I had a dream last night. It was interrupted by my alarm
clock, but I remember some of it. I was in Yale, in the middle of a lecture. I
was near the middle of this amphitheater style classroom and the professor was
talking about one of the books we read, I just can’t remember which one now.
The classroom is too hot to take notes but I’m engaged in what the professor is
saying. I then get up in the middle of class and run out because I am just too
warm. Then, the alarm goes off. I wanted to finish that dream, but I needed to
get up.
The alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I got five hours of sleep last night. One more than the night before, so at least I’m doing better than yesterday. A quick shower, I comb my hair, brush my teeth and at 5:45 I wake Josh and just chill on my laptop. I look at a couple of the restaurants in the Cambridge area, check the weather, and then just look over some of our required reading. I then remember that I told you all in my blog last night that I will be visiting Brown University. That was a faux pas on my part because we are in fact going to visit Harvard University. I apologize and will make sure this won’t happen again.
After that Josh gets out of the shower, changes, and we are set to go. He and I decide to bring our back packs just in case we need anything. I decide to take the “Eric Wilson Experience” by walking down the stairs while Josh took the elevator. I call it the “Eric Wilson Experience” because last night Eric ran right up the stairs to get to this room, and I figure I would like to experience that. The view of the city outside of the stairwell windows was very nice and I wish that the view from our hotel room was that nice. Anyway, my friends and I met up in the lobby, and at 6:35 we are gone.
The alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I got five hours of sleep last night. One more than the night before, so at least I’m doing better than yesterday. A quick shower, I comb my hair, brush my teeth and at 5:45 I wake Josh and just chill on my laptop. I look at a couple of the restaurants in the Cambridge area, check the weather, and then just look over some of our required reading. I then remember that I told you all in my blog last night that I will be visiting Brown University. That was a faux pas on my part because we are in fact going to visit Harvard University. I apologize and will make sure this won’t happen again.
After that Josh gets out of the shower, changes, and we are set to go. He and I decide to bring our back packs just in case we need anything. I decide to take the “Eric Wilson Experience” by walking down the stairs while Josh took the elevator. I call it the “Eric Wilson Experience” because last night Eric ran right up the stairs to get to this room, and I figure I would like to experience that. The view of the city outside of the stairwell windows was very nice and I wish that the view from our hotel room was that nice. Anyway, my friends and I met up in the lobby, and at 6:35 we are gone.
We pick up some breakfast, and head over to the Amtrak
station in a bit of a confused state. We go the wrong direction a few times
before this nice woman shows us the way to go to get to the station. When we
arrive, we have missed our train. It’s okay though because that gives my
friends and me some time to catch up on our reading. One thing we could not get
over though was that the train station in Providence was more or less deserted.
We saw no more than thirty five people at that train station, and after Tracey
talked with the ticket salesman, he said that this was the rush hour. Providence really
is a bit of a ghost town. We then boarded our train and got to see more of the
beautiful New England countryside. In less than ten minutes we had left Rhode
Island. What a small state.
Then at our second or third stop on our way to Cambridge,
this woman in a seat not too far from ours gets a phone call. She then
proceeds to leave her large Coach brand purse on her seat to get someone from
the platform. Now I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t just leave a very
expensive bag on a train just to save my seat. She is gone for about eight
minutes and just moves her bag like it’s no big deal that she left it. Let me
tell you, if someone left their bag unattended while on BART, which is the
subway station of the San Francisco Bay Area, it would have been taken without
a second thought. I wonder why people feel so secure on these trains.
My comrades and I talked for most of the way there, and on
the train Tracey was talking to a man who wanted to know where we were from
after we had said “like” a few times in our conversation. After hearing that we
were from around San Francisco, he said that that explained our uncommon slang.
We then got off the train and took a subway ride to Harvard. We were about an
hour early for our tour of the campus, so we just hung around and went walking, saw some
nice architecture, and then hung out at a Starbucks for a while. Then the tour
began.
Some pictures of Harvard Square.
Some pictures of Harvard Square.
We were led by the highly intelligent and beautiful Taylor.
Taylor is a rising sophomore at Harvard and was full of energy during the tour.
She knew quite a bit about Harvard’s history, alumni, and the architecture. She
told us all about Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook's co-founder, Conan O’Brian, Matt
Damon, and President George Washington. She told us how Washington stationed
his troops at Harvard during the Revolutionary War. She talked about how the
original library was made in honor of Mr. Harvard, who donated his entire
library to the university but was burned down late one evening in the late 18th
century. Only one book remains from that collection, and the way it survived
was that a student had been reading this book from the library and was so
enthralled with it that he brought it to his dorm, even though it was against
school rules. When the student presented it to the President of the university
as the only book that survived, the book was taken and the student suspended
from classes for taking the book out of the library. This President sounds like
a jerk and I would never want him as a President of our school.
We even got to see a
statue of Mr. Harvard which is known as the statue of three lies. The first of
the three lies is that on the plaque it says that Mr. Harvard was the founder. He
wasn’t He simply donated his money and library to the university after his
death. The second lie is that the college was founded in 1638. It wasn’t. It
was in fact founded in 1636 and the reason it says 1638 was because that was
when Mr. Harvard died and left his estate to them. The final lie is that the
statue is in the likeness of Mr. Harvard. It isn’t. It is believed to be in the
likeness of one of the Presidents or of a distant relative. Any portraits of
Mr. Harvard were burned down in the fire, so no one knows what he looks like.
We then looked at
some of the beautiful architecture, including a freshman eating area where the colors look similar to those of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.
We wrapped up our
tour by doing what the Harvardians call the Primal Scream, where you start
growling and then build up to an all-out scream. It was quite fun, but then
Taylor told us that if we get accepted to Harvard that we would have to do this
Primal Scream in the nude in the middle of the night in winter. I guess it
could be fun if you keep your eyes closed.
I then spoke with Taylor a little bit about the application
process, what kind of people Harvard is looking for, and some of the majors,
including foreign languages and government. She was quite informative and I
thank her for her time.
My cohort and I then headed out to find some grub. We found this Korean restaurant which served some excellent barbecue and a mixed vegetable with rice. Now that I know what Korean food tastes like, I will definitely want some more in the future. We then headed over to the Longfellow-Washington house, which George Washington used as his headquarters during the Revolutionary War and specifically was critical during the Siege of Boston. Also, Henry-Wadsworth Longfellow lived here for most of his adult life.
My cohort and I then headed out to find some grub. We found this Korean restaurant which served some excellent barbecue and a mixed vegetable with rice. Now that I know what Korean food tastes like, I will definitely want some more in the future. We then headed over to the Longfellow-Washington house, which George Washington used as his headquarters during the Revolutionary War and specifically was critical during the Siege of Boston. Also, Henry-Wadsworth Longfellow lived here for most of his adult life.
The Longfellow house. |
Before I tell you about Longfellow though, I would like to touch briefly on Washington’s effect on the history of the house. As I said before, the house was Washington’s headquarters during the Siege of Boston, which isn’t that far from Cambridge where the house is located. The Siege was when, early in the war, the Americans decided to set up a land blockade around Boston, which was under English control. Washington would spend nine months planning on how to win Boston from the English. In a bold move, he sent Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow’s great grandfather, who was under Washington’s command, to steal sixty tons of cannons from the English and position them within striking distance of Boston and the English fleet in Boston Harbor. Washington then sent a message that told the English to evacuate the city or have their fleet destroyed in the harbor. The English retreated and the Americans liberated Boston. But, what the English didn’t know at the time was that when Washington positioned the cannons to fire, he knew that he didn’t have enough ammunition to fire to sink the ships in the harbor and would probably lose. It was a bluff that paid off so much.
A bust of George Washington. |
Rob then told us more stories of how he quit his job in 1854
and at first sold his poetry for five, ten, and very rarely fifteen dollars, in
today’s money, just barely putting bread on the table. But as he got older and
more well known, his craft more refined and perfected, his poems began to be
sold for much, much more. He became so famous that he one day sold a poem for
the equivalent of fifty eight thousand dollars. By the time he died he had the
net worth of over five million dollars in funds and house property.
Longfellow was also so famous that in his later years that
he was inundated with the fan mail he received. But he replied to every single
letter. This man, whose father told him to get a real job when Longfellow told
him he wanted to be a writer, was now the equivalent of a rock star with all
the mail he received. In his later years, though, his health betrayed him and
he was no longer able to send letters. Instead, he sent a form letter
apologizing that he could not personally reply because he was in ill health and
let them have a copy of his signature. He was a one of a kind poet.
Lord knows that I could go on and on with the information
that Rob gave us on Longfellow. But I know that there may not be a lot of
history buffs reading this, so I’ll stop here. If you would like to know more
about this incredible house, please click here. I would highly recommend
it just to hear Rob speak volumes on the life of Longfellow so eloquently. It
was the highlight of the day.
After that
unforgettable tour, we had an early dinner at this place called Legal Sea
Foods. Each of us got lobster in some form or another, except for Tracey, and
the lobster was so good. I got one claw, which was a bit of a let-down, but I
shouldn’t have expected much in my cioppino. They gave me so many scallops and
mussels, so that made up for it. Oh, and the shrimp were cooked to perfection.
Every bite was flavor packed with this salty, tomato, and shrimp combination
that was to die for. The clams, however, were a bit too salty for my palate.
Then we headed on over to the train station to catch our
ride from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island. We were about
an hour early, so we all talked and read a little, started this blog, and then
boarded the train. This train wasn’t as nice as the one we got on going to
Cambridge, but it was all right. A bit more reading, and then we came back to
the hotel.
Man, what a day. A tour at one of the most prestigious
universities in the world and finding out what kind of people they want for
Yale has really opened up my eyes. Who knows, maybe I will apply. The best part
of the day was the Longfellow-Washington house. The story was great, the
architecture was outstanding, and the art was breath taking. Bust after
beautiful bust of people like Aristotle, Sophocles, and Washington and painting
of such people like Congressman Sumner and Nathanial Hawthorne. This has been a
great day to be on the East Coast and I have high expectations for tomorrow.
Let’s hope they meet them.
Having typed up your itinerary just a few days ago I quickly noticed your error about which school you were going to tour today. I figured you’d catch on soon enough.
ReplyDeleteI’m disappointed, Liam, that you wrote on and on about this great tour guide at Harvard and not a single photo of her. You break my heart.
Like you, I knew about Longfellow but really didn’t know much about him. Just reading about him in your blogs tells me I’ll be spending a lot of time reading about him in the next few days. The way you all went on and on about him speaks volumes not only for the man but for the great docent you all wrote so highly of.
And so you know, nowhere on that itinerary will you find any mention of visiting Longfellow House. I don;t know who’s idea this was but it sounds like a winner.