Pahk the Cah in Hahvahd Yahd! Part 3

No images for this one...I'm on my old laptop which don't have my Boston pics.

Okay, according to a friend, I've fallen behind in my postings on here big time.  I guess I was just waiting for someone to say something in order to get my ass into gear.  I'm still writing about my trip to Boston which happened 3 months ago.  I haven't even began to talk about my second trip to Seoul, or my latest vacation to Yangshuo with Cathy and my friends Hedy and Alex.  They'll get here.  Just you wait...

Cape Cod, a quiet fishing village, was our next area to explore.  We rented bikes a few miles out of the town and biked around the area.  Needless to say, the place was stunningly gorgeous - crisp clean air, white sandy beaches, small piers filled with multicolored sailboats, and a hell of a lot of greenery.

As the day rolled on, Rob and I became increasingly competitive on the bikes.  We needed to race against each other.  Eventually, and unfortunately, our sibling rivalry reached a point where we more or less ditched Adrienne for racing towards the village proper.  Adrienne opted for sitting and swimming at a nearby beach without us.  Sorry Adrienne.  It's a Parungao thing.  It's bound to happen in the future again, so you might as well get used to it!

And as suspected, I won.  Okay, I have to give Rob a bit of credit.  He overtook me in the last mile, but I still managed to squeeze out a victory.  After returning the bikes, we had dinner at a small dockside restaurant serving up the local fare: lahbstah boil, clams, oystahs and Samual Adams Beah.  Gahd, I love the Bahstun accent!

The next day was our last one together, but I didn't have to get to the airport until the mid afternoon.  After checking out, we decided to check out the Samual Adams Brewery.  It was awesome, and made me really miss my wine-making (brewing and wine-making share some similarities).  We got to do a beer tasting and kept the glass in the end!  Our guide was really cool, and very knowledgeable about the brewing methods used at the brewery.  It also happened to be her last day on the job, so she shotgunned a pint with her colleague in front of the crowd.  Too fun!

In general, I must say I was very impressed by Boston.  It's such a livable city.  Definitely one of USA's best.  I'd go back in a heartbeat if I had the chance.  Flying out East for a 5 day vacation with Rob and Adrienne was great fun and well-deserved.  I don't know when's the next time I will see them, but I sure hope to see them again when I go back to Canada next year.

Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd! Part II

At the JFK Memorial.  We read up on Jack's win over
Tricky Dick (Nixon) and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The JFK Memorial had one of the biggest
American  flags I've ever seen.

After, we set a new course for Harvard.

Lunch was burgers and unlimited mint iced tea. We then
went to buy ivy league campus wear for Mom and Dad.
Mostly for Dad.

We went on an official Hahvahd Yahd tour, which was free and
ran by undergrads.

Uhhh....Hogwarts?

This place was really cool.  Okay, it wasn't
the huge one in NYC, but it still is worth
taking a look.

OMG! This thing's HUGE!!!

A great thing about the Natural History Museum was all
the hilariously posed papier mache and taxidermy animals.
Many were smiling. Some looked just straight up weird. 

We had a nice talk with a professor of anthropology
and his assistant. They were studying some ancient
canoes from Alaska. Also, Adrienne's jaw dropped when we
came across the library. I guess she's not used to such
a massive repository of literature and resources at her uni.

Photo bomb!!!

After Harvard, we trained it near Fenway Park
to have burritos at a joint my brother's friend
suggested.  It was perhaps the best burrito I've
ever had in my life, and the price was right too.
Notice it's as big as my umbrella.

After dinner, we saw a Red Sox game.  It's a hallowed institution
in Boston, so we figured why not? They were playing the Detroit Tigers.

The place was full-house, standing room only.  I'm not
a baseball fan, but the crowd was great and watching the game
was fun!  I really liked singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."  

We left at the bottom of the 9th. The Sox were losing and
no bases were loaded. I had a great time regardless.

Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd! Boston Part I

Late July 2012...

It's been a long time since I've seen my brother face to face - two years to be exact. Okay, I saw him face to face on Skype many times since I've become an expat, but there's something to be said about actually being with a family member.  In the case of my brother and I, being near him means playing Mortal Kombat and Marvel vs. Capcom against each other. It also means traveling to Boston, Massachusetts for a week long road trip.

The same day Cathy left for China, I left for Ottawa to see my brother's new house.  He picked me up from Ottawa International in a large Buick, which reminded me of the old days when me and him drove to UBC in our family's old Buick Custom Regal.  We picked up my brother's girlfriend Adrienne and went to get a bite to eat.  We hit up a small basement Mexican restaurant called Ahora.  Mexican food never tasted so good, seeing how I was devoid of it for over a year!

Ahora's Mexican Restaurant was delicious.

After dinner, We went to the Parliament buildings.  Before dark, we went back to Hintonburg and rented movies at a local independent DVD shop.  Interesting blend of shops in that area.  Across the street from each other there was a sex shop and a Christian bookstore.  Anyways, we rented The Grey starring Liam Neeson. Before watching it, we played board games with Robert's friends.

You can rent movies, buy a bible, and learn sex positions all in one errand run! 

The next day, Rob, Adrienne and I took off towards Boston via Montreal.  We stopped at a place that was well known to my family - Orange Julep.  Its drink resembles an Orange Julius, but it's much, much better.

Poutine and hot dogs washed down with a delicious Orange Julep! Yum!

Rob and I took turns driving through Vermont and New Hampshire.  By the time we got into Boston, Massachusetts, it was approaching dinner time.  We pahked the cah near Chinatown and walked to our hostel.  I was amazed by it, especially since it wasn't even 2 months old.  It was super clean, modern and sleek.

Our hostel was hands down the greatest hostel I've ever been in.
We had a shared room, but no one was staying with us for the first few nights.

Boston is such a clean, good looking city. I'd live there for sure.

If only these sort of ad campaigns worked in China...

It was getting late, so we headed out to take a look around and get some food.  After walking to Boston Common, we circled back towards Chinatown to grab some pho.  The food and service was good, but the place was closing and an angry customer was making a scene in the restaurant.  He had an aggressive holier-than-thou attitude despite the restaurant manager apologizing to him for whatever offended him.

There's some good eats in Boston's Chinatown, but of course
just coming from China, I didn't really want Chinese food at all.

The next day, we started by doing the entire Freedom Trail from Boston Commons to Cambridge. After the Freedom Trail, we fast-trained it to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where we checked out the MIT museum.

At Boston Common, an area for American Revolutionary zeal.

The 54th Massachusetts, an African American regiment during
the American Civil War, led by white officers. They were slaughtered at the
impregnable Fort Wagner, but at least got to see action and take down a
handful of slave-owning Confederates rather then get sidelined.
Watch Glory if you want to know more, or see Denzel Washington being
called the n-bomb by Morgan Freeman.

Not sure which cemetery we were in, but the tombstones looked cool.

Rob and I with Mr. Lightning Rod - Benjamin Franklin.

Delicious food can be tried at Quincy Market, despite its
excessive tourist draw. We had clam chowdah!

Rob and Adrienne. I really miss these two here in China...

Boston has a whole bunch of neat little streets
with old architecture to explore. 

A boat clearly made for killing - Shooting down Nazi Luftwaffe with a good
ol'  American made AA gun on an WWII Atlantic Destroyer feels like freedom!!!

Strolling to find lunch in the city of Cambridge...ended up having
the typcial American (but nonetheless delicious as f--k) steak
and seafood. Yummy!

Overdrive II - Named after my family's late Buick Regal 1990.
Overdrive I was was one sick ride back in its day.  This LaCrosse was too.

Cool place to check out if you're ever in Boston and interested
in things robot/IT/comp-sci/digital media.

Robots are many at the MIT Museum.

Pretending I'm Thor.

2 hour limit. We were gone for 1.5 hours.  13 minutes left. WTF.
MIT parking patrol really needs to hire people who can accurately tell time.

I figure I needed this picture. I'm teaching
math this semester at Maple Leaf.

Adrienne intimidating some random industrial art.

For dinner, we went to a grocery store and brought food back
to the hostel to cook.  I fried up some local scallops, while Adrienne
cooked up some noodles.  Everything turned out pretty good!

It was a great first full day in Boston.  Lots of walking, talking and interesting things to see, not to mention the super clean environment (relative to Wuhan).  More fun was to be had in Boston with my brother and Adrienne, and the city would prove to be my favorite (or at least most livable) city in the US. Stay tuned for part II.

Muay Thai With Kru Suphan/ End of summer 2012

Okay, so I sort of lied about updating this thing throughout summer. I have 1 more week before I go back to Wuhan.  It also happens that I'm in Seoul right now and it's raining hard, so I guess I have time to update this thing.

This summer has proved to be both one of the best and worst.  I'll fill in the details in later posts, but I'll just summarize right now.  Travelling to Ottawa, Boston, Seattle and Seoul has squashed the travel bug in me...at least for now.  Getting to see my brother Rob after two years was definitely a big deal.  The only thing that prevents it from being the best thing during summer was the fact that he finally managed to beat my Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat. I'll get you for that, Rob.

In Vancouver, I got to hang out with my awesome friends and do really cool activities. Some highlights include yachting (thanks Jeremy and Fei), firing lead down range (thanks Jer and Mark), eating delicious white food (thanks Kristy) and drinking bubble tea (thanks Henry), figuring out how to finally navigate Richmond (thanks Hedy), and having quality manversations with various guy friends.

The two biggest highlights were about Cathy and Honey. One was good and one not so good.  Cathy visited Vancouver with a bunch of Maple Leaf students, and I had the privilege of "kidnapping" her for a couple of hours here and there to be with her in my native BC.  She managed to see my friends Anthony, Henry, and Puja, as well as Mom, Dad and my Aunt Peggy.  That was the good thing.  The not so good thing was the death of my pet dog and best friend Honey.  Again, I'll fill in details in later posts.

Okay.  Since I failed to put out a large post on my Muay Thai lessons in Bangkok, I'll just post a video.  In short, my time with Kru Suphan and his assistant Mami was so fun and educational that I'm going back for 1 more week at the end of my 5 week holiday next year.