New York to Boston in a week (part 2) by Tessa

With my terrible memory it’s a good thing I’ve been keeping a written diary really isn’t it?

Wednesday 27th April-

Peggy gave me lift to Barnard (where she teaches) in the late morning. James and I were going to have lunch with her and Nicholas, so I wandered over to St.John the Divine Cathedral nearby to fill the time and meet James. It was quite impressive even though parts made me laugh and half of it was being restored after the fire of a couple of years ago. It has amazing pillars and some Tiffany rose windows. Then we proceeded to join the others and have a lovely lunch at a Chinese restaurant nearby, followed by ice cream whilst wondering around Colombia with Nicholas as our guide. James and I decided we wanted to go back to the Met in the afternoon. So we did. I also had The Hotdog in order to make certain people happy ;P and because I was hungry. It was… hotdog-like. I was coming back to go to dinner at the Chavez…s… and stay over with them in Queens. As we entered Queens on the subway it was pouring with rain thundering with fork lightning most dramatically! The evening was very fun, and it was great to meet the Chavez family. Their two little boys are adorable, and the youngest, Armando, is so attached to James, its so funny! I checked my email while Miguel and James played computer games next door. I was most mistified to hear disembodied voices in the room, which turned out to be people they were playing with online… I was also vastly amused by the realtime conversation J was having with you guys in San Fran- I’m so not used to all that stuff! New words keep appearing while you look at it, it so funny! Ahem.

Thursday 28th April-

Miguel gave us a lift to the subway and we headed to the south of Manhattan. James’ camera had completely uncharged so we went to find some batteries for it. They lasted about 5 seconds. Completely ridiculous! That is why there won’t be very many photos of this part. We got on a tour boat, which had a very …amusing… commentator/tour guide dude. It went in a circle around the bottom of Manhattan. The weather was actually quite nice which made all the difference, although it was fiersomely windy out there, and it was a perfect way to spend our last day in NY- seeing it from the water. We spent a bit of time after that wandering around the financial district (not something that had been a priority, but it was good anyway). I headed back to Ossining early so that I would have time to repack (what a MESS!) and get ready for the next day. On the way back from the station Robert took me (and Christina who was with him) to visit their lovely horse Leroy (a gentlemanly ex-police horse).

Friday 29th-

Nice weather. Train to Central Station after farewells, then taxi to the Port Authority Bus Terminal (cos my bags are so heavy!), then Greyhound Bus to BOSTON! Then we took the T to the Kileys’ house out in Newton Highlands. That about sums that day up. Except the coolness of seeing the Kileys! Wahoo!

Saturday 30th-

After a bit of a lie-in we headed into Boston on the T, and explored the Back Bay area where Richard, James’ bro, lives. After an hour-long distraction apon entering Virgin and discovering how cheap everything was (HELlo OC soundtracks ;) ), we trooped down Newbury Street (so pretty, even in the rain- oh yes, very wet weather btw). At about 2:00 we went to find Richard’s flat. Chatted, had a late lunch, admired the coolness of the flat…etc. James was staying on there to go out to a college art exhibition by Richard’s ex, and because they got back so late, crashed with Richard. Meanwhile I went um shopping :D and discovered some groovy places including a Geek/Monsoon/Laura Ashley Home hybrid shop called Anthropologie. It was too expensive of course. I had to find out what time masses were for the next day, so I caught a bus out to Harvard in the hope of finding the church where I was baptised (having not seen it since I were a babby, and having forgotton to find out where it was from my parents). By mistake I got off a stop early, and turned the corner to find it sitting there. It was closed, but I was sure it was the place, so I made a note of the mass times and headed home after a little while looking around the area.

Sunday 1st May-

I got to Cambridge the next morning in perfect time for the 11am mass at St Pauls.I just Knew it was the church-I recognised the side alter with the statue of Our Lady from photos of my baptism. It felt so strange and amazing to be there. Especially because I was alone and had found it all by myself. It was quite a long service with the boys choir singing and the whole works. I hadn’t been able to speak to James directly but had left a message to say either meet at the harvard Square T stop or at the Isabella Gardiner Museum later. He was late for the first meeting, so I went off to amble around the sqaure and surrounding streets because there was a May Day fair going on. I also went to buy a Harvard sweatshirt because I had had one as a baby and Therese had given me money to buy one like it. It was actaully quite hard to choose one because there are so many variations! I then went across town on the T to find the museum (this took a certain amount of luck because I didn’t have the address- good thing the stop is called ‘Museum’ really). I began to look around the museum when I found it (it’s really beautiful and unique!) and spotted James on the floor below from a balcony. He went to get something to get something in the cafe while I finished looking as he had already been around it. Afterwards we decided we had had enough of museums for the moment and so we went back to Harvard Square because of the May Day Fair. I spotted a wrap-around skirt on one of the stalls, and it reminded me of my security-blanket-type skarf that I had had as a kid that I had to buy it! I know what you’re thinking- Tessa has been regressing. Well yes, probably. And it was fun! We found some candy-corn in a (totally awesome) sweetshop, but it was pick-and-mix and quite expensive so we only got a little. James, who had never had it before, claimed to be quite disppointed by the experience of trying it. Honestly. Alicia got home from Uni in the evening, and she and her boyfriend Kyle were a great adition to the party during dinner and before bed.

Monday 2nd May-

Our last day in Boston :( It was actaully sunny. At times. Too windy though, especially for someone wearing a very light and floaty wrap-around skirt! :/ Beacon Hill and the Public Gardens were the destination of the day, so we left as early as we could and disovered the wonders of Charles Street. We had lunch in a marvellous place called Paramount, and set out on our quest to find my first home, a little flat on Russell St. on Beacon Hill. Needless to say we found it. Very cool. I want to live in that area again some day. I half wished I had brought Koala, my cuddly friend who was given to me at birth, so that he could see it too, but I though James might disown me and so he stayed at the Kileys. After that bit of nostalgia, we walked through the Common to Filene’s Basement. I’m sorry to all it’s fans but I didn’t like it very much. I’m sure you can find some great bargins there but…hmm. We were then set to meet James’ friend Pete, but as they had never seen each other in the flesh, finding each other proved a challange. But they found each other in the end, and we walked back through the Public Gardens with some Italian Ices to Pete’s car. He then gave us a ride around the Boston area, which was beautiful in the patchy sunlight at this time of year, and then kindly out to Newton Highlands. Supper was a proper affair with the whole gang of Gus, Claire, Alicia, Kyle, Jamaes and I, and a chocolate mousse dessert. Gus told us about his crazy fun upbringing in a large country house with 8 kids plus. Much reminising about the time when my parents were in Boston too- Gus and Dad worked together at a publishing house. James and I tryed (and failed) to get to bed early †hough, because we had to get up soon after 5 the next morning to catch our plane to the West Coast. My email wasn’t working properly, so there was a bit of panic about how to get the details of our bus at the other end, but it was fine in the end. I also reached the point that evening of finally finishing organising the rest of our trip. It’s all set! FEW! James realised he could phone Ruby through his laptop and that that wasn’t so expensive so we got to speak to her which was cool and very odd (to me anyway, who isn’t blaze about hearing someone’s voice floating out of a computer from the other side of the world).

Tuesday 3rd May-

We were up 24 hours straight travelling. What more can I say? A lot more actually, but not now. I am still recovering from it and I am so… so… so… zzzzzzzz

May the 4th Be With you folks!

p.s. James says he doesn’t want to edit my posts for spelling mistakes because it’s so ‘me’- just incase anyone was wondering ;)

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