<p>I made a map on Google Maps with locations of various useful things in Boston: home stores, grocery stores, shopping malls, points of interest, parking lots (because I know that some of your parents are going to be like my dad and want to drive in Boston despite all the stories!), that sort of thing. I added directions on the subway or bus for most of the locations.</p>
<p>Is there anything I should add to this map to make it more useful? (Don't tell me, like, ATMs, because I am not going to add every Boston-area ATM for every bank. But reasonable requests would be good. :))</p>
<p>you are WAY TOO awesome!
ohhhhhh Super 88!! I won't be deprived of Chinese grocery to cook my own food... another thought... lugging 20 pound bag of rice around doesn't sound that fun too me. I better bother my cousin who has a car for the first big trip.</p>
<p>Nice! Trader Joe and Whole foods are both within walking distance of MIT. which means eating healthy might be possible.</p>
<p>Do most grocery places have place to lock our bikes? How many month of the year is the weather possible for biking without freezing to death?</p>
<p>This is super helpful. Thank you Mollie!</p>
<p>time to figure out how to print this out nicely...</p>
<p>
[quote]
How many month of the year is the weather possible for biking without freezing to death?
[/quote]
One of the other grad students in my lab bikes to work every day of the year, so the answer to that depends on how rough and tough you are. :) Most places will have bike racks -- Boston and Cambridge are pretty bike-friendly.</p>
<p>If you're going to go grocery shopping on a regular basis, you might consider buying a little cart. I shared the purchase of one with a few of my friends, and it was a life-saver.</p>
<p>I was thinking about biking with a big backpack, get a rack thing over the back wheel to clip more groceries, and hang a bag or two on the handles if needed. Walking with a cart feels a bit too slow for me.
I used to bike to school with a huge backpack everyday of the year except when it rains, so that is only about 40 degrees to 90 degrees or so in Bay Area. Boston gets to the 20s in the winter right?</p>
<p>The closest Super 88 is still faaaaar. Even by using the Tech shuttle, you have to wait until the ZBT (farthest frat from campus) stop. I only went there thrice in the entire year, and two of those times, I wasn't even going for myself. They were to buy massive amounts of food for some Chinese-related events.</p>
<p>Shaw's/Star Market is also way more accessible than Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, and it is plenty enough to get whatever food (and even non-food items) you might need. Unless you like knowing every single morsel of foodstuff you're buying is organic or something...</p>
<p>super 88 is actually not that far from east campus. you can take the t to park street and then walk not very many blocks to chinatown. or walk or bike (via longfellow bridge). by bike it's not far. i have several friends who make chinatown super 88/chinese bakery trips regularly during term.</p>
<p>^Yeah, the secret is to go to a Super 88 that's easily T-accessible. Even the Brighton one is relatively quick if you take the T -- walk across the BU Bridge from west campus, then take the B line.</p>
<p>You can't count on MIT shuttles to get you everywhere.</p>
<p>hey mollie! have you checked out the new saferide routes?
they stop ridiculously close to Star market,CVS Walgreens, and whole food (all Cambridge west) and makes the Staples across the river a lot more accessible (Boston East)
Boston West ZBT stop gets really really close to Super 88</p>
<p>I remember you mentioning drivers giving you weird looks if you bring grocery bags on the bus. Since the stops are really really close to the stores (the routs are probably made for the purpose of that), they shouldn't give me funny looks right?</p>
<p>I think they limit you to two grocery bags per person, or something like that.</p>
<p>I never had the patience to wait for Saferide, since it only comes twice an hour, so I usually just walked back to MacGregor. You can walk there across Briggs Field and cut behind Simmons toward the Sidney-Pacific grad dorm, and it's not much of a walk.</p>
<p>But I probably have a funny system for deciding when it's worth it to wait vs. walk.</p>
<p>I've found that drivers' patience with carrying bags or other luggage onto Saferide tends to vary inversely as a function of how many people are presently on the Saferide (i.e. lots of people --> little patience; no other people --> lots of patience).</p>