and now my first 62 hours in cambridge have just passed and i am not doing too badly. i thought that if i could just get out of bed and put on a pretty dress and go out and explore it would take my mind off homesickness, but already i'm finding it too cold to step out in short sleeves, much less a dress. (there is a canadian girl on my floor who scoffs at the weather as if where we are is really somewhere in the jungles of brunei and not practically in siberia and gives me advice on how to stay warm in the winter.) on the other hand it'll only get colder as the days pass, so i forced myself to dig out a tri-coloured shawl that addy had given me, knotted it ard my shoulders, and struck out on oxford street following some directions from von to boca grande on mass ave and garfield, where he promises i will eat lavishly for under $5. when i got there decided what i needed was not burritos and continued up the road until i saw a cafe that was open (not many were open on labour day): it is called sweetea cafe and serves blended loose-leaf teas, vietnamese beef noodles and what von informs me are called bahn mi: crisp bread and some sort of pate and cold cuts, with crisp carrot slices and cucumbers and sweet onion and some kind of light mayonnaise. i don't even like onion usually, and i ate it all. the tea i ordered was green chai: mix of assam and sencha flavoured with vanilla and cinnamon. the girl at the counter turned out to be a mandarin speaker, so we chatted for a while and she sold me a bag of loose leaf tie kuanyin. after that there was enough daylight and i thought the temperature was still tolerable so strolled down mass ave on way back to everitt. found a grocery that was open. i could wait till thursday to go to the haymarket to buy fruit, so simply got some cookies and tea bags so that i can have people over to sit. and then passed by a video rental so went in and got twelve angry men (which poach and i had thought of watching a few weeks ago) and 1st season will and grace to pass the odd hours.

agenda for new day: i'm going to get a bank account, a library card and fresh flowers for my room.