About to Start a New Week

so it's sunday night, and i have my first full week of city year starting tomorrow morning. i'll be getting placed into my permanent group and i''ll be finding out which school i'll actually be working at, so check back tomorrow for the results. i applied for the "boston renaissance charter school" which is awesome, because they focus on science, art, and music... if you know me, you know that those three things together would be perfecttttt for me to teach and to tutor. plus, it's one of the kinds of schools that you have to apply to get into, it's not a normal public school.. fingers crossed on whether i get it or not. any school i would be placed in will be fine, but i like this one a lot. so again, i'll post the results tomorrow.. wish me well!

wednesday into friday night is our "basic training retreat" where we go to one of those teamwork camp type places with ropes courses and cool teambuilding games and activities... i'm hope there's a rock wall and/or a rappelling wall.... mannnn i LOVE rappelling walls. that would be great. i guess we'll find out soon.

I think my picture today is really interesting.. it shows you that even in a "modern city" such as boston (quotes because it's one of the oldest cities in the country) you can find little nuggets of history and past construction and architecture. kinda like you should always look under the outer layer, and search for the good within.

(6 exposure HDR from Back Bay in Boston MA)
click to view high quality in flickr
once in flickr, click on the picture and 'all sizes' for the big one
also, feel free to browse the rest of my flickr

The Enemy of Great Is Good

this is a thing i keep hearing at city year. at first glance, it might seem a little... off. but, read it again. what it means is that if you are okay with being good, if you're happy making every day a good day, then they will never be great. therefore, the worst thing for great, is good. strive for greatness, don't allow a normal "good" day to interfere with having a great day.

Tonight was a meet and greet with alumni from previous years. it was incredibly cool to meet people who have been through this experience, and who can speak to what we're about to go through. I'll tell you what though, for us being a not-for-profit organization, the food was phenomenal, and i thinkkkk it's all donated. how cool is that? the best thing about it was, guess who took home an entire tray of about 30 gourmet bbq and swiss hamburger sliders.... yeah that's right, me :)

(long exposure on Mass. Avenue in Boston)
view for better qulaity on flickr please

Changes Around Here

so at first glance, everything is different... yes, i am attempting to be serious about this photography/journal/social media thing... please please please, click on the portfolio link on the top right, it's 25 of the pictures i'm most proud of, and it's all in a nice viewing package, so please look at it and tell me what you think, good or bad (but it had better be good.) look at the contact and elliot link too... really get in there and such.

so today was day #1 at city year, and i'll tell you what... i feel good, i feel like i'm about to be a new, changed... better person. yeah, maybe that's all the hype they're feeding us, and maybe it's working, but even if it is just hype, it makes me feel like i can make a difference, then i go out and make a difference. so, that hype that was just hype, it turned into results, and it's a beautiful thing. today we went to a housing project and cleaned it up and painted the outsides. the railings, benches, and the playgrounds all got a major facelift. we left the place much better than we found it, and that is what we call positive change, and it feels good. the kid who spilt an entire can of paint down a plastic slide, not such a positive change, but we deal.

goodnight, and have a pleasent tommorow... thank you.

Christian Science Center

So, at first glance, you may see that i have a new picture at the top, and that is the Christian Science Center in Boston. Now, i heard "christian science center" and i got really excited because i thought, hey, maybe this is something i can get on board with! so i go to the website, and apparently, "christian science" has nothing to with science at all, it is simply "the science of christianity" meaning, the story behind beliefs and things like how jesus "scientifically" changed water to wine, multiplied fish and bread, the world was created in 7 days 6,000 years ago blah blah blah... I've been using "quotes" a lot in this post because i feel like they need them, so that no one thinks these are my beliefs in any way. I would love to find a religion that fits in with what i (and common sense) know as truth and that doesn't try and answer the questions we don't know the answers to yet with "you must have faith in what god hasn't revealed" ...i'm tired of that. but anywayyyyy, i'll get off my soapbox and show some pictures.


This one is from the opposite end of the reflecting pool... awesomeeee place to be, beats DC's anyday haha


This one is very important to me... i've been trying to get a lightning shot since i started taking picture, and here in all it's kind-of-visible glory, is my first successfull lightning shot... oh yeahhh haha


This one isn't very different from the others, but it's the ending one, so love it.


cheers yo!

A View of my Room

so i'm going to say, today was one of the hottest days of my life. I've never been without A/C through the hot parts of August... i've been without it in college for 4 years, but never in the hottest parts of august, with the sticky, wake up sweating, humid, disgusting hot. I woke up this morning angry, partly because i'm sick of my dumb air mattress, but mostly due to the heat. yes, i AM in a complaining mood haha. but anyway, karla and i finallly got most of our stuff put away, organized, and our pictures are officially hung and set. So, to celebrate that glorious occassion, i figured it was time to show the apartment to the world (or, the possible 3 or 4 people who may read this.) as you can see in picture one and two, there are two flags. you really should know the first one, but the bottom one, for those of you "not in the know" is from the tiny little country known as El Salvador. clearly, the U.S. flag was hung higher up :)
Anyone who has known me in college, knows that i loveeee string lights as the main lighting in a room. Yes, i call them string lights because they should never be relegated only to the winter holiday months, they should be used all year. really. name another piece of decoration that is more versatile and more calming..... exactly, you cannot.

This is my kitchen, it's cute. not a lot of counter space, but i'll tell you, i am creating magic in the kitchen with some dishes, karla's not too bad herself... it's like she LOVES washing dishes!

Why do people paint their walls yellow? it's known as "gender neutral," but what does that really mean? are there any guys that really enjoy yellow? on the other side, any girls? does gender neutral just mean both sexes hate it equally? i go for that explanation.

Last but not least, a little porch, cute porch, and until this very morning, a very dirty porch. i swear, i don't pay her to clean, it's just in her blood (...too much?)

Trinity Church Visit

First of all, big news. I discovered yesterday that, like our mysterious internet signal from upstairs or downstairs, or somewhere else, we also have free basic cable!!! yes, it is basic meaning nbc, cbs, abc, fox and not much else, but that means football, for FREE! like tonight, bills and titans... incredibly uninteresting game, but i will watch it, because i have missed football terribly and it's free :)

So one of the first things i do when i get into a new place of my own (i think this makes living space number... 6?) i always check the toilet. i seem to have pretty rough luck with toilets, and their... umm.. strength of flush. through three years at juniata, I always had a communal bathroom with multiple toilets and a janitor to fix it, if need be, but last year in my house, i was luckily graced with a strong flush. This year however, in the great city of boston, my toilet was no match for me :) day 3, i go. next flush someone uses, overflow. so, in comes landlord and he says (in a thick chinese accent) "in ten years, i never see any toilet ack like dis! ...not in ten years!" so, he has been in our bathroom for about 4 hours, replacing the toilet, maybe this one will be a little better haha... i wasn't able to say a few words of goodbye to the friend i knew for so short an amount of time...

So today was sunday, and in our endless pursuit to find free things, we discovered that on sundays, right after the service, their is free admission and free tours into the trinity church in boston, so in we went for a tour. Now, this tour was reallllllly boring, so i found myself looking at the celing a lot, hence the first picture. it's a really weird, but kind of beautiful church. really odd colors. I've never seen more red and gold concentrated in one spot, and i don't know if i'm a fan of it... it got a little nausiating, like they bought way too much red and just needed to use it all so as to not waste it. Renaissance is cool and everything, but i much prefer the gothic style for churches and the like.











Although, the details on the alter's stonework were reallllly baddass... just look!!!

Ridiculous Happenings

So, I haven't been without a car since I was 16, and sometimes, I guess i have forgotten how difficult that must be for some people. at home, and at school, if i needed to go somewhere, hope in the car and go, no problems, no waiting. even at school, i lived mayyybe a 6 minute walk from campus, and sometimes it would be a beautiful clear day.. what did i do? i would drive, because that's how it was. now, karma has came back at me, and it lovesss it. In boston, i can't really see how it makes sense to have a car. streets are windy, crowded, old, confusing, and public transportation is really easy and really convenient... that is, within the city of boston. Karla had bought me tickets to see my favorite band of all time (blink 182) maybe two months ago when they went on sale. so we bought the tickets and everything was sweet. When we got here, we realized.... "how do we get there??" see, it was an ampitheater outside of the city and the closest the commuter rail could take us was three miles away. So, we were going to walk, and we would deal with it. but no, the last commuter rail leaves at 10:00 p.m. :( which means we would have to leave before blink even came on. so now we're sad. really sad.

Craig's list is an amazing tool. It got me my apartment, and it got me a ride last night. we searched craigs list for a ride, and i found "5 seats available on party bus to Blink 182 $30.00" and we were desperate, so i got in contact and confirmed. This was nothing like i ever would have imagined.
It was "...no tea party" just ridiculousness. Karla and i were drinking on a bus with 25-30 people we had never met before, all singing blink, strobe lights, black lights, stripper pole in the middle, just lovingggg it. so we get to the show, and our seats weren't the best, but for the maybe 3,000-4,000 people in front of us, there were 15,000 behind... it was incredible. the show was amazing, it blew me away, and it was everything i had ever wished for from a blink show. mark was great, tom was annoying and not really that funny, and travis was simply the most talented drummer i have ever seen play... ever.

Hello Bahstan!!!

well here it is.. it's day 1 of truly being independent, of paying my own rent, being out of pennsylvania, living with my girlfriend in OUR place... it's a big step, and a bigger change. Why not start my blog that i've been meaning to start today? I'm in my room in a three bedroom apartment in Jamaica Plain, which is about 4 miles away from the city center, but i live maybe 300 feet from a subway station that goes everywherreeee, and it's awesome. Other than karla, i have two roomates, tom and katie.. tom is incredibly chill, he has a big bushy beard, and he works managing three or four bands for a record label, and his in a band of his own that is playing tonight near hahvad in cambridge that i think i might go over and check out tonight, cuz i'm a city boy now. Katie is the other one, and she is, as well, very chilled out haha. she's moving out in a month though :(

I've never been without my car, I've never lived outside of Pennsylvania, I've never lived on my own income, and I've never been more than 45 minutes away from my mom. I miss her terribly already.. as they drove away today i could see her crying and it tore me apart... but, everyone has to move on someday, and 22 seems just about right for me. I am so excited for this stage of my life, but i really miss the old one already. I miss Juniata, I miss Altoona, i miss my friends, so everyone that might read this, come VISIT!!! it is honestly a completely open invitation and no matter what is going on, i would love to have you. Till next time, i love you haha.

(Picture info: The road from my house, leading away from where i'm from)