Students Travel, Relax During Long Weekend

Keith M. Bayless, a freshman at Cornell, spent the long weekend taking in the sights at Harvard, visiting old high school friends and smarting from his school’s loss at Saturday’s football game.

Many students—from Harvard and beyond—took advantage of the long Columbus Day weekend by traveling home, inviting friends from other schools and just relaxing after the beginning-of-school rush.

Bayless, who left for Cornell Sunday night, said he came to visit some old high school friends, staying with Jennifer W. Hsu ’08 on the second floor of Matthews Hall. Bayless said he met Hsu through a summer program at Stanford.

“I got to visit the Fogg Museum, and I watched part of the figure skating show [Evening with Champions] last night. I also went to the Boston Bubble T Stop, which was better than the stuff at Cornell,” Bayless said.

Bayless said a down point this weekend was when he heard about Cornell’s 34-24 loss at the football game.

At the South Station T stop on Friday, several students from neighboring schools hurried to catch their trains home, and spent the evening waiting when they missed their trains.

On the way to the terminal, Andrew K. Abdou, a sophomore at Northeastern University, was frantically muttering into his cell phone as he sped up the stairs. Two minutes later, Abdou was berated by fellow traveler Bobby P. McGee of Emerson College.

“He made us miss the train,” said McGee.

Both said they were headed to Holmdel, N.J., for a cozy weekend of relaxation with friends and family.

“It’s my parents’ anniversary,” said Abdou. “Their 27th, I think. Maybe 28th.”

McGee also had plans to spend time with his family.

“If I ever get there,” he said, “I’ll hang out with my girlfriend. And my family will go pumpkin-picking—there’s a whole field of pumpkins, and you pick one out, and you carve a jack-o’-lantern out of it. It’s a lot of fun.”

Also waiting in the terminal was Nina Mann, a freshman at MIT, who was sitting at a table staring at a notebook.

“I missed the 5:40 [p.m.] train by five minutes,” she said.

Mann said she was heading home to Barrington, R.I., 20 minutes away from Providence. She said she planned to go see her high school volleyball team play, and shop at Target and some other much-missed local shops.

“There’s a really good bagel shop just around the corner that I’m dying to go to,” said Mann. “It’s really good when they put chicken salad on the bagel.”

But between volleyball, Target and bagels, Mann said she had to find the time to do some homework.

“I have an essay due midnight tonight [Friday], and then a big physics assignment due Sunday night at 10,” she said. “I have to e-mail them in.”