Boston

The bus arrived at the border sooner than I had been expecting and I wasn't ready. I had thought about printing out my return flight ticket but as usual had only thought about it. I hoped that they wouldn't hold it against. The immigration guy asked me the usual and then he looked at my passport asked me how I had entered Canada. He gave me a bit of a look when I said "I walked in" ,he was fine when I explained that I had walked across the Rainbow bridge in Niagara. He asked for my U.S. visa and I said that the lady at Canadian immigration had taken it, she hadn't, he told me that I would have to pay $6 for a new one. As you probably have guessed, I was very upset by this. Not!! He walked me through to the correct desk and handed me over to another guy to do the paperwork. They didn't even quibble about giving me leave to stay for a longer time than my passport is valid for. The passport is now the next thing I have to sort out, it expires about a month before I want to leave so I'll have to apply for a new one while I'm here. Shouldn't be problem. The rest of the bus ride was uneventful except that we arrived late into Boston. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but this time I had plans as soon as I arrived. I was meeting Michael for a drink.
I got into Boston about fifteen minutes later than expected and jumped straight on the subway to meet Michael. Of course as soon as Michael had sat down and bought himself a beer I called to say that I had arrived at the subway station. He kindly ran out to meet me, it was so good to see him, he hasn't changed a bit. Of course why would he have, it's only been just under a year since I last saw him. Michael is studying law at Boston college, so his schedule is crazy, even though the semester hasn't started yet. We had a quick drink and went our separate ways, I was sad to see him go. I walked to the place where I was staying, my luck had changed on couchsurfing and I had had two people agree to host me in Boston. I had decided on the guy who lived nearer the centre of town, this would prove to have been a mistake. The outside of the building looked fine, but the one front window had two torn pieces of material serving as curtains. I looked at that window and I knew that would be my hosts apartment. In this I wasn't disappointed!Peter my host was in when I arrived at his apartment, he had been trying to reach me during the day to try and pin down the time I was arriving. I thought we had previously agreed the time slot,suggested by him and since I didn't know who had been calling me through the day hadn't answered my phone. Anyway I was there and it was fine. Peter is also studying law but at Boston University and not the college and he's in his second year right now. He lives in a studio apartment in a huge brownstone house on Beacon ST., the same street that the "Cheers" bar is on. We went out to the supermarket and he talked about how he liked Vodka, I said that I didn't like it. In the supermarket he showed me the range of Vodka he liked and I offered to buy him a bottle as I wasn't sure where this whole vodka business was going. He did have the courtesy to ask if I would drink any of it, I said no and we agreed that I would buy some wine for us to drink. This I didn't mind doing and already had in mind to do anyway. We chatted in the evening and I got set up for another round of sightseeing in another city.
I started the day walking the "Freedom Trail" through downtown Boston. This is a "trail" that links together several locations / buildings to do with the fight for independence from Britain. I don't think I have issues with this but it is interesting to be in a place that is all about kicking out the British. I haven't felt such a strong sense of this in the other former colonies that I've visited. I do agree that no one should be ruled by a power that doesn't allow them self determination and is based in another country. Especially when that foreign power taxes you to death. However walking the trail definitely gave me something to think about. And think about in a different way. In my school history course we didn't study colonialism, I don't know if that was a conscious decision on the part of my school or if they considered other eras of more historical importance. I have had a few people say that the U.S. isn't very old so it may not be as of much interest to me because of that. I have to say that it is exactly the opposite, in a way America is more interesting to me. I am getting to see things that provided the foundation of a modern nation state. And in some cases talk to people whose ancestors were directly involved with these events. Very cool.Although I will say that it does lead to some extremely qualified "ests". I went on board the U.S.S. Constitution, the oldest, commissioned ship still afloat. The oldest commissioned ship, note the lack of qualification, is the H.M.S. Victory in the U.K..
The walk took me most of the day and is an excellent way to see a lot of Boston. I went to "Cheers" for a late lunch before hitting the public library. I didn't want to spend the evening sat in Peters apartment by myself so I went to the cinema by myself instead. I saw "it's Complicated" which I loved. I felt a bit like "Judy no mates" as pretty much everyone else was in a couple or a group but this was always going to happen. It was exacerbated by the theatre being full. And what else could I have done? Stayed home and not undertaken this trip? Not an option. After the movie I went back to the apartment and Peter arrived home not long after me. I generally don't write about conversations on my blog but the conversation we had still gives me a bad taste in my mouth. It's probably one of the reasons that I didn't "click" with him. I shouldn't preach as I shouldn't throw stones as I definitely do live in a glass house,but... Peter is a college student and at his college you can set up a kind of bank account to use in the cafeteria, you just swipe your student i.d. card and it's automatically deducted. Now he doesn't have one of these accounts but still has people swipe his card to pay for his food. Of course the staff shouldn't let him get away with this and a couple of "Chinese ladies", his words, don't. So he tries to time his visits when these ladies aren't working. After telling me this he then goes on to list all of the other stuff he's "lifted" from the cafeteria. By the sounds of it most of his crockery and cutlery have come from the university. I think the worst thing about this is that he seems almost happy to be cheating the system. He said "what's a poor boy from Russia supposed to do?". The fact that he is American now and has financial support for his course doesn't seem to figure into his thinking.