Exchange students

I was asked to join RG and his colleagues in hosting a bunch of exchange students from Shanghai for lunch yesterday. RG drove all the 9 of us in the school's van to Boston Chinatown. It was raining but we were all looking forward to some yummy dim sum. The chinese kids have not had a decent chinese meal since they've arrived in the states a couple of months ago.

We brought them to the very popular China Pearl restaurant at Tyler Street. The place was PACKED with asians as well as americans at lunch hour. The kids looked like they could eat a lot so we just grabbed a few plates of everything off the dim sum carts that came by our table. There was so much food and we all got to try a little of everything.

I took a photo of them totally engrossed in the food! :P

After lunch, we brought them to a nearby chinese grocery shop where they shopped to their hearts' content. I noticed that they were buying all sorts of tidbits, cookies and candies. Of course, I also took the opportunity to do my own grocery shopping. I bought vegetables, noodles, sauces, dried goods, century eggs and a whole lot of other stuffs. Everything came up to 2 big bags full! I also popped by the chinese bakery to pick up some lotus paste & red bean mooncakes and char siew polo buns for RG.

On our way back from Boston, we stopped over in Plymouth for some nice coffees at Panera. We had a really nice chat with the kids. They were telling us about the education system, work opportunities and life in general in China. The kids are all 20 years of age....while they do appear quite mature, they are afterall still quite young and would occasionally say the darndest things to crack us up. Everyone had a great time.