happy belated labor day!

what an awesome day. i woke up around 7am and my dad and i went up to LA to visit his relatives from vietnam who live in LA now. it was soo awesome. they live in west covina. anyway our drive up was HELLAAA AWESOME because it was just like old times like when i used to play tennis and we drove up all early to tournaments. i tried to play some of his old school casetttes but a lot of them were sorta messed up. note to self: get more casettes for father dearest. anyway, he was told me stories about vietnam on the way up and like GOSH it was soo awesome. my dad is so freakin coool. when he was telling me some of the things he used to do i chuckled to myself cuz i can totally see some parallels in me. google said it would take about 2 hrs but there was like NO traffic so we got there in about 1.5. when we got to the relatives place - we actually went to several - it was wayyy coool because while i still dont really understand exactly how we were related, i know that it's through my dad's dad's side (my yeh yeh! who died when my dad was pretty young) and it was such an odd but utterly amazing sight to see this old dude who was much older than my dad and his wife telling my dad stories about the past and vietnam and about my dad's parents. my dad was just like a little kid listening super intently and even being shocked at some things that he heard and it was wayyy cool but sad, too, and some points from what i could understand. i was sad that i oculdnt understand all of it. :( my chinese sucks! *SIGH* anyway, apparently there is an even older dude that knows even moreee about my dad's family and so hopefully, my dad will be able to escape another day soon and here more about his family. when we were leaving and got in the car, my dad was like all happy and was like yeah, i want to talk to the other dude too because it's important to know about your roots. :) oh, and there were more relatives too! i met some i dont know how we're related but some family members of mine who were about my age - Soey and Kylie. they were really neat girls and it was cool because they were born in vietnam and came over in elementary school. they speak cantonese like super fluently i guess it's there first language, dont remember any vietnamese, but are pretty bomb at english. they were so cute and enthusiastic and they're pursuing careers in themedical field. yay! fun times. oh and they all fed us curry! mmmh. oh another relative of mine..a kid who is like 4..he ONLY speaks vietnamese. a lot of that part of hte family is still back in vietnam. it's soo cool how this is my FAMILY!

anyway, my dad and i left around 4pm - it was prolly about 6 hours of talking. there wasnt too much traffic on the way back woo hoo. we dropped by vinh hung supermarket on the way tot hrestaurant bought lots of banh bo -cuz i've been craving it for hte past few months- among other things. then we stopped by the restaurant to ppick up food for home and so i could pick up the tips from the weekend cuz i forgot to do that =/ o and so i we could prepare a few things for tomorrow since we had been closed for labor day. my dad taught me to make fish w black bean sauce and noodle soup! woo hoo. i wrote it down so this time i shouldnt forget. then we came home, ate, watched tv, i asked my dad how to make a few more things -like orange chicken!!! - and then my dad left for work. since then..i've been up to..checkin email, filling out this app for a medical program (1 full year abroad!), and looking up tickets for vegas. oh boy, its so expensive i might just take a bus. boogers.

by the way, did you hear about sarah palin's drama for your mama? and about japan's PM? and about the craziness going down in Thailand? and about Gustav's lesser than expected but its too early to say still destruction and the unexpected effect on gas prices? my dad and i have been listening to the radio and hten watched the news so we've been hearing these headlines all day! :) yay news!