Boston Drivers (beep! beep!)

I've been commuting to work every day by bike so I've seen lots of Boston drivers up close and personal in my month in Boston so far.  At first I just thought they were mean, but now I'm starting to understand their system.

There are two kinds of honk and they go as follows.

Mean Honk:
Beeeeeeeep!  You @$$hole!!!

Nice Honk:
Beep. Beep.

If know swearing is audible after the honk, I assume they have the best of intentions.

So here's the cool system.  You know how obnoxious it is to sit at a light and have to constantly stare at it so you know when it turns?  Well in Boston, there is one person on alert who honks their horn politely the instant the light turns so that all the other drivers know to go even if they weren't looking.  At first I thought the person doing that was just really impatient, but now I consider them considerate for watching out for everyone.  I think sometimes it's maybe even the person at the front who beeps to make sure everyone behind them knows to go. Maybe...

That's my optimistic theory anyway.  Who knows.

Oh Dear! I need a place to live! (blog post #200)

I don’t know why I’m surprised when God's amazing anymore.  I'm moving to Boston for work starting in September.  Getting housing taken care of, was the last detail I felt I had little control over and of course that made me nervous.  I sent emails out to at least 15 adds on craigslist (plus follow up emails to most), with no replies.  I only had one lead that I had gotten from posting my bio on the Park Ave Church housing forum.  I had days to spend in Boston and expected to look at 5-10 places during my stay, but only had one lead.  I set that up for the first evening hoping it was a good one, because I was out of ideas of how to get more.  Even asking for help from the locals (friends, cousins, and YWAM) didn’t yield anything promising.  

So I went out the area where the apartment was about an hour early.  I explored the area and it seemed delightful, with the shopping, and the park, and the semi-quiet neighborhood with many young international families.  As I’m waiting, I mention to a friend in Boston where I was looking.  "the house is on Wilson St. by the park, and near the Stop and Shop," I said.  Turns out she used to go by the street regularly, and that street sign was her reminder to pray for me.  That begins to ease my worries as I remember that God is looking out for me, just as he was when he got me the job a few weeks earlier.  I go in and the house is clean and spacious.  My room is at the front with large bay windows.  It turns out I’m allowed to put hooks in the wall to hang my bike from :)  it also has a basement for storing extra bikes.  Also turns out one of my roommates is familiar with YWAM and some of the people there that I've know since I was young.  To make it perfect, it's on the market for well under it's market value.  My potential roommates say they’ll get back to me in 48 hours.  They’ve already interviewed one person, and then have one more the next day.  Ends up, they call me back an hour later to say I have the spot.   God is good.  I can rest secure in him.  I am more than thrilled with my first apartment in Boston.  Now that that's settled, I have the rest of the week to enjoy Boston.

Boston

So I realize I abandoned you back in May, but it's not entirely my fault.  You see Germany doesn't really have summer, so I had to skip it  ;)   Well I suppose the bigger part of it was less and less access to internet and more and more to get done.  It did enjoy those last months in Germany.  When it came to a close I baked three cakes to split between 2 going away parties.  One party in German, with friends from Erlangen, and 1 party in English with people from work.  Soon enough I was home and my family was getting more hugs from me than they knew what to do with. 

So during the year I was working on a running shoe related project.  The running team is in Boston though, not Germany.  I had met a few people from the team but not the majority, and few of them knew what I was up to.  We arranged that after my internship finished up and I went home, that I could visit the Boston office for 2 days enjoy everything that goes with that.  I had never been to Boston before but have been wanting to visit for some time.  It's a beautiful place.

I landed Wednesday night and took the train into town and found my hotel, which was really a bed and breakfast called The College Club of Boston.  Delightful.  I believe is used to be a women's college.

After a recommendation from the gentleman at the front desk I met with Andrea, who used to study with me, at the Parish Restaurant.  I enjoyed a meal called Elephant Walking on Eggs "Sandwich from the Mountain".  Then we met Adrian and he drove us the harbor to explore.  He showed us this red line painted through the city called "the Freedom Trail" that leads you past many of the sights of Boston.  Getting pretty late though so we all headed our separate ways.  1 perk of Boston, I already know lots of people who live there.

Thursday morning I rose and enjoyed a good breakfast with no deli meats (a German peculiarity).  I then walked the 45 minutes through town to PUMA as an excuse to see more of Boston.  I got to work at 9, found out I was presenting at 10, and promptly was toured through the office to meet a million people (or meet their desks for those who weren't there) in quick succession.  The meeting started 15 minutes late because that is the PUMA way, and because designers were involved.  In the end, the seats were filled, and hardly even standing room left.  It was a great way to start off the day.  I spent the next two days meeting people, and seeing how things work in the Boston office.  I went for a run with two of the other developers at lunch just like in Germany.  One of them used to log 100 miles a week in his prime.

To conclude the trip I got to go to the preliminary round of the Red Bull 2012 Cliff Diving World Series Boston.  Pretty crazy stuff.  The Olympic high dive is 10m.  This was 27.

Then I flew home.

That's all.

oh and I got 2 new pairs of shoes in Boston  ;)