Nick got back just before noon and told us all about his school experience. We then packed up the car, took a couple pictures and headed out for some lunch. We hit up Buffalo Wild Wings and had a pretty decent meal. Minh, the glutton for punishment that he is, couldn’t resist getting a chicken tender salad doused with their spiciest sauce (I had thought about getting something with that level of spiciness, but my mind got the best of me). It was very amusing to see him sweat, cough and blow his nose as he munched on his salad.
After lunch, we hit the road for Columbia, South Carolina to see our old friend John Zyck. John used to live up in Montgomery County with us, but moved to Columbia several months ago to teach at the University of South Carolina. I hadn’t seen him since Rob and I helped him move down there, so I was looking forward to catching up with him. After a relatively short drive down there (only about an hour an a half), we made it to Columbia. We stopped off at a local thrift shop hoping to find some hidden treasures. This was definitely an old school thrift shop…they were selling 8-track tapes! At least Nick found something worth while…he came away with three board games!
Finally we met John at his place. He was very happy to see us, as I was to see him. We settled in and spent some time catching up. He was very happy to be back in the south; the slower pace and more friendly demeanor of the people here was definitely more of his style. I was glad he was happy here, both emotionally and spiritually.
After chatting for a bit, we formed a game plan of what we’d do for the rest of the day. We would head down to USC and John would give us a tour of the place. After that, we would go to a sports bar called Damon’s and watch the University of Maryland women’s basketball team play their NCAA tournament game against Louisville. John was a great tour guide, showing us all around the campus. USC was a very pretty campus, with lots of old-style architecture in its buildings. It felt good to be back on a college campus again, as the buzz of college life was all around us.
We finished up the tour and headed off to Damon’s. One of the girls who went with me on my trip to India in 2006 lived in Columbia, so I gave her a call and asked if she and her husband wanted to join us for dinner. She was delighted to hear from me and said that they would both be there. Tiffany and Brian met us there eventually and we all had a lot of fun catching up on our current lives, reminiscing about our time in India and having a bunch of laughs. Unfortunately, the UM women lost their game, but we still had a great time. Brian even demonstrated his juggling skills for us!
We capped off the night by grabbing some beer and renting “Taladega Nights,” in honor of our previous trip to the Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Minh had never seen it, so we had to introduce him. It was definitely funny…another great way to end another great day.
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