And so, days later, I return, still job-less, with a slight cold, but full of clam chowder and lobster. Boston was a lot of fun, although it was colder and rainier than I would have liked. I ended up not sleeping Thursday night in order to pack and drive to Indy for a 5:30AM flight. It wasn’t too bad until it started raining even harder than it had been, which made driving behind anyone impossible, because you’d get sprayed with enough water backwash to make the road invisible. Anyway, somehow I made it alive to the airport, and off to Boston I went.

I spent my first few hours in Boston going to my hotel (in Braintree, should have been called MotherbrainTree), and then going to the nearby mall because somehow I forgot to pack my ties. So I went and bought 2 clearance ties (still nice ones). Made it to the World Trade Center for the Boston Career Fair. Now, I knew this before I went, but it really is something to see and behold: Japanese kids all over the place, all dressed in pretty much the same black suits, looking for jobs and being mega Japanese about it. I watched a video in class about this, called 就職活動 which pretty much means job hunting, but seeing it in real life was kind of funny. I met up with Aki and talked to a few places. Made a fool out of myself at Goldman Sachs trying to somewhat fake that I was interested in finance, which I’m absolutely not. Ah well.

Now to quickly put down the Career Forum and get it out of the way. First, it is geared for Japanese kids who happen to be in America. That was my first big disadvantage, not being Japanese and also not being fluent in the language. Second big boner for the fair was that the big majority of the companies were recruiting for finance-type positions. Also something I’m not. So already going in, my chances were down a lot, but I’m still glad I went. It was a good experience and I did get to see Boston as well. I thought I’d go ahead and get that all out there so that it doesn’t sound like I’m complaining the whole post.

That night, I just went home around 7. Took about an hour to get from the World Trade Center to my hotel with waiting times, etc. I get home and pretty much just passed out. Lack of sleep, extensive walking, and boredom put me out pretty nicely. I woke up around 2 or 3AM pretty hungry, and since Braintree is like a ghetto suburb (read: not a college town), there were no take-out or delivery food places open that late. I was starving. I went down to the lobby, had like 2 cups of coffee, 2 small candy bars from the dish at the front desk, then finally resorted to eating 2 packs of instant oatmeal, with water heated in my rooms coffee maker. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad. I went to sleep again to wake up the next day, a bit later than planned, and finally left the hotel even more later than planned. What caused this tardiness, aside from my usual laziness? Nervousness for the career fair? Practicing my Japanese? Studying corporate literature? No, I was sitting in my room for about an hour watching Bring It On Again, a fine film if I ever saw one. Note that I am joking, but it did have cute girls in skirts, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

I get to the career fair finally, and meet up with Seth, then Angela and Sunny, then Paulos and Courtney-something (who I have only met once), then Aki. Also there were some scabes in there. Adam was apparently there earlier, but I missed him. Most of us went to get food, then back to the fair for me. I talked to a bunch of places, pretty much anywhere that didn’t require native Japanese ability. It was decent, but definitely nothing amazing or the like. At the end of the day, Sunny got a sweet offer from Lehman Brothers, so she’s all set. That night, I went and got dinner with Seth, his sister, and Jeremy from Penn State (the legendary Jermbo that german-suplexed a gorilla bear in Nagoya). It sounds very simple, but from the time we decided we should get some food to the time we sat down to eat (eventually at Cheers), about 3 or 4 hours had passed by. We had tried coordinating with like 12 other people, and yeah, that didn’t work. Haha oh well.

Ate dinner, went to the Beantown Pub, and then went home. Luckily (ugh) it was raining, so I got to run to the station in my suit. Good times. The next day, Sunday, I woke up and watched part of another classic movie, Richie Rich. Had enough of the career fair and no one else was going, so I decided to go on an adventure like I do every so often when I’m traveling. The only setback was the cold and wind, which by now I’m pretty sure got me sick. I went to Chinatown, Quincy Market, Boston Crossing, and crossed through the theatre district. Nice, but once again, very cold. Met up with Angela for a bit and got dinner. Lobster for like $12. Hell yes. It was delicious, and I felt like I accomplished something I had to do in Boston.

That was about it; slept a bit Sunday night, got up really early Monday and got back to Indiana. I didn’t get a job, but it was a good weekend anyway. I’m definitely exhausted. In closing, I would like to point out that Boston has the most Dunkin’ Donuts than anywhere else I have ever seen. They definitely outnumbered the Starbucks even. I didn’t actually eat any donuts from there, but I did get a cappucino on Sunday night. Thanks for a good time Boston, and also for the cold. I’d like to go back some time.

PS – on my layover in Philly I got a cheese steak. I love eating 名物。