just like home

It's official. I love Boston.

I had an amazing day today. Of course it started way too early... I woke up around 7ish to get ready for the day and finish making my room look presentable. Why? Because Billy, a friend of mine from CNU, was coming to visit! He is in Rhode Island for the month and since he was that close, of course he had to visit. So we planned for him to get on a train at 8:30 in Providence that would bring him to downtown Boston. Around 9:30, as I was getting ready, I noticed I had a text. I was terrified to look at it because I just knew it would be from Billy saying he missed the train. And sure enough, I opened it and it said "Guess who missed the train." I sighed loudly, and Meghan heard me. I walked into the living room and Meg just looked at me and said "He missed the train didn't he?" I was freaking out and trying to calculate when he would get here. Then I walked back to my room to call him and there was another text saying he actually did get on the train. I called him and remained calm enough not to cuss him out, but I really wanted to. He told me he had just passed Hyde Park so he was pretty close. After I got off the phone with him I finished getting ready and left to go meet him. I left around 10 so I could get the shuttle to Reservoir in time. Because of the game, the shuttle was running even worse than usual. I waited about 10 or 15 minutes before one finally came. I got to Reservoir and walked to where I could see down in the station to make sure he wasn't waiting. As I walked up I saw a train pulling up so I headed downstairs. I was thinking he was probably on that train, and as I was almost down the stairs I saw him step out onto the platform. It was so great to see him, and I just gave him a big hug. Then we went upstairs to wait for the shuttle and had a chance to catch up with each other, which was nice.

We went back to my house so he could drop his stuff off and I could get the tickets, and I gave him a little tour of my house. There was plenty time before the game so we went to College Sub and had lunch. Then I took him on a tour of BC, making sure to mention all the little tidbits I've picked up in my time here. By the time we had walked all over campus it was almost time for the football game to start. We were in the upper endzone, which is really not a bad place to sit. The game was really good. I had heard Army was pretty terrible, but they kind of put up a good fight. BC scored a field goal fairly early, then a touchdown not long after that. Matt Ryan got the touchdown, but he had some pretty bad passes during the game. But he is amazing! It was a little dodgy in the first half of the game, especially after Army faked a field goal attempt and ran the ball down the field, then got a touchdown on the next play. At halftime the score was 16-9. Billy asked me if our halftime show was any good, and I told him it wasn't. Because that is the truth. The only thing that happens is the marching band plays some obscure classical music and the flag girls pretend like they can dance. Then it's just dead time until the game starts again. The second half was much better though. Army scored again, but BC got it together in the second half and got way ahead of Army. At the end the score was 37-17.

After the game, we headed back to my house. Meghan was home so I introduced them. I told Billy not to say anything bad about URI since Meghan went there. So they started talking about URI and Rhode Island while I got ready to head downtown. Billy said he wanted to go to Fenway, and since he also said he wanted to go shoe shopping, I had also suggested we go to Newbury Street and/or Prudential Center. So we headed back out to the D line, got out at Kenmore, and started walking. We found Fenway without too much trouble. It was nothing like I expected it to be. It has really high walls so you can't see into it, and you would only know it is Fenway because of all the signs and flags. Otherwise it just looks like a big warehouse-type building in the middle of a city. Either way it was good to finally see the Kenmore Square area.

After that we started walking toward Newbury Street. We passed Hynes Convention Center, and there was something going on in there, so Billy wanted to go in and check it out. It was some kind of college fair. Billy saw people with bags from Monster energy drink and he wanted one, but when we went inside it looked like it was pretty much over. So we went back outside and kept walking. We ended up going to Prudential first and walking through, but Billy wasn't as enthusiastic about shopping as I thought. We walked over the bridge to Copley Place, then went back outside. We were going to head to Newbury but we went the wrong way, so we ended up walking through the South End. So I guess that's another Boston neighborhood that I've experienced. Eventually we started heading the right way. Billy saw a 7-Eleven and really wanted a Slurpee, so we stopped in there. But we were both really hungry, so we were on the lookout for a place to eat. Billy told me he didn't care where we ate as long as it wasn't a chain. We walked almost all the way up Newbury but I didn't see anything that caught my eye. But then Billy spotted a Thai restaurant, so we decided to eat there. When we walked in, the hostess directed us to a table right in front that was kind of separate from the other tables and remarked that it was "more private." I decided not to order pad thai since I've eaten so much lately. I got something similar though...it was like pad thai but with rice. I was glad that my conversation with Billy picked up during dinner because it had kind of lulled while we were walking around. We had a very interesting conversation that at points touched on marriage and religion. I realized how little I really knew about Billy, and it was good to get to know him a little better. After we had been talking a while Billy ordered dessert...some fried banana things. I didn't want to tell him that I hate bananas. When we got them he asked if I did so I couldn't lie. He just didn't want to look like a fattie by just getting them for himself. I decided to try them and they weren't that bad, but I only ate a couple.

After dinner there was still a little time before Billy had to catch a train back to Providence, so I suggested we do the Prudential Skywalk. Luckily after we walked back and found the entrance for the skywalk they were letting the last few people go up. The view was very cool, especially since it was at night so everything was lit up. They have numbers on the window and they give you a little thing that if you enter the number it plays a recording about something you can see out of that window. It was hard to see some stuff in the dark. And a lot of the stuff they talked about I had already learned on the Duck Tour I took over the summer. So overall it was cool but not worth the $9 it cost.

After that Billy had to head back to Rhode Island. I took the train with him to Park Street. We said a quick goodbye, then he headed off toward the Red line, and I rushed across the station because there was a D line train waiting. I'm so exhausted from walking, but seeing the city was amazing. And being with someone from home who I love to death was just what I needed.