Rani

During my last week in Dallas I cried almost every day.

Every day I had to say goodbye to certain friends and habits.

Monday 23/09/2019 was a beautiful day. I played outside with EJ and I couldn’t believe the year we’ve had together. ‘My’ baby is running around now! It’s amazing to see how much he has learned and what he’s capable of.

It was my last Sunday in Dallas and some friends took me out to get some last touristic pictures. First we went to Klyde Warren Park because the Friends couch was there.

My host parents threw a barbecue for me and my friends as a goodbye present. Some canceled last minute but it the most important ones were there.

I had one of the best MeetUps ever! A Cartoon Pub Crawl!!

Everyone was dressed up and it was hilarious! We had a lot of fun. Thanks to our costumes we even got into Rainbow Vomit - an interactive art exhibition - for free.

Leone, an au pair from South Africa, invited me to join a birthday party at Red River. I would only know her but since it was going to be my last chance to go dance over there, I went anyway. Also, I really wanted to try out my own boots.

We were a big group of girls, all of us au pairs I think. I didn’t socialize much because I didn’t feel like putting energy into meeting new people when I know I’m leaving in a couple of weeks.

Most girls didn’t want to dance so went out there on my own and managed to find a couple of dance partners. It was not as great though so I left before midnight.

I spent my Saturday afternoon in Deep Ellum on a special MeetUp: a Dessert Crawl. How genius! We visited 4 different places. Thank God I had a light lunch...

I joined Antonio at his friends’ place for a relaxing evening at their pool. They have a hairless cat that was super sweet. Even though I’m a huge cat person, I don’t think I would ever get a hairless cat. They look so fragile.

One of the most American things I’ve seen so far... 

Antonio taught me how to play Darts. I like it! It’s more fun than I thought. Or maybe that’s because I won?

I went out for brunch with a MeetUp in Uptown; Malai Kitchen, a Thai & Vietnamese restaurant. The food was good and the mimosa overflowing.

It’s Labor Weekend! This means most people have a day off on Monday, including my host parents aka including me.

My weekend started off very relaxed. I met up with another au pair from South-Africa, Leone. We went to Greenville to check out the souvenir shops and then had some kind of brunch at her friend’s place. 

In the evening Alexa and I went to see DJ Pauly D at Stereo Live.

The plan was to go do karaoke with 4 girlfriends. Unfortunately two cancelled so the remaining 3 of us decided to do something else.

We ended up going to Alamo Drafthouse, a movie theater close to where I live. This place is heaven! The seats are super comfortable, you can even put your feet up and per 2 people, you share a small table. During the movie there are waiters that bring you drinks and food, from small snacks to decent meals.

We saw “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”, Quentin Tarantino’s new movie. In my opinion the movie was kind of boring up until the last part. There was a huge plottwist that was awesome! Apparently not so much of a twist though. After the movie, my American friends told me the movie refers to the Manson Family Murders of 1969. Knowing this background story makes the movie a lot more interesting!

I tried something new thanks to MeetUp: Broomball. In my opinion it’s a simplistic version of ice hockey; regular sport shoes, some kind of broom stick and a ball.

I got to check another thing off my bucketlist: see a baseball game!

In the afternoon I hung out with my friend Alexa, at her pool. Around 5pm we went out for dinner at Texas Live in Arlington, across the street from the baseball stadium. We skipped the boring official stuff and arrived during the first inning. The stadium was huge and the view was really pretty.

I had a lazy but nice weekend. The only two things I did were: 

1. Following the “Dodentocht” that was happening in the town where I was born and raised. It translates to “March of the Dead” which my American friends thought was weird and asked if it referred to the World War. No it doesn’t. The Dodentocht is a long-distance march of 100 kilometers that you have to walk (or run for the diehards) within 24 hours. On Facebook I saw 2 friends took on the challenge and thanks to tracking I could see how they were doing. One day, I will try this too.

I hardly ever go out during the week but when my friends invited me to go play laser tag, I couldn’t refuse of course! 

We met at a place called “Main Event” in Plano. It was crazy! One big venue with a lot of different things to do: bowling, billiards, laser tag, arcade hall with video games and others, comfort food & full bar service, plus a karaoke lounge.

Every 10-15 minutes or so, there was a new game of laser tag that anyone could join. You had to get in line and pick any available laser gun and vest. We played multiple games for about two hours. I had a lot of fun! 

When you visit Dallas, you have to try Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum. It has the best barbeque of the city. The waiting line is always super long, starting inside all along the wall, going outside, all the way to the end of the block and sometimes even around the corner.

I finally got to try it with some friends and they knew a way to beat the line: order group plates at the take out desk. We got our food pretty fast and it was very good! Best barbeque I’ve had over here.