''You're going to need the imagination of a child to invent and create.'' - Amar G. Bose, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (and Bose of Bose speakers) at MIT Graduate Orientation

Steve was adament that we should see the Sox game from the outfield bleachers, which provide not only the cheapest seats, but allegedly also the rowdiest crowds. The tickets - that we picked up five minutes after the game started from a scalper on the street - were indeed very cheap. And the crowd was loud, crude and generally a lot of fun. Our companions weren't completely without decor, as the two young ladies immediately behind us were from out of town, and they seemed to have as much fun joking with the inebriated people as we did. Crazy Americans - how do you get drunk off of light beer?

Steve and I were jokers, but surprisingly non-offensive. We figured that if we hammed it up as Toronto Blue Jays fans, we risking getting doused in beer and popcorn, the Fenway equivalent of being tied and feathered.

The game was a blowout - the Sox beat the Kansas City Royals by a whopping 9 to 1 - but that didn't stop us from having a lot of fun.

That's the infamous Green Monster, part of the outfield wall at Fenway Park. It's decked out here in All Star Game attire. I've always wanted to see it in person, and hopefully I'll see it again. Although we didn't see any balls hit out of the park, home runs tend to fly over the Monster a disproportionate amount of the time.

The next day, we decided to see a bit of Boston. This is Boston Commons, a park in the middle of the city. It doesn't have statues like Oslo's Vigelandsparken, but it does have beautiful trees like this weeping willow. It also has prolific duck, pigeon and swan populations.

I heard a great ''MIT Hack'' story today. Around here, just about any prank is referred to as a ''hack.'' One summer, an MIT student had a job near the football stadium at neighbouring Harvard University. Every day, he pulled a Pavlovian stunt by going down to the field, blowing a whistle, and then feeding the pigeons a loaf of bread. When the whistle blew to mark to start of Harvard's football season, dozens of birds descended in a frenzy onto the field. Brilliant!

Like the seagulls that descended on the field, so to do tourists descend on Cheers, the famous sitcom pub where everybody knows your name. But the tourists aren't always glad they came!

They used this front facade for the television show, but the layout of the pub on the show was only loosely based on this Boston pub's interior. Steve and I were left wondering why this wasn't ''the real Cheers.'' It occurred to us afterwards that the people who run this pub must have watched the sitcom and wondered why the show's pub doesn't look like ''the real Cheers.''

But this is most certainly the real dome and the quad at MIT. That's me sitting in front of the dome waving at the camera. Many thanks to Steve for taking this cool shot.

And this is the Weisner building, the physical manifestation of the Media Lab. I'm going to be spending a lot of time in what they call ''The Pond'' on the third floor of this building. I don't even know how to start describing the very cool things that go on in there, so I'll have to save that for another article. Or, click on the link and read a bit for yourself!

I'll tell one cool story: my mailbox in the Lab already had stuff in it when I arrived! Included within was the most impressive invitation I've ever received. It was to the ''Sens*bles'' Symposium, which will be taking place at the Media Lab on October 20th. The invitation is in the form of a completely edible lollypop - with a hologram on the front. It was created using a laser beam that sculpted thousands of grooves on the surface of the candy. ''Imagine a world where computers are not only 'smart,' but also 'sensible' - wearable, washable, emotional, even edible.'' Indeed! How could I not attend the Sens*bles Symposium?

We took the Subway (or ''T'') to the airport and I bid Steve farewell. Here's a picture of a typical subway stop in Boston; it's a far cry from Stockholm's Blue Line. But there are some cooler stops. The Kendall stop at MIT features an interactive piece of art. By swinging a lever back and forth using the same principle a child uses to get a swingset in motion, those waiting in the station can set suspended metal beams in motion. They strike huge, resonating chimes that sing from the middle of the station.

And so, Steve was off to England via Toronto, and my journey across two continents was finally at an end. Since then, I've been settling into Edgerton Hall and taking part in Graduate Student Council orientation activities.

I'll leave you with some photos from today's Camera Safari around Boston.

Here's quite a ''hack'': me and some of my fellow grad students forming a human M.I.T. The fact it's vertical is a novelty.

And here's another hack: he's keeping off the grass, just as the sign requests.

We put a unique twist on our scavenger hunt by seeing how many places in Boston we could find that served Sam Adams, one of the local brews. This was, as the number indicates, the second of n such places.

Above every picture of Samuel Adams are the words, ''Brewer. Patriot.'' Steve and I might have added, ''Pansy.'' After Mack Øl this summer and Canadian beer for twenty-two years, this stuff is water. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually - and I've also been told there are some excellent microbreweries around here.

The locals seem to love it! When in Boston, do as the Bostonians do, right? And what the Bostonians were doing today (with us out-of-town newbies) was raising pints of Samuel Adams together.

Amid the fun and games, there's much to be accomplished. Classes start next week, and tomorrow I have to complete the international preregistration process. Here, in front of the dome at MIT, a new chapter of the story is beginning.