it just gets better

i dont want to belabor the point here, im sure you realize how i dislike traffic, cars, driving, gas, whatever. but today i took my car to the dealership to get the breaks checked (they were squealing). after getting there at 7.30AM, sitting in a waiting room, reimenscent of a doctors office, for 1.5 hours, i finally went to ask my guy carlos what was up.

"there was something wrong with your brakes. you can wait. it will be like 2, maybe 3 hours."

this is on a tuesday mind you, when i should have been at work by 8.30. so i said, "what about that funny engine noise i told you about?"

to which carlos smiled and said, "there is a part that is broken in your engine. we have to order the part, so i dont know, maybe you can wait for the breaks today, then come back tomorrow." and he adds, it will take about 6 hours to install the new part.

lets not forget that the dealership is like 15 miles from work, so there is no way i can just skip off. its in the middle of nowhere land, i hadnt seen this many fast food establishments since i dont know when.

obviously i leave the car, they take me to some random commuter rail, where me and this woman who has open sores all over her arms sits across from me, dabbing at them with a tissue. WHAT? yes its true. by that point i had been up for about 4 hours, drank at least 3 cups of coffee, and was starving. but not after that.

later this afternoon my buddy carlos called and said i wont likely get the car back until actually, thursday afternoon. i mean.... they sold me the car with a broken engine? who does that? at least it will be fixed. really, what can you do? not to sound ridiculous, but when i was waiting in the room for the car to get fixed, they had some copies of the miami herald, so i read all the sections (ok, not sports) and then they had some fluff piece about meditation, relaxation, mindfulness, etc. so all the way to work i was trying to concentrate on the little things. its really just an annoyance you know? thankfully a coworker drove me home in the torrential downpour. ok, so i didnt take this picture, nor is it accurately from today. but picture that half way, on half the roads (i.e., you are certainly somewhat submerged, albeit not half way up your tires). the streets actually look flooded now, entire lanes are full of water. apparently miami has really bad drainage, and most buildings dont have basements bc its impossible to take up whatever natural drainage there is. who knew? it makes me worry about poor louisiana. i cant imagine having to always live worried about floods.

to relax tonight i am making challah bread for the jewish new year, and hoping i can go to bed early. it was slightly traumatic today. that, and i am surely over-stressing about some work. i want it to be perfectly written, which i guess is difficult when you have limited time, patience and focus, on a 50 page memo. ah well. punching the dough did make me feel better, although in retrospect, i think i added one extra yolk. oops!

enough typing. tomorrow is another day, and it most assuredly will be better than this one. (in part because i can feast on some eggy bready deliciousness)

xoxo

New observations on Beantown

I've learned a few new things now that I've been in Boston for about a month:
-People--namely, dudes--hold doors open for you at the 7-Eleven, among other places
-All amenities shut down by 9pm
-Bostonites/Bostonians are crazy about running, day or night, pouring rain or not
-I can't understand anything that comes out of the mouth of anyone wearing a uniform
-People aren't good at being territorial and staking their claims to things

This last one owes to the fact that I was at Kinko's, to run off some 200 pages for my class, and I saw that one of the photocopy machines was free. Off to the side was a guy who was unstapling his pages. I walk up to the copier and am about to use it, but think twice and ask the guy, "Were you about to use this?" Yes, he says, even though he hasn't marked his territory in any way. How was I supposed to know it was being used? Back in NY, someone would have draped their stuff over the copier to "claim" it. Here, people seem to be a little passive about that kind of stuff. I guess you're just supposed to be considerate and all.

I also got yelled at by a police officer yesterday, when I was on a run yesterday. I was trying to cross a footbridge from Cambridge to Boston, but there was this huge funeral procession going down Memorial Drive--I'm talking 50 cars. It must have been someone very prominent, as there were police cars lined up, and traffic being backed up along the street. I saw that there was a break between the cars, and I wanted to keep my pace, and yes, it was a little blasphemous to be interrupting a funeral procession, but I had been jogging in place for the past 5 minutes. I started to dart across, when a policeman yells out, HEY YOU! GET BACK THERE! (although it took me a few moments to decipher what he said through his thick accent), and then I felt really sheepish and dumb, and felt like I was going to go to hell.

Today I almost got hit by a police car that had its sirens blasting as he DROVE UP ONTO THE SIDEWALK. WTF?

Anyway, that's all for now. Annie, I'm really sorry to hear about your car fiasco. It kind of sounds like you've been dealing with a bunch of sheisty salesmen, but I'm glad you made them get you free gas! Hell's yeah. I think the only other consolation for the asshole driving you have to put up with, is that one day you'll learn to drive like that, too.

love, p

ok, so today didnt suck as much. i guess its still very difficult to adjust to living somewhere where you know relatively few people, and the seemingly non-existent cultural/walking around/public transportation thing is still really strange to me. first - the above picture is from the "farmers market" last week on lincoln road, which, whilst pretty, really consisted of 2 vendors. (the same two who, also, were at the saturday farmers market two blocks from my house.). i took this picture as a strange comparison to what one expects when they go to union square greenmarket, or really any greenmarket in ny (usually full of produce this time of year). enough whining about that.

the first week of work went pretty well, although i did take a little bit of my writing home to edit this weekend, and everytime i edit a few pages, i want to take a nap. sound familiar to anyone? everyone is very friendly, the hours arent horrible, and the work is great. they're sending me to atlanta for training sometime in october, which is exciting. at least, a change of pace. and it will be nice to meet others in the same position.

now on to my attempt to explain the other day.

my trauma began when i wanted to go get some gas so i could drive to the wynwood arts district, and calle ocho (i.e., little havana) to walk around & check it out. however, upon getting to the hess station, i could not open my gas screw-top thing, you know, where you put the gas in. (im sure there is a word for it, but whatever. the cap). anyway it wont open. i feel like an idiot. i read the manual. nothing. so i call my dealership, to which they respond, oh, come here and we will give you the key. THANKS guys, it would have been nice to have it when i bought the car but whatever.

so i drive there, full of the maniacs on the road, everyone NOT signaling, no one letting me change lanes, aggressive assholes, miss my exit, i am in the "red" for fuel, etc etc. i even had to turn off the radio i was such a frantic little mouse. anyway i finally make it. at which point, the mechanics decide they have to literally break the cap off, and give me a new one. um. ok. so they break it off, meanwhile, its been like 2 hours since i left my house, and nothing fun has happened. so once thats all over, i demand free gas to which they aquiese, and then the guy who broke the cap off for me tells me to make an appt to have my breaks looked at because they "squeak." now, i dont know much about cars, obviously, but i knew what he meant, and he said "you know, get them checked out, since you still have the 30 day warranty." which makes me think, oh god? is something wrong? meaning i should return this car?". so i say, ok, can you look at it now? and he laughs, says to make an appointment, you know, during the week, business hours.... which im sure, to my luck, is from like 9-5 when im supposed to be working anyway. i predict a lunch hour in the future being very frustrating. cars. so annoying.

this leads me to be panicked, but in an effort to save the day & what is left of my sanity, i decide to make it still to wynwood to see some galleries. ok, so i found a few good places, got to walk around, felt more calm. but still, no one was anywhere, and they all had to buzz me in - as if they dont want people walking in off the streets. fine, im sure that happens everywhere, it just felt very spooky. also, parts of the area were sketchy, to say the least, and the galleries were relatively spread out, but i was satisfied with what i was able to see. they do have "second saturdays" where all the galleries are open and apparently people actually go see the art, which will be nice. its just a strange transition, thats all.

it all just felt like a larger wash than i was expecting, but then i took a long run up the beach and felt infinitely better. this morning, the cheer continued when i saw it wasnt raining (yet ) and got to lay on the beach for a few hours (with my memo, nonetheless, but it made for somewhat enjoyable working time). to make you jealous is the following:


yes, me on the beach, the gold bikini top. HA!

and the pretty beach. i mean, when its nice out, its great. but then it rained a bit, and now its all gray and gross out, so here i am in the apt pretending to work before i force another run. i supposed i should get back to work. i will continue to try to not be crabby and cranky about being here, there are always better times and worse times, anywhere. its just a matter of settling into a routine im sure. so with that, back to it.

suck

so far, miami sucks. that is all i have to say right now.
details later.

workin girl

today was my second day at work. yes! i am like everyone else and their mom now, no longer a student. thankfully its something i know how to do (legal) and not something i dont know (buying cars or beds).

i am definitely not used to driving anywhere, let alone to work in the morning, and leaving 45 minutes for a 20 minute trip... mother fuckers. at the same time, i feel like i am slowly working up to having a bizzaro alternate life suburban style. let me tell you. at least when you wait for the subway, you know you can nap, listen to your ipod, read or zone out. in a car, you have to watch out for those people who never signal (um... i think miami rivals ny in that dept), along with multiple stop lights, bumper-to-bumper traffic across the causeway from miami beach to miami downtown, all the while with the little navigation system telling me i missed my turn... again! (it would be a lot more effective if it actually told me which way to "exit indian road" - left or right???).( but really, id be even more lost without it)... and, i must admit, i do enjoy listening to npr in the car, so, you know, makin the best of it.

work so far is great, the case i have was a little daunting at first (everytime anything i read has to do with a corporation, i literally see my mind turning off like OH i hate you guys.... and then i realize its now my job to focus on such things and make them more legal than socio-political...at least in this sense). coworkers are also great so far, another one starts next month; its kind of weird at any point though walking into a small office where everyone already knows each other. but, then again, everyone is making me as comfortable as possible. the coffee in the cafe downstairs is horrendous, and theres really nothing in walking distance (believe me, you dont want to walk more than 2 blocks when its 100% humidity and 90 degrees), so i am suffering from, i admit, coffee nostalgia of either a dunkin donut or even starbucks. preferably where they carry soy milk.

also another amazing thing i have recently engaged in is the gym downstairs in my apt building. yes, its small, but it was so convenient yesterday to come home to grab a quick snack and stay in the building for a run. again, like weird suburban pseudo life.

thats all going on with me and my amstel light. i have to get my tv hooked up because i miss my gossip girls (well both the real ones and the show), and i must must must see the obama/mccain debate friday night. AND - hilarious - i cant go do to my job but cynthia nixon is hosting an obama fundraiser saturday night in... south beach! how crazy is that. if only i could actually express a political view..., not to pressure you patty but you should certainly watch the debate if you can, it should be very cool or at least interesting.

all this financial mess that is happening right now makes me think the whole "free market economy" is even more b.s. than i used to. yes, free market, make your profits, until you need help--- and then ask us to subsidize your enormous profits & risk taking, without seeing any benefit. i wonder what the climate right now is like in ny with the financial markets, like how all those mba students are feeling right about now... well, hopefully it will clear up sooner or later and actually be regulated so that no more serious messes happen for a while (subprime... bad credit default swaps.. and various swap insurances. who even knew i knew that right?? i thank npr!).

OK! enough typing. im going to take a little stroll.

xo

Congrats on your new car! Your pose reminded me of that episode of America's Next Top Model where they all had to dress up like pinups and model next to the car. So hot.

As I was reading over your last blog posts (thanks again for the big cheer up, by the way!), where you wrote:

<>

and you seemed to echo my thoughts exactly. Last night I spent the night watching the OC on Hulu.tv while feeling sorry for myself (because my writing got ripped in workshop, etc etc). It's weird to not have the same kind of lifestyle, where every minute there's something going on.

After putting in seven hours of writing, tonight I just got back from a house party hosted by this kid I went to swarthmore with. I knew no one there, but I've noticed that everyone in Boston is really friendly and accomodating. After a quick stopover at Anna's Taqueria for burritos, the rest of the party went on to do Korean karaoke. I needed to catch the T home (which stops running around midnight), so I made my excuses and headed home.

Earlier today, I went to this Boston running group I found online, where I was invited to breakfast after a 5 mile run, and I met a bunch of people there, too. Slowly but surely, I think my social circle will start to spread (for better or for worse!). I'm certain once you start work, the same will happen too...

Soak up the sun for me, please! Boston is freezing.

saturday events

me and my nuevo coche! pues.... mi solo coche.

it was a horrible experience im still not sure i want to fully report on, but i just have to say, car dealers are just as sketch as people say - except now they dont look like total dweebs or nerds wearing polyester- they try to fool you by being nice and funny and cute and talking about their families. but in the end, same slimeyness.

this morning i woke up and didnt really know what to do with myself. i felt very urgent only about one thing - getting to the beach. for some reason, i always think its going to pour and so there was this immediacy in getting out the door. after sweating and getting all salty and dehydrated, i went to the local farmers market, where i bought a delicious smelling fruit --- guava! it is so aromatic. i dont think ive ever had one before, because canned fruit cocktails dont count. otherwise, i was rather skeptical that any of the "farmers" were actually farmers. but, for the first time since getting her on monday, i finally saw citrus fruits that were not exorbantly priced. so of course i grabbed a few of those too. theres supposedly a larger, more famous local farmers market down at south beach tomorrow, on lincoln road (its basically a pedestrian street that is perpendicular to the beach, full of fancy shops/outdoor cafes but apparently the farmers grub it up on sundays... cant wait!).

then i went into the design district, after a recommendation to do so by benjamin, and found that it was actually pretty empty. i guess everyone was still at the beach. there were a few streets just full of fancy home & design stores, but most were closed. i saw maybe 2 people walking on the street. there are also art galleries over there, and they have a 2nd saturday gallery night, which i will definitely make, but no one was around at all. oh well. then i came home and went for a run on the beach. i guess a girl cant complain.

of course, work starts on monday so i shouldnt be too bored much longer. but its very strange being somewhere where you are busy every single night, with friends, with activities, with events, museums, whatever- even the opportunities - to being somewhere where you literally dont know anyone. dont get me wrong, im sure it will be a great experience and that i will love my job, but for right now, its still all very surreal.

im off to make some dinner with my farmers market booty. till next time!

trash

dont listen to that trash. maybe he is one of those instructors who is really negative and most critical of those he thinks have the most potential. if in the end of the day, it makes you work harder, i am sure you will come away better, even if by seeing that you can handle a righteous, nasty old professor. i hope you know that you're more than that. and plus, if it makes you feel better, i think i spent the greater part of thursday crying, due to trauma and other variables, so a good cry is oftentimes the best way to let it out, get over the hump, and then turn psycho-focused until you do what you need to do, to make yourself feel better. you will feel so much better once this is all over. AND - you could always request a private appointment to set your feelings straight if you feel he is being overly non-sensitive. i mean, thats what they are paid for - office hours.

i still remember a professor i had for creative writing workshop in college. i thought his writing sucked, and he had this horrible, lilting colonial accent from south africa, that everytime i heard it i thought "racist!". is that bad? i mean, i hated him. and, he could never actually give good or valuable feedback, yet would spend hours talking about someone else's crap to make them feel better. i never got it. well, i sure showed him, you know, by being published. (what? oh right. not really).

i have a ton of stories to tell you but i am pooped and its way too late, i couldnt stop myself from watching weeds on dvd, that show is quite entertaining. plus, i am always startled by how hot mary louise parker is. really!

well, i hope by the time you read this miss park you feel better. hang in there. we are all sending our good vibes your way.

xo

Cry baby cry

I could not believe it. I was the first person to break down in class. I CRIED IN MY FICTION WORKSHOP. I'm an adult, and yet I started wailing like a f*ckin baby. Blame it on the birth control, as it makes me super emotional. But my instructor Leslie (who also persecutes me for having a slightly different political view from him) , started ripping on my short story, telling me how it was too much in the vernacular, about how he didn't understand why my Korean-American characters were talking in "assimilated language," even though they are all American. He thought the best dialogue was from the mother, who said things like, "You have same age, you play together. You have the good time," a la Margaret Cho's mother.

He told me my characters were uninteresting, that the dialogue needed to be cut because right now it wasn't interesting at all, and the one white dude who appears in the story was too much of a caricature. There basically was nothing redeeming about something I put my blood, sweat, and tears into doing. He said it was flat, and uninteresting, and there you have it.

I've taken countless workshops in the past, and I've NEVER started crying like that. I don't know whether the tears were out of indignation, that this old Jewish man who knew nothing about the Asian American experience, could just reduce the whole bit to "Otherized" language. Or maybe it was that my ego spontaneously combusted after attack after attack after attack. Or maybe it was because all of the other stories we've done in class have been praised to the high heavens by him, and my story was just torn to shreds. It was like, someone told you that the way you breathe is wrong, and that you either have to relearn it, or you won't cut it in this world. I know we "writerly" types are an overly sensitive bunch, but it still made for one hell of a sh*tty day.

AMAZING!

where you ever knew about or found that boy band shit is unbelievable. i watched the whole thing. and considered doing it again. !!! i wish my car shopping was as entertaining. instead, it was all about dealers trying to take advantage. i went to law school right? i should be rational right? but they just push you so hard- at both places i went to, they kept trying to get me to sign things, and i was like, no no no, i am not signing anything until i finish my research. i bet they hate people like me.

so there i was worrying about money, financing, blue book values, what consumer reports would say, reliability, warranties.... and 2 families walk into the showroom, go right over to the most expensive 2008 models, used, still over 30k, and independently decide to buy them (for, im scared to say, their teenage sons, who were also there, wearing ill fitting wifebeaters- think, long island, but in miami). sure, i shouldnt be judgmental, but it reminded me of my super sweet 16 on MTV. (and, please note, i tried to get a link like you patty, but unfortch they just have videos of actual people's sweet 16s, which seemed both weird and creepy to be on the internet).

the best part of the day? i had an amazing lunch especial of grilled beef, beans & rice, plaintains, fried pork bits, and a fried egg. now that made me happy. (thankfully, it also sufficed for dinner).

i would go more into the car thing but it has totally drained me. i am still super impressed with your reaching out and running with others, maybe i will do the same once i can stop stressing about vehicles and transportation.

now back to work, you!

The beloved, forgotten boy band 2GEtHER

Hey Annie, I'm glad you're nearly all settled in, and furniture will soon no longer be an issue. I know zilch about cars, and even less about the used car market, but I can only hope you don't get a used salesman like the band members of 2Gether, that short-lived MTV mock-boy band. Check out their "hit" "single" The Hardest Part of Breaking Up Is Getting Back Your Stuff, where the boys are at a used car lot. The one on the left is Chris Farley's brother.

As for me, I've been looking up running clubs in the Boston area, and tomorrow I am crashing the Cambridge Athletic Club's Fri night Charles RIver fun run--it's 4 miles, and hopefully it will end in laughs and pints of beer. I also signed up for a Meetup.com group of Boston-area runners that do a 6miler + breakfast every Saturday morning. I have no idea who these people are, but it will definitely be a back to back adventure in Cambridge. I only hope I can keep up and I won't be shamed by my slow running.

You're probably a little too frazzled at the moment to give thought to this just yet, but I've lately been kind of feeling like, I don't really have friends in this city, and maybe that's okay because I'm not here to make friends. You know, like what all the reality TV show people say. Back in NY, I'd be double-booked every night of the weekend, and would go out nearly every weekday night as well. In Boston, I don't have any lunch dates, or happy hour drinks (also because the blue laws in this state prohibit happy time specials), or 4 birthday parties every wknd that I have to go to. It's kind of nice not having to answer to anybody but myself, but I can imagine that it will probably get lonely soon.

Well, that's that. The Benjamin/Bakhtin/Lukacs paper is done, and I must get back to this short story I've been attempting.

Hope today goes well!
love, P

nails

i need some of those too. but trust me, if i had an alternative (i.e., anything other than the floor) i might not have been so hasty in the bed arena. although, truth be told, im on it right now and its quite lovely. pillow top this!! im actually a little afraid what my economy of movement will mean when i try to buy a car tomorrow - i.e., as quick as possible. so not looking forward to used car salesmen, but what can you do?

i too went on a nice run (on the beach!). when i was done & stretching, i thought, oh look at all the shells, i should collect some for my sister. and then i remembered that i live here and can collect them whenever, no rush. this was both a nice thing (who doesnt like running on the beach) and a sad thing (sometimes you miss home). how about this miss park? you train for your marathon boston style, and i will try to keep up with you.

other than assembling ikea things today, i took a brief walk around the neighborhood, which includes an *IHOP* (yes!!!!), various restaurants, some stores, etc. and, i also found out that there is a farmers market 3 blocks away on saturdays, which i am very much looking forward to. since i got here ive been eating way too many meals out of containers, be they frozen or refridgerated, but then again, its hard to plan a meal these days for some reason. maybe its because i am still intimidated by the large publix supermarket. ah well.

good luck on your work & story! just squirrel yourself away, you will be fine. and dont forget to take tea breaks of course!

xo

The economics of buying a mattress

Hey Annie,
I am impressed by your efficiency in the score of one day! Makes you wonder how much people can get done instead of lying around on the couch, which is exactly what I did promptly after my last class. I was depressed because I had to read Georg Lukacs' Theory of the Novel, and by "depressed" I actually mean I wanted to hurl the book across the room and demand that the guy (now long dead) write some clear, lucid prose for once in his goddamned life. But I digress.

I was amazed as well by your definitive action when it came time for you to buy a bed. I was ridiculously stingy in that pursuit, and I chronicle my 2-day mattress adventure in my secret other blog The Supermarket . As for me, the only product I keep putting off purchasing is nails. That's right, NAILS. They are like a dollar for 30 of them. I just haven't gotten around to doing it.

I haven't seen much of Boston today, save a 6 mile run I did yesterday along the Charles, where I criss-crossed the MIT bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, and ran back to BU. This seems to take me an hour, because my legs have just decided to give up on me and not push any further. I was supposed to go for another run today, but I took a depressed nap (see above).

Wish me luck on the dumb Walter Benjamin paper I have due tomorrow, along with a 15p short story for Monday which I have yet to start...!

thank god for gps

this post, unlike patty's, will not use big words or reference theories, even if to show i am resentful of them. in fact, this post could make me have an inferiority complex with the northen contingency, being that it is all about *shopping*.

this morning i woke up and decided it was time to get a bed, furniture, and minor appliances. i think i might have broke some world records at about 10AM when i walked into a furniture store, demanded a bed under $500, briefly felt the mattress, and turned my credit card over. you know what i felt like? an american. well, ok, at least those americans who constantly buy things they cant afford.

next - ikea. i plugged the address into this little handy gps device, it took me all around the mulberry bush, and into the swedish furniture delight depot. i thought maybe there was a problem once i filled up an entire shopping cart, but still hadnt even gotten to the furniture. it was hectic. it was stressful. and, if i ever dare go there again, i will remember that there is really NO need to go through the fake part where all the rooms are set up. its much easier to find what you want in the catalogue, and then just head directly to the huge aisles full of boxes. i felt like i wasted hours and hours there, which im sure is a commonality for all ikea-goers. the swedish meatballs were, as always, delicious.

feeling like i didnt have enough insanity in my day, i unloaded the car and then decided it was time for target. i mean, i needed a coffee maker. but that trip suddenly took 2 hours as well. i think the common theme here is that as a new yorker, whenever i have the opportunity to go into a large, box store such as ikea or target, or even a big supermarket, i just dont know how to pare it down. i need to write lists! i came out of target not only with the electric screwdriver necessary to assemble ikea things tomorrow, but also canned soup, granola bars, natural cleaning products, toothpaste, the coffee maker, and a stereo. so... the moral of the story is... im not sure. make a list? or just give myself 2 hours to buy one item.

so its one more night on the old floor/sleeping bag combo, and then tomorrow i get a bed. next up in this wild adventure is ... buying a car. so.... that should be interesting.

to end, a few things about miami that i noticed today:
(1) people are pretty friendly, always saying hello, introducing themselves etc, at least in my condo building (although it seems everyone has a dog, which makes me want one...)
(2) when i was driving this morning, i remembered how absolutely beautiful it is here - with all the palm trees, sunshine, greenness.
(3) and - then suddenly it will start to pour - which happened when i was driving around. out of nowhere, the sky opens up, it rains, and then stops ,and its gorgeous again.
(4) i still have not made it to the beach, which is, i think, blashphemy. AND--- i was horrified to find out that my pool is under renovations & wont be open for another month or two. now THAT is blasphemy. (hopefully this means it will be open once all of you come to visit).

ok, not really a short list but there you go. apparently i am a chatterbox. till next time...

Revelations on a little place called Boston

I don't know yet that I would ascribe titles like Bostonian or Bostonite upon myself anytime soon. I am through and through a New Yorker, and inefficiencies--such as people taking up too much room as they walk on the sidewalk--as well as deficiencies--the T closing at midnight--drive me nuts. That being said, I find myself continuing to enjoy this little place they call Boston.

First, a note about the title: dialogics. Comes from a dude named Mikhail Bakhtin, who--even though he's dead--has yet to master writing sentences shorter than one paragraph. To distill his thoughts grossly, it's the idea that there are multiple voices and languages functioning concurrently, and some bit about heteroglossia. Blahbiddy blah blah bullshite.

My first impression of this city is that it is quaint, in a non-condescending sort of way. Neighborhoods which were so clearly delineated in maps all seem to bleed into each other, and within the same ten minute walk you traverse 3 neighbohoords, e.g., from South Station to Chinatown to Beacon Hill.

All of the non-academic people here (read: blue-collar) look Irish. So far, I'm the darkest person I've seen in this city.

Boston is also expensive, in a way that even I--as a New Yorker--am shocked to see. Red apples are more than two dollars a pound. Watermelon--whole--fetches 89 cents a pound (you can get organic watermelon--sliced--for almost half that amount). Regular yellow onions fetch ONE DOLLAR SEVENTY-NINE CENTS a freakin pound. We're talking non-organic, non-gourmet, regular old supermarket. Back in Brooklyn, you could knock a dollar off of those prices.

I continue to be baffled by the T, or the trolley/subway system for the MBTA. In the above-ground stations (which is where I am, at St. Mary's St), all of the doors open. Yet the conductors are only at the front of the cars. How do they dissuade people from sneaking on in the back to avoid paying the fare? When do you ring for your stop, and when does the T just make each and every stop? How do people know where the station stops are, when many times they are just arbitrary spots on the side of the tracks, with no platform or signage or shelter structure?

Many more insights to come, but just some initial impressions.

Annie--buena suerte for getting through your first day! I thought the Latinos in NYC all assumed everyone around them knows Spanish--I can only imagine what it must be like down in Miami. Once you look up from all of your soon-to-be-unpacked boxes, however, I'm sure you'll get to get out there and discover all of the glories of the city: Cuban sandwiches, salsa dancing, bottled blondes salsa dancing, Spandex... it's going to be great!

love,
Patty

the first one

there is one fluorescent light on in my apartment and i am sitting on a sleeping bag with an alarm clock and various other electronics plugged in. its hard to unpack when you have just gotten somewhere - earlier i felt a little manic about it but now im just plain exhausted.

the good news is that my apartment feels much bigger than i remembered. i love having open space! yet, full of boxes.

the bad news is that my apartment feel big because its only full of boxes, not furniture. hopefully tomorrow i will tackle the bed situation (at least!). me and my sleepaway camp slumber bag havent hung out in a while, but im sure we will quickly reacquaint ourselves.

some minor miami revelations for the night:
(1) everyone speaks spanish, and assumes you do too
(2) customer service isnt really a strong point (i.e., at two separate times today - i was in a store where there was only one cashier with a line of 20 people waiting, whilst the checkout woman has lengthy, prolonged conversations in spanish with each customer).
(3) the grocery stores sell wine (yes!)
(4) so far, more men hold doors open.
(5) it is always 95 degrees and humid. (ok fine so i havent been here that long, im just saying. it feels like it!).

anyway more to come tomorrow - hopefully the northen contingency will say hello in the meantime.