18 friends in 36 hours, part trois

I woke up at about 8, had a quick shower, and managed to have a cup of tea with Cord and Beth before Cord had to go to work. After he left, Beth and I talked for a bit. I knew I had a lot of folks still to see, so I headed out.

My first stop was Duluth to meet up with Khanh. Khanh's one of my best friends from Inoko. She was a waitress while she worked on her Chemistry degree, and now she's trying to get into pharmacy school. My last visit to Georgia was too short for us to meet up, so this time we both planned ahead for it. She met me in the shiny new car she bought and gave me a combined birthday/Christmas present: the first two Twilight books. All I had for her was a dinky stuffed Cookie Monster, but she didn't seem to mind.

She drove us to a not-quite-nearby Vietnamese restaurant so we could have phở. She told me all about her mom visiting from Vietnam for Khanh's UGA graduation, and the cross-country road trip they took. She's thinking about doing pharmaceutical research in Africa, if she can get her pharmacy degree.

After a much-too-quick brunch, she drove me back to my car. I wanted to get a picture, and after a failed attempt in the parking lot, we headed into the nearby PetSmart. We couldn't find any bored idle workers, so I asked a lady in the puppy chow aisle if she wouldn't mind taking a picture. She didn't seem to mind--probably because of how cute Khanh is--and obliged.

We said our goodbyes, and I headed on to my next destination: the Cracker Barrel on Jimmy Carter Boulevard. As fellow polyglots and travelers, Ashley and I have done our best to keep in touch despite our laziness. We picked that Cracker Barrel because she knew I'd love some southern food and because it was the most easily-reached halfway point between us.

Ashley had been a flight attendant for Delta for a few months. She was certified in Spanish, Italian, and Hungarian, which meant she'd been flying regularly to Rome, Budapest, and various places in Latin America. I think that's just about the perfect job for her, as it lets her travel a ton, speak foreign languages almost all the time, yet still live near her family. I hope she realizes it, too.

We spent about two hours catching up and scheming our next moves. Just like with everyone else, I had to leave before I wanted to.