I waited to post this because I wanted to be able to give a
full account of the weekend’s activities, and also because I haven’t had time
until now. I’ve had a very busy weekend; Katie came (she’s in most of the pictures)
and we made forays into Cambridge, Boston, and even the rest of Massachusetts. I’ll
get to that in a second, but I also attended a couple other events during the
week, so let me tell you about them first.
Firstly, we had the Veritas Forum on Wednesday, where
several campus groups host a discussion between a respected Christian
intellectual and a respected atheist intellectual. The topic this year was “Can
Scientists Believe in Miracles,” which was somewhat complicated by the fact
that there were different definitions of miracles wandering around, but still
extremely interesting. I ended the night with a lot of thoughts, but most of
them were put on hold by the events of the next few days.
Later on, on Saturday, I also went to ROTC dining-in, a
heavily alcoholic event for the seniors and staff which allows us to recap our
experiences over the years, have a nice meal, and begin to interact with the
officers in a more informal setting. Surprisingly, the event itself was held in
the Quad, right next to my dorm (nothing is ever held anywhere near my dorm,
for reference), which allowed me to drop by for an hour before heading back to
my plans with Katie. Which I will now recount.
We had a very busy few days. We did the Freedom Trail and
tour of Harvard last time she came, so now we were doing slightly
out-of-the-way destinations. She arrived Thursday afternoon, and we did a lot
of talking about the past and the future, walked around some, and went to a
very nice dinner on Grafton Street. We were both pretty tired by that evening,
but we still talked a while before heading to bed. She slept in the next
morning while I worked out, and then we headed off to start another day.
On Friday, we started by heading to Fresh Pond. I’d been
hoping the flowers and sun would be out, but it was cold and drizzly. Still, we
made our way around the Pond and had some good conversation, and she wore my
winter coat and I wore my spring coat. After that we headed to MIT’s Central
Square so I could go to kickboxing, and she agreed to come along for the
adventure. I know she didn’t have the best of times – I didn’t like it at
first, either; it seems like you can’t get anything right. Now, of course, I’m
on the other side of two months practice, and I actually got to knock my
partner over a couple of times. I said goodbye to my instructor, and he said I
was doing well, which after two months of constant corrections was very good to
hear. So, in short, I had a phenomenal time; I’m going to miss that place more
than most others in Cambridge.
After kickboxing we went back to Harvard to shower, then
headed into Boston to see the Skywalk Observatory and grab dinner. There wasn’t
much to observe from the Skywalk – it was pretty much just fog – but we went in
anyway and wandered around for a while. Anything can be fun when you have a
friend and an almost-empty floor to wander around in. Maybe someday I can come
back and see Boston from the top.
On Saturday we spent our time on a bus tour to Lexington and
Concord (and Cambridge, but we didn’t pay much attention to that part). Both places
claimed to have the ‘shot heard round the world,’ but we enjoyed seeing where
the battles took place, cold and drizzly though it was. We spent a good bit of
time in the gift shops as well; I was particularly amused that a British tea
company who once had its cargo dumped in a knock-off Boston Tea Party is now selling
its tea at several times the price as historically significant. You never know
what might turn in your favor.
And, finally, Sunday. Katie did get up to watch me work out
on Sunday morning, so both of us were a little tired during church, but we
enjoyed going together for the first time in forever. Afterwards we had lunch,
looked around Harvard, walked by the Charles River, got ice cream, went
shopping for Harvard paraphernalia (she had gifts to buy, and I was in a fit of
nostalgia, so we spent quite a bit), and then rushed back to the Quad to head
to the airport.
Sunday, at last, the weather was sunny and warm and
beautiful, and the flowers were blooming, just in time to say goodbye and
realize that this is likely the last time I’ll be seeing many of the places we
walked through. Things have gone by so quickly, and I have so many things to
worry about, I haven’t really stopped to consider that this is my last week at
Harvard (outside of a few days at graduation).
That also means I only have a few weeks of blogs left. I
called this blog Deadlines and Dorm Rooms, and while I’m sure the former will
never go away, the latter is almost over. You’ll have to switch over to reading my other blog if you want to keep up with me. A lot of things are ending, but
there are also a lot of things beginning – I’ll tell you more about them in
coming weeks. And now, it’s time to start my final week at Harvard.
PS – I just realized I posted my last blog before Easter. I
did also have a wonderful Easter; I woke up, studied my Bible, watched the
sunrise, went to church, and had a lovely lunch and day of rest afterwards!
Pictures:
It's days like this when I know I'll miss Cambridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment