My Harvard Experience

Some people find going to school a drag. I find it exciting. The thought of learning something new stimulates my serotonin and gives me the high of champagne. So I always look forward to enrolling in a new course. Early this month, I went to Boston to fulfill a long time student's dream: to study in Harvard.  It may not have been a College course to earn a degree, but enrolling in this course, The Revolutionary Practice of Body Mind Medicine was enough to fulfill my yearning to step into the halls of an Ivy League school, Harvard no less.  

My class was at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at the Harvard Medical School.

The experience was deja vu of student days gone by. The feeling of having to wake up at 6AM daily to get ready for an 8:30 class was both exhilarating and challenging. 

Boston for me is an ideal city for student life.  It is clean, organized, and student friendly.  Transport is easily accessible to go to all the Colleges. There are a lot of cafes, libraries, inexpensive restaurants, and activities like the  theater for the youth.

There was an Octoberfest Sunday activity going on during my first Sunday in Boston. My friend Cathy Turvill, (owner of Nurture Spa, holistic and wellness practitioner and who took the course with me) and I did not miss a beat and enjoyed the Octoberfest which was held at the famous Harvard Square.  Then we explored the touristic Quincy Market and enjoyed the many food booths that were inside the huge food Hall. 

All told, my Harvard course was an experience of  a lifetime and I look forward to taking another course next year.  

Red was their motif. One of the bands that livened up the Oktoberfest celebration

Diversity was definitely noticed during the celebration. 

Different cultures, multi ethnicity manifested itself everywhere

Everyone around Cathy Turvill is on a picnic mode.  Food booths served different cuisines. 

At Quincy Market, a stall that sold colorful and artistically designed wind spinners caught my attention

On our first day of school, Cathy and I strike a pose by the school's entrance

Dr. Herbert Benson is the head of the  Body Mind Medicine Course course.

Cathy and I, with a classmate Tim, pose with him

Letty, one of my classmates who has a Counseling practice in New York, and I went on a walking tour of Harvard University at Harvard Square. The myth goes that you get the wisdom of the school's founder, John Harvard, if you touch his shoe. 

It was so heartwarming to see groups of talented students trying to make a living by singing in buses and subway stations

Ms. Peg Baim was one of my favorite professors.