Not the Normal Day Off

It has been a 'long week' as they say, and, despite attempts to keep up with studying Latin and get papers written, it has nonetheless been remarkably unproductive time. Although Monday and (unexpectedly) Friday had no classes, all the excitement and tension made it rather difficult to concentrate (not to mention the noise!)

It has been one week since the Boston Marathon bombing, and although things have quieted down a over the weekend after the manhunt craziness, there is a reminder just down the street of all the victims affected. Fr. John Wykes, the resident media guru, made a short film of footage from the barricade. It is a simple but fitting tribute.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I was intending to post pictures from the Thanksgiving road trip to Quebec this week, but today I was at the center of Boston excitement of quite a different sort.

After doing a preparation-intensive group presentation and Q&A session on Aristotle's Metaphysics in philosophy class this morning and finishing another group research project at Boston College by 11:00 am, I decided to take the rest of the morning off and instead of reading went on a walk down to Boston Common.
It's approximately a 30-minute walk, so after doing a loop around I decided to take the train back to give my feet a rest and be back to St. Clement's in plenty of time for the 12:10 pm mass. So I boarded the T at Park Street on the far side of Boston Common.

When the train approached the platform at Boylston, the next stop on the far side of the Common, people had just started to disembark when there was an enormous impact that sent people reeling. I turned around actually expecting to see the rear of the car crunched (it was not, but it was still quite a jolt).

Now, I had only just made the train at Park Street and was standing at the very back, even up against the rear of the end car, when it left the station. Providentially, I mistakenly thought I had boarded a train which bypassed my destination so I had decided to move forward to change trains at the next stop.

Thus, I was fortuitously no longer against the back of the train car and ~5 feet away from the point of impact when the collision occurred. I was also facing squarely away and walking so my legs absorbed most of the impact. I was also sliding along the bar even though the train was stationary, so I didn't get sent flying. So, I only suffered a big jolt and extremely loud noise.

Also mitigating damage was the fact that the accident occurred only just before noon rush, so most passengers were seated and not knocked into each other. In my section, a couple men lost their feet, cell phones and i-pods went flying, and I was just missed by an airborn cup of hot coffee, but there were no serious injuries. All told, about a hundred people were treated at the site and 35 were taken to hospitals for treatment of minor traumas.

Video footage from local news here

I didn't stick around for that: because no one in my train was seriously injured, we all filed onto the platform when the operator manually opened the doors at the front, and, after milling around for a minute to see if anyone needed urgent help, I headed up to the street to walk home in time to catch the carpool for my afternoon class in Brighton. There was a big hullaballoo with first responders trying to get down into the station and MTA people shutting it down, so that was another reason to get out of the way.  

So, aside from a massive adrenaline rush that lasted a few hours and probably some soreness tomorrow, I escaped unscathed and can check "hit by train" off my bucket list. Hitherto, my safety precautions in Boston have been centered around inevitable altercations with crazy drivers, so it's ironic the first accident occurred in the safest part of the transportation system.  

Also, for anyone interested I did not already notify, I will be flying back to MI on Christmas Eve and in town until Epiphany, so let me know if you want to make plans to get together/hang out in the intervening period.

Another Long Weekend

Well, between almost every bank holiday in the Fall semester being on a Monday and the hurricane, it feels like long weekends happen at least twice per month. I'm not complaining, but I guess I shouldn't come to rely on them for catching up on reading and studying for exams.

Mama and Papa visited two weeks ago and we enjoyed a long Saturday of touring Boston and we hiked the entire Freedom Trail, from downtown Boston to Charlestown naval shipyard.

A beautiful Autumn morning on Boston Common.

The Marzonies in their element at the historic Granary Cemetery.

Samuel Adams' grave.

The Boston Massacre victims' grave marker.

The Old Statehouse, hub of activity c. 1776.

Pausing for a break at Faneuil Hall.

The U.S.S. Constitution, oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat, at the end of the Trail.

In other news, I survived my first "nor'easter:" there was about 2 inches of snow accumulation Wednesday before things heated up again. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially since I got to make a few trips out and spend some time wading through the snow.

In addition to remembering all veterans who have served in the U.S. armed forces today, I also remembered my grandfather Marzonie today. It's hard to believe it has been 18 years. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.

Growth, Glitches, and Gales

What South Boston looked like before the hurricane hit...

I have a little more time to post this week because of the weather; we've had a couple of half days because of the storms, but unfortunately the hurricane excuse doesn't work for classes that are down the hall from your room, so it wasn't a totally free ride.

It's the halfway point in the semester and it is time to review my goals for formation and personal growth. That coincides with the November day of recollection, and I will be unavailable from Wednesday evening to Thursday evening this week, but after that I should be free to talk.

The storm was not too bad in our part of town; we're several miles from the unsheltered coast, so there were high winds most of the day Monday and steady rain, but nothing on the magnitude of what was forecast. Everything was shutdown Monday and things have only gotten a slow start today, but aside from some glitches with my internet that are probably weather related, there hasn't been any problem here.

Mama and Papa visited over the weekend and we toured some of the historical sites I had not yet seen in Boston. It was fun and I have some pics to post when the net is working better.

Lastly, thanks to everybody who has been sending mail. I'm trying to reply to everyone individually, but I'm a little backlogged so it might take a while.

A Monstah of a Different Color

Tonight was a different kind of adventure than yesterday's asado internationale. Tom Ledbetter is a friend of the Oblates and also a season ticket holder at Fenway Park who generous with his extra tickets. Tonight, he stopped in to visit during dinner and offered a ticket to tonight's game. I was the only person interested, so I saw my first professional baseball game: Red Sox vs. Yankees at Fenway Park, front row seats on the first base line.

It was an interesting immersion in East Coast baseball culture, but fun nevertheless. Unfortunately, the Sox lost 2-0, but I was surprised how well the Boston natives seemed to handle it considering my observation of their behavior at traffic lights and movie theaters. Perhaps their reputation for churlishness is overstated. 

Across from the "Green Monstah."

My actual distance from the baseline.

Bill Cosby threw the opening pitch.

Disorientation

There are many things about which I can post, but I figure it is best to start at the beginning and get a feel for the geography and do some ground reconnaissance. Boston is a rather confusing city for navigation and the old part of town has a terrible city plan, so future posts about getting hopelessly lost are inevitable.

As the myth goes, most of the streets in downtown Boston were originally cow paths or deer trails that were used for human traffic as the town grew. This seems to be a myth (See here) and the alternative explanations of hilly topography and a poorly planned village with periods of rapid, unregulated growth  seem more likely. Despite relatively modern architecture, the haphazard road plan lends the older parts of the city an Old World feel, especially in residential areas of the North End.

Fig. 1: the irregular street plan of Boston compared to a very regular grid typical of U. S. cities (Manhattan).

Fig. 2: the labyrinthine warren of Boston's North End, the Italian district. Coincidence? 

Another interesting aspect is the fact that Boston's landscape has been more modified than a Dutch polder. Originally almost an island with a spindly isthmus, the peninsula on which Boston is built was steadily expanded by leveling the hilly landscape and backfilling the swamps, bays, and rivers. This practice was most pronounced during the 19th century, when the Back Bay neighborhood (where I am) was created from what was previously a section of bay on the the Charles River. Not even all of Boston Common is on original land.

Fig. 3: expansion of Boston by backfilling, mid 19th- early 20th century.

St. Clement's Shrine/Our Lady of Grace Seminary is located at the edge of the Back Bay near Fenway Park, at the corner of Boylston and Ipswich. Besides Fenway, other notable landmarks nearby include the Boston Public Library main branch, Trinity Church, the Prudential Center (a massive retail/ convention center/ hotel complex), Boston Symphony Hall, and Copley Square of Boston Marathon fame.

                     

Fig. 4: landmarks of western Back Bay

Speaking of the Prudential Center, the Oblates have a very singular establishment there. St. Francis Chapel is located in the middle of the shopping center. Originally Franciscan, the Oblates took custody of it in the mid-1980s and offer eight hours of confession and Eucharistic adoration daily, four daily masses, and ten Sunday masses. It is also adjacent to the Hynes Convention Center and conventioners from all over the world as well as shoppers and local residents crowd in for adoration and the sacraments.

 

St. Clement's is the Eucharistic shrine of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Blessed Sacrament is exposed 24/7 about 20 steps from my cell. It is not a parish, but people often come to attend lauds, vespers, and the 7 am and 12:10 pm daily masses as well as Sunday masses. The shrine has also long been a center of student activities due to the high concentration of universities and colleges in the area and there are two different young adult groups that meet weekly. Our Lady of Grace Seminary and the provincial office are located at St. Clement's.

And St. Joseph House is located in Milton, MA, a few miles outside the city. Several Oblates in residence provide retreats, days of recollection, and spiritual direction. I am looking forward to a three-day silent retreat there at the beginning of the semester.

Well, that was the overview of Boston, the neighborhood, and Oblate foundations where I am. I will be much busier in the days to come, so perhaps starting with a long, picture-filled post is establishing an unrealistic precedent, but I promise some more spiritually enriching posts with fewer maps and illustrative figures.