One Must Spend Money To Make Money

That's what my mom tells me, and I'm hoping it's true. I've been spending a ton of money recently on conferences, that could help improve my chances at getting an internship in a hospital, as well as a job in the future. I not only learn new things about Child Life at the conferences, but I also get the chance to network with others who are in the same position as I am, or those who already have a job in the medical field.

The last conference I went to was in Philly; two of my friends decided it would be fun to go together, get a hotel, and make a weekend out of it. Well I have to admit, it was definitely fun [as well as educational ...  obviously]. We explored the hotel the first night, had a conference to attend to the next day, went out that night, and explored a little of Philly the following day.

It all started with a train ride... an extremely long train ride. Did you know they have quiet cars on the train? The cars that you cannot talk in at all - no cell phone calls, no talking to your neighbor, no saying bless you? The people in that car do not look friendly either... and if you do happen to cough, you get the death stare. It's not a good time, especially when you're three girls who have a case of the giggles, and especially not when your dad calls asking if you're okay, and if you made it there yet.

We then made it to our hotel, after plenty of train rides, and a cab ride later, and let me just tell you it was beautiful... of course we explored it after we had dinner in the beds!

Did I mention the room came with an Ipad? Oh, it did.. and we even ordered our food on it, and had it delivered. I mean we aren't lazy or anything, it's just that you saved money if you ordered it from there! 

After exploring the hotel, and scoring these babies...

We called it a night, because we had to be up early to head over to CHOP [Children's Hospital of Philadelphia] for a conference.

The conference lasted all day, but we scored some freebies, and learned a good amount about the Children's Hospital, as well as Child Life in general. We also had the chance to network with other Child Life Specialists, which was definitely helpful!

We headed to our other hotel across town, which wasn't AS nice, but definitely less expensive, which is okay in my boat. The view was absolutely incredible. I had never seen Philadelphia from that view and I was super excited to snap pictures. It was even more beautiful at night!

Can you imagine waking up to that every day? And going to sleep to that every night? I sure could... well maybe not every day, because I'm pretty sure in another life I was a country girl, but it'd be nice once in a while. We decided to explore the town a bit and grab something to eat. We ended up going to this tavern under ground and it was pretty good, I mean not as good as the cheesesteak, but good. It ended up turning into a club after about 10 or 11 o'clock. We didn't mind, but when we met up with my friend's friends who went to school there, we ended up leaving and going to a bar on the water. GORGEOUS, let me just tell you.

After a long night, and a not so long night of sleep, my friend's parents picked us up to take us home, but not before we stopped at the LOVE statue, which we thought was much bigger.. haha.

It was a fantastic trip and definitely one that I would take again, especially with these two girls! I guess my mom was right, you have to spend money to make money, or to at least have a good time!