My, but I've been traveling quite a bit lately... This past weekend (well, Thursday through Saturday) I went down to Boston to hang out at MIT and to watch the 4th of July fireworks that Boston is famous for. I left for Boston on the 7:35 a.m. bus (yawn) because I had to get my stuff into Janet's room before she left for work at 9:30. Well, I made it just fine, and then I met up with Vivian and we went to the Museum of Fine Arts for the day. It was great - I found the netsuke collection - they've got their own room now. ^_^ And the Japanese swords and kimonos were wonderful to see. I also enjoyed the Egyptian section. It never ceases to amaze me that the ancient Egyptian culture was so death-centered. Ah well, what can I say? My favorite Egyptian god is definitely Anubis, the jackal god of death. We also paid to see the Thomas Gainsborough gallery. Fortunately, it's only $5 to get in past noon on weekdays. It was quite nice - they had one room full of huge portraits. They were quite good too. Lots of good artwork, though I wasn't too fond of his landscapes. They all look so dark and gloomy. His later works are really nice though.
We decided to go out to dinner on Thursday night (we being myself, Vivian, Sarah, Janet, and Vikki). Unfortunately, Vikki disappeared sometime during the evening, and since she doesn't have a cell phone (for shame! :P) we had to go without her. Turns out she'd been feeling sick and fell asleep anyway, so it's just as well that we didn't wait for her. Anyway, the rest of us went up to Harvard Square to this Thai restaurant named Spice. I was a little wary of Thai food since I've only eaten at the Thailand Cafe and their pad thai leaves much to be desired. However, after eating at Spice, I can safely say that Thai food has been redeemed. ^^ We also stopped by Tokyo Kid and Newbury Comics (yay, lots of manga!) but didn't get anything. We had the hardest time dragging Janet out of Newbury Comics too. <_<;
And then Friday was the 4th! We got off to a bit of a late start... Vikki organized APO (Alpha Phi Omega - a national service fraternity) to head down to the Esplanade to stake out a good viewing spot for the fireworks. They left at 6 in the morning. @_@ The rest of us got together around noon and decided to bake cookies to bring along. We spent quite some time cooking. We made chocolate chocolate-chip cookies. Verrry chocolatey, in case you couldn't guess. And we made jello and iced tea. But the tea was too hot to bring along, so we left it behind. And the jello melted long before we made it down to APO's spot, so that was kind of useless. But there were plenty of people that offered to buy our cookies. So Sarah and I know what we should do next year... *evil grin* Vivian and Janet wanted to take the bus, but Sarah and I were poor and felt like walking so we walked over the bridge and down into the mass of people. We found the APO "tent" which was made out of a tarp and some poles easily enough, but we didn't see Vikki right away and we didn't recognize anyone else. So Sarah and I went and sat under and shady tree to wait for Vivian and Janet.
We waited for quite a while. o_o; Finally, we called them and it turned out that they were still at the bus stop (after maybe half an hour of waiting!). The buses were running late, or not coming... You know how it is. -_- So Sarah and I went back to the APO tent and this time I noticed that Jim was there (finally, someone we know!). So we hailed him, and he pointed out that Vikki was closer to the water, lying down on a blanket. Several short Asian jokes were the product of this revelation (most of them on my part ^^;). Fortunately, it ended well; we dropped off the cookies and went for a walk with Vikki because she wanted food, and Sarah and I wanted to see the Hatch Shell, where the Boston Pops would be playing that night. Oh yeah, and Janet and Vivian eventually made it over the bridge to meet up with the rest of us. ^_^
It was crowded around the Hatch Shell - the further east we went, the more people there were. We couldn't get too close to the stage since you needed wristbands to get past a certain point. I'm sure Julie was there to see the Pops, or rather, Keith (winkwink) but I couldn't reach her cell phone. *sigh* So even though we couldn't directly see the Pops, APO's location wasn't bad because there was a big TV screen nearby. Plus, we were directly across from the fireworks barge. And indeed, we turned out to have the best seats in the house. The musical performance was great, but the fireworks were even better. I mean, those were the best fireworks I've seen in my whole entire life. Some were so big that they seemed to be heading right for us! All different types, all different colors (even blue - a rare color for fireworks!) - it was amazing. Words can't really describe it. After it was all over, Sarah and I could only look at each other and say "Wow." This is definitely something to see, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's in the area at the time. Boston's fireworks are legendary for a reason. ^^ Makes me want to play around with explosive powder now. ^_^;;
In any case, I'm home now. Vikki, Vivian and Sarah are planning on visiting sometime near the end of the month to celebrate birthdays. This is great - my birthday's on the 23rd, Vivian's is the 26th, and Alissa's is on the 28th (though she's going to be at camp for her birthday). So we can make a big party out of it, or something. ^^ It better be good. :P
- Flykyr Skysong
Current song: Linkin Park - Lying From You
Current mood: ^___^
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