July 4, 2014

We watch our children train. Shameka went out to Starbucks and received a double boon on the coffee she ordered due to a slight misunderstanding. Somehow, 'java chip' got into the barrista's mind when it should have been three 'mocha chip.' No problem. He gifted the errors and re-made the chocolate delights; Spreading the mocha and java chip joy!

More training today. Ui-Seng's dancer training has yielded result.

 

The last member of the team arrives! The joy is palpable; Treated like a rock star being followed by the paparazzi.

 

I went in search of internet and sunshine at this point and found myself sitting at an outdoor spot on a piazza with a service called Wickedlyfast Wifi, apparently a free service for the San Jose downtown vicinity, when Sean rolled up on me throwing his backpack over the ledge where I sat updating my itinerary for the trip.

"I'll be around in a minute." And that was our introduction: Like a conversation being continued from time immemorial; Like he had just left a minute ago and was coming back from some small errand.

Around he came, and so began my San Jose connect. In another time, things could have gone in another direction, but in my recent maturity, it was just a beautiful confluence of like-spirited souls. So I was able to experience this Iranian-American, adorable, born-and-raised-in-San-Jose boy. His perspective, revealing the underside of the shiny shell of the tourist's view of his city; all the underworkings to keep the city looking and running the way we see kind of like in H.G. Well's Time Machine.

When I returned from my foray into my soul-connect and mind break, sufficiently fed and sated, I found the team and parents @the swimming pool. They had finished a training session in the pool were just about to roll out to get ready for dinner...

 

...healthy and happy children!!...

...and on the way to dinner, I passed these mushroom trees:

We went up the street of downtown San Jose to an open air food court called San Pedros something or other.