Salem - October 31st

At home, Halloween is the day where everyone dresses up. In Boston, its where you see many celebrations across the city. However, me and the girls chose to visit the very famous town of Salem. Much of the city's cultural identity is reflective of its role as the location of the Salem witch trials. It is the perfect place to visit at Halloween and we couldn't say no! 

After work, we bundled into the car hire car that Katie's parent had rented and we were off! 
No Halloween is complete without some form of costume, thankfully we were prepared. We had all planed our costume or rather face paint design as it was convenient being in the car.  

 Before 

I was planning some sort of zombie thing, Nicole wanted to be a cat/leopard and Katie decided on a bird/owl - Birdie being her nickname, it suited her :) 

Ahhhhhh - After

I think we looked pretty good until the cutest wee boy walked past us in his Lion costume! 

We headed towards the main area and past many ghouls and creatures on our way. 

The centre was filled with so many people - all in costume. 

King Kong made an appearance, throwing candy to passers by. 

We decided to get his attention by shouting 'King Kong WE LOVE YOU'  and we were rewarded with candy! 

In the center, we made some new friends...

Met the Election Candidates....

And met a fellow Scot! 

Such an array of characters seen in one night! 

October

October has been a very busy month! 

The first weekend in October was spent in the capital - Washington DC 

 Got to meet OBAMA! 

All the main monuments were covered and we walked all the way to Georgetown! 

A very chilled out place indeed! 

Travelling continued the following weekend, NYC was the next stop. 

Times Square, so BRIGHT! 

Walking around this huge city was so surreal, it didn't feel like I was there. 

Local jewellery merchant, colourful! 

Liberty in the distance! 

The rest of October has been alot more relaxed...

Saw a local band...from Glasgow LOL! 

with a local GAL - Fatou <3 

This weekend has been busy! Halloween dress up and pumpkin craving :) 

Heading to Salem on Halloween night, update to follow :) 

what i've done.....

Been away for so long as I've been doing sooooo much! 

Been whale watching! 

Been to Harvard 

and MIT 

Been to the Prudential Center

And was in a music video at Fenway Park! 

I LOVE BOSTON!

Food, Food, Food - it's Restaurant Week

What a week it's been for FOOD as Restaurant Week hits Boston! 

First stop on our week of Food and Dining was Dick's Last Resort near Quincy Market. This restaurant is full of unfriendly waiters who make hats with funny insults on them! Hence the name! Our insults included Single 4 Life, I'm their Shopping Friend, I'm thinking about the waiters Woody and The reason men drink LOL! The waiters would hit your hat off your head, throw straws at you and call you names...but its all part of the fun! 

Tuesday = Brasserie Joes, a very posh French restaurant that offered very fine dining and three course meal for only $33.12! 

Wednesday saw me and the girls help out at Northeastern RSAs Luau BBQ and feed hungry students! And we got to have some fun too! 

Thursday included a free concert at the ICA with the band Cosmodrome played us some original songs and covers too! We then headed to Dunkin Donuts for dinner and visted Trader Joes (or Farmer Joes if you are Katie MASH!) 

Friday, me and the girls headed up to the Bostons famous North End for some Italian delights at *Enter Restaurant Name here* We all enjoyed Lobster Ravioli to start,which was delicious! Followed by chicken,pork and calamari mains (not all in the once dish!) and dessert consisted of me and Nicole having a Cannolis made right in front of us and Katie having a tasty looking Caramel Custard with a pretty flower sauce design :) We were also surrounded by stalls and stalls at Saint Anthonys Feast, streets filled with Italian food, music and novelties. 

Week about food has been too GOOD!

A week left of being a teenager...uh ohh.....

So my birthday is a week today...WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?

It seems like only yesterday I was going into primary, holding my mums hand on the first and being let to run wild and free like an animal who has been in a zoo for much too long. And then theres secondary school, 1st year...That was like yesterday ryt?! And being accepted into Glasgow Caledonian was only 5 mins ago...and I've been in America for a month already?! I've done too much, I could retire quite nicely now thanks! :P 

Anyway we are planning a wee day on the Saturday after my birthday. We are going to a wee place called the Clayroom to do some poetry painting then have some lunch at Boston Commons followed by the Swan Boats! Then we'll see what happens as I enter the next chapter....Wish me luck!

The Scots have arrived!

Even though myself and Nicole are here, we have been missing someone in particular, our own Katie Masheter! Her arrival on Monday afternoon has started the new adventure for all of us, we are all together now! In celebration of three Scots taking over Boston, we gathered with five Americans to have dinner at the Haven, the only Scottish restaurant in Boston. Owned by a Scot too (well who else could!) On this particular night, there was a Scottish event taking place, how perfect eh? There was a quiz, live music and even some Robert Burns poetry reading! We all shared some haggis to start and then got our own main meal which was delicious and me and Nicole washed it all down with some trusty Irn Bru! We all sang along to New Shoes, 500 Miles and Loch Lomond, some of us taking it more enthusiasicly than others lol! It is lovely to have our last Scot finally here with us but it was even better to celebrate it in true Scottish style, thanks to the Haven to make it that way :) !

What you find in a day

It's funny how easily you can find new and exciting things on your doorstep when you take a different route. Me and Nicole went down Harvard Ave and Brigton Ave today to find a few shops that I looked up and found online. But I was more surprised at what we found without looking for it! Walking down Harvard Ave, there were boxes of books that were free to take! We had a good look through the boxes and picked up a few titles. And for free! Not bad at all! Our next stop was Buffalo Exchnage, a groovy clothing store with loads of itmes to meet the eye. Everything from your plain basics to totally outragous shoes, they have such a large selection, you don't know where to begin! I love it! You can also bring in old clothes and they give you either 30% cash or 50% credit. So if you love something, you'd get it for half the price! AWESOME! Next, we found Urban Renewals on Brighton Ave. In my opinion, it's a bigger version of Goodwill with rail apon rail of colour coded clothing and loads of room inbetween for bric a brac and other finds. I think you could spent a whole day in there just to get round the whole place. Next was a Chinese bakery where they had the tastiest looking cakes at low prices, a large slice of cake? $1.50! Cheap,cheap,cheap! They only accept cash so you can use up your loose change in exchange for cake! And finally, there was Mixx. Mixx is an exciting frozen yoghurt store where you can choose your cup size, use the machines and choose which yoghurt you can and take as much toppings as you want. Then you just pay by weight! FroYo your way! Ours only came to roughly $4 and thats with loads of topping and everything :) they also show what flavours will be available next week to get you back for more! It's amazing what you find just walking down the street and I've got this whole city to explore!