Boston................

Dreamy sigh.......

Boston was amazing, i was in full tourist mode this weekend, My Housemate and i arrived Logan International airport at 1pm, and i didn't clear customs till 3:30pm, she went through it like a breeze because she is a Canadian citizen, they held me back and harassed my life, this was the worst customs scrutiny yet, it was embarrassing to say the least, men i HATE my Nigerian passport. I was patted down by 2 women, they searched even under my bra, opened my suitcase, brought every single thing out, they scanned my shoes individually under the huge ass scanner to be sure i wasnt carrying anything inside, went through my underwear, it was just a violation of my privacy and dignity, looking at me like i could not afford all the stuff i had, and asking absurd questions about why am i going to Harvard for anything, who paid for my trip, they called the hotel sef to confirm the reservation, By the time they let me through i was MAD as hell.
I seriously hate flying to the states, and till i get my Canadian passport, i might never go back.

Anyway, we got to the hotel eventually, checked in and dropped our bags, we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, my first opinion of it was that it looked like a hostel, i wasnt overtly impressed by it, it looked ancient and whatnot, but i soon realized that Boston was an ancient city, Buildings built in the 40's and 50's, still in their original form, part of the innate charm of the city, inside the room was impressive though.

We then went with the hotel shuttle to Harvard square, my housemate took me to Mr Bartley's, its a gourmet burger place, been there since the 50's, i literally had the best burger i had ever eaten in my life, i had burger, fries and a lemonade for about 15bucks, which was pretty decent for what i ate, its a homely little shop, with tons of Harvard memorabilia on the walls, i love the fact that they have kept it the way its been since inception, its tiny and cozy and filled with students, people shouting out menus, and eating huge 7pounds burgers, loool, i loved it.

Then we went to the Harvard shirt shop, i got me my very own traditional Harvard sweatshirt, :D, told ya i would, it cost 49$, and its beautiful, im going to wear it to one of my schools events to just look for trouble
We ended up on Newbury street, because my housemate is a huge ZARA addict and she wanted to buy some stuff, i ended up shopping of course, i just cant help it, lol.

Finally returned to the hotel and got ready for the networking and registration session of the conference, It was held at the Harvard Business School Sprangler hall, Harvard is a really impressive school, i was just in awe of the buildings, the presence, it just seems like you are in another world, the networking session was at night so i couldn't take pictures of the buildings with my ipod touch, no flash :(, there were beautiful artworks on the walls, tons of hor d'oeuvres served by impressive waiters, drinks, and beautiful young African people, Oh the mennnnnnn, *drool*, sigh, haha, i had a blast, decided that i was going to talk to 15people that i didnt know so i set off working the room, introducing my self, exchanging contacts, i actually met a few people from twitter, *of course*. it was a successful night.

The next day was strictly for me, it was an amazing day, took the subway, went back to Mr Bartley's for another burger, i appreciate good food,They also make the best Frappes ever, i had a Strawberry shortbread one and it was divine, took a walk on the street at Harvard square, watched a street dance, the weather was about -1degC but i was fine because im used to freezing weather so i had on flats, went shopping, spent 5hours on Newbury street going into shops, trying stuff, buying shoes,  lol. it was the PERFECT day, ended the day drinking wine at the bar of the hotel, oh that was after i had the most amazing wings from this Korean place BonChon delivered to the hotel room

All day shopping and strolling 

Dancing on the street at Harvard Square

That Night i attended the Conference Gala, 'Keem Bello Osagie gave a Keynote speech that blew me away, inspiring 57yr old man, that made me believe in those 30mins that i could conquer the world. it was my highlight of the night, every other thing was a let down, the organizers had decided to make the food african inspired, the first course was from Eastern Africa, Chapati and some sort of vegetable that had NO taste whatsoever, Second course was supposed to be Nigerian, it was an epic fail, Coconut Jollof rice that tasted like mashed potatoes with lots of pepper, there was no taste at all, just pepper, the plantain was cut in big chunks and probably fried in too hot oil, so the middle was uncooked, the only salvageable thing was the chicken and even that was very dry, it really was a letdown, if you know me well, you would know i cant stand bad food, i love cooking and I'm a bigggg Food Critic. The desert was ok, it was some sort of cake drenched in Marula,  listened to Bez perform, and ended up sitting and gisting over drinks till we decided to call it a night.

Sunday is still a blur to me, i remember waking up, extremely sad that id be leaving, i hurriedly packed and got ready, i was seriously depressed, took a cab with my housemate to the airport and one other attendee and i told Boston Goodbye, we flew with the same crew that brought us from Toronto to Boston, and then again it ended up being the same plane from Toronto to ottawa, One of my best Flying experiences ever, very friendly staff, i recommend Porter airlines always.

this trip was all sorts of amazing, i plan to maybe come back in the summer, Boston met all my expectations and then some............

View from my Hotel Balcony :), good memories

PS: The Saturday event of the conference was a day of different panels on Africa, people talking giving keynote speeches and some networking sessions, i had earlier planned to attend the panels on Social Media, Entertainment and Entrepreneurship but i woke up that day and decided to screw all the boring talks for a day  on the town

PPS: My Camera came, its a Nikon P500, beautiful :D