Somerville, MA

While I was learning some Spanish in Costa Rica I was fortunate one day to begin chatting to an American, a fellow student named Gerry. Gerry is far more proficient in Spanish and was spending time in Costa Rica to improve further.
We became friends during those morning breaks and I was always frustrated when the bell rang for us to return to our classrooms. It felt especially odd for both of us to be returning to the classroom, especially Gerry a retired English teacher.
I told Gerry of my travel plans and without hesitation he invited me to his home in Boston.

Gerry and I
Last Thursday I set off via Greyhound from New York. This was after my hand luggage had been checked for bombs, apparently it's okay to carry them in large luggage to be stowed in the hold.
Gerry kindly met me at the bus terminal and we took the "T" (the local metro train) to Somerville where Gerry lives with his husband Steve.
Gerry and Steve made me feel so welcome in their home I was sorry to leave. As the perfect hosts they had bought tickets for the Duck tour of Boston the next day and also tickets for the Boston Pops, similar to the Proms.
Gerry, with a wonderful knowledge of history gave me a tour before we made it to the start of the Duck tour.
The Boston Duck tours take tourists (and locals) on WWII land and sea transporters, around the famous and historical sites and into the harbour. Gerry was very apprehensive about the tour, and apologised in advance in case it was all a bit awful. Well his doubts were squashed. I assume the tour guide has a usual spiel for the tourists, but our guide (AKA Captain Duke Tape) was completely natural, informative and most importantly funny. Thankfully he kept adults and children entertained alike. After some Yankee bashing (the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees have the biggest rivalry in Baseball, think Burnley/Blackburn) the tour naturally turned it's attention to the English.

Reflected Duck
If only the good people of Boston had continued to pay their taxes to the Queen, but oh no they got ahead of themselves. Capt. Duck Tape asked if anyone was English on board, stupidly I raised my hand. When he didn't notice me, I started waving my hands in front of Gerry to get the Captain's attention. The whole time thinking, I really shouldn't do this, hey here I am, this is a really bad idea.
From then on, every time the Captain pronounced anything with an "R" in it, in his thick Bostonian accent, he asked me to say it in my English accent. When he pointed out the British lions and unicorn that had been smashed to pieces by the locals, upon defeat of the British, he got everyone on the Duck to repeat loudly, "smashed to pieces".
Although it sounds like a disaster it was all done in good humour and the guide was genuinely funny. It was a great way to see Boston.
On Saturday night Gerry and I went to see the Boston Pops. This particular night was part of "Edgefest". The evening is used to draw in a new audience. The symphony orchestra opened with a piece from West Side Story. After that they performed two new pieces by young composers. I particularly enjoyed this section, in the beautiful, but intimate hall I found my mind happily wandering with the music.
The next segment was probably the least successful. The Orchestra where joined on stage by The Cowboy Junkies, Gerry pointed out how could they be at the "edge" after 20 plus years touring. The band performs mostly slow and depressing songs, which is fine we all need to hear that occasionally, but having the orchestra join in on a few songs didn't lift the content all that much. It's a shame I believe if they had approached most new bands breaking into the scene, they could have produced something quite inspiring and fresh. On my way back to New York the following day I happened to be in the same bus queue as Niko Muhly, one of the new composers from the night before. I was all ready to tell him how much I enjoyed his music when he got the last seat on the bus before mine!