hello from the lone star state, texas!

it's soooooooo nice to finally be here. i had looked forward to this trip for a long long time, and it's already coming to a close. =( i'm going to proceed on to write in detail everything that i did in dallas and killeen, so if you're looking for a deep, thought-provoking blog entry, please stop here and (under friends/other links) click on either tim or hope chapel xanga blogring. do NOT click on aznhomer16.


flight to texas

my flight was delayed an hour, but i ended up waiting for more like 2 hours until i finally left baltimore. i originally thought i missed the flight, but that's a whole another story. if it weren't for jenny, i probably would've cried and really missed my flight. anyway, i got on the plane... and had an interesting next 3 hours.

i realized only after i got to texas how funny i would've looked to my fellow passengers. it's kind of embarrassing, but.. i will share. i left my watch at home and had my phone turned off, and i really wanted to know what time it was because i could've sworn 2 hours had passed since the plane took off. i asked the lady next to me who politely told me it had only been an hour. so i waited and waited and this time i was sure we had at most half an hour before landing. this time, i didn't want to aggravate the lady, so i asked the flight attendant who told me there was still an hour left. some time later, i didn't want to aggravate the flight attendant again, so i decided to go against the rules and turned on my phone, which to my frustration didn't even show the time cuz it was searching for service.

and ever since the flight attendant told me there was one hour left, i started to look at my compact mirror.... about every 20 minutes at first.. and then every 5 minutes the last 20 minutes of the hour. and as soon as the pilot first announced that the plane is descending, i looked out the window with this excited look on my face. i was sitting in an aisle seat, so i had to lean over a little to get a nice look out the window. so imagine this picture.. me in an aisle seat, leaning over, looking in the mirror, excited smile on my face.. i'm just glad i'll never see those people again. i'm sure i'll be much more normal going back home.


day one

ok so after that long intro, let me tell you what we did in dallas. so i arrived and chris was waiting for me at the gate. it felt nice to see him after like 50 million hours of waiting. we went to his house, and i met his sister and dog for the first time. jennifer was very friendly... tucker was not (he needed some time before he opened up. by the time i left, he and i were best friends). anyway, his mom prepared bibimbap and yookgaejang for me even though it was past midnight and she had work early the next morning... it was very sweet of her. and then we exchanged gifts - i got a sweater and a cashmere scarf from ann taylor from his mom and sister. as soon as i opened it, i knew someone had been doing some talking back and forth about our shopping preferences. =)


day two

despite our late night the night before, we woke up early the next morning to catch chris' dad in the middle of breakfast. so i met him for the first time in my sleep clothes. hehe.. and then after he left for the store, we ate breakfast and watched chris' one of many family videos. chris singing little mermaid during the car ride to their new house, making (unnoticeable) mistakes at his first piano recital, beating up a big fat white boy at taekwondo match, birthday dance party with his whole first grade class, art contest, his sister getting ice skating lessons and him struggling on the walls, etc...

he was a very cute kid (really). i heard a tape recording of him when he was about 3, and my my... how adorable he was, telling his mom "i lub you" and "be quiet! you bad boy!" hahaha..

we went to komart to get a bag of coffee mix to send to iraq for my stepbrother, got new perfume at this korean perfume store, took sticker pictures, picked up lunch for chris' mom, and went to the store. the store was much bigger than i thought... and very clean with everything well organized. tita, his illegal mexican worker, is doing a great job. =)

after that, we had pho at the place where chris claimed was even better than an loi. i say it was definitely as good, but the "better" part must be attributed to the sentimental value built up from all those years of pho-eating. then to top it off, we had bubble tea. pho and bubble tea, can't get any better. hehehe..

with our stomachs full, we went house browsing in this neighborhood where all these famous people live. seriously, these houses are not only ginormous but exquisite. i was thoroughly impressed. then chris took me to a mall, and i wondered why there are no malls like that in baltimore. first of all, it was huge. and it had all the stores you could possibly think of. the carpeted floors gave it a cozy look, and there were so many little areas with sofas where you can sit, rest, and have a cup of coffee. i was jealous. he showed me the humongous christmas tree in the center of the mall, and i had my first marble slab, coffee ice cream with gummy bears. is it really that nasty? hehehe...

for dinner, chris' parents took chris, me, his sister, and his sister's "friend" out to a nice galbi place, and for dessert, we went to reunion tower, at the top of the hyatt, where you can see like the entire city of dallas from about 50 stories high. chris had already told me a little about his dad before i met him, but i only realized how scary he was at dinner. i was so nervous when he asked me questions... like the year my parents were born and what their names are. but he made a lot of jokes too.. it was funny how his parents were cracking jokes and telling each other how sullung they are. it was cute. =)

then we (without the parents) finally saw "meet the fockers"! it was funny.. i liked it a lot. i don't know if it was better than the first one, but i recommend it to you all. next on my list is "ocean's twelve."

so that was the end of my day two. and i would continue on, but i know nobody likes long entries anyway, so i'll stop here for now. in the meantime, enjoy the pictures!



TO BE CONTINUED....