A trip to Harvard & Boston

So as you may have read in my previous post, I recently got back from a lovely 30-hour layover in Boston. I was originally rostered to fly to Singapore but since I had very low hours last month due to having short-ish flights and some leave, I decided to swap to get my hours up a bit.

I visited Boston once before, in January, when I was on reserve. It was freezing and snowy but still sunny, so I took the hop-on hop-off bus and explored the city. This time I was determined to visit Harvard university, as I ran out of time on the previous trip.

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After arriving at the hotel, most of us arranged to meet for dinner at 7. Since there were a couple of hours still to kill until then, I debated whether to have a nap or not, but I knew that if I did I’d sleep right through til 4am! Instead I took my time getting ready, then made my way down to the bar and met with one of the girls from economy. Finally a few of the other crew showed up, and we made our way to a seafood restaurant called Legal Test Kitchen. We had the table booked for 13 of us, but in the end only 6 showed! Slightly embarrassing…but that’s precisely why I didn’t take a nap, or I would have missed dinner for sure!

The next morning myself and one of the other crew met at 8:30 to head over to Harvard. I grabbed a coffee from the Starbucks inside the hotel, and we walked the 10 minutes or so to South Station to take the metro.

It didn’t take long to reach Harvard, and although it’s not entirely clear which direction to head when you step out of the train station, we soon found the main university buildings.

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It was a bit of a grey and cloudy day, and quite a bit cooler than the evening before, but I wasn’t too chilly with a cardigan on. Luckily I’d thrown it in at the last minute when packing, as the forecast had shown 29 degrees!

We strolled through the buildings, admiring the architecture, and since it was the summer holidays, it was pretty quiet.

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I didn’t realise just quite how big the campus is, as we strolled through all of the different departments checking out the buildings.

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We crossed over the road out to a different area and soon came across an awesome fire engine! I couldn’t help but get a sneaky picture sitting on it, hoping that the firemen wouldn’t come out and tell me off!

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Even the fire engines are patriotic…gotta love the American flags everywhere in the States!

We continued on, passing more beautiful churches and university buildings.

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I’m not sure how long it took for us to walk around the campus, and since we didn’t have a map I’m not entirely sure if we saw the whole campus, but it was certainly a big area that we did see!

Our walk took us through the pretty campus town, lined with flowers and quirky little shops.

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We decided to continue along the streets and just see where we would end up. It seems we walked through most of Cambridge and then actually ended up at MIT, the other university the Boston/Cambridge area is famous for.

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How cute is this rainbow crossing? I love finding fun areas of a new city, just by chance!

A little bit further along the same road, we passed by the very cool “Graffiti Alley”. There was a guy there who had his camera set up for a time-lapse, so we squeezed past to get a couple of cool pictures of the awesome graffiti.

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We passed by more pretty buildings, and had a quick look around the main area of MIT, but decided not to explore more as we’d already done a fair amount of walking at Harvard.

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Since it wasn’t too much of a walk to the bridge to cross the river, we skipped the metro for the way back, and continued our walk, which took us to the beautiful Back Bay area, just past the river.

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I loved all of these apartment buildings, and all of the front steps had beautiful flowers or plants, and gorgeous little balconies which would be perfect for sitting out on with your morning coffee. (Or tea, if you’re English!)

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We continued on through the city, passing by its of lovely little boutiques and cafés, eventually ending up downtown, near the Boston Public Library.

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Unfortunately it was closed for a couple of days for renovations, which sadly meant we couldn’t check out the inside. I guess that’ll be on the to-do list for next time!

After grabbing a quick bite to eat for some lunch and a spot of shopping, as well as a little stroll through Boston Common (which looks just as lovely in summer as it did in winter) I called it a day and headed back to our hotel.

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Just in time to catch a couple of hours sleep before the long flight home!

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P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂 

5 Comments

  1. Shumaila
    July 20, 2016 / 2:51 pm

    Hello once again Rachel.. Thanks for sharing your lifestyle with us.. I heard that there is math test also taken on assessment day if that so, what it really is ?
    Thanks☺

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      July 29, 2016 / 7:24 pm

      Hi Shumaila, there was no maths test at my open/assessment day, so I’m not sure where you got that information from 🙂 Also it is mandatory to wear nude/skin colour tights under your skirt! xx

  2. Shumaila
    July 20, 2016 / 1:22 pm

    Hello Rachel, I’ve been reading your blog for quite long time & I am just addicted to it.. I heard that Emirates pays the half of the salary what they mention.. hope so its not true..
    THANKS

  3. padma
    July 19, 2016 / 1:04 am

    Hi Rachel,

    I´ll apply for emirates cabin crew position. I also speak German as foreign language. The only certificate I have is Abitur B2 level. Do you think that is sufficient? I know that in recruitment process english test must be done, do they have tests for other languages as well?

    Do you usually use german language on your flights to german speaking countries to solve some difficult situations or what are in fact “local language speaker crew” duties?

    Thank you, keep posting 🙂

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      July 19, 2016 / 1:31 pm

      Hi Padma! They say that to be a “language speaker” you have to be fluent in speaking, reading and writing, so if you feel confident then put it down! Basically you may have to do the PA, or deal with a medical situation onboard. If you wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that then don’t put it down 🙂 You don’t have any test for the languages if you declare it at the open day, however if you want to add it after you’ve already joined you have to go through some testing. I mostly just use it to chat to passengers really! Good luck 🙂

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