Boston Trip: Part Two

Part One

Day 3

I only had a few things on my checklist for this vacation: MIT, history whatevers, and clam chowda. I'd checked a lot of those things off the day before with my friend (forgot to take a picture of the chowda), but there were still some things I wanted to do. One of the big things was to chase a sunrise. I was not disappointed:

Again, I really don't know what to say about this. Sat here for at least 20 minutes.

There's something cool about being alone on an early morning train. I'm not sure what it is.

Train stations are great examples of achievements in engineering and design. A lot of thought went into these tracks and buildings.

Some more classic New England architecture.

I do love that soft color gradient on the skyline. Mmm.

There's also something cool about being surrounded by strangers on a crowded train. Like a more modest version of the magic of the airport.

One of the reasons I chose Boston for this solo adventure is because there was a big gaming convention taking place called PAX East, and I wanted to sit down and play board games for 14 hours. (I really like board games.) The doors to the convention opened at 10am, but after getting up at 4:50am to chase a sunrise, I collapsed back into bed and missed my alarm. I ended up getting there around 10:45, but it was still a solid 12 hours of board gaming, which was close enough to what I wanted.

There's this common trope in storytelling where someone gets everything they ever dreamed of, but then they realize it wasn't worth it, either because they sacrificed too much to get it, or because it wasn't as good as they thought it was going to be. It's pretty much a cliche at this point. "Nothing worth having comes easy," they say, the glint of wisdom flashing in their eyes. "Careful what you wish for." Well, I'm here to tell you that's a load of garbage. Sometimes, you get exactly what you wished for, and it's great, and it doesn't have any downsides whatsoever. I went to PAX for the single purpose of playing as many board games as possible. I met that goal perfectly and sacrificed nothing for it. When I wasn't playing a game, I was either finding people to play a game (which didn't take long) or eating (which took kinda long, but whatevs). It was precisely what I was looking for, and I loved it.

The convention center was huge. The board games were at the very back. The food was pretty close to the front. I timed the journey from the board games to the food, walking at a brisk pace: 5 minutes.

This game is called Root, and it was probably the best board game of 2018. I got a cute shirt for it. Didn't play it though.

The gimmick of this game was a magnetic regular dodecahedron you stick tiles to. You end up with a planet that attracts various animals. My secret objective was to make a big Ice Planet, so I attracted arctic foxes, polar bears, and walruses (pictured). Also an owl for some reason.

This game was about a blimp everyone uses to harvest resources and make deliveries. As the ship flies, night turns to day and day turns to night. Sometimes, those transitions happen gradually; sometimes, they happen in the blink of an eye.

I played a bunch of games with this guy. He was one of the staff who knew like 30 games and wandered around teaching people rules by playing with them. Job came with full event access and pay. Seemed like a sweet gig.

This picture is incontrovertible proof that I was having a massive amount of fun and was not feeling lonely, intimidated, awkward, or unsure in any Wei.

This game was about various smartphone companies trying to outcompete each other. The indefatigable specter of capitalism was pretty cool. So was the art of the various company offices. Shooting Star is pictured above.

I promised these people I'd remember all of their names. So, from left: Kimberly, Dave, Jonathan, me. Still haven't forgotten, and now have an electronic reference in case I meet them again.

The board game section filled up over the course of the day. This was near-empty when I arrived.

Root has some special art that makes it look great on the table. Here's some.

Here's the artist.

Taking a picture of people in cool costumes is compulsory for bloggers. Which I hate that I am now. But now you get to see some cool costumes, so maybe it's worth it?

This game was absolutely ridiculous. I made one of the designers put his hand in the picture for a sense of scale.

This game was also ridiculous, though not absolutely so. My hand for scale this time.

This game was called Underwater Cities. One of its gimmicks were these little plastic domes (you can see some on the board on the right side). I assumed those domes represented Aboveground Towns, but in retrospect I may've been wrong about that. Also, the chart (pictured mid-bottom) looked intimidating.

Futuropia was made by a designer named Friedemann Friese, famed for his design of Power Grid. It wasn't that good. Played like a less inspired, worse version of Uwe Rosenburg's earlier work, which is itself already kind of outdated.

The main expo hall closed at 6pm, so the board game area really started filling up around then.

More cool costumes

Imagine going to a gaming convention and then doing something you could've easily done at home: play video games. Oh wait, that's exactly what I did, except with board games. Maybe it's somehow different?

This was the coolest costume I saw at the event, so it's all downhill from here. Though the next one is a close second. And also the only other one.

"This weird kid in a purple headband asked to take a pic with me, so I'm like, whatever, fine, just make it quick"

Wingspan is one of the hottest new releases of the year. Over 200 different bird cards done in vivid watercolor, none of which managed to make it into this picture.

The lady I'm sitting next to has met at least 3 of my favorite board game designers, one of whom made the game in the picture. She taught us how to play. She also got excited when I asked to take a picture with her.

Blood on the Clocktower is a social deduction game, a lot like a souped-up version of Mafia or Werewolf. It was probably my favorite game at PAX.

This game looked really cool! Didn't play it.

These people have some cool shirts. They also got excited when I asked for a picture with them.

Clank is a risk-taking game where you see how deep into the dungeon you're willing to go to bring back treasure. I played ultra-greedy and died. I was the only one to die, resulting in a rock-solid last-place finish.

I was nervous about attending PAX. See, it's marketed for the "gamer" audience, and I often find the whole "gamer" identity to be super cringe-worthy, what with its implicit social awkwardness, gender exclusion, and association with being a "nerd". Fan culture in general is emblematic of some of the worst features of tribalism and consumerism, where people feel the need to prove they like something more than you do, and are constantly compelled to buy the next new thing to stay relevant. It can get gross at times. But here's an epiphany I came to during my time at PAX: At their core, fandoms are just a bunch of people getting together to celebrate something they love. And while all of that consumerist bullshit may be true, there's nothing quite so pure as that essential fact. So I realized -- maybe for the first time -- I'm proud to be a fan. A fan is just someone who loves things. Who gets inspired and excited by things. Who, in a very real sense, gets to experience some of the best parts of the human condition. What could be better than that?

PAX was a great event. I'm happy I managed to get over all those initial reservations, because I met a ton of funny, friendly people who were into the same thing I was into. As soon as we entered that giant exhibition hall, we shared an instant, visceral connection. We bonded through an art form that had brought all of us great joy. We spoke the same language. That was its own kind of magic.

I played games until the expo closed. As soon as I stepped outside, I gasped.

Literally breathtaking.

I was still jittery and excited and not at all tired, so I decided to explore nighttime Boston for a little bit.

See, I told you he'd be back.

This was the bar/theater/mall I explored. Bright neon signs are basically a shortcut to cool.

The pool/disco area was next to a sexy bowling alley.

No matter how hard I try, I just can't get that interested in bowling.

It was lightly raining when I got back outside.

There but for the grace of God go I.

I crossed this twice: first to check which side I needed to be on, then again when I was told I was on the wrong side. Unrelatedly, my hand got dirty from the underside of a railing.

Sometimes I feel like I over-romanticize public transit. Those times always conclude with me realizing I don't care if I do, because public transit is one of the greatest things ever.

I got home around 2:30am and slept until noon the next (same?) morning.

Part 3

Boston Trip: Part One

Part Two

Introduction

Travel is one of the most heavily marketed industries in existence. Slickly-produced brochures of sapphire oceans and twilight cityscapes belie an endless list of inconveniences: heavy expenses, jet lag, flight delays, luggage mishaps, language barriers, culture shock, isolation, illness, etc. Travelers spend a lot of their time doing nothing but waiting: at the airport, the bus stop, the ticket counter, the train station, the hotel lobby. The pictures they take are less for themselves and more to make other people jealous. There is a constant pressure to have fun, to justify this inordinate expenditure of time and money, to tick off every local attraction like a checklist. It's exhausting.

The more I travel, the more I realize how I don't care about any of that stuff. I love to travel. If money were no object, I'd go everywhere. I'd trade all the jet lag, overpriced food, and missed flights in the world for the experiences I've had in overcrowded airports and stuffy bus stations. It doesn't matter how low the negatives of travel may become; they will always be inconsequential in the face of the positives. Every time I go someplace new, part of me changes. And it's always for the better.

It's long been a dream of mine to travel alone. I romanticized every aspect of it: the freedom, the independence, the solitude. I was beyond excited to get the chance to do so this spring break. My expectations were incredibly high. (Spoiler: I not disappointed.)

Days 1 and 2

I got to the airport at 7:30pm, three and a half hours early, because I was afraid of making a mistake and missing my flight. I didn't make any mistakes and spent three hours doing card tricks for people (mostly families with children) at the gate. Doing magic for children is one of my favorite things. Their eyes get really big -- you can almost see them filling up with awe. If you do a really good job, they'll even gasp and put their hands over their mouths. Magic lays bare the best parts of childhood -- curiosity, wonder, innocence. The positive social feedback is addictive.

But my mediocre card tricks were just a small part of the magic of the airport. The real magic was in the people around me. I talked with curmudgeonly old folks who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, mothers taking their children to visit relatives, college students on spring break, and more. I watched a Russian group of people play a card game I didn't understand and even figured out a couple rules. Everyone I talked to knew a million things I didn't, had experienced a million things I hadn't. We were different in countless ways. Yet here we were together, sharing the same space, the same sights and smells, the same destination. That was a kind of magic. It made me feel alive.

Airplanes are also a kind of magic. I've written about them before. Two hundred years ago, our ancestors took months to journey across the country, braving brutal conditions, ravaged by countless diseases, at the mercy of the terrain. On this trip, I sat for a couple hours in a padded seat in a temperature- and pressure-controlled cabin with food, water, and WiFi access, and I achieved the same result. My neighbor was a nice elderly man named John who happened to be from Boston. He gave me some recommendations for cool things to see in the city: gaslit streetlamps, sunset vantages, art museums. I went to some of those places. They were great.

Real magic.

I arrived in Boston around 7:30am, right on schedule. I'd been awake for twelve hours at this point, so I decided I needed some coffee. I looked up the fanciest-looking restaurant on the coast, found a bus to take me there, and had the following breakfast:

Incredibly expensive. Incredibly delicious.

Chugged two cups of coffee with it to stay awake. First time I've used drugs in months. Mixed Sweet 'N Low with Splenda as an experiment.

Experimental results.

It was a two-minute walk to the pier, where I had the following views:

Shortly after getting off the bus.

This guy was the first one to welcome me to Boston. He'll be back later. Hard not to show off when you look this good.

This view was absolutely sensational. I'm not sure what else to say about it. It was perfect.

One of my good friends just happened to be in Boston at the same time, so we decided to meet at a random park I found on Google Maps:

As soon as I got to this park, I immediately decided we should meet somewhere else.

I decided to go to the Prudential building/mall, which was one of the places John told me to see. What followed was a totally embarrassing cavalcade of errors during which I discovered (a) I could not decipher Google Maps most of the time; (b) during the rare times I could, the GPS tracking was so bad it didn't matter; (c) I did not comprehend the bus/train/subway system at all. I spent around an hour missing a bus, missing a train, wasting some money on tickets, and walking in a big circle before I got a message from my AirBnB host saying I could drop my luggage off early, which meant I didn't need to go to the Prudential building after all, and the entire past hour I'd spent trying to do so had been totally wasted. I had a huge smile on my face during this entire time.

I finally figured out just enough of the train system to get to my friend, who knew all about the train system and taught me everything I needed to know. In retrospect, it was a huge stroke of luck that he was there at the same time. I got all the best parts of traveling alone with none of the downsides because I'd found a sponsor. He also knew most of the cool places in Boston, so we went to see them:

This is the oldest church in Boston. It looks a bit like a vampire castle in this light.

It cost like $15 to go inside, so this sneaky pic was all I could get. God's got bills to pay.

The Boston Public Library was one of my favorite experiences for the entire trip. To me, it represents exactly what government is for. It's also a microcosm of Boston in general: centuries of proud history fused with cutting-edge technology. A beautiful combination.

This is the inside view. If all libraries looked like this, the world would be a better place.

My friend told me the green lamps were an homage to Benjamin Franklin. To me, they were a testament to the style of the human race. We've got it going on, yo.

Maybe the British don't have it going on. Microfilm is pretty cool, though.

I continued to enjoy the fusion of modern and historic styles.

Some classic New England architecture. Didn't even notice this until my friend told me to look up.

We went to the most bougie, elitist tea shop I could imagine. Here's some sample monologue from the salesperson: "This tea has faint tracings of rose petals and cardamom, but you can't really those subtleties unless you go looking for them, because the designer was striving to stay true to the heart and soul of the 'white tea' aesthetic, and for that same reason I would also recommend steeping this one at least three times to get the most out of it, because you really lose some of the intricacies of the layered flavors unless you do that. We've got this luxury tea brewer if you're interested, makes multiple steepings fairly straightforward, as it's a very high-quality brand..."
My friend actually got some tea from this place. Even the bag looked out of my price range.

The legendary Boston Common, the oldest city park in the US. 1634?! Just looking at those numbers gave me goosebumps.

Didn't look that good that time of year.
1634, though. Damn.

I am a fan of graffiti art.

This was our first sight of Chinatown. It made us laugh a lot. In Chinese, "wang" is a common surname. It also means "king". In English, it means something different.

More graffiti!

These sandwiches are hilariously labeled "sandwich". (The Chinese also just says "sandwich".)

The gate. Nearby, we saw what I really wanted to see: A crowd of retired Chinese seniors going HAM gambling at various card games. One woman had at least $25 in quarters sitting in front of her.

A bunch of elderly folks practicing tai chi. If you look closely, you'll spot a Master Ninja training in broad daylight.

After Chinatown, we went to a comic store.
I got this.

I also got this.

Some of the locals were not as welcoming as others.

We walked along the Freedom Trail, part of which was Paul Revere's famous ride. This clock tower caught my eye.

The Old State House, where the Boston Massacre took place. Also the famous balcony where the Declaration of Independence was read. Incredible to think how much American history took place here.
Plus, there's a unicorn on the roof. Cool!

The burial site of many famous American statesmen, such as Samuel Adams. They laid the groundwork for this great nation. Now, they lay peacefully in the ground.

My friend's girlfriend worked in a lab at MIT, which I also really wanted to see, so we took a train to Cambridge. I'd been awake for around 20 hours at this point. I was not feeling tired in the slightest.

We got some great waterfront views on the train. God, I love this city.

These apartments were especially eye-catching.

Took some pics in front of the big MIT dome. Here is one where I am holding a bag.

Here is one where I am not holding a bag.
Not sure which one I prefer.

Here is a closer look at the two different bags we got. Mine is on the left. My friend's is on the right. Honestly, when I look at them side-by-side like this, I feel kinda bad for him.

This is the view from my friend's girlfriend's lab space. She told us about how she sometimes sees students dancing around fires down below, and some amphitheater performances.

It didn't look like anything important or scientific was happening in here, but I took a picture of it anyway. Maybe those fancy scientists will find a use for this space later on.

My best guess is that the square with the four lines in the upper right is the business end of a spatula. Then again, I don't know a lot of chemistry.

This timeline of the various buildings and awards won by the MIT biochem department is blurry and unreadable.

This is the map of the campus. You know it's cool cuz it's on glass.

After MIT, my friend and I decided to go back to his girlfriend's place, because we were getting pretty tired. According to his calculations, we'd walked for ~10 miles that day. Her house had some cool octagonal apertures on the porch. It was also the only stucco building in the neighborhood.

After getting dinner and hanging out for a couple hours, I needed to go check in to my AirBnB. Driving through the city at night was fantastic.

My host's house had the steepest spiral staircase I'd ever seen. It was like a carpeted mine shaft.

He was not kidding around when he said the room was "cozy". I'd've guessed this was a repurposed closet had I not seen the window.

That's all for Part One. Here's Part Two.