everything texas and a few other things…

How do you describe a 2-week escape from school? Well, I would say pretty nice! I just went to the states, where I was in Texas, Tampa and Chicago. I managed to see more people than I imagined.

When I was 14-16 I lived with my aunt (Tia) Grace, my uncle Mark and my two cousins (Amanda and Curtis); while I was going to high school there. It was a learning experience and but I had way too much homework and too little spare time. The real reason that I decided I needed to go the states, was that I hadn’t seen my family for almost 3 years and I feared it would be even longer if I didn’t do something about it. SO, I went there. My cousins are awesome and they have grown into such cool kids. I wish that I could be there with them as they grow even more. My Danish cousin Natascha is staying with my American side for a year, it seems to be a great family tradition. Enough mindless writing about my family, here is a list of the best parts of my whole trip (in no specific order):

• Seeing the cousins and then making sure they wouldn’t miss me by teasing them as much as possible.
• Chaperoning Curtis’ class to the Texas capitol building (fun fact about the Texas capitol: it is larger than the national capitol and equipped with a goddess (not statue) of liberty – I guess everything is bigger in texas)
• Listening to “Screw You, We’re From Texas” by Ray Wylie Hubbard on the radio, on Texas Independence Day (march 2^nd) (Link to someone using the chorus in a clip)
  
• Spending time with Stefani in Florida and meeting her family and dog.
• Waiting for Jared who was two days delayed in coming to Texas – only to have him experience the worst weather Texas has experienced all year, when there had been 82 degrees the two days before he arrived. (Jared would probably say that Texas is the most self-loving state in the USA, based on the fact that the amount of Texan flags dwarfing the amount of American flags. Well screw you we’re from texas!)
• Seeing Chicago, a pretty nice town – I was in awe of the tall buildings (including the Sears Tower).
• Seeing my Uncle Mark with long hair… and spending quality time with him.
• Wearing shorts for almost a week straight and not freezing while doing so.
• Spending a day with Abuelita (my grandmother) in San Antonio.
• Calling Omeed on skype with Jared – even though he barely could hear us – it was exactly like old times. All we needed was to conference the White Man (Bendershot) and Sam in.
• Sleeping the day away to be able to have second dinner, since I skipped lunch because of the fast.
• Spending time in the airports of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Chicago, Tampa, Memphis, St. Louis, Atlanta and Austin… Especially Austin because of the loud country music.
• Eating: Brisket, Mexican food, a polish, fried chicken, Chicago style pizza, Chinese, sonics, shamrock shakes and all the other great American foods I managed to have while I was in the USA.
• Seeing Joey Lample and Jared’s sister Sabrina again and meeting some other Bahá'ís who I hope to see again.
• Driving in Texas and Florida – especially the wide Texan roads, everything is bigger and better in Texas.
• Seeing Tia, she is like a second mother to me. Enough said!

This is in no way a wholesome description of my trip, but it will have to suffice.