Travel Virus

Last weekend in Boston already! Time is going tooooo fast.
I had some great time here in Boston and I’m sad to think it’s almost time to leave.

In this pic you can see Subu, the professor that I’m visiting at Harvard, with his wife. They have been very kind and invited us (Phd students) for a delicious Indian dinner at their place. I also met their wonderful daughters Maya (5) and Swara (3), who produced some great artworks for me Great talks and very friendly atmosphere.

Then in the weekend I visited the museum of Science, which is really good but very interactive and children-oriented. They also have quite shocking videos and expositions of dead dogs, fetus, etc. quite extreme!

On one hand Americans are very open in showing everything to kids for scientific purposes(even too much from my point of view), but on the other side, I was not able to by a bottle of wine!! I know in this country alcohol is an issue, but this strictness is just ridiculous.
I went into a supermarket with a colleague to buy a bottle of wine as a gift: when we about to pay it, the supermarket employee wants to see our passports. Ours?? Why? My colleague shows his passport but it’s not enough, they also want to see mine. Well I typically carry only a copy of it, and it’s not enough for them.
Very obviously we get out of the supermarket, my colleague goes in again and buy the damned bottle of wine while I’m waiting outside. How does this make any sense????
So basically if a mother goes to the supermarket with the kids, she can’t buy any alcohol because they not over 21?
Anyway, why don’t they ever check my ID when I use the credit card? that’s mandatory by law and also much more important, I think!
Oh well, I’m curious to see how it will be in Singapore…

To make up for this misadventure, last night Lei Ann and I had a great dinner at a Korean Barbecue in Brookiline (a fancy city in Greater Boston), with meat cooking directly on a grill IN our table! Plus rice and a huge variety of tasty side dishes.

This is my desk at Harvard, as you can see I got the closer to the window, which offers a nice view on the city for relaxing in between statistical analysis

Today there was even some nice free food in the common kitchen: melon fruit salad, bread, jam and sweets… excellent!
Here at the School of Public Health there are always interesting talks and events, sometimes very peculiar, especially at the cafeteria… Sometime they offer free healthy food like smoothies, or they even give advices on how to cook asparagus…
Basically the school of public health wants to sensitize its students and faculty to eat healthy Seems like a smart approach to continuous education!

I got quite skilled and organized in accomplishing my tourist duties here in Boston… got a lot done today!
I visited the aquarium, it’s really worth, with lots of beautiful creatures, such as hundreds of penguin, turtles, colorful reef fishes, etc.
I walked around the center and China town, got some really weird sweets from a popular Chinese bakery but didn’t enjoy them too much.
I had to change currency (euros into dollars): a very difficult task! It seems that here only strange people still go around changing cash… well the information center told me there is only one place in the city open on Saturday (what??), obviously far away from the center… ok, no problem, but then the change for today is 0.77 and they changed my Euros for 0.86 (plus 7 dollars fee) so I basically lost 15% of my money!!! Grrrrrr
This country lives only of credit cards, I should adapt!
Well, the place for changing currency is conveniently located near the Prudential SkyWalk observatory, a 52 floor building, where you can go up (for 10$ for students) and have a stunning view on the city! It’s 360°, with an audio guide and several expositions about Boston history and its immigrants. I learned that in the 20s and 30s Italians made up about 20% of the population of Boston! We are really everywhere…
Just near the Prudential Center there are several beautiful churches and also an interesting library with a three story glass globe! No pictures were allowed but they wouldn’t give the right impression anyway. It was made in 1935 and they have a really nice light show. The phonic properties of glass create a particularly amazing experience of sound coming from everywhere around you very loud… All together a very small but very unique tourist attraction!

So far I’ve attended a few presentations and talks at Harvard and MIT and they are always very engaging. I think there is a lot of competition here of good presentations, so they got very smart in attracting people: either they offer food or cool performances!
Today it was the most amazing academic presentation I’ve ever seen: it was a panel at Harvard (on martial arts and health), and they invited various performers to show for real what is Tai Chi and Chine culture.
Lei Ann, the girl who hosts me here is Boston, was performing the dragon dance (or lion dance), it’s very engaging, exciting music and drama… much better than boring introductory talks!!

Just one and a half year ago I was a research fellow in Cambridge UK and today I was in Cambridge MA,(Massachusset).
The 2 Cambridge are amongst the most academic places in the world! It seems that this place near Boston was named Cambridge because they wanted to reproduce the academic/university city atmosphere of Cambridge of the mother country (UK). Well I guess they achieved their goals, as here are located several of the most prestigious universities in the world, such as Harvard, MIT and Boston University.
Despite the cold, the atmosphere is great, it looks more like a European city than most US cities. Today I attended a couple of talks, one from MIT and one from Harvard, and I gladly always find the people here in America very friendly and open, which is not so much the case in Cambridge UK! However the “landscape” of Cambridge UK is more fascinating… Everything is so huge here, the river, the ducks, the food portion, the streets…
All together they are both good places and I’m very glad (and lucky) that I had the chance to experience both of them!

Look at the amount of snow!

This is Lei Ann and Pete’s house.
I counted at least 25 doors  (3 only in my room)

I just reached Boston, or better Watertown (just west of Boston), where I’m staying for this month while I’ll be at Harvard University.

Lei Ann and Pete are hosting me in their beautiful big house, with Peenut (the dog, yes he also has a blog!), Cleo and Fuzzy (the cats) and Mr. Turtle (water turtle). It already feels like home with all these pets! As you see in the pic the cat is already my best friend
Outside is snowing heavily and it’s very cold!