We have been here in Texas for 5 weeks, time just went by so fast! Yeah, we have been behind in blogging as usual. This entry is just a gist of what we did here in Richardson, hopefully when we have more time we can write more detailed blogs. From Mondays to Fridays, Tim and I work hard from morning until late night (thanks to all the conference calls with Penang); while Saturdays and Sundays we play hard! ;-) One thing we do everyday is eat well - American burgers, pizzas, Texan BBQ, sandwiches, seafood, steak, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese etc etc :D It shows too.
Playing ball every morning at the basketball court
Chasing after the ducks at the park
An evening walk at Cottonwood Park
The moon during Mooncake Festival (which we missed)
We have gone to a few shopping malls here and each had a children's play area. Shanna loves going to play there. The first time we brought her there, she was super-excited but had a stunned look while kids ran, shouted, screamed and jumped past her. Her crawling and climbing skills have greatly improved since her outings to the play area.
Shopping!
For the first time in many, many years, Tim and I went up a carousal, with Shanna of course. We all liked it :) The first time while lining up, the lady ahead of me offered to give us an extra token, too bad she couldn't find it in her multi-compartmentalized handbag. A token cost $2, don't think in USD then it would seem reasonable.
Hi Daddy!
Where's Mummy
We visited 3 churches here in Richardson. The first time we went to First Assembly of God which I found from the web. When we got to the main sanctuary hall, we found that it was a service for Indians in Tamil. One nice gentleman redirected us down another hallway to where the English congregation was located... and we found a small gathering of less than 20 people, including children. It was rather like a cell group meeting. The people were very friendly and Shanna was showered with attention while she mostly buried her face in my shoulder or jeans. The 2nd and 3rd week, we attended service at First Baptist Church. The sanctuary was very large, and there was a pipe organ and full orchestra. Shanna and I went to the nursery where I was allowed to stay with her. The 4th week, we visited First United Methodist Church down the road. It was huge, with a seating capacity of 3100. I was not recommended to stay with Shanna in the nursery, but I did anyway, knowing she would not be comfortable to be left at a new place by herself. We met a Malaysian family who were very excited to see us. The feeling was mutual since we haven't met any Malaysians here up till now.
On the grounds of First United Methodist Church
Outside First Baptist Church
We visited the Texas State Fair, the Japanese cultural fair, an Art Festival, but missed the hot air balloon event as the little girl and her daddy were too tired.
The State Fair was an experience that we will not forget... starting with the 3 miles traffic jam which it took up 45 mins. Well, that's what happens when one goes to the biggest state fair in the USA. We stuck out like sore thumbs too, wearing blue/navy colors... 95% of the people there were in Red and Orange representing Oklahoma U & Texas Longhorns. We found out later there was some big game going on at the stadium. It was hot, hot, hot... all 3 of us got slight sunburnt.
View from the Ferris wheel: Look at the crowd!
The best part of this trip was the quality time together as family. I will miss spending time with Shanna when we get back to Penang and I have to go back to work. Shanna nods her head 'yes' when we ask her if she wants to go back to Pearl Garden, if she was to go see 'Ah Mah Ah Gong' etc. Will we miss Richardson? We think so... we had a great time here. Thank God for watching over us, we stayed safe and in excellent health. See you soon, Penang!
~ Audrey
p/s some preview of photos this time. The rest will be uploaded later when Tim has the time :)
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