Boston: Day 6

Sorry I didn't get around to this sooner. I had to get up pretty early to catch the train home this morning and just didn't have any time to write. Anyways, on with business:

Saturday was the lastest morning of the entire trip, I didn't wake up until 8:30am! I was on my own for about an hour or so and then my brother and his girlfriend rose and we went to Sound Bites for breakfast. It was this local joint in Somerville and it was tasty! After breakfast we walked around for a bit and then returned to home base. From there, we decided to go downtown for a little afternoon shopping. We stopped in Banana Republic, T-Mobile, and Best Buy because my brother is looking for a new phone and Ellie found a seriously discounted skirt. After shopping we headed to North End and went to Ernesto's Pizza. It was great pizza, however Ernesto failed to mention that when you order one slice of pizza, you're actually getting two. Ellie and I both ordered two slices and each received four, so we had about twice as much pizza as we'd planned on but boy was it delicious! Mille gratzie Ernesto! We ate our pizza in a park which had replaced a section of interstate 90. It was a fantastic park and there were these slates of granite that had water shooting up out of them and flowing down them. They ended up being these really shallow fountain/pool things that were super popular with the kids, who were extremely entertaining. After about an hour of fabulous chillin' in the park we headed to Mike's Pastry for some cannoli's! So tasty. It was at about this point, however that my brother and I agreed to stop stuffing ourselves with crap for the rest of the day. We left Ellie at the T stop after Mike's and headed down to the waterfront at Long Wharf. We walked all along the harbor around some buildings and ended up in front of South Station. We decided to get on the T and head back to Central square. The plan was to grab a movie at Blockbuster, pick up Ellie's car, and head back to his place. We spent about 20 minutes at Blockbuster until we finally decided on a movie. My brother, who apparently hadn't rented a movie since ever, had completely forgotten that we needed a card to rent the movie. Instead of bothering with all that, we just left Blockbuster and 20 minutes of life behind, and walked to Ellie's place. We ended up borrowing The Dark Knight from her and watching it at my brother's place with our good friend Sam Adams. After that, I had to start packing my stuff and cleaning things up.

This morning I rose at 6:50am on the nose and made finally preparations for leaving (shower, breakfast, packing up). I said my goodbyes to the house and my brother walked with me to the T. I hopped on the T and made my way safely to South Station and arrived in plenty of time to make my 8:40am train back here to Alexandria.

And so my Boston adventures have drawn to a close. I had such a lovely time and I hope through this blog that you did too. I definitely hope to be back there soon, living it up Beantown style. Until then, it's back to Muncie for my victory lap at Ball State...

Cheers,

Eric

Boston: Day 5

Hello!

It's Saturday morning and this is the latest I've slept in all week! It's swell to sleep in and it's another lovely day outside, but I'm not here to talk about today...
Yesterday began with the usual shower, breakfast, and so on. I arrived at Massachusetts General Hospital about a half an hour early, so I took a seat in the lobby and called my parents on the telephono. Finally, my time came and I headed to the Food and Nutrition Services office in the basement (it's always in the basement). I met Kathleen Creedon there and we did the interview in her office. This one, by the way, was much more like an interview than the one at Beth Israel. I was actually a bit intimidated by the no-nonsense attitude I got and I also got to feeling that maybe this one is a little out of my reach. After the interview I went on a mini-tour of the hospital with one of the current interns (the lovely Jenny Westerkamp from Chicago, IL) and that was the end of things. Overall it seemed like an awesome program! I'm just not sure if I'm going to be able to get into it... Let's be honest, I'm not exactly the strongest student and I don't have a terribly impressive resume. That being said, I plan on kicking it into high gear this fall and doing whatever the heck I need to bolster my appearance on paper. Also, a common trend seems to show that the essay part of the the application to any internship seems to be the most important part, so I'll start on that sooner rather than later. After all the interviewing and stuff, I'm not sure where I'll be this time next year, but a strong fall semester is definitely in order no matter what.
So after MGH, I "finagled a bagel" at "Finagle a Bagel" to kill some time before I met my brother for lunch. There, I stewed over the internship and read some Harry Potter. Feeling slightly refreshed, I went to meet my brother and we grabbed some sandwiches to go and took them to the river. We ate lunch there and then took a stroll around Beacon Hill. That's right. The real Beacon Hill. After that we were both kinda tired so we came back here and did a 700 piece puzzle and then a sad lot of nothing until about 9:30 when we went to J.P. Licks for some ice cream.
'Twas a good Friday. Today is my last day in Beantown. It's sad, for sure. I've almost forgotten what normal life is like but I'll surely remember tomorrow! I'm planning on being back in Muncie by mid-week next week, so watch out!

-Eric

Boston: Day 4

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone's had a good week (as it's drawing to a close). It's been delightful here and today is no exception: 70s and sunny.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I worked on history homework when I woke up and then I went for a little jog around the area. I nearly got lost in a not so good neighborhood but I was able to retrace my steps back to safety. After the run was more homework and then I geared up and set off towards Boston Common, the beginning of the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile hike across Boston and up to Charlestown highlighting lots of historical sites and monuments. Here's a link to the website: http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/
To give you a whole play-by-play would be tedious and unreasonable, so I'll tell you about a few highlights. The fourth site I came to (after Park Street Church), was the Granary Burial ground. Buried there are many famous peeps including John Adams, Ben Franklin, and Mother Goose. I got a picture of Mother Goose's gravestone which was adorned with about $20 in pennies and a dried rose. Ben Franklin's grave is in the middle of the ground and it looks a bit like a miniature washington monument. I'm not one for graveyards, usually, but this one was alright. Faneuil Hall was a little farther down the trail. It was the meeting place of the original Boston government and was pretty cool inside. On the third floor was the headquarters of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachussetts. It's now also a museum and it turns out they are the 3rd oldest chartered military organization in the world (ow ow!). Anywho, more walking showed me a lovely downtown Boston. Lots of cool, really tall buildings all around. Then I came to a bit of a clearing where there was a pretty big park with lots of fountains, a wading pool, and some dogs. I sat down on a bench, took a load off, watched the dogs, and ate my lunch. After lunch it was off to the Italian district. I walked by Boston's Best Italian Grocery and a home-made pasta shop. The grocery was owned by a guy named Mario and was stocked with mostly pasta and olive oil. Also in the Italian district was Paul Revere's house. I didn't go in but I did get a picture of the outside. Farther still down the trail I found myself crossing the Charles River on a grate (not a typo) bridge. There was literally about an inch of metal between me and a 30 foot drop to the river. Anyways, the last highlight of the trip was up a pretty arduous hill: The Bunker Hill monument. It sat on this hill on the other side of the river and the hill was beans compared to what I was about to embark on. The monument itself was an obelisk which boasted 294 granite, spiral steps straight up. What a work-out! I made it to the top and the view was certainly worth it!
And so that was my journey in a nutshell. I ended up picking up the T on the way back because I was pooped. More Gears of War and some tidying up around the house ensued, followed by leftovers for dinner and hanging out with Zach and Ellie at Harvard Square. Today I'm off to Massachussetts General Hospital for my second internship visit and after that anything could happen. I hope everyone has a splendid Friday!

Boston: Day 3

"Where ever you go, there you are."
That's one of my favorite quotes ever and it was the theme of yesterday, day three of my stay in Boston. The day started out like any other day here. I woke up around the time my brother left for work, ate breakfast, took a shower, then I had to iron my clothes and get everything ready to go for my interview at Beth Israel. I headed over there around 8:45am and arrived with about 5 minutes to spare (9:55am), which makes it a bit of a commute. Anyways, the interview went really well, I was impressed with the program and the coordinator was really cool. She even walked me back to the T station after we were done. The BIDMC internship has a clinical focus, which is good, and only four weeks in food management, which is also good. It's a nine month program and the hospital is really nice. Oh and among the perks are $5 red sox tickets. Anyways, I finish with the interview and then head to Kendall again for lunch with my brother. At this point, I'm extremely tired for some reason. After lunch, I decided to just come back here and chill, with the intent of eventually getting back out to do something. Well I get home and I play some Gears of War 2, then I watch Scrubs. Made, and Parental Control, followed by some GTA4. Yes, an afternoon sitting on my butt in front of the TV. Suddenly, being here felt like being in Muncie or at home and I didn't like it. I told myself before I left that I wasn't going to waste my time, that I was going to take in as much of Boston as I could, but I feel like lazy-me took over yesterday. So I felt a bit crappy about how I was just on the sofa all day and how the feeling of euphoria that I felt when I first got here was expiring. So the quote at the beginning means that even though I've come all this way and even though life was amazing for a few days, I'm still me and life is still going on. I was able to redeem myself a little by fixing dinner for everyone. I made enchilladas, corn salad, and rice with the help of Zach and Ellie and Nikki (sp?). After dinner we had some peach pie that Ellie had made which was phenomenal. Then we just bummed around for a while, watched Boondock Saints and went to bed.
I suppose, all in all and despite the hebetude, I shouldn't be too upset about yesterday. I did get some things done and even though I would have spent my relaxation time differently if I had a second chance, I still got relaxation time which I think I need to admit that I needed. You should take some time off too. It's nice. And speaking of time off, mine shall once again be suspended to work on more history hw! Have a lovely Thursday, everyone, and I'll hopefully check in tomorrow morning with tails of the Freedom Trail!

Boston: Day 2

Good Morning!

Once again, I blog to you from Beantown, USA. This is a great city, truly. It's not too big but it's still got lots of things going on and lots of people everywhere, which is good.

We'll start with my waking yesterday morning. I woke up and took a little jog. I accidentally found Tufts University and ran around their track for a while. Then, I took a little walk around the campus, which was fairly big. So big, in fact, that I couldn't seem to find the nutrition building. I gave up and jogged back here, showered, and I was off to the Diesel Cafe. A fine Somerville establishment only a block away from the Davis Square T stop. I had a coffee and worked on my history homework for a while, then I hopped on the T and headed to Copley. I really wish I could share some pictures with you guys because I took some neat ones yesterday. At Copley is the Boston Public Library, the first library in the country(or maybe the world?) to allow patrons to borrow books. It apparently houses over 60 miles of book shelves. On the top floor there's a hall with a huge mural all over the ceiling and walls. I'm not sure what it was called but it depicted this whole progression from the times of Jewish oppression in Egypt to the death of Christ. It was very interesting and very lovely. I took plenty of pictures of that which will be up next week on Facebook, of course. After leaving the library I took a stroll through the local farmers market and ran into two hippies from Nevada! They were travelling with their dog from way out west and they weren't sure where they were going to end up. I found them sitting by a light post, one was sitting down holding the sign with the dog and the other was standing, singing, and playing banjo. Obviously I donated to their cause because it sounded like fun and they let me take their picture for my blog. After that I made my way to Kendall to meet my brother for some delicious lunch. We ended up taking a walk around MIT and saw this really bizarre building called the Strata Center. Parts of it looked like somebody had sent it through a Cuisinart, others looked like it had been blown out of a straw, and others were just unnecessary (but still nifty!). My brother and I parted ways and I went out to Stony Brook to take the Sam Adams Brewery tour! I'd never been on a brewery tour but they're interesting. The first 45 minutes, which was actually quite interesting, was the tour part and the second 45 minutes was the free beer part. We got free 7oz tasting glasses and they filled them three times. First was Boston Lager which was tastier than I remember, then Summer Ale - a favorite, then Cherry Wheat - cherry coke diluted with hops basically. After the tour and some extra beer tasting, I made my way back to the T to meet my brother after he got off work. We walked from Kendall to the Central T stop, hit up a small record store and then hit up a bar near there. I think it was called Plough and Stars or something. One of the bartenders was Irish and the other was pure Boston, so lots of entertaining accents. Behind the bar they had 2 light switches for the place. One was labeled "Sconces" which was obviously for the wall sconces around the room, and the second one read "Plough", which was for the metal plough hanging from the wall above that was covered in lights. It was pretty funny. So anyways, we had a few drinks and then came back home via Harvard Square.
All in all it was a much more exciting day. There's something about roaming the city on your own all day that's really awesome. Anyways, today is a little more structured. I'm headed to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for my first internship tour this morning in about an hour and a half. I'm hoping it goes well. I'm definitely looking forward to it. As always, I'll let you know tomorrow.

Take care friends,
Eric

Boston: Day 1

Hey all!
I suppose it's technically day two of my Boston journey, but it didn't quite work out to blog last night so I thought maybe I'd try the "morning after" thing.

So yes, I made it safe and sound thanks to Amtrak. My train was 20 minutes late leaving Alexandria yesterday morning (8:10am) but somehow we arrived in Boston's South Station 20 minutes early(4:30pm)! Go figure... I had an entire four seat section to myself until Union Station in Washington, D.C. At that point I was joined by a girl who turned out to be a student at MIT and was returning to Boston after visiting her boyfriend in our nation's capital. She wasn't terribly social but we were able to chat a little bit. After that, I spent most of the next 8 hours reading Harry Potter 4, doing my history homework, and staring out the window. I half-expected some of the scenery to be breath-taking. Nothing was too outrageous, unfortunately; yet, I still found myself quite entertained by the buildings, lake beaches, marshes, and trees zooming by.
South Station was the last stop for the Northeast Regional train which made it easy to remember which stop to get off at. When I arrived I phoned my parents and then waited for my brother. When he got there he gave me his "T" card (the boston metro) and we took the red line back to Somerville where he rents a pretty sweet second floor apartment in this pretty sweet house. I wish I could show pictures, but alas, i forgot the USB cable for the camera so the pictures will have to wait until next monday. Anyhow, we hit the streets immediately making our way through a little area of restaurants and shops. We stopped at the Wine and Spirits shop and the When Pigs Fly Bakery to procure a Pino Noir and a loaf of garlic, basil and lemon bread for dinner, which turned out to be quite tasty. Ellie, my brother's girlfriend, came over a little later for some tasty rotini with sauce, spicy sausages, steamed broccoli, and some tasty bread! After that, we had pound cake, vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and whipped cream for dessert and watched Gladiator (which i had never seen before) on my brother's roommate's gigantic JVC television. We're talking at least 50 inches. And then it was midnight and we were all exhausted. Ellie took her leave and my brother and I retired to his room for some sleep.
So now it's Monday. On today's agenda is a quick jog down the bike path, a coffee and some studying at the diesel cafe, lunch with broseph, and possibly the freedom trail or the fine arts museum. The possibilities are endless!
I hope this entry didn't turn out to be too painfully long. Maybe I'll try and shorten the next one...Anyways, take care all and I look forward to telling you about my Monday!