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i woke up at 4am, slept for a little over an hour, to get ready for new york city. i tried going to the bathroom but had a case of constipation, despite having a big frozen lasagna dinner last night. this would not end well, having to then endure a long bus ride followed by a day of new york city touring, not knowing when i needed to use the bathroom. but there was nothing i could do, despite a second attempt after a shower. i was surprised to get a text from frances around 4:30am, maybe she was making sure i didn't oversleep. for breakfast i had a banana and some gingerbread cake. i fed my fish, since it'd be 2 days before i'd be back home. i finally left by 5am, to catch the first red line train leaving alewife at 5:16am. the sky was still dark, a nearly full moon hanging in the southwestern sky on the constellation of libra, bright jupiter nearby. i saw no cars until i got to somerville avenue.

the first train of the day is surprisingly busy, as there were 2 dozen people waiting on the platform by the time the subway arrived. the ride to south station was fairly routine, arriving by 5:40am, with 20 minutes to get to the bus terminal, plenty of time. there was already a decent line, but not so long that i wouldn't get a pair of seats all to myself. i saw a few chinese people looking as if they were trying to cut the line, but a megabus attendant intercepted them. i bought the ticket a month ago for $10. we wasted no time, the bus left exactly at 6am.

there was nothing to do on the bus but sleep. the seat was fine; there was just no place to put my head. i put my jackets away in my backpack, which was in cargo. with no pillow, resting my head against the window was a sure way to get a concussion as every bump on the road was transmitted directly to the glass. i sort of regret not buying a travel pillow while i was at marshalls a few days ago. so i slept intermittently, snapping awake every time my head rolled off my neck. at some point (probably in connecticut) we hit rush hour traffic, and the ride became an unceasing series of short stops and goes, making me carsick to the point where i felt queasy and wanted to vomit. several sips of water helped, along with an emergency candy bar in my bag.

at 9:47am frances texted me to ask where the megabus stop was. the bus was scheduled to arrive at 10:15am, but i was still about 40 minutes away at least. frances said it wasn't a problem, that they would simply wait across the street at a pret a manger coffee shop. it ended up taking more than an hour, most of that time spent traversing manhattan north to south. the constant stopping and going once again made me a little carsick not too mention i was very hungry by that point. plus the hairy european bro sitting in front of me had really strong body odor. we finally arrived at 11am. from the bus window i spotted frances and her family.

frances and i met in the summer of 1994, when i went to taipei for a second semester at the mandarin training center (affiliated with the national taiwan normal university NTNU 臺灣師範大學) to improve my written chinese (i was 20 years old at the time). after that, the only time we met was when she visited boston with some friends in 1998. so we haven't seen each other in 2 decades, but have kept in touch, as she got married and had 3 children. in recent years i've been helping her ship things to norway that she buys online in the US (cheaper than norwegian prices, even with shipping added). i never met her family but felt like i already knew them through photos i've seen throughout the years: her husband fredrik, and her kids lars, hans, and june (now ages 11, 9, 7).

so our destination was the flushing chinatown, which we'd get to via the 7 train from penn station. hans was in a wheelchair so we were searching for an elevator to go down below. we asked a cop who told us to catch the 7 train directly a few blocks further up. before we headed in that direction however, i asked them to wait a few minutes while i quickly went down below to use the bathroom. it took more than a few minutes as the nearest restroom was closed, so i had to go to another one further away, and there was a brief line. when i finished and was about to head back up, i was surprised to find everyone already down below. we then headed to the subway station, which actually isn't that close and we had to do a bit of walking. attracted by the underground food court, fredrik took lars to get a pretzel at auntie anne's while frances took hans and june to dunkin' donuts to get some donuts.

we then continued to the subway. one advantages of having a wheelchair is the ability to use the emergency swing doors. and often times, the whole family goes through, including me as well, for the price of a single admission, or occasionally free. i was looking to find an elevator when hans miraculously got out of his chair to walk down the stairs while fredrik carried his wheelchair. that's when frances told me that hans can walk for short distances, but his hurt legs hurt if he goes too long. we took a 2 train one station uptown to time square before switching to the 7 train. we then settled back for the 40 minute ride to the flushing, the last stop.

when we got out at flushing it'd started to rain a little bit already. this was in the forecast and something i knew about. but i was the only the person with an umbrella, everyone else putting their confidence in their rain-resistant jackets. i ended up giving the umbrella to hans to use in his wheelchair. another thing i'd forgotten about flushing is how close it is to the la guardia airport. every few minutes a main would roar overhead, close enough to see passengers through the windows if it weren't for all the clouds. in the cold rain, the time it took us to walk 500 meters seemed like forever, but eventually we arrived at the new york food court by 1pm.

i discovered new york food court last april when i was in the city rendezvousing with another visiting international friend, wangyang. it's been almost a year and i've been meaning to return to 8090台湾小吃 get some authentic taiwanese food. my visit today was more for me, but frances and her family seemed to be game. in fact, the whole reason why i picked a flushing hotel was so i could be closer to this food court! after we found a table (the place was surprisingly crowded for a weekday afternoon), i went to the only taiwanese shop and ordered: squid nugget soup (花枝羹类面 $7.50), smelly tofu (炸臭豆腐 $6.50), and fried chicken nuggets (盐酥鸡 $6, this was actually a mistake, i wanted the fried squids instead), a total of $20 well spent.1 frances got an order of smelly tofu as well as a bowl of beef noodle soup. fredrik went around searching for something else to try, though he was most likely overwhelmed by the sheer selection. i should've gone with him to narrow his selection, but i was so hungry at that point (to the point of either passing out or being hangry) that i started eating right away once i got my order.

after i finished eating i was still a little groggy from being carsick, but better than before. however, i felt so stuffed afterwards (i ordered too much as always), i don't think i needed dinner. we shared a table with a trio of senior new yorkers, who couldn't stop staring at us. we ended up chatting, two of them were brother and sister formerly from costa rica, while the third was an asian man formerly from malaysia. both men were of the baha'i faith and were planning a trip to chile, where they recently established a church there. they were here for the lanzhou hand-pulled noodles.

next we went to the nearby skyview mall (just 160 meters away), something the children were especially excited about once they heard there was a target. "target! target!" they chanted on occasion, so much was their love for the retail franchise. in fact, i'd learn later that they'd already been to 2 other targets already since they've been in the US. of course we made a beeline to the toy department once we got there. the boys were into nerf guns (lars already bought 2, frances was worried they didn't have enough luggage space despite arriving with empty suitcases), while june looked at dolls (she actually had an american girl doll with her which they ordered weeks in advance so they could receive it once they arrived in new york). lars was also interested in matchbox cars.

i haven't hung out in the toys department for a while, interesting to see what toys kids are into these days, with the proliferation of digital games to grab their attention. but it's nice to see that physical toys still have a place in children's hearts, that some things are timeless, despite advances in technology. frances told me that all the children had been saving money for this trip, and each had a budget of $200 to spend on whatever they want. she thought maybe they would quickly burn through their budget so they could stop visiting toy stores, but the kids have been pretty good with their money management, and still had cash to spend.

all the kids came away target with toys, the adults with nothing. since there was still more shopping to do (and it was still raining outside, another reason to stay indoors), i volunteered to take everything back to my hotel, where i could check in, drop off my stuff as well, and then come back. fredrik came with me to help my carry some of the stuff, while frances was in the charge of the 3 kids. the flushing hotel was 800 meters away, about a 10 minute walk, but not so fun in the rain, though it was just a drizzle at best. they gave me one of the worst hotel rooms, room 2052, with a view of the inner courtyard of the hotel, nothing to see but HVAC compressors, cement, and barbed wires on top of the fence. it wasn't that big a deal, the only time i'd be here would be to shower and sleep. we returned to the mall.

fredrik and i spent the next 15 minutes or so trying to find frances. originally we though they were at nordstrom outlet, but after searching both downstairs and upstairs and couldn't find them, fredrik tried calling. unfortunately the reception at the mall is pretty bad, and he couldn't get through. i tried texting frances as well. we then went through every store that we thought they might be in, with no luck. the only store left was marshalls, and that's when i finally checked my phone and saw that frances had responded, told us she was in fact in marshalls. there wasn't much toys at marshalls, but with the children satiated with their recent buys, it gave the adults a brief period to do some shopping of their own. fredrik got some t-shirts, while the kids were taking turns playing with the wheelchair. we all waited outside while fredrik went to pay. later we went downstairs to the basement level to look for shoes. i got some winter melon tea with grass jelly ($3.99) from a coco fresh shop.

we left the mall with the plan of maybe finding an ice cream shop for the kids while the adults could chat. we passed a few pastry shops, but nothing fit what we wanted. google map search told of a potential place, 10below ice cream in queens crossing (136-17 39th avenue), so we headed there. unfortunately there was also no ice cream to be had, but there was decent seating at a paris baguette (a pastry/coffee shop) so frances sat down while fredrik went with the kids to check out some of the cakes. as for me, i went exploring. queens crossing also contains a small food court: kung fu tea, lao jie food, ajisen ramen, a poke shop, a korean shop, and a few others. just smelling all that delicious food made me hungry again (by then it was close to 6pm). there is so many restaurants and food places in flushing it's a foodie paradise, but to find the good ones require advanced research; i'd love to spend a whole week here just to discover all the best restaurants. frances decided to get some meat buns to go; i was tempted to grab something as well, but planned on returning to new york food court later tonight for dinner, so i held off. i did buy a set of chopsticks at banzai japanese gifts for $3.27. when i returned to the cafe i found frances chatting with an old lady. later frances told me that maybe she was trying to get her to buy stuff because she gave frances her business card.

as it was starting to get late and frances and her family still had to traverse new york city to get back to newport new jersey (where their hotel was), we went back to my hotel to grab their things. afterwards i walked with them to the subway station. the rain seemed to have stopped by this point. we made plans to meet up tomorrow morning 10:30am at the manhattan chinatown for dimsum at the golden unicorn.

i returned to the hotel, buying a pair of custards at a bakery for a snack along the way. only now (6:42pm) was i finally able to properly use the bathroom and take a hot shower. i rested a bit, eating one of the custards, before going out again at 8pm. sitting on the bed getting dressed, i felt some deja vu, that thrill of leaving a hotel to go out and explore the neighborhood.

i went to the new liquor shop next to the hotel to see if they had my baijiu; they were selling for $13 bottle, but i thought i could do better so didn't get it. i had my dSLR but only snapped a few photos, perhaps too tired and hungry to do much else. flushing isn't exactly picturesque, most of the interesting stuff are hidden away in restaurants and shops. i went to the supermarket in new world mall to get a few things (fishsnacks, suanmeitang drinks3), before going to taipei liquors, my usual spot, for the wuliangye baijiu. turns out they sell them for $13 as well (i thought it was $11), i bought a single bottle to replenish my supply.

i finally arrived at new york food court by 8:16pm. it wasn't as crowded as earlier. i wanted to try someplace else besides the taiwanese place (which i will revisit as well), so i made a tour of all the shops but was just overwhelmed with the selection. i finally settled on a bowl of lanzhou hand-pulled noodles with lamb ($8). while that order was being made, i went tot the taiwanese place and ordered a bowl of smelly tofu (炸臭豆腐 $6.50) and some fried squids (盐酥花枝 $6.50). when my noodle was ready, i moved to a table that was closer to the taiwanese shop so i could grab my order when it was ready. i also had a craving for bubble ice tea, but i couldn't manage to wait for my order, keep an eye on my things, and also visit the ice tea place, so i decided not to get it. the challenge of eating by yourself: nobody to watch your stuff! when everything arrived, i took my photos and sat back to enjoy my dinner. the noodles was good, but unfortunately filling as well. i realized that too late, and didn't finish the rest of the noodles so i could concentrate on the tofu. by that point my stomach was already near capacity. i could only eat half the tofu, and had to toss the rest. the fried squids i got a bag and took it back to the hotel with me. too much delicious food, only one stomach! i looked forward to returning to the hotel, where i could finally relax, take another hot shower, watch some tv, then sleep.

i got back to flushing hotel at 9:13pm. i asked the front desk receptionist for a remote as there wasn't one in my room. "you'll need to return it when you check out," she told me. back in the roof i noticed how dirty it was. let me clarify: for the most part it was clean, but the carpet was filthy. this is a chinese thing, where they view anything on the ground as naturally dirty, including the carpet, and they're used to wearing slippers indoors, not walk barefoot. there were stains and such, they really should invest in a steam cleaner. but like i said, this is a chinese thing. i've stayed in multiple stars hotels in china, and all their carpets were filthy as well. there was also a strongly ambiguous fragrant disinfectant smell in the room, like they purposely used a lot to mask some previous foul odor. i didn't mind it, but it made me curious what they could be hiding (i'm guessing just cigarette smoke, but dead body is my default second choice).

my original plan was to take a hot bath (i even brought the latest issue of entertainment weekly), but i was just too tired. instead i took a normal shower, then crawled into bed to enjoy a new episode of for the people on ABC at 10pm, which happens to take place in new york city, in the southern district court. i really love this show, i hope it doesn't get cancelled despite hearing that it's been garnering some low ratings. i even got my appetite back and ate some of the fried squid, which was delicious, though a bit cold.

after using the bathroom, flossing, and brushing my teeth, i got back into bed. i watched the news long enough to see the weather for tomorrow (a few hours of rain around midday) then went straight to bed, too tired to watch shows on my phone or read. my body welcomed unconsciousness, which came swiftly. outside, the intermittent soft roars of planes flying overhead, but even that wasn't enough to distract me from falling asleep. tomorrow morning waking up at 8am to meet up with frances and family at 10:30am.


1 just an observation, but for a place that's supposedly taiwanese, the receipt was in simplified chinese (used primarily in mainland china), not traditional chinese (which is used in taiwan)

2 $94.16 a night, booked through hotels.com

3 北海鱈魚絲 $2.49/pack, JFC海苔卷 $2.99, 康師傅酸梅湯 99¢/bottle

i woke up at 8am but could've easily slept for another hour or two. i was tempted to contact frances and ask her if we could delay meeting until 11am instead of 10:30am. waking so early meant i didn't need to rush. after using the bathroom and taking a shower, i sat back in bed to watch some local news while finishing the rest of my leftover fried squid. i was particularly interested in the weather forecast: a few hours of rain between 11am-2pm, after that nice weather.

i gathered my things and went downstairs around 9am to checkout. the sleepy-eyed chinese girl took my room card and remote but didn't say anything. "that's it?" i asked. "yeah," she said, expressionless. i walked down to the subway station and put $20 onto my metro card (gave me a new one, old was about to expire) before catching an express 7 train heading into manhattan. i love express trains, always happy to ride one as we blow by stations. i got off at grand central and changed to a downtown 4, which is like the express train of the green line. from there it was just 2 stops to brooklyn bridge/city hall. getting out, it was another half mile walk to the golden unicorn. i got there at 10:25am but was expecting frances to be late so was surprised when she texted me that they had already arrived. i took the elevator upstairs and saw them already enjoying their dim sum.

it was still early enough that there weren't a lot of people yet - just a few tables. they'd ordered a few things but no tripe or chicken feet yet. when i came back from washing my hands though, the tripe and chicken feet had already arrived. the last time i came to the golden unicorn was back in 2016 when i brought my california uncle. it was a treat because he's cantonese so dim sum was second nature to him. frances and her family had dim sum before: not in norway but rather in london of all places. i'm curious as to the authenticity of english dim sum, since hong kong was a british colony for quite some time, maybe some of that cuisine migrated to england.

frances was experiencing a toothache caused by a loose filling which she temporarily patched before her vacation, but was now coming loose again. she called her norwegian health insurance to ask about overseas coverage, but they were only willing to pay around $125, which was nothing. the aspirins were kicking in so she was fine for the time being, hopefully the painkillers can last her until they get back home. i also got a chance to try out frances' camera, a boxy canon prosumer model canon powershot G1X with a flip up LCD screen, i took a few photos of her family. finally, they gave me a bag of norwegian food they brought with them, easy 10lbs. at least. some salmon, some cheese, some crackers, and a bunch of chocolate candy selected by her kids. lars and hans seemed to be in high spirits, but june looked like she still wanted to sleep. as we got closer to lunchtime, more customers started showing up, including a high school field trip group that took up two large round tables. i discovered that all the times i saw frances looking at her phone, she was in fact playing pokemon go. her kids play it too, but she's addicted. i myself have successfully quit the habit, and even seeing frances catch pokemons didn't make me want to start it up again.

the original goal was to take a ride on the roosevelt island tramway on 59th and 2nd avenue, but due to the impending rain and strong winds, we were willing to switch plans, do something indoors until the weather improves. i recommended the free smithsonian museum of american indian down by wall street. but once we left the restaurant, the sky looked like it was clearing up. there were conflicting weather forecasts, but one now said the rain wouldn't come until the afternoon. so we decided to try the tramway after all. the nearest subway station was brooklyn bridge/city hall, from there a direct shot via the green train to our destination.

so we started walking. at one point we were intercepted by an elderly chinese lady who said she needed help to cross the street. she was wearing shoes but her feet were jammed inside. sensing a scam, i ignored her, but fredrik - who has a purer heart than i - slowly walked her across the middle of the road through traffic, as the rest of us stood and watched. that's when frances observed that life in the US seems hard, that we're lacking in certain social welfare services, which i'd agree. but at the same time, in a big city, there are bad people, young and old, and as locals we've become inured to suspicious situations. i was afraid fredrik wasn't coming back, but the old lady finally did release him.

we continued walking but had to stop once again when the children spotted columbus park. having not been a child for many years now, i've forgotten that playgrounds are like kid magnets. we simply had to stop so all three of the children could play on the equipment. even june seemed to regain her energy, joining up with her brothers to climb the jungle gym and go down the spiral slide. she even got fredrik to assist her with some monkey bars, and wanted to try the adult bars in a nearby park. while fredrik and i sat on the bench to relax and chat, frances left to buy some snacks for the kids. she told me earlier that's one secrets of keeping the children well-behaved is to feed them constantly, so nobody gets hangry. it was right around lunchtime as groups of smartly dressed men and women (most likely lawyers and law clerks) hurried off to get lunches.

frances was gone a long time. she came back with chocolate pocky snacks and yogurt drinks. it was around that time that it began to drizzle a little bit. we continued walking, now past the courthouses. they seemed to be shooting a movie or show, and there were cranes and cameras and a group of spectators. i didn't get a chance to check out the scene (could it have been a scene from my favorite courtroom drama for the people?) because i was helping frances called new balance, which messed up an online order. she ordered a bunch of shoes on sunday that were supposed to be 2-day delivered to their hotel, but only part of the shipment was coming. i called the 1-800 number and talked to somebody who also didn't know what was going on. he took my number and said he'd call me back.

we finally reached the subway. we could've taken the 6 train but that was local stops and would've taken longer. we ended up waiting a bit until a 4 train arrived, which was just 3 stops to 59th street lexington avenue. we waited in the covered entranceway of the subway station since it was still drizzling, not sure how much farther the tramway was. but i ducked out to investigate, and i could see the tramway scaffoldings from where we were, about 2 city blocks away on 2nd avenue. i'd never been to this part of new york, midway between midtown and the upper east side. there's so much of new york city i still don't know about!

we got to the tramway. for the price of a subway ride, it takes you via cable car to roosevelt island. i've never taken it before, and didn't even know about it until frances asked me and i did some research. she said she saw it in an old king kong movie, which sounded vaguely familiar. it wasn't crowded but there were still a sizable number of people, mostly tourists like us. there was also a lot of hassidic jews for some reason, and their entourage of children of various ages. some kid accidentally double swiped his MTA card and i got through for free.

the last time i took an aerial tramway was back in chongqing in 2013 (that's not entirely true: i took a gondola in kangding in 2014 but that was to go up a mountain, not across a body of water). because of rainy and cold weather, there was a lot of humidity inside the cable car and the windows were all fogged up. the ride was interesting, very stable, no swaying, you wouldn't even know you were suspended in the air from cables. it did feel like we were flying above the city, but the views were of 1st avenue and FDR drive, which wasn't very photogenic. running next to the tramway trusses was the queensboro bridge.

once we arrived on roosevelt island, everyone got off to take photos. for some reason we thought the island would be deserted, but there was actually a lot of development, what looked to be office buildings, and maybe some apartments as well. no stores though, none that we could see at least. roosevelt island is actually not that remote: besides the tramway, you can also get there via subway, and there's even a bridge that goes to the island from astoria (none from manhattan however). i went to go use the station bathroom, by the time i was finished, frances and her family were already back inside the tramway station, waiting for the next cable car to arrive and take us back to manhattan.

back in manhattan, we made a beeline to bloomingdale's. apparently frances knew the area fairly well, as she would often come to bloomingdale's whenever she visited NYC in the past. as for me, i believe this was my very first to a bloomingdale's. not only that, but this was their flagship store. i was expecting it to be like macy's, but it seemed more high-class, more about luxury brands. fredrik took lars and june to use the bathroom, while i followed frances who took hans. bathrooms weren't that easy to find, and the elevators took forever to arrive for some reason.

once everyone had used the rest rooms, it was shopping time. as there was no toys in bloomingdale's it was sort of boring for the kids, but there was a nintendo display with a working console game and the children gathered around the screen to play. frances wanted to show lars the price of gucci items, when he expressed some interest after seeing a classmate with a gucci t-shirt (lars quickly lost interest when he saw the prices). frances was helping fredrik buy a suit, while i was just happy to be sitting down. june and lars were playing games on their phones, while hans was nowhere to be seen. i went back to the nintendo display where i found him playing zelda. i tried to coax him back to the grop but he told me his mother said it was okay as long as he stayed there. i was worried he might get abducted, but there were other store workers around who would hopefully keep an eye on him.

i went back to the suits department and waited. later hans came back with a store employee: apparently he tried returning but didn't remember where we were until he got help from someone. also while we were waiting, one of the employees came out and asked if we wanted water, and came back with bottled water for everyone. not only was the water cold, but it was also bloomingdale brand water, which i've never seen before. i sort of regret not bringing wangyang here when she visited last year, but it would've probably emptied her bank account if she did come.

the suit that fredrick bought had to be altered, so they needed to come back tomorrow to pick it up (today was wednesday, they weren't leaving until friday). so we left bloomingdale's, taking the 6 train to 33rd street, to get some barbecue in korea town before i returned to boston. by this point the rain had stopped.

i didn't have a place in mind, every time i've had korean barbecue in koreatown it's been to a different restaurant (which goes to show just how many korean bbq restaurants there are in koreatown). my advice was to peek inside, and if a bbq place looked good, we'd go in. we ended up settling on the kunjip, getting one of their upstairs tables long enough to fit all of us, leaving the wheelchair downstairs by the entrance. i asked frances if she was familiar with korean barbecue; turns out one of her uncles owned a korean barbecue restaurant in oslo.

we didn't order too much, with the addition of side dishes, suddenly the table was covered with bowls of food. it's also the sort of barbecue where the waitstaff cooks the food for you, so it was a crazy kaleidoscope of korean sights and fragrances and tastes. frances didn't think we had enough meat and ordered another barbecue combo. i ate so much i was near bursting again, just like yesterday. one of the waitresses brought out another small side dish (some sort of kimchi tofu), i managed to sample a little but really had to force the food down.

we also had to keep an eye on the clock, as my bus to boston was leaving at 6:40pm, and i'd take me 20 minutes to walk there. we finished by 6:10pm, which was perfect timing. frances ended up treating (just like she did with dim sum earlier). they handed me my bag of norwegian foods, we said our good byes, and i began walking down to my bus stop.

the bus stop was farther than i'd thought. in hindsight i should've taken the subway, but there was no guarantee the train would come in schedule, at least with walking i had better control of my own destiny. a few things weren't my favor however. first, i had a lot of cargo, from my backpack to my bundle of presents. second, i'd just finished one of the largest meals of the year, and now i had to speed walk more than a mile to my destination. i could feel the food balling up uncomfortably in my stomach, like a bad heartburn. finally, the winds! even though the rain had stopped, there was very strong winds like blew my bag in the air like a sail. nevertheless, i persevered, and finally got to the megabus stop across the javits center. i got in the boston line, but there were only a handful of people. finally a kid told me this was the line for the toronto bus. i looked back, and the bus to boston had already boarded. i quickly went to the bus, showed the attendant my ticket, put my backpack in cargo, and climbed onboard.

the bus was still pretty empty, with plenty of free seats in the back. i found a good seat, even had time to go downstairs and use the bathroom real quick before the bus left on schedule. i sat back in my seat and gave out a sigh of relief. i texted frances that i was on the bus and everything was fine. i then did some sightseeing as our bus traversed manhattan from south to north. just leaving the city took us an hour. once we were on the highway, there wasn't much to see so i slept.

i finally arrived in boston around 11:20pm, faster than i was expecting (i was thinking closer to midnight), but still slower than a typical trip between new york to boston (4 hours). after i grabbed my backpack from cargo (i had a fear that the bottle of chinese baijiu would break), i made a beeline to south station. it was a relief to be back on boston, the comforting feeling of familiarity, but i wouldn't be entirely relaxed until i was finally home. getting off at porter square and walking home, it was still very windy. i noticed the alarm was sounding at the corner bike store. i was going to call the police but i looked inside and didn't see anyone. what probably happened was somebody didn't close the back door tightly enough and the strong winds just blew it open. i'm sure the police would arrive soon so i didn't bother calling. i finally got back to the house by midnight, making pretty good time. i was determined to go straight to bed after a shower because i was so tired, but i got my energy back afterwards and didn't go to sleep until after i watched some late night talk shows.