hot town, summer in the city

I'm an urban girl now. Check me out.

I have a swanky apartment in a trendy Boston neighborhood. I take the Green Line to graduate school. I hear sirens at all hours of the night and day and I whine about the driving on Commonwealth Avenue. I have a superintendent for whom I bake banana bread because he helped us carry a couch up the stairs. I'm applying for a resident parking permit and I shop at grocery stores where you can pick your purchases up in your car in the basement of the building. Can't stop me now.

Maybe change isn't so bad after all?

The new view from the new window: urban sprawl. 

Certainly beats this view, in a few respects. But Ossipee, I will never forget you.

A common theme of my undergraduate experience was the occupation of the ubiquitous Tufts Bubble. Located in scenic Medford and Somerville, the campus is literally a stone's throw away from Boston. We can see the city in profile from our own library roof, there's a shuttle to take us in to Davis Square right to the Red Line, and we count ourselves among Boston's 120,000 or so college students. But there is this inherent fear present in Tufts students: even though we're basically in Boston, we're scared of it.

Tufts graduates exhibit a common trend. They are like lemmings, flocking to neighborhoods like Central Square, Porter and Inman. They're scared of crossing the river and getting into the nitty gritty of what Boston is, so they find it preferable to stay where it's safe and cushy, in Cambridge, not far from what they know and expect. Even Josh, constant complainer about how Boston is a fake city, was hesitant about delving deep in. Yet here we are now (well not yet - Josh, guest post for me about your trip?).

Tufts was the perfect choice for me at the time. I needed the suburban comfort. Copenhagen introduced me to urban life and I couldn't (still can't) wait to get more of it, so here I am in Brighton. I couldn't be more excited for the months to come, during which I will be writing a fair amount, studying quite a bit of biostatistics, and working many hours from the comfort of my new private balcony.

I love my new view. But it will be hard to beat this one. Drejøgade. 

It needs to warm up first, though, before I start whiling away my hours on the balcony. Until then, I have my fabulous new bedroom to tide me over (excuse the disorganization - I still have no furniture).

Bye bye basement. 

I have two closets. Can you see them both?

Own bathroom, I appreciate you already.