New Year, New Hope

Being in Boston, a city swamped with colleges and universities, every September feels like a new year. You don't need to be in school to know that this is Orientation week. You see moving trucks everywhere, college kids carrying their mattresses and luggage into their new apartments. Excitement, hope and anticipation for the new school year filled the air. And that can only mean one thing. That, and the cool temperatures that befall us: the summer is, sadly, practically over.

Talking about orientation, I was walking pass East Campus last week and they were building a huge wooden structure. As I heard music blasting from the radio, on top of sounds of drilling, hammering, wood being tossed onto the ground and people yelling and laughing. This sounded so damn familiar. One word came to mind. RAAAAAG! Once a ragger, always a ragger.

With my wonderful friends I spent many summers (which is a misleading word as it's always summer in Singapore) doing my fair share of drilling and nailing wood pieces together too. That and cutting cans and spray-painting and a lot of gluing, stapling and folding. I miss those days. Working late into the nights/mornings, accompanied by loud music, making jokes, making people make jokes (e.g. Alan Aw), seeing people stepping on nails twice (e.g. Pipi, and bad engineering practices), collective suppers (thanks, welfare), playing silly games, etc. Those times were golden and will always be cherished. :)

As I was taking the bus across the river this morning, I saw long lines of Berklee students with their instruments on Mass Ave, supposedly waiting to register for classes. I don't need to register for classes this semester but I'll be over at BU crashing theirs. Yay.