During
Christmas vacation, my family and I spent three days in Boston. We spent much
of our time there just enjoying the city, restaurants, and shops. The
temperature did not rise above 10 degrees the entire time.  This sort of extreme temperature is almost
unbearable when I am at home in West Boylston. However, we weren’t in West
Boylston, and when you mix the cold with traveling around in the city, which
includes a TON of walking, it was neither pleasant, nor bearable.
(Core 3: Correlative words) Nevertheless, we were having a very fun week
together, and on the second day of our little getaway we decided to spend a day
at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) to escape the frost. On that morning, my Mom,
Dad, sister, and I walked from our Copley Square hotel to a breakfast place on
Newbury Street. I happened to be the only one in my family who hadn’t packed a
scarf because, let’s be honest, what seventeen-year-old boy owns a scarf?
During this frigid walk to Newbury Street though, it became apparent to me that
I would survive the week without one. We stopped in a little shop, and I got myself
a nice big scarf. My family had a great breakfast, and after we hopped in an
Uber to the MFA.

            After a pleasant Uber ride with our
driver, Patrick, we arrived at the museum. The MFA, a work of art and a
treasure trove, is something to behold. (Core 16: Two phrases in apposition
with the subject of the sentence) With its massively wide staircase shadowed by
large ionic columns, I was in awe. After a quick admiration of the architecture,
I ran as fast as I could up the steps to avoid the cold. My mom then went to
buy our entrance tickets, while my sister and I went to the coat check so we
wouldn’t have to carry our heavy winter coats around while exploring the
exhibits. I was wearing many layers, so it took me awhile to take everything
off (and stuff my new scarf into the sleeve of my coat). We were then prepared
to go in, and all excitedly waited in line to enter the museum itself.

            We spent upwards of four hours going
from wing to wing of the huge building, taking in as much as we could of the
splendid art that covers every wall. A few of my favorites include the Vincent
van Gogh gallery, as well as the extensive Egyptian artifacts, which I find fascinating.
After some time, we made it to the wing of the museum dedicated to contemporary
art, which is always very controversial and I sometimes have difficulty finding
the “art” in the pieces on display. One particular display that I remember was
a video presentation by Joan Jonas, entitled “Ice Drawing”. It is essentially a
performance that incorporates reflections on nature, videos, and live drawings
that she presents on stage in front of a crowd. The piece on display at the MFA
though was just one snippet of her work. It was a video shown in a dark room
featuring footage of Jonas using ink and ice to create an abstract drawing. In
the installation, light from a projector is redirected through a number of
hanging crystals, all while the ice melts across the screen and ink spills in
between it. This display really captured my eye because it had so much going on
at once, as well as the fact that it was ironically called “Ice Drawing”. It
felt as though the museum was providing us shelter from the refrigerator that
was the outdoors, and here we were watching a woman draw using ice. As my
family and I were trying to take in this exhibit, multiple alarms started going
off in the museum. We were first a little nervous that someone had stolen
something, because in less than a minute there were security guards ushering us
to exits and out the doors. However, we shortly found out that they were simply
fire alarms and the building had to be evacuated. We stood outside for a few
minutes, just collecting ourselves not really realizing what had happened. It did
not take much time however, to realize that we were standing outside together in
the 5-degree weather, and every single one of our coats, hats, and scarves were
inside in the coat check room. I guess I would die in Boston regardless, even
after giving up my pride to wear a scarf. My family was literally huddling
together like penguins to keep warm and the security guards looked at us
like sentries on a castle wall. (Core 18: Two independent clauses using
similes) After about 10 minutes we were suffering. It may seem as though I am
exaggerating, but it was insanely cold outside. The fire department would not
arrive and clear the building quick enough for us to survive. We ran from the
museum across the street, but the surrounding buildings are all offices or
apartments so there was nowhere to find shelter. We kept on running, frantically
looking for somewhere to go, and eventually my mom lost her senses and sprinted
to just a random door.  We piled in. We
found refuge in a Tufts College building that felt like heaven (if heaven has
heat). Looking back on this event, my family and I laugh about how funny we had
to have looked running down the street, and thinking about the faces on the
security guards as we burst through the door into Tufts. We had planned our day
to escape the cold and spend time inside the warmth of the museum, and of
course, with our luck, the exact opposite happened.