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.

Cathy in Canada!

In July, Cathy came to Canada with the Maple Leaf Vancouver/ Victoria summer camp as a supervisor.  Unless financially wealthy to Chinese standards, getting to visit Canada as a Mainlander on an individual tourist visa doesn't really happen.  Cathy was able to come on a "group tour" visa, which is easier to get for Mainlanders because the financial prerequisites aren't as demanding.  Being one of the supervising adults on the tour, having a responsible colleague to take care of the kids (thanks go out to Ms. Rosa Du from Tianjin), and staying at an accommodating home-stay were the major reasons why Cathy was able to hang out with me quite a bit away from the students.  She even got to visit with some of my friends and family, and catch up with old friends too.

This summer, Cathy visited my native Vancouver!

I went along with Cathy, Ms. Du, and the Maple Leaf students  to tour around Vancouver.  We went to Gastown, Chinatown, Canada Place, and Robson Street all on Cathy's first day in Canada.

Cathy and I got away from the kids and visited with my high school buddy Henry and my Toastmasters friend Puja. 

It was kind of funny being on a tour with Maple Leafers while on summer break.  It was as if I never really got away from them. Some of the kids were from Wuhan and knew who I was.  They weren't really surprised to see me.  I think they expected me to show up because Cathy was leading their tour group...

In the evening on Cathy's first day, my friends Henry and Puja came downtown to meet Cathy.  Fun conversation ensued at the expense of my dignity.  For example...

Cathy: So what was Paul like when you met him, Puja?

Puja: He wasn't always like this.  Actually, when he first walked into Toastmasters, he was a 'lil bitch...

Paul: WTF!? That's a lie! That's total BS!

Henry: Hahaha! Before learning how to speak up, Paul was a 'lil bitch! I totally see that!

Cathy: [uncontrolled laughter]

Puja: Yeah, he was kind of a 'lil bitch! But he learned fast.

This is some good proof that the Toastmasters method works...

Cathy braving the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

 The next day, the tour group went up Grouse Mountain.  I was supposed to meet them up there via the Grouse Grind, but the tour group left earlier than I expected, so I didn't get to hike.  Instead, I met them at the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Cathy admiring the natural environment.

Cathy admired the enormous trees and fresh air. Sadly, Wuhan is pretty much devoid of these things. I took them for granted for such a long time while in Canada throughout my childhood. I now see that I should have done a lot more hiking in my youth. Seeing Cathy admire such things made me cherish Vancity's accessibility to natural environments.

That evening, I went out with Cathy to go shopping on Robson Street, then drove to West 4th Ave to hang out with my buddy Anthony.  Cathy met him when he visited me in China last year.  We walked to the local Safeway, where Cathy wanted to buy typical North American snack food for her family.  After that, we went down W 4th Ave to watch the sunset on the Granville Street Bridge.

When we got back to the hotel, Cathy and I stopped a female student trying to leave the hotel dressed like a hooker - oodles and boodles of make up, gravity-defying short dress, and an attitude problem when we told her to get back.  Where the f*** was a foreign 15 year old girl to go?  Granville Street nightclubs?  Downtown Eastside?  She didn't even know the city's layout.  She should have thanked us for doing her a favor, lest she wanted to get preggers via date rape. Cathy told me a story that another counselor back in China told her as a warning to be vigilant on supervision while abroad...

A few summers ago, on another summer camp, some kids escaped the hotel and got piss-ass drunk.  They made a ruckus and began to scare locals.  They even threw a girl at a car...so the story goes. Luckily, no one got hurt, although the police got involved and it was quite an embarrassing fiasco.

Sigh. The bad tomatoes of Maple Leaf...what will they think of next?

Cathy and her crew left for Victoria the next morning.  3 days later, I went to visit her when she was available.  The kids were busy with their own home-stays.  We went out with Ms. Du and a Cantonese girl at Cathy's home-stay named Arlene.  Arlene was a student in Victoria.  She brought us to a dim sum restaurant, claiming it was better than dim sum than her native Guangzhou.  It was Cathy's first time to try Cantonese dim sum.  Needless to say, she liked it a lot.  [Cough] Probably because it's Chinese [cough].

Arlene, Ms. Du, and Cathy at a dim sum restaurant in Victoria's Chinatown.

After dim sum, we went to Roger's Chocolate and Roots to buy some gifts for Ms. Du and Cathy's relatives.

The next day, I went back to Victoria to hang out with just Cathy for another day trip.  We started by going to an Irish pub, where Cathy and I shared Shepard's pie, calamari, and an Scottish beer called Innis and Gunn.  It was delicious.  The premise around Innis and Gunn is that it's brewed in old Scotch Whisky barrels, giving it a distinct flavor. We both liked it.

Cathy knocking back an Innis and Gunn at the Irish Times Pub

From there, we walked around Victoria's downtown for a while taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful scenery.  We jumped on a bus to go to the Cragdarroch Castle, which proved to be a very interesting experience.  The history of the Dunsmuir family is pretty messed up.

The Empress Hotel.  Plans to eat at its restaurant were disrupted by the fact that it's so damn expensive.

In front of the BC Legislative Assembly 

Cathy "playing" the piano at Cragdarroch Castle

 A few days later, my parents came back to Vancouver from their vacation in Florida, NYC, Washington DC, and Ottawa.  We immediately got onto a BC Ferry with my Grand-Aunt Peggy to Victoria.  Cathy was working, so we visited the butterfly museum and one of the many wineries in Saanich while waiting for her to get off work.  We all went out for dinner at a great restaurant called Pagliacci's after we picked her up. It was highly recommended by my mom's friend, and it wasn't hard to see why.

Mom and I are the family wine connesseurs.  We did a tasting of
Church and State Winery while Aunt Peg and Dad watched us.

Our awesome dinner at Pagliacci's in Victoria.  Probably the best
Italian pasta and cheesecake you'll ever eat can be tried here.  The company made it even better. 

After dinner, we drove Cathy back to her home stay in Saanich.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  Her home-stay was a behemoth of a pastoral house.  It was also very clean and beautiful, surrounded by a stunning garden and very big grass lawn.  I was glad that Cathy got to experience that sort of life for once.  Bloody hell, she deserved it for how much work she puts in back at the school in Wuhan.

On Cathy's last day, she and her group relocated back to Vancouver.  My good friend and old colleague Hedy came out to visit Cathy and myself at Richmond Center.  She used to work with us in Wuhan, but relocated after her first year.  And despite our visit being a typical mall walk, we enjoyed each other's company and caught up quite a bit.  Thanks Hedy.

In conclusion, Cathy's visit to Vancouver/ Victoria was a really great experience for her.  She really enjoyed herself visiting my friends and family while successfully taking care of a group of Maple Leafers.  She saw my homeland and hopefully likes what she saw.

Our good friend Hedy came to visit us at Richmond Center on Cathy's last day.