Fall Break in Boston

When I think of Boston, I almost immediately think of Bruno, my Parisian cousin.  Most of Bruno's time in the United States has been in Boston, including the time he spent becoming fluent in English, which is why, ironically, he's the only person I know with a noticeable Boston accent.
My older brother now lives in Boston, and, I left for the city from Ithaca on Friday morning with RG and two other Cornellians for, unfortunately leaving HG behind, because he got sick at the last moment.  PF also came, but ended up coming separately on Sunday.  It really feels as if Boston was a popular destination for Fall Break: MK, AI, and SH also had reasons to be there, and ES was considering coming, too.  RG told me that he had literally received 50-some requests for rides to Boston when he registered our road trip online.
I unfortunately did not have any friends to host me on Friday night through nightfall on Saturday, but AA got me in touch with one of her friends, who let me crash in his apartment.  I slept through most of the car ride up, having deliberately deprived myself of sleep the night before, because I decided that I may as well sleep in the car, given that I would not be able to work.  The car ride was fairly uneventful, i.e., no accidents, and RG dropped me off safely on Windsor Street, in Cambridge at about 2:30 pm.  I dropped my suitcase and lulav off, and took a hike south and west, to Harvard campus.  It was a beautiful day, and walking through Cambridge was an entirely different experience than, say, walking through New York City: although more urban than Ithaca, it didn't feel like a metropolis; at least, not where I was walking.  The School of Design was incredibly easy to find, and the Landscape Architecture department was likewise easy.  Sadly, the person for whom I was searching in the Harvard School of Design was not so easy to find, and I ended up waiting about an hour and a half, nervously moving from room to room, before I learned that this person was in the middle of a review session, and unavailable.  Too bad for me: I walked back to Windsor street, prepared for Shabbat, and left again for Harvard Chabad, where I hoped to see someone I knew.  I didn't but I did meet people with mutual acquaintances, as well as some new and interesting people.  I stayed for dinner, and had a fantastic conversation with a PhD student at Harvard studying French History.  I also met an friend of my favorite West Coast Google Employee.  I walked back to Windsor street, and fell asleep almost immediately.  The next morning, I returned to Chabad, received the 4th Aliyah, and met even more people, including a Cornell Student studying for the year at MIT, the fellow Yeshiva-student of RDB, a childhood friend of RS, and the undergraduate roommate of MW, currently studying at MIT.  So many people, so many connections!  It turned out that the MIT Hillel congregation hadn't had enough people to make a Minyan, so had come to Harvard Chabad; they invited me to spend the afternoon in their library, and to join them for 3rd Meal.  I did, and had a wonderful time.  They might have been the single friendliest group of people I met on this trip.  Following Havdallah, I collected my things on Windsor Street, had my first subway ride since I returned from Paris, and arrived at my brother's apartment, located on Beacon Hill in Boston, on the opposite bank of the Charles River.  It was his housewarming party, and I saw a lot of people I was happy to see again: GF, ZZ, JZ, PL, and, of course, the one and only PS, who now has his own blog, which you should check out, if you're into reading about painful exercise routines.  (Did I mention how fat and lazy I've gotten since May?)  I won a few rounds of pong with GF, which was amazing, before we both eventually lost.  AB, my brother's roommate, is fantastic, as is E, his girlfriend, and my brother's Tae Kwon Do associate.  The party dissolved very quickly and suddenly, and everyone staying the night collapsed in poses of varying awkwardness.
Up the next morning, Sunday, realized that I had work to turn in for my (bogus) thesis class. I did, on the roof deck, then ran off to Cambridge to meet NS.  I did a great job of failing to follow simple directions, and ended up maybe half-a-dozen blocks North of where I should have been, and was maybe 15 minutes late.  Luckily, NS called me, guided me, and found me, and I now know that I will never again make the mistake of crossing the wrong bridge to cross the Charles: this makes all the difference, really.  We sat in a cafe called Dwelltime, and I pumped him for all I was worth for information and advice about his teaching experience thus far.  I literally just made a few of the changes to my TFA application that he recommended to me.  PF and S met us there, having come from NYC, and we kept on talking back at NS's (very nice) new home.  PF, in contact with MA, made plans with me to meet chez SW that evening, after another visit to Harvard Chabad.  I scurried back to Boston on the subway, told my brother my plans, and ran off to Chabad for Erev Shemini Atzeret.  I finally crossed the Longfellow Bridge this time, and read the sidewalk chalk selections from one of Longfellow's many famous poems.  Because it's Chabad, they did Hakafot on the first night too, so I danced around, and enjoyed myself, and tried not to be worried about nobody else showing up whom I had expected to show up.  Thanks again to NS, I had a map to SW's apartment, and got there a little past eight, waiting for someone else to open the door for me.  It worked, and, hey, I made it!  It was so, so good to see some people who I hadn't seen since Cornell Graduation, back in May!  I ended up talking about my summer, and in retrospect, suspect that I came off as somewhat boastful, although that's not what I had intended.  How can I be boastful when I'm surrounded by such outstanding people, anyway?  I don't have that much about which I can really be that proud...  Oh, and there had been no intention to stand me up: plans just didn't work out as expected.
I walked back to Boston in the rain, got lost (wrong bridge again -- the last time, I swear), and didn't arrive until midnight.  I couldn't ring the bell, and I was settling down to possibly fall asleep in the doorway when, about a quarter to one, someone in the same building of 10 rooms returned, and let me in.  I crawled into bed, and crashed.
I got up on time the next morning to run all the way to Harvard Hillel, and arrive just before 9:00 am, when they started.  I ran just about the whole way.  I got to carry the second Sefer Torah, and got very excited when AS, whom I hadn't expected to see, walked in and stood behind me.  I saw AT, whom I probably wouldn't have recognized if she hadn't jogged my memory.  After kiddush, I led PF and S to Chabad, where they were going to eat, saw SW heading off to lunch, and walked back to Beacon Hill, without getting lost.  I did, however, stop by the synagogue/museum just across the street from his apartment, which is the oldest synagogue in Boston, and managed by a Cornell alumnus, class of '81.  I waited a little outside, and, eventually, someone let me in.  I spend the rest of the afternoon at my brother's afraid of being locked out again.  I also managed to read over 150 pages in my book on France 1940-1944, which was fantastic.  I'm still not as amazing as MA, though, who blows me away.
I barely scraped myself out of bed the next morning, did everything I needed to do on my own, which I could do on the roof deck, read some more, and then left for AT's apartment.  It was excellent to see her, and her guests, and to speak to her about Paris (she also studied abroad with EDUCO).  I also heard a lot more about a first acquaintance's love life than I think I'd ever want to know, but after a few more people arrived, I felt more comfortable.  And, guess what, IL's older sister was there!  She and her husband, who shares my name, came off as extremely friendly (and good at making quiche), although I wish that I had had more time to speak with them.  I left, left for Harvard Hillel again for the rest of the evening, for Mincha-Daf Yomi-Ma'ariv-Havdallah.  I drifted back to Boston after the end of the holiday, walking a few blocks with a guy whom I had met at AT's.  I showered (yes!), completed some applications, solidified my plans for tomorrow morning, checked my e-mail, and wrote this, finishing at around 1:00 am.
Wow, Boston and Cambridge are such wonderful cities, from what I've seen of them!  I wonder if I'll end up living here one day...
~JD