I’m always curious about what it’s like at other colleges. I think it’s also important to stay open minded and go out of your usual zone. This would seem easy in a place like Philadelphia where there are so many colleges and universities, but I think you need a friend, or a friend of a friend, there to invite you to all the events/parties. Bryn Mawr does have an academic connection to UPenn, but I have yet to take a Penn class, so I don’t really have friends there.

Luckily, I have a cousin who goes to Temple University (a public large research university), which is just one stop past Jefferson on the R5 SEPTA Paoli/Thorndale. I was already in Philadelphia this Saturday for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so I decided to go watch my cousin’s D1 tennis match against Rider University.

What’s it like to play on a D1 sports team? Practice everyday and games (home & away, some as far as Oklahoma) almost twice a week! That Saturday, Temple had a double header: a 10am game against La Salle and a 2pm game against Rider. I watched my cousin play both doubles and singles within 3 hours. While my cousin was playing, I also got to meet his coach and his teammates.

Strangely, the Temple men’s tennis team is composed of almost all international students, except 3 Americans (including my cousin). I found it funny that when some of the players won/lost a point, they would mutter to themselves in a foreign language. Whenever they cheered for each other, they cheered with accented English. The coach jokingly said that that’s why their collective team GPA is so high! (Apparently, one year the team was all international students, and they had a collective record high GPA of 3.67!)

I used to play tennis in high school, but I didn’t want to play in college because I wanted to return to dancing. I still miss it from time to time, and I still play tennis/badminton for fun with my friends. I’m waiting for the day my Temple cousin comes to visit Bryn Mawr so we can play tennis together and I can show him my magical school.

Did you know that the Temple mascot is also the owl?

Also, Temple beat both La Salle & Rider 7-0.