Before we get into all the new stationary and psychology blog posts, I want to share what I did over break. This past winter break has been a time for me to reconnect with a lot of family members and do some domestic traveling.

(I apologize for some of the formatting, pictures are difficult to place on this site. )

First Stop: Rochester, Minnesota 

Abid being a nerd

Since the beginning of the summer 2022 my brother, Abid, has been working in a lab in Minnesota. I remember when he got the job he claimed that we would never visit him and that he would always have to come to Naperville to see us. His prediction stood true up until this winter break. Finally, we flew up to Rochester to see him. We only stayed for a few days so we did not necessarily get to explore Minnesota (not that there is much to see) but I was happy to spend time with my brother. Additionally, Abid gave us a tour of Mayo Clinic on Christmas, so it was practically a ghost town. It was fun to see where he has been these past 7 months, however, it was FREEZING cold the entire time we stayed. Literally the whole trip we were trapped inside because it was in the negatives. 

Grandpa dressed up for the cold

The only “fun” activity we did while in Rochester was going to see the new Avatar movie. This outing quickly turned into a disaster in itself. We went to see the movie at around 6:30 pm, so naturally, my brothers and I were hungry. We ordered an assortment of junk food to replace dinner, I specifically wanted the curly fries. Mind you – movie theaters are overpriced. We ended up paying 6 dollars for the curly fries alone. After waiting for a cool 15 minutes just for them to arrive, there was NOTHING in the plate. I am talking about literally 8 fries. That is 0.75$ per fry. Absolutely outrageous. I was disappointed but was not going to cause a scene at the theater, it is only fries after all. However, my mom was enraged and went full Karen mode on the workers. At first, she just complained obnoxiously to my brothers and me, making sure the workers were in earshot. Then, she asserted that there was some sort of mistake with our order. Eventually, we got some free popcorn out of it after missing the first 15 minutes of the movie. Although the whole situation was extremely embarrassing and I got an earful about standing up for myself on the way back, it does give my family a good laugh when looking back. 

Stop 2: San Antonio, Texas

After a quick five-day pit stop in Naperville to celebrate New Year’s with friends, my family went to San Antonio for the latter half of winter break. My aunt lives in San Antonio but I didn’t go to see her, I went to see her two out-of-this-world-adorable kids. Although I have an unnecessarily large extended family, Zach and Zayaan are actually the only first cousins I have in the US. We try to see them at least once a year and this time it was our turn to come over. The weather in San Antonio was the total opposite than Rochester. Every day it was in the high seventies and low eighties. Unfortunately, all I had packed was light sweaters and those were too warm, so I ended up wearing my aunt’s clothes for most of the trip. I took an unnecessary amount of pictures during this trip so here is a small dump: 

Zayaan <3

This is my younger cousin, Zayaan, and I about to brush our teeth in the morning. Due to the space in my aunt’s house, I was sleeping in the kid’s room and every morning at 7 AM sharp Zayaan would come and wake me up. He is so cute I cannot even be mad at him. 

Fun fact – he knows when someone is taking a picture so he purposefully scrunches his nose in every time. 

Zach <3

 More Zayaan <3

The Highlight of my trip might have been seeing my two cousins, but the highlight for them was definitely the Chik-fil-A playpen. I think they spent almost an hour just either going down theslide or yelling through it so they could hear the echo. 

I was feeling a bit left out so I also crawled up and went on the slide a few times. Unfortunately, an employee caught me and said I had to be under 3 years old to play.

This week-long trip had a few funny incidents but I definitely loved reconnecting with my family and having zero responsibilities. I plan to come back in two weeks with something a bit more educational, hope you all had a great return to school!