Memories I am afraid I'll forget

Day 70, Orientation and Beacon Hill

In my life, I have had good feelings about certain people I just met. On one occasion, I was having an entrance exam to Marketing Masters (I was a transfer from Faculty of Arts) and I met these amazing other prospective students before the exam. They all looked strangely familiar. A group of people I knew I am going to get to know and like. I had this exact feeling when I met this amazing group of SUSI scholars from all over the world online. Their faces were familiar right away, even though I never met them in person and never knew their names or faces from before. I just instantly knew who my people will be. Call this 5th or whateverth sense. Imagine that after 1.5 years, you meet these people and instantly, you are bonded.

Getting up at 7 was good, as I saw the sun rise from my window. I texted others to check in with them and grab breakfast together. We met in the lobby and went to a nearby Flour Bakery. Their blueberry muffin and hot choc are amazing. As I usually fast in the mornings, so this was an extreme start for me for the day. Anyways, tomorrow, I'll just skip breakfast, I believe. We were already bonding, sharing stories, and getting to know each other during breakfast – an event I would not have skipped for any diet, as it was rather an important social gathering.

At 10AM, we had our orientation with Katie (ITD main member) in the 15ht floor of our hotel, while peeking out the all-glass windows, looking at Beacon Hill. Boston is a city you immediately fall in love with, especially if you are from Europe (and just spent a little over 2 months in California). It is very walkable, life is vibrant, people are walking on the streets, and last but not least, it is the home of Harvard, MIT, and many more good colleges. There is history, too. You may remember a ship called Mayflower, a land named New England and some tea involved in the party here. Houses are beautiful, brick covers many of them, at least here in the Beacon Hill area. Historic scenery and an exceptionally good weather we had today.

Taking our stroll to Joe's Waterfront restaurant, we had lunch, not that I was hungry at all. But I managed to eat a small New England Clam Chowder and some stake bites, only to finish this off with a carrot cake. I'm going to get home to the West coast probably fat. No dinner, nor breakfast for me tonight and tomorrow morning. While having lunch, we already made some plans with some of my fellow scholar friends to visit each other and write some papers together. I also advocated some for Fulbright, only to raise the interest of people to begin the Fulbright journey. We agreed to have a Fulbright night at ITD house, where I'm going to tell them all about the tactics how to get the most well-known scholarships of all time.

Feeling extremely full, we had a bit of an exercise walking back to the hotel, only to leave in 15 minutes for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Well, as a person coming from Europe, this was the strangest place for me. Imagine Barcelonian art confined in this glass building, where in the center, you have a piece of Venetian art, nice garden with flowers and a DJ. Yes, a DJ. This was a scene I could not really comprehend. The music was good, I could have drunk a beer (me, a beer!) even to start just dancing right then and there. But we were in a museum. As we still had 1.5 hours left from the 2, we had to explore (yes, we already finished in 30 minutes), we went to make some art. They had an open Thursday, meaning you could create your own photo frames. I picked a deep green (surprise!) frame and some gold ornaments to glue onto it. We, particularly I, had so much fun! I made this with all the passion (with nothing else to kill time with) I had at this point, and I am definitely taking it home to Hungary.

Once the show (our DIY project) was over, we said goodbye and took the train back to the hotel. I felt like drinking some wine in a pub, but everyone seemed so tired of their 20-30-hour flights that we just went back to the hotel to have some rest.

Tomorrow: We are going to HARVARD. Ever since I learned what Harvard meant and was, I wanted to visit, at the very least. If I could not get in – did not have the means to understand the way in – this was my dream only to see what it's like. A chance I would now kill for. As I am way past my undergrad years (even though I do not look like it), I can now only think of my prospective kids. I want to give them a chance to get into Harvard.

Hubby update: He received very good news on a promotion he is about to receive. He is doing so well, if only I saw him this well in the US. He'll and we'll all be better off.

3 November