The official unofficial first day of vacation

Well, today was the first day of vacation and I was pretty much packed before the day began. Yesterday I got back pretty late since I didn't get a chance to do much packing this week due to a full workload in preparation for my vacation. I had a few errands to run but, since I had to pack to get home, I finished all of my packing for vacation. Though we had to turn around because we forgot the playing cards, and we had to say goodbye to the puppy, we had a pretty smooth start to our family vacation. It finally felt like winter, being quite chilly in the morning, but unfortunately warmed up a little too much.

Like every year, we started off with Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. We ran into my ex-roommate Rachelle, like we sometimes "accidentally" do, and exchanged presents. I got her some super fuzzy slippers and a cute hat, which she loved for her Christmas/Birthday present. After we said our goodbyes we made our long road trip to our vacation spot.

We were surprised at the new features our timeshare had: softer beds, new lights (which switched between reading lamps and strobe lights), a bigger TV, and new furniture in the living room. There were pros and cons to the changes but over all it was what we missed last year. After unpacking, we started our Lord of the Rings marathon in preparation for The Hobbit, which we are seeing tomorrow. We played cards, and finished the first movie. We didn't eat since we had a big lunch, skipping our usual KFC tradition. We were all exhausted and called it a night, anticipating the fun-filled day tomorrow will bring at the flea market. Can't wait!

Stayed tuned for more of my random winter adventures. Peace. Out.

Just Another Dreary/Exciting Day

Well today was pretty good, all things considered. If it were any other day I wouldn't have said so as I was lacking in sleep, groggy, and not in the mood for the weather that came about today. Plus it was hot out and my feet hurt from all the walking from today and yesterday. We went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. It was pretty fun, as usual. I have come to the conclusion, however, that I can't ride the new Harry Potter ride anymore. My motion sickness keeps getting the better of me and ruins the rest of my day (yet another reason why today shouldn't have been that great).

My dad, for some reason, appears to be cursed today. We woke up early so that we could get ponchos before we left. My dad ended up forgetting his phone and the backpack full of drinks. We had to go back and get them after getting the ponchos, and yet he still forgot his phone. Luckily he didn't forget the tickets. Not to mention the fact that, once again, when we finally got to ride Rip Ride Rockit, it started to pour as we got to the front and we got soaked. I will never do that again. It wasn't as bad, nor as painful, as the last time I rode it in the rain, but I still hated it. The song I picked was good though, the one by Kanye West.

We also rode other various rides like the Mummy and Dragon Challenge. We even had our usual lunch, mine was the Bacon Cheesburger with fries and a pickle spear. It was so good! We also had ice cream, I had swirl soft-served with a waffle cone. The restaurant where we usually eat ice cream was packed! It took us like 15 minutes to find a table. We were lucky. Every time someone got up someone else quickly replaced them.

After ice cream we left for home. We were all pretty tired out from the day before, and the weather didn't help. We stopped off at Target on the way home and got both Red Riding Hood and The Adjustment Bureau on DVD. We watched them both before we all called it a day.

I was finally able to finish Beastly! I must say that it was totally different from the movie. I still like the movie a lot (possibly better than the book). It was more like the traditional story of Beauty and the Beast. He was transformed into the traditional beast with hair all over his body, fangs and claws. He dropped two petals before giving Lindy the rose so he had 2 years to find true love instead of 1, because of his one act of kindness. There was a magic mirror that showed him anything he wanted to see. There was a lot of allusions to literature found throughout the story like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Jane Eyre. He sulked in the attic of his five story building for about a year after accidentally attacking a girl at a Halloween party, breaking her arm I believe. He got into the habit of people watching from the window up there on the fifth floor. Also at the end he yelled out her name like Edward did in Jane Eyre. She ended up yelling his name also. She ended up being in danger in the end after she left him so he had to rush out into the open to save her. It was more violent and gruesome than the movie. There was actual bloodshed (worse than the shooting found in the movie). And, the one thing I didn't particularly care for, Magda the maid turned out to be Kendra the witch. There was this cool thing where because Kyle (Adrian in the book as he changed his name) wished Magda could be reunited with her family Kendra was also freed from a punishment, a curse of being a servant to a bratty and cruel child. All in all it was a good read. I was in a rush, however, since I've become obsessed with The Nine Lives of Cloe King. I've started reading it and must say it's totally different from the TV series. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Yet.

Stayed tuned for more of my random summer adventures. Peace. Out.

A Day At Flagler

Today started off miserably. The only reason for it was that I had to wake up at 4:20am. We had to leave by 5:20am to get to Flagler College in time to find a parking spot. Once we got to St. Augustine we ate breakfast at McDonald's. It was delicious and the first time in forever that I had breakfast there. I had a Sausage Egg McMuffin, a hashbrown, and a small Mocha Frappe. It was sooooo good. Then we got to campus and after a couple of times driving in circles we found the parking lot for the orientation. Then we made our way over to the Student Learning Center.

Once there, since we were kind of early, I got to read more of Beastly. I was determined to finish that book today as Courtney had just gotten The Nine Lives of Cloe King, was almost finished with it, and said that I could read it after her.

Once the orientation began we split up, me going with Courtney for student orientation and my parents going to the parent orientation. Once there we started playing Apples to Apples. This is a really fun game that I hope to get for the apartment. I think it would be fun at slumber parties and stuff. It's a lot like charades, sort of. You get 7 red cards. All the red cards have words on them, nouns including names of peoples, places, and things. There is always a judge, someone who goes to the front of the room (in this case) and draws a green card. This card has an adjective on it. We were supposed to introduce our selves and use the game to get to know one another. Luckily, when I ended up being judge I did not get in trouble and later found out that I wasn't the only one taking the student orientation ride instead of the parent one. Anyways... the judge reads the adjective and the definition to the group. Then everyone chooses one of their cards that they feel best fits the word. It is best to choose the wackiest one. Everyone discards that card and draws a new red card. Once all have discarded the judge reads the choices aloud. They then pick the best choice and the person who discarded the chosen card gets to become the judge, take a green card with them when they're done, and is next to introduce themselves. Whoever has the most green cards at the end wins. We didn't get to that extent. By the time we had to stop there were four people with more than 2 green cards. There was a semi finals and final round of Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine the winner, which just so happened to be Courtney! She won a red, cheesy pair of Flagler sun glasses.

After that we took a tour of the different student housing buildings. Ponce de Leon Hall was by far the coolest. I was jealous cuz the rooms were really cool and slightly bigger than my own student housing room, even the doubles. We then got situated with the general things like picking a room, signing up for a micro-fridge, and getting her student ID. There were also student group sign-ups, and mobile Internet connection information stations there but Courtney didn't want or need to do either so... We were finally off to lunch and it was time to regroup with the parents.

We had gotten to the dining hall earlier than the parents and made our way over to the shorter sandwich line. We are stilled amazed with the cereal dispensers. lol. They make omlets, grilled sandwiches, subs, and different pastas and stir-fries along with different drinks and a soda fountain (all unlimited/all-you-can-eat). That was only one section of the dining hall. They also had a salad bar, and a buffet with hot things like pork roast with cranberry filling and mac-n-cheese (among other things). It was awesome. I only had a plate of homemade potato chips which I shared with my sis and a couple of Root Beers. We met with our parents and discussed everything we saw and did. Then we split up again and waited until our group reconvened. The buildings there are amazing, fyi.

Then we took a tour of the campus visiting some of the administrative buildings, classrooms, and library. We heard a couple of lectures from people in each place. Then we finished in a lecture hall which has those awesome slidey desks, and Courtney got her schedule. Unfortunately she has a class almost every morning but I think she's excited about it. It's more like what she's used to and it will give her plenty of time in the afternoon to do homework.

Then I really got to read as our parents waited in long lines and went to several different places to do financial stuff and last minute errands. We finally finished, unfortunately is was at the estimated time of 5pm. This thing took all day and, of course, we still had a 2 hour car ride back home. It was dreary most of the day and the sky finally opened up, with roaring thunder and eerily close looking lightning strikes, just after our last stop, so the trip home wasn't as pleasant as we had hoped. We did, however, get fries and sodas for the trip home. I slept all the way back from as well as to Flagler.

When we got home we vegged out, and I got to read some more. I finished off the day with Night Watch. It was the first foreign film I was actually interested in watching all the way through. It was Russian with English subtitles and narration. I really liked it. The filming techniques used were pretty cool, like the oscillating focus. The story line is what had originally caught my attention and was so interesting that I now want to read the book series the film trilogy is based on. I didn't like how it ended but that was mainly because none of the other movies are available on Netflix. I wanted to keep watching them. I love how I didn't see the end coming. It was one of those supernatural mind-benders where everything ties together in the end, even things you didn't think were relevant. I look forward to continuing the film trilogy with the next film Day Watch. I am going to try to get to bed early since we have big plans for tomorrow. It was quite a long, yet still exciting, and somewhat depressing day as my sis prepares for her new life in college. *sniffle*

Stayed tuned for more of my random summer adventures. Peace. Out.