Salem

So as a reward for a long summer of Wilderness for Teenager, we took a quick road trip to Salem, MA.

Witchy little downtown is just Americana at its best. It was so fun to be a tourist in our own country. Ironically we found some people to converse in Chinese. We were going to visit one of the Witch Museums, but they were just sooo overpriced and the one that we actually were going to fork over $16 to go in, had such a witch working the ticket booth that we just skipped it. We did go in one of the potion shops and that was fun...I bought a "miracle" for $25 and Teenager bought some "lust" and "romance" that is guaranteed to turn heads. The best scores were at the thrift stores. There is definitely a unique style to Salem.
Since we were in the area, we stopped by Harvard. Teenager wouldn't let me take pictures. She doesn't really want to go there for undergrad, but she wanted to talk to the admissions office about what they are looking for and exactly how to put her diverse international experience on that cookie-cutter program that colleges are using for admission. Since Harvard is suppose to be the best, she figured what ever they suggested would work where ever she applies. So just to prove how much she didn't want to go to Harvard she chose to where the least amount of clothing I have seen her wear in America. Since we were on vacation, I didn't even comment. What I did notice about Harvard was that there were a ton of parents who had high hopes and a bunch of young people who looked like the suffered from a lot of pressure to achieve those hopes. Anyway the admissions office rocked!!! Get this-everybody who was working at the admissions information office was blind. Really visually impaired. It was so cool. I wish all admissions were blind, for that matter I wish I could go to job interviews with a blind review. Anyway, so Teenager is dressed to send off this "I'm a teenage rebel, I don't care, nor do I think I need to look professional to discuss my future" and it didn't matter. I watched a bunch of people come in and they were getting the same response, fill out the college ap online, blah, blah, blah. So Teenager walks up and says she has some questions. The admissions rep (blind) starts in on the same, blah, blah, blah and Teenager says, well exactly what should I do with that online form with my Chinese educational experience; by the way that online thing doesn't consider ASL a language-how to address that. And the rep started acting very interested. Then there are two admission reps (the second one was an albino with the prettiest skin and eyes, visually impaired with dog) discussing the unique qualifications that Teenager has...oh, it was so cool. And despite how Teenager chose to dress, she is really well-spoken and intelligent-and they got that! Teenager, so intent on concentrating and writing down everything they said, didn't even notice that they were blind. I only noticed because when I was in college I read textbooks and research materials a couple of blind students at my college. Afterward, I told her and she said "really?". Way to go Harvard for accepting and employing people for who there are!!!!
We ate some ice cream on campus and I felt smarter ingesting the goodness.

Boston, United States