Because a large percentage of my life (approx. 98%) is engulfed by school and school related activities, it's easy for me to forget that I live in Boston, a real-live city. During the week, my lifestyle does not reflect my location. However, on the weekends, I am attempting to remedy that.
Yesterday I attended BTA basketball at Basketball City - a basketball complex on the roof of a parking garage in Boston's West End. I took the T (Boston's public transportation) and only once I emerged from the underground at North Station did I remember that the hardest part of public transportation is figuring out where you are and where you're going once you exit the station. On the way home I stopped at the very small Chinese restaurant down the street and got take-out. I love that I can get take-out from a place down the street. This isn't Upland, or North Muskegon, for that matter.
Today, I met my friend Anna at Boston Common and we went to see The Kite Runner at a theater right off the Common. If you've read the book, the movie is fantastic, make sure you see it (fantastic = so very hard to watch but also so very compelling). If you haven't read the book, read it, then see the movie. If you haven't heard of the book, if you're unaware of the history of Afghanistan, stop reading this, go to the library or your local book store, borrow/buy the book, and let your heart break for the people of the world.
Then, we hopped on the T and went to Cambridge, where we ate at a very crowded little Indian restaurant, then went to a coffee shop (but we had tea) and worked on lesson plans. I rode the bus home.
Public transportation is an exercise in patience and I'm beginning to realize it's an exercise in luck/coincidence/divine timing, as well. Bus timetables are more suggestions than any kind of reliable guide, and I've found that when I just show up at a bus stop with no idea when the bus is supposed to come, chances are one pulls right up. On the other hand, when I plan my trip around when the bus is supposed to come, I wait for a very long time, and often grow very frustrated.
All in all, I'm enjoying the variety a city has to offer, and the ability to spend a day doing a variety of things without planning it all ahead.
2 comments:
Wow, you're a person who's constantly on the go, with all that activities around you.
I kinda agree with you (on the Kite Runner thingy, though I've not read the book or seen the movie - it's not screened here) that city dwellers like us seldom get in touch with the reality of what's happening in remote countries that's plagued with war, famine and diseases. City life is just too good despite work and family pressures, we hardly want to be bothered by what can't affect us.
As for the thot on waiting for the public bus, it's an all too familiar thing with many of us. It's just one of Murphy's laws, I guess.
Keep writing.
Uuugggg, Amy, I don't think I can go see the movie after reading the book. Does it bother an English teacher when I use too many commas? Miss you!
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