paraphernalia

I had given myself 5 days in Boston originally with the intent of working for a friend of mine for a day or two. In the end, that work was done in the evenings via email, so I had more time to sightsee, which I took full advantage of!

Sunday
I arrived late on Sunday afternoon owing to a flight cock-up on both United and my parts. Basically, if you book a flight through unitedairlines.com.au, you don’t ‘book’ it, you ‘confirm’ it. This means they take your credit card details but you don’t pay for it. Thus you can’t check in because you don’t have a ticket. So instead of quickly checking-in and boarding my 8am flight, I was put in the “ticked purchase” line which only had one person in front of me but still moved SUPER slow. A ‘friendly’ attendant informed me that I had missed my check in deadline and had missed my flight, before moving on to serving the person in front of me. I guess this was meant to help the situation by making me resign myself to taking the next flight, but I had never missed a flight before. I’ve been close (see my entry on Jan 9-10), but never missed one. Thus I didn’t know how it worked with ticketing or extra costs or anything.

Luckily, after a pricing scare (“That’ll be $540, sir”), I boarded the next flight (at 11am) fine, and having paid the original price (US$60). Phew!

So … instead of having a lot of time on Sunday (which turned out to be a really nice, sunny day), I had about 2 hours. So I went to the Boston Public Library (which is really worth a visit) and Chinatown. When I returned to my hostel, I met Alex, a Brit working at Disneyworld in Florida, and we decided to head with the hostel-organised group to the Jazz Club. There we met Aubreya, Ocean and others. So there you go – I can make friends in hostels. Singapore was an anomaly.

Monday
On Monday, Alex and I went sightseeing. We visited the Aquarium, with its excellent displays on Penguins and awesome 3-storey tank housing all manner of aquatic life! From there, we had lunch at historic (and touristy) Quincy Market (and saw the replica Cheers bar), before heading to Charlestown Navy Yard and the USS Constitution Museum. The USS Constitution is the oldest US Navy ship still in existence, dating back to 1797. That’s quite a life considering it’s a navy vessel!

For the afternoon, Alex and I parted ways – Alex to Harvard, and me to the Freedom Trail. I only got to the first stop, because I decided to take a tour of the Massachusetts State House that ended up lasting 90mins. Basically the woman giving the tour (to two of us I might add!) used the opportunity to tell us the history of the US through the paintings, rooms and what-not in the building. Awesome, eh? I felt very special!

Alex and I met up afterwards to do the Skywalk at the Prudential Tower. The view was pretty good, given it was nighttime, but a lot of the commentary required a clear day to see the buildings. That and the movie on Boston constantly referred to “in the summer”! Argh!!! If I hear that again I’ll hit someone! But it is definitely worth a visit, especially on a clear day, if only to admire the view and hear the “Immigration Rap”. It is as bad as it sounds.

That evening, Alex and I joined others from the hostel (Sarah & Jimmy from the UK) for a trip to a local Irish Pub. When in Boston, I guess! We tried all the local brews, with my favourite being Harpoon UFO. Good stuff, that is.

Tuesday
Today was rather unintentionally sporty. We began with some ice skating, and ended with a tour of the Boston Red Sox’ home Fenway Park. This was the first time I’d skated since I was about 7 (seriously!) and I sucked. It took ages for me to get used to wearing the skates and then I was so petrified of falling over that I didn’t have the confidence to skate properly until just before we decided to leave.

On the plus side I got to skate on the Frog Pond in Boston Common! Yay! Now hopefully I’ll get to skate in the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, or at least somewhere further north. One of the perks of it being freezing cold!!

After a fairly dodgy lunch in a city food court, Alex and I headed to Fenway Park for the Red Sox tour. The Red Sox are probably the most famous baseball team in existence. Despite it being a largely US sport (with some help from the Dominican Republic and Japan), there has always been something about the Red Sox that made both Alex and I want to visit. It turned out that we were the only two people there for the tour, so we had our own personal guide! Apparently during the season the tour can get as large as 170 people, so wooh to us! Unfortunately the field was covered to protect it from the snow, so we didn’t get as great as an experience as we perhaps could have done. To be honest though, I would prefer 2 people to 170 over that!

From there, Alex headed to the airport and back to Florida and I finished off the Freedom Trail. Unfortunately most of the museums were closed, so I’ll go back and see them tomorrow. I did make it all the way to the Old North Church though, so it was quite a walk, given the weather.

Wednesday
Last night I received an email from a contact of mine in Boston to meet her this morning at 10am. I replied as soon as I could, but didn’t hear back from her before I went to bed. So I decided to head out and see whether she got my email. As it turned out, she had, and we had an excellent Italian breakfast in Boston’s North End. Mmm….real coffee!

I was meeting with Yasmina to hear about her plans for an AIDS conference to be held in Kuala Lumpur in May 2007. To be called AIDS Action Tank, it will focus on establishing worlds best practice for the treatment and prevention of AIDS in young children in Africa. Instead of being another talking heads meeting, it is designed to combine practioners with researchers and academics to actually make progress in the field. Good stuff, eh? I’m definitely on board, and if you or anyone you know can help us out (i.e. if you’ve been in the field or done research in the area), comment or send me an email!

After meeting with Yasmina I finally did the Freedom Trail. Properly. The Freedom Trail links a number of sights from Boston (& the US’) history, winding its way from the Boston Common to Bunker Hill & the Navy Yards. It’s meant to be fantastic to do in the summer, but in the middle of winter it’s a bit brutal. But it has to be done, and so, sufficiently bundled up, I began.

You start at Boston Common, 48 acres of public park in the centre of town. It’s been this way since 1634, making it one of the oldest public parks in the country. From there, head up the hill to the Bulfinch-designed Massachusetts State House, dating back to 1795. It’s the one with the big gold dome on the roof. Turn and head back to Park St for the Park St Church and it’s burying ground. The church’s basement was a holding location for gunpowder in the War of 1812, and the burying ground is the final resting place for Hancock, John Quincy Adams, and Paul Revere (i.e. big names in US history). Continue downtown to the King’s Chapel (constructed 1668) and the Old South Meeting House. The OSMH has a fascinating house as a place of free speech, dating back to 1729. It was originally a Puritan meeting house, and grew to play a substantial role in the Civil War. Continue towards Quincy Market, passing the Old State House (built in 1713) and the sight of the Boston Massacre on the way. At Quincy Market you’ll find Faneuil Hall, constructed in 1742. Upstairs there’s a great little military museum and a brilliant hall (surprisingly enough!). Just try and find the stairs!! (they’re in the back corner).

Cross into the North End (the Italian Quarter of Boston) and visit the Revere House, dating back to 1680. Amazingly enough, this place still stands – and not because it was the home of Paul Revere! He wasn’t famous until after his death, and it’s just by luck (because the previous owners didn’t have enough money to redevelop it) that it is kept in its original condition. Well worth a visit! After the Revere House, head up the road to the Old North Church. It was here, on April 18, 1775 that two lanterns were displayed to warn the citizens the Red Coats were coming ‘by sea’. (‘One if by land, two if by sea’). Just beyond the church is the Coop’s Hill Burying Ground. This place is super old – dating back to 1659. I can’t remember if any famous people were buried here, but its age alone makes it worth visiting.

For today, that was the end of my Trail. Tomorrow I’ll go to the other side (near the Navy Yard) to board the USS Constitution and see Bunker Hill. Instead, I went to the exclusive Beacon Hill neighbourhood to snoop around. It’s very impressive, as the photos show. Basically it’s all own brownstones and similar buildings. Even the 7-11 is done up nicely, selling ‘sundries’. Aw!

This evening I headed with Paul & one other mate from the hostel to the Museum of Fine Arts. This place is awesome, and even more so on a Wed evening as it’s free! It’s surprisingly huge and has an excellent Asian & Egyptian art section. We didn’t get there till quite late, so it was a bit of a rush near the end, but so worth it. I even managed a quick chat to one of the guards there about her upcoming knee operation! Best of luck!! We then went out to dinner at a gourmet pizza place near our hostel (down Hemmenway Rd). Quite impressive food for a basement restaurant.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel and stayed up till 3am chatting with some Argentinian guys. As you do!

Thursday
This morning, on the advice of Yasmina, I decided to visit Harvard University. I walked around the Yard and saw the statue etc., but my main reason for visiting was to see the Kennedy School of Government. You see, at some point in the future I would like to study there. Seriously! They have an excellent Masters program in International Development, and so I went to ask about it. I had set up a meeting with the head of the program, and she was more than happy to answer my questions. I think she felt it a little odd that I would come all this way when it is at least 4 years away, but ah well, I hope one day that works to my advantage!

Anyway, I learned very quickly that Harvard is not just another university. It’s a clear step above, and this was apparent in the answers to my many questions. For example, I asked if there was a language component to the courseload. Most other Masters programs include this, and I couldn’t see it in the paperwork she’d given me. Her answer surprised me, but in hindsight it probably shouldn’t have. This is a School where the alumni includes Foreign Ministers, heads of the WB and Presidential advisors. Basically, Harvard don’t require any language component because “most students arrive speaking 3 or 4 languages already, so we feel it’s fairly superfluous”. Oh, shit! Better get back to that Mandarin then!

After being suitably impressed at Harvard, Paul and I met up once more to have lunch at the oldest continuously running restaurant in the US, opposite the Holocaust Memorial. It was pretty good actually – I had a burger with blue cheese, and one final UFO. From there, we took the train to the Bunker Hill Monument, which commemorates the first major battle of the American Revolution. The weather was awesome, so we thought we’d walk up to the top for a decent view of Boston. Unfortunately, it was another of those ‘in the summer’ situations, as the Monument was closed for the season for renovations! Argh! We did get to board the USS Constitution though, which was great.

From there, Paul headed to the airport and home to Arizona, and I had a domestic night in blogging at the hostel.

For photos of Boston, see here

My final day in DC was spent with Melissa – Kristin’s friend from William & Mary. We went to the other National Air & Space Museum (on the Mall) and joined a guided tour. This place is huge, and so we limited ourselves to the tour and certain sections we both wanted to see – like the Wright Brothers plane, and the Space shuttle. We also saw one of the first IMAX films ever made – To Fly! – which has just celebrated its 25th anniversary. It charters the history of transport and flying, and why we find it so thrilling.

We had lunch at the National Museum of American Indian which was AMAZING! This museum, which by many accounts doesn’t live up to the Smithsonian standards, has a hidden food court at its base, serving Native American food from around the continent. Thus you can have salmon, buffalo, traditional dressings, burgers and everything. In the end we settled for a “five region sampler for two” with cedar-plank fired salmon steak and buffalo (!) with an assortment of beans and vegetables cooked in traditional methods. It was fantastic, and really not what you expect from a museum food court! Especially in the US! We were so impressed with our meal that we left too late to make the aforementioned IMAX film and had to run against the wind back to the Air & Space museum. Never try that in -5 degree temperatures. It’s FREEZING!! Haha!

For the rest of the afternoon we headed to Connecticut & 18th to explore the “shopping district” of DC and check out Filene’s. Really I don’t understand why they call this the shopping district, because there are no more shops here than elsewhere in DC, and it’s mostly office towers anyway. Filene’s was good though, although small compared to New York.

For my last meal in DC we had Ethiopian on 18th Ave in Adams Morgan. This had been recommended to us by a few different people so we felt we should give it a try. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I think it was at 2450 18th. Ethiopian food is excellent – lots of meats and dips. Basically you eat with your fingers by ripping a piece of bread (more akin to naan than sliced) and wrapping it around the meat. I also tried some Ethiopian beer which was pretty decent!

We stopped off at the busiest Borders in America (!) on the way home and I picked up L’Auberge Espagnole (Spanish Apartment) on DVD for $6 and a guide book to Boston. Then I packed – for hours!

Photos from Washington, DC

This morning I met with Dan (different to the Aus Embassy one), another friend of my father. I was initially meant to intern with Dan for some or all of my time in DC, but unfortunately that fell through. Instead we met and had breakfast at Eastern Market and discussed politics, his work, Harvard (his alma mater) and how I fitted into all of it. Dan also drove me around South-east DC, which until recently was one of the no-go zones. Basically it used to be home to most of the projects, or government housing. It had become a ghetto of sorts, with a cycle of unemployment, drugs and crime making it a dangerous place to go. Now with the demolition of the projects, the place has undergone a huge revivial. Government departments have sprung up, a new stadium is under construction and house prices have skyrocketed. This is Dan’s neighbourhood and he is their newly elected local representative.

One of his pet projects, and the one I’d most like to assist with, relates to increasing community involvement in the local public schools. They still have some of the lowest literacy rates in the nation, and are largely neglected by the incoming affluent families. DC’s education system is largely African-American, and most parents who can afford it send their children elsewhere. So Dan’s goal is to hold meetings, fundraisers, and the like to encourage more parents to commit time, money, and effort into raising the level of literacy and therefore hope for these children. And a damn fine one it is!

Dan also took me to the fish markets along the Potomac River, and the Jefferson Memorial. These are places that, without a car, I would have not been able to visit, so I owe Dan a lot for going out of his way to show me them! Thanks!

After leaving Dan at lunchtime I visited the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court and the Holocaust Museum. The Library was very impressive, and its Reading Room is just amazing. A huge open space with leather chairs and old mahogany – I want one! The Supreme Court was similar, and justifiably imposing.

The big find was the Holocaust Museum. It’s tucked away off the Mall, but well worth the visit. During this trip I’d been to a few Holocaust memorials, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin, as well as Dachau Concentration Camp. Thus I knew the issues, facts and figures and stories. But it’s always worth reminding yourself that we owe a LOT to the generations before us, and the more we learn from history, the less likely we will repeat their mistakes. What set this museum apart from so many others, in my mind, was the large number of primary artifacts from the time. Walking through a train car that had been used to transport thousands of Jews to their deaths, or seeing the seals on the gas chamber doors does not leave you easily.

After a quick bite to eat at McDonalds – don’t ask me why – I met with Cristian. Cristian is another contact of Dan’s who works in the aid industry. He also studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Cristian started off as an engineer, but has since studied IT and a mid-career program in Public Policy, showing that you don’t need a PoliSci background to enter the public sector. This is refreshing, I guess, as meeting with too many PS students gives you the impression that we control the world!

I was also meant to meet with another friend at the IMF, but unfortunately his meeting ran late, and we’ve postponed it. I had dinner with Jen and her parents at their home. Her father is in defence as well (is everyone in this town in defence!!?) and has just returned from Beijing, so I heard a lot about his time there and saw some excellent photos. Oh I can’t wait to go there!!

After the trip to the Cemetery yesterday afternoon, I thought today I’d focus on what makes America great – its weaponry, democracy and shopping. Haha, well some would definitely debate that, and those of you who know me can detect the sarcasm in my writing.

Regardless, today was spent largely in awe. My first stop was the Smithsonian Institutions’ Museum of Air and Space Udvar Hazy Centre. What a mouthful. More commonly known as “Udvar Hazy” or “that new place near Dulles”, it’s essentially 3 or 4 large aircraft hangers containing about 100 aircraft. They’re just there, without any big displays or historical information. The aim is to walk over, under, around and in them. Most are huge and completely overpower any attempt to compare humans to the machines we create.

There’s a full-size Boeing 707 there, a Concorde, a Space Shuttle and the Blackbird – the fastest plane ever built. There’s also a new Joint Strike Fighter – the plane that’s destined to replace the F-18 as the main fighter jet for the US Air Force. Now all this usually wouldn’t interest me, but what with my connections to the defence industry and the way it’s all just, well, there, it’s hard not too. You just look at them in wonder. Even after a tour of the place by an ex-air force general, I knew more about them specifically, but was still even more dwarfed by their size.

The final thing I saw at Udvar Hazy was the Observation Tower. Designed to look like the one at Dulles airport, it comes with mock controls and an awesome view. Pity the weather wasn’t so crash hot today, or I would have been able to see Virginia, DC and apparently even Western Virginia.

After being dropped off at the Metro station by Ellen (thanks again!), I went downtown to buy some phone credit (I had been at zero balance for 2 days, which was causing many problems!!), and walked over to the Capitol Building.

This place, often mistaken for the White House, is HUGE. It contains Congress, the Senate and some of the administrative functions that go along with running what is arguably the single most powerful government in the world. The building itself has crazy security procedures (incl. no sealed food/drink), but is very impressive. It’s built with mixed Greco-Roman styles, but the overall impact is one of power. It’s designed to look imposing, and it’s location at the end of the National Mall reflects that. There are only a few places one can visit within the building in this post-9/11 world, but there’s a nifty museum outlining the history of the various parts of the building downstairs. Definitely worth visiting.

My final sightseeing stop today was a return visit to the National Building Museum to see the Globe Theatre exhibition, and admire the official collection of artifacts from DC. The exhibition on the Globe Theatre was excellent, although I found myself focusing on their obsession with the spelling of ‘theatre’ vs ‘theater’ more than the content! They had a disclaimer at the front stating they would be spelling it the American way unless it was the name of an actual theatre outside the US. Wow, I’m really glad they cleared that up, or I would’ve been totally confused!!! Odd, eh?

Finally, before heading back to Jen’s I went to H&M to buy some clothes. I had hoped to find a nice coat on sale, but that wasn’t too be, so instead I got myself a long sleeved top (which is SO warm) and a new pair of jeans to replace the ones that I am throwing away. How I wish there was an H&M back home - $30 fashionable jeans are hard to say no too!