Gamecock in Boston

Brandon Huynh UofSC

[bostoniangamecock]

[bostoniangamecock]

Went down to Connecticut to see some friends and they brought me to "Mohegan Sun" which is a casino/shopping center known for its crazy interior architecture and their very own Krispy Kreme donut factory. We even saw a life sized gingerbread house made from real cookies and icing. I went up to the house and took a brick (even though you're not suppose to) and took a bite out of it and to my surprise it was a real cookie. They had an arcade place but we didn't have time to check that out. Hopefully next time if I ever go down there again. B.

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Went out ice skating last Friday with some friends. They had a Boston Winter Wonderland set up by government center. Tons of people showed up to shop and skate in 20 degree weather. Managed to finesse two cups of hot chocolate for the price of one too. I'm not great at skating but at least I didn't fall on the ice. B.

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That’s Marc E. Bassy right there. I still can’t believe I got so close to see him. I’ve been listening to him since I was a sophomore in high school and he even performed the first song I heard by him called Lock It up. Truly a great experience. B.

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So many great concerts up here in Boston! Got to meet Elhae (Every Life Has An Ending). I originally went to see Marc. E Bassy but was surprised when he was an opening act. Been listening to these guys for several years now. Finally glad I got to meet them and see them perform live. B.

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"J.P. Licks" a famous brand of ice cream here in New England. This was my first time ever trying out their ice cream and it was pretty good as you can tell by my face and change of expression through the photos above. I asked the guy behind the counter what JP stands for and he said it stood for Jamaica plain where the very first store opened. This is right outside Boston towards the south west side of the city. They are known to have wild flavored of the month and one of them actually had noodles in the ice cream. I didn't get that one of course but I did get the extreme chocolate and a lot was going on in that ice cream. You could definitely tell the different types of chocolate inside. I'd definitely recommend anyone coming up here to try out J.P Licks. B.

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Went to see 21 Savage and Young Thug perform in Lowell MA on Friday night. It was a pretty crazy concert. I can't believe I got so close up to the stage though. Despite the several fights that broke out in the crowd and the endless sea of sweaty strangers and no sense of personal space. I'd have to say it was pretty fun. I apologize for not posting that much lately. I've been busy trying to move into the new apartment. I'll be posting more this week though. B.

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The semester is in full swing and the change of season has already begun. The days are getting colder except for today the temperature actually rose to something close to 80. Our campus got a visit from Vice President Joe Biden, although he didn’t really visit the campus, he just went to the JFK library right next to campus so people could not get on or off campus during this time. Aside from those things, my classes have been pretty good. I’m actually not that bad at Vietnamese as I thought I was. I got my exam back yesterday and got a B+ on it to my surprise. My professor says the way I speak Vietnamese is cute in which the entire class follows with some laughter and giggles and me sinking down in my seat. It’s been a while since I have taken a foreign language course. In fact I have not taken one since my 9th grade year when I took Spanish 3, so I’m still getting used to speaking and repeating what the instructor says as if we were in elementary school. Along with the Vietnamese class that I’m taking, I feel as if I’m still in Vietnam with the large population of Vietnamese in the area that I live in (Dorchester). I literally see at least one Vietnamese person every day when I’m walking around campus or around the neighborhood. Shifting gears, I’ve seemed to form a solid routine of studying and working out at the gym right after class. Staying active and getting that time to hit the books seems a lot easier up here where I would either stay on campus until I’ve finished studying or go home and relax and maybe fit in an hour or two of homework and studying. I’ve connected with a lot of the Asian students here on campus just because of the culture and large population here. I’ve also found that most of the people in my classes are much older than me. I’ve thought about the question” why is everyone so old here” and I put together the pieces and came to the conclusion that since this school is primarily a commuter school that most of the people here own cars or have jobs already. Plus, this school receives a lot of people transferring in or just coming back to school. Whenever I tell the people in my class my age they look surprised and they guess my age to be around 21-23 years old. I really can’t tell the age of some people that go here, when I think they are 19-20 they end up saying “nah, I’m 25″ or “I’m actually 23″. The vibe I get from the school is that everyone has that focused mentality where they have already matured and passed that young adult phase, They walk around with a notion of hard work and “make it count” because they really are going to school to get something out of it. Also, a lot of the people that go here are only taking a few classes, or are part time students. Despite many of the age differences, I feel connected with the students here and the smaller campus lifestyle of Umass -Boston. It’s pretty peaceful.

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These were the pictures I was talking about in my last post. I can’t get over this view of the city while I study. B.

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This last week has been pretty great as far as school goes. I’ve seem to found my favorite spot to study is on the 11th floor of the library which overlooks the harbor and the city. I’ll have to post a picture of it on here one day. I have my first exam coming up this Friday and it makes me nervous but hopefully with enough studying I’ll be fine. This picture here was taken on Saturday when my uncle (Ryu), his fiance(Natalie), Emily and I all went “Apple Picking” up north in Amesbury MA. I’ve never been apple picking, let alone heard of such a thing but it actually turned out pretty fun. It wasn’t fun hauling over 30lbs of apples back to the car though haha. The smile in the picture is actually just to cover up the amount of pain my hands were in as the plastic handles cut through my hand all while my entire back became drenched in sweat. I learned that apple picking can be hard, whether it was climbing 15ft to grab the perfect ones or how many different types of apples are in one place. The weather is getting colder, I’m already finding myself wearing hoodies and long pants as the nights get more into the mid 40s but besides that, the other exchange students and I here at umass boston have been hanging out a lot more. This past Thursday we went to a Uno pizzeria in symphony Boston to have some deep dish pizza because two of them were from Illinois so we had to get their Chicago deep dish pizza cravings fulfilled. It was a great experience to go and hang with them and learn about their experiences and explore more of Boston together. I hope that the future holds more of these little adventures. 

B.

[bostoniangamecock]

So After being in Boston for exactly one month today I figured it would be a good time to finally start up this blog. I can honestly say that this school and area has so many opportunities for me. My uncle Ryu has already showed me a ton of sites such as Castle Island, here in the picture is Plum Island, and countless other areas. I’m not used to it being cold already but its kind of nice to actually have a cooler fall this year as compared to the blazing temperatures of the South. The atmosphere here at the school is great, everyone is very genuine and welcoming and I have yet to meet one person on campus who is eager to help me out as I make my transition to Boston. Some of the other exchange students and I have already exchanged numbers and started hanging out a bit. I still haven’t gotten used to the Bostonian accent yet and quite honestly I feel like everyone who has the accent is automatically 10x tougher than they appear just because they have this accent. Everyone up here also talks extremely faster than those who live down south. I’ve been taking the “T” which is the subway they have here in Boston and it is actually really easy to navigate and really convenient. I do miss home, and my friends back at school. I got a lot planned this weekend though so I’ll have more to write about possibly on Sunday. 

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