First Night in Cambridge

The bank machines across the street from my house dispense both Canadian and US funds. So with Canadian money in my left pocket and American money in my right pocket, I started driving towards America.

I love my sister. She helped pack my things, and did a super-fantastic job at that -- when I was busy running around taking care of other things. Whenever you leave for a new place, it's always wonderful to get that help from those you love.

I started driving from Toronto at 11am and started seeing signs for Boston and Cambridge around 10pm. On the way, I rang up Safa and had dinner before I even bothered to unpack. I arrived at my new residence past midnight to find the front desk empty.

How would I get the keys to my new apartment?

By a stroke of good fortune I happened to bump into the welcome coordinator, who out of sheer coincidence happened to be passing through the lobby at midnight. He called the "Facilities department," that had a 24-hour line to let people in after hours. A nice guy showed up about 10 minutes later, and he let me into my room.

I turned on the light to find a decent-sized, hexagonal shaped room. My bedroom door was detached from its hinges. In fact, the door it was lying against a wall, while a big screen TV on wheels lay against one of my walls. My apartment mate had e-mailed me to warn me about this.

Apparently his room was too small to store a projection TV his grandma had bought him as a graduation present. His TV was so large that he had to take my door off its hinges to get it into my room. I opened up the drapes to reveal a great view of the Cambridge skyline that included the Charles River. This was the 18th floor of a 24-storey tower -- not bad. The view was better than what had at home!

I unpacked what things I could -- and after unpacking the essentials including my comforter, and bedspread, I decided to go to sleep. I noticed that I had forgotten my pillow. No matter, I was going to sleep and after rolling up an extra sheet as a substitute pillow, I soon fell asleep.