The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. It’s pretty!
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.
Not only is this the first Christmas in my memory spent away from St. Louis, but also it’s my first Christmas waking up in a hotel! Here’s how we decorated to make it feel a bit more like home.

fun italian street signs in the north end on my way to work
that's where i work! a nice reminder each day that i live on the ocean.
small streets and churches of boston's north end
small plaza near my office that i am sure i will enjoy in the spring
new england's young bularzik club! cousins cousins and baby cousins!
the pretty lake view from the end of my street in woburn
Through the generosity of friends and the luck of sunny weather, I’ve made it through my first month in Boston! I thought I would share a few of the daily images I have right now. My life is pretty much just work, since I am living in a town north of Boston with my cousin until the end of the year and my commute is pretty brutal. But I am enjoying living with my cousin, getting a lot of reading done on the bus, and learning about a new part of the Boston area. On January 1, I will be the proud new tenant of a giant studio in a bustling area of Boston! The 25 minute commute won’t hurt, either.
I’m living in Woburn, which is not pronounced the way you think it is. Our street is right off the pretty lake you see above. I try to get out there and walk around the lake and the trails on the weekends, when I am actually home during daylight. Otherwise, my daylight life is in Boston’s North End, which is the Italian district.
The North End has really been a joyful place to work. The ten minute walk from the train station to my office takes me through shops, cafes, churches and homes all bursting with Italian things. Sometimes when it’s really nice out or I have gotten to work really early, I will take a wrong turn down a winding street just to see what else the North End has been hiding. Sometimes I hear people speaking Italian. Sometimes it is clear that I’ve run into a pack of tourists. But it is always interesting, which is more than I can say about any of my previous commutes in the good ol’ USA. Maybe that’s because I really feel like I work in a little slice of Italy.
My office itself is on the water, across the bay from Logan Airport. We have a balcony, and lots of rich people live around us. Sometimes I hear seagulls. We have a swimming pool available to us in the summer that we share with the other tenants. Lots of people have dogs, and I have started to recognize a lot of the dog walkers that show up midday. It’s a peaceful, beautiful place to work. I think we’re moving into a bigger space next year, but I’m hoping not before I get a chance to use that pool!
Other than work, I have gotten to spend a good amount of time with family. I am one of SIX cousins on my dad’s side that live in the Boston area! Since I did not grow up out here, I am really thrilled about the chance to get to know my New England family better. Cousins were probably my favorite thing in the world when I was little (because I have about a million of them), but they are a whole new kind of special now that we’re older.
So here’s to my second month in Boston! The month where I will move to my permanent home, where I will be joined by my Jon and my Marshall, and where I will finally get into my winter Bostonian groove.
I like it here
Three weeks ago today, I got on a plane to Boston. Three days after that, I started A JOB. And not just any job! The kind of job that I had been working toward for three years. When I quit my job in DC, when I spent all that money on international travel, when I went to grad school and did all those internships, it was all so I could work in the field of study abroad. It’s a very satisfying feeling to know that all of that work and all of those choices led me to where I wanted to be.
But if you would have told me a few months ago that “where” also meant Boston, I would have disagreed with you. I had been applying to dozens of jobs in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. I only applied to one job in Boston, but apparently it was the right one. I’m a great fit for this job for many reasons, and they are a great fit for me. And Boston, it turns out, is looking to be my new favorite city.
When I first arrived in Boston, I stayed with family in the South End. Then a friend in the South End. Then another. Then family in Braintree. Now family in Woburn. The point of that story is to show you how much moving I did in two short weeks and to demonstrate how lucky I am to have so many great people around me in New England. I got to spend Thanksgiving on a farm in Vermont. I will soon be visiting with cousins in Connecticut and New Hampshire. It turns out Boston was the perfect place for me to end up.
family at the Ben and Jerry's factory in Waterbury, Vermont
My life right now is still pretty transient and strange. Every day I learn new skills at work, and then on my long commute home I learn how to pronounce words like a Bostonian. I am learning how to negotiate the Boston rental market as well as the bus and train system. I’m learning the reasons why Bostonians are so proud of their city; I’m also learning that their reputation for being “cold” and “rude” is just wrong. Their friendliness is their best kept secret.
As I continue to learn about my new city and my new life, I will try to update the blog as much as I can. I’ll probably have more free time in December than after, since I am currently without a Jon and a Marshall!
Marshall wearing his seatbelt in the back
We did end up driving west; just not as far west as we had planned! We left Pittsburgh after Labor Day weekend and drove to Chicago. We ended up leaving a lot of stuff behind in Pittsburgh that we had been hoping would fit in the car. The car was a LOT smaller than we had anticipated…
We spent four days in Chicago catching up with friends and family. Marshall met his cousin Marley the cockapoo for the first time and went to the beach on Lake Michigan. Jon and I ate deep dish, explored Evanston, and hung out with high school and college friends. After spending time in the city with friends, Chicago is looking more attractive than ever, and I’ve actually found a lot of jobs to apply to there in the past two weeks!
Then we drove to St. Louis, where we’ve decided to stay until one of us gets an actual job offer. We decided that driving all the way out to California and spending all of our money on a sublet was dumb; instead, we’re staying with my parents and saving our money for a real move. We’re continuing to apply to jobs all over the place, including Toronto!
We don’t know how long we’ll be here, but we’re happy to be in St. Louis. Every day we’re applying to jobs, networking, and keeping each other motivated. I realized that this is the first time in my life that I have been unemployed. Even as a student, I’ve worked since I was 15. I’m really eager to get back to work, especially for some of the awesome international education jobs I’ve found.
On the agenda for the next week: Blues preseason game in St. Louis, City Museum downtown, Tower Grove farmer’s market, visiting Natalie in Lawrence KS, Penguins preseason game in Kansas City, and continuing our trek to every single independent coffee shop in the St. Louis area!
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