Stop 3: BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

"As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it"

-Albert Einstein

Crazy 

I hopped onto the back of a tour at Harvard and ran into a girl who went to my high school. Small world! Because Denver is 2,000 miles away, it’s extremely rare for me to have any random connections to people in the East. I also went to a kick boxing class. Not zumba style, but like legitimate boxing gloves and punching bag. This was a totally different exercise experience from the yoga class I took in Portland with all 40-year-old mothers.

Lame 

I took a nap in a dog park and I’m pretty sure people thought I was homeless. I thought it was an ok place to nap, but I guess not because I was kind of the spectacle of oddity in the park. O well. Also, we played trivia at a sports bar. I discovered it’s not my forte.

Bad 

I sat on the ground in Harvard square with Sunny the homeless guy, and he was absolutely fascinating. He was more willing to talk about his life than I expected. He taught me that life is not a straight line, but many paths can lead you to “the source” (optimal living) and away from “the void” (where the world originates). The reason I put this under “bad” is because it was such an impactful experience, but I never got to repay him. I left to buy him lunch, and he was gone when I got back. Then it was 85 degrees.  I was cranky and went to cool out by the famous and beautiful Charles River but sat on an ant hill. Not the highlight of my Boston experience.

Good

 I stayed with some college friends at their apartment in Allston, which attracts lots of young folks because of its location between Boston University and Boston College. My friend and I went to a great beer place called Sunset Grill, where I tried an IPA, oatmeal stout, and wheat beer. Joshua Tree was a cool sports bar too with trivia. My friends and I made an amazing stir frye with baby corn (still don’t really know why it’s called that), mushrooms, onions, water chestnuts, snap peas, and tofu. Also, NO PARKING TICKETS!!

Quote

 I chose this quote for Boston because the city has so many resources and high-achieving individuals who help our circle of knowledge expand, but we can never know everything. What is the point of knowing anything? In the end, we are all animals on a spherical mass that will end up in the same place. This quote can either be seen as optimistic in the sense that we are always uncovering more of the unknown, or can be seen as pessimistic in the sense that our knowledge will never be good enough to understand everything. I like to think that there will always be a circumference of darkness/ambiguity/mysteriousness about the world. That’s what keeps us curious…

Explore Boston right now


Harvard Square
http://www.harvardsquare.com/


Head of the Charles Regatta
http://www.hocr.org/home/default.asp


Stock Exchange at Harvard
http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/crises/1929.html

Sunset Grill in Allston
http://www.allstonsfinest.com/

Joshua Tree Sports Bar
http://www.joshuatreeallston.com/jta/