Chirky

10. Street sweepers! They were golf-cart sized vehicles, with a ten-foot long, 12-inch diameter vacuum hose dangling off to the side. One drove past us on the street, and when we saw it, we stopped and stared, having never seen a riding vacuum cleaner before. We watched as the driver maneuvered the hose to pick up random pieces of trash on the street and the sidewalk, so dumbfounded by its presence that we forgot to take a picture. Believe me though, it was awesome.

(Stock photography)

9. The women have fun colored coats. I actually made it a game with Roger to point out every interesting color and pattern that we saw: fuschia, turquoise, lime green, lime green and cream hounds tooth, pale yellow, cyan, hot pink...and they didn't look like coats that some people buy in off-colors just because they were cheaper. They were actually stylish AND cute! If I ever move to a colder climate, I'm going to need a separate budget category for such coats. As it is right now, I think I own two: one black and one brown. There's not much of a market for wool in Texas.

8. The city was rich in culture, the arts and history. (Particularly compared to Dallas, which is the equivalent of a flat slab of concrete.) The colonial architecture was absolutely beautiful!

(This isn't like the buildings in Dallas that they build new to look old. It really was built a century ago. Or more. Come to think of it, I really don't know when it was built. I just thought it was pretty.)

7. Fresh fruit sold on the street! And flowers! I felt SO European. Except I've never been to Europe, so perhaps I felt SO other country-ish.

6. Public transportation: cheap, safe, and entertaining. Not only did I have a legitimate excuse to take part in one of my favorite pastimes, staring at people, but I read great advertising while waiting for the red line:

5. The homeless people were so friendly. And clean. And I wasn't scared of them, like I am in Dallas, mostly because they didn't lurch toward me and gnarl their teeth.

4. Fire escapes! I have never seen a fire escape in person before, and I was so thrilled to see my first one that I took a picture of it:

(Me, upon seeing the first one: "Look, Roger, look! A fire escape! Like in the movies!" Subsequently, I also pointed out every other fire escape I saw, just because it was a fire escape. We don't have these in Dallas. We just let people burn.)

3. I felt my intelligence increase by at least 10 degrees just because I was in the city. When Roger and I walked around Harvard, I felt maybe 20 degrees more intelligent. Roger and I both bought books from the Harvard Book Store. I chose a science-esque book, and finished reading it within three days of coming home. You can expect me to start sharing random excerpts soon.

2. All the women have thin legs. I believe this is directly related to reason number one.

1. I was able to walk nearly everywhere I went! (This is good, since I don't like to drive.)

(Roger on the Freedom Trail: Notice the stylish headphone guides we wore, which screamed, "I AM A TOURIST! MUG ME!" Fortunately, we weren't mugged.)