regionals, art museums, and learning chinese

While at Ryan's house we played some yu-gi-oh and he asked if I wanted to go to a regional in Des Moines the upcoming Saturday. I decided I would first ask my brother and various other people if they would be going, and upon finding out that they weren't I decided not to go. However, my mind soon changed as I thought of a deck I wanted to try. We watched a bunch more Buffy the Vampire Slayer the next couple of days and had a generally good time, but it was soon time for regionals. I got in a van stuffed with people I didn't really know and headed back to Iowa. Surprisingly enough, nothing felt counter productive about heading the opposite way that I was aimed.

The guys in the Van were pretty funny guys and we had some good conversations, most of which were about yugioh. After we arrived at Des Moines we stopped at a Western Union so I could pick up some cash courtesy of my brother, who had never used a Western Union before so it was a bit of a longer stop than I had anticipated. When we arrived at the convention center there was a mere 12 minutes left before registration stopped. Most of us were used to registration ending at 11 rather than 10:20 so we thought we had plenty of time. I rushed writing my deck list and was not able to make a side deck, which obviously was very detrimental to my results. In the tourney itself I ended up 4-3 and dropped after the 7th round. It was the first 8 round regional I had been to in Des Moines, 141 people which is quite high for an Iowa regional.

The car ride back was hysterical, we joked for ages and since we all lacked sleep everything was even more funny. We had stopped at Taco Johns where I grabbed a churo and some potato oles, which was a mistake due to the fact that I had little money as it was... Luckily for me, 2 of the people were going back to Lincoln, which was my destination.

They dropped me off at the home of Wei Ming, who goes by his english name of Ryan Lim. It was already 12:30 a.m when I arrived so we talked a bit then I went to sleep.

The next morning Ryan and I decided to go around town so he could show me the sights. As he was showing me campus I noticed a severed statue head and we decided to go check it out. Turns out, it was the entrance to a free art museum. I was quite pleased with this, I had always had a love for art for as long as I can remember. I really enjoyed the art museum and the tour of campus, which is just beautiful. I took some pictures with the sculptures around campus and we had a nice walk.

We then headed to the capital building, where we decided to go in on a whim and found that they were giving free tours! Today was my lucky day! I got to learn a bunch of really interesting things about Nebraska and Lincoln and was able to see even more beautiful art. Also, Wei had taught me some Chinese, and I love learning languages and learning about culture. We dropped by McDonalds where Wei bought me a couple of burgers and headed back to his place. We basically watched Iron Man and talked about travel other miscellaneous things.

That's where we leave off today, my next planned stop is Denver Colorado to visit my aunt. Keep reading, and now my blog is monetized so I may make money off it! So visit even more! Hehe, bye now.