Sojourner Stories: "sushi at a jap place." boston.

Wow. I love traveling. I love visiting family. I love meeting & making new friends.

I traveled to Boston this past week to visit my dearest cousin, Austin. He is currently stationed there with the Air Force for three years. Him and I were both in London back in the fall of 2011. We got to travel to Oxford and spent Thanksgiving together. So it was time to reunite and do some traveling!

On Thursday, me, Austin, his roomie, Ben, and some other guys went to the Red Sox vs. Rangers game at Fenway Park. It was so fun! And the craziest thing ever happened. My friend, Kambly, who actually traveled to London with me (through Baylor) was in Boston with her hubby at the Red Sox game too!! We got to see each other, catch up briefly and snap a photo together in the stadium. It made my heart so warm and happy to see her smiling face.

Of course we didn't leave the stadium until close to 10:30 and the guys wanted to go out as in "out out." I expressed my feelings of really wanting to go home so that I could take my shoes off (you see we were in the "standing room only" at the game) so Austin decided we didn't need to go home to take our shoes off - instead, we could take them off anywhere! (see picture below) It did make for a good laugh. Luckily, I won. We went home and ate Oreos. :)

On Friday, it was raining cats and dogs ALL day in Boston, but that didn't stop Austin and I from a full day of touring. We both put on our raincoats - his with a hood and me with an umbrella - and hopped on the metro to head into the city. Side note: Austin actually lives in a suburb of Boston called Somerville - which is super cute with Davis Square right down the street. It's full of restaurants, bars, boutiques, and coffee shops - perks to living right down the road from Harvard University!

Okay back to touring Boston. So my cousin is one of the brightest, funniest, sweetest guys EVER. When I say "brightest" that translates to "genius." Literally. That being said, I didn't need to pay to take any tours. Austin could start his own one-man-tour-guide-show! He took me on his version of the Freedom Trail and we visited the area where the bombing took place during the Boston Marathon. We also went to the memorial they have in place for it. It was still incredibly somber. My heart goes out to all of those that were affected by the bombing. We visited the Boston Public Library, the North End (older part of Boston), a Holocaust memorial, and the Boston Common. It was interesting and fun - minus ALL the rain that caused wet shoes, socks and jeans. So you know that scene from a zillion movies where someone is standing on the corner of the street waiting to cross it and it is pouring down rain? And a car passes and splashes a massive amount of water on the moron standing on the corner? Yep. That was Austin and I. A perfect way to end our day of touring.

There are a lot of cool things in New England that are different from the south. One of those things being DUNKIN DONUTS! They are everywhere and their coffee is delicious. It beats Starbucks by a mile, no doubt. The day we toured Boston was my first time to have it. I got a medium before we had lunch, then I got another medium once we got back into Somerville (in Davis Square) and then of course when we finally hit the road for New Hampshire at 9 pm it was time for another cup! Hehe. Yes, three Dunkin Donuts in one day - totally worth it.

Did I just mention hitting the road to New Hampshire? Why yes I did! We made a road trip to the White Mountains for the weekend - that blog post is up next. :)

Oops. I almost forgot to explain the reason for my title of this post. On Friday night, we were in the kitchen trying to figure out what we wanted for dinner. We ended up cooking at Austin's house, but anyways I mentioned something about sushi which lead into this whole discussion of everyone's love of sushi or lack there of. I made a comment along the lines of "Well if you don't like sushi, can you eat at a jap place?" ALL of the guys busted out laughing. Austin then proceeded to say, "No one has used the term 'Jap' since 1940 during World War II -- it's a derogatory term for Japanese people." I obviously was unaware of this prior to Austin informing of it .... oh the joys of spending the week with a bunch of guys that live for history AND economics! :)