TRADITIONAL GET OUT OF TOWN TRIP

Thinking back, I've noticed a pattern in my life. I seem to leave town every Labor Day. It's the perfect holiday weekend if you really think about it. Usually school has just started and you are not at all excited about the schedule/reading/homework you already have piling up. Labor day is really the only thing that gets me through that initial week of school. So to continue the tradition, I packed my bags and headed for Boston, MA for the weekend. I had only been there once before when I went to visit MIT and it was at the end of February. All I remember is it was freezing cold, everyone seemed dreary, sad and tired, and it was freezing cold. So this time I was extremely surprised to find a city that is actually incredibly fun and exciting. I went with my friend Kaeli who just started a PhD in political science at Yale. I picked her up and in Boston we met up with several of our friends from BYU that are now studying or working in the city. I had a great time.

Saturday morning we went to the temple and that night we went swimming at Walden Pond.

The actual pond made famous by Thoreau

It is a beautiful place. I would have thought that those big-government New England liberals up there would have stopped people from swimming in the lake and turned it into a giant boring museum by now, but that's not the case. When we weren't doing that we were eating in Harvard Square, or hanging out with many of the other LDS folk that live in the Cambridge area.

Harvard Square

Honestly, there were moments when I thought, "Why on earth did I not chose to go to school here." But I had to remind myself that I definitely am at a better program, and will probably do much better this year since there are zero distractions here. I recently remarked to my dad that I can either study or go running. Those are the only two options available to me right now, and after it gets dark running is really treacherous here. I tried to convince all of my New England friends to come down to NJ and visit, but they were much more interested in me coming up there again. Honestly, I think I agree.

On a side note, we wanted to watch the BYU vs. Oklahoma football game but didn't have a place that was showing it. We talked to a friend there who was going to watch it at Tagg Romney's house (oldest son of Mittens, our favorite presidential candidate). He tried to get us in, but was unsuccessful. Those darn super-rich people. (For a hilarious discussion of the difficulties of being super-rich see: Rich/Super-Rich.) It turns out there weren't enough solid gold miniature football party favors for us to come along.