Last weekend, Peter, Peter’s friend Grace, and I went on a trip to Boston to visit Warren at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The trip was a wonderful experience; it was my first time going out of New Jersey with my friends and sleeping at a fraternity house. Also, I walked around MIT campus and Harvard square to see the college life that I have always long for.

Day 1 [Friday, August 9th]

It was a beautiful day; I woke up with the sun shining through my windows and giving me the warmth in the chilly summer morning. I dressed quickly and waited Peter to pick me up.

After Peter picked me up, we went to Quickcheck, a grocery store next to my house, to get a pack of ice for the water cooler and some snacks for our trip to Boston. Then, we went to New York City to meet up with Peter’s friend, Grace. I was excited to meet her because she is Peter’s closest friend in college. We picked her up at 8:30 and loaded her backpacks into the car; our journey to Boston had finally begun.

On the way to Boston, rivers and trees next to the roads made our drive pleasant. I have not gone on a long ride with the beauty of nature close to me for years. In the car, we listened to the newest hip-pop songs and talked about movies. The best part of the four-hour drive was when we saw the sign of Boston on the highway. We followed the direction and entered the city. I was delighted to see a lively city with many people walking on the streets.

After cruising around Boston for twenty minutes, we arrived at Warren’s fraternity house. His frat house was big; he lives on the highest level of the building and he could see Boston and Cambridge from the roof. Warren lives with two other roommates. Inside his room, he has emptied cups of cup-noodles on the floor with bags of opened chips; it was unkempt, but I guess that is the style of college life. I blended into the environment quickly by throwing my clothes, backpacks, and shoes around the room. The worst part of the frat house was the bathroom. I can live with untidy rooms, but I can never live with a dirty bathroom, especially when the toilet has “ dark stains “ all over it. I tried to take a dump on Friday night and I sat on the toilet for ten minutes, but nothing came out. Therefore, I got out of the bathroom fast before I could throw up my dinner. Our first day at Boston was basically walking around the MIT campus and resting in Warren’s frat house. After Warren left us to work, Peter, Grace, and I walked across a bridge to Cambridge, where MIT is located. We saw many people sailing yachts and boats on the river in the midst of a beautiful day. We took some pictures and sat on the bench next to the river enjoy the summer day.

At night, Peter took Grace and me to a seafood restaurant. The meal was delicious; I had a large piece of boiled salmon along with vegetables and a bowl of tasty soup. I was actually full at the end. After the dinner, we went back and waited in the frat house for Warren to get back from his work. While waiting, I looked out the windows; the night scene of Boston was incredible. The lights were still on in the city and the cars were still traveling on the roads; the enthusiasm of nightlife in a city was one of my rare experiences.

Warren got back from work at 12’o clock. Then he invited us to a small frat party downstairs. We went to the party and had few cups of beer. In the party, people played games with pin pong balls and beer. This is how the game works: two people team up to play against another two people. Each team has 10 cups of small amount of beer and has them put into the shape of a triangle. Then each person in a team will take a pin pong ball and try to throw it accurately into the opponents’ cups. If the pin pong ball goes into a cup, one of the players in the other team has to drink that cup. Finally, whichever the team that can get the other team to drink all the cups of beer wins the game. I wanted to join the games, but I was not familiar with the people in the house; therefore, I just stood there watching Warren and his other friends competed intensely. After few hours, Warren, Peter, Grace, and I were all tired. We went upstairs and made our beds. Warren and I were also hungry, so we boiled two cups of cup noodles for a late night snack before we finally fell asleep at 4’o clock in the morning.

Day 2 [Saturday, August 10th]

We woke up at 11’o clock the next morning. Warren showered quickly and went to work. Peter, Grace, and I set out our Boston adventure to Quincy Market. Quincy market is like a mall; however, it is outdoor instead of our usual indoor plaza. In Boston, I saw people walking slower than New Yorkers; the subway trains also travels slower than New York’s. Since New York City is where I usually visit, I felt the pace of my life suddenly slowed by half of a second.

At Quincy Market, Discovery Channel Store was the most interesting store that I went to; I saw books that were about animals, history, and humans. Peter, Grace, and I spent about forty minutes inside the store reading those fascination books. After stopping at the Discovery Channel Store, we went to buy Italian ice. Italian ice is a good thirst quencher; I had half of a cup and I felt cool walking under the blazing sun.

We got back to Warren’s frat house at about 4’o clock. We packed our stuff because we were going to spend one night at Warren’s friend, Isaac, his godfather’s big house at Cambridge. We drove there after Warren came back from work. The house was so big that it could be a haunted house. After we dropped off our backpacks and sleeping bags there, we went to Harvard Square to spend the rest of afternoon.

At the Harvard Square, I had a best sandwich ever, Arizona Chicken, at Au Bon Pain. I also saw many people playing music at sides of the streets to earn few bucks; perhaps the money is for their spending during school year. Although I stayed at Harvard Square for only an hour, I had fun walking through crowds of people and eating delicious sandwich. After Harvard Square, we went to Hollywood Videos to rent videos and a supermarket to buy some groceries for our dinner. Isaac’s godfather’s house has an indoor grill; we decided to make some buffalo and chicken burgers. Although the burgers tasted wonderful, our salad turned out to be a disaster. We can all point our fingers toward Peter for his never-do-it-again creativity. Peter took a bottle of lemon oil and dumped so much of it into the salad and made it tasted like my ivory-soap in my bathroom. At the end, we washed the lemon oil off the salad and used some of it on our burgers and threw rest of it away. Even though the dinner was not perfect, it was wonderful all of us spending time together.

At night, we watched a movie called Dragonfly, by Kevin Costner. However, I was exhausted; I fell asleep on the couch immediately. The movie ended at about 2’o clock. Warren and Grace were still scared from the movie by the time we went to bed, and they were screaming in the bedroom until they were tired and finally fell asleep with Peter and me.

Day 3 [Sunday, August 11th]

Sunday was the last day of the Boston trip. We woke up at 11’o clock and dressed quickly and went to dim sum for our last meal together. Dim sum was one of the best meals I had in Boston. I had some Friday shrimps, Chinese fried radish cakes, and spicy chicken wings etc. Although I had a good time having the last meal with Warren, I was also upset that I was going home in few hours. After the lunch, we did not have time to go to Boston Museum as we had planned before. Therefore, we just went back to the house and watched one more movie, “Tell Me Something” (Korean Movie in English subtitle), together. “ Tell Me Something” was a mystery movie that one guy was investigating a serial murder event, and he fell in love with a girl who he found out later was the murderer. Finally, the movie ended with the girl taking off to some place where the guy would never fine her. Although this movie was supposed to be scary because of the bloodshed, I found it to be tragic because the guy not only lost his job for his failure to complete his duty; he also lost his “love” at the end.

After the movie, it was time to pack up and go home. We dropped Warren off at his frat house and hit the roads. On the way home, I was sad because the trip ended so quickly, but I was also happy that I could hang out with my close friends for three days straight. I miss both Peter and Warren very much because they were once my football teammates and they went to the same high school with me. In the car, my memories went from the morning that Peter picked me up to the last minute that I said good-bye to Warren. This trip was definitely a highlight of the summer. I also met an adorable girl, Grace. Although we did not know each other from the beginning, we talked a little throughout those three days; I will always remember how my heart was beating 100 mph when I first saw her, and she was absolutely a great person to be with.

To Warren, thanks for everything in those three days, and I hope to see you soon. I definitely want to go there again to visit you, and we will have late night cup noodles next time too. To Peter, even though you make little comments about my “ fobish-ness” and let me feel worthless sometimes, I still consider you as close as a brother because you are always there for me. Thank you for planning a wonderful trip and bringing an awesome girl along with. I hope we can go on other trips next time and I will share some driving time with you once I get my license.