Boston Extravaganzas!!!

Writers: Hannah Dirsa, Nhan Phan, Catherine Wu, Elina Yang

With lifted COVID-19 restrictions, Family Weekend was a much livelier experience compared to last year’s event and many students utilized it for a quick trip to Boston.

Some students took a trip to Boston on their own by filling out out-of town permission forms (OOTs,), and others went with the Office of Multicultural Affairs’ (OMA) organized trips.

Prep Catherine Chen discussed her Boston trip. “My experience there was amazing: my sister and her boyfriend took me around Newbury Street to shop and to the Boston Gardens as well as two art museums. I ate a lot of food like a lobster roll, cider donuts, Japanese food, and Italian food. We got to Boston by a rented car sharing app,” Chen said. “The memorable highlight of the trip was definitely Newbury Street. The food is amazing and diverse. I got plenty of shopping done for my dorm.”

Lower Catherine Zehner shared her experiences. “I drove down to Boston with my dad, who dropped me off with my mom, who was already there. I ate a lot of seafood.  I mostly shopped with my mom and caught up on sleep on a mattress that didn’t scream every time I moved,” Zehner said. “I’d say the most memorable part was the vintage market I went to, where I bought two rings and was persuaded by my mom not to buy many leather jackets. I had to fight a lot of indie college students for the good stuff.”

Similarly, lower Aaron Park had a fun and enjoyable trip into Boston with his parents and friends. “[My parents and I] went to a restaurant. We always go there in Boston. And then we came back and I just slept over at my parents’ hotel,” Park said. “Right after my parents dropped me off in Boston and then I was kind of alone for an hour. And then I met [my friends] Rex, Nhan, and Aidan and we hung out. We hit up a couple stores, then sprinted to the bus after taking my very first metro ride and came back and had a great day.” 

Additionally, many international students were also offered a chance to go to Boston during Family Weekend through an unsupervised Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) sponsored trip, chaperoned by OMA Dean Sherry Hernandez and International Student Coordinator Jennifer Smith.

“It was so awesome to bring 28 students to Boston with Mrs. Smith, knowing that family weekend can evoke a lot of different emotions for students,” Hernandez recalled. “Family weekend can be really super exciting. And for some who have very complicated situations, Family Weekend, again, is a whole host of feelings. And we wanted to make sure that we were supporting our students whose parents possibly are unable to come and visit them due to far flung places that their parents may be coming from.”

“Mrs. Smith has been offering this trip for many, many years for our international students. And it was sad that we were unable to offer it last year due to the pandemic. Again, this is another sign of brighter skies ahead. The ability to bring students on a field trip to Boston to be able to do whatever they want with friends that really meant something for us to be able to offer,” Hernandez continued.

Upper Ale Murat took part in the OMA trip to Boston. “It was really fun! We went to a diner called the South End Diner or something like that. I ate two chocolate chip pancakes and a burger. And then after that we went to the Elizabeth Stewart Gardner Museum. It's my favorite museum. And then we went to Newbury Street and shopped for a little bit. Afterwards, we went to the Boston Gardens, we got some coffee and then we just went back to our meeting spot.”

“I think I would've wanted it to last longer, to be honest. Because we got there around 10:30 and, personally, when I go to Boston or a city or something like that, I wish I could have had more time to maybe go to the movies or something like that. But with that said, I think it was a great idea. I think we should push for more events like this where we get out of this campus and it's not extremely complicated to do it,” Murat added.

Prep Shiqiao Zhang went to Boston for the first time this Family Weekend. “I roamed the streets of Boston with a few friends, and we had a big meal at a Chinese hot pot restaurant.  We also visited a few stores and almost purchased Among Us merchandise (but failed…),” Zhang said. “It created a sense of family for international students whose families were not able to visit them and was hence beneficial to the strengthening of bonds in the community.”

Senior Dada Grochalova, who was looking forward to this trip weeks before, remarked, “It was very nice, very fascinating. I really enjoyed it. And I saw, like, I really enjoyed the different atmosphere in the city. It was very different from the town!”

“So, I went to Chinatown with a couple of people. We ate in this very fancy, very cool restaurant,” Grochalova added. “And then we went to see the Aquarium, which was so beautiful. And then we just visited a bunch of shops and ended the day nicely!” 

A Boston local, senior Jimmy Wu, strongly recommended a Boston trip for future students. "There’s a lot of places you can go to, for shopping on Newbury Street, for great food everywhere, and just for some time away from school," he said.

Chen had similar feelings. “I would definitely recommend a trip to Boston. It’s a nice getaway from Exeter every once in a while and it’s especially beautiful during this time of year. There’s plenty of tourist attractions and iconic foods to try.”

“It’s so refreshing to be surrounded by people who aren’t your teachers or classmates and have a new environment to explore. Exeter can be a bubble, and it’s nice to step out of it, even if only for a weekend,” Zehner concluded.