More Somerville + Acadia National Park

Good Morning,

Well, Somerville has been difficult these past few days without my brother around. There's just something about traveling by oneself that gets lonely after a while. I went through about seven movies and 2 packs of cigarettes this week. I've thrown the last cigarettes away and this morning we're leaving for Maine. We had a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs with broccoli and vanilla yogurt with granola, topped off with a spot of coffee from the french press. I'm pretty excited about camping at Acadia National Park while my brother goes to a wedding in Bar Harbor. I hope to bring back lots of pictures and possibly stories to add to this blog. Wahoo!

Anywho, I hope you all have a great weekend and I'll be back Monday evening!

Somerville!

I'm terribly sorry about the gap, friends. Unfortunately, I cannot change the past so I'm just going to get on with things.

Today I'm in Somerville, Massachusetts. It's a lovely 60ish degrees and sunny out and I'm sitting in my brother's room writing. There's something about this town that I love and I can't put my finger on it. Perhaps it's coming out of the subway station and not seeing concrete and a thin layer of soot on everything. Maybe it's the gorgeous summer weather. Maybe it's the large number of bikers and pedestrians. Maybe it's in the air or not having to use a car even to get groceries. Whatever it is, I'm really enjoying it here and I've only been here since Friday night. Saturday night was a party on my brother's fiance's (we'll call her "Ellie") place and last night was dinner at Ellie's after we took Zach to the airport. He goes to Houston, TX every month for work stuff. Sad, but true.

Today, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I've given some thought to going to the Harpoon Brewery at 4pm for a tasting. I may just find a park somewhere, perhaps even the Common, and just relax for a while. The possibilities are truly endless.

In other news, you can check out my trip in pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/putnam.eric

New York - Day 5

HI KIDS!

It's me! Wahhhh.

Ok, so day 5 was much cooler than day 4 and I'm going to tell you why.

I made my way downtown around the same time as I do anything everyday. I stopped by Bits, Bites, and Baguettes for a three egg omelet made by a guy who called me "boss". Then it was off to Ground Zero. I always used to think Ground Zero was so over sensationalized and all that, until yesterday when I was actually there. Even though it's only a construction site now, it was still crazy and I got kind of emotional. It was weird as I got closer to it and I started to recognize some of the buildings from the news footage on that fateful day. Anyways, now they're building a replacement tower which is huge. From there I wound around to Battery park and walked down the Jersey side to Pier A. From there, I made my way to Wall Street to see the NYSE and the place where Rage Against the Machine played. Baller. Next, I hopped on the 2/3 train and rode to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn for the most anticipated sight of the trip: 560 State Street, Jay-Z's old stash spot. I saw it and it was great. It's like an apartment building. Anyways. I planned to walk back to the Brooklyn bridge and then pick up the train back to Harlem but I was too tired. I did wander down Atlantic Avenue a bit and I found The Flying Saucer. This awesome little coffee bar with a garden out back. I cooled my heels there with a cup of joe, then made my way back to the train station. Along the way I noticed that I had to be in the Islamic part of Brooklyn. Nothing but restaurants that had lamb and shish, and stores that sold prayer rugs and head dresses. Crazy. Then I made my way back to Harlem on the train and the rest is history.

New York - Day 4

Howdy!

Yesterday (Sunday) was another fairly uneventful day. Rose around 10am and then we watched some TV for a while. After that, Becca had a meeting at 2pm, so we decided we'd walk her to her meeting and then run back here. Our plans for exercise were squandered when we decided to walk for about 6 miles and we were starting to get a little sore. We hit up Jamba Juice when we finally arrived at our destination and then Jess and I took the 6 back to 125th street.

The rest of the day is history, really. We sat around, watched TV, read, etc. Sushi for dinner (tasty), then an early bedtime because today is a school day.

Speaking of today, I'm getting ready to head to the subway for some adventures downtown and beyond! A longer entry tomorrow for sure!

- Eric

New York - Day 3

Wow. Day 3??

It was relatively uneventful. I'm still on the fence as to whether this was a good thing or not. Since Friday night was such a late night, we woke up pretty late yesterday morning. Actually, around this time (10:00am) and then hung out around the apartment until noon. Then, we traveled over to the Columbia University area and went to this place called Havana Central with some of Becca's friends. It was tasty. As usual, I went for the sandwich with avocado in it. Very tasty. After lunch, we wanted to get some exercise to get the digestion moving, so we walked over to this Episcopal Cathedral. Boy, I wish I had pictures. Maybe I'll go get some pictures today, but it was gorgeous! And to add to the awesomeness, we were walking out of one of the many side chapels inside, and out of nowhere this group of Tibetan monks just comes walking by. When does that happen? Apparently, they are in New York to do some art at the cathedral. Like a "sand painting" or something crazy. Anyways.

After the Cathedral, we came back to home base and I saw Becca off for her date at 4. Then I just hung out for a while by myself and fell into a deep (2 hour) sleep here on the couch. Following my slumber, I had dinner at "Cafe Latte" and then took a walk down towards Central Park. I was hoping to make it down there before dark, but I wasn't that lucky. I had to turn around down by the projects and head back. After I got back, Jess and Becca and I watched a bunch of their DVR shows and then went to bed.

Now that the play-by-play is done, it's been an interesting experience being here in Harlem. I've never felt like such a minority. I'm literally the only white person around when Becca and Jess are at work. I know you might think I'm exaggerating but I'm not, and to be honest I feel pretty intimidated. Even though I try not to act like it, I'm a little scared for my safety, just because of how I've been conditioned to view places like Black Harlem. Granted, I may have some reason to be afraid at night in the projects, but so does everyone. I'm talking about just walking around during the day time, it's just so bizarre being alone like this. Whew. But I'm getting better. I haven't had any experiences with outright harassment or anything so that helps obviously. These are all people just like you and me. We're all just people.

- Eric

New York - Day 2

Buenos Dias!

Ah, today's started off as a beautiful, partly cloudy day. But enough about today. Let's review yesterday's festivities:

I rose around 7:15am, because that's when my hostesses left for work. I decided to wash the dishes from Thursday night because I feel like I should probably pull my weight around here. Then, just as I was getting ready to head out for a day on the town, the heavens opened up and I think I literally saw a few cats and dogs falling from the sky (it started raining really hard). Needless to say, my trip downtown was postponed and I worked on my grad school apps instead. After making good progress on those, the weather finally shaped up and I headed to the subway. A luxury we in the DC metro area enjoy is that you can never enter a subway station going the wrong direction. You can always move about the station and switch trains as you please. However, in other cities I've learned this is not the case. I bought my week pass yesterday and proceeded to enter the 125th Street station going uptown instead of downtown. I had to leave that platform and could not use my MetroCard for another 18 minutes. Smart for them, not so smart on my part. So I walked down the street and found this little place called The Apollo (ever heard of it?) and many other gems (White Castle, C-Town grocery). When my 18 minutes were up I headed downtown and got off at Times Square - 42nd Street.

Oh my goodness.

Rarely are we ever mesmerized on this level, I feel, but when I got out of that subway station, all I could do was stare up. There were huge screens everywhere flashing all kinds of adds, there were people everywhere, horns, sirens, Red Lobster even had a robot lobster hanging off the front of the building (yes, there's a Red Lobster in times square). I walked around for about 2 hours and realized at the end of it all that I had actually only visited one place (Toys R Us). I was paying attention, but I wasn't at the same time. There was just so much to take in! I did get some neat pictures and see the Naked Cowboy. It's this dude in briefs, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat singing and playing guitar. Quite a (hilarious) sight. Another noteworthy aspect of times square: in the Toys R Us, there's a candy section. Within this candy section, there's a kiosk of sorts, full of M&Ms and you can mix and match your own bag of ANY colors you want. Black, white, tan, maroon, red, green, blue, dark blue, light blue, purple...it's insane! Bwahh!

After Times Square I came back to home base and took a nap. Around 7, we headed to Brooklyn to see April Smith and her band. They were fannnnstastic! I recommend checking them out. Oh look, a link! http://www.myspace.com/aprilsmithmusic . Also, I had a Brooklyn Brewery Blast! DIPA while at this club. It was pretty tasty! If you're in the area, it's definitely worth a try.

Anyways, the evening pretty much ended after that. Wahoo.

New York - Day 1

Good Morning from the Big Apple!

It's about 7:34am on Lennox Avenue and there is a firetruck outside the window doing something involving its sirens. Anyways...

Last evening I arrived safely, albeit an hour and a half late, and successfully navigated the New York subway system to end up here at Becca and Jess's apartment. The late arrival was due to the real meaning of traffic that is found just before the Lincoln Tunnel. Seriously, it probably took us that last hour and a half to go about 4 or 5 miles. So our scheduled arrival was 5:50pm and we probably didn't get in until about 7:20. From there, I walked to the subway, took the 3 train to 125th street and walked the rest of the way. When I got here, there were already folks gathered, eating chips and peanuts and hanging out. We had a grand time, complete with sausage, pepper, and onion sandwiches courtesy of Chef Jessica. I got to meet lots of new people that are part of this weekly tradition, aptly named "Thursday Night Dinner". After everyone had left, we took in an episode of Community and an episode of 30 Rock and then it was time for bed.

I slept well overall. Considering the circumstances at least. I'm not complaining, but when you're on a couch in someone's living room in New York, it's not terribly easy to fall asleep. But I did it and I feel ready to start the day!

In other news, I've started reading a book called "Cure for the Common Life" by Max Lucado. My dad gave it to me for graduation (yeah, it happened) and I cracked it open on the bus. It's pretty interesting. I'll post more about it when I've solidified thoughts. Maybe you should read it...

Happy Friday! (And Happy Birthday to Lindsay P Laval!)

New England - Departure

Good Morning!

It's about 11:13am in Arlington, Virginia and all is well. I'm near finished packing and my [mega]bus leaves at 1:30pm. My next door neighbor, Walter White, has kindly agreed to give me a lift downtown to the bus stop. From there, I'll be headed right into the heart of NYC (aka The Big Apple) for some visiting time with Becca and Jess. I'm very much looking forward to it. Also, it'll be nice to get away from the homestead and see the world. I don't know how you other graduates are feeling, but it's about time this bird left the nest. From NY, I'll be headed up to Connecticut, then Boston, then Acadia National Park, then Boston, then maybe even back through NYC. I mean, the possibilities are endless. I plan on updating this blog daily, hopefully with pictures. Never fear, uploading them from Boston was a problem because I forgot the camera cable, but this time my computer has an SD card reader, so no excuses!

Well, I'd better finish packing and then clean up a bit so the place doesn't look like a complete disaster area when i leave. Take care now!

- Eric