the scream of sirens
I’ve been in Boston for over a week now and I am finally starting to get the groove down. As orientation came and went, the Emerson freshmen came together as a class. Since I’m a sophomore transfer student, things were a little different. It makes sense that the college would want to cater to the freshmen, but I seem to have been left to figure things out on my own. It did help, however, that my friend Alex from Los Angeles is a freshman – so I attended many of the freshman class activities.
Emerson College is a very specific school in terms of majors and programs. Since the majority of the students came for theatre and film, the class is very determined, excited and flamboyant. (If you know me well, you’d know that I’m attending Emerson for marketing rather than film or photography…) Colored hair and male students in neon skirts seem to be very common. I’m excited to finally be surrounded by extremely passionate and determined students since I didn’t have this in high school. The neon colors are going to take some time to get used to and seem to get in the way of making friends. So Alex and I left the student activities behind and explored the city. (I tend to enjoy exploring and pondering more than bonding…)
We’ve walked and walked – and walked, tore the city apart, built it back up, gave it a piece of mind and complimented it (I know that you’ve heard that before…) We’ve spent countless hours hanging out on the Boston Common playing with beastly – and unafraid – squirrels, listening to crying babies and talking about what we should do next. We’ve let our stomachs call the shots, so we’ve consumed more junk food then I ever imagined that I would in college. In some mysterious fashion, half of my clothing was misplaced in transit so we’ve spent a good portion of our time hunting down Urban Outfitters and American Apparel. We’ve wandered back to the dorms to watch episodes of The Office, as well as Fight Club and American Psycho. We’ve walked the streets of Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway Park, North End, Harvard Square and Allston. One night, we set out on a journey and got stuck in heavy rain. Unfortunately, we had to venture back to campus through huge puddles drenched by water.
It is certainly lonely moving to an unfamiliar city. The sirens don’t stop and the air is hot. It has been kind of difficult getting around and as I get on the T to go to class, it seems that every song on my iPod reminds me of my friends and previous projects back home. This is something that I expected and I’m sure that I’ll continue to be homesick, but I’m still extremely hopeful and excited for the new semester.
I know that this has turned into more of a ramble than a proper entry, but I’ll give you something good later. I haven’t had time to take pictures (my gigantic camera seems to be too much of a hassle to carry around), so I’ll be sure to get some good stills when things calm down.
Hope all is well with everyone. Take care.
September 8, 2008