Welcome to College (SU 101-C20)

November 25, 2012

What a relief! I have survived Thanksgiving break, and I’ve never been so excited to be on my way back to Boston! Overall, my Thanksgiving break gave me a much needed chance to spend extra time on some homework and catch up with my friends and family. As I expected, Vermont was exactly the way I remembered it to be, only more bland than ever. All the leaves had fallen off the trees and the quiet roads proved to be more depressing than I remembered. I guess I’ve grown accustomed to the constant noise of the city and Vermont doesn’t provide as much excitement as it once did. Now don’t get me wrong, Vermont has been an absolute joy to grow up in and it has taught me how to live a slower paced lifestyle that requires a lot of patience. What most people may not know about living in a small town in a place like Vermont is that life feels as though you are stuck in slow motion. Customer service in Vermont takes much longer, your food is served after a much longer time when you go out to eat and people generally aren’t in a rush to get anywhere. Growing up in Vermont my whole life, I’ve been used to this, so I didn’t notice how relaxed things were, until I started school in the city. Thankfully, my bus is headed back and I’m only 2 short hours away from my much missed home away from home!

November 12, 2012

I went to a restaurant today called Bento Box. It is located right down the street from 150 Tremont, about a 5 minute walk away. It has sushi and bento boxes, which is basically a plate with a bunch of different types of Asian cuisine. I had a curry chicken bento box, which had curry chicken, 2 sushi rolls, a deep fried dumpling and some fruit. It wasn’t expensive, and tasted awesome! I would high suggest you stop by at some point, and at least try it once!

Walking the same route to class every other morning, I tend to notice things. Passing the same Dunkin Donuts at 7:45 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ve observed that most people appear to be half asleep as they sip their coffees and gaze at the city outside the window. I’ve also noticed that some of the homeless people tend to stand in the same place every morning. For instance, I have seen the same woman reading the newspaper in the same spot every morning for the last 3 months. I expect to see her there every time I pass, sitting on the same green crate, sometimes a plastic bag is on her head and she is usually speaking gibberish in a raised voice to the passing people. However it’s not the newspaper lady that has caught my attention, it’s the “Spare Change” man that stands at the corner of Winter Street in the morning. Although he chooses to say the same 3 words over and over all day, something about him has captured my attention. Last week in English class, my Professor had mentioned that theories had been circulating that this man may not be homeless, and he is actually a Harvard Professor doing a social experiment. As outrageous as that may sound, it is not only completely plausible, but it reminded me that all of us have our own life story and there is more to most people than reaches the eye. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if the theory turned out to be true? I’ve never given the man “spare change” or ‘water”, and I have never witnessed anyone else giving him anything either. I sometimes feel guilty for not giving him anything, because he so dedicated to repeating those 3 words every single morning.

Walking the same route to class every other morning, I tend to notice things. Passing the same Dunkin Donuts at 7:45 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ve observed that most people appear to be half asleep as they sip their coffees and gaze at the city outside the window. I’ve also noticed that some of the homeless people tend to stand in the same place every morning. For instance, I have seen the same woman reading the newspaper in the same spot every morning for the last 3 months. I expect to see her there every time I pass, sitting on the same green crate, sometimes a plastic bag is on her head and she is usually speaking gibberish in a raised voice to the passing people. However it’s not the newspaper lady that has caught my attention, it’s the “Spare Change” man that stands at the corner of Winter Street in the morning. Although he chooses to say the same 3 words over and over all day, something about him has captured my attention. Last week in English class, my Professor had mentioned that theories had been circulating that this man may not be homeless, and he is actually a Harvard Professor doing a social experiment. As outrageous as that may sound, it is not only completely plausible, but it reminded me that all of us have our own life story and there is more to most people than reaches the eye. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if the theory turned out to be true? I’ve never given the man “spare change” or ‘water”, and I have never witnessed anyone else giving him anything either. I sometimes feel guilty for not giving him anything, because he so dedicated to repeating those 3 words every single morning.

Going back home for Thanksgiving Break was an absolute wonder. I missed my family and friends so much! It was quite a tease considering it was just for 3 days and I was not able to do everything I wish i could have done being there. The weather was absolutely amazing though! almost 85 degrees everyday and just beautiful as beautiful San Diego is. There was a lot of marine layer at the beach though so the sun wasn’t visible but I did go surfing every morning of being there…man did i miss that so much. I was a tad rusty but I did it out of pure enjoyment and just being able to swim out in the ocean was refreshing. I had missed it so much. I had the chance to see my grandparents who came up from Mexico for thanksgiving which i loved becasue I am so close to them and had missed them so much. I as well saw 3 of my 5 best friends there, 2 of them couldn’t go home but we have a whole month together once Christmas break comes around. The anxiety of waiting to get there was so worth it simply because of all those factors. It is a weird thought to thing that after 2 days of being there I absolutely decided that I missed Boston and my friends here. It is crazy to think that after only 4 months you can grow to love and miss something so much. I did not want to leave San Diego though because 3 days was absolutley nothing at all. I just cannot wait to get these 2 next stressful weeks over with and have a month of freedom back in sunny San Diego with all my family and friends.

So the other day I went to my first concert in Boston! Which is a surprise considering that Boston has such a great music scene and there have been many concerts that I have wanted to go to but hadn’t had the chance to. finally i was able to go to one last Thursday to see one of my favorite bands, Title Fight. They were amazing! It was at the Royale which is a great and big concert venue. People are not crowded and the people that work there are extremely nice and welcoming! i cannot wait to return to see another one of my favorite band in February, Mumford and Sons. It is a great time especially if you go with a group of your friends. It isn’t too far either you can just take the T. I’m so glad i finally got to go. there are so many different concert venues all around the city and even by BU that host some of the most amazing bands and artists of our time. The TD Garden isn’t far from us either and a lot of big shot concerts are hosted there. I still have yet to go there even for a Celtics game which i’ve heard are amazing! hopefully I will go to one before the season is over.

I absolutely love Christmas time because of all the happy thoughts and the lights and the smell of winter! For the first time ever it feels like an actual winter simply because it is actually cold and there has been snow! Back home you do not see that at all because there are no seasons. As a way to celebrate me and my friend group has decided to do Secret Santa before we all leave! We all decided to do it next week after finals as a way to distress ourselves and get our minds off the fact that it is a stressful week. We all agreed on having it be a gift that is less than 20 dollars which can be extremely reasonable, the gift could be big or small but include more than just one thing. Our group does have guys and girls so we decided to not make it either too girlie of a gift or to manly per say. If a guy does get stuck with a gift that is kind of meant for a girl there can always be a trade off between the two. Also one of my good friends from Argentina has never experienced Christmas in the cold because in Argentina (aka the southern hemisphere) Christmas lands on summer instead of winter like for us. The other day I found out she’s never made a ginger bread house so we decided we would do that as well as the Secret Santa! I am so excited to do this with all my friends.

NERD! literally though. I’ve been living in the library for the past month I believe just swamped on homework and research papers on essays on essays. It has been extremely stressful and thank goodness there is a library I can resort to for a (sometimes) quiet environment. The library is such a great place especially since the Writing Center is right one the 3rd floor where I can go to if I have an doubt about a paper. The cafe downstairs is amazing as well because if you are falling asleep you can just go downstairs and get a coffee or a sweat bread, which I get almost everyday because I do tend to fall asleep. I am currently in the library finishing some last minute things that I of course have procrastinated in…typical. Considering that finals are coming up next week…ohmygodpanic!…it has been constantly packed with people being squished on a single table. There are people sitting in the halls and the book aisles everywhere. It is hectic and amazing to see how people in college intake the fact that finals are so close. I am so glad that I have one more week of living in the library although it is not all that bad. I always see someone I know whether it’s an acquaintance or a good friend. We take little breaks in between work to get fresh air or simply talk for 5 minutes and then get back to what we have to do. Not too many distractions.

So I know that many of my posts are about food and restaurants but I am a huge food critic and absolutely love trying new places. This new place that my friend Lucy and I tried on Sunday was amazing. Not simply because of the food but because of the environment and the way that getting ones food is set up. For starters it isn’t like a normal restaurant its sort of a buffet set up. When you walk in you are handed a menu and a card. You walk to the different stations which include; Salad-Soup, Pasta, Pizza-Panini’s. At these stations you tell the cook what it is that you’d like and while you stand behind the glass the chef prepares it for you, once you have ordered at that station you scan the card that was handed to you and it adds your meal to it. The place is a decent size so you go and find a seat. You enjoy your salad, pasta, pizza and once you’re done you go to the front and scan your card again and it adds everything up and you pay. It’s extremely creative and the food is absolutely amazing. I had the house salad and a spinach and ricotta ravioli with a marinara sauce, nom nom. It is at the corner of Stuart St. and Charles Place. If you have the time go and enjoy it is a great atmosphere to go with friends and it is cheap! which i love being on a college student budget.