Yoojin Cho

Driving Under the Influence…[of the newspaper?]

Why, oh why MBTA? Yesterday an MBTA bus driver was caught reading a newspaper while driving. A driver of the car in front of the bus saw the bus driver in his rear view mirror. Sure, creeping on the the person behind you in a stop-and-go traffic isn’t abnormal, but spotting a public transportation driver absorbed in a reading material behind the wheel is quite abnormal.

The random driver obviously snapped a couple shots on his handy dandy Blackberry and sent the pics to MBTA. The bus driver is subsequently suspended without pay for 10 days.

(Picture courtesy of WBZ)

I don’t mean to sound like a snob, but why do we have so many problems with MBTA here in Boston? According to a recent survey conducted by Mercer, Boston is ranked #37 as the nicest city to live in the world. That means we probably have a great standard of living, relatively low crime rates, good education, etc. But no competent public transportation?

While I was in London, all I heard about the T involved derailed green line, delayed B-lines, red line on fire and replacement bus service that never came. Geez!

My life in Boston inevitably depends on the T – especially in inclement weather conditions and to get to and from my internship and jobs. It sure is frustrating when I have no idea why I have to wait at least 20 minutes for a T to come, why the bus stop is half destroyed or why the bus map doesn’t tell me where the bus stops next. Moreover, why won’t the MBTA website let me see the balance left on my Charlie Card?

MBTA, let’s take baby steps and try to improve this situation. In the near future, if I can see some of these changes, I will seriously love you forever.

1. Let us see the balance of our Charlie Cards on the website! We can already add money or monthly passes online; so it’s a matter of some html works?

2. Air traffic control at airports manage 100’s planes daily. Can’t we hire someone to track where the T is and let us know if there will be a delay? Maybe a system like Brussels where we can see on a digital map where the train is? Maybe a system like London where a board tells us how long until the next bus?

3. I would love love love to be able to sit on clean seats and NOT play frogger around trash on the buses.

4. The awful screech noise pulling into Boylston St. Stop has GOT TO GO.

5. This is one of the more obvious ones – what’s up with lack of trains on B-line? More green line trains, especially B-lines, please.

Every time I get on the T or the bus, I think about the good times in London where public transportation always ran on time, always came when expected and always alerted passengers during delays.

But I do appreciate MBTA when I hear about heroic T drivers and when it gets me to different places. In the end, I remain a hopeful MBTA passenger, wishing for some improvements in the future!

http://wbztv.com/video/?id=89736@wbz.dayport.com (T Driver Article)

Little Perks of Being HOME

Until I became a proud college student at Boston University, I always called Plano, Texas my beloved home. In the past few years, however, sadly my definition of “home” changed a little bit. Now I call Boston, Massachusetts my home while secretly missing my life back in London, England. Confused much???

Fact: In the past three years, I’ve packed and unpacked my entire life SEVEN times. Fact: I may or may not love Boston just a little more than Plano. Fact: Still, home sweet home, I do enjoy coming home for many reasons.

1. Home-cooked meal: Duh, my mom’s cooking is the best. Some wonderful dishes on my “Welcome Home” menu include Jambalaya Pasta, Kimchi Fried Rice, Chicken Wings, Chicken Fried Steak, Japanese Noodle and Sushi. DELICIOUS. In fact, I shall post some of the recipes I learned from my mom later. Her jambalaya is seriously the best.

2. High school friends: While it is extremely difficult to coordinate our schedules – especially because we all go to different colleges, my friends and I do try to have a semi-annual get-together every major holiday, and so far, we’ve been extremely successful. We gossip about our high school acquaintances, past boyfriends, current boyfriends, newest trends and much more. We are usually the loudest group in a restaurant, but who cares? We love catching up and reminiscing about our “younger” and “less mature” days and just cherishing our friendship.

3. TEX-MEX: I’m not sure if I need to say anything about this… Basically, FANTASTIC Tex-Mex, Need I say more? Texas boasts some amazing restaurants that serve possibly the best burrito, fajitas and quesadillas. Qdoba and Chipotle, YOU ARE NOTHING. How about Papasitos in Dallas or Mi Cocina in Frisco or Luna de Noche in Plano? YUM.

4. The weather: Sure Texas has unpredictable thunderstorms and tornadoes once in a while, but with every building equipped with high-quality air-conditioning, 90 degree dry heat is surprisingly welcoming. Texas heat > humidity in Boston.

5. Driving and everything that comes with it – Nemo, no traffic, nice wide roads: My car Nemo, a 2006 Toyota Matrix, has spent so much time with me since my senior year in high school. Now my little brother who recently acquired a driver’s license thinks he can drive Nemo around… Yikes! But Nemo is ALWAYS mine. 🙂

Ah lovely home. In less than 10 hours, I’m hopping on a plane back to my second home, Boston. I am very excited to see all my friends, but I will of course miss Texas!

Picnic at Greenwich Park

The weather in London finally decided to let some sun into the England sky the last week of my semester abroad — which means we ditched studying for finals and went for a picnic in Greenwich Park instead. Obviously, what else is there to do when the sun is shining for the first time in four months? 😉

Technically Greenwich is located about 30-40 minutes of a tube ride on Jubilee line, but thanks to the pre-Olympics construction on London’s public transportation, we had to hop on the ferry from Embankment, down Thames River to East London.

Greenwich is home to the Royal Naval College, which totally beats BU in location, beauty and the view, PRIME MERIDIAN LINE, the Royal Observatory and the National Maritime Museum. While I didn’t have time to browse around the museum, I did have plenty of time to stand in two different time zones at the same time, enjoy some wine and cheese and reflect on my Berlin trip while eating Currywursts at the market.

The picture depicts the Naval College’s quad. The grassy field overlooking the Canary Wharf invites passersby to sit down for a bit, read a little and relax in the sun.

Just look at me, magical. That is…Drumroll please…PRIME MERIDIAN! Am I the only one this excited to take a picture with this marker?

Hill/grass filled with people loving the weather and their picnic. Good to know we weren’t the only ones procrastinating?

In the main part of Greenwich you can find pubs, McDonald’s (without a fail in any city), restaurants and best of all, markets. The indoor market, though I don’t have a picture of it, offered many different kinds of souvenirs, drinks and food. The outdoor market – right by the dock – featured the biggest PICK & MIX collection, Currywursts and Paella. Seriously, can Greenwich get any better than that?

Oh wait, I think it just did. 🙂 What a great photo – courtesy of Madelyn and Christina. And what a wonderful day in the sun with awesome friends.

Just Get Me to the BEACH ALREADY!

Happy Summer!!! With the start of a much-awaited summer vacation comes the stress of finding internships and jobs. Especially after a semester abroad, I have much of restore-my-bank-account mission to complete – and may I add, that needs to be done AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. In the end, despite all the cool things that come with summer – sun, beach, free time, friends, etc., sometimes the first couple weeks of summer comes down to this: (Yikes!)

(picture courtesy of washingtonjobpost.com)

Luckily, I managed to secure a part-time internship with CBS TV in Boston and a part-time office job with BU’s School of Management for weekdays. Quite sadly, though, building up the résumé and learning to be a journalist come at a high cost. Well, actually, absolutely none. My wonderful internship that I’m very much looking forward to is unpaid, which leaves me with 21 hours of actual paid work. True, it will pay my summer rent and fill up my fridge, but what about my pathetic checking account? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

NEED A THIRD JOB!

For the time being, since I sit in front of my laptop for endless hours (thanks to certain boredom caused by just being home), I started looking up some part-time job opportunities. Consequently, I found some cool ways to receive suggestions and ideas for some extra sources of income.

1. BU STUDENTLINK: If you’re a BU student, just go through the Job Board & Quickie Job listings. Surprisingly BU keeps a massive list of babysitting, office assistant, gardening, tutoring and such opportunities. I am currently in contact with a nice lady looking for a babysitter. Hope it works out!

2. Twitter: Sounds silly, but if you use the hashtag and just post a little shout out for help, someone will @reply to you. i.e. “Still looking for a job in #Boston – #Babysitting, #Writing #Freelance. Ideas?” Works like magic.

3. Freelancer.com: Courtesy of an @reply tweet, I discovered this website that allows you to bid on different projects. You can choose from categories, such as WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, Article Writing, Copywriting, and bid on a project you’re interested in doing. It doesn’t guarantee you that job, but at least gives you a chance to browse many freelancing jobs, and who knows, you might be that lucky winner who gets $250 to update a Twitter account.

4. Elance.com: Same idea as above. I thought Freelancer.com was a bit easier to navigate though.

5. Donanza.com: Complies all the jobs posted on Freelancer, Elance and many more of same kind. You can search for other jobs, too – Graphic Design, Brochure Design, Website Building.

Go ahead and give it a try!