Stranger #24

Stranger #24-

What a gorgeous day! We've been so lucky with this spring-like weather in Philly! I had a crazy agenda today between going to class, needing to study for midterms, shoot pictures for a photography class, and of course, meet another stranger. I didnt think that I was going to meet this person while photographing in the park today, but Megans dog, Tank ran right up to me! He was honestly one of the prettiest dogs that I've ever seen! Megan was laughing as she ran behind him, so I thought it was perfect timing to say hi, introduce myself, and tell her about my project!

Meet Megan Synder. Megan is 23, and is a dance instructor, and still currently dances herself. She teaches all types of dance, from ballet to hiphop for toddlers to advanced classes. Megan is married, and today actually marked her 5 year anniversary with her husband! She happened to tell me that she wasnt having such a great day. Megan further explained, "I was coming home from Christina Luis Memorial park, and I saw a dog. The dog looked like it was charging, so I grabbed Tank. I know all the neighborhood dogs, but I didnt know this one. The dog didnt have a collar or a leash on, and I didnt even see its owner. A dump truck came charging and hit the dog. I was devastated; I started crying. I didnt know what to do!" As we were going back and forth about the incident, we agreed, regardless of how awfully sad the situation was, the dog should have definitely been on a leash. It sucks that the owner had to learn that way, and lost a dog, but you need to be more mindful of what could happen when you let a dog run loose. Even worse, Megan saw the whole thing. We spoke for a pretty good amount of time which led us into talking about her own dog, Tank!

Tank was awesome! He was so friendly, and guess what? He is a pit mix! I hate the rep that these dogs have because they're so incredibly sweet! Like any other dog, they just need proper training. Tank will be 8 months and he is over 75 pounds. He is a rescue dog and he was kept in a cage all day before Megan became his owner. Megan said "He is the best thing that has ever happened to me!" She also rescued a cat, who she named Taz. She found him under a  car one night and decided to take him in. I had a great conversation with Megan, she was such a sweetheart! Meeting people like Megan further exemplifies that I'm doing something right by doing this project. Meeting both, her and Tank actually made my day!

Keep following :)

Stranger #23

Stranger #23-

Meet Melanie Tanada. Melanie is a senior and is in the process of finishing up her last 2 months as an undergrad. Melanie has been taking guitar lessons and playing for fun, which helped contribute to her interest in learning how to play a ukulele as well!

"I've just been working on my graduating thesis. For my thesis, I'm doing a study on restrictive U.S immigration policies and how it effects immigrants who remit money back to their home country. After graduating, ill be working in Turkey. Last summer I participated in a summer program for Robert College which takes place in Istanbul. It's 8 1/2 weeks, and its a program to help teach English to children through a variety of performing arts! I also applied to a graduate program for international affairs but I'm heavily involved with campus life. I'm the president of student programming board here, and I would love to be programming a campus life! D.C is where the graduate program is, but at the same time, I would love to go back home to Vegas, I miss being on the West coast!"

Stranger #22

Stranger #22-

Meet Emily.

"My lucky number is 22, and my absolute favorite team is the Flyers. They've been in my family for awhile so I just picked up on it. Other than that, I dont like sports, and I hate football! (Insert my jaw dropping facial expression here) Although, soccer's not too bad! I actually make sure to watch the World Cup. I believe when I watched it, I only missed two games or something like that!" Last but not least, her favorite quote is an amazing quote by Dalai Lama, "My religion is my kindness."

Keep following my journey!

Stranger #21

Stranger #21-

Meet Brittany. A junior, bio major, who plans on going into forensics in the future.

"I was in band, and I played clarinet for 5 years, but I dont play anymore. I live on campus, and I'm kinda nerdy! I love classical music, and that's something people would never guess just by looking at me!"

Stranger #20

Stranger #20-

When I was younger, I basically knew everyone on my block. Those days were the shit! People actually knocked for eachother, and spent their time outside socializing instead of wasting time on facebook. Remember playing freedom, wallball, and basketball in the driveways? It feels like so much has changed, and it has. I actually just met my neighbor today. It's difficult because people just move in and out, and in then out, but there is absolutely no unity in neighborhoods anymore. This is why, amongst many other reasons, neighorhoods are going south. Noone talks to anyone else. Every man fend for yourself type of deal. It shouldnt be that way. I'm not saying that each and every neighborhood is like this, but too many are this way already. One day you may need this person, or they may need you, for anything, and you dont even know eachothers name. I'm guilty of it too, but I find it really sad, so I did something about it.

Meet Tomina Moylan, my neighbor. Tomina has a husband and an 8 year old boy, named Logan. Tomina met her husband when she was in 9th grade, and he was in 8th. They have been together for 16 years, and hes the only guy that she has ever kissed, and been with sexually. Tonya says "I found my good guy, and I'm never letting go!" Tomina is very family orientated and her family is her world. She spends most of her time with her nephews and son. Tomina continued "My son is my world. I've been blessed with the best kid on earth. Everyone loves him because hes extremely loving and respectful. I'm determined to raise a gentleman!"

Life hasnt always been the easiest for Tomina. Tomina disclosed "I have epilepsy. It was really bad when I was a child. Its tamed down a lot since then but 5 months ago, I was standing at the top of my basement steps, and had a seizure out of no where. I fell down the steps and smacked into the cement wall. My son found me and ran to contact 911. I was knocked out for about 5-10 minutes, and woke up gushing blood. I lost all of my teeth due to what happened, but the worst part was my son finding me like that." Tomina plans to get her teeth fixed in the next few months. Its going to cost her $7000.00 because her husbands insurance, who works for the postal service, will only cover 25% of it. Tomina added "I want to look for work again, but I want my teeth to be fixed. People judge me for having no teeth. Ive been called white trash, and a meth addict. It's not right!"

Stranger #19

Stranger #19-

You may be wondering why I have a picture of a dog as my stranger. Although it probably wouldnt surprise you, I actually did get the chance to speak with his handler standing to the left of him! Matt, a k9 police officer who has been a cop for 15 years isnt allowed to have his picture taken when he is on duty. Matt felt pretty bad that he wasnt able to allow me to take his picture but I would never want to jeopardize his career, so, I took a picture of his partner in crime, Fritz instead!

Meet Matt Mocharnuk. Again, Matt is a k9 handler, and cop for Philadelphia. Him and his k9 partner, Fritz are together, literally 24 hours a day. They live together, and their bond is so tight that even Matts Fiance, just recently was able to pet him. He's extremely protective of Matt. As I was walking up to them, I knew to ask how close I was able to get to them. Matt said that I wasnt able to get too close because Fritz would kill me (he didnt use these words, but I could tell you that it couldve been the outcome. The dog looked hungry!) Matt and I stood about 6 feet apart during the entire conversation, but meeting Matt was perfect timing. My graduating thesis that I'm writing is 30 pages (with more to go) about K9s, training, breeds, their effectiveness, and how they are portrayed in the media. Ive been researching this topic for months, and it was beyond amazing for me to be able to run in and talk with someone who has hands on experience instead of reading countless amounts of newspaper articles. Not to mention, I obviously love talking to people, and German Sheps are my favorite dogs ever!

Fritz is 3 years old and hes been working for the PPD and with Matt for two years. He's a bomb sniffing dog, and was put through 6 months of training (14 weeks of patrol and 10 weeks of explosive sniffing training) as well as twice a month upkeep training sessions. Fritz's price tag was $7000.00, and was flown in from Czechoslovakia. You'll never guess who donated the money so that this dog can be purchased to help fight crime for the PPD. If you give up, the person plays in the NFL. If you truly give up, his name is Ben Roethlisberger. Matt also told me that Ben, aside from being a quarterback actually has a charity dedicated to police dogs. I never knew that he had this charity, and regardless of what people say and what he has/hasnt done, I love the idea of it. Being a hardcore Eagles fan, ya know, I wont get into football, but if you read how hard it is to establish a k9 unit, and how effective these dogs are, you may possibly agree that this is a great thing!

Matt also chose to tell me that Fritz is a dog that is used to search any hotel rooms, or premises that anyone head of state, president, vice president, etc. steps foot in. Matt says that there are about 32 dogs working for the city. Of those dogs, 15 are explosive sniffing dogs, 15 narcotic dogs, and 2 cadavar dogs. Fritz is obviously extremely effective, and a great addition to the PPD.

See all that you can learn just by talking to someone around you?

Stranger #18

Stranger #18-

Did you say hi to anyone who walked past you today? I did. Not only did I say hello, but I introduced myself and conversed with one of those people too!

Meet Alexa. This is what Alexa chose to tell me-

"I'm 19, and I am a sophmore from New Jersey. I know, not one of the best states to say that I'm from. I am a health administration major and I have no fucking clue what I want to do when I graduate, no fucking clue at all. All I know is that I will be working in a hospital. My first kiss was in back of a storage room, right next to a broken elevator. I'm in love with one direction!"

My response? One direction, meaning....? Alexa says back "oh, (she laughs) a British band, they're awesome!"