Beantown Part Deaux

So I'm back in Boston, which has definitely been my favorite place on the road. I was able to make a visit to Boston Unversity and am currently at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (aka M.I.T.) The chapter house is two blocks away from Fenway, and a street over from the big Citgo sign that is a landmark in Boston. I tried going to a Celtics game this past Friday, but they were asking for $150 at the door. Ridiculous. So my buddy Adam and I ate pizza and walked back to his place instead. This past weekend, I stayed in the Radisson Downtown Hotel and stayed on the top floor (24th) My room had a balcony that overlooked the city. It was awesome, but once again I only had myself to share it with. That's what the camera is for.

A few years ago, when I was in Wales studying, one of my younger cousins did this activity in elementary school called Flat Stanley. Many of you have probably done it, but for those who haven't here's a rundown. The story is that this cartoon character got smashed somehow and now he is just an outline on a piece of paper. The goal is for the kids to send Flat Stanley to someone who can take pictures with him next to famous landmarks. I hooked up my cousin by taking Flat Stanley all around Europe. Well his little sister is now in that grade and I received Flat Stanley from her. Being in Boston, I took some time to dress Flat Stanley up in a markered Boston Red Sox uniform. Today I walked over to Fenway, and the Tripple A mascot for the RedSox was outside of the stadium. Flat Stanley had his pic taken with the mascot in front of the new 2004 World Series Champion banner. Good stuff.

For all of you who haven't been to Boston, make sure to get here. I would love to live here in the city for a few years later in my life, because it is so unique and sports fans are top notched. There is much history, and you can't ask for more landmarks and tourist stuff. For me, it's heaven. I spent Easter walking the streets and doing everything. I did celebrate Easter by going to an Irish pub and eating Corn Beef and Cabbage. Wrong holiday, but great food. M.I.T's chapter house is the old Lieutenant Governor's house and is worth approximately $8 million. It looks like a typical Boston high rise and it is very narrow. Quite the location.

New Hampshire - Live Free or Die

What a great state motto. I decided to live by this moto while I was in the state by not wearing underwear for the three days. Time to do some more laundry. New Hampshire is another beautiful state, and it would have been even nicer if I was there during the Fall Foliage season. The White Mountains are located in the state, and I took some time to drive through them. I saw a few moose, and was paranoid that I was going to take one out. Actually, the moose would probably put a number on me. There are so many ski resorts in the area, but I did not have the opportunity to take advantage of this. It killed me. I did have a little bad luck during my visit to Southern New Hampshire University. I was pulling into the local gas station and a young lady took the opportunity to side swipe me and ding up the back right fender and bumper of my car. That is two accidents this year, and I have caused neither. My car seriously hates me, and it is looking like a traveling consultant's car more and more each day. Now all I need is a crack in my windshield.

Let the Madness Begin - In Montreal

By madness, I mean March madness, baby! The best two weeks for a NCAA basketball fan is upon us, and luckily I'm able to watch the games in Montreal. I'm doing my meetings out of a hotel room, and it's been nice to have the games on right next to me. Montreal is very European, with the majority of the population being French. My parents always told me that I should take Spanish because I'll use it much more, but they were wrong. I've been able to use a little of my French-speaking ability, but I still butcher quite a bit of it. The city of Montreal is located right next to a mountain (More of less a big hill) I haven't had a chance to tour around, but I will on Saturday. My hotel is right off Rue St. Catherines which is the main shopping, bar, and strip club everywhere. Montreal has the most strip clubs per capita, so my area gets a little sketchy after dark. Going to school in a big city such as Montreal seems intriguing, but I think the pace would be a little to fast for my personality. Stuff is expensive also. This is the final destination on my Canadian tour, but I've enjoyed my time up North.

The Green State - Vermont

Back on the road after a week in the office took me to the lovely state of Vermont. Vermont and New Hampshire are two states that I've never really looked at as a top priority on my "To Visit" list. My drive from Albany, New York to Burlington changed my mind about where Vermont ranks on my most beautiful states list. I drove through the Adirondack State Park, which is very surreal. I don't know what the square miles of the park is, but it pretty much includes most of upstate New York. Luckily the weather was nice, because it was very hilly and mountains were everywhere. Tillie bought me a subscription to Men's Journal for Christmas, and the last issue was my type of issue. The 50 Best Places to Live in the United States headlined the magazine, and Burlinton, Vermont is ranked number 19 according to the magazine. Unfortunately I had to visit in the winter. Despite the cold weather, I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Burlington is a very lively and liberal college town located on Lake Champlain. Watersports and boating during the summer months and skiing only 45 minutes away for the winter months. I felt at home a little bit, with all of the cows around, but the majority of them are dairy cows. I guess it makes sense that Ben & Jerry's is located in Burlington. I took the tour of the factory, and I'm intrigued by the company. If you're bored, check out their website www.benjerry.com. From Burlington I had to head up north to Montreal, Quebec. Instead of driving straight there, I took a little detour to check out Stowe, Vermont. Stowe is a popular skiing village, and it is where the von Trapp family (Sound of Music) moved to after they left Austria during the Nazi area. The only reason I know this is because I spent three days in Salzburg, Austria all by my lonesome when I was overseas. I got sick of hearing the songs from the Sound of Music at my hostel, where they offer the Sound of Music tour, which I very easily turned down. Good times in Vermont, and I'll have to drive through it again on the way back to Southern New Hampshire.

Bad Luck with United Airlines

It's inevitable that with my job I have to fly quite a bit. I usually fly back to Headquarters three times a semester to get caught up on everything and to recharge my batteries. When scheduling flights, I usually go with the cheapest one possible, but lately, this has backfired on me.

Situation 1: I was flying from Buffalo, New York to Pittsburgh, and then to Dayton, Ohio. When I arrived at the Buffalo airport I was surprised to see that my flight to Pittsburgh was cancelled. I don't know what it is about a flashing red "Cancelled" line compared to tons of green "On Time" lines that really upsets you. So I got redirected to Washington D.C. which makes a whole lot of sense. Oh well, I was able to buy a John Kerry bobblehead for $1.99 to add to my collection. Hardly worth it. Luckily my bags arrived in Dayton.

Situation 2: I was supposed to fly from Albany, New York to Chicago and back to Cincinnati. I arrived in Chicago to see that my flight to Cincinnati was cancelled. Great, knowing that it was 10 at night and knew there wouldn't be any other flights that night. Luckily, the terminal next to the one I had just gotten in from was flying to Dayton. I hopped on that, and realized while on the plane, I have no idea where my bags are going or are ending up. Tillie was on her way down to visit and was supposed to pick me up in Cincy. What made it a hastle was that another one of the consultants was flying to Cincy and we were taking him back to Oxford. So Tillie, bless her heart, picked Adam up in Cincy and drove to Dayton to get me. Obviously my bags weren't there and received them two days later in Oxford.

Situation 3: This past Sunday I was supposed to fly from Cincy (6:40am) to Chicago back to Albany. I arrived at the airport at 6:00am to find out that my flight was cancelled. Hey, what do you know? So instead of sleeping for another 3 or 4 hours, I had to wait in the airport until 11:00 am to catch a flight. The lady at the United desk transferred me over to Delta. Not the best business strategy if you ask me. So I had to haul all of my bags over to the fartherst terminal and wait for 5 hours. Good times.

Note to self: Don't fly United Airlines

Canada, eh?

So I've taken a hiatus from this blog, and I should probably get back to documenting my life on the road. Since Amish country, I spent about two weeks with our Canadian chapters. We currently have four chapters in Canada at McMaster University, University of Toronto, York University, and Western Ontario University. Much is different here, and I definitely picked the wrong time of the year to be driving around this country. We've had about four snow storms, and I never know how much we're going to get because they report it in centimeters. I'm not the best with metric conversions.
I was able to spend a week in Toronto and spent one weekend with Tillie touring around. The city is great, and the skyline with the CN Tower and the Skydome (now the Rogers Centre) is amazing. Tillie and I checked out a professional lacrosse game. Up here in the Northeast lacrosse is big, and now that the NHL is on strike, it's even bigger. The game at the Air Canada Centre was awesome and it's definitely a fun sport to watch. We also had a chance to go to the CN Tower, and up top of it is the highest point in the world you can get a view from, while still being in a building. Quite the experience. Tillie is afraid of heights and it was fun to watch her hug the wall up top. We also took a tour of the Skydome. There was a car show going on, so all of the lights were off, but it's still very cool. There is a hotel in center field, where you can rent a room and watch the game from your hotel window. That would be awesome! We checked out the hockey hall of fame. It's probably the best laid out of the four halls that I've been to. We were even able to practice up on our slapshots. It brought me back to my Supersuckers days. It's much easier to shoot a hockey puck without skates. Overall it was a great weekend, despite the snow. I'll be traveling to Union College in New York tomorrow. Boy, how I love the seven hour drives. Next week is our All-Staff week. I look forward to being in the office with the guys for a week. I need to recharge my batteries.