Trying Texts

My feet are sore.

Over the last two days, I have moved into my dorm at HLS, seen a large portion of the major historical sites in Boston, and walked about 300 miles (more or less). Mom, Dad, and I walked the Freedom Trail this afternoon, which begins at Boston Common and ends at the Bunker Hill Monument (which is actually on Breed’s Hill). In between, we saw, I believe, every possible Paul Revere site, including his grave, his house, the Paul Revere Mall, the Old North Church, and all kinds of markers in between. Paul Revere is okay, but I was more excited about seeing Sam Adams and Cotton Mather’s graves.

Along the way, I’ve figured out how to use the subway system, and I’ve learned that all the stores on State Street in downtown Boston close at 7:00 PM. (How lame is that? Even Alexandria isn’t that bad.) Fortunately, everything around Harvard Square seems to stay open late.

The book I’ve been reading, The Egyptologist, has some scenes set around Harvard University, and it’s kind of odd to compare the idyllic academic setting in Harvard-related novels and movies (even Legally Blonde) with the relatively ordinary atmosphere here. Harvard is very nice, but it’s not magical–not in the way I imagine Oxford or Cambridge or even Yale must be. Maybe I’m just conditioned by the Harry Potter films to think that Gothic architecture is somehow more fantastical and academic, but the sturdy red brick buildings that make up most of the campus here are, even when quite grand, more familiar than imposing–very American, I guess. Maybe any campus seems ordinary after a while. (Even just a few days?) In any case, I wonder why, with its $26 billion endowment, Harvard can’t manage to put some air conditioners in the law school dorms.

Orientation begins tomorrow. I’m not at all sure what to expect.