Bahh-ston

OK, here are the details on everything:

the drive
It took us even longer than we expected and so we decided to stay overnight Saturday near Albany, New York. I drove 10 hours that day and my mom drove about three (we were in my car together and then my uncle Joe and Dad were in the van). We finally got into Jamaica Plain around noon, after getting sufficiently lost. Thank goodness my roommate Tiffiney was around to guide us to the apartment via cellphone. Boston has a lot of roundabouts and u-turns, streets aren't marked and people drive like maniacs. Which means I will be driving as little as possible from now on. Yay public transportation!

the apartment
The apartment is really cute. Vanessa and Tiffiney have decorated it well, with a lot of their artwork on display (they are both artists). My room is right off the kitchen and I think it might be the largest bedroom.







We live on the first floor.











My room:

















Living room, Dining Room and Kitchen (walk-in pantry to the left)




















the roommates
I love them already! They are both really sweet, interesting and fun. I think this arrangement will work out well for all of us. Tiffiney is 26 and finishing up her art education degree. Vanessa is 23 and is doing her student teaching for art education.

jamaica plain
I have yet to really explore the area. There is a high Latino population so there seem to be a lot of Mexican restaurants. More on JP to come.

today
I finally finished putting my room together around 2 p.m., took a much-needed shower and then headed out into Boston. I decided to be adventurous and left without a map or guidebook. I walked down to the T stop near my house (about a 10 minute walk) and took the subway to a downtown station. It only took about 15 minutes to get downtown. What I failed to realize/remember was that the closer you get to the ocean, the colder it is. So a t-shirt is a bit chilly today. Lesson learned. I walked around in an area I didn't see when I came for my interview and after just a few blocks I already started to recognize the area. Boston really isn't that big - compared to, say, NYC, so I already feel pretty well oriented. I was starving (no food in the house yet) so I was looking for a local hole-in-the-wall type place. But then I got overwhelmed and saw a Qdoba, which is like my comfort food. So I totally sold out and got a chicken burrito there. It was just what I needed. Now I am sitting in a Starbucks because I wanted to use the internet. I naively thought it would be free, but nothing is free here so I had to pay $6 to use it for an hour. Hopefully we'll soon have our wireless internet hooked up in our apartment.

I start work on Wednesday so I will probably do some more exploring in the city tomorrow.

Miss you all!
a/k/s