An Enblem

Ok, I'm not sure if this is the right name but the signpost is for The Massachusetts Turnpike. I liked it for two reasons. We went to Boston all the way from England(yes, the drama), and then one thing i first saw was the signpost to NY... Hum, I'm somewhere new, and then i feel like I should be looking for the next place to go! I know, this is only one way for interpreting things. The other reason why I loved the sign was because of the pilgrim hat, probably symbolising the witches of Salem and the trials.

Well, we had a fantastic trip, great cold weather, nice parks, riverside walking, market sneaking, millions of italian food restaurants, and delicious cheesecake. What else can one possibly want? ah, and a nice token of Mexican food: fresh tomatillos!

The highlights are many. The fulfilment of certain stereotypes: big cars, big food portions, ultra polite service people, people dressed properly according to the weather, massive sense of space. Some ideas were challenged: almost no one was fat (probably because it was Boston where everybody seem to be jogging).

A very surprising thing was that it felt like there were not many people around. Difficult to explain this. Not that we had any expectation whatsoever, but coming from the UK, where many places, including small towns and villages, feel very crowded on a Saturday afternoon, we did not get that feel anywhere we went in Boston. There was always a sensation that there were not many people around. The only places that were crowded were the food joints (bars and restaurants alike). Otherwise, you could as well walk comfortably on the streets, not people skipping at all. Maybe only in the T (the subway and bus transport services). Not queueing anywhere either, only when arriving to a restaurant. Anyway, the city felt like a place i would like living in.

Obviously, a feature that I most likely was going to appreciate was the multicultural past and present history of Boston. While in the past it was mainly home to Irish, Italians and Africans (an others), it is now also home to people from the Latin American Caribbean, Central and South America. I could not clearly differentiate between them; however, i could notice the presence of Peruvians and Brazilians, which is very interesting. Also, in some places -closer to the MIT- the smell of curry reminded me of my current home.

Where do I intend to get with this post? I really don't know. Probably, all I want to say is that this trip was quite symbolic for many reasons. However, it was mainly because it is the first new place I visit in three years. Having the opportunity, once more, to visit a different country showed me how comfortably numb I've gone. I know, it was only a matter of time to realise about this.