General Boston Life

Herein begins my journal about Boston! I'll try to update when I travel as well.

The move from San Diego to Boston (which I did with Jaime) was a bit of a whirlwind. I'd miscommunicated with the Harvard Chemistry Department, and realized that I was supposed to be on campus a week before I thought. As a result, we cut out drive a day short, and I flew from Indiana to Boston as soon as I could.

Regardless, Jaime and I had a grand old time on our trip. She'd planned an excellent route, with overnight stops in rural Utah (at the oldest functional bed & breakfast in the state); Boulder, CO; and Kansas City, Kansas, where much of her extended family lives. On the drive, we passed through a number of national parks, including Zion & Arches National Parks in Utah, which were simply breathtaking. (When I finally get pictures from photo-guru Jaime, I'll post some.)

On arriving in Boston, orientation at Harvard went without a hitch (though the Director of Graduate Admissions did express some "displeasure" at my lateness). The move itself, however, was full of hitches. A day or two before arriving in Cambridge, I called my movers to schedule the delivery of my furniture and belongings... it turned out that - contrary to our previous agreement - they'd decided to store my stuff in San Diego, rather than on the East Coast, and couldn't deliver the stuff for nearly three weeks! In the meantime I slept on Jed's air mattress (which I inflated with my own lung power), and wore only travel-stained clothes for the first few weeks of school -- what a great first impression!

Eventually, my things did arrive, and though I wasn't able to get compensated for their mistake, I vowed to thoroughly bash them to everyone I know... so folks, NEVER use ASAP Moving Vanlines, Inc.! After a few weeks, the new apartment genuinely began to feel like home. (See below for a few before-and-after photos.) I've hosted both a housewarming and a Halloween party here, much to my friends' and classmates' delight.

Classes began the second week I was in town, and they were all mediocre at best. I've discovered that these prestigious "graduate research institutions" aren't the best place for classwork -- all the profs are too engrossed in their research to care about teaching! I had one class at Harvard (Advanced Organic Chemistry), which focused on 2 things: crap I already knew, and crap I didn't give a rat's ass about. And to top it off, it was taught extremely poorly. I then had two classes at MIT (where I can cross-register without any trouble): Bioinorganic Chemistry, taught by the two foremost people in that field, who taught us as if we were already experts; and Organometallic Chemistry, taught by the most attractive professor I think I've ever seen: Jonas Peters. That was an excellent class, despite the visual distractions at the chalkboard.

My classmates are, for the most part, excellent folks; we get along quite splendidly. Three of my favorites -- Tamara, Graham, and Libby -- have all joined the same research lab I'm working in, and I have no doubt that we'll be one of the more amiable and social groups in the department. We are all working for Dr. Ted Betley, a 30-year-old, new professor; he's laid-back, friendly, brilliant, and knows how to push his students without over-stressing them. My research project is generally focused on C-H bond activation using mid- to late-transition metal catalysts; I won't go into more details here, because it would be jargon, but if you're interested you can check out the Betley Group research page.

My outside-of-school social life in Boston has been sadly underdeveloped. My dear friend Dave is here in town, also pursuing a Ph.D. at Harvard, but we're in different departments and on different campuses. I've become friends with a number of his friends, but I don't get to see them nearly enough. That will be changing this semester, though, as I try to figure out a better work-life balance. I also dated a lovely guy named Joe Gracie for a couple of months: a bartender at a local, well-renowned brewery, a native of Woburn, and a genuinely sweet, friendly guy. That relationship fell victim to the demands of graduate school, but we remain in touch.

After classes finished in mid-December, I had the pleasure of traveling around the country a bit to see friends and family for the holidays. I spent Christmas at home in Goshen, and finally got to spend a significant chunk of time there; Dec 26-28 in Arlington, where I got to see some of the Fargo Scharfs, as well as Dad, Ellen, & Carly, and got to see Grandmother's new apartment in an "independent living" complex. Since her move, the old house at 402 2nd St. has been scavenged by the family, but I managed to find a few interesting pieces to take home with me: a photo of Dad looking uncannily like Adam, one of Granddaddy's wooden puzzles, a pair of Dad's old baby shoes, and a 32+-year-old bottle of oregano from Grandmother's cabinet. How often did she cook?!?

After Texas, I went to San Diego for Don L.'s best friend & roommate's memorial service/celebration; he passed away shortly before Christmas. I didn't know him well, but had followed the progress of his illness through frequent conversations with Don L. over the course of the last several months. All-in-all, the celebration of Nick's life was touching, sad, and -- as Nick would have wanted it -- a lot of fun. Unfortunately, though, the club where the event was held lost my debit card and driver's license. Typical Austin's-traveling-luck! Luckily, it wasn't too problematic to get them replaced at the DMV; luckily I'm still licensed in California!

I also got to spend some good time with Jaime and Jeff, though there were several people I didn't get the opportunity to see. San Diego truly merits its unofficial nickname: the Granola City -- full of Fruits, Flakes, and Nuts. New Years was spent with Jaime at a low-key house party hosted by some of her friends; an excellent, though far from wild, night.

After San Diego, I met up with Jaime, Dave, & Godfrey in San Francisco (or Berkeley, to be more precise) for a whirlwind visit of Godfrey's new demesne at UC Berkeley, where he's pursuing a Ph.D. in Performance Studies. To put it briefly, it was excellent to see them all again, particularly in one place. We had our usual mix of deep discussions and drunken debauchery.

I returned to Cambridge this past Thursday, and have spent the last couple of days acclimating to the cold again. We had a gorgeous snowfall last night, and I'll try to snap a photo before it gets dark out. My official research begins tomorrow morning, but this semester's classes don't start for another several weeks. I'll try to keep you up-to-date!

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