June 23~Woke up right with the alarm-clock at 4:00 in the morning, and had fresh orange juice and warm porridge for breakfast. Benny, Shira, and Adam all went to see us off at the airport, and give us good luck and much love.
Security check process was surprisingly quick. We saw our friends Toniann, Kailen, and Adrianna waiting for us. We knew that we would find them, because a few days ago, their mom, Tamara, told my mom that she was going on a trip to Boston on the same day, on the same airline, and on the same plane as us! The difference is, her family is only staying until this Saturday, and we're staying for 2 weeks.
Time passed very slowly on the plane. Lift-off was way cool, but this time I didn't notice my ears go "pop". We were seated near the back of the plane, so we had easy access to the tiny bathroom. We munched on bags of trail mix, listened to our iPod, and read a book called "Thin Threads" to pass the time. I did some meditative breathing exercises as well.
Bettina wanted to take a movie of us getting off the plane after we landed, but there were too many people crowding up the lines. We parted ways with Toniann, Kailen, and Adrianna, and took a free shuttle to the subway. Every train that we took before arriving at our apartment was there right when we needed them to be. We took a lot of movies and pictures of our adventures.
When we got to our apartment, we unlocked the front door and nobody seemed to be at home yet (all of our renters are in college for summer classes this year). We got up to our room, and we found a small dog living in it! He growled at us. Then we went to the kitchen (there were a heap of dirty dishes in the sink and the trash was overflowing!) and called our parents using Skype. It was such a relief to hear everyone's voices thousands of miles away.
A few minutes later, a couple of the tenants, Jake and Brad, came in, and we said hi and stuff. We also met Jake's dog Leroy, who's a Weimaraner (do you remember William Wegmans' dogs on Sesame Street?). The little dog, it turns out, belonged to a friend of Jake's. Anyway, Jake cleared out our room pretty well (there were a few clothes and dog chow and a video game system when we first appeared) and left us alone to unpack. We put all our stuff in a big bureau, and made plans to go out.
We went to a 7-11 to buy some week-long train passes (called Charlie Cards), CVS to get some toilet paper and a new pair of scissors. (Couldn't bring one on the plane now could we?) Then we walked all the way to our local supermarket (Star) and got a bag of apples. After that we took the "T" home (T is for train), put the apples away (in a small corner of the fridge that wasn't being occupied by our 4 boarders), and went out again to the reservoir nearby. We had carved our initials on a special tree a year ago, and we would've climbed up to check it, but it was raining (a very strange, misty sort of rain), and the tree was all wet and dirty, so we said we'd save it for another time. Then we decided to treat ourselves to a small pizza pie at "Presto's". We went slightly over budget after that, but hey, it was a great pizza!
That night we were so happy and satisfied with how our first day went that we just hung out for a few hours. Shira, Adam and Benny called us on Skype and we had a nice 10-minute conversation. Then we brushed our teeth (manually rather than using our electric brushes back home), and went to bed early, about 10:00 or so.
June 24~Woke up around 7:00 in the morning, completely recharged and refreshed. Seems we got just the right amount of sleep for us to wake up. Right away we went out to enjoy our first morning in Boston by taking a nice long walk around the Reservoir. The weather was still very cloudy and the rain was as misty as the day before. We took an umbrella with us, but we still got very cold and wet. Still having the time of our lives though! We also took apples along for our walk, and we ate them on the way.
We got a Skype call from our parents after we came back. We told them of our plans for the day (which I will reveal later) and how much we still missed them. After hanging up, we went to work in the kitchen to clear up the messy dishes and the garbage. I took out the trash and swept the floor while Bettina took care of the washing. It was almost fun working together to clean up the mess, because we thought about how pleasantly surprised the guys would be when they saw a clean sink.
After all that work, we hurried to the "T" stop to catch the train to Chestnut Hill Station. We wanted to go to the AMC movie theater to see "UP", but after we got off, we didn't know how to get from the station to the cinema. We went back home feeling very silly, but I didn't feel defeated. We'd simply catch the 1:30 showing instead of the 11:00 (though the tickets do cost more later in the day). To cheer ourselves up, we bought a couple burritos at "Boloco's". They were nice and warm to eat after being out in the cold, wet weather.
We then went back home to search Google Maps for the precise route on how to get to the AMC theater, and after that, we went back on the "T" to do take 2. Happily, we made it to the theater this time. Instead of buying popcorn to munch on during the film, I went out and got us 2 peanut-butter chocolate-chip cookies at a bakery close by. Huge savings at 2 bucks a cookie.
The movie "UP" was absolutely fantastic! PIXAR's 10th film is a hit! The animation's great, the acting is great, the story was great, and the subtle soundtrack was great. The only thing I wish is that there should have been less talking-dog gags. We didn't see the movie in 3-D, but it was still an excellent theater experience that made me forget where I was and what I had to do later for the duration of 1 and 1/2 hours. I would almost say that this was my favorite PIXAR movie yet, if WALL-E wasn't so darn cute!
I was almost sorry to leave the theater, but Bettina and I still had lots of fun discussing our favorite parts of the movie. We went back on the "T" to go to the Brookline library, but it was a very long trek from the train stop to the library. We almost thought ourselves lost, but we kept thinking happy thoughts and kept in mind that life is about the journey, not the destination. Eventually we made it, and we spent a couple hours happily surrounded by books.
We wanted to take out a few DVDs, but the librarian said that our cards weren't activated. Oh well. We left the DVDs there and decided to go shop at Star Market and get some bananas. I also wrote down many of the bargain prices in my notebook, so we wouldn't spend more than we had to on groceries. Along with bananas, we got a bag of peanuts and a box of cereal. It felt good knowing how well we could take care of ourselves. We stopped over at our old favorite, "Eagle's Deli" for a large plate of french fries. It was very tasty, but I don't plan on making any more similar trips because I know how "not good" fries are for the body.
When we got back home to put away our food, we found one of the guys, Brad, cooking something and burning it. It activated the fire alarm, which was very annoying, but not too serious. Just like the day before, we pretty much lounged about in our room for the rest of the evening, called our family on Skype, and went to bed. This night however was the start of a very nice tradition of Jake, the guy who lives in the room next door, playing music that he wrote and practising and experimenting with new melodies and words. It's fun sleeping next-door to a musician!
There, that's all of Days 1 and 2! The rest of my blog posts are probably going to be as long as this for a while, but I sure hope this isn't a turnoff for my readers here! Later dudes!
Security check process was surprisingly quick. We saw our friends Toniann, Kailen, and Adrianna waiting for us. We knew that we would find them, because a few days ago, their mom, Tamara, told my mom that she was going on a trip to Boston on the same day, on the same airline, and on the same plane as us! The difference is, her family is only staying until this Saturday, and we're staying for 2 weeks.
Time passed very slowly on the plane. Lift-off was way cool, but this time I didn't notice my ears go "pop". We were seated near the back of the plane, so we had easy access to the tiny bathroom. We munched on bags of trail mix, listened to our iPod, and read a book called "Thin Threads" to pass the time. I did some meditative breathing exercises as well.
Bettina wanted to take a movie of us getting off the plane after we landed, but there were too many people crowding up the lines. We parted ways with Toniann, Kailen, and Adrianna, and took a free shuttle to the subway. Every train that we took before arriving at our apartment was there right when we needed them to be. We took a lot of movies and pictures of our adventures.
When we got to our apartment, we unlocked the front door and nobody seemed to be at home yet (all of our renters are in college for summer classes this year). We got up to our room, and we found a small dog living in it! He growled at us. Then we went to the kitchen (there were a heap of dirty dishes in the sink and the trash was overflowing!) and called our parents using Skype. It was such a relief to hear everyone's voices thousands of miles away.
A few minutes later, a couple of the tenants, Jake and Brad, came in, and we said hi and stuff. We also met Jake's dog Leroy, who's a Weimaraner (do you remember William Wegmans' dogs on Sesame Street?). The little dog, it turns out, belonged to a friend of Jake's. Anyway, Jake cleared out our room pretty well (there were a few clothes and dog chow and a video game system when we first appeared) and left us alone to unpack. We put all our stuff in a big bureau, and made plans to go out.
We went to a 7-11 to buy some week-long train passes (called Charlie Cards), CVS to get some toilet paper and a new pair of scissors. (Couldn't bring one on the plane now could we?) Then we walked all the way to our local supermarket (Star) and got a bag of apples. After that we took the "T" home (T is for train), put the apples away (in a small corner of the fridge that wasn't being occupied by our 4 boarders), and went out again to the reservoir nearby. We had carved our initials on a special tree a year ago, and we would've climbed up to check it, but it was raining (a very strange, misty sort of rain), and the tree was all wet and dirty, so we said we'd save it for another time. Then we decided to treat ourselves to a small pizza pie at "Presto's". We went slightly over budget after that, but hey, it was a great pizza!
That night we were so happy and satisfied with how our first day went that we just hung out for a few hours. Shira, Adam and Benny called us on Skype and we had a nice 10-minute conversation. Then we brushed our teeth (manually rather than using our electric brushes back home), and went to bed early, about 10:00 or so.
June 24~Woke up around 7:00 in the morning, completely recharged and refreshed. Seems we got just the right amount of sleep for us to wake up. Right away we went out to enjoy our first morning in Boston by taking a nice long walk around the Reservoir. The weather was still very cloudy and the rain was as misty as the day before. We took an umbrella with us, but we still got very cold and wet. Still having the time of our lives though! We also took apples along for our walk, and we ate them on the way.
We got a Skype call from our parents after we came back. We told them of our plans for the day (which I will reveal later) and how much we still missed them. After hanging up, we went to work in the kitchen to clear up the messy dishes and the garbage. I took out the trash and swept the floor while Bettina took care of the washing. It was almost fun working together to clean up the mess, because we thought about how pleasantly surprised the guys would be when they saw a clean sink.
After all that work, we hurried to the "T" stop to catch the train to Chestnut Hill Station. We wanted to go to the AMC movie theater to see "UP", but after we got off, we didn't know how to get from the station to the cinema. We went back home feeling very silly, but I didn't feel defeated. We'd simply catch the 1:30 showing instead of the 11:00 (though the tickets do cost more later in the day). To cheer ourselves up, we bought a couple burritos at "Boloco's". They were nice and warm to eat after being out in the cold, wet weather.
We then went back home to search Google Maps for the precise route on how to get to the AMC theater, and after that, we went back on the "T" to do take 2. Happily, we made it to the theater this time. Instead of buying popcorn to munch on during the film, I went out and got us 2 peanut-butter chocolate-chip cookies at a bakery close by. Huge savings at 2 bucks a cookie.
The movie "UP" was absolutely fantastic! PIXAR's 10th film is a hit! The animation's great, the acting is great, the story was great, and the subtle soundtrack was great. The only thing I wish is that there should have been less talking-dog gags. We didn't see the movie in 3-D, but it was still an excellent theater experience that made me forget where I was and what I had to do later for the duration of 1 and 1/2 hours. I would almost say that this was my favorite PIXAR movie yet, if WALL-E wasn't so darn cute!
I was almost sorry to leave the theater, but Bettina and I still had lots of fun discussing our favorite parts of the movie. We went back on the "T" to go to the Brookline library, but it was a very long trek from the train stop to the library. We almost thought ourselves lost, but we kept thinking happy thoughts and kept in mind that life is about the journey, not the destination. Eventually we made it, and we spent a couple hours happily surrounded by books.
We wanted to take out a few DVDs, but the librarian said that our cards weren't activated. Oh well. We left the DVDs there and decided to go shop at Star Market and get some bananas. I also wrote down many of the bargain prices in my notebook, so we wouldn't spend more than we had to on groceries. Along with bananas, we got a bag of peanuts and a box of cereal. It felt good knowing how well we could take care of ourselves. We stopped over at our old favorite, "Eagle's Deli" for a large plate of french fries. It was very tasty, but I don't plan on making any more similar trips because I know how "not good" fries are for the body.
When we got back home to put away our food, we found one of the guys, Brad, cooking something and burning it. It activated the fire alarm, which was very annoying, but not too serious. Just like the day before, we pretty much lounged about in our room for the rest of the evening, called our family on Skype, and went to bed. This night however was the start of a very nice tradition of Jake, the guy who lives in the room next door, playing music that he wrote and practising and experimenting with new melodies and words. It's fun sleeping next-door to a musician!
There, that's all of Days 1 and 2! The rest of my blog posts are probably going to be as long as this for a while, but I sure hope this isn't a turnoff for my readers here! Later dudes!
1 comment:
That's cool, being independent and all. Be safe though!
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