Start: 10:38 PM CST
This is Sunday, if you need to know.
I was woken up by my mom somwhere around/after 7 AM. She told me to get ready to go to the retreat where Ricky was so we could go to church... (BUT! I stayed in bed for a few more minutes--like 45 minutes--then got ready by putting on my clothes and etc.)
Well, after getting ready, I went into the kitchen to get a little bit of something to eat (cake and orange juice, hehe) and we headed to the van and to our destination!
Hehe, oh my gosh, it was so far into a little town called Tomball (I think) and it didn't exactly have the feeling that P.A. did. Oh my gosh, we went into a giant forest area and went into a little dirt road...
Do you know that scene in "Spirited Away" then Chihiro's dad is driving the car into that small dirt road and crashing through a bunch of trees and stuff??? (Well, we had the feeling of being lost, and the tall trees engulfed the sky, and the road was made of gravel and reddish clay soil, so it was bumpy, but we didn't crash into any trees, hehe.) It was pretty, dark, mysterious, and so many things...
My mom said "Did you know if you were to walk in these paths in Vietnam, Viet Cong would come out of nowhere and shoot you?" (She's talking about the past here, and I didn't know. o_O;;)
Also, the path only had one lane. (My parents said "What if two cars had to take the same way out?" That's true. How would you pull that off?)
We parked by the first building area, and a Caucasian man coming out of a golf cart told my dad where to go for the retreat. (The area was called "Circle Lake Retreat" and the church area was called "St. Francis"...)
Hehe, my sister and I walked up the main road we first saw... Oh my gosh, it was so pretty... It was like tall forests covering the area, and a lake in the middle, bridges everywhere, with little plants and animals!!!
Hehe, my sister went to the farthest bridge we could see, and my sister said it felt like we were in a video game. XP (I've noticed a little plug thingy in the bridge, and there was a little plug for an Internet connection!!!) I told my sister, "Why does a bridge need an Internet connection?" (Remember that this was a green-painted wooden bridge, not metal or plastic.)
Well, on the right side, there were the cabins were everyone slept, and we saw my brother swining and playing with other guys, and there was a campfire place in that area too...
We were walking along the lake's path and Diana and I saw birds we had never seen before! They were...black-feathered red-billed geese, I think. My sister saw feathers around them (they were molting, I guess) and she went up to them and grabbed one of their feathers, put it back, and grabbed anothers. (One goose kept beeping at us... o_O;; I think those two were mating???) Later, another male geese comes, and the two geese fight over the female geese... (There wasn't an ACTUAL fight we saw though. We just assumed.)
I waved across the lake to Quang, who was sitting there. I walked up to the porch area, where Quang was sitting, and talked to him, and guess what?! HE THOUGHT I WAS RICKY!!! *screams* (He'll die for saying that!!!)
Quang: What are you doing wandering around here?
Me: Oh, I just came with my parents, and I'm just wandering around... I'm still in Confirmation I.
Quang: Aren't you in my group...?
Me: ??? Oh, you mean my brother?
Quang: Yeah... You two look the same...
He'll pay for saying that... (All people who said that must die! ^^;;)
Well, walking up that green bridge again, I saw Diana! (Anne's little sister, of course!) Apparently, she had stayed over the night... She took us places, and ooh! On the way we walked, we passed by a female peacock! (She was gray-feathered, but still cool to look at. I don't think I've ever gotten close to a real peacock before.) And in the far distance, I waved "hi" to Tay Jonathan.
So on the path, Diana (friend) called Diana (sister) "crazy"... Diana got that black feather and started dipping it into the water... So, we reached an area where there were a lot of ducks, and Diana (friend) started BARKING AT THEM. I replied, "And you call HER crazy..."
There's some houses/cabins at the end there, with pools, and canoes! As I've seen, there's a woman staying in her car by that area... Ooh! We saw a female peacock on the roof and a male one by the chicken coop! (I say, this reminds me of "Harvest Moon" for some reason...) Diana (friend) wanted to go canoeing, but we had no parents...
Dilana, Diana's (friend) little sister wanted to go swimming, but couldn't open the door to the pool. But when we opened it for her (you were supposed to push down, but I kept pulling up... XP), we locked her in there and all made a run for it, until I came back to help her unlock (but she did it herself...) the door.
So Diana (friend) and I headed towards the kitchen area, while my sister went scavenging for more feathers... I sat by Anne and Sonja (left), Mai and Nickkie (right), and some other girls, who were getting ready to have breakfast. We did prayer, and then passed a piece of bread around. (NO DUMMY! That wasn't their breakfast thing! It was like a Passover thing, I guess.) So, Jonathan passed around the plates of food, and we ate. (Eggs needed more salt, and Anne thought the meat was spicy. Sonja told me to add ketchup even though I hated it.) And my brother tried to hit me with a cap... o_O;; Tay Robert got to go on the field trip even though he didn't teach Confirmation I anymore??? (Yeah, he did, and he said because they need a big man for it... ^^;;) He said my shirt was nice. (It was red, and it had buttons, but later, I ruin it. ^^;;) Also, Sonja and Anne were talking about how Tay Jonathan could see ghosts, and I told them I had a sixth sense, and I tested it with Sonja by holding her hand, and I had to guess a number between 1-100. (I GOT IT WRONG, GRR! I also kept cleaning my hands with a paper napkin when I did it. A girl asked "Are you a neat freak?" I said "No, I'm just afraid to get dirty." XP Also, Anne asked if I was nervous sitting with a table full of girls... No...why? o_O?) Diana (friend) wanted to go canoeing, and wanted me to ask my parents if they could come watch us... (I asked my parents, who were talking with a friend, and my mom was afraid of us falling into the water...but we still went! XP)
Well, the two Dianas and I headed toward the canoe area and we all took a canoe and started paddling into the water... We had to get life jackets first though, and Diana didn't know how to put on hers... ^^;; Hehe, it was so much fun. (And this was my sister's first time to canoe, so ya know. XP)
Dilana, and two little girls were doing another canoe, and an old man was kinda teaching them how to use a canoe and stuff... Hehe, the first time we tried, Diana (friend, in front) kept crashing into trees and plants on the side... ^^;; We also kept screaming and yelling, but we were having fun, ya know? XP
Later, Diana needed to use the restroom bad, so we got back to the pier (it was hard!) and let Diana (sister) off and Diana (friend) and I did more paddling off and she crashed into more trees... ^^;; (A while later, Diana came back screaming "YOU LEFT ME! COME BACK HERE!") We got back, and we all started paddling out...
We circled the left side of the lake, and both Dianas decided they wanted to go under the bridge (with the Internet connection!) and we did! Oh, we kept going on, and we thought it ended there, but it went on even more... Hehe... We crossed the second bridge (which was blue and more smaller) and Diana (friend) yelled out "NOAH'S ARK!!!", indicating the playground shaped like a giant boat. After we landed the canoe in water (Dilana yelled "YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE CANOE LIKE THAT!"), we all hyperly ran towards the swings and started pushing each other and laughing hysterically. (I was HIGH, I swear!!! Both meaning the swings, and the way I felt... I kept laughing like an idiot, and for no reason at all... XP)
We went back into the canoe (even though it was hard pushing Diana, the sister, out while she was still in the boat) and we paddled back to the canoe area. Oh yeah! Nam and his dad started canoeing too, and they were following us, and kept crashing their boats into us... ^^;;
I kept asking if we could just stop paddling for a while and sit back and enjoy nature... My sister yelled "You lazy!" ^^;; (Ah, it was so humid outside... My glasses were fogging up... I really did wish I had a camera!!!)
It's weird... There are ducks, geese, peacocks, chickens, oysters, and a bunch of animals on the retreat area, but there are NO FISH in the lake... WEIRD. (Or are they deep and I can't see them at all??? Hum...)
We did this trip about two times, and one time, we crashed into another guy (the fourth canoe), and he said "Hey! Do you have insurance?" *laughs* (Hehe, it's not like it's a car or anything. XP) One time, Diana (friend) boarded Dilana's water-paddling thingy, and she wanted to get back on us... (She said "I'm leaving you guys!" and later, she said "Come back guys!" XP ^^;;)
Well, after that, we all headed towards the pool and Dilana, Diana (friend), and two little girls went into the pool. I didn't want to go in at first because I had no change of clothes, and I was about to borrow one of my brother's clothes. (Diana, the friend, even asked me if she could borrow one of my brother's shirts... ^^;;) Well, we swam for a while, and floated around (Diana, the sister, later came in). We played Marco Polo and I watched them play Chicken, although the little girls didn't want to get on me because I was a boy... ^^;; (I tried doing Diana, my sister, but she was too heavy for me... ^^;;) That little girl (later, I found out her name was Diane) kept on staring at me for some reason... o_O;; (She was about to play Chicken with me, but later changed her mind???) I also took off my red shirt so I didn't get all my clothes wet, even though it was wet already. (It was made of waterproof material, so hooray! XP) When I swam, every time I jumped, air pockets got stuck in my shirt and made a farting-like noise when I jumped or sat on the concrete edges... o_O;; (It was also hard to swim around in black jeans... UGH.)
Later, Diana (friend) wanted to move to another pool, so guess what?! Diana (friend) and I walked across a gravel pathway WITHOUT SHOES! Ow, it hurt. But then she said to walk into the grass because it was less painful... Yeah, UNTIL WE STEPPED IN THORNY WEEDS. Argh, that hurt. (I later took out the thorns, ow.) We swam in for a while, but later put out clothes back on (Diana left her socks) and we went canoeing again! (Those two little girls were left there, and I heard them speaking Vietnamese, and they were so fluent! o_O!) Diana (my sister) and I canoed, but Diana (friend) wanted to water-paddle. Later, we had to go save Diana (friend)...
OH MY GOSH. When I first got to the canoe area, Diana and Diana were canoeing with each other, and when I told them to stop, and I stepped one foot in, the water pulled the canoe, and there was a big gap between my legs, and I slipped and fell down. (ARGH! I cut my hands! Not big cuts, but they bled... I think it's the shells that I fell on. Ow...)
Dilana got caught by a man who saw her without a lifejacket and that she wasn't 14 years or older... (Diana my friend abandoned us again, and Diana my sister and I got stuck in the dirty, water-filled water-paddling boat, and it took us a while to park... We were kinda scolded at because we weren't old enough to canoe alone... (Hey! I was OF age! I could do that!)
Later, I had to run back to the swimming pool to get Diana's socks... -_-;; Anyways, Diana the friend and Dilana changed clothes, and I tried to get water out of my ears... My sister and I were watching ducks/geese eat worms and my sister offered a goose/duck to eat her socks... o_O;;
Well, my sister and I wanted to find the rest of the group... We followed a sound of music, but it was the sound of a guy blasting music out from his car stereo... We headed to the chapel, and everyone was there... But Diana and I were wet and had no other clothes!!! o_O! So it would be weird walking in during the middle of mass with wet clothes on...
Well, we all played a simple game of basketball, shooting hoops. (Diana my friend said to do this to dry off...)
We went in later, and played bingo... We gave each other chip bags every time we won... (Except one man saw that we were eating tons of bags by ourselves, and Diana my friend explained that we were using it for a game, even though we were ALSO eating it... ^^;;) So we were eating chips and drinking soda/Gatorade/iced tea... And Dilana was starting to eat some Vietnamese food...
I learned the two little girl's names... Rain (the little girl in blue) and Diane (nickname: Diana)...
ARGH. THERE WERE THREE GIRLS THERE NAMED DIANA! My sister, my friend, and that little girl!!! @_@ (Oh, and if you don't know this already, Anne, Diana my friend, and Dilana are all related...)
Also, I later played chess with Diana my friend, and I lost later because a little boy took over and killed MY SIDE... -_-;;
We later played pictionary... Hehe. (Rain wanted to do the signaling with Diane because Rain said she didn't know how to speak English "good"... I think she's more fluent in Vietnamese.) But a woman "yelled" at us in Vietnamese to move our game stuff off of the eating table (when the students started to come in), and we moved to a table outside... We still played pictionary, and I came over and over to get food for me and my sister. Dilana came with me to get food, and she said "Come, Asian boy!" (Who calls me that? XP) She only came with me to be with me, and she already ate. (She told me that.) She also told me to get food for my sister... After that, Dilana told me to stop eating and go play pool with her... That little boy who ruined my game of chess came along with me (he mistakened a DUCK for a SQUIRREL!!!), but the pool hall was closed down because some Hispanic man was cleaning up/sweeping up the place...
So I came back, and got some dessert (Vietnamese jello cake with strawberries and watermelon) for my sister and I, although other people kept eating our food... Oh yeah! When I was getting the jello, the guy who was serving it was saying in Vietnamese "Let these kids eat all the sweets they want, and they'll get so fat that they'll go on a diet when they get home." (Oh, how mean! ^^;;)
Our dad asked us to leave, and I said good-bye to my friends... Ricky got all his luggage, and we left... (Oh yeah! I had to go find Diana's socks again, and I left them in a truck. XP You see, we were playing basketball, and I left them there for a long time... ^^;;)
So I fell asleep on the way home...except when I woke up, we weren't at home... We were at my dad's friend's house... My dad wanted to hang out with his friend, so I spent, like 1-3 hours sitting on their couch, with me all wet from pool water (the colors ran onto my white clothes!!! GRR!) and making the leg rest I was sitting on wet... o_O;; Tammy, a little girl was watching T.V. with us, and her older sister, Dung, was on AIM, talking to people. (My brother and sister asked our dad a LOT to take us home, and my mom told him to too...)
So when we left, my dad wouldn't fill up the tank with gas, even though it was almost empty. He kept trying to find the lowest gas price (even though he passed a ton of those!) Oh yeah, we also bought that EZ Tag thing for the highways, but my dad stuck it on the inside of the car... (DUMB.) And when we finally got into a gas station and filled up gas, my dad ran off and left the gas pumping, and my mom took it out and put it back, and so, we lost $0.14 cents...and my dad was yelling at my mom for being "stupid"... Ugh, when I looked at him then, he looked all red from being drunk at his friends...and OLD. o_O;; (You don't realize the look of the people around you aging until you look REALLY closely at them...)
Well, when I got home, I put my wet clothes into the washing machine (still haven't washed them yet!) and I bathed... After bathing, I was tired, so I went to bed, but my sister came into my room, asked me to wake up so she could eat with me... ^^;; My mom made ribs, but I ate leftover spaghetti... (Weird, isn't it? I'm just gonna finish it...)
Well, my day the rest wasn't so interesting... I got on the computer around 9 PM, and that was it...
Well, good night guys.
End: 12:10 PM CST
© 2004-2007 MiasmaMoon. All rights reserved.
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I Went to the Circle Lake Retreat!
