Lounging in the thick wet grass in the middle of Boston Common, and serenaded by pious choral music, everyone enjoyed a light lunch, whether it was old-fashion packed sandwiches, ready-made Subway, or something from the quaint Black Seed Cafe across the street. While in the Cafe, Bobby used his time to solicit quarters for his stinky laundry ;P, as well as show-casing spoils of a successful yard sale, including a mini multi-purpose iron skillet — apparently good for whacking, as well as cooking. Meanwhile, Sebastian stole someone else’s smoothie *cough*…by “mistake”, he says.

 

After lunch came yummy chocolate cake. Lots of it. Some people had 1 slice. Others 2. Others 3. And then the really shameless ones had 4 (guilty). Bobby licked the knife.

 

***

Transactions: traded 1 sharpie for paper clip. traded 1 can of coke for 1 paper clip. passed up on a sunglass case. result: paper clips 2, cans of coke -2.

 

Conclusion: ???

***

 

VOLLEYBALL: the better than IMAX experience

 

Yes! Mary and Afsah learned how not to suck at volleyball (don’t punch: set…and please please please, don’t lace your fingers, you’ll break them…) Aaron managed to consistently strike striking Olympian-worthy poses (think “Thinker” without the chin thing, you know, something dramatic like that) while saving the ball from certain disaster. Alicia was totally awesome…as usual. Iliya treated the volleyball like a soccer -sorry, ‘foot’-ball (or as the Mexicans like to say it: futbol!). Bobby did amazingly fancy footwork — think of those ads where the person leaps up into the air and does a split jump or something — for some reason the volleyball kept trying to kill him. Sebastian and Andrew were dynamic duos once again (if it was Ultimate, they would have hammered, grrrrr): saving balls flying 20 yards away. Yes, ones that honestly shouldn’t be able to be saved. Christine showed off her ex-volleyball player skills. We all hilariously couldn’t manage to call for balls (e.g. Mary always assumed Sebastian would get it, which he does half the time).

 

Meander to the Hay market, hey hey hey…

 

WALL-E sold out :( at the last minute. But, a bunch of us went to Hay market instead! Neither Aaron, Mary, Sebastian or Andrew knew where it was. They decided to start walking in a semi-random direction. Luckily, they randomly ran into Ranbel, who saved her clueless TKD team mates and took them around the corner, where all proceeded to wade through the crowded hawking mayhem that are the fruit and vegetable stands of the hay market.

 

But the fruits were cheap and very sweet. Loaded with their finds, the very happy TKDers headed back to MIT and were, well…very happy.

 

5 hours later…

 

Karaoke: most awesome, but let’s just say that the details of what happened in that room, should stay in that room (unless someone else wants to elaborate). One overall comment: when it comes to singing, enthusiasm beats execution every time, and there was no shortage of either.

 

Hours later, our hoarse but euphoric group cozed up at Between Hours, sharing Asian slush. For some, it was a first time experience.

 

*sigh* No it’s not an Icee.

 

==========

It was really special to be able to just relax and spend time with each other. Thank you everyone for a truly fantastic day.Someone should post pictures to Omar’s gallery. I hope the rest of you will come hang out in the future.