Random Update

Nov 102011
 

I’m bored at work, so I’m tossing out a random rambling update.

I still have a post about last weekend that I’m working on, but as it was somewhat eventful, the post is long, and I’m not spending enough time at home to work on it.

Not too much happened this week. I got my paycheck yesterday, which was nice, at first.. but then I saw how much of it I was gifting to the US government, and then I was sad. Even though I knew how much I would be paying in taxes before I left Dubai, it was still a shock to see it printed out on an official form. The worst part of it is that they show it to you as a breakdown, starting with how much you actually earned, so you actually see how much you would have made, if it wasn’t for the taxes. Depressing.

Last night, I went out with J* and HaMa to a cool bar in Cambridge. We had a few drinks (I didn’t get carded, ha HA!) and good food (they have Rosemary Truffle Fries. I don’t know what the truffle part means, but it basically translates to delicious). J and I took the bus back to the apartment which was an interesting way to see Cambridge at night.

We have a long weekend this week (which I found out midway through the week!). Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, apparently, which is a day off in Boston**.

My friend Deez is coming up to visit me tomorrow, staying for the weekend, till he leaves early on Monday morning to go back to work. I expect a lot of heavy drinking to take place. Expect updates and hopefully pictures.

Hoo-ah.

*Note: I’m adding a couple of new character to the cast:-

J is a coworker of mine who lives in New York, and comes to the Boston office for a week out of every month. He’s moving to Boston full-time in December and so is looking for an apartment, but until then, he’s staying in the same apartment as me whenever he’s down here.

Deez is an old American friend of mine from Dubai, who moved back to the US a few years ago, with his wife Shar.

**Funnily enough, I just found out an hour ago that as of next year, Veteran’s Day will no longer be  a day off. Instead, we’ll be taking Patriot’s Day off, as, according to a co-worker, that day is when the Boston Marathon is run, and that makes getting in to the city a nightmare. American’s sure do love their WeLoveAmerica holidays.

Weekend Update

Oct 312011
 

There really isn’t much to update after Saturday’s shenanigans. I did a bunch of Internet searching on Sunday, trying to find out what events are happening around town, places to eat, and so on. I found a link to “healthy eating in Boston”, which pointed me to, get this, a fast food place called B. Good. According to the website, they focus on making organic and healthy fast food. And apparently there was one close to me, so, lunch was set.

At the same time, I was planning to get some groceries. I’d heard there was a Shaw’s near me, so I looked that up as well. Convenient route plotted, I went out.

B.Good : Veggie Burger with hand cut french fries : not the best I’d ever had, but pretty good. 3.5 stars, would go again. There’s one next to my office too, so that adds to my lunch options.

Shaw’s was also a success. Managed to get myself enough groceries that I don’t feel like I’m in an empty house anymore. Most of the stuff I got were ‘basics’ (rice, bread, oil, butter, etc), but I did get a few meals worth of stuff. Next time, it’s all recipe ingredients ;)

Aaaand that was basically it. Laundy, a bit of cooking, and then Playstation, TV, bed. Like I said, a quiet day.

So, to fluff up the word count, here’s a list of oddities, culture shocks, and so on that I’ve been running into.

  • I can’t throw out garbage any time I want. I can only take the trash out Thursday and Monday nights in my neighborhood. If I take it out any other time, I get a fine. The more you know.
  • The Shaw’s I went to is about a 15 minutes walk away. Carrying $100 worth of groceries over 15 minutes does wonderful things to your back and shoulders.
  • People will jog here, no matter what the weather is like. Icy weather post-snowstorm? No problem. Strap on those short shorts and work up a sweat.
  • There’s a dog park near my house. This is a park, for dogs. It’s a fenced in 10×10 (maybe) square, all concrete with, I love this, fake fire hydrants. People take their dogs there and just let them go nuts running around the ‘park’. So awesome.
More as I think of them :)