(3) Walking on Ice

I wanted to go out and see the city. I woke up early and went out before noon. I took the 39 Bus which is my daily ride. I timed the trip to the Brigham Circle stop where I should go to every morning, but I didn't go down there. I continued on. When I finally went down, I started walking while looking at everything. There was lots of students there. I mean the area was full of young people and the shops respected that fact. Most of the shops were for food. I passed by Symphony Hall, home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Who knew, maybe John Williams was inside?! The area there had a music college and accordingly there was a huge shop selling all sorts of music hardware. I walked on, passed by Blockbuster! I finally reached my destination: RadioShack. This time in a different location than that of yesterday. I finally changed my phone to a nicer Sanyo one that had a much better screen and options, although it was still primitive compared to my Nokia N96. But at least I got something that I can use a web browser in. The first phone was a Motorolla Clutch. Phones here are mostly locked for a certain network provider, which means that I can't use my newly bought phone in Egypt, and I couldn't buy a SIM card and use my existing phone because most prepaid plans need to sell you a phone for activation.

Then, I went to Best Buy. It was a 3 floor store. I inspected all of it. But I didn't like it. First of all, prices of PC hardware was through the roof. I mean, why would a HDMI cable cost $90? Because it had the Geek Squad sticker on it. Why would a 2 GB stick of DDR2 RAM cost $100? Cameras were cheaper though. I, of course, went to the games section. The PC gaming section was anemic and located with the PC hardware at the end of the row, while console games had their separate section. Their collection was not that great. I played Forza 3 on the X360. And I played some tennis game on the Wii. This was my first time even to touch a Wii. It was fun! I now understand why it is selling so much. I didn't play the PS3 because it was occupied. There were stands to try Rock Band and Tony Hawk Ride, but these things are not my cup of tea. The HDTV section gave me a big smile!

When I finished, I took a walk in Newbury Street, which is a shopping street. Think of it like Roxy in its glory days, with major differences. First of all, there was an unhealthy amount of hot chicks! I mean I wanted to cry out "Stop! I get the message, OK?". Next was that there were only shops, I mean, no one was selling women underwear on some cart with another cart beside him selling exactly the same thing. All the shops there were brand names shops, and the stuff in them was so expensive. There was a shop called The North Face that sells winter coats and winter sport things (my sister told me that it sells stuff to the people who climb mountains too). A coat there was like $400!

So, you will get what I mean when I say that most of the stuff there was "look but don't touch". I walked till the end of the street. At the end there was a huge park and lots of fancy hotels overlying the park. Most, if not all, of the trees in the park had no leaves on them. I walked in the park and saw a squirrel! It wasn't the first time that I saw a live squirrel, yesterday I met one when I was walking down the street I live in. But this was the first time to really take a good look at one. They were gorgeous and cute. The more I walked in the park, the more I saw of them. They were forging for food, but I had no idea what they were eating. I moved on and my eyes saw something that I have only seen in movies. A frozen lake. The view was so astonishing and beautiful that I was speechless. People were playing hockey on the lake, walking their dogs, skating and walking with their normal shoes. I decided to take a leap of faith and walked on the ice. It was a short walk, but I enjoyed it a lot. The idea of falling in freezing water was too much for me, also it was somewhat slippery and I didn't want to start my ortho clerkship with broken bones!

After I was done, I walked the same way I came (i.e. walked Newbury Street with its chicks, again) so as not to get lost. And this became like a habit for me. I am walking here a lot (remember that I am writing in retrospect).

I went home and decided to watch a movie. I watched Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. It's not bad, but the problem was that most of the scenes were recycled. And also, I don't like movies that tries to explain everything because they tend to introduce plot holes more than they try to fill them. Explanation is nice, but not to that extent. Also, this should be sold with a huge warning on it because I know that some fool will watch it before completing the whole series, only to find out that almost the entire plot was laid out flat for him!