We walked along the same street to the frog pond and the public garden which were at their ’sampled’ best in the hues of the fall. It was magical. I recommend watching “The Untold Scandal” (a movie shown at the 3rd MIT Korean Film Festival) or “The House of Flying Daggers” (a Chinese movie) to compare and imagine the scenic beauty of New England fall which treated our eyes right then. It was surreal, at least for me.

We then dodged around a couple of streets to catch a commuter rail to Brandeis University where one of our friend studies. A sudden plan. I guess we were up for an atypical grad life routine. Not just was the train journey awesome again capturing our minds in the splendid display of fall colors, the stay at Brandeis was wonderful too, with a special gathering of International students at the Heller Center that evening. The theme was “celebration of central and south central Asia’s cultural heritage”. I was thinking, you must be insanely lucky to get invited to such a nice event. International students from that School wore traditional dresses, performed traditional dances, sang songs, presented their country’s panorama in a stupefying display. It was the first time I met people from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet as well as the Ivory Coast, Ghana, South Africa and many more in one single social mixer of an academic department. As would be a natural consequence, we danced after the formal closing of the event well into the night till our legs ached.

After seeking refuge at our friends place for the night, we head back to Quincy market to taste some good cuisine as well check out street performances and bustling Boston. Boston Monster March event was also taking place at the nearby Government center. And I tell you, a simple walk along the Charles can make you come back to your burrow after an adventure if you are careless enough and it is a weekend.

The use of athleague system, which is an online player and event management system has made the logistics of scheduling games, contacting players and many others things very convenient. This had been used last time too, and they liked it so much they are using it again. The sports that were played this fall (based on my snooping in the athleague leagues section online) include tennis, badminton, dodge ball, flag football and outdoor soccer. I personally took part as a part of the Tang Badminton C team with some very entertaining matches to play (needless to say I won most of the times ). I think the EECS Badminton team also enjoyed the matches they played. In winter, we’ll see the basketball tourney along with air pistol and ice hockey events, and then in spring we’ll have indoor soccer, softball, team tennis, table tennis (ping pong), ultimate frisbee, unihoc and volleyball (phew!). For a more accurate list and other details check this out. For those who missed out the fall IMs, there are several levels at which one can participate (even if you have never been close to the real sporting equipment other than seeing them on TV!) which range from serious (level A) to the beginner (level C). Though officially the sign up deadlines for winter are over, if you are still interested, you can talk to someone who has signed up and show up during the matches.

If sports is not a perfect match for you but you still want to get involved in a group activity, sign up for the dance workshops being held every week since the beginning of the term (sorry for breaking old news!). They are a great way to stay in shape and get some exercise done, with the bonus of learning something new (if I were you, I would certainly be game ).