Welcome to Hahvahd!!

Well, I have had eventful days the last two days, and it is time to share these adventures!  I will start with a little something I learned first.  I now have an understanding of the Boston accent.  Basically take the R out of words and replace them with AH, that is why I spell Harvard like Hahvahd.

Now, yesterday: The day began with a visit to my new job.  I met with my boss (who seems extremely nice!) and got to see my office and the facilities.  I think the job is gong to be pretty cool, but I will be extremely busy.  But I am excited to dive right in and get to it!  For those of you who don't know what I will be doing, my job is with Harvard's Athletic Department.  I will work as a Special Events Intern, which is basically event management for any sporting events that happen on campus.  I am sure I will have tons of fun stories about the new sports I get to experience, such as crew and fencing.

After this, my dad, brother and I headed into Harvard Square to get a tour of campus.  There are students who have started a tour organization, and they run solely off tips.  They did an amazing job on the tour, and I learned a lot about the history of Harvard.  We got to see dorms where Matt Damon and also a lot of presidents lived while at Harvard.  Here are some of the pics I took (I still haven't charged my camera so these are phone pics):

Gate onto campus.  This isn't the main gate but a side gate.  Students attending Harvard can only go in the main gate 2 times while at Harvard, when they start as freshmen and when they graduate.  Since our tour guides were students, we couldn't walk through the main gate.

This is a statue that is suppose to be John Harvard; however, when one of the libraries on campus burned down that contained all of his old belongings all of his pictures were burned.  When this statue was built they had no picture to model the statue after, so there are a few different people who they think this statue is shaped like.  No one knows for sure though.  People rub his toe for luck; however the students think it is funny to pee on the statue and watch the tourists then rub it later.  My hands didn't go anywhere near the toe!

For those of you Auburn Graduates/students who are reading this, you should all know that Auburn has the second largest on campus library.  This is the only one that is bigger!  This library was built to honor a student who went to Harvard that died on the Titanic.  The student went on a rare book finding journey through Europe, and took the Titanic back to America.  He had a 1st class ticket and was seated on a lifeboat safe and sound.  He then realized that he had left the books he found in his cabin, so he jumped off the lifeboat and ran back for his books.  Sadly, he and his books went down with the ship.  His family gave an endowment for this library to be built, with 3 stipulations: 1. No bricks or mortar can ever be removed from this library(meaning they can't knock it down and build another building for someone else) 2. They have to have a room that only two people can enter, a curator to place a fresh flower in the room every day and the ghost of the student who it is built for. 3. Harvard had to require all students to take a swim test as an admission requirement, because the parents felt that if their son knew how to swim he would have been able to swim back to America.  This library may not look large from outside, but it actually extends 6 stories below ground, and has 57 miles of bookshelves inside!

This is a dorm where a very famous person lived, Ted Kaczynski aka The Unabomber!

After our lovely tour of campus, we grabbed some lunch and did some grocery shopping.  Since I won't have a car here, I will have to walk to the grocery store.  So I went ahead and stocked up on some stuff while I still have my dad here to drive.  Then we jumped on the T and headed towards Fenway.  The game was a lot of fun, and I got to enjoy some delicious ballpark food.  Sadly, the Red Sox lost 9-1, but we still enjoyed the experience.  A few pics from the game:

During the game

My yummy Italian Sausage Dog and fries!

After the game I came back home and hung out with the new roomies for a little while.  I had met them all, but this time we actually had time to sit and talk.  They seem like a great group of people, and they are all northerners!  Two are from Maine, one is from Boston, and the other is from Up-state New York.  I think we are all going to have a blast living together. Then I hit the sack to get ready for today!

Today was a little bit more laid back, and I slept in a little bit later which was nice.  We went to the Harvard University Museum of Natural History and the Peabody Museum in the morning.  Here are a few pics from that:

My worst nightmare, a display case full of moths!  Who would do this for a living??

Hedwig from Harry Potter decided to take up residence in the museum!

Big Moose

Auburn Tiger

I would not want to have a run-in with this sucker!

Native American art work

And some more art.

Well, after the museums, we were going to try and walk around downtown some; however, the sky decided to fall out.  Instead we hung out at the Days Inn, and then ate at the Joyful Garden (a Chinese restaurant in the hotel).  Then we went to Best Buy and I loaded up on some essentials, a webcam for Skype so people don't forget what I look like and a GPS for walking.  That pretty much sums up my last two days!  I promise to charge my camera and get some good pics of my house to post!

My fun northern experience for the day:  I am enjoying living up here so far, but things are a little different up here.  I grew up in a very hot and humid climate, and I learned to rely on air conditioning.  However, in Boston people don't see the need for it.  Therefore my room has no AC, so I am now a proud owner of a large fan that sits in front of my open window.  I thought the weather would be extremely cool, but it was around 90 yesterday with very high humidity.  Another interesting thing about being in a large city is the lack of laundry rooms inside houses.  I learned that I will have to take my clothes elsewhere to have them washed.  But this gives me a reason to pay someone else to do something I hate!!!

Well until later y'all!!!