My trip to Boston 2012

This summer, I met a lovely Taiwanese girl in Milwaukee. There are certainly many Chinese people here, but Taiwanese are very very few. So when I was introduced to a Taiwanese this summer, I was super excited, especially after I found that we have a lot in common.

Dores is very nice and she has the most beautiful smile in the world. She is always smiling and being positive toward everything. When she told me that she is planning to have a trip before she leaves, I was thinking that it would be great if I can go with her. She will be a very good travel partner. Later on that day, John told me that he wants to go to Utah for the dental outreach program. And guess what!? John will be away in the same week which Dores is planning the trip on. So~ Dores and I started to plan to visit a big city where there is good public transportation system and it is safe for two girls walking around even at night. And that is Boston!

On Sep 15th, we left for Boston early in the morning. After we landed, we just stood outside the airport and was trying to figure out how to get to our hotel. At the time, an airport worker came to us and asked us to help her. She wanted us to translate her words into Chinese to a Chinese old man. She tried to tell him that they changed the locations of the bus stops because of the construction. After talking to them, we found that the Chinese old man was going to the same direction as we were. What a coincidence! So we got on the bus with the Chinese guy. On the way to the hotel, he told us that he had moved to Boston from China 14 years ago. His sons have all grown up and have their own families now. He also told us how the subway and bus system works in Boston. How funny it is that  in the beginning, it was us who were helping him, but in the end, it was him who helped us to get to the hotel and told us a lot about Boston. Thank you, 伯伯!!  What surprised us more was that the old apartment where he lives with his wife now was just across the street from our hotel. We were really lucky to meet such a nice person on our first day in Boston!

The hotel worker who checked us in is a very nice Korean girl. She told us, on the last day, that she had studied Chinese in China (in Chinese!!).On the day we arrived, we've only got half a day and we planned to go to Harvard. Harvard is very far from our hotel. We planned to take subway and change to bus. I know that will take us a lot of time. We didn't tell her about our plan. However, how nice it is that she told us that we can walk to a bus stop and the bus will take us to Harvard directly. The information saved us plenty of time!

                                         At Mr. Bartley at Harvard Square
                                         This is the best burger I've ever had!
At Harvard Square, everything is extremely expensive. Although I really wanted a T-shirt with "Harvard" printed on it, I don't think I would pay 30 bucks for that!!

Because Boston is next to the sea, you can find a lot of seafood restaurants where you will have fresh oyster and lobster. At the Neptune Oyster, we had fresh, but super expensive oyster.

                                          So expensive that we only ordered one each. :-(

We didn't miss the famous Quincy Market. I got the famous lobster roll there. It cost me 16 bucks!! Scary~huh. This is Boston life. You have to be prepared. With Money!

                                         Delicious lobster roll. Not very special though.

I love the chowder soup that I had in Quincy Market. It was really good. I would recommend it!

                                         The chowder soup I had in Milwaukee was always very salty but this one was not salty at all. And it was full of clam and potatoes!

                                          Left: Sticky Bun (Just looking at the photo, I want one now!!! We don't have that in Milwaukee. It's kind of like Cinnamon roll but tastes better)
                                         Right: Danish (Dores's favorite)

We not only ate a lot of good food but we also learned a lot about the history of the United States.(we've got culture,too haha~) Walking around the city, you'll see buildings with great histories. You'll hear how America became what she is now and also some amazing stories of her people. The best tour we've got is the free tour in Trinity Church. Neither of us are Christian or Catholic so we know nothing about churches.After the tour, we've learned the story of Trinity Church and why it is so special from other churches. Also, we've learned how the stained glass was made.I think this one is a must-see!

Trinity Church

We also took ferry to Salem where there was a famous witch trial in old times. Salem is very small. We thought that we would see people dressing like vampires, or witches on the streets. We saw nothing scary, though. I guess we were there at the wrong time. I think they might have a big fest for Halloween.

                                             The witch statue in front of the Witch Museum

I am happy to have such a great friend to share this wonderful experience with. There are still many other great places in Boston we didn't have time to see. I hope I can go back some time soon!