Day 2: Monkey Island

After a very textual first day, I'm gonna let these videos do the talking for me. Also, because I have apparently lost the ability to sleep more than 5 hours a night and started passing out at 7 PM. I was going to try to do a thoughts from places video, but I am le tired and have to wake up at 5 AM again. So here's some slapped together videos.

Monkey Island part I

Monkey Island part II

Day 0-1: Ho Chi Minh City & Nha Trang

So after a strange series of events, I find myself deciding to blog while in a hotel in Nha Trang, Vietnam. Let's start from the beginning...

My cousin Hien is getting married in Ho Chi Minh City (which I will call Saigon for brevity) and my family, being close to his, decided to tag along. Kevin and I knew very little of what the plan was for the trip since there really wasn't one beyond staying in Saigon for the wedding and maybe heading south to Ca Mau (my dad's home town).  With few expectations, Kevin and I flew over 24 hours from Chicago to Tokyo, before landing in Vietnam. The flights were unremarkable save for amount of free booze our seatmate drank and almost waiting in line for the wrong flight. Seriously though... Same airlines. Same destination. Same departure time. Who would've guessed there'd be two matching flights? We got to our hotel in one piece after a rather frightening taxi ride. Might makes right in a city of taxi vans vs motorcycles. 

We did have a mild malaria scare, since my parents decided to sign us up for a tour without telling us. They said it was north of Saigon, which tends to be where the malaria risk constitutes preventative medicine. Thankfully all the places we're going are low risk, but I still had a mini heart attavk over the whole ordeal.  Cause seriously, it'd be pretty ridiculous to come home with Malaria of all things. 

We started today with attempting to get new suitcases at a nearby store and ended up buying dresses instead. I felt like my family was being THAT super demanding group of foreigners, but they were nice enough while we were there. The fact that we spent 4,000,000 dong (Vietnamese money) on a custom made dress may have helped smooth things over. My dad was kind enough to buy me a custom made reception dress for the wedding. It's not a traditional Vietnamese dress, but it's okay that way. It's form fitting, lacy, and now has an extra layer of fabric since I'm apparently a prude for not showing off my stomach. I'm super excited to try it on in 5-6 days. My mom got a red dress to wear to my wedding, which I'm excited that she looks gorgeous in. 

After much dawdling and watching my dad smoke while talking to complete strangers on the street, we went back to the airport for our 1 hour flight to Nha Trang. We spent more time waiting for the airplane to arrive than the actual flight. I feel like there's almost always a lengthy delay due to technical issues (aka fixing the plane?) when I fly these shady Asian airlines. So we, along with rest of our group, got a late start on our tour. Today we realized that there were some major problems with these tour plans. 

The big problem: the tour is in Vietnamese. The guide's English isn't quite up to the conversational level yet. The English tour wouldn't get us back to Saigon in time, so we just kinda went with it. That leaves my dad to be our translator and overall tour leader. Not only do we not really know what's going on, but we already got in trouble with the tour group. 

Our first stop in Nha Trang was this spa that had medicinal soaks, mud bathes, and massages. We had an hour and a half to be there, which we spent the first portion just walking around. I was growing increasingly frustrated to be in a place like that and be doing absolutely nothing since my dad was in charge. I asked him repeatedly if we should go back to the bus to grab our suits so we could hop in one of the pools, but he insisted that suits are provided. This made little sense to me, especially when looking around and seeing everyone in their suits they brought from home. Then he said he just wanted to look around. My mom and I convinced him to get massages, which we had no clue what we were doing. We were apparently supposed to consult the tour guide about what services we wanted. Not doing so lead to us making the tour group wait 20 minutes for us. I felt the strangest mixture of shame and frustration over this event. I like being able to take charge when I want to. Instead, we're stuck with my dad as our unreliable translator as he rarely knows what's going on in English either. So we befriended a nice couple who speaks Viet, Cantonese, and English. They're seriously a godsend. Here's hoping things go a bit more smoothly from here. 

We had one last trial for the night (right as I started this blog post). The hotel sink decided to explode on Kevin while he was pooping. We had just finished getting everything settled in our room when Kevin went to the bathroom. I heard him scream, "My leg!" and the sound of spraying water. I panicked and called reception, who did not understand why I was freaking out about water. Thankfully, my dad stepped in and saved the day by calling them and letting them know in Vietnamese what was the emergency. This just serves as a little reminder that I really wouldn't survive this trip without my dad. 

Tomorrow, we go to a place called Monkey Island. Let's hope I don't have to use my knowledge on treating monkey bites. 

So this happened

April and I started vlogging.

Will we become the next Vlogbrothers?!

No, because I think we're both n00bs when it comes to this.  Yes, I just used lingo from the early 2000's.

Either way, here they are:

An Introduction

Apologies and Catching Up

20 Questions Sunday

Yesterday, I broke

We were waiting to get a table at a dim sum place when my mom and aunt dragged me over to stand in front of my grandma.  My mom and aunt began loudly asking my grandma who I was.  I looked at her, expecting her to say the name she's been calling me since she took care of me as a baby.  Her eyes were still bright, but she didn't say a word.  I slowly began to comprehend what was going on and tried hard to hold back the tears I could feel forming.  My aunt all but shouted that I was her granddaughter.  I don't remember what happened next, because I tore myself away from my mom's grip to cry at Mike.

Some days are just harder than the rest.

St. Louis and Friends

Me and my pharmacy friends went on our first big friendventure on the first weekend of April.  After over a month of preparation, we were ready for a crazy weekend in Missouri.

Yang, Kris, and I on the first leg of the trip.

 Friday night was Mean Girls and Cards Against Humanity night.  It was a nice way to unwind after a long trip with a few mishaps in terms of driving switch off points.  Mike was still pretty drunk from happy hour, which made for an interesting game.

On Saturday, we hit pretty hard traffic on the way to St. Louis, so our Cheeburger stop ended up being perfectly timed.

Yang and Kris on their very first Cheeburger trip.  Adorable.

Mike caught in the act of mixing up his Strawberry Birthday Cake shake. 

 The City Museum was a blast as usual.  This was my third time there, but I still manage to do something new each time I go.  There are always new tunnels that I didn't explore.  Slides I was too chicken to go down.  More parts of the outside portion that I've never been to.

The turtles looked smug as usual.

I convinced Yang to follow me through random tunnels.  Might have been unwise.

I always go through a "Where does this tunnel go?" process that usually ends in "I've made a huge mistake."

The outside of the City Museum looks like a lot of tetanus, but is a ton of fun!

 Nothing says adventure like going down two story slides.  I was proud of myself that day that I was able to overcome my fear of heights and just do everything I had wanted to.  All that's left for me to explore is the ten story slide and the rooftop!

We were planning on meeting up with friends for dinner, so we had a lot of time to kill.  We ended up taking the obligatory trip to the Arch with the obligatory pictures.  So many people taking pictures there with tablets.  Hilarious.

We're a good looking group.

Yang was trying to be artsy.

We decided to make our most attractive faces.

Thankfully Yang was pro-active in documenting Mike and I being together.

I have to respect her dedication to getting a good picture.  The mud was worth it, I hope.

I demanded a piggyback ride.  Only felt right to give him one first.

So much better <3

I can't remember why this happened, but it was fabulous.

We went to a great burger joint in downtown St. Louis.

Of course I ordered the Baa Baa Black Sheep.

Saturday night ended with some last minute touches on Kris's costume.  Her Chewy-Wash combo just needed the gun belt and we were all set for Comic Con!

I was pretty happy with how my costume turned out.  It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it.  I found the offwhite turtleneck at Goodwill and had to make some minor alterations to make it more Han Solo-like (and so it'd actually fit).  The vest I made from scratch and it involved a crap ton of hand sewing since it the fabric refused to go through the sewing machine.  That man has more pockets than he knows what to do with.  I even went super accurate in terms of putting a pocket on top of the "moon pocket".  I also got to hand make the gun holster--buckles and all.  The most satisfyingly easy part of the whole costume was the stripes on the pants.  

Sunday morning was really damn rough.  I had about 4 hours of sleep and a lot of hours of driving ahead of me.  The general excitement of Comic Con was enough to get me through the majority of it.

They unleashed people onto the Con in waves.  I was getting anxious.

First thing I saw entering the Con was R2-D2.  I was a little bit afraid to approach him, to be honest.  I was afraid of either being yelled at for touching him or finding a midget inside the machine.  I was happy to find out he droid inside and out.

 One of my bigger regrets of the Con was being too afraid to come out of my bubble.  I was happy running around in my cosplay, but I was afraid to be really outgoing with it.  Such as, I really wish I posed with R2-D2 the way I wanted to.  I was so excited to see him, and I really wanted to just sink down to the ground next to him and give him a giant hug.  I was worried that someone holding a remote control would start yelling at me if I did so.

I regret not hugging him.

My biggest major fail was not not pulling my blaster out of my holster.  I got it from a very friendly nerd on eBay. Next time I have to remember to show it off.

Bad Horse, Doctor Horrible and Captain Hammer waiting for Nathan Fillion.

I was antsy.

Googly eyes were applied and dinosaurs were played with.

I still love how Kris was both our pilots.

 Meeting Nathan Fillion was a surreal, but short experience.  He said he liked my costume.  I remember an overwhelming moment of looking up at him and realizing what a large human being he was.  I remember how much I fangirled over his giant man hands on me.  I just wish it was less an in-and-out experience.  I was so nervous I forgot to do my *head nod* "Captain" to him.

We didn't have as much time to wander exhibition hall as I would have liked.  Next time, I really want to go multiple days.

We did manage to find a crap ton more Firefly cosplay.

 We spent most of the afternoon in main theatre watching panels.  It was pretty amazing being able to see Karen Gillan and the Firefly cast.  I was just sad I was too much of a weeny to ask questions.  I really would have liked to get something from Alan Tudyk's bag of shit.  The Doctor Who Bigger on the Inside panel was amazing and made me want to watch the old series and rewatch the new series.  Now to just get ahold of the old episodes...

All in all, Comic Con was a wild success.  I got a lot of compliments on my costume and was in a lot of stranger's pictures.  I got to have a shoot out with my male Han Solo counterparts.  One said my gun holster was better, which was a huge compliment since it looked like they bought theirs.  We got to buy random fun things while we were there.  It was a good learning experience.  I know what changes I would make now.  The main one being going multiple days.  I was really sad not be there for the big cosplay day with the contest and all.  Here's to popping my convention cherry and my plans for future conventions!

The Difference

Every now and then I have anxiety about being in a long distance relationship.  The distance is hard.  The rules and expectations are different from a "normal" relationship.  Then there is a the huge difference in the weight behind actually seeing each other.  We usually only have one whole day together in which no one's arriving in the middle of the night or leaving in the morning.

These moments, though they are short, have helped me realize a lot of things about our relationship.  This is how I know our relationship is actually going to make it.

With my past long distance relationships, visits somehow left me feeling like something was missing.  Sure, we'd go on dates and do couple-y things, but I never felt fulfilled.  Even when they were here, I felt just as lonely as when they weren't.  The relationships themselves weren't meant to last, but the distance dragged them on longer.  It took a lot of crying to realize I wasn't happy.  Months?  Years?  Time I can never get back, but I know I have learned from.

When Mike comes to visit, I'm reminded of all the reasons why I liked him in the first place.  We cook, we play board games, we hang out with friends... And I remember just how well we work together.  I don't feel the loneliness I used to feel.  At the end of his visits, while I'm sad to see him go, I'm left with a heart filled to the brim.

In past relationships, the visits were lacking and the relationships really weren't going anywhere.

Now with every visit I feel like I'm getting a glimpse of a very real future.  With one semester of classes left, I have a lot to look forward to.

Semi-Controlled Chaos

Thanksgiving has quickly become one of my favorite holidays, even though it's been years since I've been able to spend it with my parents.  Nowadays, I've been spending it with Mike's family which has been a completely different experience entirely.  

There are three main differences between spending Thanksgiving with Mike's family and with my parents.  

1. The food.  It's all very American ('Murica!) and very delicious.  My parents tried cooking a turkey one year but have avoided it since.  I really do love the full Thanksgiving dinner with all the sides and more desserts than we could finish within the week.  I really appreciate how they go all out for these family events.  Mike, his dad and his uncle went grocery shopping for the whole event on Tuesday and it took them a grand 3 hours to finally make it back home.  I didn't even bother to count how many additional trips Mike's dad made to the store.  Mike's mom was constantly cooking to the point where I wonder if she ever really sat down and ate a full meal.  Either way, the food was delicious and I made sure to help eat as much of it as possible.  

2. The animals.  They were everywhere.  This year we had Thanksgiving at Mike's parent's house, which meant there were 6 dogs, 4 cats, 1 rabbit, and a variety of smaller animals.  This meant that I got plenty of cuddles and had to break up a couple of dog fights as well.  My lap was occupied the majority of the time by at least one of the smaller dogs.  I felt very loved and my dog hair covered clothes can prove it.  If I went upstairs for more than 5 seconds, I'd have an attention-deprived cat rubbing up against me as well.  They all knew that I'm a sucker for cute things so they knew where to get their pets.  

3. The people.  All 23 of 'em.  Yes, that's right.  Twenty three.  This included 3 toddlers and 1 infant.  Now mesh all of the above into one household and you can only begin to imagine how my break was spent.  There were space issues (the 5 giant turkey balloons didn't help) and unless you ran away upstairs, you were always part of something.  There were board games to play, football games to watch, cooking constantly going on in the background, dogs to be pet and shooed off couches, and toddlers to be taken care of.  I've never  been around kids that much, so I never knew that there would be so much crying involved with playing.  Being two is hard.  So is sharing.  So is sharing with your cousin.  

I love Thanksgiving for all of those reasons.  The food.  The craziness.  The overwhelming feeling of being part of a large family and being loved by them.  This is something I'm going to look forward to every year.