Sunday, July 27, 2008

Sitting and Going....and Going....and Going

I just got back from our annual driving trip to Utah to visit my Grandparents. And no, they aren't Mormons or Utahians (?), but every summer they along with a million other senior citizens inhabit student apartments to escape the Arizona heat.

I like my grandparents, but it has gotten to the point where 2 days at a time is definitely enough. We usually do the same things when we go to Utah, go shopping, swimming, to the theatre and out to dinner, and it gets a little boring and repetitive. Oh, and we play Mah Jong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong). My grandma has been playing (the Jewish American kind) for almost 50 years, and taught my sister and I to play when we were 8 and 6, respectively. That always kind of amazes people. It's probably the most enjoyable part of visiting them because it's the only time I get to play, and I really do enjoy it. So if anyone wants to get a rolicking game of Mah Jong going at MIT, let me know. And I sort of know how to play the Chinese kind, taught to me by two of my Hong Kong friends in the Czech Republic, though I only played one night, so it is a bit distant. But I would definitely be up for it.

Logan, Utah is about a 9 hour drive from Louisville, Colorado, and it's not the most exciting. Wyoming is a rather ugly, boring state (in my opinion; my sister would say differently- she goes to UW), and very monotonous to drive through. I've driven a couple times, one year the whole nine hours both ways to get the hours I needed to get my license, and others because time goes by faster when you're driving than when you're not. My parents really like road trips. We used to drive every year once to Phoenix and once to Utah, and then other places we have driven are Las Vegas, California, Montana/Canada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Indiana, and a variety of others.

It was weird to tell people while I was abroad about out auto adventures because in the longest you can drive in the Czech Republic, from the Southeastern corner to the Northwestern corner is about 6 or 7 hours. In most places, drive 2 hours and you're in a different country, with a different languages, and people don't do that too often.

1 comment:

Karen said...

my mom is OBSESSED with mah jong. OBSESSED.

so it is not only for the old, it is for the old at heart :)