Hey, all! I just came back spending 4 days in Texas! The last time I’ve been on a plane was probably over a decade ago, when I was a little kid. I decided to go along with my dad because I haven’t really had the experience of travelling by plane.

I ate some pretty good food! My dad and I pretty much drove around to eat wherever when we weren’t working. I don’t think I ever ate so many different Mexican food. El Fenix had the best tostados I have ever had offered to me as appetizers.

I met my dad’s friend’s daughter who just graduated from high school. Apparently she’s only been living here for 2 years! She lived in Vietnam all this time. Her English was really, REALLY good. We talked a LOT, but it was mostly her telling me things since I was so curious about her. She told me about the education system in Vietnam (and how incredibly rigorous it is). It just made me think so much about the relationship between education in the States and other countries… She also told me about a field trip she had with her class back in Vietnam. They went to the jungle and seriously had to do a whole week like a real jungle survivor. … Except she cheated and used a lighter to light a fire she couldn’t get started with rubbing sticks together.

Really though, she’s so cool! She has a completely different upbringing from me so I was very fascinated with her.

I found out she LOVES Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak. It’s been translated in Vietnamese! Of the 31 languages the series has been translated to, Vietnamese was one of them. Nice! I was so excited to be able to talk about it. I never knew anyone in real life who’s read it before! I didn’t finish all the books, though, and she was kind of spoiling me, hahah!

We went to the mall together, and that was quite a trip. I ended up having to teach how to fill up a gas tank.

In any case, for breakfast this morning, I went to the Old Pancake House and had their special “Dutch Baby”. It’s an oven baked pancake that takes 22 minutes to cook. I didn’t know how to eat it so the waitress showed me. The Dutch Baby doesn’t taste like anything special until you do it right, she said. She rubbed the whole thing with butter and squeezed lemon juice on it, then added powdered sugar. When I took my first bite.. dang! It was really sweet and I really liked it! It was definitely something strange that I’ve never had before.

I’m really going out of order here, but as I went around eating food, I tried to think about what looked easy enough for me to try to do at home for myself. I never, ever cook, but I’m trying to get familiar with a lot of simple stuff I can make. For instance, a breakfast I had at the hotel I stayed at had this delicious healthy sandwich that had slices of turkey, egg white and spinach on top of an English muffin. I think I tasted some cheese but I’m not sure if there was any. In any case, that’s easy enough for me to pull together on my own, right?

I’d like to go on more trips with my dad in the future, but taking time off from work isn’t always possible, so I can only keep my fingers crossed that the months he chooses to go are convenient enough for me!

Ah, my coworker asked if I saw any big bugs as I had hoped, and I remembered I did! It was some weird beetle thing. I had to take care of it 'cause the daughter didn't like bugs. XD