{"id":10019,"date":"2010-06-19T14:21:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-19T06:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/06\/19\/cambridge-and-abouts-part-2\/"},"modified":"2018-07-13T15:20:36","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T07:20:36","slug":"cambridge-and-abouts-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/06\/19\/cambridge-and-abouts-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambridge and Abouts \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The posts on my MIT trip here are all tagged as \u2018Boston\u2019 \u2013 but that’s really a bit of a misnomer. Because while all the attractive sites of visitation are indeed in Boston, I\u2019m really living and working in the neighboring city, Cambridge.<\/p>\n

According to the Wikitravel\u2019s article on Cambridge, this city has a thing about \u2018squares\u2019. There\u2019s Potter Square (nearest to where I\u2019m staying), Kendall Square (near where I work), Harvard Square (where Harvard is), and Central Square \u2013 which I haven\u2019t visited yet \u2013 among others.<\/p>\n

Several of these key city areas are all linked via the \u2018T\u2019 subway. The subway transportation network linking Boston and the immediately-surrounding cities is pretty intuitive. The lines are all color-coded (e.g. \u2018Red\u2019 \u2013 which is the line I\u2019m staying along, \u2018Green\u2019, \u2018Orange\u2019). I certainly had an easier time figuring it out compared to the unnecessarily complex compass direction-based names used in Singapore\u2019s MRT. Occasionally, I still have problems remembering all the different lines: EAST-WEST, NORTH-EAST, NORTH-SOUTH and what nots.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-boston-DSC_8537-subways\"<\/p>\n

The train levels in each train stop vary greatly in depth. The Kendall\/MIT one for instance \u2013 where I alight each day when heading to work \u2013 doesn\u2019t go very deep, but the one for home \u2013 Porter \u2013 runs at least two or three floors of depth. There\u2019s a very long escalator ride each time:<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-boston-DSC_9161-PotterSquareSubway\" \"blog-2010-boston-DSC_9163-PotterSquareSubway\"<\/p>\n

Not photoshopped, and the two pictures above don\u2019t even begin to hint how high the escalator goes. And it doesn\u2019t even go up to the ground level!<\/p>\n

The train level platforms are all open: and imagine \u2013 back at home there\u2019s talk about whether these levels need barriers to stop people from jumping onto the tracks in suicide attempts.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-boston-DSC_8535-subways\"<\/p>\n

Incoming trains are routinely announced by the station\u2019s broadcast system, and awaiting passengers will feel an oncoming strong gush of air too indicating an impending train arrival. Sort of like a huge air-conditioning unit supplemented by ten 18-inch fans all switching on at the same time and blowing into your face.:)<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-boston-DSC_8546-subways\"<\/p>\n

The trains themselves aren\u2019t terrifically wide though. In fact, they seem slightly narrower than Singapore\u2019s, and certainly much more so compared to those wide carriages I rode on everyday in Kumamoto City last December.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-boston-DSC_8557-subways\"<\/p>\n

The trains tend to be quite pack during the usual peak hours, an indication of how much Bostonians rely on the public transportation network considering how expensive is parking and difficult driving is in the city.<\/p>\n

One funny sight though which I first remarked when during the San Francisco trip last March was that the iPhone is really ubiquitous. In a row of six passengers, I\u2019ll see five of them (at least) all using their iPhones for music playback or just fiddling with them in general. On occasion I\u2019ll see the odd Blackberry and the candy-bar styled mobile \u2013 but those are more the exception than rule. Just for fun, I\u2019ll bring out my Android Galaxy S and playing around with it just so to show the other passengers who bother to look that there\u2019s really a world outside the iPhone. Frankly, owning an iPhone no longer makes you distinct. It makes you part of a compliant lemming crowd in my opinion.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

In any case: now that I\u2019ve covered the transportation and residential part, I\u2019m gonna do a next post on the Streets of Cambridge. When I have enough pictures anyway. Before that though, I still have posts to do after visits to the Museum of Science, the (VERY!) lovely Butterfly Garden in that Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts (lots of Monet and Renoir), the Boston Public Library, and the Skywalk Observatory:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The posts on my MIT trip here are all tagged as \u2018Boston\u2019 \u2013 but that’s really a bit of a misnomer. Because while all the attractive sites of visitation are indeed in Boston, I\u2019m really living and working in the<\/p>\n

Read More Cambridge and Abouts \u2013 Part 2<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16,17],"tags":[469,465,137,470,551],"class_list":["post-10019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography-cameras","category-toys-technology","category-traveling","tag-boston-2010","tag-18-55mm","tag-d300","tag-hdc-tm700","tag-smartphone","wpcat-13-id","wpcat-16-id","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}