Grad School Orientation

As soon as we got back to Boston from Louisville, we fell straight into the chaos that is grad school orientation. Since Chuck and the other LGOs have been in school since June, it seemed weird that they were going through orientation a second time.  But this time instead of 48 of them, there are hundreds of them. All of the grad students are on campus now as well as the undergrads and the atmosphere is much different than the summer. Immediately when we came back, Chuck was busy all day long with activities and classes, I was busy with work, and then almost every night there was some sort of gathering, outing, dinner, etc etc etc. I can't tell you how many events we've gone to in the last two weeks that had free food and free alcohol for the grad students and their SOs, and I know Chuck has been to even more events without me where there was more of the same.

Here are some of the things we've done since we got back to Boston.

- Slowly but surely we've settled in to our Married apartment. (Blog on that coming soon.)
- Tuesday after Labor Day we went on a boat cruise in the harbor with all of the "Sloanies" (nickname here for the MIT MBA students because they go to the Sloan Business School.)  There were so many of us we had to take two boats, the Spirit of Boston and the Odyssey.  Our boat was the Odyssey. Typically on a Tuesday night, a dinner cruise on this boat is around $91.90 per person. We paid $15! The food was amazing, and though I got a little seasick at one point, we had a blast cutting a rug on the dance floor with all the LGOs.

I called my mom while on the boat to wish her a happy birthday. I told her I was on a boat and her response was "Are you wearing a life jacket?" That question was really funny to me considering I was on a huge dinner cruise wearing a dress and heels and my mom was probably picturing me on some sort of tiny sailboat in a t-shirt.

 
- One night Chuck and the Sloanies had some sort of candle walk down the Charles River, followed by, of course, free food and drinks at the Sloan building to welcome them officially as Sloanies, while at the same time I hit up a Sloan SOs event at a local restaurant called Mead Hall where there was, yep you guessed it, free food.
- It wouldn't be a complete week at MIT without some Thursday evening karaoke at The Thirsty Ear. The girl that runs karaoke now knows Chuck by name. Though he doesn't want to admit it, he's building quite a fanbase at The Thirsty Ear.

- We went to our first Red Sox game, for free! We keep hearing that the Sox are really bad this year and we got to see why. At some points I felt like we were watching a Little League game. Or the Cubs. Same thing. (I'm a Cubs fan so I can make that joke.)

 A lot about Boston and Cambridge is different now that school is back in session for colleges all over the city. Campus is packed, there are young people all over the place in Boston, the train is packed, everyone is back in their routines, and according to the weather lately, we may have seen the last of our hot summer days. I'm excited though for the newness of it all. Except for the packed train thing. I could do without that.

Train etiquette

I've been riding the T a lot here in Boston. I follow all of the common sense etiquette rules that are true to most public places. Let people off the T before getting on, if the train is pretty empty, don't sit right next to someone- respect their personal space, don't sneeze on people, etc etc. But there is one bit of etiquette I've learned here in Boston that is very different from how things work in Louisville.

NO MATTER WHAT- DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH ANYONE. This is something I struggled with a lot at first because in Louisville, often times when I was walking around downtown I would make eye contact with a stranger and they would smile and say "How ya doin'?" Cause southerners are just nice like that.

But on the train in Boston? Totally different story. Making eye contact with people makes them uncomfortable, sometimes angry, and gives you away as a non-native. Instead of looking around, you should either read a book, stare at your phone even though there's no service underground, or just stare at the ground or the ceiling.

There is ONE and ONLY one exception to this no eye contact rule. And that is- you are allowed to make eye contact if the person you are staring at is holding a baby. In that case, you can make eye contact, smile, and even in some cases TALK to them about the baby and how cute he/she is. This puzzled me for awhile because it contradicted everything I thought I knew, but I guess it makes sense. Because no matter who you are, everyone likes a cute baby.

I'm not sure why no one likes to make eye contact. I do know though, that the people here aren't mean, and I have evidence. One day on the train, I sneezed and a stranger across from me said "Bless you." Three different times, I've seen people start to fall when the train moves and they're standing and not holding onto a pole- and people all around them jump to catch the person and keep them from falling down. See? They're secretly nice. It's all an act to live up to the stereotype that northerners are rude or mean. But I'm on to them. Can't fool me, you secretly nice northerners!

Train > car (in Boston)

Some time ago, Chuck and I decided we would not bring cars with us to Boston. With the cost of parking, gas, insurance, registration, etc., we decided a monthly train pass would save us a lot of money and a lot of headaches. So far, I'm really happy with our decision. I mean, REALLY happy. This is what Boston traffic looks like pretty much all hours of the day.

Last weekend while our parents were here, we got a chance to ride around the city running errands, sight seeing, and finding the nearest Walmart, Target, IKEA, and more.  And let me just say, it was crazy. I feared for our lives every time we were in the car. Boston roads are nothing like Louisville roads. There are basically NO traffic rules here, except that bikers and pedestrians seem to have the right of way in all cases.

There are bikers EVERYWHERE. There are pedestrians EVERYWHERE. There are rotaries and tunnels and bridges and intersections that split into 7-10 different routes.  Sometimes there are roads with no real lanes. It's just every man for himself.  In Louisville, there are signs everywhere that say "NO U-turn."  Here, there are designated places to do U-turns. Like, they encourage them!

Oh, and I failed to mention that while you are navigating the roads with no lanes as you go through a tunnel under a river, dodging bikers and looking for signs for your exit, you're probably also being honked at. There's lots of honking here. All of this makes me very glad that we're using public transportation.  So far it has been extremely convenient and easy. But riding the T is apparently a whole different kind of adventure. Someone we met here mentioned she once saw a clown in full costume and make-up get on the T with a unicycle. I kind of can't wait to see something like that.