June 5th
Slept in a bit, went to the Fine Arts museum…$20 fucking bucks. I at least saved myself $2 by saying I was a student and they didn’t check. Walked around the musuem listening to Phoenix (thanks for the downloads cody). Sat outside and watch people running around the city in pairs. Later found out about The Great Urban Race which looks pretty cool…will have to check it out in Austin next year. Wondered down some shops and what not to acquire actual clothes for my trip. Made my way to Fenway for the baseball park tour…unfortunately the team was out of town this week. Definitely the coolest ballpark I’ve ever been to. The ladder on the green monster is the only obstacle in MLB that warrants a ground rule triple…interesting factoid.
Back to the hostel for dinner and a nap, then out again. Met a Boston local at the bah and he invited me out with his friends. So we drove downtown and met up with some other pricks from who cares where and had a night of slightly awckward conversation that eventually turned fun when we all got drunk. I didn’t like hanging out with them any more so I ditched them and walked home at 2 am (had to be like 3 miles or something). I didn’t care to pay for a cab and wanted to check the city out anyways. Felt pretty safe and came across some 20somethings who took most of their clothes off and were running in the sprinklers in the Commons. Would loved to have joined them but didn’t. Wondered home and talked to my sister on the phone for entertainment. All in all an OK night I suppose.
June 6th: slept in, left my stuff at the hostel and jogged through Boston again from Fenway to the Harbour. Spent about 3 hours at the contemporary art museum (they clarified that current art is not modern…modern art was in the 30s). Overall nice, but small collection and exhibition. Nothing mind blowing but great building and architecture.
Started to walk/jog back and got caught in a wind storm (appearantly there was a tornado watch in Boston that I didn’t hear about). This is where the lack of waterproof jacket comes into play. Made my way downtown and browsed some shops. A tunnel of crazy rain swept through for about 15-20 minutes so I waited it out in of all places a store that sells waterproof clothing….for some reason I didn’t buy anything. After the rain slowed down I wondered down the street into a pub and ate lunch/dinner watching the Red Sox game. Opted to wonder back to the commons since it was no longer raining. A massive tree had been blown over into the center pond so it was indeed a crazy storm. I was chilling in the park when another wave of the storm came crashing in. I got caught in it again and ran to the neartest subway (again waterproof jacket would have come in handy). Got on the wrong line of course so ended up a bit aways from the hostel so had to walk. Finally stopped at a walgreens to buy a little jacket-shaped piece of shit trash bag they called a rain poncho. Put it on and looked goofy as hell then finished walking back….it never rained another drop after I had that on.
Got my stuff together and headed up to Cambridge to meet up with my first Couch Surfer host. Spent the night in watching Celtics/Lakers game and then Breaking Bad (best episode yet I would say).
June 7th
Walked down through Hahvard, riverbank, got my hair cut, more clothes browsing, walked a retarded amount again, listening to MGMT today….can’t get into them much other than their main song which is still great. Took pictures of myself using my camera with the LCD screen on the front which I bought specifically for this trip. I hate taking pictures at tourist attractions but I guess that is part of it. I try not to look as stupid as everyone else. Bought some new flip flops (had worn through my cheap H&M ones from 1 month ago already) only to get blisters. Went to 7-11 to buy a bandage but ended up buying 2 taquitos and an orange (I don’t know) then just put my old flip flops back on.
Walked down to MIT…was running short on time so just saw the Frank Gehry building and then hit the MIT museum which actually had great little mechanical art. Walked back to my host’s (meridith) house to be greated with a gin and tonic. We played bocci ball at the park with some of her friends then went to dinner in Harvard Square….all food was half off for happy hour so a great deal. Walked back to her house (this is like 5 miles today in flip flops with a blister).
Back up a little bit, I had been trying to get ahold of Margaret (ex from like 8-10 years ago) as I new she was in a resicendy at Cambridge Health Alliance. Didn’t have her contact info and wasn’t on facebook, so I called the hospital and they paged her. She gave me her cell number and as I was putting it in my phone I realized that I had it all along. Coincidentally she lived 3 blocks from where I was staying. Went to hang out with her and had a beer and some appetizers. She is finishing up her second year of an internal medicine residency and was exhausted so went to bed early. It was good to see her.
