Boston on hold... and catch up

Since my last post I've explored the area a little more. Here's what I've found:

Salem (yes, the Salem - as in the witch trials) is a very strange town. A cute and very touristy place, there's more to do there than there is in Waltham. Thought about getting my palm read, but when I found out that it was $30 for a 15-20 minute reading, I said no thanks! Plus, it smelled too much like patchouli EVERYWHERE (much like how I think Boone is like). Tip: you can get your palm read for at least $5 in DC. I liked that Salem is very walkable and has a great museum (not the witch museums, those are more like the Pirates of the Carribbean ride meets storefront churches) the Peabody Essex Museum. Got a tip from Mom about the origami exhibit there and it was really cool.

Witch Trials Memorial - 19 benches for the 19 people executed during the trials. Each inscribed with a name of the accused.

Origami of a wizard.

Waltham (where my school is and where I am now) doesn't really have a lot going on. There's two main streets of interest - Main (imagine that) and Moody. On Main Street (Rt. 20) it looks like there's 2 pubs/taverns that look kind of cool. My walk on Moody St. did nothing for me and took me all of 30 minutes. I had ice cream at Lizzy's (okay) and went into the comic book store. I left the comic store shortly thereafter because Fantom Comics it is NOT.

Tried to find the Boston Rock Gym... that was a disaster. Next time I'll try to use the interstate rather than backroads - especially when it's raining. I never made it to the climbing gym.

Burlington AMC movie theater. It has come to my attention that there aren't very many stadium seating movie theaters in the area. Seriously? You want me to watch a movie with someone's head in my way? Oh how I miss the Regal in Chinatown (DC). Even the Uptown in Cleveland Park isn't like this! However, I did see HP5 again (I've been on an HP kick since FINISHING book 7 - more later) and saw Hairspray as well. While I love Zac Efron, I'm more excited about High School Musical 2 than I was about his almost no speaking role in Hairspray. I did like the movie, though. It was cute and I even liked a few of the songs.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED READING BOOK 7...then again, why haven't you finished yet???)I finished the book in 2 days (one was spent reading on Spectacle Island)! I liked it. Was it my favorite? No. I still love Goblet of Fire. Was it worth it? Yes and no. I think JK Rowling took the safe route in finishing the book. Gordon says, "Well, it IS a kids book." So it's understandable, but I still found it anticlimactic. I did enjoy the parts with Ron and Hermione and the most upsetting part was early on when Ron left! I can't wait to see what they do for HPaDH in the movies. I have NO idea what they can possibly cut out. And I did see the goat in HP5, Jen.

So that's what I've done... I'm going to DC and NC for the next week and half. Oh happy driving times for me. I'll be seeing HP5 again (but on IMAX this time, though not IMAX 3D which kind of sucks), seeing the boy and the girl from Once sing, and hanging out.

I'm a Travelin' Wo(Man)

Another delayed post. I've been super busy and traveling all over. Well, not all over, but for the past 2 weekends and then another 2 weekends straight in May!

Two weekends ago, we took a roadtrip to Pittsburgh, PA. Why Pittsburgh? Seriously, because it was there. Pittsburgh is one of the few cities up here that none of us have been to. Surprisingly enough, P-burgh was actually very interesting.

There's a lot of museums to go to-- random ones, like the Andy Warhol and there's one about the French and Indian War. We went to the Andy Warhol one and saw some of his great works. I'm not a fan of Warhol really-- maybe it's the drugs and the sex with everyone, I don't know. But I like his "Silver Clouds" installation. Silver balloons floating around an empty room. Very fun!



We also went to the Heinz History Center to see an exhibit showing all of the Pulitzer prize winning photos. What did I learn? To win the Pulitzer, you have to shoot something sad and depressing. Looks like none of my photos of silly faces is going to be winning a Pulitzer anytime soon.

We also got to tour the Heinz Field-- where the Steelers play. Obviously, I'm not a fan of the Steelers, really, as I dislike football (unless it's the Dillion Panthers on Friday Night Lights). The stadium was still very cool to go around and see. Got to go right down to the field, go into the Steelers locker room, sit in the super expensive club seats. The place is HUGE, but I suppose most NFL stadiums are.

On the way back home, we stopped off to see 2 Frank Lloyd Wright houses. We're big on Frank Lloyd Wright houses. We saw his famous Falling Water house and his lesser known, cheaper Kentuck Knob. Falling Water was what you'd expect-- very cool and interesting. Kentuck Knob was also cool but in a different way, like someone could actually live there. Falling Water is one of those houses you'd love to have, but wouldn't really be able to live in it. Kentuck Knob has cool sculpture garden and a more lived in kind of feel to it.

So that was Pittsburgh.

This past weekend, Gordon and I drove up to Waltham/Boston to go apartment hunting for me. We left Friday night (without any sleep really) and got into Waltham at 6am -- 3 hours ahead of my first apartment viewing! After seeing 5 apartments, sleeping in random parking lots just trying to get ANY sleep at all, and driving all over Waltham... I've found a place that I think will be very good for me. I'll be living with 2 girls in a very nice apartment complex (almost like the cute new-ish ones in Chapel Hill). I'm very excited, though the decision between places was really hard! :( Luckily everyone was understanding and I got to make the decision without feeling too guilty.

I got to show Gordon my new school-- Brandeis University. It's a very cute campus. Nothing like Chapel Hill, but I guess not a lot of schools are going to be like it. I bought a t-shirt that says Brandeis, but in Hebrew! How cool is that? I'll post a picture soon.

We also got to see Fay!!! Yay, Fay! She's living in Brighton and going to BU for Public Health. I'm really excited that we got to see Fay since we haven't seen her since we've been back in the states. I'm also superexcited that she'll be in the area for a little while when I move up to Waltham.

So now that I'm back in DC for the next 2 weekends before my next two trips, I plan to sleep and recover. Well, sort of. Next weekend, we'll be volunteering with Servathon 2007/Greater DC Cares by rebuilding a nursery playground. We'll also be catching up on movies-- Hot Fuzz (Have you NOT seen Shaun of the Dead???) and Spiderman 3 (so we can finally end the madness that is Tobey McGuire as a superhero).

Check out the pics from my Pittsburgh and Waltham trips.