minnesooota.

congrats to my uncle huy; he's the new director of Save the Children Vietnam. his family will be moving to ha noi mid-july. the thought of them moving to viet nam excites me profoundly. just last year, i had the opportunity to live and study in viet nam's capitol for close to five months. i experienced wonders, and i know they will too. what is even more exciting is that my cousins will be speaking vietnamese next time i see them.

aboard a nwa airplane, my grandmother, aunt, and i sat in the coach class for about fifty-seven minutes, from chicago o'hare to minneapolis. chu huy, aunt jolee, and the two kids came to pick us up in their grey-blue honda minivan.

chinese brunch as usual; dimsum. the two days after the first were quite monotonous with ani and elliot going to summer camp all day, chu huy working, and us sitting around a very disorganized home; due to the packing and what not. though, after five p.m. on these days it became much more lively as ani and elliot came back, and everyone was around. i haven't seen my little cousins in a year--last time was when they were down in Illinois right before Hao and I left for viet nam. I won't see them for another year, i wonder how much they change in June 2008; probably a lot.

minneapolis' light rail metro is one of the nicest metros i've ridden within the continental U.S. yellow, black, fast, quiet, clean, boldly designed, it is comparable to those in thailand and singapore. as some of you know, one of my newest interests is the metro system. i hope to ride as many as possible, so riding minneapolis' was quite a treat.

we took the light rail metro to mall of america, and to the opposite end to downtown. mall of america is actually really boring. there is not much there besides shops i never buy products from. the rides are for younger children, so this time around it did not appeal to me as it did in '98. downtown on the other hand was delightful. there was a farmers market with tons of vendors outside. kinda reminded me of vietnam streets.

overall, the trip was worthwhile. being able to see family again is always a joy. seeing my cousins grow up in front of my eyes is somewhat odd, yet interesting at the same time. this trip marks perhaps my last visit to minesooota for a prolonged period of time. chúc chú huy và gia đình may mắn!


tran.quy.hac.