The east coast tour came to an end in Boston, where we started off visiting Harvard University.
At this point my body was about to give into the sleepy: I hit the snooze button three times before I got out of bed that morning. I was thoroughly enjoying everything we got to see, but I’m not a machine, and my body can be demanding sometimes if its needs aren’t met.
Anyway, Harvard.
The school was quite quaint, and even though it was summer, leaves were rustling around as if it were fall.
I only personally know one person who went to school there. (Side note that everyone probably already knows: Jeremy Lin from the New York Knicks also attended Harvard.) It was cool to step foot on the oldest university in the United States.
Then, we visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT (where all the science brains of the country go to school).
(Still trying to figure out the name of this building!)
MIT dorms
This solar trash compactor was designed and created by MIT students. I envy (in a good way) the students who were able to come up with this. It’s no wonder why the school’s acceptance rate isn’t even 10 percent: they only take the best of the best.
Michael explained to us, “There are lots of Asians at MIT. So there are lots of Asian restaurants because they miss their country.”
-__-
I wasn’t sure how to feel about that mention in a guided tour…
We then went on a ferry to see some of Boston.
After that, we grabbed lunch at Chinatown. We had some delicious lobster, and even though it requires some shell breaking to get to the meat, it is absolutely worth it.
On the way to the restaurant I walked alongside a Chinese family from Singapore. I talked to the father, Ku Lahm (I have no idea whether I spelled that correctly :/), and his daughter Lucy. They were very nice people and encouraged me to visit Singapore some day. They moved there from China for a better life.
And he said it’s true that you’re not allowed to chew gum in public there.
I don’t think Boris got to shower from the night before because he was still wearing the same clothes. Bummer that he had to stay with the bus.
After lunch we drove through Connecticut on the I-84 South. We took a rest stop there for a couple of minutes. Although I technically stepped foot in another state, I can’t really say I’ve been there as much as I’d like to. All I saw was this:
At the rest stop we all split up into different buses. People going to JFK International Airport got on one bus, those heading to La Guardia got on another bus, and those going back to Chinatown got on another.
So that was the last we saw of our tour group family. It was a strange parting of ways. The language barrier made it kind of difficult to make any friends, or even pen pals, but there was still that feeling you get when you have to say goodbye to people. After all, we had been sitting in the same closed space for five days, and sharing the same air.
My family and I caught cabs to a the Wolcott Hotel, where we spent two more nights. It was my first time to ride a NYC taxicab. I got into a yellow-colored Toyota Prius, and that was also the first time I had been in a Prius. The engine runs very quietly.
At 6:01 p.m. we arrived at the hotel, and I’m sure we ate and showered up, but the main thing we did was catch some much needed zzz’s.