choo-choooo by Alejandro B. '30
for 30 hours
Starting from Kissimmee, Florida and ending in Boston, Massachusetts, I was worried. 1,314 miles of pure railroad going across 10 states in the span of 30 hours sounded like a disastrous recipe (for my sleep). I like to think that little me would have been excited to go with Thomas & Friends to Boston. Sadly, the slightly bigger me saw it as a 30-hour marathon where I had to drag two suitcases, two backpacks, and one really thick jacket across a multiday train ride.
I have never thought of myself as a fan of marathons, but I was excited to do some things while on the train. I jotted down a list of Things to Do While Train somewhere in my journal. It roughly looked like this:
- Be really productive and write lots of blogs: This was half accomplished. Only half due to the fact that the blogs written have been victims to my graveyard. Stay tuned because they might just come back as zombies in another season. Should they be called blogbies or maybe zomblogs or blombies…
- Take scenic pictures of the landscape every once in a while: Okay, I tried my best. Some parts of the ride had truly breathtaking views, the other 90% were trees that seemed to be competing against each other in a look alike competition. Also, I am not the best photographer.
- Sleep a lot: It did not happen.
- Take a look at the almighty cafe cart: Did you know some trains have cafe carts? I sure didn’t.
- Get a bagel: I had a layover in New York City. In the spirit of tourism, this was a non-negotiable.
And before I knew it, I waved bye to my room, hugged my family, and said see you soon because I hate goodbyes. Disregarding my feelings, the wheels on the train started moving and my family became a blur on the window.
I do not explicitly remember what I did the majority of the time up to New York. I spent the first 10 minutes only thinking about my family, a few tears were shed. The next couple of minutes were spent getting set up. I reclined my seat, brought down my foot rest, and like a true chud, watched Modern Family for an hour. I am a sucker for sitcoms.
Within a few hours I had officially crossed Florida’s border and entered Georgia. It was also around this time that I decided to check off one thing off my list: check out the cafe cart.
I promptly hopped from my train cart onto the next one and found people waiting in line. Whilst waiting I realized that the cafe cart was, in fact, bigger than I had imagined. Multiple seating areas with a medium sized kitchen, the comfort was beyond expectations. My amazement quickly died down when I checked out the menu prices. Who charges $7 for a mini cheese and cracker tray? I came to the decision that the wisest thing for me to do was to buy one water. Around this time most people were going to sleep, so I decided to call it a night.
I tried. I really really tried. I did not fall asleep until ~1:30 AM. I woke up at ~5:30 AM. You can do the math on that one. Despite that, I was more excited than ever. Less than four hours until our train arrived at the big apple. The last time I visited NYC I was seven years old and still lived in Venezuela. As long as no delays came up, I was ready to spend three hours as another tourist.
Eventually, I finally got off the train, got lost, and found my way to the bag pickups. It was around this time that I realized why my parents always seemed stressed during trips. The bags were delayed and I had lost the checked-bag claim ticket. Not only that, but Boston’s South Station does not take checked bags, which means I was stuck with my two suitcases and two backpacks. But I was determined.
I searched up “bagels near me” and quickly made my way to Liberty Bagels, only an eight minute walk away. As soon as I stepped out of the station I was greeted by skyscrapers and a city bustling with people. Rolling my two suitcases, it became obvious that it was not going to be an eight minute walk.
16 minutes later. I made it, like a true tourist I waited in a long line until actually getting my order. While waiting, I realized that I had walked into the home of “rainbow bagels.” Normally, I would have tried the rainbow bagel, but after spending over 20 hours on a train the last thing I wanted to do was experiment with my food. Instead, I decided to get the Hot Mess with an asiago bun and water.
So, how much do you think this cost me? I will give you five seconds to make a guess.
1
2
3
4
WAY TOO MUCH >:(
Since when are bagels $17? Why are bagels $17? Did I just fall for a tourist trap? Probably. But my stomach did not care. All I could hope was for this bagel to taste like $17. After getting my bagel I rushed back to Grand Central to find a table to critique my bagel. Here are my thoughts:
Size wise, Liberty Bagels delivered. I got a pretty heavy and thick bagel that would easily fill me up for the next few hours of my trip. Personally, I would have preferred to see a higher ratio of filling to bread considering the price paid. Biting into the bagel, I was rather disappointed. The asiago bagel did not taste cheesy enough and I found the bread to be overly dense. Outside of this, the filling was a pleasant surprise. The bacon and eggs paired with scallion cream cheese had a nice flavor that pleased my palate.
Rating: 6.4/10 (WHY IS A BAGEL $17?)
Anyways, I had a train to catch towards Boston. This time, the train was relatively empty as a whole and I got a whole booth to myself :0
Four hours later, I had finally made it to Boston’s South Station. After a 15 minute car ride, I traveled to MacGregor House, one of MIT’s 11 undergraduate dorms. A fun fact about MacGregor is that 99% of the rooms are singles, and it just so happened that my single was on the 12th floor! I stuffed all my belongings into a cart, rolled it into the elevator and then carried it a floor up (because MacGregor’s elevators only go from levels 1,5,8,11,14).
Opening my room, I was impressed. One, it was bigger than I expected. And two, my view is actually incredible. It hit me then, that this was my home for the next year. My room in Kissimmee had now been left in the past and replaced by a white canvas that I could only hope to fill with happy memories.
my room for next year! it shall be embellished with decorations later on
Perhaps, it was not so much the train ride I wasn’t ready for, but what it symbolized. I got used to living in Kissimmee. I knew all the good restaurants, fun places to hang out, and most importantly I was close to family. But now, I am going to a mysterious place called MIT. Over a thousand miles away from everything that I knew. Traveling so far to reach your dreams is scary. Don’t let it stop you, do it scared.
P.S. Amtrak, please add more cushions to your seats. My back hurts.