Dallas

I started traveling up to Dallas in the evening yesterday. I was super lucky to find Marissa to give me a lift and give me a place to stay until my flight. Words cannot express how great it was to meet her family and go shooting with her Dad. We tried out 3 guns today; a 22 cal rifle, a 9mm semi automatic pistol, and my personal favorite - the 12 gauge semi automatic shotgun! Her granddad lives on a farm with 190 acres (about 1km^2?) of empty ground. I lived a delayed childhood by jumping around on stacks of hay with Marissa's sister! It was great fun!

The drive up was really enjoyable. It was great blasting Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Disturbed at max volume the entire way. Regretfully however, Marissa was caught speeding 85mph in a 70mph zone half way through the trip. Despite that it was kind of awesome to see a policeman approach the car just like policemen depicted in American movies, I feel that stress levels were elevated way too high when we came really close to getting a parking ticket in the same day!

While Marissa is being very nice and friendly around me, I still feel like I'm becoming a bit overbearing for her. I'm going to see if I can buy a bottle of wine for her parents tomorrow - hopefully that will smooth things out a bit.

I might be going to 6 flags tomorrow. It's a world famous theme park that I've been told is 'a must'.

Oh and before I forget, the UT career advising place is useless! Gurr! But at least I ended up talking to Marissa's Dad who has some great contacts in Water Filtration plants around Austin. :)

I need to remind myself to get an English bank account, sim card, and travel back pack once I get to England.

My time in America is almost over...