Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Beginnings of an Adventure

It is safe to say that our first day on the East Coast was successful. At 6 o' clock in the morning, 6 WCCUSD students, including myself, gathered in front of El Cerrito High School to embark on a very exciting journey. As we all said goodbye to our families, we all were very anxious to initiate our adventure. Who knew what was waiting for us on the other side of the country?

The airplane ride was your typical flight: you get seated, are served refreshments, etc. I mostly occupied myself chatting with my fellow Brownies about hobbies, interests, memories and expectations we have about Boston and about Brown University. The long, uninterrupted ride to Boston was a great way to get know the rest of the group, if we were not familiar with them. Sadly though, I missed the semi-final for the World Cup; that was the only disappointing thing about the trip, especially since I'm rooting for Spain. Our flight landed earlier than expected, so I took that as a good sign for the rest of our stay in Boston. However, I would say that the airplane was not the highlight of our day.

Leaving the airport and navigating ourselves to the hotel was the most difficult thing we had to do. Don was right when he said that we shouldn't overload ourselves with a ton of luggage. It's an arduous task to drag a 40-pound suitcase on an elevated bus, pulled onto several train cars with steps, and up three flights of stairs. Of course, we all learn from experiences, so I know now that packing only the necessities is a very wise decision to make when traveling, especially when elevators are not always at a convenience. There were some nice folks who helped us carry our luggage when we struggled to do, and I find this to be an ongoing thing in Boston. It's very nice to have such humble people help us out. I admire this about the city. Thankfully, we made it to the hotel in one piece and with everyone relieved that we had made it.

Since the majority of us only managed to eat breakfast back home, we were all ravenous by the time we got to the hotel. Sweaty, starving and adventurous, we all met downstairs to walk around the Boston area to find something to eat. We ended up at Uno Chicago Grill, where we had a delicious meal of pizza. It was within a few blocks of our hotel so walking wasn't a problem. I noticed how we all were able to compromise when it came to ordering the food. I took this as a good sign that all of us will be able to cooperate with each other in the next few weeks. There has not been any bickering thus far and I hope to keep it that way.

City life in Boston is very different than the cities back on the West Coast but I still find it to be quite nice. It's a very different atmosphere and people. It's fancier, humid, friendly and relaxing. While I was walking around, I pictured myself living here and how I would handle it. So far, I think I would be able to live here, but since everything is very new to me, I'm not entirely convinced yet. It's not a place I know and grew up in, as I have in Richmond and San Francisco (which I visit very often), so it will probably take some time to get used to.

After our meal, we treated ourselves to ice cream at Ben & Jerry's and walked around the city some more. We ended up at Borders where I bought a book to read over the next several days. It's nice to read on those long rides all over New England. Then we headed back to the hotel to happily find complimentary (but very slow) Wi-Fi in the hotel's lounge, where we are all writing our blogs right now.
I look forward for what tomorrow will hold in store for us. The college tours will definitely be something I want to do.

Even though I do not feel sleepy right now, I should try to get some rest to attune myself to Eastern time.

1 comment:

  1. Lupe,

    What a VERY pleasant read. Thank you for sharing with us.

    The way you described things, even getting up at 4:30 in the morning sounded good.

    By the way,

    I've had the pleasure of working with each of you these past six months and I'm confident that our Richmond High contingent and our El Cerrito High contingent will quickly meld into just the Brown-II contingent and you'll all become BFF (or whatever you young people call it these days).

    Also, I think you'll find that just about anywhere you go you're going to find that people are more helpful than you might imagine. People are basically good, Lupe, and it's only the odd one now and again who have embraced being bad.

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