The English Puritans who laid the foundation stone for the most important city on the East Coast of America in 1630 seemed not to be thinking for themselves. Boston has a terrible climate – unbearably cold for more than half the year and unbearably hot and humid for three of the summer months. And, again, everyone flocks to what they say is the most European city in the USA.
"If you don't like the weather in Boston, wait 15 minutes" - Mićo Pajović tells me while we drink beer in a pub at Harvard. He was the first to graduate with an average grade of ten at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Podgorica, but he was forced to valorize his talent in Boston instead of in Podgorica.
And indeed, here the sun and clouds change every fifteen minutes, just as the ambiance changes in every other street, as if they are not in the same city.
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Cambridge is an hour's walk or three subway stops away from Boston. Lara lives in it, on Harvard Street. Judging by the number of PhDs per capita, it is the smartest city in the world. I pass the Harvard campus every day, but in vain – I don't feel any smarter…
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It is not easy here, as it used to be, to achieve the "American dream". In Boston alone, there are 152 thousand students from all over the world, the best in their countries. All students from Harvard, MIT, Tufts and other Boston universities and colleges are ambitious, smart and determined to succeed and spend their lives in the promised land. And America sucked them in like the force of earth's gravity. They will take the best of their brains and give back a little, but much more than what they would have received where they came from.
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In America, employees generally eat quickly, on their feet, and their main meal is around seven in the evening, when they return from work. In addition, they must have a will of steel to resist the varied and delicious food that tempts them at every corner. No wonder obesity is America's problem. It's really not easy to maintain a decent line here.
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"It's time to reap," Lara told me when I congratulated her after the Tufts PhD ceremony.
Suddenly, a mote caught my eye...
* * *
The first association when Americans are mentioned is - practicality. They do not philosophize too much and strive to simplify and make their lives as easy as possible, always and everywhere.
For example, a double bath curtain is on the same rod – one goes down into the bath, the other outside. And when you shower, not a single drop spills past the tub.
* * *
Every day we walk along the banks of the Charles River, which is about a hundred meters away from Harvard Street. The charms of this calm, wide river, it seems to me, are mostly enjoyed by kayakers, geese and ducks.
Last time I was in Boston, I admired the dog owners who patiently picked up their pet's poop. Now the banks of the Charles are in disarray. Finally, I thought, that in something Americans are like us - they are not persistent. But it was explained to me that as far as dogs are concerned, everything remains the same, but aggressive geese defecate wherever they arrive.
Although, it won't be long: America will catch up with them too.
* * *
The words that are used the most here are "sorry", "thank you", "really?" And everything, from the outside, bursts with refinement and good manners. Until you scratch a little.
Several chess tables have been set up in the central square of Cambridge and it is crowded, especially when it is sunny. Since I undeservedly won a young man to whom, in a better position, the flag fell, across from me sat down a lively thistle. I once allowed him not to play the piece he touched, but when he wanted to again I warned him, because I was in the black, that he had to play a move with the hunter he touched. He made a fool of himself, turned to the kibbutzers asking them if he really touched the hunter. Since no one answered him, he played a move with another piece as if nothing had happened. When, in the position I had won, the flag fell and I had to get up and give way to another player, I told him a few pearls of the Serbian language.
Realizing roughly what I was telling him, he just laughed, and it was even harder for me...
* * *
In the city on the Charles River, I mostly read, write, walk, eat, sleep... which means that I also like Bar - Boston.
* * *
Every day in Cambridge I browse through the sites I browse daily and in the Bar. All my thoughts, apart from the scattered immediate family, are related to the people and streets of my city. Here, I feel the most stupid between 21 pm and midnight, because at that time it is between 03 and 06 am in Bar. All my relatives and friends are sleeping, the Radio Bar is also sleeping, it is dark in the "Topolica" hall, the streets are empty and nothing is happening. And I, on this side of the Atlantic, am awake and unable to materialize my city in my mind...
* * *
Only in Montenegro do I feel at home. In every other country I am a stranger. So why would I hide in front of various "patriots" and let them make it according to their own standards and archetypes. We should fight, by all means, for a Montenegro that will be according to everyone's standards: a democratic, fair and legal state.
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Boston is an extremely expensive city. A regular sandwich costs ten dollars, and two scoops of ice cream do not cost less than seven dollars. That life is more expensive than it used to be is also shown by the fact that five years ago everything here was $4,99, now it's $5,99...
* * *
I haven't been nicer in a long time than here in Boston. I will write about where I have been and enjoyed in the next blog. Lara and Nik fall in love with us, we are extremely comfortable with our friends Zaganjor, Pajović, Videnović...
But man cannot escape from himself anywhere, neither to America nor to the mouse hole. And he carries everything he has with him everywhere: his temper, and real and imagined illnesses...
Bonus video:
