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sunmeng began chatting me this morning at 7:40am. i've never been one to turn down a chat, but certainly she has to know what time it was in the US. added to the fact that i went to sleep last night around 2am, it meant i was only getting about 5 hours of sleep. the reason which i suddenly remembered was because her father has recently gotten a new job at a hospital in beibei (northern chongqing city) and her parents had left her alone at home for the next week maybe.

i got out of bed around 9am, found mauricio still lounging on the sofa, checking his phone. i opened the blinds, used the bathroom, and took a shower. i wrote a cancellation letter to constellation energy for my parents (for their cafe they want to leave constellation and return to nstar/eversource). mauricio got ready to leave for a day of boston exploration around 10am. i hadn't planned on going with him, but he asked if i wasn't doing anything that he'd love for me to come along, and that was all the motivation i needed to spend another day sightseeing and playing tour guide.

we left for harvard square with a detour by the divinity school. mauricio tried to fill his charliecard at one of the machines but it wouldn't accept either his santander credit card nor debit card. i ended up adding $5 onto his card with cash. he seemed very embarrassed by it all and promised he'd pay me back. the original plan was to take the 1 bus to MIT, passing by a swath of cambridge along the way, but i forgot and ended up taking the subway instead. only after we paid did i realize my mistake. so we ended up getting off at kendall square then walking along the charles river towards the mass ave bridge, and then from there to backbay. going over the bridge across the turnpike, i saw the wall of locks attached to the metal fence.

at copley square we took a quick tour inside the library, before taking a chipotle lunch break at 1pm. i paid for mauricio, which he felt terrible about since i also paid for his charliecard, and he promised he'd pay me back, even though i told him it was unnecessary. we then walked down commonwealth avenue towards boston common. demonstrating the tameness of the park squirrels, i coaxed a chubby rodent with a leaf. teasing it thusly, it clung to my shoes like a child, but then climbed up my pants and onto my body, which freaked me out as i shook it off. not that i have anything against squirrels; i'm just against the parasites they carry. from there we went up beacon hill and went by the state house.

we continued down tremont street, visiting the granary burying ground, king's chapel, old city hall, old state house, and finally faneuil hall. we walked to columbus park before finally going our separate ways: mauricio to explore more of the waterfront, me going home. by that point it was already 3pm.

i didn't get to belmont until almost 4pm. as soon as i got in the door, my mother told me we were going to have dinner at the midwest grill tonight because my sister had a window of free time between 5pm and 6pm. i felt it was too rushed, and that everyone had to go eat because my sister wanted to, even though she could only eat for less than an hour. so we ended up cancelling. instead, we ordered persian takeout from the arlington sabzi, 3 kabeb-e kubideh plates ($11.25 each). my father and i left immediately after making the order since they said the food would be ready in 15 minutes. we ended up taking 25 minutes to get there due to rush hour traffic (we left around 5pm).

the spanish boys came home around 11pm. first thing mauricio did was to pay back the money he "owed" me, and wouldn't take no for an answer when i tried to return it. they leave for new york city tomorrow at 2:30pm, along with 2 other spanish friends. mauricio told me they rented an apartment near time square on airbnb for 2 night at $360, but split 4 ways that comes out to $90 per person, not a bad deal. everyone stayed up until 12:30am, but both of the guys looked like they were falling asleep, so i called the game and let everyone retire.