Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Bustling Boston

We started the day feeling rejuvenated after a full night's rest. We immediately got dressed in formal attire because of our dinners and visits in Boston. We ate a delicious breakfast that the hotel provided. Then we left on our semi journey to Boston. The drive was quite excruciating because of the traffic. In theory the drive to Boston from Providence was supposed to take approximately 45 minutes, but in practice it was about an hour and a half. Boston is a large and fast paced city, similar to that of San Francisco. Tourists were identified easily. First by the look in the eyes of sheer amazement to the city, second by our use of the crosswalk, and lastly because of our attire did not represent the Boston Red Sox or the Boston Bruins. By the way as I blog, the Boston Bruins are on their way to winning the Stanley Cup. Because of this, the police are not allowing parking on the streets because of the riots that are bound to ensue in celebration.

We arrived at the prestigious college, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We all sat in on a short informational session and then went on a two hour tour. The campus was amazing, and more interesting than most might expect. As most might know MIT has a keen focus on math and science. But the students might most enjoy “hacking.” Now hacking has no reference to disturbing or corrupting computer information. Its definition in the MIT vernacular is “an inventive anonymous prank.” Hackers follow a strict code of ethics and guidelines. Many students pull these pranks to send a message to the school’s administration or to purely show of their daring yet creative geniuses.
Welcome to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Oh, those MIT pranksters!
We immediately left MIT and headed to get a quick bite to eat. Once we were fully nourished, we left for our second campus visit at Boston University (Fun Fact: Boston contains over 60 colleges). Boston University was about a 15 minute walk from MIT, which was convenient for our travel. I really enjoyed the tour at Boston University. It was very intriguing. I did not know that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Boston University alum.

Today we solely stayed in Boston. We finished our campus tour at around four, and dinner was not until 6. So in order to kill time, we went window shopping, visited a library, and even a candy store. This was really exciting to experience the life of Downtown Boston.

After window shopping we all went to dinner at Boston’s finest and most elegant restaurant, L’ESPALIER. We were joined by the Northern California admissions officer of Boston University, Ms. Chelsea Moylan, and Brown Alum Grace. Both added great insight to broaden our college horizons. They were both very lively and I really enjoyed their company. If I had to summarize all that I learned today pertaining to college, it would be this: Not one thing makes or breaks you for college acceptance, rather having an overall good application is what is most important. We left this fancy dinner and headed back to our hotel. Today was an amazing experience on the East Coast, almost magical.

Mr. Ramsey has excellent taste in restaurants.

1 comment:

  1. Andrew,

    How many times have we told you that EVERYTHING we do in the ILC is for a reason? We purposely sent you to Boston on this day so you could see how East Coasters riot when their teams win big. Many people might think that a riot is a riot but there are subtle differences. I hope you take note of these when you post your next blog.

    I hope that you're smart enough to question what other people are telling you. Although your new friends at MIT may say that "hacking" is an anonymous harmless prank, the rest of the world may still see it as a crime. It's just like right here in Richmond we have civic leaders that will claim that graffiti is artistic expression. They say that all the way up until their car or fence gets tagged and then they say it's something else.

    Sounds like you're enjoying the sites and the new adventures.

    ReplyDelete

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