Bara meets (and remeets) our friends

Friday night, as I was having my girls night and JB was on call, Bara hung out with Ronnie. Ronnie took him to the Dodge County Fair.

Now you don't have to be from Dodge County to picture the Dodge County Fair. If you have ever gone to a fair in a tiny country town, you can picture it. They are all the same.

Bara loved it! He got to see a Demolition Derby and also see the way many Americans live. It is so difficult to picture the fact that most of Americans don't live in huge over-crowded metropolises (it's hard to pluralize that word) unless you see it for yourself. But Bara saw it. He saw people that, most likely, have no idea where Syria is or maybe, even where Wisconsin is!

Country towns present a different world and are a far cry from Boston or even Rochester. Bara said that he heard a statistic once that 50% of Americans do not have a passport. Now since I am positive that most of my family, including my parents, John's parents, and most of my cousins and other blog readers don't have passports, you don't find this number amazing. But it was amazing to Bara.

It was amazing until he went to the Dodge County Fair. What would these people need passports for? There's their farm, their neighbor's farm, and the Demolition Derby. Do they need anything more? However, to a visitor, like Bara, these country towns often go unnoticed.

Saturday afternoon, Bara and I watched Father of the Bride while JB attempted to catch up on his sleep. Bara really enjoyed it, and even though I have seen it numerous times, I enjoyed rewatching it. That's a classic American romantic comedy! The last time Bara came he hated romantic comedies and wouldn't go near them. Now they are one of his favorite genres. Go figure!

Saturday evening we had a bunch of friends over. Since John didn't have a lot of time to prep, we had chicken and steak fajitas, an easy meal in John's repertoire. Bara was a little unsure of this new food but wanted to watch John make them to get another idea of something he could cook in his apartment in Boston. I asked him if he liked them, and he said that the fact that he was on his third is pretty indicative of the fact that he thought they were really good. The first time he used sour cream, he just put a little dab, but the next time, he had smothered his shell in sour cream and was a little more adventurous in the contents of his fajita.

We have so enjoyed having Bara visit our home. It is always wonderful to catch up with old friends, and we have had some wonderful and educational conversations. The world is such a big place, and I am so thankful to have so many friends of different ethnicities and nationalities to share that world with.

Speaking of a wide assortment of friends, you can definitely appreciate that from some of the pictures of our evening.

Here is Tara and Nicole. Nicole spent much of her third year of medical school avoiding Rochester as much as possible and doing rotations all over the country. However, she actually said that while she did not miss Rochester, she missed all of us and so she is going to stay closer to "home" for her fourth year (not counting a month long jaunt in Australia!) So hopefully, you will get to see more pictures of Nicole. I think the girl on the right has made enough appearances on the blog to no longer warrant an introduction, but if you haven't paid good attention in the past, that's Tara who personally finds Rochester the most riveting location of her twenty-four year existence.

So here is a picture of Bara and JB. This was taken during our game of the evening -- Time's Up. Time's Up is a game that requires you to be semi-familiar with pop-culture. Bara was my partner, and while we finished in dead-last, he was getting the hang of it by the end and earning everyone's praise. Even though we lost, even Bara recognized that the point of this game wasn't so much about winning but about how hard you could laugh at other people and yourself.

As I have mentioned previously, Karuna now repeats everything and anything anyone says. This object she is holding is a battery recharger. We are all well aware of this because Karuna told us so upwards of fifty times in a period of less than two minutes.

Here, Karuna finally acquiesces and gives Wendi the battery recharger, assured that everyone in the room knows what it is.

Here's Lesley and Karuna, both of whom no longer need introductions on the Polar North blog. I admire Lesley for a lot of things, but one of them is her ability to play with children in a room full of grown-ups. I think we are all so prone to get into our adult conversations and shoo the kids away, but Lesley always takes adequate time to entertain Karuna with the utmost of patience -- even if Karuna won't let her pull her next card in Time's Up.

Cole (front) and Hunter (back) are growing WAY too fast. Take a look at Hunter and Cole on year ago on my blog. You can see what I mean. Man time flies and kids grow up fast. They are great boys and always fun to have around.

Here is Bara with his first attempt at a fajita. Also pictured are Ronaldo Ray. Do you all remember the picture from a few days ago which featured Cole making a crazy face? Is it any wonder where Cole gets his antics from when you see Ronnie in this picture? Also pictured is our great friend Melissa (off to the right) due to have another baby in just a little over a month.

I am sure that Lesley will only realize what was occurring behind her when she views this picture on my blog today. Lesley, don't worry, it's Nicole who has reverted back to her adolescence, not you.

Here is Dave playing Time's Up. Dave has gone, in a matter of just two years, to being the worst Time's Up player we had ever seen, to the best in Rochester. In fact, the reason we did not play in couples last night was because Dave and Lesley are so stinkin' good at the game now, no one else stands a chance. However, Dave did agree that his pop culture is still well behind the rest of the crowd, hence he and Bara's reason for determining they were probably not the best two to pair together.

So there are some pictures from our evening.

Currently, it is Sunday morning. We were hoping to make it to church this morning, but Wendi had one of her headaches last night. They have gotten much better, but as the neurologist warned, not going to bed at a consistent time, could cause them to flare up as is what happened last night. Not only could I not sleep, but my poor husband who had not slept more than two hours the night before could not sleep. He finally wandered to the couch around two a.m. and wandered back around six a.m. I made the executive decision to turn off the alarm clock and let him sleep until he wakes up. In addition, I am still fighting a doozy of a headache this morning. Please continue to pray for me in this regard, especially as we start another round of IVF on August 4th, and I must restart the drug that initially sparked these headaches.

Call really stinks! I don't know how else to say it. Our church only has services on Saturday evening or Sunday. For the last five or six weeks, JB has been on call either Saturday night, Sunday, or he's been post-call and not slept at all in the days preceding Sunday. It's frustrating. During the school year we at least attend a Bible Study on Thursday nights, but our church doesn't have a mid-week service. We've actually been talking about trying to find another church that we could just attend during the week.

Today though, we have a packed day planned! First we are going to take Bara on a field trip to the grocery store! We are just going to try to familiarize him with some American foods that would be easy for a bachelor of his cooking caliber to make. Then we have tickets to Body Worlds at the Science Museum of Minnesota. We also plan to take him back to Chino Latinos, the restaurant Tara introduced us to. Dave and Lesley and Ajit may also join us, but are not positive yet. Call is screwing EVERYONE up! Dave and Lesley have a busy two weeks coming up and need to make sure they have everything in over first. Ajit also, wants to make sure he gets a good night sleep to prepare for the craziness of his next rotation which begins on Monday.

Okay so tonight or tomorrow morning, I will post some more pictures from our day in the cities with Bara. Tomorrow, he returns to Boston. Hopefully, we will be able to make a trip and visit him there sometime in the next year and a half.