Journey to Boston

I have forgotten the true essence of the US domestic red eye flying experience. The brusqueness for the TSA officials, the wondering around in socks looking for your bags after Xray, the negoltiations with the food vendors to see if your food could be zapped warm, and the search for wireless... I didn't find free wireless in the Pittsburgh airport, but did find a lovely desk area to work at – well until I was firmly but politely told that that area was closed as the last flight has already left that gate. My flight was out of the gate next door which was full of people, so it felt like a very honest mistake that I wandered over to the open area, but perhaps there were secret signs that I missed regarding the 'closed' nature of gate 28. I seem to miss a lot of invisible signs of proper behaviour when traveling in the USA. It must be very scary if you don't speak English!

At 3 am, on my watch, I was very ready for a shower... as was my plane.
I have never seen a plane this dirty in my life. The inside was quite clean though, and as much as I tried to remember my limited aviation knowledge, I couldn't really think of anything seriously wrong with flying a dirty plane. I just hoped it didn't speak to poor maintenance. It was entertaining to see the 'wash me' wing note with the ever changing background of clouds and fall foliage below.

As always, I was happy to see Boston revealing through my small porthole above the wing.

I am finding on this trip that I am most enjoying the places I've already lived. The other places are lovely in terms of seeing friends and understanding their daily lives and the spaces they move through, but they aren't as interesting in an of themselves as places I've lived, hope to live, or overseas travels where I know it is unlikely that I'll ever be lucky enough to return.

Conference

Much of my trip to Boston was centered around the ASHA convention held at the Boston Convention Centre.

This is a sea of mostly women bustling between free food lines, exhibition booths, and lecture sessions. I suspect there were over 10,000 people in attendance and lots of lines: Lines for food, for coffee, and at the end of the day for shuttle buses to hotels and transit. As bad as I felt for the women standing in line, I felt very proud that I was comfortable walking about Boston on my own. I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing, but with enough chatting to strangers I found myself to the T station. I think it took me 5 minutes to walk to the front of the bus line, and another quick paced 10 minutes splashing through puddles to get to the train.

This knowledge proved helpful because my printed poster ended up missing a couple pieces.
This meant that I had to go every night to Kendall Square to the copy shop to drop off, proof, and eventually pick up my poster. It was the size of a large pillow due to a sizing problem, but oh well. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses. The conference can be beyond overwhelming, but each time I know more people and find the frantic pace of decision-making of organizing your time there easier. Networking becomes much easier now that I often know someone within each group I want to break into. I'm still shy and awkward, but I held my own in at least 2 conversations with bigwigs in my field with blushing, stammering, or completely embarrassing myself. More important, I felt that I had enough worth to actually ask them questions – yea me!

Here are some shots of the exhibition and poster hall

and one of the wine and dine parties afterwards

New England Fall Imagery

What can I say... fall is absolutely bueatiful in New England. Even though I arrived after the peak colour had past, I fell in love with Boston all over again. Fall greets you as you fly in and throughout your journey around New England.



It is so hard for me to imagine that at one time the entire area had been stripped of trees and there was a serious shortage of wood for cooking, heat, and building. I can't imagine this land without trees, for me its what makes New England what it is. The leaves, weather, and trees is are so linked with America's symbolic Halloween and Thanksgiving images, even if few of us live in an area that matches. It was a treat to be here at this time of year.

Now, as lovely as the trees are, you must keep in mind that temperatures are brisk. There isn't the wind here as you have in Wellington, but the tempartures are low and there is enough wind to make you crave a warm drink or good food. I didn't actually get to stop into several of my favourite spots to warm myself, but I was so happy to see that they are still there!



Before venturing on to see more of the city.

Boston Changes

On my last day, I took some time to just wonder around Cambridge to visit old haunts. I was amazed by how much change I saw in only a year...The alley by Club Passim was paved. I used to love to sit on the curbside listening to the folk music on sold out nights watching the rain drip and pool in the willy-woggy cobblestone. It used to look more like this:

But now is all smooth and bland... I am sure its better in some ways, but I loved how it was.The Green House restaurant, known for its mile high cakes (and honestly so-so diner food) is now boarded up. I don’t know if they are remodeling or what, but I loved to go in there. It just seemed like one of the few remaining bits of old Harvard Square – there didn’t seem to be much left of the old style Harvard Square by the time I moved there and now even more of it seems gone.
And shock of all shocks, Someday's cafe in Davis Square is no longer there.

This for me was where I would meet up with Traveler to study at the end of a long day in Grad School. It was a second home for me. Others I know think of it as the place you went to chill after a movie at the Sommerville Theatre. You can still hang out there, at it was already getting a bit cleaned up before I moved, but its now a completely different place. At least Johnny d's and diesel are still there.
Trav's old job location is now the American Red Cross
and the famous chocolate place in Harvard square is still there, but the space has been completely remodeled. Gone are the long velvet drapes and steamy tight spaces. The drinks seem smaller too – which given the wonderful richness is probably not completely a bad thing. Still strange. This was one of the first places I popped into when I first visited Boston back in the late 90's. I didn't even know I would be coming there for school, but had an inkling that this would be a spot I'd be passing through throughout my life.


I guess you can never really go back... unless you are okay with lots of change. Its easy to forget in a place like Boston that feels so historic how much change actually happens there.

Transit update...

Yes I am a transit dork. I LOVE public transport. I love the adventure of not driving. Yes I too have 'a ha' moments when driving in my car, but I don't learn as much about people and myself as I do when navigating public transport. It is very much a civic space for me, albiet more a flow of people than a set place, but it seems that it is essential for people to have places where they gather and be forced to interact a bit. Maybe this is why I love open air markets, ferries, trains, buses, and the like. The mixing of people with the goal of doing something other than mixing with people seems to be a productive way for us to at least notice that the world doesn't revolve around us and see a bit of the diversity we live admist.

That said - wow lots of changes here in Boston in the year and half since I lived here!
You can't miss these changes when you arrive by plane. The silver line has been extended all the way to the airport now and there are new 'charlie' cards for payment. No longer do you need to take the 22 bus to the blue line to the orange or green line to the red line! All the transit maps have of course been changed, but also I saw big improvements in signs across the boards. There were heaps of electronic signs stating destination, times, etc.


Some things were the same.. and I now feel less embarassed about being a tourist in my home country. I freely snapped pictures of T stops that were once an integral part of my every day routine.

Kendall – with its interactive musical pipes and metals clangers
Harvard – with is gradually slopping ramp that everyone runs down to catch their train in spite of the signs begging you to 'walk not run.”
The red line's journey over the Charles is still one of my favourite communiting moments in all the world.

Porter Square still has the windmills and insanely long escalator.

I also snapped a photo of the new Charlie card machines making a mental note that ever station has an American Flag (see below). I just don't see New Zealand's flag everywhere the way I see the American one here. And then security approached me about taking the photo. They asked what I was doing and I said "just taking photos of the station." They said that it is fine to take photos of station, but that that wasn't what I was doing. I guess where I was looking was not part of the station in their mind. I don't really know what the problem was. In the end they just dropped it. Its moments like this that made me feel very strange about America.
Maybe I don’t have enough of a criminal mind, but I just don’t see how taking the above photo is at all subversive or threatening to America’s security. But maybe they are nervous about us transit geeks because public transit does go a bit against the idea of us all getting in our cars to drive frantically between shopping and leisure and earning opportunities which at least some in power may have invested interests in us all continuing to do. I don’t know, maybe they were just bored. Maybe there had been a bomb threat early this year. It just seems so strange to me that my behavior was considered threating at all. I guess not too many people love transit enough to want to take photos of it....

I also snapped a few photos of the other major transit options in Boston... cars and walking.
It was also nice to see this horrible intersection in my old neighborhood finally fixed with the installation of a 'rotary' (as roundabouts are called here). This is one change I am thrilled to see.

Dance night... my Great Gatsby Evening

Another thing I miss about Boston is the swing dance scene. Well my friend Lili made sure that I got a good long drink of it last Saturday. Not only did she take me out to a local dance...

... but she also let me tag along to a house party for an acquaintance's birthday party. It was this incredible house and space, with wonderful people and incredible dancing. I have no words to describe this party. It was a dream event that I hadn't ever let myself fantasy about. It is something that I could see my friend Erin organzing if someone lent her the house. If anyone wants to organizing a 30th, or 40th or any birthday... well you know what, I'm not picking, I'm happy to attend any such event any day of the year!

And oh do want to be able to freely move my body to music like that someday.