10-28-2018

This is not the most visually appealing structure or picture, but it was the only picture I took today. It's Sunday, meaning it's time to go home :(

There was a couple sitting next to my mom and I in the airport. The girl looked over at my journal with Chinese characters (although I was actually trying to learn some Spanish from my mom) and asked what language it was. And the conversation floodgates were opened. Upon learning we were from a big city in Texas they responded, "Ah, yeah, so not much in Little Rock, right?" Which...is true I guess, but I feel like people are so quick to dismiss small cities. 

Anyways, they were a young couple, around my age. They had just married and were leaving on their honeymoon. I don't remember where exactly they were going, but some typical out-of-country beach destination. I don't think it was Mexico? But it was definitely somewhere Spanish-speaking, because the girl mentioned that she took Spanish in school but doesn't remember any of it.

10-27-2018

In all honesty, I spent most of my time today at the Arkansas State Capitol Building. It took me about 30 minutes to walk here from my hotel. My mom would have disapproved if she saw the route I had to take to get there. But walking is cheaper than Uber, and I haven't walked a lot in a while. I thoroughly enjoyed my time.

Actually, when I first got to the capitol, I guess something was going on, perhaps some sort of charity event? There were people dressed as superheroes standing outside of the capitol building, and there were a decent amount of kids getting their pictures taken with them.

The side of the building. That's another thing - it's actually a very beautiful building for being in the 'boonies', by more urban American standards.

Looking up to the ceiling on the inside. The building has four floors.

I wonder what it would be like to come to this building every day for work. Everything just looks so...important.

The bridge in the background goes over the Arkansas River. This was taken on my walk back to the hotel. I took a slightly different route than I did in the morning, and this stretch was even sketchier than where I walked earlier. Mom would very much have disapproved.

10-26-2018

My flight from Austin to Dallas yesterday was at 6:15am. I also live an hour away from the airport. So I woke up at about 4am yesterday, and didn't get to bed until maybe 10pm-12am. I was very tired, so I slept in this morning. My mom had to go to a meeting this morning, but we decided to meet during her lunch break and go to a purse museum nearby.

I know that sounds weird, but it was pretty cool, and my mom enjoyed it despite not being a huge museum person. They had exhibit containers displaying handbags by the decade, as well as items which would have been in the handbags.

One point I kept hearing is that this is one of three purse museums in the world - there is one in Seoul, and one in Amsterdam.

After our museum break, my mom had to go back to her meeting. So I walked down the street to the Museum of Discovery, which is a science-based museum aimed at providing activities for kids. Before I went inside, I saw the peanut mobile sitting outside. Funny story about this - if you know my mom, you know that she loves to keep up with the news. Usually she reads newspapers, but she had the news channel turned on in our hotel room yesterday afternoon. The news reporter was talking about how the peanut mobile would be going around to some downtown destinations on Friday (today). So, yup, just happened to run into it. 

Inside the Museum of Discovery. There were actually some pretty cool exhibits. It's pretty interactive too, which is nice cause I assume most kids don't have the patience to be quiet and read things.

View of Little Rock from our hotel room. The river that you can see on the right is the Arkansas River.

10-25-2018

It's been rainy and dreary and awful in Texas for the past two months. (Unfortunately, the weather was the same when I arrived in Little Rock.) I looked out the window for almost the whole flight from Austin to Dallas (a short flight - probably about 40 minutes) and the picture above was the only break in the clouds that I saw)

My mom and I made it to Little Rock, Arkansas! She's here for a board meeting. I'm here for no particular reason - just wanted to travel and get away from my office. The organization holding the board meeting paid for her room, so I only had to pay for my flight.

The last time I was on a plane was about two years ago, when I visited a friend after returning to the US from China. I forgot how much I love flying, especially if I have the window seat. (Although I hate to be THAT person who puts the window all the way up in an otherwise darkened plane cabin.) Some people say take-off and landing are the worst parts - I love all of it. Unless the person next to me is sick. Also, I don't care for flights longer than about 3 hours because it is hard for me to sleep on planes. And when I do sleep, it's usually in short intervals, no more than an hour at a time.

Anyways, my mom flew from San Antonio to Dallas and I flew from Austin to Dallas. Then, from Dallas to Little Rock, we were on the same flight. It will be the same on the way home.

Two things about Little Rock you may or may not know: 1. They actually have fall, that season where leaves change into pretty colors instead of turning brown and dying!

2. The 42nd President of the United States, William (Bill) Clinton, is originally from Arkansas. He isn't actually from Little Rock, but I assume he spent a decent amount of time here while holding other political positions since Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas. So there's a lot of Clinton stuff here. My mom and I don't care so much about political divides, and we kept joking about how my dad would hate this place.

There is a museum dedicated to the Clintons inside of the Clinton Presidential Library! My mom and I got here about an hour before they closed, so we didn't get to go through everything, but it was still really cool.

09-30-2018

Drove back to Texas from Kansas City today. But before I left, I took some pictures of my Airbnb:

my room. had its own fridge! and TV, but I didn't use that.

Kitty! They actually had two cats, but only one was allowed outside.

sitting room/dining room (?)

Other side of the sitting room/dining room, leading into the living room

Kitchen

And my car parked on their driveway!

I think I left Kansas City around 6:30am, if not earlier. I thought about and was on track to stop at a park in Kansas, but I felt kind of tired and really just wanted to be home.

I did stop for lunch though - and of course I chose Braum's! Burger was decent, but not anything special, although my opinion may have been influenced by the default cheese and condiments that I did not ask for. Still, I think Whataburger is better :P I'm pretty sure I took a video of myself trying the Braum's burger, and was going to post it here, but I can't seem to find it :c

Finally, I made it home around 4:45pm! There was still some time left in the day before work on Monday. But I didn't do much because I was so tired. However, I am excited to try cooking the vegetables I bought from the farmer's market in Kansas City!

09-29-2018

Today I went to City Market, a local farmer's market. I was so excited when I saw vendors with Chinese eggplant (or Japanese? but I'm so used to calling it Chinese since I became acquainted with this kind of eggplant in China) and bitter melon (even though I said I didn't like it when I tried it, seeing it made me happy - and I kind of want to try it again!).

There was a Chinese grocery store nearby, so I also stopped in here before leaving the area. Actually, this was a necessary trip because I am terribly socially awkward. So yesterday night I bought Vietnamese food for dinner and had leftovers. My Airbnb purchase comes use of a fridge and the microwave if I need it, but the only container I had was my styrofoam take-out box. If I had asked, I'm sure I would have been guided to a paper plate or another plate I could use to reheat my leftovers, but I just...suck at asking for help. (You generally exchange contact information with your host so that you can ask questions if they come up, and I did have her phone number..) So while I was at this store I purchased a set of two microwavable containers, each decorated with a picture of Disney princesses. I bought them because they were cheap. I still have them, and they make me feel like a child when I use them. Despite that, I occasionally use them when packing my lunch for work.

Anyways, after visiting the farmer's market, Chinese store, and eating leftovers for lunch, my afternoon was open. After spending a little bit of time studying Chinese, I decided to drive around. I bought a hot chocolate in Kansas City, KS to say I've been to the Kansas side, as most of the Kansas City tourist attractions are on the Missouri side. Then, I continued to drive around Kansas. Specifically, I chose to drive to a certain park (the name escapes me now). While I was on the highway, I saw a sign which listed the upcoming exit for a historical site. Since there wasn't really a point for me to drive to the park in the first place, I thought, 'why not?' and decided to drive past said historical site. It's called Grinter Place, and from the research I've done on the web, it's basically an old house. I'm sure the museum has interesting information about who they were and what it was like to live during their time (maybe 150-200 years ago?), but I didn't stop to go in.

In the evening, I went to Hank Green's book tour event at the Unity Church. Now, let me back up a bit and explain why this event was so great.

I started planning this Kansas City trip in June - at least, that's when I reserved my Airbnb. It goes without saying that I'm subscribed to vlogbrothers on YouTube. In early September, Hank uploaded a video talking about a book tour for his first book An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (which is very good, please go read it). I saw the notification for this video on my phone and thought 'nah', and proceeded to do something else. But since I didn't completely swipe away the notification, it was still on my phone when I turned it on again, and I decided to give it a go. After watching this video, I investigated the tour dates, and I saw that none were in Texas (WHY?). But I noticed there was a date for Kansas City. And it just so happened that vlogbrothers was going to be in Kansas City while I was there. So I impulsively bought a ticket (which also came with an autographed copy of the book!) and I must say, this was the best impulse buy ever. The event was awesome - Hank and John Green were hilarious.

There is a dance venue in Kansas City for free salsa dancing that I was planning to go to afterwards, but the book tour event ran a little long. I also waited in line after the event ended to buy an autographed copy of Paper Towns (they also had autographed copies of The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Turtles All the Way Down, but Paper Towns was the only one of these that I have not read).

All in all, it was a fun day, and now I must mentally prepare myself for the 10 1/2 hour drive home.