i can barely believe it, but this summer is winding down. i only have two more weeks of my internship and things are definitely starting to come to a lull there. here is a brief summary of what’s been going on lately:
work: between catering, babysitting and working in the southwest boston cdc office between 30 and 60 hours a week, work seems to consume my life sometimes— and that’s how i like it. i can’t imagine my life (here or anywhere) without work. my office is a parent organization for the hyde park arts initiative, a partnership of local artists, and my co-intern mandy almost single-handedly planned the entire artscene festival 2007. the event on july 14 featured 40 local visual artists, four musical acts, two dance groups and an appearance by boston’s mayor, thomas “mumbles” menino. it was quite a success, but the days leading up to it were more than stressful around the office. other than that, my time has been spent mostly working on writing grants, compiling requisitions, and making revisions to the budget. my favorite activities have been designing the brochure and annual report. tomorrow i am going to do some grant research at the fancy downtown library and then go to the meeting i've been working on for a few weeks. i have been going door-to-door, making phone calls and emailing residents in one neighborhood located particularly close to a freight yard in hopes of them attending tomorrow’s community meeting. we’ll see how this goes…
travels: one of the most valuable parts of this summer has been seeing the rest of massachusetts, new england and the east coast. tati’s mom graciously let me drive her brand-new car to visit our friend casey in medfield, a cute town about 25 minutes away. my buddy timmy has been so nice to show me other massachusetts locales, including lowell (famous for its mills), mount wachusett (a gorgeous mountain in mass. that would be a hill in washington), and the city of worcester. we are heading to western maine this weekend for a few days of serenity. last weekend tati and i trekked to new york city and had a whirlwind tour of the big apple. we saw some outrageous sights in central park— rollerblade dancers, john lennon’s monument strawberry fields, an awesome cello quartet— and walked for what seemed like hours. although we were both pretty disgusted by the neon capitalism that so defines times square, our moods were lightened as we saw the wonderful frank stella exhibit at the metropolitan museum of art. the next day we took the staten island ferry past the statue of liberty and met my friend (since elementary school!) zach in the ultrahip neighborhood of williamsburg, brooklyn. tati and i were blown away by its hipness and were just happy not be kicked out for looking too touristy (our huge backpacks and my omnipresent camera gave us away, unfortunately). after spending a good amount of time in the most amazing art bookstore i’ve even seen, we ran into two goucher acquaintances and had a nice chat. torrential downpour didn’t stop us from continuing on our way in manhattan; we walked canal street bordering chinatown, tribeca and greenwich village. when we finally got back on the greyhound on sunday night, the entire contents of our backpacks were soaked through. it was well worth the trip!
boston: of course, exploring the city has been amazing as well. free wednesday nights at the museum of fine arts are tati and i's new favorite activity. we also visited the absurd glory that is the garment district. the garment district in cambridge is a two-story warehouse whose floor is literally piled a few feet high with thousands of articles of used clothing; the second story is reserved for clothes on hangers that are usually overpriced for all their worn-in charm. it was wonderful. i am quite looking forward to my parents visiting beantown in a few weeks, although this city is so full of history and culture that it will be difficult to squeeze in a proper look at it in only a few days. it will be both comforting and exciting to have them around, because it will be me doing the showing for once.
7.30.2007
new york city photos
although i took nearly 400 photos in the thirty hours we were in the city, i have selected the best for the blog.
7.06.2007
fourth week
i really feel like i'm living the new england life. we are catering a wedding on cape cod tomorrow; i've been halfway across massachusetts several times now; i was in rhode island twice last week. i’d say that this summer is not just about boston but the whole area too.
this last week has been rather odd, but really good at the same time. the fourth of july is a much, much bigger deal out here than it is at home, which makes sense because this is where it happened. on the fourth, i felt the history radiating as we drove past lexington and walden pond too. after catering last weekend, tati and i went to visit our friend tova in providence, rhode island. the train ride there is less than an hour, and we somehow managed to ride it for free both ways. providence is bustling and colorful; it was a very pleasant surprise. highlights from the day including eating delicious falafel (one of my newfound favorite foods), playing duck duck goose with a group of high school kids doing the brown summer program, walking around the historic neighborhoods, and having a wonderful diner in the italian neighborhood called federal hill. the week got even better when i left work decidedly early on tuesday and took a train to worcester. almost immediately after arriving there, i hopped in a car with my good friend timmy, his buddy chris and chris’s girlfriend regina. those two just returned from a monthlong, nationwide tour with their folk-y band saint joe hazelwood. their final stop was at a basement show in providence- of all places- and they performed with four other largely acoustic groups. i thought the show was pretty cool except for when the last performer became so engrossed in his screaming and glockenspiel-playing that he ended up smashing a guitar (that was just frightening). the whole event, attended mostly by twenty-somethings from all over massachusetts, took place in the “thunder dome,” aka the basement of a house that is home to twelve “anarchists.” the peculiarity continued the next day- independence day- when timmy, chris and myself visited their other good friend jake in beverly, a little north of boston. first we skipped rocks into the atlantic ocean, and then watched an entire house of young college grads play a very serious game of “catchphrase.” we left beverly and the carful of worcester kids had to endure a rainy, humid, hourlong detour to drop me off in the southern end of boston before driving back to central massachusetts that night. not exactly a traditional fourth of july, but certainly a memorable one.
this workweek was so abbreviated because of the holiday, but it’s been busy with writing grants, designing their annual report, and helping with last-minute art festival coordination. and, of course, catering will dominate our saturday again. this routine is beginning to feel like just that— a routine. it’s refreshing to feel comfortable in this new place and even run into people i vaguely know. as much fun as i am having, however, i am also really looking forward to beginning school again.
this last week has been rather odd, but really good at the same time. the fourth of july is a much, much bigger deal out here than it is at home, which makes sense because this is where it happened. on the fourth, i felt the history radiating as we drove past lexington and walden pond too. after catering last weekend, tati and i went to visit our friend tova in providence, rhode island. the train ride there is less than an hour, and we somehow managed to ride it for free both ways. providence is bustling and colorful; it was a very pleasant surprise. highlights from the day including eating delicious falafel (one of my newfound favorite foods), playing duck duck goose with a group of high school kids doing the brown summer program, walking around the historic neighborhoods, and having a wonderful diner in the italian neighborhood called federal hill. the week got even better when i left work decidedly early on tuesday and took a train to worcester. almost immediately after arriving there, i hopped in a car with my good friend timmy, his buddy chris and chris’s girlfriend regina. those two just returned from a monthlong, nationwide tour with their folk-y band saint joe hazelwood. their final stop was at a basement show in providence- of all places- and they performed with four other largely acoustic groups. i thought the show was pretty cool except for when the last performer became so engrossed in his screaming and glockenspiel-playing that he ended up smashing a guitar (that was just frightening). the whole event, attended mostly by twenty-somethings from all over massachusetts, took place in the “thunder dome,” aka the basement of a house that is home to twelve “anarchists.” the peculiarity continued the next day- independence day- when timmy, chris and myself visited their other good friend jake in beverly, a little north of boston. first we skipped rocks into the atlantic ocean, and then watched an entire house of young college grads play a very serious game of “catchphrase.” we left beverly and the carful of worcester kids had to endure a rainy, humid, hourlong detour to drop me off in the southern end of boston before driving back to central massachusetts that night. not exactly a traditional fourth of july, but certainly a memorable one.
this workweek was so abbreviated because of the holiday, but it’s been busy with writing grants, designing their annual report, and helping with last-minute art festival coordination. and, of course, catering will dominate our saturday again. this routine is beginning to feel like just that— a routine. it’s refreshing to feel comfortable in this new place and even run into people i vaguely know. as much fun as i am having, however, i am also really looking forward to beginning school again.
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