I got to the train station at around 10:30 AM, and departed for Boston at 11:25. I suddenly got a cold on Thursday, so I was half-deaf (my ears plug up really easily when I get sick, esp. when my nose is stuffy) with a sore throat and runny nose and very, very uncomfortable the whole way there. The seats on the train were nice and expansive though, so I alternated between sleeping and fooling around on my laptop the whole 9 hours (nine hour train ride = I hate life). I also had a nice, long conversation with 妈妈. Met Alex at the train station cuz she got there about the same time I did (8:40), and then Alicia picked us up. I looked grossssss and sick and dead, but we took pictures on the Orange Line (subway) anyways. 

Alicia & me. Alicia was like, I look like I'm smoking a cig... I fail at being Asian. Haha. 

We dropped our stuff off at her really nice apartment she shares with 3 other girls and then walked to Prudential, which is a really big mall-like shopping center, for dinner at Cheesecake Factory. They weren't that hungry so split two appetizers, but I had eaten one bagel all day so I got the Cajun Jambalaya Pasta, about ate it ALL, and then all of us got cheesecake.

My Lemon & Raspberry Cream cheesecake with ladyfingers. It was sooo delish. I don't like whipped cream. That's my Kawaii-Holic wallet at the right-hand corner.

Afterwards we went back home, blew up an air mattress for me and Alex to sleep on, and then all of us went to bed at around 3 AM I think? Except for me. I take showers at night so I went in to shower, and then accidentally fell asleep when I sat down to wash my feet propped against the wall LOL. 

I think the plan was to wake up at 9, but knowing me, I didn't get up till 10:30 which is a really big accomplishment for me anyways.

Alicia's living room and kitchen from the perspective of what you see when you look up from her desks in the corner. Big air mattress taking up all the space in the lower corner. Everything's so PINK. They have a pink tinsel Easter tree with ornaments by the couch hahaha. All the stuff on the couches and on the floor except for the blue suitcase is mine. Alex says I just explode stuff all over the room. :P

I thought it was going to be colder than it actually was, so dressed semi-normal. You can still tell I'm tired and disoriented and sick and my hair is being really weird. Despite it all, Jiro-pose! And a cup of Airborne medicine in my hand cuz I'm still sick. I did a really good job of drinking fluids and taking my meds. 

We ate breakfast then went on our way. We went soo many places. 

Alex and I on a really pretty street by Newbury. Alex 好MAN喔! 我呢... 好FOB. My Chucks started killing my feet later on in the day. 

We went to the Massachussetts Avenue bridge, which Alicia calls the MIT Bridge cuz across it is MIT. It's so pretty on it. Alicia wanted us (read: Alex since both of them are Latina) to try this sweet rice drink at Anna's Taqueria based on the MIT campus, so we went over there and upon arriving discovered it was Admit-Day, when all the high school seniors who were admitted to MIT came to visit the school. There were a bunch of guys in really brightly patterned bras with money shoved into them when we were walking, and one of them approached us and turns out they were raising money for this camp for kids whose parents have cancer. After getting our drinks, we sat on the steps and were approached by these guys three more times, so I called one of them over and was like "hey, I'll give you money if you take a picture with us!" 

Look at that pimp face. Alex, MIT boy, and me. My face was a little weird in this one (read: XDDD) so I'll spare you all. We asked him what his cup size was and he was like man I should really find out so I don't have the awkward encounters at Victoria's Secret with the sales ladies who want to measure me. We also asked where all of them got their bras from and he was like "one of the guys, his mom makes like these ghetto bras and we asked her to donate some." HAHA

He invited us to a PBE rooftop party that night but also asked if we were pre-frosh (seniors in high school) and we were a little offended. But I think it's just what he assumed rather than how we looked. I mean, you really don't expect to see three college sophomores from all over the east coast on Admit Day, right? Another guy approached us later so I asked him to take a picture with us too. 

He asked if we wanted to touch them. Alicia = FAIL. Me (except for my face, which was once again like XDDD) = SUCCESS. He has such a look of ecstasy on his face... it's cuz I'm feeling him up nice. 

I was really surprised that all the MIT boys we talked to were so outgoing and er, attractive and normal when I was to be honest expecting nerdy withdrawn people (esp the Asian guy, who Alex and Alicia were trying to convince me was cute but I don't think so... they just don't know how to judge Asians :P). We decided that MIT must have gathered all the normal males on campus and was like hey, you're gonna wear some bras and charm the high school seniors. 

On our way back across the MIT bridge we asked some people to take pictures of us. 

I look like I'm really happy to be here, don't I? I don't know what I was doing *shrug*

We walked around some more and then went on Newbury Street, which is the epitome of culture and history and art and diversity all crammed on one street. I've never seen anything like it. Boston combines contemporary and modern with history; all the buildings are old and brick and red and Stackhouse-y but sooo elegant and beautiful, and they are silhouetted with just-opening cherry blossoms. There are all sorts of shops there as you walk down, from Vera Wang and Nanette Lapore to H&M and American Eagle to second-hand shops to handmade jewelry and accessories to restaurants and cafes of all kinds. There are also a lot of street vendors; we passed a bunch of artists selling really morbidly creepy prints on the street and some Native Americans selling turquoise jewelry. To cap it all, there are so many people there. We passed dozens of street performers playing jazz to rock to U2 covers, and there is such a mish-mash of languages. I wanted to bust out my Mandarin, but had nobody to speak it to lol. SO MANY FOBS THERE BY THE WAY! I love it. Newbury is one of my favorite places in the U.S. 

Anyway, we went to a cupcake shop I've been wanting to go to ever since I visited their website like, a year and a half ago, called Sweet. 

Look at all those cupcakes... mmm. 

We were like, Alex, take some artsy photos on your camera with the Macro setting! My cupcake was Lemon with lemon cream filling and whipped lemon icing. I didn't know I was gonna be in the shot. I'm people-watching. I like how this turned out. 

Yea, I look a little um, constipated. We were giggling over some stupid joke one of us told like always. Look at those gorgey buildings in the background. 

After that we just browsed around Newbury. I was itching to go shopping (even though I promised I wouldn't :\) but Alicia had reminded me before hand that Alex doesn't really like to shop (I know, BLASPHEMY!) so we should save our shopping trip for Sunday because Alex was leaving Sunday at noon. I agreed, but after I saw a row of huge vintage headphones in the mirror of Urban Outfitters I had to go in. I've been wanting a pair since forever.

I didn't really like these, but they were bright and colorful. I wanted the lime green ones in the background of this picture, but $80. :(

The row of headphones. I decided I really just wanted a pair of classic black ones with the metal frames and the bulk and all, but they didn't have any, so oh wellz. I also tried on a bunch of sunglasses here because I want an old-time Ray Charles pair, but I found out here that I don't look that great in them. 

Johnny Cupcakes. If you're not from Boston, let me tell you right now, to avoid looking like a tourist, don't expect to find cupcakes here. They sell t-shirts. Apparently the brand/logo Johnny Cupcakes (cupcakes with crossbones) is so famous in Boston, it's almost like a cult. If you live in Boston, you either want or have one of these shirts. Redonkulous. If you don't believe me, check online. Their t-shirts never go below $34 unless they're on sale. The hoodies are $100. Geezus. I'll print my own knock-off version in China, shoot.

Heehee. It's for French Connection UK (also an abbrev. for Football Company UK) but I still find it amusing. 

The only place we went shopping that day is to Zarah, a department store that is very similar to H&M but with slightly more sophisticated/businessy style dress (also more expensive). I found a bunch of things I liked including a high-waisted bright blue pencil skirt but decided after a while not to get it because I was probably going to go nuts when we really went shopping on Sunday anyways. This is probably the first time I've come out of a store as big as Zarah without anything, ANYTHING. Amazing. I'm proud of myself *patpat*. 

After that, Alicia took us to Boston Commons, a huuuge park kind of like Central Park in New York. She mentioned something about bronze ducks, and I suddenly remembered that I had a picture with the very same bronze duckies taken when I was 3, back when we lived in Boston for 10 months. I called my dad and we had a laugh. I'll scan in the picture of baby Summer when I'm home in Denver. Anyways, we never found the duckies :( but we did find bronze frogs. I wanted pictures with them but there were these four kids climbing all over them and I wasn't gonna kick toddlers off... haha. 

Taken by a group of tourists from Oklahoma. We were like, WE'RE FROM DENVER! And all of us were like YEAAAAA like the Midwesterners we are. (I really don't know if Denver's considered Midwest... not really. OH well.) There were these swan gondolas going all across the lake that I wanted to ride on but Alicia wouldn't let me :( haha. 

Then she took us to Chinatown (AHHH CHINATOWN!!!). Alex and Alicia were like, "do you feel at home yet?" and I really did, even though the Chinatown in Boston is kind of small. I wanted Indian food, and we searched around, but after making it into Chinatown I was like the only food you're going to find here is Chinese food. Actually, I dont' even think it's Chinatown, I think the white people are just generalizing again cuz it was actually like Asiantown. I saw the letters P-H-O and FREAKED THE FUCK OUT. So of course we got pho. 

Mmm. The broth is similar to the crack pho I get in Denver but still not as good. The portions were also smaller. But I really don't care, I got pho. Alicia got tofu & veggie curry (she's a vegetarian). The headphones on my shirt are the the ones I wanttttt!

After Chinatown we took the T back to the apartment. Hmm, I'm trying to figure out what we did next since our day was sooo long... oh yea. We went back out and took the T to the financial district where Alicia had gotten us tickets to a comedy club called Improv Asylum. The actors were hilarious there (ie. their Rollerblading improv was HILARIOUS as was their "black people like chocolate donuts" song... totally not PC) but sometimes it got a little nasty (most of the time it reverted to sex sex sex all the time). Also there was this bachelorette party there who were all SO loud and SO VULGAR. I was seriously like, STFUUUUU. There were also people with buckets (literally) of beer and pitchers and everything from the bar outside the theatre. Which is a smart strategy: get people schwasted before you tell jokes - that way everything is funny to them!

We then went to another Boston-cult thing similar to Johnny Cupcakes called Mike's Pastry (they actually sell pastries there) who are famous for their canoles. The small shop was P-A-C-K-E-D. I felt claustrophobic. We'd stood in line for close to 10 minutes already before we discovered they only took cash, which none of us had; so we left :(. I wanted a canole. 

Waiting for the T. Alicia was like let's take some artsy subway photos! Alex and I weren't exactly ready for this picture... 

Me and Alicia. We thought Alex had set the color accent on yellow, but she didn't, so we were like take another one with the yellow color accent so you'll get the yellow strip of the caution area! So she set it, but the subway was already racing towards us. They were like "HURRY! SUMMER TAKE IT TAKE IT!" so I rushed up and tried to act nonchalant like this one with the subway coming straight at the left side of my face... 

And this is what resulted. I look panicked and like I'm about to jump off to commit suicide on the subway tracks. 

After we got back, we made dinner (spaghetti) and then flopped on the air mattress, trying to decide if we wanted to go to the PBE party the MIT boys had invited us to. Also, Alicia wanted us to meet her current crush, Matt (who goes to MIT), at another party, but we were all kind of tired, so we had no idea what we wanted to do. In the meantime, I introduced Alex and Alicia to the wonders of Engrish.com and we laughed so hard at some of the bad Asian translations we almost peed our pants.

This was one of them. A simple "keep out" can't get the job done these days apparently... 

Well we had no idea where PBE even was so Alex called Alicia's friend, Americo (also an MIT-er), to find out directions, but the guy just made us confused. His directions were like "okay go right and past the tennis courts and then there's a soccer field and then bear left and the road will curve and... DINOSAUR" yea. So Alicia was like "call Matt" because around Matt she gets like a giggly idiot so I called Matt and made a fool out of myself. I told him to get out of earshot of Americo so when I re-asked the directions Americo wouldn't be insulted, and then Matt was like "where should I go?" and then I proceeded to invite ourselves to his party. LOL. But Matt was cool about it. 

The PBE party was already closed by the time we got there at around 1. LAME. What kind of parties, especially FRAT parties, close at 1? High school dances? Our frats don't even get properly started till 12:30. Anyways, Alicia called Americo again to let us into his apartment so we could party there. There were only a few people there and all of them were Hispanic, so I felt like a token Asian. They gave us markers and told us to draw on the already-sharpie filled walls, so I went to town with my drawings and they loved it so I was kept busy for about an hour drawing all over their walls wherever they dragged me. We just kind of chilled there and talked and stuff until we left at around 2:30. Alicia was really pissed because Matt was soo drunk, but I've seen a lot worse, and it wasn't like he was puking on my shoes or anything. We walked all the way back home and then went to bed.

Alex left at 11:30, and I wasn't really awake to see her go... Alicia got back at 1:30 and this time we went to Newbury Street to properly shop. No pictures yet for Sunday because Alex left with her camera and Alicia hasn't uploaded her pictures onto the internet yet. 

We immediately went to H&M, which is were I wanted to go. Like always, I found SO MUCH STUFF. I ended up getting (I'll post up pictures later):

- The BOMBER JACKET I've been wanting for SO LONG now. It's not leather but the sleeves are ruched and it's shiny and shrunken and sexy. Totally motorcycle chic. I'm so in love with it

- Black and grey zebra print leggings! YYYYYESSSS

- New sunglasses

- Turquoise skinny jeanz. I had a pair of black satin skinnies, but I decided since I'm kind of collecting skinnies in colors, I wanted the turquoise ones more. I did like the black satin ones though... I'll get them in Syracuse. I'm kind of perturbed because I wear a size 8 in H&M even though I'm actually a size 4 (I wear size 4 shirts in H&M too...). I feel so fat in this store >_<

- Metallic sheened black party tank

When I was talking to Alicia, I suddenly turned around and saw GABE STEIN, a guy from high school I haven't seen since graduation. It was SO WEIIIIRD. To see him in Boston, in H&M (the guy is such a nerd, not fashionable in the least) of all places, in a random Sunday in April, was weird. I called Daren and we left her a message cuz Daren used to have a crush (?) on the kid. Alicia kept telling me to say hi because when I was trying on shades he was like, right across the aisle from me, but I did NOT because I barely knew the kid. 

Afterwards, we got Bubble Tea (EEK!) from Tealuxe. I got Pear & Pomegranate Black Milk Tea and Alicia got an iced chai. She wanted to sit down but the main level had only two tables and a bar, so we went downstairs to the cafe. Apparently you had to order food there to sit down, so I was like I'll eat. Our waiter had a nice British accent and kept hitting on me o_o. We both got tomato & garden veggie soup and split a hummus plate. The girls at the table next to us kept copying our orders. First they asked me what bubble tea was and when I said it was chewy tapioca they didn't get it (teh hellz?). Then they would see stuff we ordered and be like "we want that too". (...) After they left, I looked across the bench to a table and THERE WAS THE MIT BOY O_____O (the one we'd taken the first picture with in his pink bra, the NOT Asian one). Alicia couldn't see from where she was sitting, so I took a picture on her camera of him very, very indiscreetly and very stalker-like. But he didn't notice. 

We walked around some more on Newbury and stopped to listen to a band do a cover of Paul Simon's Bridge Over Troubled Waters and the guy's voice was super nice. We visited a few jewelry stores Alicia wanted to go to, and I found a tiny golden necklace with a piggy pendant I wanted to buy for my sister. But I heard my mom's voice in my head say "这个东西在中国顶多只 要2RMB" so I put it back like a good Chinese kid. 

We walked down to Dartmouth St to a Mexican place called Bar Lola to meet two of Alicia's roommate's in one of their birthday celebrations. They were nice enough to let me tag along. It was a Tapas bar, and they explained that tapas = dinner made of appetizers ( = 点心 [dimsum], Spanish style). On Sunday nights, there also is live Flamenco dancers to entertain you while you eat, and our flamenco dancer was really good! We bumped into her practicing outside the bathroom. We ordered a lot of styles of tortillas,  some prawn fritters, and lamb loin. I wasn't hungry because of our Tealuxe snack so that was just fine for me. After sneaking about 30 of the after-dinner mints at the bowl by the front desk (because they were CHOCOLATE MINTS that were delicious), we took the T back to the apartment.

I showered, then watched a Thai horror movie called The Shutter. And OMFG IT WAS SO SKURRY. It was remade into an American one last year but obviously the original is always better. I was scared out of my skull. The leading man in it looked a lot like Orlando Bloom but too bad Thai is such an ugly language! The girl in it looked kind of like if my friend Kelly and I had a baby, she'd be what it'd look like LOL. Anyways I was alone in the living room on my air mattress to sleep that night since Alex was gone, so I was so scared. My ears were still funny from the cold so I kept thinking I heard shuffling noises in the hall. ><

Alicia has work today, so I finally got a day to lounge around and do nothing and try to fully recuperate from my cold. I mean, Boston hasn't been too cold and I've done really well on drinking my fluids and keeping up with my Chinese herbal medicine and stuff, but I've had long days and walked around a ton so I needed today. I actually got up at 11:13 though (ALL BY MYSELF!) cuz I needed to pee. I made myself spaghetti again, watched the American version of Shutter (not as good), and am now posting. Still a little sick, but I'm a lot better I think. I leave tomorrow. Definitely not looking forward to riding the train again, but at least Syracuse has nice weather! And Alicia just got home. Dinner time!

Oy, I'm so exhausted. This post is a beast.

End o' school countdown: 15 days.
China countdown: 46 days.

x summer

mood ; content
music ; 越来越爱 － 飞轮海
obsession ; newbury street
crave ; indian food: tandoori chicken, curry, nan
location ; boston, ma -> alicia's apartment