Wednesday, August 26, 2009

things I love about Boston

after the day I had today, I decided to put together a list of the things I love about Boston. hopefully by the time I'm done, I'll feel better.

* riding the t- specifically the red line
* looking into Boston and seeing all of the sailboats
* the Commons
* the way the breeze feels and blows through the trees
* turning the corner every morning and seeing Leonard on his smoking break
* children playing in the public fountains
* the duck tours
* bricks
* that I can walk everywhere and anywhere
* all of the history
* walking along the river and pretending I'm in Europe
* putting on my uniform every morning
* the way people light up when you say good morning... as if no one has ever said it to him/her before
* getting lost and finding something new
* my office/study room that is full of color and postcards
* that my friends are on their way to school as I'm getting out of class. works out perfectly
* the North End
* my wine & specialty market in Beacon Hill
* that you can store food outdoors in the winter
* that it is a city

Sunday, August 16, 2009

I've had a lot of people complaining that we don't update the blog enough. Truth of the matter is I don't really know what to say. Everything, every day is a new experience. Most of it is truly boring though. I don't know what should and shouldn't be written about. So, I go on day after day, not writing anything at all. :( Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Let me know what you want to know. :)

Tomorrow I start Culinary Skills 2. It will be my 3rd class in school. I'm excited, but I don't think as much as my fellow classmates. It will be so nice getting to cook again. But really scary too. I mean, we didn't really do anything in the last cooking class. So, this is the time we will probably be divided according to skill level. We'll get to find out where everyone lies and what he/she can and cannot do. To be honest, I'm not totally confident where I'll end up. I LOVE cooking. It calms my soul. And when I'm relaxed, I cook quite well. But the key is, I have to be relaxed. Because of this, I think only Mario and my parents have actually been able to enjoy my hidden talent. When it comes to cooking for friends, or now chefs, I get really freaked out. I forget everything I know and drop the ball in one way or another (like burning a pizza box). So, I'm not really looking forward to tomorrow, now that I think about it.

This fear is not something new. When I was a kid, my mom tried to enroll me in a magnet school. She was so excited and really thought it would be good for my future. By the time we got to the school for my interview, I had forgotten my name. I kept telling everyone it was my babysitter's name, Kathy. Really???? How does someone forget her name??? I guess I'm just that special.

I'll keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

random stuff

We've been here a month. Can you believe it??? A whole month. It feels longer. Not in a bad way. I just feel like we've been here for quite awhile. In honor of our one month anniversary, I thought I would post about some of my favorite moments in Beantown. It will be all the things we should have blogged about while we were wrapping up the road trip stories.


#1- Fourth of July- We didn't really end up doing anything during the day. We had planned on going on a boat all day. However, there were storm warnings, so that got cancelled. I was dying to see what this new patriotic city would do on the nation's holiday. But instead, we lounged and unpacked. Yuck! I did put my foot down and declared we were going to watch the fireworks. Fourth of July is not anything if not the best time of the year for fireworks. Usually, we would be at the Hollywood Bowl enjoying the show. I was not going to miss out just because we didn't have anywhere to go. So, at around 7:00pm, we headed toward the river. We figured we would follow the people and see where we ended up. Only the fireworks out here don't start until 10pm. YIKES! So, back home we went to wait it out. Even though it ended up begin a little bit of an adventure, we found wonderful seats in a park right along the water on the Cambridge side. We had Boston as a backdrop while fireworks lit up the sky. Perfect way to spend the night.


#2- Eslie's Birthday- My first friend's name is Eslie. We met in class one day and decided we needed to go dancing after the first week to celebrate making it that far. I was very excited to find another person that likes to dance and go out in this new city. Anyhow- that following Monday was her birthday. So, I went online to find a bar near school. We figured we'd go out right after class and grab a quick drink to celebrate. In looking online, the closest place seemed to be at MIT. I thought, why not, it is probably a cheap college bar. Exactly what we need in the middle of the afternoon. :) Well, the bar turned out to actually be inside an old MIT classroom... or meeting place... or something. We actually had to go into a building full of classrooms to get to the bar. And it was only for MIT students. Ooopppss. Luckily they took some pity on us and let us in. The whole time, we felt like a bunch of kids hiding our beers in case one of the professors caught us. I don't think I'll be in charge of picking the next place.


#3- Patriot Place- This is by far one of my favorite memories so far. In doing a little research, Mario discovered the Patriots' training camp was actually open to the public. It just so happened to fall during the week I had no school. So, we packed a lunch and drove about an hour to Foxborough. It was a beautiful day, and we were both so excited. We managed to find great seats in the grass looking down on both practive fields. Bill Bellichick and Tom Brady were both through strutting their stuff. It was sooooo cool to be so close to all of them. That is until the sky opened up and starting raining like crazy. It was coming down so hard. I had packed a small umbrella, just in case, thinking we would never need it. Ha! We could have used three more. The funny thing is all of the locals started running, like a little rain was going to hurt them. HA! They just weren't true fans. There we sat, soaked to the bone, watching football, and realizing we were really on the East Coast. This would never happen in CA.