My favorite mini-city within the city of Cambridge is not quite a neighborhood, though it certainly can feel that way sometimes. Do any analysis of free-association of words to Cambridge[, Mass.], and MIT has gotta come up. The dome graces the Charles. The Stata Center adorns the area between the highly-trafficked Mass Ave. and Main Street. Burrito lovers know the student center for it's glorious Anna's Taqueria (and I know it for its 24-hour grocery with the sandwich bar). There's now a fancy pizza place / coffee place across the street named for the crime/parking region in which MIT is located (Area Four -- also where my house is located). I think full-time students (both grad and undergrad) often end up treating their school as though it's a micro-city, and that's certainly been my experience for large parts of my tenure in this city.
Although I'm officially done, my most recent desk still hasn't been fully cleaned out (including computer-y stuff, those ducks in a row, space heater, some peanut butter, the essentials) -- which means that every so often a visit to the graduate student lounge where it is located is in order. I decided to work from there today in lieu of driving back and forth to Fresh Pond, and got struck by yet another pang of wow-I'm-gonna-miss-this-place -- but this one was just for the Engineers.
