Mr Chan is back!

Earng Han is back with us once again after spending 5 days in New York, the city that never sleeps. He was super excited because he was told that there was a fantastic Italian restaurant highly recommended by his New York friends. So we headed to Vinnyt's of Boston last night. When there is good food tagged at a reasonable price, an excellent ambience, wonderful service topped with great company of friends, what else can you ask for? 

Appetizer

Entree

After that, we headed to a hip supermarket. I like the cute signboards!

After the trip to the hip supermarket, this was what we had this morning. Nice!

Celebrating Independence

Yesterday was Independence Day in America, and what better place than to celebrate it here in the historical City of Boston, where the settler's resistance to the British taxation regimes finally led to a decision by 13 colonies to make a formal declaration of independence from Britain.  The declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776.

The years that followed after that was marked by several years of fighting between American regiments and militia (subsequently allied with French and Dutch forces) against British forces supported by some German and Canadian units.  The Americans finally forced a British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in 1783. Well, so much for a brief page of history...

4th July is today celebrated as Independence Day and is commonly associated with fireworks, barbecues, carnivals and other celebrations.  So knowing that this would be our first and last fourth of July in our present American sojourn, Doris and I were determined to join in the celebrations in the city, which promised a crowd of some 500,000 people by the Charles River.  

Before that, we met with a couple of my classmates - all International students (Bulgaria, Greece, Israel, Morocco and Taiwan) - for dinner at a Brazilian eatery along Cambridge Street after what seemed like an endless trek from the Central Square station in the Harvard area. Arriving a rather ravenous lot, we lost no time in launching into a carnivorous rampage of the eclectic selection of grilled meats.  Yummy!

The 'council' of international students looking all prim and proper... ah but wait till the feasting begins!!!

 

The odd couple from Singapore... in the company of mainly Mediterranean and European countries. 

The waiter serving pieces of meat right off the grilling flames... that looks like bacon wrapped over chicken.

Following dinner, we travelled to the Kendall area to mingle with the crowd, catch the audio broadcasts of the celebrations at the Halfshell, and catch some 30 minutes of riveting fireworks! Don't the pictures just remind you of our own National Day Parade?

Above is a shot of maybe 1% of the crowd at the Harvard/MIT side of the Charles River. You can see the iconic Prudential Tower - the tallest one - on the other side of the river. 

Let the fireworks begin!

Fireworks timed according to the 1812 Festival Overture composed by Tchaikovsky - you can hear a similar rendition in our juke box.

 

Meet Mr Chan!

Our church friend, Mr Chan Earng Han, has officially reached Boston City from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I travelled to the airport to fetch him and it was supposed to be rather convenient to do that Boston. However, Mr Chan has apparently brought with him some form of disaster. Allow me to explain...

Firstly, the train I wanted to catch, caught fire. That was yesterday on my way to the airport.

Secondly, the weather was supposed to be very sunny today. But within an hour, it turned into a thunderstorm.

Thirdly, we almost kena drenched by dirty rain water from a speeding car.

Fourthly, the train we took from Lechmere broke down three times.

Lastly, I nearly got killed by a fallen tree at Boston Common!

So Mr Chan declared that he has brought forth the series of unfortunate events and we would be free of calamity once he is off to New York City. 

This was the breakfast prepared by Daniel for Earng Han. 

After the frightening thunderstorm at Boston Common, we headed to Lechmere for some shopping. Then we found out that we could go for free visit at the Museum of Art near my house. So being kiasu, we rushed down to beat the peak hour crowd. 

Some photos taken at the museum. Earng Han refused to let me post his photos online. So those who want to see his face, sorry ah...

This is a super duper small Christian devotion book in Syrian. 

Christ the Good Shepherd. Carved from ivory wor...

I love this cast glass bench!

Jesus and the 12 disciples. 

我要飞得最高、最远。。。我的梦无限空间。

This is made from styrofoam.

Arty farty tree.