of all my different destinations and places to stay my boston arrival for sure was the least stressful. our comrade bryan picked my up at the station, showed me my room (i would have taken the sofa, too, of course, but who says no to an own room, right….), the crazy cats tried to bite and scratch me a few times and then we had beer. genevieve came over (bringing the beer) and we hung out for a while laughing about her overweight cat and other random things – the bostonians have a mean sense of humor. they’re nasty. evil. they’re great!
first of all, bostonians hate everyone else. sometimes they even hate each other. most of all they hate the harvard and mit (massachusetts institute of technology) kids. but they also hate rain, or snow, some of them hate the states or at least all the other states. they start sentences with “the only city i don’t hate besides boston…”
they like to drink (and smoke enlightening substances), they understand and actively use means of irony and sarcasm and despite all their hatefulness – or maybe that’s the reason why – spending time with them is extremely fun and i felt at home right away. it’s weird, isn’t it, that sometimes you just hit it off with people and places right away, no time for adjustment needed or anything. bostonians are awesome. boston is a nice place, too, especially in fall. it is comparable to bremen in its size, so you can walk to many places.
downtown is just downtown, i guess, like everywhere, shopping and whatever else.
there is a lot of stuff on the american revolution that you can see and find out about – i didn’t do any of that – and there’re parks and the charles river and the ocean is nearby. it’s got a subway, too, and people seem to be reading a lot around there.
they also have a science museum with a harry potter exhibition:
i think it might be a nice place to live in – not too huge, but still not that far away from new york (for excitement) while rather easygoing in itself. and the bostonians are great, have i ever mentioned that?
track george!
cause really, books, music, coffee is all we need or want, right?
the reason why i went to boston in the first place was that i wanted to see if it had the vibe for me – it does. i’m kind of thinking of applying for a fulbright year at the mit (because i really want to be hated by all the 50 of our comrades and everyone else there , and because they have that fantastic linguistics program where you can study under ancient Chomsky, and the buildings are all nice and pretty, too). so i found out what i needed – yes, boston is a place i could see myself living in, yes, the comrades are cool and fun and the political landscape and scene is interesting and good, yes, the weather is slightly better than in bremen and the fall is very nice
and they have that subway, i love subways.lunch
so, on thursday i walked around all day, i went to the mit
and to harvard
(which both are technically located in Cambridge
which is just across the river and very proud of its independence – i cannot really see why:
if i were cambridge i’d try to be boston, really…)
that here is boston university. or maybe boston college, who knows. they both exist and are universities, but the name was already taken, so what will you do....
boston has like a thousand schools: at least five universities and a ridiculous number of colleges.
in the evening i went to a public meeting of the socialist alternative. i met some of the other comrades, we went out for beers and had a fun time.
on friday i finally went shoeshopping – remember, i hate shoesshopping. i bought sneakers on sale for fourty bucks instead of some decent winter shoes. not exactly what i was going for, but at least i completed my mission – i walked through two pairs of shoes here. both were almost done with the world even before i came here, but still.
later that day i met with tim, whom i had met the night before, and we walked around, then went to some irish bar, had food and beer, went on to the next bar with nick (yet another comrade) and so on and so on –
tim gave me a ride home that night and when we arrived at the sa office/bryan’s place/the place i had all my stuff in i found out i was locked out.
now, one peculiar thing about the people in boston is: never pick up their phones. ever. they all hate talking over the phone (among other things) and just never pick it up. they might text you (i found out texting costs me 10 minutes per text, sent or received, what a rip off!) back later on, but they do not pick up their phones.
we tried to call bryan (who does not pick up his phone) and then genevieve who lives around the corner and has a key for the place (and does not pick up her phone either). luckily she however called back, so we went over to her place and hung out there for a while.
i slept very little in boston, so i was quite happy when i could finally go to bed, the crazy kittens jumping on and off the bed all the time til i fell asleep.
so, all’s well that ends well – i’m on my way to new york, three more days and that’s it.
i’m kind of getting ready to go home, i mean, i have started preparing myself morally. that’s okay – constant travelling is inspiring, but exhausting, both physically and emotionally. i don’t know yet what is going to happen in new york and it’s only about three hours away – i’m on the bus and hoping for the best.
i’m looking forward to come back to the states and visiting all the great people i’ve met here, but for now i’m good with staying in one place for at least a couple of weeks. yeah, that will be good. i’ve found out that i will have my fridays off half of the semester, too, so if i skip fachdidaktik which i hate anyway (teaching methods, stupid busy work stuff) on tuesday and my one and a half classes on thursday i will actually have almost a whole week off of school –i’m planning that for the thanksgiving week, not, because thanksgiving played any role for my life, but because i’m going to berlin that tues- and wednesday anyway, so i might as well stay there for a couple more days or maybe go someplace else, munich maybe? what do you think about that, yuli? :)
as of now i will leave it at that – it’s not unlikely that i will post the new york update from the airport or even from germany on tues- or wednesday. i wish everyone a good time til then, thanks for hanging out with me to tim, nick (and thanks for the beer), genevieve and josh, for putting me up, providing me with all the information i needed as well as coffee and breakfast to bryan. i’m looking forward to seeing some of you at summer school next year or at any other time in germany, the us or anywhere else in the world. socialist travellers of the world unite! :)
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