Simply Belle

My daughter had been enticing us to visit her in Stanford U while she is still a student so she could show us around one more time. My husband, who is always conscious of spending (and I don’t blame him,) thought that the trip was unnecessary as we will be making another trip in June for her graduation. I, however, didn’t even have any second thoughts about the whole idea. This opportunity only comes once, and I was not about to pass it up. It took a while before my husband finally caved in.

So, off we went. We drove and slept over at a friend’s house in LA. They served us great Filipino food and dessert, and entertained us with great karaoke music. They even had take home goodies for us.  We were so spoiled. Steve got in some chess practice with a friend, Vic. We had a great time. Those friends of mine are a treasure.  Priceless treasures!

The following day, we headed to Irvine to scout for apartment for Steffi who will be working in that area right after graduation. She had her  job secured a the beginning of her senior year when companies were laying off workers here and there, left and right.  A couple of hours later, we spotted a decent place in Costa Mesa which we thought was good enough for our daughter. It is a 5-minute drive to the beach, and a 10-minute drive to work. Not too shabby, eh? Though there is one problem, as always – her future roommate prefers 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms apartment. In that case, they are going to find it themselves.

Anyway, the trip to Stanford U was worthwhile. Stanford U is huge, which comes in second behind University of Moscow, in terms of continuous land area. It took us forever to trek the whole campus. My husband developed blisters, and decided to head back to the dorm. I was getting tired, too, but still had the stamina left to continue with the tour, if needed. But, my husband prevailed, and so we gingerly walked back to the dorm, resting in between, as the blisters were about to pop.

The next day, we had the opportunity to sit in Steffi’s classes. Funny, while the lecture was going on, I inadvertently hit the half-empty bottle of water against the laptop and created noise, getting everybody’s attention including the professor. The professor knew exactly where the noise came from. So, he said, “you there, in the back, (he meant Steffi), try to impress your parents.” Everybody laughed, of course, and Steffi was put on the spot because of me. Sorry!

The next class was rather interesting but I kept dozing off a minute at a time at the beginning of the class because it was hot even with air condition, and also, I was sleep-deprived the night before. You know how it is sleeping in strange place? It takes several days before you get used to the environment and its noise. I remained awake though the rest of the lecture.  Whew, wouldn’t it have been an embarrassing situation again for Steffi had I been caught sleeping by the professor?

One thing I noticed about our daughter, she was proud of her parents despite how homely/odd we look…he he. She made an effort to make an appointment with her friends and mentor just to meet us even for a short while as they were busy with classes and jobs themselves. She didn’t see us as a nuisance around her boyfriend, going to places, like church and cafe. It was probably her boyfriend who felt that way about us. Yes? No? (you know who you are)

Though the highlight of this trip was when her A Capella group serenaded me with 3 beautiful songs, with Steffi as a soloist in one of the songs. I am so used to hearing them only through video that a member record whenever they give concert, and didn’t realize how much beautiful they sound live. I felt so overwhelmed and honored to be crooned by a bunch of good-looking and talented kids. Sorry, I didn’t take pictures because my daughter thought it was inappropriate and I would be more like a stalker (according to my daughter.)

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