September 11th

“There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable.  Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees, the levitating sherbert balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were “Special Effects” sweets: Droobles Best Blowing Gum (which filled the room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringments, tiny black Pepper Imps (“breath fire for your friends!”), Ice Mice (“hear your teeth chatter and squeak!”), peppermint creams shaped like toads (“hop realistically in the stomach!”), fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons.”

~Exert from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

And you didn’t know it, but this exists right in downtown Boston, Mike’s Pastries, 300 Hanover St.

Perhaps not magic in the literal sense of Harry Potter, but to my naïve mind and limited worldview, this place may as well have been the closest thing you can get in reality to Honeydukes.  But let me back up.  For this adventure began way before I even knew what a cannoli was. 

September 11, 2010.  Nine years after the tragic attack on our country, nineteen years after my birth.  I awoke and headed to the dining hall for a birthday breakfast of waffles and Lucky Charms* and then proceeded to Blackman Auditorium to receive my community service assignment for the day.  After hearing from the founder of 826 Boston (a tutoring center for writing for kids in the Boston area) I headed out with Group P to find Southwest Corridor Park and begin our cleaning project.  Our assignment was somewhat typical** of what you would expect for a community service project; we swept the sidewalks, raked leaves, and picked up garbage.  I enjoyed the service, and am looking forward to the start of the CEP (Community Evolvement Program) here at Northeastern.  I will be partnered with a group where I will volunteer at all year and I am very excited to actually begin.

Anyway, upon completion of our project we headed back to IV.***  I decided the time had finally come to brave the laundry room, and after collecting my things I set out on my mission.  I love how it’s set up.  You go in, start the wash, then walk across the hall and jump on a treadmill – or in my case an elliptical because my knee still isn’t back to functioning in it’s entirety.  So after a good work out**** and some clean clothes I settled down to relax the rest of the afternoon.

Well come evening, after dinner, and everyone is just blah.  Nothing really exciting is going on and “The Runaway General*****” is where I resign the rest of my birthday evening.  And then comes Eugenia to the rescue.  She picks me up and we set off for North End or “Little Italy” in the search of birthday cupcakes (and cannolies).  We hop on the T and realize shortly thereafter that we don’t actually know where we are going.  So we get off at North Station, the logical if you ask me stop for North End.  Except guess what? It’s not.  So we wander around for a little while till I call Dan, so I can talk to Rob, who then gives the phone to Andrew who I haven’t actually met but was very nice and tried to help us get un-lost.  I sort of (not really actually…at all) get an idea of where to go and then thank him for his help and hang-up.  I turn around and Eugenia is talking to two guys, Chris and Alex, who also happen to be Northeastern students, who also are freshmen, who also are lost, and who also are looking for cannolis.  And they have a map.  Now if only we knew our destination…

So the four of us wander around and make this giant loop along the outskirts of the city (literally, it went the city, us, water) until we know we are getting closer because we start to see people walking around carrying “Mike’s Pastries” boxes, and finally low and behold, we identify our destination by the line spanning two blocks out the door.  Thankfully the line moved fast, and we finally crossed the threshold into the chamber resembling that described above.  It truly was that amazing.  The most remarkable assortment of decadent cakes, cupcakes, pastries, cookies, candies, and I don’t even know what else.  Oh, and of course, cannolis.  It was pure magic.

We made our choices and headed down the street to a little park to sit and eat them, and what do you think is 200 yards to the right?  The North Station T stop.  If only… if only.

And that about wraps up my birthday excursion.  Thank you to all my friends and family who made my first birthday away from home special.  You guys are the best, I miss you, and love you all. 

Take care.

~Emily

*This is kind of a tradition.  I always get a box of Lucky Charms for my birthday, and I figured this one should be no different.

**Some groups had a more atypical assignment – Working at a carnival painting faces or manning the cotton candy machine, writing letters and making cards for our troops – and then there was of course mowing the lawn and playing with or tutoring children. 

***International Village – my dorm

****MY KNEE DIDN’T HURT AT ALL AFTERWARD!!!

*****Article published in the Rolling Stones magazine that got General McCrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, fired.