Savour the last moments of a dying year

It really doesn't feel like a year separates today and Dec 31, 2005.

Winter holidays were a good break; had Chea Lu over from the UK, and finally an excuse to do the whole tourist thing around Boston. It still doesn't feel like a home city to me; being still unacquainted with most of it.

The statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard. Also known as the statue of three lies: no one knows what John Harvard looks like, so they got a student to pose for the statue. "Founder" and "1648" are also etched at the bottom of the statue, though John Harvard was neither the founder (just someone who donated money), and Harvard Uni was founded in 1646.

Does wonders for your confidence in the university, huh.

Oh and if you look closely, the statue's left foot is shiny. That's because tourists rub it for luck.

And undergraduate students are well aware that stupid tourists rub this man-made object for luck. So they pee on it.

Finally discovered what my Harvard ID is good for: free entry into the Museum of Fine Arts (but not the Museum of Science! Argh!).

Popped over to New York to visit Chan Lek, he's doing a Ph.D in Rockefeller there. It was was interesting to see Rockefeller, it being representative of the research institute type of university, versus one with a proper university campus. In fact, it has no undergrads, and very few graduate students. To me it'd be like being a graduate student but without the student life aspect.

Rockefeller is amazing in some ways though. Access to Chan Lek's apartment requires a palm scan (beats my ID card anytime). And the apartments are located in Manhatten (the expensive part of New York), with rent highly subsidized (cheaper than my place!). All Cambridges are cursed to be expensive.

Saw Times Square, Chinatown, Central Park, New York Stock Exchange blah blah etc. BUTthe place to talk about is this Japanese restaurant Chan Lek brought us to. First off the place served good (and cheap!) Japanese food, mmm. However the atmosphere is crazy. They've got Japanese songs blaring overhead, not the modern pop some of you enjoy, but what sounds like World War II era marching songs alternated with 1930s-Geisha-bubblegum-pop. Surreal. Also, umm weird bondage drawings of women on the menus (wtf??); weird as in not sexy, but of some woman licking a skull.....One of the waiters had a Japanese accent...but he's black. You haven't seen it all till you hear a black guy with a Japanese tongue serve you your katsu don.



Someone's obviously thrilled with the place.










Back in Boston now, spent the past four days watching South Park and putting off all my coursework, all due in January. Urgh.

But it's the last day of the year, a time to reminisce.

Term is OVER!

MCB 155 finals were terrible...but I can't be bothered...

TERM'S OUT!!!

The last leg of the year

Three more days till the end of term.

There's been so much work the past month; the pace of term now seems radically different compared to the first half. I never drank coffee; now I take a cup every day. I've not seen much more of Boston, and eat microwave dinners half the time.

Just one more exam on Tuesday, and then we break for winter.

The Harvard Medical School campus is huge; like a tumour that's metastasized out of control. One professor described it as a medico-industrial complex. Several full-service hospitals, plus numerous specialized institutes and the medical school proper; it's larger than the main Harvard campus at Cambridge, MA. I'm doing my next rotation there; it's an interesting glimpse into the life there, as compared to where I am now: a hospital/research institution versus traditional university-based lifestyle.

Winter's coming too. The weather has been as impetuous as in the UK; someone mentioned that the New England climate must be a female. 2 weeks ago it was below freezing, and everyone was sure that was the start of winter. First snow a week ago; powder snow that just drifted around like sand, not the wet snow of England. Shows how cold it can get. But this week's really warm, as if spring was coming. Change of temperature's like the hot flashes of a menopausal 50 year-old. It'll cool down soon enough though.

Caught the Geminid meteor shower a few days ago too. Supposedly the most spectacular of the yearly showers, which sadly before always seemed to be best viewed from the states. Caught 5 in 20 mins, which I guess wasn't as frequent as I imagined....and it's hard to wish for anything in the space of half a second...

Still...

Busy and cold

It's been the busiest week this semester yet; first cup of coffee in at least the past few years to keep going. After this Wednesday our class is going out to binge eat and maybe get drunk. Apathy about courses has started sinking in.

And first snow in Boston this morning; tomorrow it'll be below freezing for the first time throughout the day.

And it's starting to turn dark at 4pm now. Folks, this is the New England winter. Where the locals have promised knee-high snow (at least) for months.

Two more weeks till end of term though.