Week 4 in Boston was an exciting week! After a weekend in New York, it was back to the daily grind of going to the IDC to work. This week’s milestone was mainly about moving the ideas into concrete detailed CAD drawings and testing the stability of the boat virtually before creating a physical model. We also made the electrical circuits and learnt about how to cut material with the ShopBot. After learning more about tolerances and measurements, we designed our own fidget spinners which fit three different sizes of ball bearings. They were cut out of aluminium through the waterjet. There were many interesting designs, such as the batman fidget spinner and the hexagon fidget spinner.
Stove making
To prepare for the wilderness trip, we made stoves out of aluminium cans and tested them. It was exciting to make the stoves and actually see them burn up, especially when some of us poured too much alcohol in the primer.
Ceramics
We were split into two groups for ceramics classes and learnt how to throw the clay onto the wheel and make cylinders! It was exciting to feel the clay and many of us were eager to make ceramic pieces to bring back home.
Pizza Party
On Wednesday, we were supposed to have a potluck but everyone was too tired so we switched over to a pizza party! We had loads of pizza and ice cream sandwiches to share.
Lobster Party
Boston is famous for lobsters so we bought live lobsters at a steal at StarMarket at $6.88 USD per pound! Lobsters are really expensive in Singapore so this was really exciting. We bought 6 lobsters for around $45 USD and cooked them in Pi Phi. The lobsters were so good boiled and were even better when a Singaporean twist was put onto it to make it into salted egg lobster.
Lawn on D
There was an event on the Lawn on D on Friday so a group of us went down to join the fun. There was bubble soccer, rock climbing, salsa dancing and mini golf available. The bubble soccer was pretty fun as we kept running and bumping into each other until we all fell down and were rolling about. After Lawn on D, we went to get some lobster rolls and seafood at Yankee Lobsters. The food was nice albeit slightly expensive.
Salem
On Sunday, some of us went to Salem. Salem is a town which is famous for witchcraft and it was really interesting to learn how various factors actually led to the witch hunt. The historical tour was really informative and provided another perspective to the typical creepy stories about witched. Salem also has beautiful beaches and a world class museum which happened to have a large exhibit about ocean liners when we were there.
Exploring Boston
Boston is a great city to be in and a group of us went around Boston to see the various attractions, including the Boston Library, the Boston Public Garden, Boston Commons and Acorn Street. The Boston Public Library is really scenic and its just really relaxing to lie down on the grass and take a nap.
Overall, this week was a really great one where we worked hard and played hard. Looking forward to the next week with the 4th of July celebrations and trip to Maine!
