Going back home to VA was nice.  I got to see my parents,
grandparents, and a lot of other family.  Got lots of good eats
too.  People in my family sure know how to cook.  Nothing
beats home-cooking. 

When I first got home, first thing my grandfather asks me if I was with
anyone yet.  What's up with that being the first thing that
relatives ask you?  I was sad to leave my grandparents, since I
don't know when the next time I'll see them is.  I hadn't seen
them for 8 years, and I doubt that they'll come back to the US anytime
soon since they're getting old.  Gonna miss them lots.

It's back to studying with just a week left before the big day. 
Gonna be on hiatus for the week, so I can cram.  Man am I stressed
out now. 

Anyhoo, here's a few pics from the weekend:

All of us at dinner

Me the 'rents and grandparents

My baby cousin

For the second time in the past few weeks, I've encountered a racial stereotype that I really thought people understood by now.  I guess I thought wrong.  I was at the airport waiting to catch my flight to So Cal when a man sat next to me and started a conversation.  He was a nice guy, talking about his business and all (he's into those herbal remedies and I've just had enough of people trying to suck me into that).  He asked if I traveled alot, since I told him about being in consulting.  Convo goes like this:

Ignorant man:  So what do you do?
Me:  I'm a management consultant.
Ignorant man:  Ohh.  Let me guess you're in computers right?
Me:  Yeah, I am.
Ignorant man:  Yeah, I thought so.  All you orientals are in computers aren't you?
*long pause*
*longer pause*
.....................................................................................
Me: Uhhh sir.  The corrent term is Asians not Orientals.  Oriental refers to rugs and lamp shades. 
Ignorant man:  Oh.  All you Asians are in computers then aren't you?

I just got up and left.  If I stayed there, I would've blown up at him.  What's up with Dallas and these idiots? 

Anyhoo, time to relax a little this weekend and enjoy the nice So Cal. weather. 

My flight down to Dallas fucking sucked.  It took me 10 hours to
get down when it should've only taken 3.  I was starving when I
got in so first order of business was to find the nearest Popeye's
Chicken. I sure love that stuff.  It came hot out of the fryer
too.  Oh how I love you spicy dark meat chicken w/ mashed potatoes
and gravy. 

I'll have to get used to this Texas accent I keep hearing
everywhere.  I hope I don't start picking up that accent like I
did when I hung out with the Brits.  It's true they sure do things super-size down here.  I got some
sushi tonight, since I haven't had a good meal in a long-time.  I
treated myself to some good-ass sashimi and the portions were
huge.  My kinda place.  I think that living in a hotel for
the next year I'm gonna have to really watch what I eat, since I'll be
going out every night to eat.  There goes my workout plan.  Yee-haw. 

Flying down to Texas in a bit for work.  Gonna be down there for the next few months.  Chicago was great
while it lasted but man was it cold.  Never been down to Texas so
should be fun.  It'll be a nice change of pace in the winter times fo sho.

It's nice to finally have a weekend to relax and sleep in.  The
weather sucks back in the East Coast, so I've just been bumming around
all day.  It's just one of those days where you don't want to do
anything.

Is it me or does it seem like there's more natural disasters than
normal?  First there was the tsunami in Asia and then you have
what seems to be the more than normal number of hurricanes. 
Hurricane Katrina wiped out a lot of the Gulf area.  Now there's hundreds dead in Guatemala floods and then a massive earthquake in Asia killing thousands. 
Seeing the sights, I wish there was more that I could do than just
organize relief efforts and raising money through my company. 
Sometimes you wish you could just be there and do something about
it.  Maybe the world's coming to an end with all these
disasters.  If not, it's sure a mess these days. 

Last day in Chicago, and I can tell you that I really enjoyed
myself.  I went out with the rest of the faculty and all of our
students last night to celebrate.  It's nice to hear from your
students that you did a fantastic job, and that they really enjoyed
having me as a teacher.  It's great to have met so many
people from all parts of the world, and I'm sure I'll keep in
touch with many of them down the road.  It's been a very busy,
very tiring past few weeks, but it's also been quite rewarding.  A
few pics of us the past few weeks.

Faculty in a game of whirlyball

Eastside cowboy

Some of my students

Faculty pic, don't we look professional

Since I'll be in Dallas in a couple weeks, I wanted to covert my gym membership to a national plan so that I could use it anywhere in the country.  I called up the Dallas location to ask about transferring my Phoenix membership over.  Conversation goes as follows:

Membership:  How can I help you today?
Me: Yeah, I'd like to transfer my Phoenix membership down to you guys.
Membership: Sure thing boss.  What's your last name?
Me: LE.  L-E as in Larry Edward
Membership: L-E-E?
Me: No. Just one E
Membership: Is LE even a last name?
Me:  Uhh...yeah.
Membership: Ok, what's your first name?
Me: Minh. M-I-N-H
Membership: Ok.
*pause to search computer*
Membership: Damn I have 11 of you guys on here.  Damn there's a lot of you around.
Me: Uhh.  Yeah, nevermind about the membership.  Can I just cancel?

I can't condone ignorance like that.  Fucking stupid poeple. 

Teaching is freaking exhausting man.  I really enjoy it, but I
gotta give props to people that do this day in and day out.  Today
was the first day of class,
and I worked for 13 hours.  Have to do some more studying tonight
then some prep work later.  You know when you get so tired you
don't even get hungry anymore.  I passed that point a long time
ago.  Man I'm pooped. 

I went out with some coworkers last night for this thing called Whirlyball.  It's this combination of lacrosse and bumper cars.  Imagine a bunch of people drinking and driving bumper cars.  It wasn't a pretty sight.  It was fun though.  I think Europeans seem to be more outgoing that we are.  My group consists of people from our London, Paris, Rome, and Berlin offices.  It's different hanging out with International people.  Hanging out with all the British people, I'm starting to pick up this British accent. 

Anyhoo, we were taking a taxi to the Whirlyball place, passing by a whole bunch of restaurants.  Out of all the restaurants that we went by, the one they liked the most was Taco Bell.  They really loved eating at that place and wanted to stop by for dinner.  Is Taco Bell some gourmet place outside of the States?  You could've fooled me with that grade F beef they serve.

Working this weekend. Ugg.

I arrived in Chicago a couple hours ago after a two hour delay at the
airport.  I'm teaching a class here for the next 3 weeks then it's
off to Dallas.  Last week, I was holed up in an apartment studying
for a test I'm taking in 6 weeks.  I wanted to get as much
studying done the past 2 weeks cause I'm not sure how much free time
I'll have once I start working again.  Hopefully, all the studying
will pay off. 

I have great friends, who helped me out when I needed it.  It's
great to have those few people that you can turn to cause it's not too
often that you meet quality people.  Those are the people that can
turn your crappy day into a great one with just the small things in the
world that people take for granted. 

My grandparents are here from Vietnam for the first time and hopefully
I can go back and visit them in the next few weeks.  I called last
weekend to say hi and see how they were doing.  My dad picked up
the phone and convo goes like this:

Dad: Hello?  Who's this?
Me:  Hi Ba. It's Bi.
Dad:  Hello? 
Me:  Ba...it's Bi.
Dad:  Excuse me, may I ask who's calling?
Me:  BA.  It's Bi.  Your son.
Dad:  Oh hi.

Crazy dad.  At times, he still calls me by my brother's nickname
instead.  You'd think that he'd figure out who's who by now.