Dragonboat Festival

This last weekend was the annual (and awesome) Dragonboat festival in Cambridge. While people were racing along the Charles, I was lazily watching them and eating fantastic chana masala. I like events that involve me eating and being lazy while other people are working hard. In addition to the boat races there were performances of drumming, dancing, and martial arts.

The drumming was fantastic and so much fun to watch, especially for the last piece where they started flipping sticks and one guy even jumped over his drum.

All the while rowers were rowing, and we were eating.

Here you can see Rick sampling a dish, he was not as happy with it as I was with my chana masala, but when someone doesn't like rice, cooked vegetables, or spicy food it can be hard to find something they'll enjoy (at least at a festival that features asian foods). Luckily for us we were able to get him a whole pile of naan which was deemed edible! Since the festival was free we ended up having a beautiful and exciting day along the river for just the cost of the bus ride there, and whatever food we wanted to sample! Hurrah for city living and cheap entertainment!!

Beautiful Boston

Spring and now summer have officially sprung in what now really feels like home, Boston. My roomate and I spent yesterday walking around the city. There is nothing like Boston Commons for free entertainment. Whether you enjoy people watching, soaking up the sun with a good book, or playing frisbee, this is the place to be in the summer. Fun street performers and roasted nuts are also an added bonus. I must now get back to enjoying my beautiful sun-soaked city (at least before the thunder storms start!!).

Birthday Extravaganza

Yesterday was my birthday, which I am honored to share with Terry Pratchett and Harper Lee!! Before the actual day of my birthday though I had quite the birthday extravaganza!! Between all my family and friends I must have had four celebrations and five birthday cakes before it was even my birthday!!
Here you can see birthday celebration part IV (maybe?), Rick got a quartet of delicious chocolate goodies for me!! Since I'm not a big cake person I loved this, along with the birthday tiramisu, birthday key lime pie, and birthday bananas foster that I celebrated with!! I had to work last night but Rick brought sushi to work along with my presents so it was a great celebration!
I think my favorite part so far though was after dinner at Legal Seafoods on Sunday I went to check out the seals in front of the aquarium. While the aquarium may be a little expensive, the seals are completely free and I could have spent hours hanging out with them and enjoying their antics.

With all the celebrations, love from friends and family, and the great weather yesterday, this has to be the best birthday ever!! Here's hoping 23 is even better than 22!!

MARATHON MONDAY!

Here is Harry, our spokesdog for the event.

Yesterday was the fantastic Boston Marathon! If you want hours of entertainment and excitement for free, then Marathon Monday in Boston is for you. A friend of mine lives on the course route, so we were able to set up a brunch on her front stoop and get a great view of the excitement!!
Here you see Kara Goucher battling it out with the other elite women runners. She ended up getting third, maybe next year Kara!
We were between mile 23 and 24 of the marathon, so there was a lot of excitement and a lot of people who looked like they wanted to die.
We spent about six hours cheering on runners. There were quite a few runners in funny costumes, and even more runners with great signs or who had their names on their arms or shirts so you could cheer for people by name. It was great seeing people get a boost from having 15 strangers yelling their name.

Harvard Museum of Natural History

I had an awesome sister visit this weekend! Ali wanted to go see the glass flowers exhibit at Harvard and it was amazing. The flowers were not at all what I was expecting, I was thinking of more art style glass, but these were very realistic replicas of glass flowers made by a German father and son team in the 19'th century for teaching purposes. When you look at the detail and intricacy it's hard to believe that these models were made in the field!
The museum also has animals and insects and a great collection of photos on birds and eggs.

Making a fool of yourself: always a free source of entertainment!

The museum only cost $7 (with a student ID) to get into, and seeing the crowds in Harvard Yard was free. As was the perusing we did later at the Harvard Bookstore. That evening we made dinner at home before watching Breakfast at Tiffany's which I got from the Boston Public Library (hooray free books and movies!). At the end of the day I was feeling pretty happy about our cheap entertainment so as the recession doldrums continue to hit I'm going to start a new feature of $20 entertainment where it will be my job to come up with a fun day of activities that can be done for... you guessed it... under $20! I'll try to also detail many of the fun activities that are free in Boston!