The East Coast Wandering Begins

At the request of my parents I am going to post occasionally about my adventures this summer in Boston, where I'm interning at the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Consider this your birthday present Mom and Dad! Mostly kidding about that...you'll still get a card. Possibly.

 So I'm only a few days into my time on the East Coast (I arrived on Saturday), but I've already experienced the two extremes of Massachusetts tourism. My efforts to make friends with people who live in fabulous locations continue to pay off splendidly: One of my good friends from St. Olaf invited me down to Cape Cod, where she lives in a BEAUTIFUL house with a sprawling backyard and a garden that is more like a small farm.

More care-free times

After spending one short, glorious night and day basking in the sun and eating gourmet food on the Cape, my friend and her father generously drove me all the way to my hostel (we got pulled over along the way for accidentally cutting off a police officer and then got a lecture on respect for authority-must everything be an adventure?), where I'm currently experiencing what might be described as the exact opposite of the Cape. There are no locks on the bathroom doors and my five roommates come in and out at all times of the night, but who's complaining?

 I've been confusing everyone here by wearing a shirt that says "stand for justice in Haiti" in Haitian Creole, causing people to squint at me and hesitate before speaking in English. There's a woman from Shanghai in my dorm room, and I nearly gave her a heart attack when I asked her a question in Mandarin yesterday. She started convulsing and rolling around on her bed, shaking with laughter, bringing back fond memories of my disastrous internship in Shanghai last year. Oh, hostel life. How I have missed you.

While I've been here I've already added a few new things to my "goals for post-college life list," which obviously breaks down goals into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Don't you know me at all? In addition to "attain upper-body strength" and "learn to meditate" (well on my way to both!), I have now added "grow thick skin." Not literally-although I suppose that would be helpful for the mosquito problem...

While the vast majority of the people in Boston have been very nice and helpful, quite a few have not been so welcoming. In only a few days I have been admonished multiple times for giving wishy-washy answers to questions. Bostonian: Is this the train to South Station? Me: I think it is. Bostonian: You THINK it is? Or you KNOW it is? Me: erm…know. Sorry. Because basically this same conversation has already been repeated about 3 or 4 times with random strangers, I have come to understand that I’m going to need to be more assertive and direct around here. And I’m also going to need to become impervious to rudeness. By the end of this summer (or more hopefully this week) insults and harsh words are going to bounce off of me like rubber balls. Since I’ve adopted this new attitude I’ve actually started to look forward to the occasional disparaging remark or snide condescension. Bring it on Bostonians!