After I moved out and left Oxford, I went on a trip with my Mom and little sister to Indianapolis, IN to visit my grandparents. My grandparents are really sweet people, I don't know them that well, but my grandpa is obviously a humorous person. I took some photos of their house because I've come to realize that houses today are not made with the same amount of detail and thought as they used to be. My grandparents' house has tons of windows, but also longer roofing that acts as a shade over the windows. This keeps their house cooler during the hottest part of the day because the house has more shade. They also keep windows open all day (with screens in place), and this makes the air in the house fresh and cool. It was so pleasant. If I ever buy a house, I hope its a well kept house from the 60s or earlier. Oh, and my grandma made all the curtains in the house.
After I got back from IN, I tried really hard to see different people before leaving Oxford. We saw Vivian several times and drank tequilla and beers with her, and she made me promise to eat at a certain restaurant while I'm in Taichung, but I already forgot the name :O
And Vivian, Alecia, and I all ate at Alecia's fav restaurant, Ajax, before leaving Oxford. It was the most relaxed I think I've seen Alecia in a long (she did amazing on her GRE!) :D
Nick and I were able to hang out with Melody and Dave and see their kids again before we left. We also hung out with Vivian several times, and later I cooked eggrolls (bulgogi eggrols and chicken eggrolls) with Michelle and Tim. Michelle and I also found frogs outside with their tails still shrinking.
Then I took Alecia and Hyejeong to my house where Alecia stayed only one night before leaving, and Hyejeong stayed several nights before leaving. My dad really wanted us to go to a bar and sing karaoke, so we tried to have fun and sang together some pop-songs.
After Alecia left, Hyejeong and I basically spent all our free time shopping until she left. She also helped me clean my house's kitchen, which, with my Mom working so much and my lazy brothers making such a mess, was extremely dirty. It was really sweet of her to do that, and it made my Mom really happy. I just wish it would stay clean.......
Then Elizabeth came down with her daughter Isabella and her pomeranian Daisy. It was really fun, and we went shopping again, too. Isabella is getting big so quickly, she didn't have this much hair last time I saw her.
Finally, I brought Nick up and we left on the 11th for NJ. We've been staying at Jacki's house since Tuesday, and we're leaving tomorrow (Monday, 17th Aug). Her family is incredibly nice, it's no wonder she's such a confident person. I really love being here, and her house is also amazing.
We went with her friends Chrissie and Robyn to visit a water park in Pennsylvania called Dorney Park. It. was. Awesome. It was such a huge park and they stayed open all day until 10pm! We left around 9:30pm. I was exhausted from walking all day, and from jumping in the wave pool, but then I ate for the rest of the week so it was all good. :)
Tomorrow we're going to take 3 different trains up to Closter, NJ. Then on Tuesday we're flying out to Taipei.
One thing you can say about Jacki's family is that they love good food (except maybe her brother Jon, but he just had teenager tastebuds still).
Tonight, her Dad wanted to cook for her, so he made lemon chicken and shrimp sambuca with penne. It was possibly the best food I've ever eaten, and the most authentic Italian (I think) food I've ever had. The chicken had so much flavor, and the sambuca tomato sauce was awesome, and the shrimp had been freshly cooked (which makes shrimp magical).
It's too bad we never got to make the cheese-crab wontons.
