Boston and “The Game”

I’m blogging from our warm, breezy hotel room in Hawaii. It’s a spacious room, easily fitting three queen-sized beds with a Japanese-styled rice-paper sliding door to create a “master bedroom” of sorts. Outside the glass-paneled windows are palm trees and pale blue skys. Lovely.

But anyway, this post is supposed to be about the previous weekend, which I spent in Boston with Amy & Co. The short version: it was fun and nostalgic. Also, cold. The long version? Here goes: So, I rushed out of work on Friday with my luggage and newly-purchased Gap merchandise in hand. I’d ducked out during my lunch break to South Street Seaport in order to pick up some gloves, knee-length socks and a scarf. I normally avoid Gap (their clothes are ill-fitting and boring), but desperation won out. Gap 1, Jenn 0.

I took the subway from the Whitehall stop up to Penn Station in order to catch the Bolt Bus, which, by the way, I heartily recommend, if you’re looking for a cheap but comfortable way to travel in the Northeast (services Boston, New York, Washington and Philadelphia). The fares actually go down to as low as a dollar if you book early enough. I, however, booked a week or so in advance so my fare was $18.00 for a one-way ticket, but that’s hardly a dealbreaker.

Anyway, I had pretty simple expectations for the weekend. Khang (old high school friend) is up at Harvard for med school so my only goals were to spend time with him and Amy (old high school friend, Yale undergrad, working in NYC), and I wanted to see a little bit of Boston for the first time. Amy’s friend Wen, an MD/PhD, student was gracious enough to let me tag along with Amy and crash at her place for the weekend.

By the time we got there, it was close to 11:00 PM and Amy hadn’t eaten. We ended up trolling around for a place to eat, finally ending up at a 24-hour Au Bon Pain at one of the nearby hospitals. (Fortuntely, the food got progressively better as the weekend wore on.) A little bit of chatting, catching up and eating later, we settled into bed to get ready for the game tomorrow.

The best part of the H-Y game (as told to me by others) is the tailgate, with the half-time show trailing far after and the game itself barely worth it to attend. The decision was made to attend the tailgate, the first half of the game and then leave after half-time. This would result in approximately 4.5 hours straight of being outside. The weather was something like 25 degrees with a 15 degree wind chill.

I’m sure for many others the pertinent matters of the day were things like Will Yale finally win the game? or When will I get to meet up with my old schoolmates? Meanwhile, my primary preoccupations were How long will I be FREEZING MY ASS OFF OUTSIDE? (Answer: Too long.) and How many layers can I wear without looking completely ridiculous? (Answer: Not enough.)

Additionally, Amy and I needed to track down tickets somehow, with the fact that I was not, nor had I ever been a student at either H or Y further complicating the issue. Eventually, Khang somehow finangled a ticket from another med-schooler who decided to stay in and study, and Amy engaged in a somewhat shady transaction with a friend of hers during the tailgate, so that was dealt with.

I don’t remember most of the tailgate/game itself, because I was really very cold. Harvard decided to crack down on the alcohol this year so there was a relative paucity of debauchery in comparison to most games, but I know that I ate some good food and that when we left my feet were completely numb and Yale (the side I was cheering for) was down 7 to 0 (the final score was 10-0). I know I was introduced to a bunch of people, many of whom were very friendly, and at some point we ran into David, who is Gloria’s younger brother (Gloria is an old high school friend as well), who I had last seen when I was back in junior high.

After the game we sojourned in the hot chocolate shop L.A. Burdick’s while our feet regained feeling. It was by far the best hot chocolate (whipped chocolate shavings in hot milk, yum!) I have ever had, and anyone who visits Boston when it’s cold out is doing themselves a disservice by not trying it out. So there.

I ended up meeting a lot of Amy’s undergrad group. We did some (very Asian-esque) loitering in a Dunkin’ Donuts. Honest Tea gave us free tea and took our picture. We tried (and failed) to find a used-bookstore. I bought some clothes at Ann Taylor (which I managed to lose, and had to pick up the next day from someone else’s apartment). Khang, Amy and I ate dinner at a Wagamama’s (not expensive, healthy asian fusion, which I recommend). We had a brief sampling of the vocal stylings of Living Water (Amy’s acapella group at Yale) in some Vietnamese restaurant. More loitering. More chatting. There was some exploring of Harvard, and I kept a copy of the Crimson as a souvenir. We went to party at Amy’s friend’s apartment. I did a lot of “Do-yo-know-who-I-know”-ing. We chatted. We got lost. We got un-lost. We cabbed it home.

The next morning we had some of the best Pho (pronounced F’uh) I have ever had in Boston’s Chinatown, and Amy and I got back on the Bolt to Manhattan.

Apart from (of course) being able to catch up with old friends and meeting new people, two highlights: 1) I was wearing a Longhorns hoodie and on three separate occasions I got a variety of “Go Longhorns”-type comments/shouts. This is why it kicks ass to be a Texan. 2) I was playing a game with a primarily Living Water group of people (they sing Christian music), and the question was “If you could meet anyone dead or alive, would would it be?” We were each was supposed to answer and the opposite team would guess who answered what. The responses from my teammates were: Adam, Paul and Jesus. I chose Stalin. It was awkward.