I had another fun weekend all told. I woke late on Helens couch and it was warm and sunny outside. I checked craiglist and there were now a glut of reasonable looking vehicles. Great.The distance they at was not so handy but I phoned one of them and the guy, Eric, offered to drive down to show it to me the next day. Cool. There were a few more but this one looked pretty decent and it had the advantage of a broken AC unit so would be a lot cheaper. I decided to go for a wander over and around Harvard and mentally prepare myself for the party at Tony Daggets that night.

Wandering aimlessly at random with only my GPS waypoint giving me some idea of where Helens house was I made my way up Mass. Av into Harvard which is awash with trendy bars, affluent students, bookstore and panhandlers. I was looking for somewhere to sit and update my blog but it was warm and sunny as has so often been on my trip so far and I was happy to wander through the streets. I found myself at a bridge over the river and paused to watch the approaching Harvard University band approach playing raucous marching music and fading as they stomped into town.

Down by the river I really appreciated the late sunny spells that had returned to Boston after a few days of rain and the joggers and lovers on the grass seemed to want to take advantage too. Walking without a map always seems to get you where you need to go and I found myself in the middle of the Harvard Campus. Scurrying students all seemed preoccupied with getting to some important meeting, no Saturday afternoon drinking around here. How things have changed. The problems with American drinking laws would be demonstrated to me much better that night at the party.

I found a cafe and got myself up to date with my blog. I generally enjoy writing it but it seems so easy to get behind and even think that I have nothing impressive enough to write about but I have to soldier on and keep my flow going. I picked up some curry from a street market stop on the way which was super yummy. I have been eating out far too much but at $6 it was a bargain. I even found time to work out my average expenditure so far and calculated I had spent about £40 a day. This isn’t too bad I guess. When Im mobile I will be able to cook meals myself more often, I just have too much stuff. Or at least I would rather have more than it turns out I did.

Somewhere after Montreal one of my bags went missing. Mostly it was reasonable useful stuff, but I soon realise that my insurance papers for my UK car were in there, along with my driver licence A4 slip. This might be a fatal error on my part. I have my plastic licence handy as I am now getting carded when I drink in bars but the paper part seemed a little superfluous. Still, if they ask for it when I come to get my insurance I might be on the painful side of getting bottom-banged. Im sure Im about to find out.

I hung out with Helen in the evening and had her room mate Frank attempt to get me to go to watch the Red Sox game in some bar. I wasn’t tempted, I got dressed up for the party and did my best to get Helen to come with me. Turning up alone is a bit sad. She got her phone call from her uncle and although I cleared out to give her some privacy it was pretty clear what was going on. Her poor grandfather had just died an hour ago and she was devestated. We sat and drank tea and I tried to comfort her as much as I can but what can you say when things like this happen. I think I did ok, its so sad.

She took a shower and retreated to her room with her brother on the phone and to numb her brain with ‘Ugly Betty’ episodes, I thought I best clear out and give her some space so headed off rather late. I got the address from Mel and somehow made it before my phone battery died. It was far too late to buy booze though but it seemed quite apparent it wasn’t in short supply. The poor neighbours. You could spot the party from down the street but I couldn’t see anyone I knew. I walked up 3 flights of stairs behind a big group of other new arrivals, into an apartment, along a long hall, into a room full of dancing people… Was this even the right place?

Tony jumped out and gave me a handshake…. phew! Then I spotted a few more people I knew and it was all good. Eli’s flatmate Brad was in the kitchen so I got a beer from him and we went down to the street to smoke cigarettes and wait for everyone else. Mel and Eli were cycling and soon turned up. I got my camera out and started snapping like the week before but it wasn’t as good. The living room was pitch black so I couldn’t use my auto focus and pretty quickly the batteries in my flash died too. Very dissappointing and kinda stupid. No beer, no charged batteries but whadda ya gonna do?

It was a good party though, they put on mid-party breakfast and the DJ was great.. The decks in the main dance place were a great success, but… the poor neighbours :p We we mostly hanging out downstairs on the steps when the police turned up. In the UK the situation would have run that the police would ask us to stop making noise, we would have aggreed and then they would have gone away. In the US (esp when the cops shone their light up on the stairs) there was mass panic. Apprarently you can’t drink outside without a licence and swigging weak beer on apartment steps is a crime so everyone stampeded inside shouting ‘they can’t come in without a warrant’… It was mental, but who am I to argue, I certainly didn’t want to argue with 5-0 (Hawaii Five-0 = the police).

That killed the party and everyone was hiding in the kitchen hoping not to get busted. One guy asked me rather rudely where the bathroom was as he ran in the apartment. Im guessing he either had the shits really bad or needed to powder his nose… Tony gave a speech, and most of the CS group went off to Sejana’s to not find her CDs, marvel at the sparsness of her refridgerator and play a frustrating game of *Strip Jenga*. God damn cheaters!



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