The return has been alright so far. Things are going as smoothly as they could possibly be. I live near the Boston University campus, directly across the street from a supermarket, with an asian grocery store 1 block down the street. The subway stop is at the corner of my block, as are bus stops. I'm surrounded by plentiful ethnic restaurants, enough so that I could feasibly have something different every day of the week, if I had that much money to spend. About the only things I could complain about are the smallness of my apartment, and its distance to MIT. It takes about 40 mins to commute there. I usually set my longest tolerable commute to about 25 mins, but in this case, I'm free to read or talk on the train so the commute doesn't seem nearly so bad. Plus, if I choose, I can walk across the Harvard bridge on the way to school. This alone makes the commute seem awesome. On a bright and sunny day, I can look to my right down the expansive Charles River, and see the gleaming towers of the Boston skyline on one side, and the somewhat less glitzy buildings of MIT on the other side. It's quite nice.
My thoughts on the return. I had some apprehensions about returning. I wasn't sure how the lab would respond to my hasty departure last year. There were uncertainties about the social and leisure life I'd be able to have here, as well as the academic work load. So far, everything seems to be a lot easier than they were last year. I'm actually able to keep a somewhat regular 8-10 hour schedule during the week, and then not work during the weekend. However, I'm sure I will see more work coming my way as we get deeper into the semester.
When I first came to MIT, someone once told me that New Englanders were a reserved, and withdrawn bunch of people. That makes it hard for new people to feel at home here. She said that it only took that 1 special friend here to turn things around. I would agree with that statement. Last year, I never made any "special" friends. I met a bunch of people, but never really felt comfortable with any of them. I'm working really hard on finding people I enjoy being with this time.
I haven't posted in so long that when I finally get around to it, I feel as if I've forgotten a lot of the thoughts and emotions I went through. It's a pity that now when I've gone back to record them, I feel as if I'm grasping at the feeble wisps of my once vivid reflections. I guess this is a good reminder to me to keep writing.
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