My days seem to follow the same routine, I wake up at 8am, have a shower, do my hair, get ready and head to class for 9.30am. I finish my first class, come back to my room, check emails and then head to my next two classes. Once they’re done I head to the canteen with Padraic, have some lunch, complain about our rubbish lives and then I head by to my room, do my homework, have a dinner break and then I sit on Facebook until it’s time for bed. That is literally what I do everyday. Sometimes I mix it up by walking around campus but that takes five minutes and isn’t overly exciting, so Padraic and I decided to make a break for Boston this weekend.
Chicopee is about two hours from Boston but oh my life, it’s a completely different country. The people in the Boston bus station don’t look homeless of like they’re going to knife you, they’re regular people, using public transport just because they want to. It gets even better when you leave the station, there are buildings, real building and they’re tall, so very tall. It’s a real life city AND it smells like the sea - my two favourite things, civilisation and the sea, all in the one place!
But wait - it gets better! This place has history and I mean real life history! They have this thing called the Freedom Trail, depicted by red bricks in the ground and it leads to 16 historic sights. We didn’t have time to see all the sights and we kept going in the wrong direction but it was nice to walk through Boston and to see the Italian district which was full of yummy looking restaurants and nicey shops.
Boston seems to be a mix of old and new - there’s a massive skyscraper beside an old church and across the road there’s a park full of protestors and students busking. Everything is within walking distance and there’s character everywhere you go - even the dodgy alleyways are nicer than the main streets of Springfield.
Obviously Boston isn’t perfect and I think that coming here every weekend wouldn’t make the decision to stay in Chicopee worthwhile but it was a brilliant weekend. It would be impossible to see all the sights in one day, so it’s a good thing that I went back the next day.
On Sunday I went on a whale watching trip with Elms. We drove from Chicopee to Boston, had a look around Qunicy Market, ate some niceys and then went out on the boat.
A few years ago I went on a whale watching trip in New Zealand. It was one of the most horrible experiences of my life. We were on the boat for hours, it was unbelievable rough and I was surrounded by vomiting tourists. No word of a lie it scarred me for life, so I have no idea why I thought I’d sign up for this. Well, I do actually. I imagined that my most recent whale watching experience would be similar to the ending scene of Free Willy where the whale (which is actually a dolphin) jumps out of the water and effortlessly glides to freedom while the young boy (in this situation, me) fist pumps and jumps for joy. Instead we drove (or is it sailed?) for over two hours and then proceeded to chase the one humpback whale around for a good hour, seeing it about three times when it came up for air. It didn’t do anything exciting either. I know they’re wild animals and all that but he could have tried to be interesting, all I saw was a bit of his back and let’s be honest, it could have been a seal.
It was nice to get out of Chicopee, to see tall buildings, to go on a boat and to feel free, even if it was for a short period of time. I’d definitely come back to Boston, I’d even consider living here… I wonder if I could make the two hour commute to college?
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