Boston: Part One - Sound

Considering that I am not actually living in Boston proper, it never occured to me that the sounds of Brookline would be all that different from Ann Arbor. I was wrong.

First, though it doesn't look it, Summit Ave is apparently quite the throughway. At intervals throughout the day (though i only tend to notice them at night when i am trying to sleep) there is a really noisy vehicle that drives past the apartment. Where i live faces the street, and my room is a sidewalk and a pair of bushes away from the street, so every car that drives by basically sounds like it is driving through my room. So, at these intervals, a bus drives down the street, shattering the otherwise relative quiet of the night.

Second, between 1-1:15am every night a street cleaner (?) drives by. If I thought the bus was loud, this thing is ridicuous. At least that is only a once a night occurence though, and we all know how often I am sleeping at 1 in the morning.

Third, and definitely the most entertaining between my roommates and I, are the upstairs neighbors who, night and day, every day since i've been here, sound like they are rearranging all of the furniture in the place, racing elephants, and then moving the furniture back...repeat. The stomping and clomping, and droping shit never stops. And then when they come out into the stairwell, they are always talking really loud. Tonight Bree tried yelling up at them to keep it down, and though we can't be sure if they heard us, it only seemed to make the stomping worse. We are all hoping they are either moving in or out, and that they are not just obsessive compulsive furniture rearrangers.

Last, and most interesting to me, is the fact that I can hear the train from my window. Ever night, as i'm reading, or typing, or, on occassion, trying to go to sleep before 1am, i hear the bell as the train pulls up, the doors decompress (or whatever the hissing sound that train and bus doors make), and then the automated voice telling what stop the train is at. Then, the doors close, and the train pulls away. It was funny the first night i heard it because it took me a second to figure out why I was hearing a man's voice in the middle of the night when i hadn't heard anyone walking by.

Oh, and on a random note, a sound that has been quite prevelant since Friday has been the rain. I think there has only been one day since i got here that it hasn't rained. But I'm sure it is the season.

And those are the sounds of my new place.

P.S. I don't actually live near the D train, but i do live near the green line, and i couldn't find a better pitcture, and i haven't found a place to scan in pictures i've taken, so its really just a pictorial representation :)

I've Arrived

It's been two days caravan, another day unpacking, and then a week in Cape Cod with the family, but I've finally arrived, and my room is finally starting to resemble a room. All the boxes are unpacked, and almost everything is in its new place.

So, my apartment. Since I don't yet have a way to scan pictures into my computer, I will have to settle for describing the place the old fashioned way. Without further ado, the walking tour of my new place. As you walk in the front door, you are in a large room that serves as the living room and dining room - the living room with large front window to your right, and the dining room to your left, both rooms separated by a large archway. As you turn to your left and enter the dining room, the kitchen is the first doorway on your left. If you come back into the living room, there is a hallway (now on your left, but always directly across from the front door) that leads to the three bedrooms and the bathroom. The first door to the right as you walk down the hallway is my room. It is long and narrow, with the bed on the back wall, and the other two walls lined with chests and my computer desk. And of course, one of the papzzans is in attendence (don't worry, the other and original, is still serving me well in the living room). If you continue down the hall, the next room on the right belongs to my roommate Brianne, the one on the back wall is Ali's, and the door to your left is the bathroom. And that is my place in a nutshell.

Now, the most popular question I've been getting is "how is Boston?" Sad to say, i've not really gotten into the city much, so really have no stories so far on that front (alhtough stay tuned for tales from the PubKids bar night, a week from Wednesday). However, i have gotten a chance to look around Brookline (the city that appears in my address) and it is really nice. Within about a three blocks radius, there are stores for any and all of your day to day needs, complete with a really cool art theatre - where i saw Little Miss Sunshine, an absolutely adorable movie that i would recommend to anyone. Then, if I want to travel a bit more, it is about a mile walk to the Fenway area, which is where i will be coaching soccer. In that neck of the woods is an AMC and a Best Buy (the important things to know about), but also several other stores. There may not be any malls around here, but i am seeing how people shop in cities.

So, other than unpacking and applying for jobs, i have found some time to have fun. Yesterday, Ali invited me to her coworkers Barbeque. It was quite fun, and I got to meet all the people Ali works with (as well as the Turkish...or at least he said he'd lived in Istanbul...roommate of Nano, one of her coworkers - and yes, one of his nicknames is IPod). There was lots of good food, including shiskabobs, dumplings, fried chip things, sushi, chicken wings, potato salad, and hot dogs, and after eating we all went swimming. Or, at least the boys swam, and Ali, Vivien and I chilled in the shallow end and chatted. Then, after awhile, it was decided that we should play soccer. For all of you who thing soccer is a low scoring game, let me just say that we played to 25 and the final score was 25-24 (i was on the winning team :D). After that we rested while eating slices of a chocolate, strawberry and cream cake, ane then called it a day. The adventure was not yet over though, because we still had the drive home. The barbeque was in Andover, so we were already quite a ways from home, but then we got a bit lost driving back on the 93. We got far enough south that we started seeing signs for Providence Rhode Island. I must say, it harkened back to the Gaelic League trip, where we came home via Toledo. Finally, about an hour and a half later though, we made it home and promptly crashed. The night finished watching Sugar and Spice (an incredibly cracked out movie).

So yes, that has been my time so far. While the free time is nice, and certainly necessary, I am anxious for school to start so that I will have a bit of structure. This place is quite intimidating to just go exploring without a destination. And expecially after having all of next week of, I'm sure i will be ready to get back into a routine.

Until next time...