boston - week 9 and 10

okay, clearly history repeats itself. i've somehow gone two weeks again without posting. so, i'm not really sure what all has happened in the meantime, but it's definitely been good. i've felt really grateful lately for this summer--being able to live in boston, and turns out the internship only has a 10% acceptance rate. i had no idea. it's been a blast. all the other interns left 2 weeks ago, as their schools are normal (i.e. on the semester system, not quarter). so, it's just been me chillin in my new harvard/porter square apartment, and going to work each day. i realized that my schedule is pretty tight: leave front door for work at 7:30am, commute, work, gym, commute home, and it's 8pm. cook and eat, then it's 9pm. oh well.

last week, i walked to harvard to take some pics. originally i was taking pics of their grandiose, 1700s style buildings, but i ended up getting distracted by a garden of flowers and a bee. so, that consumed most of my pictures. i realize that sounds very masculine.






today was an amazing day. my tuition stuff was accepted, and i get to save $5k per quarter! (my 10-week tuition goes down from 8.3k to 3.3k). that's so hard to believe. that's soooo cheap compared to florida tech. 3.3k x 3 quarters = ~10k/yr. FIT is ~33k. yay for public schools. also, i think i got a new roommate today, and work is going well.

this week's indo lesson for the readers:
boleh saya minta aire botol = may i have a bottle of water
"bo-lay sigh-ya mean-ta eye-rrree bo-tall"

i have a feeling i'll be saying that very often when i'm there. it's quite possibly the most important phrase i've learned.

boston/cambridge - week 7 & 8

(pics of the charles river, which my room overlooked)

i really shouldn't go two weeks without writing, as i know i'm leaving out much.

at the end of week 7, all of us MIT lincoln lab interns had to leave our on-campus housing due to the incoming mit students' needing to move in. sad day. it was definitely an amazing place to stay. plus, one can only imagine how fun and easy it is to find housing in boston for only a 4 week stay. i should have started my search earlier. i had many craigslist people stand me up and back out just hours before i was going to come and pay. oh well. i finally got a nice, little place near porter sq (north of harvard). it was only $750/month, so i got a steal. :) only catch is there is no closet, so i improvised w/ the wall and the bookshelf in the neighboring room. it's only half a mile from the T (subway station), and the neighborhood definitely has a nice homely, old-school, historical, pot-hole-ridden street feel to it. it's good. its suburbian feel reminds me a lot of georgia's.




what i really like is how accessible and well-connected the town is--this applies to all of boston and cambridge. its walk-ability has helped me fall in love w/ this city. but yea, the streets here are uncommonly empty of cars, and are overwhelmed w/ joggers in all directions. i remember noticing this one day as i walked home from work in my dress shoes. as i crossed the intersection, i could see no cars in sight, but i saw a young woman pushing a baby stroller in the middle of the street to my left, someone w/ laundry on the sidewalk to my right, and a jogger coming towards me. later that day, we had a thunderstorm, and i just opened my windows and enjoyed it. i could definitely live here. at least i say this now, having not experienced the notorious winters. i don't want to be a snowman.

recently, i've been to a few restaurants, including a thai one and a more generic malayasian and chinese one. i need practice for when i go to indonesia. oh, and i've been learning some indonesian. i can only say basic phrases such as greetings, name exchanges, where i'm from, expressing what i like/dislike, want, need, etc, and just a tad concerning food, drink, direction/location. if anyone says anything beyond these exact phrases, i'm probably hopeless, heh. good thing i'll have my loving sidekick to help me out ;) she's pretty much fluent.

Q: which language do you wish to learn?

boston - week 6

the past two weeks have had the best sunsets i've ever seen in my life. the above pics were taken on different days, each with my cheap, old point-and-shoot camera (my main camera was still in the shop).

this past week, tim, one of my best friends from college (florida tech) was in town from nyc for a software engineering conference. so, we hung out, quite a few times... went to some restaurants, walked through boston, hung out w/ some of my boston friends, and went to a comedy show again. definitely good times, as i hadn't seen him in a 1.5 yrs, back when we were both visiting our parents in atlanta.

i ordered myself a new camera lens a while back, and it was scheduled for delivery this past friday. that's exciting since i rarely buy myself anything, and since i'll then have a really nice lens for when i visit sheley in indo. well, it wasn't gonna be too exciting since my camera body was still supposed to be in the shop for 1 more week. anyway, i called the repair guy while at work, and turns it out it was ready! the shop was closing soon and was 1.5 hrs away from me. so, i urgently called around and got ryan, who was close by, to walk there and pay the guy $200 cash for me :) what a good friend. so, it was great to be able to use my camera and its new lens on friday, instead of having until monday. that would have been annoying, but surely would have tested my patience, heh. here are some pics i took:





sunday, i went to a good church on park street for the 1st time. the sermon was very good. afterwards, ben and i went to a famous pastry shop. let's just say anyone with taste buds and eyes will immediately have their mouth watering upon walking in. actually, now that i write this, it's got me drooling again. in fact, im gonna go eat my last canolli from the fridge now :)

Q: what's your favorite dessert?