Hi everyone,

Long time no update, very busy with work, lots of changes and other nonsense going on. My unpublished draft from April will eventually be published, unless I forget its contents in which case it will be dropped.

In Dallas for a few weeks for work. First time in the USA, very interesting experience so far.

Positive Highlights

• Limousine bus to Narita Airport (Baggage Attendant reported to me in English that my luggage was a structural weakness. I said I already know, and thank you very much, he also tagged it fragile and marked it as damaged though it wasn’t actually broken any more from the bus trip then its original damage., He also noted that the handle on the side didn’t work (把手 注 意 )
• Narita Airport (Money exchange, waiting in Narita airport, Customs & Immigration, Shopping Centre and Last meal in Japan (Miso Ramen and Melon Ice Cream Soda for 1390 Yen, best way to use all my coins at Airport ever) (People that know me know I like airports)
•  Walking 4 miles round trip to Radioshack. Apparently nobody walks in Texas, well I guess I do.
• DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transport), This was awesome whilst I was in Spring Valley Richardson, $5 day pass got me to and from work.
• Waffle House (I had breakfast / dinner between 12am and 1am after doing laundry), and the service was wonderful and the food was delicious. (Both the hashbrown all the way, which was like Okonomiyaki, and the waffle and the Angus hamburgers). The waitresses were polite and full of banter, and the a special shout out goes out to Amos (The senior grill operator) , who in my opinion was like the Mr T of that Waffle House. He had everything sorted, Grill operations, correcting the waitresses on customer orders, how to use the waffle machines without the waffles sticking, etc, etc. The junior grill operator is apparently going to college to study game design, so I gave him so advice based on my experience graduating from tertiary education will several hundred students of computer game design, that never got to make it big in industry.
• I got to see a Squirrel on Memorial Day. I have some photos.
• I got to see a baby Rabbit / bunny on the way to work. I have some photos. (To understand the significance of the  above two points, see Белочка (Belochka)  )
• Ben & Jerrys Icecream in Minneapolis airport. Blueberry frozen yoghurt, Blueberry sorbet with extra blueberries. It wasn’t as big as I expected
• Getting to meet Jerry and Kevin (who I worked remote nightshift with) in person. They are both amazing and hardworking people, going to Lunch with them at Chuey’s a TexMex restaurant was a wonderful experience.
• Going to Denny’s for Breakfast with Kevin and meeting some elderly gentleman one of was a Korea – Vietnam veteran. Blueberry pancakes were delicious and the conversation about science fiction movies and miltary realism in military books and movies was very interesting. I was recommended Semper Fi, and I recommended Monash.
• Buying half gallon tub of Strawberry Icecream from the local  CVS pharmacy, interesting that both CVS in US and Fitcare in Japan have pharmacies that sell icecream. Australia doesn’t seem to have this yet.
• Free Wifi in hotels.
• The guy that appreciated my air piano in Minneapolis airport, it is nice to have someone appreciate your craft when others are just giving you strange looks.

Negative Highlights

• Delayed in Minneapolis Immigration, just because I was second last in line, and had 2 if not 3 queue jumpers in front me. Also the immigration officer seemed upset like he was missing his children’s birthday or something. My immigration only took 4 minutes to process.  
• Missed connecting flight to immigration delay. (Yay for extra layover and running / rushing through airports and airport security, Tim F in the Delta booth was really awesome with booking my connecting flight, but the Delta Agent he instructed me to ask my bags about Yin L must have been having a really bad day, because she just got angry and me and told me what others had told me which is my bags would be in Dallas, which they weren’t)
• Delta also lost my checked luggage. (I got it back 16 hours later after arrived 3 hours later in Dallas (Yay for being up for 35 hours straight). When I got my luggage back the resting stub on the base was missing (only 3 now instead of 4) and the handle was snapped with a nail protruding
• Radioshack saying that they don’t sell the prepaid SIM card I was recommended to buy, when they clearly do and their website already says so.
• Tom of Maine’s toothpaste now contains SLS, so I couldn’t buy it.

Pictures from Gallery

Pictures will be upload from the two phones and have and linked later.

Uploaded Texas food and some wildlife in Food and Animal galleries

See example food link below

Best wishes,

Benjamin Southall aka Appleman1234 🙂

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