Last night I arrived in Boston MA ready for my Study Tour to Harvard.

For the past 24 hours, my mind has been swinging wildly like a metronome between “what the hell am I doing here, I’m not smart enough to go to Harvard!” and “eeeeeeee! Hurry up and get here, I can’t wait!”

Today I walked from my eclectic little loft apartment in Cambridge down to Harvard Square, where did a recon mission to find out where my course was going to be held (to save me getting lost tomorrow morning) and bought supplies for the week ahead.

I’m more than a little bit nervous. The welcome email said to wear flat shoes.

The only flat shoes I own are thongs (note to self, don’t tell people I wear thongs over here, it means something else), and ugg boots, which are perfect for the 3 degree celsius weather, but not so much for the snow.

I am yet to find a coffee place. You know what I mean, a coffee place that is friendly, serves good espresso, maybe a little food, and fuels you up for the day? It’s the kind of place you could happily open your laptop and work for a full day.

A wave of nostalgia washes over me as I think of theme song to the TV show Cheers and sing to myself ‘sometimes you want to go where your barista knows your name, and they’re always glad you came…’

*cue record scratch sound effect*

Today’s search for a coffee place did not end quite like that. I stopped in at Starbucks on my walk and ordered what I thought was a cappuccino: “I’ll have a medium cap, wet foam please” (Starbucks slang for ‘more coffee in the cup than froth’).

They served me a large cup of filtered black coffee.

Clearly, my accent is going to be a bigger problem than I expected.

I have scoped out a new coffee joint to try tomorrow. It is next door to The Rock n Roll Daycare Centre, where they encourage music and teach songwriting to kids. I think Tex and Scout would like that place.

Innovative Solutions to Complex Challenges with Anne Manning and Susan Robertson kicks off tomorrow morning, and I am raring to go.

Come at me, Harvard.