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| Author: |
MrHyde |
| Date: |
Friday, March 30 2007 @ 10:26 AM EST |
| Viewed: |
501 times |
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 We finished a day earlier than expected, so ended up having a day to do a bit of sight-seeing around Boston. We decided to go Harvard and MIT for this day.
Unfortunately, it is currently spring break in the US, so the campuses were mostly empty with only tourists wandering around it. At Harvard, we took the "unofficial" tour of Harvard being run by some students. The tour took us around the main buildings on the campus and informed us about some of the history behind them, some interesting trivia and some famous people who stayed there. All in all, although interesting, it took us only through a small part of the campus.
MIT, on the other hand, is huge. We missed the last tour time, so decided to do a self paced tour of the campus. The campus is about the size of Uni of Melbourne and all Monash campuses combined. And almost all of it is interconnected through hallways. It was very interesting seeing some of the exhibits that were in the glass show cases. The building I was most looking forward to was the AI labs. Unfortunately, since this was during the break, there was no one around to allow us into the building. MIT also has a musuem, but by the time we reached it, it had closed. I'll have to leave that till the next time I am in Boston.
Now, one thing I found very interesting of Boston as compared to other places is that the people are quite friendly. A lot of people told us that the people of Boston are very arrogant and snobbish and they themselves think so as well. Something to do with their British ancestory. Still, they are more friendly than people in New York or LA. Our first impression of LA is at the airport where a guy came up to a taxi, hurled some abuse at him, snapped the radio antenna in half and then walked off. In Boston, we have had a transport authority person approach us offering assistance on using the automated ticket machines after seeing confusion on our faces. This would never happen in NY. Last time I was in NY, the person basically told us to fuck off and not bother him. Around the streets of Boston, we had numerous occasions of people coming up and asking us if we needed some help as we looked lost.
Boston, itself, also does not feel like other American cities. It has a European feel to it - the streets, the buildings, etc. I attribute this to its history and close links with the British Empire in the early days of the US.
One of the negatives about Boston is that they seem to be in the midst of a crime wave at the moment. I read papers calling for action by the police and some reverend asking that Boston be declared an emergency zone due to the crime rate. Richard and I might even have ended up on the 7 o'clock news because of this. A vigilante group called the Guardian Angels had just started up in Boston where a group of unarmed people patrol the trains and streets of hotspots. We were travelling on a train today and two of these "Angels" came on board followed by a camera crew. They did a short bit on them and we were standing right next to the Angels. We were told to watch the Channel 7 news tonight 'cause we'll be on it. Funny thing is when the guy came and chatted to us about what they were doing, all I could think of was the Simpsons episode where Homer leads a vigilante group. Also, I don't know how successful these groups are going to be. They are good at highlighted some of the problem areas and might be able to help the police out a bit, but what will happen when they come against a real crime. What can a pair or two of unarmed people do against gangsters with guns... gangsters who have no qualms about shooting people in broad daylight... this is an accident waiting to happen.
Overall, Boston is a great city to visit... its got lots of history, the food is good, the people are friendly, the airport is a breeze to get through, just don't drive in the CBD without a map.
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