Much like my life in Europe...

...is my life in Boston. Remember all the tales I told from my time in Ukraine? Tales about buses and walking a lot and carrying my groceries? I remember those days. And, now that I'm in Boston, those days are back in action (to a certain extent).

Brad and I made the decision not to bring our cars to Boston. MUCH discussion went into that decision, and we think it was a wise one. At least for now. The public transit system in Boston is very good, and having a car is rather a hassle. Our apartment is very conveniently located SO CLOSE to three different train lines and a bus stop. Don't get me wrong- we still walk to get to all of these stops, but they're relatively close. A few blocks, tops. The best part, in my totally-grown-up opinion, is the fact that our fare cards can be zipped up in our wallets, and the scanner will still read them. I just flip my Vera Bradley wristlet against the scanner and it pings me in. Fun Boston Fact: the transit system is called the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA), or, more commonly, the T. Fun Boston Fact #2: the permanent fare cards are called Charlie cards.

There are several major train lines that run through Boston; they are labeled by colors (red, blue, green, orange, and silver). The only one that runs our direction is the green line, but 3 different branches of the green line (B, C, and D) come this way, meaning we can take any of them to get home. The B line actually runs right next to us. So, there's a nice element of convenience.

However, doing things like grocery shopping aren't always the most convenient. Our grocery store takes us a few blocks of walking plus 3 train stops to get to. It's not bad on the way there, but things look infinitely different when you're loaded down with grocery bags on the way back. I think I blogged a few times in Ukraine about how you really only buy what you can carry, as opposed to getting everything you want all at one time. If Brad and I go together, we can get quite a bit accomplished, but it's not the same as getting everything you want and loading it into the car. Today, for example, Brad had two large reusable bags (because that's what you do here) plus one plastic bag from the store, and I had a large reusable bag, a small reusable bag, and a plastic bag from the store. Riding the train with it wasn't too difficult, but walking the 3 or so blocks back home (on a slight incline) wasn't too fun.

The upside of it all is that we live in Boston, which is cool no matter who you are. And, we get more exercise out of necessity.