One Way Ticket: Part Three

Lisa from the Basement. Circa April 4th.

“The French department is very demanding. You can go to France. Steer clear of Assumption.* The language majors don’t require a lot of courses. But you get to choose. The French professors are great. You could double major in languages.”

Laptop bumper stickers: Live Simply that others may simply live. & We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

*there is something called the Consortium of Colleges here in Worcester where if you’re a student of one school, you can pick up classes in any of the other colleges in the group.

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April 5th - 7:52pm
Donating blood! Woohoo. Yes. Haven’t done this in a few years.

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April 6th 2011 12:21pm

Sitting in Intermediate Spanish Class. It looks like so much fun! Esta muy dirvitado. [Tanya was my escort, she applied, was accepted, and is now attending Clark without prior visiting. Brave! There are 16 students in this class.] “Tu tienes que volver ami.” Espero qu te diveirts. I hope you have fun :P Gracias por …. otra ves?

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April 6th 7:43pm

Yesterday, the 5th, I watched Dr Who in the morning, met up with Erin in the Academic Commons, listened to a lecture by NOAA president (look her up, interesting, her speech is clearly been reviewed, but the Q&A is good!), donated blood, almost fainted, hung with a girl on a bench until the two of us were less green, ate delish tortellini, watched more Dr Who, Erin went to Poker, me to fanfiction and then bed @ 11pm. And that’s the fifth in a nut shell. I should expound a little on the blood donation, mainly that I got a voucher to redeem for a free Qudoba burrito! Really looking forward to that, I’ll just have to remember to use it before I leave the Mass area, since it’s only valid here.

Today was more productive, up by 8am, off to Admissions by 9 {I’m starting to recognize some people here, & had a nice breakfast on the college with a student, Matt, who was very interesting and informative about Clark and the surrounding area. I was later told by some other students that Matt was a very good representation of the Clark student body.} Then 10am to a formal info session, which I skipped out halfway with the adviser's blessings to locate Ron, a transfer advisor, and subsequently miss the guided tour of the campus. Ron was also very helpful and reviewed my unofficial transcript and let me know which classes would transfer. I need to review my Common App and get it submitted.

Then from Ron’s office I sat in on Intermediate Spanish, in which I felt that I understood 50 to 60% of what was going on. Not bad considering I’ve been out of classroom Spanish for close to three years. Also, Zach, the New Zealander was in the class; it was nice to recognize a face, and he lent me his text book so I could follow along. Twenty minutes after the class found me still exploring the four story language and music building. 1:40pm found me back in the AC to meet Erin. Since new/old developments have made it impossible for her to come to Boston, she printed out bus and train schedules for me. We soon migrated for the evening to the Arts Center Basement. The place that is quickly, next to the library, becoming a favorite place for me here. I blogged, then went back to Erin’s house on my own for a oatmeal dinner. I am a huge fan of instant oatmeal. Omnomnom.

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April 7th 12:23pm. -South Station, again. but with less baggage.

$10 for a taxi & $10 for a bus, which was close to an hour late. I should have just woken up earlier and taken the 9:30am bus. Oh well. My budget for today’s trip to and in and back from Boston is $70 and as soon as I down this coffee, I’m off to the MFA (Museum of Fine Art) to get postcards for family. I know that mom told me not to walk the streets alone, but that’s unavoidable at this point in time. I’m assuming that you understand, right mom?

When I got to the mezzanine I borrowed a table from a young man who looked to be a lone traveler. He was writing in a paperblanks journal and I might strike up a conversation with him as soon as I feed the caffeine deprived beast within.
   

Between you and me, at this moment, deep down, I’m not sure as to the whole point of this journey I’m on.

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Subway stops - get a map
Aquarium is on the Blueline from South Station. Chinatown is on the orangeline. Harvard - red line.

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April 8th 1:30 pm. in class w/Erin, a writing class.

Last night I crashed around 11, I slept close to twelve hours. Being in the city wore me out. I was so very tired. My bus an hour late, then only an hour in the MFA shop since I wasn’t going to spend $18 on a ticket to roam the museum for an hour. Maybe I’ll get to go back later, it has three stories of stuff. And Monet and Dega and and and ancient Egyptian and Japanese and and a new glass exhibit that looks cool. Around 1:30, Nick Tate, a friend of Erin’s met me at the Boston Aquarium. He has a membership and got me in as a guest. The Aquarium has penguins! And a jellyfish room! And a touch tank! Yay! It was fun, smaller than the Florida Aquarium, but I enjoyed my time there nonetheless.

After we browsed the Aquarium, we went to Quincy Market and ate. Then we went wondering all over Boston. I have a map somewhere. We went to the Boston Commons and down to where there were swans. And we managed to make it all the way where the set bar for the show Cheers was. We got root beer and then went to a Starbucks to rest our tired feet. This girl is not use to that much walking in one go. Can we say out of shape much? Yes.

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April 11th 4pm.

(Cont. Boston.) Tate and I walked around the city, then our feet rebelled (at least, mine did), the end. The Boston Commons was partially under some construction, so I didn’t get to see all of it. I have to find that map! We got back to Worcester around 9 and Liz and Jeremy picked us up from Union Station. I don’t recall anything of interest happening Friday & Saturday. They were about the same as last week’s. but Sunday, well... yesterday, well, that was spent inside all day. I went out once and that was for a thirty minute stint to the Arts Basement to meet Erin at the end of her shift. The day was spent cleaning, eating, and copious amounts of Dr Who. I am not ashamed!!

Today I was planning on going to some of Worcester’s museums, but apparently the town shuts down on Mondays. Even the public library is closed. What? I know. So I went walking around the town for close to two hours and had a few adventures and two people solicit me for money.

Once I got back to Clark I found a niche to sit in, took my shoes off and four way convo’d with Mike, Tricia, and Dad for close to forty-five minutes. Talked about travel plans and daily plans and life plans. Then. Then.... I finally went INTO the library... all five floors of it. <3<3<3 I spent many moments wandering the stacks like a dazed and overwhelmed child in a candy shop.