Tag Archives: winter

Winter in New England

Jennifer Khirallah, Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. candidate

If you’re not used to winter in Boston, or even if you are, it can be pretty tough to bear sometimes. Below freezing weather, unexpected snowstorms, and high winds can lead to some negative feelings about the season. However, there are some really fun things to do in the Boston area that only can be done when it’s cold outside!

Whether you’re an avid ice skater or a novice, like me, ice skating at Frog Pond in Boston Common is a wonderful experience! Bring your own skates or rent them there, buy some snacks or hot chocolate to keep warm, and skate for as long as you like! They also offer college nights from 6:00-9:00 pm every Tuesday, which gives half-price admission with your student ID! On February 7, 2023, Tufts University students get free admission! Check out more information! For another fun skating spot, head to the Rink at 401 Park for skating and a beer at Trillium Brewery.

If you’re not into ice skating, there are a ton of nearby options for skiing and snowboarding! Wachusett Mountain in Massachusetts, and Mount Sunapee and Gunstock Mountain in New Hampshire are some notable local spots. They offer a variety of different slopes for all skill levels, equipment rentals, and lessons.

For warmer experiences, head to some of the many restaurants in Boston that offer igloo dining! Enjoy dinner or drinks from your own private igloo. Check out the DoubleTree Suites by Hilton in Cambridge or Envoy’s igloos and Ice Boxes in the Seaport for these fun spots to hang out with friends!

Winter in Boston can be a beautiful experience if you find fun things to do with friends and bundle up when your outside!

Why I chose Boston (and you should too!)

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Written by Ece Gulsan, Chemical Engineering Ph.D. student

If you are new to Boston and have no idea what to expect from this beautiful city, chances are high that you are already confused because there are many different views about Beantown. Some people will tell you about the wicked cold winters and some will claim there is nothing to do here, but a considerable amount of Bostonians will try to prove to you that Boston is the best city in the entire world. For me, it was love at first sight. The historic red brick buildings, Fenway Park, beautiful public gardens, wide variety of restaurants, and iconic identity stole my heart. I had a chance to live in many different countries, but Boston is by far the only place I feel home away from home.

First of all, it is not Beantown: it is Braintown. The greater Boston area hosts many world-class colleges, which means thousands of smart, well educated, and intellectual people live within a couple of miles. While hanging out at your favorite brewery, you can meet someone who might be curing cancer for a living. You will learn a lot from your upstairs neighbor who is getting her Ph.D. in a comparative study of Turkish and Japanese Occidentalism. Or you can see a stranger reading a book about Marxist Histography on your subway (locally called the T) ride back home. Everybody is passionate about something, and the variety of their interests is mind blowing. Boston is obviously the learning capital of the world; living in such city always challenges you intellectually and keeps you stimulated.

Speaking of people, you might have heard that Bostonians are not as friendly as people from other parts of the country – which I strongly disagree with. Most of them are nice, say “thank you” and “excuse me,” and are happy to help you whenever you need. They say “stay warm!” during the winter as a way of saying “goodbye”, and I think this is the cutest and the most Bostonian thing ever! They just do not always look friendly from the outside, because you cannot possibly smile and survive a New England winter at the same time. Everybody minds their own business, which is pretty fair, but once you get to know people, they’re kind and helpful.

Fun fact: GQ once ranked Boston as the “Worst Dressed Town in America”. In my defense, I love wearing my Red Sox cap and Tom Brady jersey together, knowing that people will not judge me by what I wear, but by who I am. Plus, in the winter, it is way too cold to care about what I wear anyways. The first thing my Bostonian friends taught me was that layers are your best friends.

You will always see people going for a run early in the morning, and a snow storm is never an excuse to skip leg day. My 6:00 a.m. Rise and Shine yoga classes are always almost full, and I think this is refreshing. Boston locals are very health-conscious and it is very inspiring to live in such a community.

If you enjoy trying out new restaurants and bars, the city has a lot to offer. From authentic Vietnamese to hearty Mediterranean cuisine, you will find anything that you are looking for. Still not satisfied? New York City, the gastronomic capital of the East Coast, is just a bus ride away.

You will never run out of things to do in Boston. If you are interested in art, the museums have a lot to offer, not only because they have magnificent collections, but also because they organize a lot of great events regularly. Check out Third Thursdays at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where you can learn how to make a Venetian mask or craft a Caribbean cocktail. Go to movie nights on Fridays at the Museum of Fine Arts. Are you more into self-development? Attend public courses organized by local universities. Attend Harvard’s mini-med school program for the public and participate in discussions with brilliant professors. Become a member of MIT Waste Alliance and meet ecologically conscious people.

If you need a change on weekends, Boston’s location is hard to beat. Do you want to see fall foliage? Head to Vermont for a romantic weekend getaway, and stop by an apple farm on your way back home to pick some tart Granny Smiths. Do you want to ski? The mountains you hiked in September in New Hampshire turn out to be a fantastic ski resort. Is it starting to get warmer up here? Hop on the commuter rail to visit Rockport and take long walks right by the ocean. Is it beach time already? Cape Cod is waiting for you with its beautiful coastlines and amazing seafood, only a two-hour drive from Boston.

Before I conclude, let me describe my perfect Sunday in my favorite city. Have a long brunch in Cambridge with your loved ones, and head to the Harvard Book Store to wander around bookshelves. Go downstairs for the used books section, leaving your expectations behind. Once I ended up buying a book about the feelings of octopuses, and now I know way too much about them. Stop by Tatte Bakery to grab a cup of coffee, and find a spot to enjoy your new-old book. Visit Somerville Farmer’s Market on your way home to buy some fresh produce for the week.

You never know what you will find in Boston, but I am confident that you will love it here as much as I do. If you’re very lucky, you might even meet philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky while waiting for your coffee (trust me, I’ve met him!).

Surviving a Boston Winter

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Written by Alia Wulff, Cognitive Psychology Ph.D. student

The seasons changed on October 12^th. It was a long, hot, and humid Boston summer but that morning I woke up and the air was crisp and cool. My windows were open, so a breeze drifted in and made me shiver. I was almost cold. As I am from Washington, I am not used to the summers here and I welcomed fall with open arms. Fall is bright leaves and apples and frosty mornings that give way into drizzly afternoons. Fall is beautiful. But fall means winter is not far behind. And winter can be a nightmare.

In my hometown the average winter temperature hovers around 40°F. It’s very rainy all the time. The frost in the morning rarely lasts past 11am. Once in a great while we will get six inches of snow, but we mostly just get a light dusting a couple times in February. Boston is a whole other world. Average temperatures can get below freezing. When rain happens, it comes down in icy sheets that soak through to the bone. Snow falls constantly during the winter. Huge piles of snow build up along the roads and sidewalks, never fully melting between snowfalls. It could not be more different from the drizzly, cool winters I was used to. But I survived my first winter and with my second right around the corner, I want to spread the knowledge so everyone knows that winter is nothing to be afraid of.

The first thing I did was buy a winter coat. This may seem obvious. but it’s important to mention. One week into freezing wind and icy rain, I went to the store and bought a poufy, waterproof, and probably unnecessarily expensive coat. I wear that, pop on some gloves and a soft hat, and I can make it through anything.

I also started to plan my travel around the weather. If you want to leave the office at 6pm, but it’s only 5pm and the weather forecast calls for snow in 30 minutes, just leave right away. Keeping your schedule flexible is important in making sure you avoid being forced to huddle in the doorway of a Dunkin’ until the snow/hail/ice nightmare that is currently falling from the sky goes away.

However, when you do get caught in a storm (and you will eventually get caught in a storm, no matter how much you try to avoid it), be prepared. Keep extra socks and maybe even extra shoes in your office. Make sure you have hot cocoa, tea, or coffee to clutch while you are drying out. Always have a clean set of pajamas waiting for you at home so you can go straight from a hot shower into warm pajamas and then snuggle into bed. There is nothing like getting home after a long day in the office, soaked to the bone because you forgot to check the weather before you left and got stuck in a torrential downpour, and jumping into bed with a cup of tea and your laptop to watch an entire season of Parks and Recreation. Without winter I wouldn’t have that experience, which brings me to my final point.

Find the things you love about the winter. The first snowfall is beautiful. Everything is clean and soft and silent. The world stops for a moment as the flakes gently float to the ground. Rain makes the best sound when it hits the windows, sharp and crisp and calming. When I leave my house early in the morning the ice shines in the sun. It’s like the world turns into a winter palace, elegant and glowing. Rabbits love the snow. The athletic fields behind Boston Avenue always have pawprints on the otherwise untouched fields of snow.

Winter is cold and wet and always signals the beginning of “maybe this is a cold, maybe it’s the flu, maybe I’ll just have a stuffy nose and sore throat for the rest of my life” season, but it’s not the end of the world. For those of you who come from Wisconsin or Quebec or the planet Hoth, you will probably not even blink when winter hits. But for those of you who come from anything warmer than a temperate zone, keep this in mind. Graduate school is tough and sometimes wading through snowdrifts up to your knees seems like it may actually be the breaking point. Just pull on your coziest socks, strap on your most waterproof boots, and know that there is no winter-related problem that a warm drink and a cozy blanket can’t fix.

Reflections of an International Student

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Written by Manisha Raghavan, Bioengineering M.S. 2019

I made a vital journey over 12,239 kms (or should I say 7,605 miles) to get to where I am today. I moved to Boston on the 24th of August 2018, leaving everything that was close to my heart back in Mumbai, India. I knew I wanted to pursue a graduate degree in Biomedical Engineering ever since I was in college. But no matter how far ahead you plan your life, when it comes to crossing the bridge, there is always going to be a tingling sensation in the body. Now that it has been over a year in Boston, I wanted to chronicle my experience in this foreign land from my perspective.

From changing the way I read temperature, write down dates, and measure distances, almost every subtle change made me feel uncomfortable in the first few weeks. New faces, new relationships, new friends, and new challenges are few of the facets of life at grad school. More often than not, if you are an international student, people will ask you ‘Why did you choose Tufts?’ To be honest, I chose Tufts because my program curriculum matched my interests, and being in Boston as a biomedical engineer felt like the best decision in terms of my career. I was more excited than nervous coming here because I felt like I was doing something monumental with my life. I am sure each one of you incoming and current grad students feel the same way!

But my transition was not easy. Small events like buying groceries, doing laundry, paying bills, cleaning the house, and cooking for myself made me miss my family back home and I ended up realizing their value and how little I had appreciated the things I was provided with at home. But sooner or later, I had to reconcile with the fact that I was a responsible and independent woman who chose to move to the US.

As an international student, there were moments when I did crave the company of fellow Indians, or good Indian food. These normal feelings will happen to you as well, but do not let that stop you from learning about other cultures and exploring other cuisines. I wanted to make the best of my time over here, and I ended up signing for all the professional development workshops, seminars and talks that I could. One issue I faced was that I hesitated to ask for help because I was afraid of bothering people. Do not make the same mistake that I did! All of the organizations at Tufts are super helpful and if they are unable to help you, they will direct you to the right person. Winter was challenging, but I survived, and so will you if this is your first Boston winter. Above all, over the last year I learned to appreciate myself, my people, and the little things around me so much more.

I will leave you with a few things if you are heading to Tufts for grad school. Talk, connect, and socialize whilst taking care of your priorities. Explore and travel as much as you can. Be excited about crafting your own path and journey. But most importantly, take care of yourself! I still have a year to go before graduation and with every passing day I know I am going to miss this beautiful place even more.