What Was the Business in Boston?

Yesterday we arrived to Washington, but that's still a story that I cannot write about, since we haven't had enough time to go around the city yet. We are staying here at Hotel Helix, which is a relatively inexpensive hotel with some special character. It has some retro and pop elements combined in its interior design. I like it a lot, but it might not be for everyone.


In short, Boston was a great experience. It has seemingly gone through some major "face-lifting" during the past years. It has changed to be more similar to those cities in Europe with pedestrian walkways and sidewalk-café's. Furthermore, the public transportation worked really well, so getting around in the city and its nearby towns was very easy. City also felt very safe, but of course that's easily the case when three ugly looking guys are walking around the city together. :)


During the four days that we stayed in Boston, we managed to do surprisingly lot.. of walking at least. :) We roamed around in city center and most of the sights available in Boston, for example those available on the Freedom trail.


We had also a meeting at MIT's Media Lab with Hayes Raffle, who works there as a researcher. The meeting went very well and we are trying to find some meaningful ways to collaborate during the coming fall and spring. The Media Lab was an experience of its own right, it definitely looked something very, very different from our own work environment there in Joensuu. We also visited one of Ivy league's university campus, namely the Harvard. Things looked *very* nice there, but I couldn't help thinking there, whether too much heritage and traditions will prohibit one being novel in ways of doing things and ways of thinking? Or was it just pure envy speaking? ;)


P.s. While we visited the JFK library, we heard some interviews from JFK himself and saw some news headlines of his time. Interestingly, things seemed very same then as they are nowadays. JFK was speculating about the reasons, why Americans are not liked in Middle East region and newspapers showed need for UN troops in Congo. Talking about remaking the history, huh?

P.s. 2 I have some nice pictures taken from Boston, but I shall include them to this post later as now we are going to hunt for some breakfast. Perhaps something from Dunkin' Donuts? :D EDIT(August 8, 2006): Pictures are now available.

P.s. 3 Phew.. Temperatures are now melting hot. It's going to be around 100 fahrenheits (around 40 celcius!) today and it will continue like that at least throughout this week. Some serious hydration needed, I presume. ;)