasker Streets. My apartment is inside one of the brick row homes. The place I have is pretty nice. It has a great view from my bedroom and it's cheap. But its the surrounding area outside of my apartment that is starting to irk me.
I like to walk a lot, but for some reason every time I take a walk around my place I feel like I am following a path. Everything starts to look the same, row home after row home. I have been trying to find the beauty in the simplicity but I can't seem to find it. I miss the open and decrepit neighborhood I lived in previously, the 500 block of Girard Avenue.

When I lived on Girard I had the opportunity to walk behind old wood shops and empty warehouses. I could go 4 blocks without passing anyone and it always seemed to be an adventure. But no longer do I have this convenience. Now I am forced to navigate around seemingly endless cubes of brick filled with italian-americans. The ones with plastic covers on furniture. Fortunately, there is a large population of Vietnamese residing a few blocks west of where I live, so I can get a little variety. There are plenty of corner stores I would like to call bodegas but I think they are called something different.
I don't plan on staying here after my lease is up in July, so I am going to try and make the most of it while I am here. Maybe I'll find this beauty I've yet to see.