Scene and heard

My stay in North Quincy will come to an end on March 30th. I looked at 5 places.

I found Dorchester to be grey and dead. Although the apartment and room I looked at were nice, as was the woman doing the renting, I really disliked the neighbourhood.

Porter Square is a nice area with lots of life. I looked at a basement apartment which was a sublet – no roommate. Obviously it was more expensive, and it would have been noce to have my own place. But to be honest, it was a bit dumpy, so I passed.

I went from there to Kendall, which is the MIT campus. It’s a bit like the NYU campus in that almost everything is owned by the University, but the area has zero character in my assessment. The apartment I saw was lovely and the room also. And Darlene, who lives there, is a great lady who I know I would have got on famously with. But after seeing a place in Brookline this lunchtime, I could have moved nowhere else.

For as similar as the place is to Brooklyn in name, that is how dissimilar it is in every other respect. And this is nothing against either place. The main street is lined with lots of interesting shops. There is a feel that I will perhaps be able to describe after I have been there a short while. I will certainly post pictures to illustrate.

The apartment I will be moving into is no great shakes, although the street it is on is lovely. My room is a decent size and purely functional. There is no common area although two other guys live in the place. I will have 2-5 months in an apartment with no TV, which is fine, because I have taken to being in my room here without any. I shall have my music, correspondence, blogging, researching/surfing and perhaps, the writing project I mentioned a week or so ago but have been too busy to even think about since. But as functional as the lodging, it will be worth it to spend some time in such a great area. Brookline is definitely not a place you go home to only when your evening is over.