After being on the road for 2 months spending a week at my parents' home in Boston felt so luxurious - 3 meals per day prepared for us, people to talk to other than each other, a nice bathroom, having people understand us when we speak English and not having to worry about our budget. It was hard to leave and we seriously contemplated staying an extra week or two, but we knew we had to push onwards. It's so easy for inertia to set in.
Here are some highlights from our Boston stay:
- Seeing my family
- Seeing friends
- Eating everything I requested in a menu I emailed to my mom two weeks before we arrived in Boston including turkey (they didn't eat turkey on Thanksgiving just to save it for when I'd be in Boston), my brother's bacon fried rice, chili fish, Chinese/Taiwanese breakfast and dim sum.
- Skiing at Wachusetts Mountain
- Seeing Amy and Edmund, who day-tripped from NYC
- Watching Slumdog Millionaire with no foreign subtitles
- Meeting Sceppa & Hollis, two of my high school teachers.
- Playing Starcraft
- 6" of snowfall
- Trimming our luggage (more on that later)
- 10 cent wings at John Brewer's Tavern
Accompanying pictures
1. Pile of presents
2. My mom receiving JK Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard
3. My brother finding a present to culture his hobby of wine: a wine decanter
4. My cousin determined to play Guitar Hero immediately after ripping open the wrapping.
5. My grandma receiving massaging slippers
6. My mom and dad admiring the free calendar J and I brought to add to their collection. Tell me if I'm wrong in saying that Asian parents looooove the free calendars given out by Chinese grocery stores at the end of the year. This one is from Paris!
7. My sister-in-law, who spent the week with us, receiving an iPod Nano from her brothers and me.
8. My brother carving/hacking the Christmas turkey
9. One of many feasts that week
10. We made dumplings from a meat filling made by my brother
11. My sister brought home a huge platter of sashimi consisting of white tuna, tuna and salmon.
12. Dumplings and sashimi
13. Everyone who was at dinner that night
14. My brother doing some dual-shovel plowing of the driveway
15. A collection of snow on his head after 30 minutes outside
16. Starcraft LAN party with more cousins
