Trip: Boston + Cambridge, Massachusetts · Sep 14–15, 2024 · solo · mentoring at HackMIT, then on to New York

This was my first time ever in the US. I’d just joined an AI company in New York, and on the way there I stopped in Boston for a weekend to mentor at HackMIT, the yearly student hackathon at MIT. I was honestly a bit hesitant to go at all. Early on the morning of the flight I called Papa and Mama and asked if I should really go. They told me to go, first to Boston and then to New York, and I’m so glad they did.

Getting there

I left India at 3 AM on September 14 and flew Emirates, with a stop in Dubai. Altogether it was about 20.5 hours of flying, and I landed in Boston at around 3 PM the same day. Economy had ten seats in a row, and the food was really good. I sat next to a lady called Janet, from Jamaica, who gave me her number before she got off.

The plane and both airports were full of people from everywhere: Germany, Africa, India, all over.

I’d planned to review code or watch a documentary on the flight. None of that happened. I mostly just sat there taking it all in.

Somewhere over the Atlantic.

From the airport I took an Uber to the Residence Inn in Kendall Square, Cambridge, a few minutes from MIT. (The first driver picked up someone else instead of me, but Uber refunded it, so all good.) The room was really nice, a proper two-person room. I came up with a little rule for prices that first day: multiply the dollar price by 15 and you get roughly what it would cost back home. A $3 packet of Lay’s came to about 45–50 rupees, which felt about right.

Sunday morning at the Residence Inn.

MIT and HackMIT

After resting a bit at the hotel, I went to MIT. It’s a proper big university, kind of like an IIT, with students cycling around between buildings. There are huge 3D printing labs, big libraries and student centres. I couldn’t go inside all of them, and I kind of wish I’d explored more.

My mentor shifts were meant to start at 1 PM on Saturday, but I was still in the air then, so I got there at around half past seven in the evening and stayed till almost eleven. I walked in past the big columns under the dome, lit up at night.

MIT at night.

HackMIT itself was in the Johnson Ice Rink, turned into one huge hall: rows and rows of tables full of students on laptops, a big screen at the front, and the red rink walls all around. Outside the hall, the sponsors had their booths set up with QR codes and laptops.

HackMIT, Saturday night.

The sponsor booths.

I also saw MIT’s athletics Hall of Fame, with people who’d done great things in everything from skydiving to water polo to basketball. I really liked that there’s a strong sports culture alongside the studying.

The students were really nice and super chill. During a talk, people sat with their legs up on another chair, cross-legged, however they liked. Nobody minded. It’s up to you how you spend your time there, and I thought that was really cool. There were students from all over the world.

For the mentoring itself, people didn’t ask a lot of questions, so I went round to the tables to check in. At one table I went to confirm that their issue was fixed, and it turned out they actually had a different problem, so I sat down and helped them with that.

Walking around MIT, part of me wished I could study there. I studied computer science and learned a lot of it on my own, but if I’d been doing something like mechanical engineering that needs a lot of hardware, the labs and the professors here would make such a difference. Until then I’d never really considered doing a master’s. After seeing MIT, I started to.

Sunday morning: my first American breakfast

I was up at 3 AM recording a voice note about the journey so far. On Sunday morning I was back at HackMIT for my second mentoring shift, and after that, hungry, I walked to a bright little café near where I was staying, with a long counter, wooden bar stools and big windows.

I didn’t know what to order, so I asked the waiter what was good, and ended up with a breakfast hash and a peanut butter smoothie. It was huge. I was full after less than a third of it, and I couldn’t finish the smoothie at all. It came to $21.75 with the tip. This was my first breakfast in the US, and I could already see myself getting used to it.

The breakfast hash.

Walking around Boston

I had most of Sunday before my flight to New York. At about 11 I took an Uber across the river to Park Street, on the edge of Boston Common, and walked from there. The Common had an old carousel going, with families queueing for it.

The carousel on Boston Common.

The first thing I noticed was how clean and well kept everything was. Even the streets had separate marked lanes and meters just for parking, and there seemed to be good public transport. I wished I could take a video of everything I saw; there were so many cool things I wanted to capture.

I saw my first ever Cybertruck in real life, gliding off around a corner without any sound at all.

I stopped at Tatte Bakery just to see what it was like. It was packed, with families and kids and people just going about their Sunday.

The Public Garden

I walked through the Boston Public Garden. Everything was so green and well looked after. People were out exercising in shorts and t-shirts, and walking their dogs, who were all very well behaved.

A lady came up and asked if I could take a photo of her, her friend and two kids. Afterwards she told me I was so nice. It was a small thing, but it felt really good to hear.

The lagoon in the Public Garden.

What I kept noticing all day was how free people seemed. They wore what they wanted and did what they wanted, and no one was judging them. No one minded what I was doing either. That felt huge.

Boston Public Library

Then on through Back Bay to Copley Square. The Boston Public Library was so huge. There were lots of computers, lots of tables where people could sit by themselves and read, and even little cafés in the corners. Anyone can just walk in and use all of it. That really stayed with me.

Inside the Boston Public Library.

On the way back I went into St. Cecilia’s, a church on Belvidere Street just round the corner, where Mass was going on. Inside it was all gold and pink, with stained glass above the altar.

The harbour

From there I took an Uber down to Long Wharf on the harbour. It was really beautiful, and so clean. I really liked Boston, even compared to New York, and I remember wishing I could just stay there for a while.

Long Wharf.

After that I walked up to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. It was busy: a balloon artist, stalls, pizza counters, and crowds in the square in front of the old red-brick hall.

Faneuil Hall.

Then I walked past the Old State House and took a ride back to MIT for the last hour of HackMIT, before heading to the airport. I got one last photo in front of the athletics department’s big red MIT wall.

On to New York

At some point that day I rode in a taxi with a driver from Algeria. He told me he’d come to America about twenty years ago, and his wife came from Algeria too. Once you come here, he said, it’s hard to go back.

That evening I flew American Eagle from Boston to JFK, leaving at 5:34 PM and landing just before 7. The next day I was at the office in New York. The whole thing moved so fast I barely had time to sit and think about how I was feeling. Boston was a really good first day in America.

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Notes to myself

• Take more videos and voice notes. I kept wishing I’d recorded more.
• The “multiply by 15” rule worked pretty well for prices that first week.
• American breakfast portions are big. Order one thing, or share.
• Go back to Boston with more time, and actually go inside the MIT labs and libraries.