New view from my room

As I've told some of you on my arrival the staff at The Stratum gave me a "wheelchair accessible" room on the 3rd floor a week ago. The bathroom was really accessible, quite large and the tub had grab bars BUT the room itself was rather tiny, with a "view" to a backyard, the next house beeing about 10 meters away AND there were 5 different air conditioning plants right underneath my window, so all day and night during there was this terrible noise. Sometimes I felt as if being in a plane ready for the take-off.

I promptly asked for another room, but was told they had no accessible room left. A few days ago I went to see the room of our "summer school director" - a nice room, with a small bathroom, but just wide enough for me to maneuver. As the new VP of Senior Summer School, Ron, left the Stratum yesterday I happily could move to his room. Not that I'm particularly fond of packing suitcases and moving around, but it was worthwhile: now I've a large room on the 7th floor with a view to the Philadelphia skyline. I've to do some gymnastics to go inside the tub, but I can manage. This morning I had the pleasure to see the sun rising over the skyline - that was really great!

As always the meaning of "wheelchair accessible" can vary a lot, even here in the States. There is also another little problem: the wheelchair elevator (a stair elevator) works, but not always well. When I try to get on it with the Swisstrac, more often than not it will not work, so I've to call someone to help me. Now I'm leaving the Swisstrac at the main entrance, wheel around to the other entrance, use the wheelchair elevator to go to the cafeteria, from where I can take the main elevator to my room. As far as I am on holidays now, it's not too big a problem, but I hope things will work more easily in Boston.