omar eduardo’s blog

After two years and a month in Boston (that including three summers) I still find it quite peculiar how big 4th of July is here. But as a good Puerto Rican and US citizen I need no other excuse to embrace the holiday other than… it’s a holiday. That, of course, defeats the purpose. This time I am celebrating fourth of July with friends I’ve known for four years. It’s quite an event.

Two days ago I went out with two of my best friends from high school. We had dinner at Chinatown and then walked back to MIT from there, an approximate 3 miles walk according to google maps. We stopped at the new Apple store in Boston, because when I saw it I simply HAD to walk in. Not only because it was an Apple store, but because it is an amazing store. The building is gorgeous.

I looked around and was tempted to replace my laptop with a mac laptop.There was no logical explanation for this other than, I want it. I decided to just go play with the iPhone for a while and go home. That was enough to calm down my need for a new mac product.

Yesterday, fourth of July, my two friends and I went out to the Haymarket subway stop and visited a very interesting and historic catholic church in the area. It brought back memories. Right after that we visited a graveyard that was nearby, just to get the full picture of the attractions around. After that thrilling experience we went forward with our lives and ate an exquisite meal at Ristorante Saraceno, a great small Italian restaurant in the area. I highly recommend it to anyone. Right after we saw the Holocaust Memorial. This was completely by chance since none of us knew about it. As someone who hasn’t studied or heard much about the Holocaust, only a few remarks, I must say that the memorial really made an impression of me. It really sent shivers down my body and made me realize many things about this horrible event…

After a day of experiences in Boston, my friend and I decided to return to MIT. We spent the afternoon/night at Senior House, the MIT dorm in which I live during the term. We had a barbeque in the afternoon and, afterwards, we all went on the Senior House roof to watch the fireworks. If you Google Senior House’s address (70 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA) you’ll realize that the dorm is located right in front of the fireworks show. There is simply no better view. You’re jealous, I know.

Well, it was fantastic.

My friends and I lingered around and had a quite good night, which culminated with a few burgers and the three of us walking back home.

What will I do today? I do not know. What I do know is that I am getting a much needed haircut. A $50 one that is, but may I tell you it is worth it.

I’m still waiting for the iPhone 3G to finally start being sold so I can change my two and a half years old Nokia 6020.

There is nothing much more I can talk about. My job as a chemistry teacher assistant is very satisfying, and my research at the MIT Langer Lab is exciting. My summer is going pretty well so far, I just need to get my small injuries healed so I can go back to taekwondo practice.

-Omar

I went home for three weeks after finals week, gained 10 pounds and got completely sunburned up to the point in which I spent a week recovering at home. That’s how you know I had a good time. My sunburn was so great that I had to put cold gel with aloe and several other ingredients on my back and shoulders and I still felt like an oven. Now I know what it’s like to go to hell, thank you Jesus.

After that fantastic experience I got back to MIT, but on the way here I had to go upstairs with my suitcase and backpack (over my sunburned back) for what seemed an eternity, simply because a train station was closed and the station at which I had to get off had no elevator… (it was broken).

I finally made it to the MIT Saturday night (that’s last week’s Saturday) and was settled in my room by midnight. I am yet to unpack and completely settle in, but that’s something you don’t care about. Sunday was a relaxing day, I had an exquisite dinner at Suzanne’s place and went to bed by 1am.

This week I spent doing the following:

1. Training for my job as an Interphase TA
2. Finishing up training for my summer research
3. Practicing taekwondo
4. Lifting weights with René
5. Eat, sleep, socialize, have a life.
6. Working on the taekwondo club’s websites.

I got a bike from René, so I have been able to go back and forth from places without wasting too much time. One exciting thing was that my celphone fell off my pocket while I was biking on Massachusetts Avenue, and thanks to some sort of miracle I could recover it without it dying or a car killing me. I had a fantastic week indeed. Now, however… I feel like a piece of disposable human.

Thanks to the amount of exercise I did combining taekwondo practice and lifting weights this past week, when I woke up this morning my body was in pain. Severe pain. God forgave all my sins since my last confession (several years ago) because he thought I was in enough pain now. Even now when I walk to the door I have to do it as if I were an 80 years old man, arching my back and moving slowly.

I hope this pain goes away soon because the Interphase students (my students for the summer) started arriving today and I’ll be working 6:30am-5:30pm tomorrow receiving the rest. Shall be fun. I guess it would be great if I receive them sitting on a chair and not being able to move.

Okay well, I’m going now to make things worst because I’m a masochist. I just got a call from people who just convinced me to play Ultimate Frisbee with them… because apparently that’s all that taekwondo folks in the club do during the summer. I can barely move, but they don’t care, so we’ll see if I survive. I’m also very hungry… I could eat a cow.

-omar

Even with a full time job… or 50 hours a week of work… I can still train at Taekwondo constantly, lift weights, and, more importantly, write. I socialize too, of course.

Blog entry about my life coming up soon, but for now, here’s a good youtube video to watch.

Consent