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Published: June 13th 2007
View from our living room window
Our aptmt is on the 15th floor, the view from the aptmt across the hallway is the prettier pond view, but i'd say this is splendid too, huh?
Harvard Sq at night The weekend saw us moving from our hotel in Waltham to our new home in Cambridge. I think we’ve set a new record of sorts in shifting residences. Consider this - In the last 3 yrs - I’ve lived in 11 different apartments !!!! So I guess I’m a veteran now.
Living in Cambridge though is entirely different from any other place. Let me backup and tell you something about the history and geography of Cambridge. Cambridge is a town adjacent to the city of Boston. The city of Boston itself is very compact( only 232 sq. km) and the surrounding areas( treated as separate cities with mayors) comprise the Greater Boston area. The Charles river separates Boston from Cambridge.
Cambridge was established as the town of “Newtowne” in 1630. It acquired its present-day name in 1638 in honour of Cambridge, England as it appropriately reflected its status as the center of higher education. (Cambridge is home to Harvard University and MIT ) Over the years it transitioned from an agricultural village to an industrial town to finally an academic centre. Its history has not dissipated with time, however;
Harvard Square , beautiful old townhouses , multitude of
museums , charming historic inns - Cambridge is living and breathing history !
Coming back to our house, we were lucky enough to find it in just Day -2 of house hunting. Interestingly, we hit upon a website called apartmentratings.com where areawise you can search an apartment building and read what others have written about their experiences in those buildings. So we did that and were initially alarmed to see some nasty reviews. Soon realised that this forum is used mostly for venting frustration as pretty much all buildings reviewed had suffered at the hands of some irate occupants ! We had fun hunting for the house though, going up and down the
moves-at-a-snail's-pace Green-line
T. (The subway in Boston is called the 'T') , spending 1.5 hrs the first time, 40 min. the 2nd and only 15 min. the 3rd time in going to the same place as we figured out various routes.
The paperwork for the apartment was the most elaborate we’ve ever seen, sometimes even bordering on bizarre. We signed an agreement on ….
wait for this….the building specifications for our cats, if any! The process was super efficient though and completed in 15 min. And
when we moved in, we even got gifts from the building - water bottles and a bag-cum-blanket.
Right across the street from our building is a huge pond called fresh pond which is a nice wooded area with a jogging trail, golf course etc. As they say, life isn’t all
ha ha hee hee though. Coming off 2 domestic helps in India, it’s a major pain to do all cooking, cleaning, trash disposal and every other conceivable task ourselves. Thank god for Top Ramen , the life saver ! and Chinese home-delivery food. Seriously, i've had more "Orange chicken" in the last one week than i've had in my entire life
Until laters,
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Baba
non-member comment
New found residence
Brilliant of you two to locate the place in such a short time. From your comments it looks like a nice joint without the bustle and noise of a city. The pix envisage a wooded area and consequent greenery all around. But, I loved the look of the jogging trail. Remind yourself and your hubby to make full use of it always.