150. Your Trip to Boston Part 1

It is a trip that never belonged to you, and never will be. This is what you remember from it.

You go back to a city you have lived in after seven and a half years. You tell yourself that your main purpose is to revisit the old, familiar places, to see if anything had changed while you were gone. In fact, you spend most of the time stuck at the Convention Center, speaking to random corporate people in broken Japanese. Your friends are also preoccupied with work or school, and cannot communicate with you like vacationers do.

But, before all of that, you want to give a recount of your weekend from Day One.

You arrive at the airport 35min prior to departure, but is refused to be checked-in because customs "may take a while". You also find that somehow, your first name and last name are switched, and so you spend the time correcting it while imagining the engines booming over your head as the plane you were supposed to leave with take off. The next flight to Boston is the next morning at 6:55, but check-in and customs begin at 3:45am. You do not want to take any chances, and decide to stay at the airport overnight.

The airport on a Thursday night gets quiet quickly, especially after 8:30pm, the most activity comes from airport staff who talk in accents about co-workers. You sit down on a bench out of the way, and begin to read the New Yorker magazine you were supposed to have read the week before.

Morning finally comes, and the small plane carries you and 6 other passengers to Boston. Toronto's cityscape looks like a bunch of curled up worms, full of newly built townhouses in the suburbs. Boston, on the other hand, looks much more Atlantic, full of independent houses and old roads that do not resemble a grid. The leaves turned the week before, and you want to go visit cemeteries.

There are a great deal less people of Asian backgrounds in Boston. At Airport station, you buy a CharlieTicket with your credit card, and chuckle to yourself at three Japanese girls who are trying to break a twenty. You tell yourself that this is your city and you should appear local in no time. As you pass the Orange Line on the train, you remember that you have always associated it with Chinatown, and feel a bit relieved that you did not transfer at the station because the people around you may stereotype you as a Chinatown-goer. You take note of strange station names, and ask yourself whether you have seen those names before. There are a lot more proper nouns to memorize in Boston.

You arrive at your best friend's house, and buzz him at the door. While waiting, you remember the old apartment building you used to live in, and how you have lived without buzz codes for a long time. The building is warm, and your friend's home is cozy. You do not have much time, and change into your suit and leave for the convention center. On the way there, you see the clothing worn by regular Bostonians, and you remember the online ranking of Boston as America's "Worst Dressed City". You wonder if your outfit is too out of place.

Join me in Part 2 when you enter the business world of the Boston Career Forum.

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Written by micr0q, copyright 2011. Streetview found on Google and is only given to show context; no infringement intended.