Week Three is now officially over: research is still going great, and I am loving the first-hand experience planning and executing experiments instead of just relying on someone else's protocol. If anyone is curious as to the scientific updates, just message me and I'll go more in depth on our most current data.
As far as experiencing Boston, a group of us went to see the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") last Sunday. The ship is beautiful, and she doesn't seem over 200 years old. We actually had to pass through a security checkpoint and metal detectors before getting on the ship. It is still an active Navy vessel, and it was guarded by lots of men and women with guns in fatigues or dress whites (which prevented me from shimmying up the rigging to the crow's nest...darn). Unfortunately, it was very touristy: I felt like most people that were visiting went to see it only because it was something you were supposed to do when visiting Boston. From there, we walked through the North End of Boston to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, and then back to MIT on the Longfellow Bridge. That night, we had chores: one of the fabulous parts of this frat house is our every-Sunday meeting where we all are assigned a part of the house to clean...mine was the kitchen the first two Sundays, the chapter room last Sunday, and who knows what it will be tonight.
One of the best parts about Boston is the ethnic food scene. Bostonians are slight snobs about what they eat, and because of this, restaurants don't stay in business unless they serve fairly decent food. This makes finding interesting and new restaurants really easy for a summer visitor. This week was Ethiopian, and I had the best lentils I have ever eaten in my entire life....so good! Other favorites have been Algerian, Indian, Italian, Thai and seafood, but there is so much more left to try! Good thing I still have seven weeks left.
MIT Ballroom sponsors a three week session of dancing lessons for $1 a lesson on Tuesday nights, and this week's dances were the Bronze Foxtrot (translation = easiest to learn) and international waltz. Surprisingly, there were more guys than girls: we actually had to rotate partners the entire evening. I found the Foxtrot much easier, mostly because the instructor had a partner and you could see the interaction between dancers better than the waltz teacher, a guy who was trying to do it all by himself. My partners and I would just end up doing an awkward sort-of-wedding-waltz that sure, had three steps, but not much else. However, there is a guy here in the ADP house who is actually in MIT Ballroom and has promised to continue my waltzing education: should be fun!
Friday was a late night in lab (to take care of my cells), but Saturday was a really long and fun day. I walked to the Museum of Fine Arts and saw some great art: one of my favorite Renoirs is there, as well as some great Etruscan pottery and a really beautiful cubist painting of Alma Mahler and her lover (sorry Gustav). The musical instruments room was also quite excellent: they had a chromatic horn as well as great examples of the transition of keyboard instruments from organ to harpsichord to pianoforte. I met up with a friend of a friend at the museum: he lived in Vienna with a friend from IWU who was studying abroad at the time and is a high school music educator looking to go to graduate school in music history. We drove to Revere Beach, and had roast beef sandwiches from Kelly's. The seagulls were eager to try and steal food: one wonders if they actually remember how to fish because they get so many handouts from people visiting the beach. I walked (shoes off) in the water for awhile, loving the ocean...while I have been afforded some amazing opportunities in my life in the past four years, none have landed me near a beach, so it's great to finally be near one again (even if it is freezing cold!).
Our next stop was his hometown of Reading (said "Redding"), and we visited his high school and walked around a park: it was a very cute little community, complete with Dunkin' Donuts (a pervasive New England tradition). Housing was a mixture of Colonial and Cape Cod: very much Massachusetts. We also stopped at a nearby lake in Wakefield: in comparison to Minnesota lakes, it was kind of small, but apparently people here are pretty proud of their lake. Even so, no one swims in it: you can sail and windsurf, but it's too dirty to dive in.
The next stop of the day was back in Cambridge: one of the other girls in my REU program turned 21, so we went out to a seafood restaurant in Inman Square for dinner and then back to the ADP house for cake and hanging out. All in all, a busy and exhausting day full of friends and seeing Boston.
As far as this week goes, I'm really looking forward to this Wednesday and spending Fourth of July on the banks of the Charles River watching fireworks and hearing the Boston Pops play the 1812 Overture: should be a great time!
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