The first thing that I absolutely have to establish is that if you have to get up at 9.00 am then it’s not possibly called vacation. This is exactly what I subjected to yesterday. It still hurts when I think about it. We decided to do a day trip to Boston because it was still not camping weather and some morons (read Mansha, Vibhu, Sameer and Utsav) decided that we need to leave at 9.00 am. And while they happily got drunk and slept early, I was working till 2.00 am and I was super groggy all day!
Mansha decides she wants to see her first Chinatown so that’s where we decided to park the car. A sign at the entrance of the structure saying “Please use only one spot to park your car” seemed really funny until we went in and cursed all these mo-fos using two spots for their car. We soon figured out why. The parking lots were meant for Asian sized cars. I can’t believe even the parking structure was already conforming to stereotypes. It was run down and super shady. We parked on “horse” floor (yep.. the elevator had animal signs for each floor). I left my laptop in the car with crazy apprehension, which wasn’t helped by this sign at the exit, “Do not leave any belongings in the car. Don’t learn the hard way”. (I still left it).
We decided to do this sightseeing path called the “freedom trail” which is starts at this park called the Boston Commons and takes you through 14 important buildings of historic significance. We followed Vibhu (who later insisted that she wasn’t leading). We keep walking with each person assuming that the other was leading (you can see where this is going)we cross a lot of pretty old buildings and we reach Trinity Church. I am really alarmed because the freedom trail is technically this red brick inlay work on the sidewalk that I can’t find anywhere. Vibhu insists, “I know the Apple store (that we can see) is on the freedom trail” (!!). So, we keep walking. Passing a giant rat ( see attached pic), we reach this really cool mall called Prudential Center. There is this really awesome fountain and while everyone is pigging on the famous pink berry fro-yo, I decide to do some investigative work and go looking for a map. I find it and needless to say, we have been walking in the opposite direction from the actual freedom trail and were never on it!
Finally with renewed wisdom and depleted energy we decide to head back to Chinatown for lunch start our hunt for the perfect dumpling place that can fit the specifications of 5 ppl in a group. 2 vegetarians, one person insisting on eating dumplings, one person giving yelp suggestions and one person insisting on eating cheap (me) made for quite an interesting restaurant choosing experience until we decided to just enter this next place called “Dumpling Café” (at least the dumpling specification was apparently fulfilled). The meal started off with me unknowingly using my soupspoon to drink the jasmine tea, which probably set the tone for the whole meal. The waitress couldn’t understand our English and we couldn’t understand hers. The ordering was a fun game of charades.
Vibhu: Do you have brown rice?
Waitress: Yes
Vibhu: I don’t want it fried. Just plain.
Waitress: Egg
Vibhu: What?
Waitress: Egg
Vibhu: I don’t get it.
Waitress: (writes egg on her notepad)
Vibhu: I want plain brown rice.
Waitress: (no idea what she said)
Mansha: I think she means you have only fried rice and plain rice Vibhs. I don’t think they have brown rice.
Vibhs: I’ll just take the fried rice.
(Later waitress comes back with plain white rice for her).
Mansha: I’ll have the tofu.
Waitress: It’s spicyyyy!!
Mansha: That’s fine.
Waitress: Makes face n shrugs. (lol)
The whole meal was super funny. We all kept bugging each other to ask the waitress for forks and finally I ate my whole meal with a spoon. That’s how scared I was of trying to converse with her. The waitress forgot my soup and later I got the crappiest version ever. However, the food was delicious. And I ate loads. When I finally complimented the waitress on the food.. she made a face!! It was freaking hilarious. We went souvenir shopping in our post food coma and my china town souvenir was 4 AAs for $1.50! I’ll tell you how that pans out.
Post china town I hit a Starbucks to catch up on some work while Mansha and Sameer fulfilled their nerdy guilty pleasures at the Museum of Science. We then went to MIT and the great MIT was a few blocks across with 3-4 buildings! The best part was free wifi so I kept working while we were driving around in the car. We then went to Harvard and I decided that my alter ego goes to Harvard. It was hilarious as they kept trying to get me to admit that I didn’t go there but I was too smart for them. Harvard educated you see. They kept teasing me every time they saw an Indian guy on campus (that I should snag the guy). I was working at a coffee shop while they explored campus and I was supposed to call them when I was done. I realized later that I had forgotten my phone in the car!! I was waiting in the coffee shop to be rescued and I had 5 mins b4 the Internet expired (wifi is a precious commodity on the Harvard campus) when I finally got a FB msg telling me where they are. Phewwww. I finally got my work done too!!!.. yyaaaayyyy and we celebrated with cheeseburgers at the Harvard Square. We went to some awesome dessert place after that and finallyyy headed back after 14 hour day. We played this game called Jungle Speed where they kicked my ass but the game is HILARIOUS!!.. it’s the best drinking game ever.
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