A work colleague was kind enough to volunteer to drive me to Target so I could stock up on essentials for my apartment, so I'm now equipped with kitchen stuff like knives and a microwave, bathroom crap like towels and other random paraphernalia that's made my place liveable. I've also done numerous trips to homeware shops like Bed Bath & Beyond and the department chain Macy's for other stuff. It's bloody amazing how much crap is needed to make a place liveable! Needless to say my bank balance has taken quite a hit recently so the plan is to go without furniture until I can find something cheap on Craigslist. Who needs a set of drawers when you've got a suitcase dammit.
So with a comfy queen-sized futon to sleep on, cereal in the pantry and bowls to eat from, I'm content. I've even acquired a plant who I've called Eli. He's a Madonna Lily which are apparently pretty hardy. Despite my abysmal track record in keeping plants alive, I'm hopeful he'll survive, although he does have a few yellow leaves on him already...
Apart from my new place, I now have a swanky new cell-phone with Verizon Wireless. Courtesy of being staff at Harvard, the phone came free with a 17% discounted calling plan (the cheapest plan Verizon had to offer of course). Plus, my social security number got issued so I can get paid, woohoo! The internet guy came today so I've got high-speed internet of course (hence the blogging update), and with the net comes the sweet sounds of Triple J online. Lulu and Bing don't have a TV and I haven't really missed it so I'm not getting a TV, which makes the net my lifeline to entertainment.
Work-wise, I'm still settling in and it'll take a while before I get into a defined project. Most of my lab are older family-orientated postdocs so there hasn't been much social interaction with the lab. They've been friendly and helpful so far but I don't see the same level of out-of-work fun that I had with my previous lab who were mostly close to my age or younger. Time will tell.
At the moment I've been eating out almost every meal with Lulu and Bing who have been giving me the culinary tour of the neighbourhood which has been draining on the wallet but heaps of fun. I think we've only had dinner at home 8 times or so in the almost 4 weeks I've been here. My social life has been hanging out with Lulu, Bing and their work friends which has been cool and welcoming in a foreign city.
The other week we went to the Museum of Fine Arts as part of a meetup event for Aussies working in Boston, although we went and did our own thing after greeting everyone. The exhibits of art and artifacts from all over, including traditional masks and costumes from Africa, pottery and goldwork from South America, awesome calligraphy from China were interesting, but as part of a special exhibit, the marble piece called Madonna of the Clouds by Donatello was the winner for me.
I'm not an artsy person, and religious art usually repulses me, but there was something intangibly appealing about the piece. Up close, the detail and emotion conveyed by a freakin' slab of marble was pretty special.
The event at the museum was on the first Friday night of the month and as such, there were drinks and canapes in one gallery. Having spent too much time admiring the art downstairs we arrived late to the drinks and were glad we did. We expected complimentary food but it wasn't free and to make it worse, the gallery was filled with a pretentious looking crowd of glamour wannabes (admittedly, there were a few incredibly cute guys there sipping their champagne, effortlessly looking hot and making a large blip on my gaydar). Surprisingly, there was dance music blaring and a lot of atrocious dancing by a drunken mob of the generally less attractive too-hip-for-society people. It was a weird scene; classic styled paintings hanging on the walls of a stately, cavernous museum room clashing with the beats and dancing of wasted people. It was an interesting experience, but not my our Lulu and Bing's scene, so after a bit of gawking and feeling slightly uncomfortable we bailed for some really good pizza at a local Italian restaurant.
I've just returned from dinner to finish this post. It was at an awful Chinese restaurant about 5 mins walk away. Think lots of MSG, cheesy 90's music being piped into the dining room, fluorescent sauces on inappropriately flavoured dishes and then double the overall horror. Oh, did I mention is was attached to a cheap motel? Not good. Even my fortune cookie didn't make sense. It said something like 'A handsome man means a handsome does'. At least the Chinese Tsing Tao beer tasted good. Lulu, being a lover of authentic tasty meals of any nationality, and having high hopes of finding a good local Chinese restaurant, was thoroughly disappointed and grimaced with disgust throughout the meal.
Now that I've got craploads of MSG coursing madly through my body and making me hyper, I'll probably be awake all night. However, one good thing about dinner was that I finally found out what Kung Pao chicken tastes like. It doesn't exist in Australia but I've heard it mentioned in countless American shows like Seinfeld. Having tasted it, I'm glad it's a dish confined to the States. Think chicken pieces, extremely slight chilli, celery, bell peppers (or capsicum in Aussiespeak) and a few peanuts in a nondescript oily gravy. With plenty of MSG of course.
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