So the journey begins...
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My father and I got into LAX around 6 am. It was a little strange leaving my neighborhood realizing I wouldn't really ever "live" there anymore. So its like a cowboy of the old west riding out of town, headed to a new town with a clean slate. At the airport, we were met by long lines that continued like an anaconda out the doors of Terminal 1. Why were there so many people travelling on a Wednesday, and then it dawned on me. FIrst of all, it was going to be a long-weekend, so people probably took an extra couple of days off to leave early, have a longer vacation, and avoid busy airports. What they didn't realize is if they all thought this way, it'd be just as crowded. I guess also, a lot of college students were travelling back to college, since semester system schools start this week or the next.

We had a stop in San Jose, which reminded me of the couple of times I flew up to see Mr. Lescroart. I thought about giving him a call, but then I realized he was in Japan. We got into Seattle around 11 and drove around the city. We found a place to eat before we met up with the people we were going to stay with. And we found a tiny Thai restaurant in the Lake City area and decided to have lunch. During lunch, sitting at the table next to us, were two guys either in their late twenties or early thirties. One was in t-shirt and shorts and the other in a business suit. They were talking about finding jobs (in this torrid economy) and the whole interview process. (they looked like real dorks to me). And their dorkness was confirmed when, after they finished eating, they started playing Magic cards! Can you believe that? There is some absurdity in seeing grown (out-of-)business men in suits playing magic cards. And as big of a nerd as I was, I never ever EVER could have stooped to the level of dungeons and dragons or playing stupid cards like that.

Now, funny story, when we parked our car, we were just wandering around the city looking for a place to eat. And the amazing thing was, when we got back to the car to drive to Dr. Wu's office(Dr. Wu is the dentist we're staying with), we were surprised to find that it was right across the street. Amazing coincidence or happenstance? Quite amazing, methinks. Dr. Wu is a man of a fairly small stature with a bad comeover. He's really nice and friendly. He has two amazing kids. Well, they're not really kids, since they're both my age. I haven't met them, but their accomplishments are amazing. Abe the older one, graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard, now that is impressive as all hell, that's top 1/2 %, isn't it? from Hah-vud, no less. And he's in his second year of medical school. From the looks of the books on his shelves and his posters of miles davis and john coltrane, I knew I can easily get along with Abe. (You can't tell a book by its covers, but you can surely tell a man by the books on his shelves.) Joanna, the younger one, plays the harp and is in the last year at Stanford. She's going to be a dentist like her father. Yup, typical over-acheiving asian kids.

In the afternoon, we went for a drive around the areas close to the university, looking for apartments. Some areas looked pretty slummy... and so we steered away from those areas. We finally found one that I liked, but it was full already, but the owner promised that if I was willing to stay in another of his properties, he'd move me into the new place ASAP. So for the next few months, I'll be living in a shared house, kinda like the ones you find on Severence or Portland. The house is located on 17th Ave. which is their fraternity row. So we'll see..

Word of the day: Amazing