revisting ye’ ole Pratt street
once again…
it’s been nearly 4 years since
I used to live here…
🌩️
the Amtrak catastrophe
🌩️ the Amtrak catastrophe
we got to Penn station at
12:10PM for our 12:30PM train…
but first…
the train ended up being “delayed” for 45 minutes…
but we finally boarded and were on our way…
making good progress — our train had just pulled out of the New Haven, CT station and was chugging along with an new ETA of 5:15PM
until...
until...
suddenly the train stopped.
after 5 minutes of mild confusion and concern, one of the train conductors entered our cart (which was the first train cart) — pacing up and down the isle very hurriedly
he rushed to the front of the cart and anxiously conferred with the other conductor
“hey, you ever make an announcement like this before?”
“no… what are even the odds…? I can’t believe it. What a day we’re having huh?”
“hello! I’m sorry folks, I know we already were running 45 minutes late behind schedule, but unfortunately it looks like we ran into a dead zone on the track…
DEAD
☠️
DEAD ☠️
ZONE
🛑
ZONE 🛑
We currently do not have any power, as you can probably see* — our wire is completely dead. The good news is that we just pulled out of New Haven and are five minutes away — we are waiting for them to dispatch a rescue engine to help push us forward past the dead zone. They should be on their way shortly, we estimate this to take approximately 45 minutes”
*- (we promptly looked down at our charging devices and did indeed see that nothing was charging… also this “rescue engine” bit ended up taking 1.5 hours…)
silver lining: sitting for 90+ minutes with a perfect view of graffiti that said “eAt AcID”!
(then… with a lot of regret, our conductor informed us over the PA at 8:03 pm that due to rules they aren’t allowed to work for longer than 12 hours straight…)
(they had started their day at 8AM… so we waited another 20 minutes for a relief crew to come finish the last two stops…)
we finally pulled into Boston Back Bay 8:50PM!
only 4 hours later than expected…
we were really excited to eat dinner after sitting on a train for 8 hours…
but… I forget that it’s 9:32PM in Boston — and here, restaurants do their last call at 9:30pm (even if their Google Maps says they’re open until 12:30AM!! It’s nothing but lies!!)
we got dropped off in Allston, and went to 4 separate restaurants until we found one with an open kitchen! A new Korean restaurant called Myung Dong had cropped up while I was gone…
(they had a cute soju sign)
they had kpop music videos on 5 TV screens in the background
Boston Day One - Friday 9/30
it turns out Boston is surprisingly pleasant and a lovely city in the fall when you’re not a student there!
day one was mostly a nostalgia trip — of walking the same streets and on campus like I did only 4 short years ago..
woke up at 6AM that first morning
went for a walk with my old roommate and good boy Raisin <3
outside Pavement waiting with Raisin while she picked up our order
attempted to snap a pic of my roommate's cute scallion colony
was this building always here? I can't recall... but it looks like two mini lighthouses
ahh yes... many tears cried in this place
hated it so much I took a b&w shot! (and ew look at how the sterile the lights look)
went to walk along the Charles River behind BU!
there were more geese than expected (zoom in)
revisited and sat at the tiny pier on the Charles River right behind campus
coming from NYC, I'm biased... but Boston's still kind of cute
walked along the river to an underpass with some cool art
and then when crossing the bridge to walk to Newbury saw this ?? traffic cone massacre??
finally visited the Boston Public Library!! Can't believe I never went before
it's literally the first free library in the US (est. 1848!)
being inside takes you to another time
the great hall is so stunning, enjoyed a quick manga break here :)
walked around cooper sq.
"wow, jarring to see old next to the new" "isn't it a thing that they built churches with tall steeples to be closer to God?" "oh right... but wait... that building is taller in the background. Does that mean capitalism is closer to God??" "...uhoh"
went to Boston Public Garden after, and sat in the same spot I did 7 years ago around when I decided to transfer to BU and pursue CS :,)
also there were squirrels everywhere wow!
caught this little one digging nuts out of his secret hole at the tree base
more geese
at the end of the day, went to grab a late night dinner and drink at "the ave" with my weekend roomies :)
Boston Day Two - Saturday 10/1
the view I had from my window into dreary Boston for 2 years
