The Odyssey
Ever since the trip, I've been waking up in the morning, before my alarm goes off, every morning. It's starting to get a little annoying. This morning I set my alarm for noon, fully intending to sleep in, and woke up at 10:45. It's not normal, I tell you!
So I guess it's time to recount my travels.
Day One. Got up at five, drove to Monica's, and had Turkish coffee. (That stuff is amazing.) Then set off with Monica behind the wheel toward Massachusetts.
And then we drove. And drove. And freaking drove.
We decided to cut across Canada and through New York State. At one point we stopped at a Canadian convenience store for directions to the freeway, and a woman with a thick Slavic-maybe accent told us how to get there and enthusiastically advised us repeatedly, "Go straight, and then drive three hours to Toronto!" where we would have so much fun.
We thanked her kindly even though we weren't going to Toronto, and since then, every road sign with the city's name earned a thickly accented exclamation of "Toronto!" from us.
At some point, we decided to name my car Ulysses.
Canada's speed limit is 100 kph, which is about 60 mph. We really didn't want to get pulled over there. It was excruciatingly slow.
We went to Niagara Falls for a bit and spent nearly a half-hour searching for parking. Tourists were everywhere. I hate tourists.
Yes, I know I was a tourist. Shut up.
Took us a while to get across the border back into the U.S. Lots of people were being stopped and their cars searched. We saw some mad racial profiling.
Then we crossed New York State, which is freaking huge. It's easy to forget that New York is not only a city, but also a state, and not only a state, but also a huge one. And gorgeous, too. They've got mountains. Anyone from Michigan can understand our awe. We are NOT used to mountains.
Got to Massachusetts, got a motel room.
Day Two. Went to Cambridge, Mass., to see Harvard. We were expecting Harvard to be its own isolated campus with the rest of the city built around it, much like EMU or MSU, but it turned out it was integrated into the city, which was basically Boston Jr., more along the lines of U-M. The roads of Cambridge and Boston confused the hell out of us. They made no sense. Just went every which way with one-way streets up the wazoo and no rhyme or reason to them. We walked around campus for a bit, got back to Ulysses, got lost several times, got frustrated and left far earlier than we'd planned. We did, however, go to the park and see the swan boats.
Headed toward Rhode Island and spent the night in a little dump called the Pineapple Inn. Ate at a chain restaurant called Friendly's, which had abysmal service.
Day Three. Went to Providence, R.I., to visit Brown. Tried to find Quahog on the map, but couldn't. Maybe it doesn't exist. Had lunch with some grad students from a research lab where Monica's thinking she'd like to work. Liked Providence much better than Boston.
Went to New Bedford, Mass., where the beginning of "Moby-Dick" takes place. Went to the Whaling Museum to look at whale bones. Went to the chapel Ishmael visited and saw the marble tablets on the walls dedicated to lost seamen. Yes, this made us happy.
Saw Mystic, Conn., too. Pretty.
Day Four. Went to DamnIforgetthecity, Conn., to see Yale. It was by far the most impressive campus we saw, all stone buildings and a campus that stood on its own rather than poking its head into an already-established city. Monica went to speak with a professor while I sat for a while in a Dunkin' Donuts (mm, iced coffee) and talked to Matt.
Headed toward New York City and spent hours trying to find a hotel that wasn't full and that we could afford. Had to backtrack a bit to get away from the city.
Day Five. New York City. Parked Ulysses at a shopping center in the Bronx and took the subway into Manhattan.
The New York subway system didn't live up to its reputation of filth. It was actually quite nice. True, we were in Manhattan and I suppose that might make it a bit nicer, but still. Where was the urine?
Manhattan was a welcome change from the nonsensical streets of Boston. The streets were on a grid. And numbered. Oh thank god, a city we could understand. We were sort of expecting this weird, cold city, but it was really just a city with people doing their thing. The drivers were crazy, true, but no crazier than in Boston. I liked the place very much.
We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is something we'd always wanted to do. We didn't have a whole lot of time to stay there, unfortunately, but we did get to look at some Egyptian stuff, some Greek and Roman statues, and some European paintings.
Then we went to Rockefeller University, which was a quaint little campus nestled in Manhattan and was guarded and gated. We didn't do much, just looked at the campus. Monica reminded me again that the University had the greatest number of Nobel Prize winners per capita.
As we walked back to the subway, a street vendor with a table of cheap purses and knicknacks called, "Come on in! We've got air conditioning!" That almost made me turn around and buy something.
Took the subway back to Ulysses during rush hour, and got annoyed at a couple who were all up on each other about six inches in front of me.
Now feel a bit better, though, about the fact that most publishing jobs are situated in New York. Not that I'm going anywhere.
Day Six. Last day. Monica wanted to stop by Cornell University on the way home. Cornell just happens to be located in a little town called Ithaca, N.Y.
Now, you know we're nerds. You know it made us happy to bring Ulysses to Ithaca.
Cornell was okay. Was a bit confusing to drive through, but we got ice cream! Mm.
Continued home. Noticed there was a town called Ulysses a few towns over from Ithaca. "But not quite there!" Monica exclaimed. We were greatly amused.
Drove back through New York and Canada. The Canadian roads were busier, so we felt much better about speeding a bit through the place. It saved us hours.
Arrived home around 11:30. Exhausted. Then promptly went online to talk to Matt.
An excellent trip. And I'd like to thank the people of New England for being so kind to us. Except when they were behind the wheels of their cars. Then they were asses.
So I guess it's time to recount my travels.
Day One. Got up at five, drove to Monica's, and had Turkish coffee. (That stuff is amazing.) Then set off with Monica behind the wheel toward Massachusetts.
And then we drove. And drove. And freaking drove.
We decided to cut across Canada and through New York State. At one point we stopped at a Canadian convenience store for directions to the freeway, and a woman with a thick Slavic-maybe accent told us how to get there and enthusiastically advised us repeatedly, "Go straight, and then drive three hours to Toronto!" where we would have so much fun.
We thanked her kindly even though we weren't going to Toronto, and since then, every road sign with the city's name earned a thickly accented exclamation of "Toronto!" from us.
At some point, we decided to name my car Ulysses.
Canada's speed limit is 100 kph, which is about 60 mph. We really didn't want to get pulled over there. It was excruciatingly slow.
We went to Niagara Falls for a bit and spent nearly a half-hour searching for parking. Tourists were everywhere. I hate tourists.
Yes, I know I was a tourist. Shut up.
Took us a while to get across the border back into the U.S. Lots of people were being stopped and their cars searched. We saw some mad racial profiling.
Then we crossed New York State, which is freaking huge. It's easy to forget that New York is not only a city, but also a state, and not only a state, but also a huge one. And gorgeous, too. They've got mountains. Anyone from Michigan can understand our awe. We are NOT used to mountains.
Got to Massachusetts, got a motel room.
Day Two. Went to Cambridge, Mass., to see Harvard. We were expecting Harvard to be its own isolated campus with the rest of the city built around it, much like EMU or MSU, but it turned out it was integrated into the city, which was basically Boston Jr., more along the lines of U-M. The roads of Cambridge and Boston confused the hell out of us. They made no sense. Just went every which way with one-way streets up the wazoo and no rhyme or reason to them. We walked around campus for a bit, got back to Ulysses, got lost several times, got frustrated and left far earlier than we'd planned. We did, however, go to the park and see the swan boats.
Headed toward Rhode Island and spent the night in a little dump called the Pineapple Inn. Ate at a chain restaurant called Friendly's, which had abysmal service.
Day Three. Went to Providence, R.I., to visit Brown. Tried to find Quahog on the map, but couldn't. Maybe it doesn't exist. Had lunch with some grad students from a research lab where Monica's thinking she'd like to work. Liked Providence much better than Boston.
Went to New Bedford, Mass., where the beginning of "Moby-Dick" takes place. Went to the Whaling Museum to look at whale bones. Went to the chapel Ishmael visited and saw the marble tablets on the walls dedicated to lost seamen. Yes, this made us happy.
Saw Mystic, Conn., too. Pretty.
Day Four. Went to DamnIforgetthecity, Conn., to see Yale. It was by far the most impressive campus we saw, all stone buildings and a campus that stood on its own rather than poking its head into an already-established city. Monica went to speak with a professor while I sat for a while in a Dunkin' Donuts (mm, iced coffee) and talked to Matt.
Headed toward New York City and spent hours trying to find a hotel that wasn't full and that we could afford. Had to backtrack a bit to get away from the city.
Day Five. New York City. Parked Ulysses at a shopping center in the Bronx and took the subway into Manhattan.
The New York subway system didn't live up to its reputation of filth. It was actually quite nice. True, we were in Manhattan and I suppose that might make it a bit nicer, but still. Where was the urine?
Manhattan was a welcome change from the nonsensical streets of Boston. The streets were on a grid. And numbered. Oh thank god, a city we could understand. We were sort of expecting this weird, cold city, but it was really just a city with people doing their thing. The drivers were crazy, true, but no crazier than in Boston. I liked the place very much.
We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is something we'd always wanted to do. We didn't have a whole lot of time to stay there, unfortunately, but we did get to look at some Egyptian stuff, some Greek and Roman statues, and some European paintings.
Then we went to Rockefeller University, which was a quaint little campus nestled in Manhattan and was guarded and gated. We didn't do much, just looked at the campus. Monica reminded me again that the University had the greatest number of Nobel Prize winners per capita.
As we walked back to the subway, a street vendor with a table of cheap purses and knicknacks called, "Come on in! We've got air conditioning!" That almost made me turn around and buy something.
Took the subway back to Ulysses during rush hour, and got annoyed at a couple who were all up on each other about six inches in front of me.
Now feel a bit better, though, about the fact that most publishing jobs are situated in New York. Not that I'm going anywhere.
Day Six. Last day. Monica wanted to stop by Cornell University on the way home. Cornell just happens to be located in a little town called Ithaca, N.Y.
Now, you know we're nerds. You know it made us happy to bring Ulysses to Ithaca.
Cornell was okay. Was a bit confusing to drive through, but we got ice cream! Mm.
Continued home. Noticed there was a town called Ulysses a few towns over from Ithaca. "But not quite there!" Monica exclaimed. We were greatly amused.
Drove back through New York and Canada. The Canadian roads were busier, so we felt much better about speeding a bit through the place. It saved us hours.
Arrived home around 11:30. Exhausted. Then promptly went online to talk to Matt.
An excellent trip. And I'd like to thank the people of New England for being so kind to us. Except when they were behind the wheels of their cars. Then they were asses.