This morning was a little rough. I didn't go to bed until probably 3 in the morning. Every time I would begin to doze off, I would jump to my feet to recount and review the items I had packed. It is hard packing for a month - well, it is hard to choose a week and a half worth of clothes that you can wash and reuse for 4 weeks. After finally going to sleep, I was up around 8:15 and in the shower. I loaded up the car and Jon took me to the airport, we left the house around 9:00 and go to the airport around 9:45. My plane didn't board until 10:45, but I figured it would be good to have enough time to make it through security. What I had not configured into my time estimation was the fact that I was departing from Asheville Regional. It took about 5 minutes to get through security, and I even had a nice conversation with the US Airways Agent about my 360 degree rolling luggage.
The plane didn't board until about 10:55 and we were in the air about 11:30. The stewardess left a little to be desired, she was just kind of bland and rude. I shared some time talking to the person across the aisle from me about where she was going and what she was doing to pass the time. The flight landed around 12:00, which gave me 15 minutes to get to my gate before the plane boarded. I swung into BK for a quick bite and was off to the gate (which was in a different terminal).
My second flight took off much later, but the captain was hopeful to make up the time, and he did! I tried to sleep a little bit, after downing some giger ale and honey roasted peanuts. Near the end of the 1.75 hour flight (shorter than predicted!) I began talking to the lady seated next to me. She was on her way to Paris (connecting in Boston) and was actually from Asheville. Turns out that her and I were on the earlier flight but had not seen each other. She and her grand daughter were supposed to have left the day earlier, but due to the monsoon of rains flushing the east coast, she wasn't able to get out of Asheville.
Futhermore, she was raised in Boston and had lots of great information to share about the city and what to expect. It was very neat to bump into her.
After arriving in Boston, I made it to the baggage claim. The one advantage to having your connection flight show up late is that your luggage is usually the last put on the plane, therefore, the first to come out at baggage claim. I grabbed my luggage and was off to catch a taxi.
The handy signs at the airport helped me find my way quickly (thank you!) and I was soon seated in the back seat of a somewhat rickety old ford taxi. My driver was Haitian and had lived in Boston for multiple years, he now has a wife and four daughters. His initial move to Boston had been to go to college, something that wasn't financially possible for him to accomplish. He was very interesting and took the time to point out various things as we made our way into the city. He made but one wrong turn, our language barrier, my southern draw and his remaining Haitian accent conflicted, he took me to Longwood Apartments instead of 174 Longwood Avenue. But, we made it there in the end.
Isabelle, the assistant program director was awaiting my arrival (as well as the other students) and helped me carry my now cumbersome luggage to my 6th floor room via the very fast elevators. She provided me with a subway pass good for the month of June, a lonely planet guide to boston, and a shirt for the Boston Aids Walk that will be occouring tomorrow. As her and I were setting off towards the room a second student arrived. We went up to the rooms and I began to settle in. The rooms are apartment style with two rooms (each doubles) sharing a common living room/kitchen and a bathroom off to the side.
After realizing a few things I had forgotten, my new space mate (he is not actually in my room, but in the apartment) headed off to CVS and Stop and Shop (a grocery store). It has been raining in Boston for some time, and packing as I usually do, I wasn't completely prepared for the wet rain outside. At CVS they were out of umbrellas but had the other things I needed. I grabbed a few snacks at the grocery store to have in the room, but the umbrellas there were way too overpriced, 14.99 for a cheap little umbrella. I think a chest X-ray for the possible pneumonia would be cheaper than that!
Once back at the apartment I continued unpacking and made my bed, in just a while the entire group got together and met the RA and the program director. There are 9 people in the summer program, five girls and four boys. They are from all over and in various phasese of their undergraduate carreers. Out of respect for their privacy, I'll take care from now on not to mention their names. After introducing ourselves to each other and learning about the rules of the residence hall, we were off on our tour of the building. We are actually lodginig in the Mass. College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. It is a neat builing and just down the road from the Harvard School of Public Health, where the majority of the classes for our program will take place.
After the tour we walked just down the street to this italian place for dinner. We dined and continued our ongoing conversations to get to know each person better. We spoke about our phobias, where we came from, what we thought college was all about, grad-school opportunities, just various topics from humorous to serious. After dinner we returned to the depressing freezing drizzle and walked back to the residence hall. Isabelle "borrowed" some toilet paper from one of the public bathrooms in the building because our apartments did not come stocked.
Once in our rooms, my roommate and I lowered my bed for fear of my falling in the middle of the night. It was a task, but worth it I'm sure. In opposition to the Chest X-Ray, I would mind falling off the bed in the middle of the night, like I used to with the trundle of my younger years. My spacemates and I rearranged the living space and contemplated purchasing a TV to use with one of the guy's playstations. We will probably wait for the verdict on that one after our first day of classes on Monday.
Tomorrow we will be up early to begin the Boston Aids Walk at 10:30 (thanks too all those who supported me!). It should be great to get a dryer view of this city that so many rave about.
Things are getting off to a great start, everyone is very nice and the people are very engagaing both intellectually and socially. I'm enjoying it very much!
To Bed!
2 comments:
Glad that you are there and things are good. You will have to let us know how the walk went and how far it was.
BTW, you are going to put me to shame with blogs like that one...mine will go something like" I is in Londn....it is fum....these poeple speak funnnyu."
anyway. Hope to talk to you soon....love
A
Gald to see that you made it ok and that you ended up talking to strangers on the plane. Your going to have so much fun, don't for get about the harvard tshirt that we all want back home.
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