Providence Waterfire festival

Definetly gotta see the Fire Water festival at least once in your life! It is relaxing although as the night progresses it gets crowded. But if you want to escape the crowds, there are restaurants one can pop into to grab a drink or a snack. There are even some right on the river so you can still enjoy somewhat of a view. Although I only saw the water festival, there was a little concert and other street performers there. I was fortunate enough to get a front row seat on the river, so at least for the highlight of the fire water festival (the procession at the beginning), I was not giving that up to walk around!

Main link to Water fire Providence

Video 1
Video at dusk


First torch of the Water Fire festival

First boat of Waterfire!

Salem, MA New England Pirate Museum

The more and more I've been looking around Massachusetts, the more I see pirate themes. First the pirate flag in Rockport. Friday I discovered New England Pirate Museum I began to suspect that New England had a hidden pirate history. Apparently it is such a hidden period of history that most locals do not know about it. But then again, locals and non locals alike, New England is more famous for the revolutionary war, not piracy. As for Salem, it's more known for the witch trials and Halloween than pirates.

Quite a few pirates are on this list of activity along the New England coast. Blackbeard tops the list as one of the most famous per the museum's website.

Providence, RI water fire festival

Ive been wanting to do this since I moved to Boston! Now I will go tonight to Providence for this !

Video: waves of Rockport, MA

Waves-Rockport, MA

I love all waves! Rockport is a beautiful town surrounded by the Atlantic ocean. Will definetely be making more stops here as it's now my favorite place in MA!!!!

Harvard Semitic Museum

Website: Harvard Semitic Museum



I never knew this place existed until the other day. It happens to be that it is a region of the world I am interested in. I was also happy there because there was Arabic writing so I could practice reading:)

I only took a few pictures because you need to see it for yourself. How can you refuse? Admission is free, and in this economy, you need to take advantage of all free things!
I liked the Israeli exhibit and the Egyptian one. I love looking at the tombs, and I decided that it is boring how us Westerners bury our dead. We bury them in a box and then dig a hole and put a rock on top of our hole. No, I'd much rather be buried as an ancient Egyptian:)

I thought I took pictures of the tombs. But I guess you will have to see them for yourself:) But here is a neat teaser of the ancient Egyptian exhibit...


And now for ancient Israel!

This was my favorite thing to look at besides the Egyptian tombs and pyramids and Arabic writing. THis is one of the temples of ancient Israel.

And this is inside the temple.









For the rest, you will have to go there.  The Semitic museum is a short walk from Harvard Square on the red line.  Lately the weather in Boston has been nice, so it is worth the walk!

Its not the end of the world

Great news! May 21, 2011 was NOT the end of the world!! But as I laughed at the few who were panicking as they collected money from people (do you need money in Heaven or Hell?) i was enjoying myself!
Every Tuesday and Friday now til Thanksgiving, there is a farmers market in Copley Square. They even sell homemade pies there!
Saturday I went to Earthfest in Boston. Personally I only went to see Ed Kowalczyk! Met him and had my picture taken with him which was awesome! In my minute or less of being around him, he seemed like a nice guy.
After Earthfest was over, i decided it was too beautiful of a day to just go home so I walked around in Boston Public Garden. I saw a wedding just finishing. They got totally lucky that the weather was gorgeous and the sun was over Boston all day!
Despite the Rapture failure and Sunday being a blah day, it wasnt such a bad weekend. And if the end of the world really is near, dont panic. Just get off your ass and enjoy each day just like many of us did this weekend!

Last minute adventure to Lowell, MA

I've lived in Boston for 5 years, but hardly seen the rest of Massachusetts. Today I had the urge to go to North Station. Whichever train came would be today's adventure. It happened to be Lowell, which is an old industrialized town 45 mins north of Boston.
I pictured it as it was with many buildings with old factory chimneys. As i got out of the train at the Lowell MBTA station, I overheard 3 people talking about going to downtown Lowell. Since I came with no real destination in mind, downtown seemed like a good idea. So I struck up a conversation with them and we walked toward downtown.
Lowell has its own bus system which runs from the commuter rail. But today it was not raining, and we could see the sun trying to peek out so we decided to walk.Thank God for sidewalks as the traffic can be hectic in that area, but there are busses that take you downtown.
We passed the old textile museum on our way, but we did not go in. Once we got downtown, we parted ways and I looked around. THe strets in downtown Lowell are stone, not paved. THe stores are mostly locally owned except CVS and Dunkin Donuts of course. (New England runs on Dunkin:) As usual I had to charge my phone, so I found an electrical outlet at a little pub and had a drink as I waited for it to charge so I can do my new hobby-take pictures! I still did not take enough though today:(

Statue of a man building canals for the Merrimack River

One can never see enough of the river in Lowell I found out:)

It's too bad that the water is so polluted. Well, I guess we have industrialization to thank for that in this city's case. I wonder if there is a way to dissolve pollution from water, similiar to the organisms that ate the oil when the oil spill happened in the Gulf? Too bad I do not have the time for environmental science amongst my academic endeavors:)

Now onto one of the first aspects of the Industrial Revolution....choo choo!

Not that great of a pic thanks to the overcast sky in the background:(

It was obvious that the trains had to be built back then to increase productivity and shipping things faster. (cargo and people)

Although the significance of the Industrial Revolution is still very strong in Lowell, it has become a mix of college students (because of UMass Lowell in the area), locals who were brought up there, and immigrants like the Cambodians who made a home here to escape genocide in their own country. It has its unique personality, and I will go back just to see the history I havent seen yet. I only touched the tip of the iceberg today since it was a last minute trip. But it will be worth another.