A Bostonian Christmas

Went to Boston （波斯顿）recently to spend Christmas with some friends, and had a very enjoyable time. Boston, in the state of Massachusetts, is a place full of history; it was one of the first few places people settled during the 17th and 18th century when a certain country known as the United States of America was being established. Of course, it is now a very modern city and boasts a pretty good transport system.

Boston Common: the lungs of the city. Underneath the white snow lies a beautiful green lawn.

Views from the top: Boston just before sunset, and just after sunset.

Going nuts over the street signs!

An old-fashioned 7-eleven at Beacon Hill

Symmetry: Part of the glass structure of the JFK Library and Museum

Overlooking the New England coast

Video of swimming ducks at the harbour

Just across the Charles river stands the town of Cambridge, which of course has two of the world's most famous (and very hard to enter) universities, Harvard and MIT. It's a very surreal feeling, even just visiting the campuses. The atmosphere is just so different from the usual academic institution, as if one was going to school for the first time, and just starting to understand the concept of school. The buildings, the paths that link them, in fact just the environment at large. The buildings in Harvard were mostly closed for the holidays, but those at MIT were still open, so I had a chance to go in and walk through the corridors. It was some kind of mixed feeling, on one hand very intellectual, and the other rather inferior. For one, I know I will never get a place in either of these institutions. But I guess it was satisfying just to be able to visit them. With such conducive environments for academia, it's hard not to succeed here, I believe.

Scenes from Harvard University （哈佛大学）

Scenes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 麻省理工学院

This trip has definitely been one of the highlights of my American journey thus far.....

Snow . White.

Last night, it started snowing quite heavily here, and it continued all the way till lunchtime today. Looking out of my apartment when I woke up this morning, a lovely sight greeted me. Unlike rain, snow is light and makes no noise when it lands, although it was pretty obvious that the wind was fairly strong --- at some point the snow flakes appeared to be travelling horizontally!

The accumulation of snow came up to be about 6 inches (according to the meteorological service). Well, what I know is that the road and the carpark totally disappeared! And there were little snowhills around.... nice.

Anyway, of course I could not miss the chance to utilise my trusty camera, so here are some pictures and a video.










The sun came out shortly after the snow stopped, and the mix of sunshine and snow somehow gives an apt definition of "clean and bright".

Healing

Woke up this morning, and realized that it has been 6 months. I still remember the day when I stood by the bed, looking at the person who has accompanied me for almost all of my life, wondering what else I still had to say to him… I was calm, perhaps numb. In a way, I was bracing myself for it to happen; it was just a matter of time. I forgot to even say goodbye when he drew his last breath. Then, did anyone else remember?

Of course, those few days after that were the worst, when everything started to sink in. It came to my realization that, no longer do I have the chance to buy him his favourite food, to sit with him at the dinner table, to watch TV together. Ever. I think back of the last time I bought him the jumbo Alaskan snow crab legs to eat. He was so weak, he had barely a spoonful. In the end, I ate the rest myself. And it tasted really bad. Put me off snow crab legs forever.

Perhaps the crab legs did not taste that bad. I just did not have the right company.

It is often said that time can heal an aching heart. I hope that this is true. My senses will prevail eventually, I guess. Maybe I just need a little more time...

"Sing us a song
A song to keep us warm
There's such a chill, such a chill."