Boston Trip - Part 1

Sitting at Logan airport once again. I'm making use of the free wifi to blog about this trip. I was kind of tired the whole trip so I didn't bother with blogging. It was a good visit though.

Thursday. I felt the effects of the motion sickness pill nearly the entire day. I went out for a walk in the morning around Harvard and found a good tea place to read. I went to Tealux and got one of their seven chai teas. I've been really interested in chai teas lately. I got a bag of chai tea at a tea place in SF but I found it to have too much ginger. The one I got at Tealux is supposed to have a lot more cinnamon. I think it was too strong. I also got a can of masala chai at Peets. It's okay. Not too spicy one way or the other. I wish I could have tried all of Tealux's chai teas.

I met up with a friend at the Japanese noodle shops in Porter Square. I would have never found these places if I didn't have an address. It looked like a university on the outside. We had ramen and it was okay. I think the ramen I had in Mountain View was better.

Friday. I met up with Greg R. in the morning at MIT. He's on an east coast trip and was also in town so we hung out for the day. We wandered around the campus for a little bit, failing to find the alumni center (they moved!). We decided to walk through the Back Bay and explore Boston. As we got near the Commons, Yalu called and said that she has time for lunch. So we had an adventure trying to walk to where she works. We got super lost and had to call her back several times. I think I could have been a more enthusiastic tour guide. I wasn't really into the tour-giving mode. We got some Vietnamese sandwiches in Chinatown before meeting Yalu at her workplace. We even got a tour of her office! Finally saw where she's working. Very cute corner.

Greg and I spent the rest of the day walking the Freedom Trail. We went on a tour of the USS Constitution but didn't make it to Bunker Hill in time to climb the thing . It got really cold and I was super tired by the end of it. I wouldn't have climbed anywhere. We then went back to Quincy Market to have dinner with Yalu and Mike. Massive planning involved in the this one. Yalu and I managed to do some shopping before and after dinner. I got a pair of pants. One of the goals of this trip was to do some work clothes shopping. No sales tax on clothes in MA! Yalu and Mike made me play Starcraft that night. We played 2 games.

Saturday was a massive shopping day. We started the day with brunching with another friend. We headed to the Cambridgeside Galleria right after and went straight to the shoes section at Sears. There was a sale on shoes so things were pretty cheap. We ended up buying 2 pairs of matching shoes. We bought 5 pairs of shoes between the two of us. I think  I only spent about $35. Then X joined us and we went through the rest of the mall. Shopping is really tiring. This is why there are food courts because they are necessary for refueling. After this, Yalu and Mike went off to play tennis at the Cambridge library and I took the bus to MIT to meet up with Ivy. I went to her room in Baker and we just chatted for over an hour. She seems to be doing really well. Very well adjusted to life at MIT, in the middle of the love-hate relationship with the school, feeling old by all the pre-frosh milling about because it's CPW, and just doing really well in general. I'm really glad I decided to stop by. Really wish more people from Oakland High would apply to MIT and keep a steady flow of OHS students to MIT.

Almost time for boarding so I'll finish writing tomorrow.