Home Sweet Home

Hi everyone! I'm sorry it's taken me a couple of days to post again; I'm getting settled back in and, of course, adjusting to the new time-zone (hey, it's only a 13 hour difference, no problem, right?). My trip here went really well; flying by myself wasn't as hard as I was afraid it might be. I'm pretty familiar with the airports, and getting around most airports simply involves common sense, being able to read signs, and asking questions when you aren't sure of something. So the whole trip went well and fairly quickly. The Lord was so good and took care of me every step of the way, even giving me really nice people to sit by each time. My flight from Singapore to Malaysia got delayed a little, but it wasn't too long. Then I was stepping off the plane, going through immigration, getting my bags and then...seeing my mom!! It had been ten months, and getting to see her again was amazing. My dad was away on a temporary trip, but he moved his flight up so he could get back earlier that afternoon to see me. I also almost immediately got to have Coffee Bean!! Coffee Bean is sort of like Starbucks, although in my opinion, Coffee Bean is better than anything else, hands down. I was super happy to have that again!

Afterwards, we made it home, and I almost immediately got ambushed by one of our neighbors, a sweet Indian girl named "Bee." It was good to see her. Mom and I sat down and talked for a good long time once we got home since my sister had vocal ensemble practice (the same group I was in here) after school and wouldn't come home until 5:00. I also got a call soon after I came in from an old friend of mine named Dan, who is a year younger than I and is also back for part of the summer with his family. It was nice to say hi, and we said we'd try to catch up soon.

Then at 5:00 my sister called and asked us to come pick her up. Well, we headed that way (the school is only about a kilometer, or half a mile, away from our house) and actually found Lindsay already making her way toward us! She decided to leave school and walk to meet us because she said she didn't want any of the other kids at school to spend time with me before she got to. :-) I thought that was cute. Anyways, it was so great to see Lins again!! She's gotten so grown up, it seems, and she looks great. It's always funny to me how my "baby" sister is actually three or four inchess taller than I am; my nickname for her is "Shortie." Tongue in cheek, of course.

So she got home and we had time to catch up and talk. Dad was soon home from the airport as well, and it was so great to see him again. Finally, our whole family was together again! We had a good evening together, and I actually managed to stay up until a decent hour before crashing.

The next day Lins had school, of course, but Mom, Dad, and I decided to go see Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith (Lindsay was going with friends later). Yes, I have to admit it, I am a Star Wars fan. I love the original three, and the first two were ok. This third one was really good! Much darker, it's true, but it was good; definitely better than the first two that have come out in the last few years. So that was a lot of fun. Then we went to school to pick up Lins, and I ended up staying to see some old friends of mine. I went down to the chapel where they were rehearsing a musical and got to see some of the students that I had known before, especially three seniors that I knew well: Robert, Than (short for Nathaniel), and Christina. I got to see one of my old classmates, Emily, whom I've actually known since I was about 6 or 7. Dan was also there, the one who had called me earlier; his mom was the one directing the musical. So I stayed for a couple of hours to talk and catch up, as well as watching parts of the rehearsal. Looks like it will be good.

I walked home afterwards and then spent some time with family. I talked with Lindsay about a lot of things; the end of the school year had been really stressful for her. She is so tired...and I hate that. Of course, I remember I was the same way. It's just the way our school was and is, for better or worse. Anyways, it was a good evening, and again I managed to stay up till a good hour (10:00) before going to sleep (staying up later, even if you're tired, then helps prevent waking up super early, like 4:00 AM, because of jet-lag). So I slept till about 5:30 this morning but then went back to sleep till 8:00. Now I'm over at my parents' office, and we're getting ready to go have lunch and look for a couple of things at the mall.

Well, I hope this has been a newsy-enough (but not boringly-newsy) update. To all my friends and family in the States: I love you guys! All of you are in my heart and prayers. It's been so good to be back home here with my family, even though I miss ya'll. I wish all of you a wonderful week, full of God's love and blessings and growth. Until next time!