After three years at the U of A, my brain has been conditioned to equate the end of april with the beginning of summer. Alas, this is not the case… my last exam is on may 26th which pretty much seems like an eternity away at this point. Still, this hasn’t stopped me from thinking about all the things I want to do with the last summer of my life. (Next year, I only get august off and the yr after that I start rotations right away). This is a slap in the face to let me know that it’s pretty much time to grow up, no more summer vacations! Words cannot describe my anxiety, but it is a huge motivation for me to really cherish this last one. I declare the summer of ’07 to be the summer of Jo!

It will start with my brother flying in on may 26th, we’ll spend a few days in Boston mainly shopping but possibly doing some stereotypical touristy things (see previous blog). Then we’ll hop on a bus for the ridiculously low price of $15/each to NY. (Our aunt lives in long island with her husband and really really energetic/cute daughter Jessica). Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to do the touristy things like head to the statue of liberty and the empire state building. We did that all when we were younger but I think it’d be nice to see it all again. Mainly I’m excited to hang out on the beach though. I don’t know where our aunt took us last time but it was just beautiful, the sand was perfect.

We’ll be flying back to Edmonton on Wednesday JUNE 6TH! Mark it in your calendars people. Once again, the return of Jo = June 6th (06/06); shouldn’t be too hard to remember. When I return, my life will revolve around three things:
1) training kung fu
2) running
3) minimal amounts of working
I’m going to be looking for a job at an optical, I only want to work 20 hours/week to ensure that I have plenty of time to take in each lazy summer day. I’m also planning to quit in mid august to give me 2 weeks off to round out the summer of Jo, I can picture it already and it makes me sad that I still have over a month until it becomes reality. See you all soon, but not soon enough.

Bo’s blog about what there is to do in the T.O inspired me to write about bean town.

Things that I have done:
1. Shop.
Newbury street is literally 2 blocks from my apartment and has shops on it like Armani and Burberry. One block further is the prudential center which is connected to Copley place with a walkway (like how manulife and e. center are connected in edm) and together they have stores like Boss, Gucci, Neiman Marcus, and Lacoste.
2. Harvard campus.
It humbles me to know that there are people who are more intelligent than I could ever dream to be. And it’s like a totally different world from downtown boston, the buildings are all so much lower and more prestigious looking… and there’s some decent shopping too…
3. Museum of Science.
Yes, this sounds very nerdy but I went for body worlds with the intention to study for my anatomy lab final. It was AWESOME. They had plasticized cadavers arranged in really cool positions like skiing dude was split in half, soccer dude, and pregnant lady (you could see her baby in her belly); they were so well preserved and didn’t smell at all which is something I can definitely not say for the cadavers in anatomy lab.
4. Christmas tree lighting in Boston Commons.
The commons – basically a nice park in the middle of downtown boston. I only wish I had gone skating on the frog pond but this winter was pretty crummy in terms of skating weather. It was either way too cold or it was raining… who wants to go skating when it’s raining? It’s just not wintery.
5. Bruins games.
Tickets are cheap. We went to see the leafs, canucks and oilers play the bruins; each time it was less than 30 bucks.

Places I like to eat at:
1. Chilli Duck.
Awesome thai food, I love the pad thai.
2. Tantric.
Really really good Indian food, butter chicken is to die for. And it’s a unique Indian restaurant in that you don’t reek after you leave.
3. Legal Seafood.
You just can’t be on the east coast without eating lobster.

Things I want to do:
1. Duck tour.
Half tour bus, half boat. It starts out on land and eventually makes its way into the Charles River which is about 2 blocks from my apt in the opposite direction of all the shopping. It’s beautiful, I run by it these days and it puts me into a good mood. I must admit, I like it a lot better than the river valley in edm.
2. Red Sox game.
I hate baseball but I just think it’d be really fun to go with a bunch of friends on a sunny day and do the typical American thing: baseball, hot dogs and beer.
3. Museum of Fine Arts.
I'm not really the artsy type but right now there's a chinese art exhibit going on, seems kinda cool.
4. New England Aquarium/Whale Watch
I just love water creatures. They seem so at peace, swimming around/just chillin.
5. Learn how to sail.

And I want to eat at the top of the hub which is at the top of the prudential center. It's like eating at the calgary tower, you get the view and pricey food.

This is the story of how I was reminded that I hate casinos. Gambling is illegal in Massachusetts so everyone goes to Connecticut to go to the casino, a few of my friends decided we should go. The bus ride only costs $11, you get $20 to gamble and $15 to eat so it seemed like an awesome deal. But as soon as we got to the bus stop, we realized just how sketchy this trip would be. First, an argument between two women broke out to the point where they were yelling/cursing each other out and tattling on each other to the bus driver. Then a couple guys had the exact same argument only it was scarier because they actually looked like they were gonna come to blows.

I don't really regret going but I will not do it again. I actually won $25 so I got paid to go; if this wasn't the case, I guess I'd be more upset. We picked the stupidest time to go though; we left boston at 930pm and got back at 6am. It seems as if this is the time when all the freaks come out, bottom line: casinos are gross smoke filled environments.