Now I'm home, feeling healthy and not really in any pain anymore. I am going to soak the foot today, and catch up on projects. And watch Screech on some show called "Dr. Keith." I think people watch these shows every day. I can't imagine.
Soon, however, I may not have anything to do with my days. D had his first interview yesterday and thinks it went well. They said he wouldn't have to start for a month, so this means the possibility of either working more here, or travelling! Exciting. Hopefully I'll be able to find some sort of temporary one month employment to occupy my days, or maybe I'll volunteer.
To catch up: Florida. I didn't have time to do my taxes. The visit was actually the perfect length - it started off rocky with my entering upon a lavish lunch involving meat and having various family members explain to my the ingredients available to me for a possible lunch. I didn't understand what this meant - was I supposed to cook something myself? Were they offering to cook for me? I am a person who is awkward in other people's kitchens - helping myself when I barely know the people, especially when the kitchen is enormous and I'd have to be interrupting THEIR lunch to ask them where various pots and pans are. I decided not to eat lunch at all (rather than make myself scrambled eggs while they ate), and ate instead an apple. D, my hero, found some secret bread stashed in the garage and made me a grilled cheese sandwich. After that it was smooth sailing - chatting, a nap, dinner (this time there was specially made tofu on the side, awww.....), bingo, sleeping too much, an entire day spent at Epcot Center just the two of us, more sleep, a nice long lunch of Vietnamese pancakes supplemented with herbs picked fresh from the garden, learning about Vietnamese wedding customs, more bingo, dinner, and then a delayed flight home after my fantasizing about becoming "estranged" from certain members of my own family who nearly sent me on a rampage after a phone call at the airport.
D's family is mellow, and I want to get used to that. Without great intimacy, I feel like there aren't as many expectations. This seems to me a better way to be. There's no drama. They just hang out without judging people, although D cautions me that people are always on their best behavior when there are non-family members around.
I only took photos at Epcot Center, and even those aren't too thrilling considering that we were, well, at Epcot Center.
This is the awesome water fountain (with the water that jumps in the air from pool to pool) near Journey to The Imagination that we loved when we were little kids. D loved it too (D' had never been to Epcot). I remembered exactly where it was and stood staring at it for what felt like an hour:
Kodak owns the pavilion into which Journey to The Imagination exits. It's a sensory experience - what would the world be like if photographs could evoke other senses? In this particular example, it was hearing sound when seeing a photograph:
This was a very high-tech photo laboratory involving the extremely high tech rainbow slinky:
We had lunch in the Mexico pavilion, across from the fake Chichen Itza:
Contrary to popular belief (or to rumors started by Father in the 80s in order to dissuade us from demanding Mickey Mouse ice cream on a stick while in The Magic Kingdom), food in Disney World is not drastically overpriced. I had a gigantic burrito with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and salsa for $6.
There was a glassblower in the Mexico pavilion:
We watched him for about 15 minutes.
He was making turtles:
This China pavilion was awesome.
I wanted this dragon marionette:
I didn't buy him, however, because what am I going to do with any sort of marionette other than recreate the Lonely Goatherd scene from The Sound of Music?
One thing I realized being in Epcot Center was despite having been there three times prior, as a kid, I had never actually set foot in any of the pavilions. I guess the most we did was walk by, thus missing all of the fabulous shopping and snack-size museums. This makes sense, given that we were children and more concerned with going on rides.
This was a scale model of some of the soldiers found in a Chinese tomb. I guess in reality they stood 6 feet tall and there were about 60,000 of them.
There were smurfs for sale in the Germany pavilion. I didn't buy any of them, but I really wanted to buy the smurf at his desk with his laptop for Brother:
Tin toy robots in the Japan pavilion:
Fabulously packaged Japanese candies:
The Japanese have a mastery over packaging and what-is-cute, thus forcing you to want to buy every single thing. Our trip to the Japan pavilion only confirmed that we will do everything we can to take a trip to Japan within the next two years.
Japanese sodas:
I bought these Hello Kitty cookies as a consolation for not buying the Hello Kitty purse, bag, beach robe, stuffed kitty in kimono or ring:
D bought a Japanese soda that involves some sort of marble being pushed into the soda from the cap before you could drink it:
It caused a lot of confusion, but was worth it because the soda tasted like carbonated bubble gum:
We also visited the America pavilion (D had said "What would it be like if they had an America pavilion? A bunch of fat people walking around eating fast food?" Needless to say we bought a funnel cake with cherries on top in the America pavilion), the France pavilion (strawberry mousse!) and a couple other ones I'm not sure of because we didn't eat there. We also went on a few rides - Soarin', Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Test Track, Universe of Energy and whatever the ride is that's in the globe. Both the Universe of Energy (aka The Dinosaur Ride) and the globe ride broke down while we were on them. It was most surreal in the Universe of Energy, which involves a movie with Ellen Degeneres and Jamie Lee Curtis on Jeopardy with Alex Trebek. When the ride stopped, a woman got on the loud speaker and started describing to us what would be happening if the movie was still on. As in "Ellen would be writing for a while, Jamie Lee Curtis finished sooner, Alex says..." and so on. We had to be evacuated. It was insane.
After Epcot Center, we drove to downtown Disney with the exclusive purpose of going to the Lego store!
You could design and purchase three Lego minis for $9.99:
Best thing ever = a wall of Lego mini's:
D made a Lego Ninja:
I think the Lego Emergency Room is the funniest thing ever:
Don't they look delicious?
Outisde was a giant Lego T-Rex:
And giant Lego great white shark:
D was scared of them both. The best thing about these giant Lego sculptures is they design them to look like they're actually made of giant Legos.
Saving the best for last:
Lego NYC, complete with Lego King Kong.
We had a good time. The visit was the perfect length. I could have been there for one more day, but then that would have been too much. We'll be back in June for D's cousin's wedding, which will hopefully give us all a change to warm up to each other some more.
I should probably be soaking my foot now. I never thought I'd have to buy Epsom salts.
Have great weekends!
