The adventure has finally begun.
On Saturday, January 7, I arrived in Boston. Expecting a harsh weather change - although I had checked the weather and realized that the weather would not be a vast difference from San Francisco, but adding in an icy wind - I got off the plane worried that my sweater and jacket would not be sufficient. Bundled up against the cold, I deplaned. While waiting for my bags, I discarded my jacket.
I have decided that there is no time more nerve wracking than waiting for your bags to come out of baggage claim. After three groups of unloaded bags from two separate planes, I finally glimpsed one of mine. I grabbed it swiftly and nailed myself in the shin. I am not graceful. The challenge of packing for two years is that you feel simultaneously that you have too much and too little. With a backpacking pack and a rolling duffel, I am paranoid that I have over packed, yet worried about the things I may be missing.
In coming to Boston, I was aiming to spend some time with my cousin. As the youngest of both sides of the family, it has been in reaching adulthood (kind of) that I am more able to bond with my oldest cousins. The age gap when you are young seems insurmountable, yet as you start getting older, the changes are minute and minimal. What mattered then does not matter now.
Exhausted by travel, I slept soundly that night, until awakened by the pitter patter of little footsteps from the family above. It sounded as though bricks had been strapped to the feet of children, and after a good dose of coffee, they were set out to the world. I fell asleep for another hour of sleep troubled by dreams of elephants.
Awakened for real, drinking tea, we planned the day. We made it to Fenway park just in time for the noon tour. Baseball has always been an important part of my life - thanks to my Dad, I grew up as a Giants fan during the Bonds era. Past then, when it was not in vogue to be a Giants fan, I kept the hat, went to the games. Like any good A's fan is still upset with Giambi for not sliding in 2001, I am still upset with Jose Cruz, Jr. What a tool. Going to see a park with so much baseball history and being able to learn a bit more about a sport that I love so much, I was able to forget for a moment that the Red Sox are American League. Otherwise known as, for those who are baseball inept, the College Circuit.
I miss baseball season.
After lunch, we went into the Christian Science Museum to go into the mapparium. The only thing of its kind, the Mapparium is a stained glass globe with country delineations from the 1950s. The USSR, Tibet, French Africa are all countries on this map. A group of 8 or 9 walked onto the platform in the middle of the globe and we all looked around. The experience was marred only by the awkward and cheesy light show, which included Hellen Keller, Ghandi and MLK quotes, as well as a video of the Apollo shuttle to the moon. A little corny.
Leaving the Christian Science Museum (without looking past the mapparium), we wandered toward the commons. Along Newberry street, there are loads of different kind of stores, including one called "Johnny Cupcakes", which smelled like delicious baked goods, yet inside the display cases were t-shirts. Warned of the joke beforehand, I was able to laugh when an older couple walked in, expecting Johnny's cupcakes.
Stopping inside the Boston Public Library for some photos, I observed and followed a tour group briefly before continuing onto the commons. The pond was mostly frozen and we spent a good amount of time observing the ducks attempt to move between the frozen and unfrozen parts of the pond. Using my brand new old go-pro, I filmed the ducks. I wish I had done it for longer.
The night before, I had received a "mistaken" text from a guy I studied abroad with in Spain - he had meant to send a text to a different Annie in his phone and it ended up to me. Briefly catching up over the phone, we decided to meet up for a beer.
Getting back to my cousin's house around 9:30-10:00, I went to bed shortly thereafter. Tomorrow is a big day.
Don't hate on the cheesy part of the mapparium lol
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