Northeastern University - Cauldron Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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Xi» y but always challenging V fr- - '

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It ' s never easy

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I was so naive By Mike Barcellos Freshman year I was naive, you know, believing the T ran on time and you could get on a trolley at Park Street bound for NU if you waited long enough. I never really believed that people actually got pickpockefed on the T until I felt someone massaging my buttocks in search of my wallet. Or were they? Ah, but my sophomore year I knew the ropes, the only way to go was carpooling. That was fine if you enjoyed waking up at 6:30 and getting in at 7:30 for a 1:35 class, then waiting around for 3 hours to go home. My middler year saw a refinement of the carpool process which made everyone ' s time more compati- ble. But it still left you hanging sometimes when your commuter partners got caught in a chugging contest over the Cask and left you searching the Columbus Lot for their remains. Junior and senior years, I was solo on my 40 - minute, 24 - mile drive from my northern rural area and I learned the frustrations of the parking lot lines. After an incident where one day I parked in the Co- lumbus Lot and returned to find a car two spaces away without its rear- wheels, I got accustomed to waiting in line at the other lots. Now I know how to miss the traffic coming in and going home and where and how to park around here. Now I ' m graduating. I was NUDE By Joyce Awad Nude is the way I have commuted to and from North- eastern for the past two years. NUDE, or Northeastern University Daredevil Express, is a rapidly growing organization of college student commuters committed to the fine art of hitchhiking. NUDE is aware that the streets are crawling with degen- erates, desperados and dirty old men drivers, and has thus given each of its members a four year supply of mace, hat pins and a 10 - second recording of a woman screaming rape in quadraphonic sound. How do I feel about being in the NUDE? It ' s exciting, but a bit chilly in winter. I suffered on the T ' By Cynthia Chambers My journey starts from Mattapan, ah, good old Mattapan. I board the -trolley. (Huntington Ave. is not the only place to enjoy that rattling ride). I have been riding the T for 8 years straight and I know where to stand to get a seat when the doors open. I can close my eyes on my way to Ashmont Station. I always have a quarter ready to put in the turnstile. Well, no train, I must get to my designated spot. This spot I don ' t even have to look for. My instinct leads me to it automatically. When the old blue train pulls up I will be standing in front of the 3rd car, 2nd door (only on a 4 - car train). I can get a seat easily. It is necessary to sit next to 2nd door on the opposite side of the door that was open. I doze off on my way to Park Street. The most prominent stop is Broadway: all the stops before the door opens on the right, but this one opens on the left. Washington is another, because 90% of the train empties out here. By the time I reach Park Street I am standing at the door. The stairs are right in front of me, and zoom, I am up the stairs in two seconds flat. I catch a Huntington Ave. trolley and get a seat. Boylston, first stop. I can tell the way we make that big screeching turn. Arlington, Copley (90% of the trolley empties out here). Then we make a big curve and a wide swing going into Prudential. Symphony is last. When light hits my eyelids I know we are out of the tunnel and next stop NORTHEAS- TERN!