Unsurprisingly, I’ve not been as hot on the blog updates as I said I would be, so my Massachusetts and New York update comes from a public library in Arlington, Virginia (Just outside Washington DC).
After arriving on Friday night, I spent Saturday and Sunday in Boston, and I can honestly say that it’s a truly amazing city. Not only is it clean, friendly and beautiful, Boston is culturally and historically significant. On top of that, Massachusetts is the home of three world famous sports teams in the Red Sox, the Celtics and the Patriots, and Boston is home to two of the world’s leading universities in Harvard and MIT.
From a political point of view, Massachusetts is a liberal state. They have a ballot initiative (kind of like a referendum) on Tuesday over the potential legalisation of Marijuana and Clinton is tracking around 30 points ahead of Trump there.
On the other hand, we were (un)fortunate enough to meet a nice, “unbiased” taxi driver during our stay. He talked to us about a range of topics, including telling us that neither Hillary or Obama has ever had a proper job, and how 20-somethings don’t know anything because we sponge off our mothers and fathers and don’t have jobs. I feel that I can speak on behalf of my entire generation with unwavering confidence when I say with that upon graduating, I was uncontrollably excited about the prospect of living at home and borrowing money from my parents.
He told us that he has voted both Democrat and Republican during his life, as well for independent candidate George Wallace in 1968, “who people claim is supposedly some kind of racist.” I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that George Wallace famously said “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” – But hey, who am I to judge?
Truth be told, he was quite a nice guy, he just has some opinions that were interesting and not particularly my cup of tea.
Via Connecticut, we reached New York City on Monday. A fun fact for you about Connecticut: It’s the birth place of my favourite TV character – Josh Lyman from The West Wing!
It was a shame to only spend an evening in New York, but I did manage to see Times Square and the Empire State Building by night, visit Grand Central Station and eat a hot dog from a street vendor.
New York was breath-taking. It’s exactly what I expected, but completely different all at the same time. New York is colourful, fast-paced, cosmopolitan and an amazing place to visit. But I can’t help but feel that for all its wonders, the busyness, the expensiveness and the uncleanliness might start to wear thin after a while. I’d live in New York, at least for a while, but probably not for good.
As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, we’re now on the outskirts of DC. I’m quite fond of the hotel that we’re staying in, with housekeepers who wander in either far too early in the morning or when you’re half-naked. The latter is yet to happen to me, but it has happened to my roommate on more than one occasion. Maybe he’s partly to blame.
My next posts will include my 2016 election prediction, my DC update and my Williamsburg piece, and I hope you keep reading.
Samuel T. Coop 