This was my last week here at the CfA. I mainly just finished up my projects and cleaned up my code and my office. One thing I really liked about this week was that the commute was about one hour shorter. Since I was staying in Belmont instead of Brookline I only had to take a 20 minute bus ride to the CfA instead of taking the subway. The extra sleep was pretty great to say the least.
I also went to the Museum of Fine Arts during the week. It was free for people under 18 on Wednesday so I felt obliged to see it. It closed very late, at 9:45 PM on the day I went, so I was able to leave the CfA at around 5:15 and see the museum for a solid three hours and a half. The museum was pretty amazing having three large stories filled with ancient and modern art. It was probably the nicest museum I have ever seen. They had a massive collection of ancient Greek coins, which really interested me, as each coin symbolized some historic event in Greek history.
What surprised me was that I was one of the only people at the entire museum that day. I guess it was because it was a Wednesday night, but still, that museum was really something. They had an ancient Egyptian exhibit with entire sarcophagi, with the hieroglyphics still intact too. Also, the amount of gold there was just mind blowing. There must have been many pounds of it, that would be worth millions even without the objects’ historical significance.
At the CfA I finished my 69 model spectras, which is pretty exciting. I also went on a tour of a different section of the building where people build some of the instruments that go into space. It’s a pretty amazing process as there is so much equipment that is used to build the devices with nearly no error. I’m very happy about my progress with Python over these six weeks. It’s the greatest feeling when you no longer need to google how to do everything and you’re able to do it entirely independently.
Frank and I in his telescope lab
I’m going to miss Boston as it proved to be quite a nice city, and definitely beat my expectations. The accents were great, and were rather enjoyable to listen to too, especially the ‘A’s. I’m probably going to miss the ice cream the most though as the ice cream was very, very good.
Overall, my time in Boston has been an amazing, once in a lifetime learning experience. I could not have asked for anything more perfect. My host family was great, the CfA was awesome, and Gonzalo was a great teacher. Thanks to Sarah Holbrooke everyone at Pinhead and everyone else involved for making this a truly memorable experience.
Gonzalo and I in front of a building on the Harvard Campus
Elliot — So glad you had such a wonderful experience over the summer!
Great aunt Gloria