It went flat..

I think I am single-handedly responsible for flattening all the computer chairs at home over the past 5 or so years. You know the ones, the cushiony, foamy chairs?

We've went through a good ~dozen of them because of me. None of them are comfortable anymore. My ass' imprint is on most of them. I blame studying. Like what I should be doing now instead of typing this and staring out the window at the sunny day while I'm forced to be stuck indoors.

R.I.P.

Vancouver once again exhibited why I sometimes hate living here. It was drizzling in Coquitlam today in the morning, showering where I was in Vancouver, and raining in other places in the Lower Mainland. I refused to open my umbrella because if there's one thing I hate carrying around at school is a damp umbrella.

The sun comes shining through by midday and I'm glad my decision paid off, although with slightly damp acidic hair.

When I was walking into my house in the late afternoon I saw three similar worms in this situation. Poor guys, Mother Nature obviously did not like you on this day. It's not your little faults you couldn't make it back to the soil in time before Mr. Golden Sun decided to burn your moist body good bye.

I should go back to my BIOL 334 studies. I proclaimed with Derrick we're going to be man whores and "get around" to each of the different tutorials and see which one fits our needs the most. Some start at 1:30 and others at 2:30 depending on the class. Earlier, obviously better since they're 2 hours long. Time is money.

My current tutorial session is home to Keener #1 who wants her tutorials at 1:45pm because of her stomach woes. Boy #1 wants it at 2:30pm because he has a class before it. Therefore, this tutorial will remain at 2:30 according to the T.A.. T03 - You meant well but we just won't work out. I'm afraid I have to move on from you

Disconnected

I feel like I'm in a pretty bad place right now. Or a good place, depending on how you look at it.

After waking up today at 1pm, I spent the day catching up on tv shows that I have neglected for the past couple of months. Everyone knows sometimes you just need a day alone, but right now, I feel like I need a month alone from everyone and everything around me.

I don't feel like talking to anyone anymore. I don't want to leave my house. I don't really want to do .. anything. I need a month off from life.

South Beach Miami sucks with the Parents.

The title says it all. Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue provided me with a much needed dose of culture and lifestyle that is so different on this side of the continent. Outdoor restaurants, 11am Happy Hours, and the cultural makeup of South Beach left me wishing I were 21 and with friends here.

Goal: Come back here in 2 years, hopefully without a burnt and battered body from the heat and exhaustion.

South Beach, a lot busier than North Beach, which was where my resort was at. Didn't really go on the beach because I was too tired to. Plus, no tanning today because we would be travelling to the airport in the middle of the night.. without showering :\

A lot of shopping can be found on this street, similar to the Robson St. of Vancouver. There was an Urban Outfitters! I should have bought something there, but the family was going in 4 separate directions at this time so I couldn't shop properly. Plus, my luggage could not hold another shirt.

By far, the most interesting street in South Beach. Well Lincoln Road may be more, but still. Parallel to the beach, this street had a lot of restaurants and the people watching done here during my meal was priceless.


I don't know if this picture does it justice, but the meals at this one little cafe/restaurant was HUGE. If you've ever been to Joey's and had their half chicken meal, this one was twice the size. I couldn't finish it :(

Crazy street once it gets dark. Lots of places to drink at. Lots of people to stare at. A lot of high end shopping too. Too pricy for me :( And too tired to even bother going into any stores. There were plenty of Starbucks here too, sorta reminded me of back home. Except 12332% more humid. Yuck.
A very very common scene down Ocean and Lincoln. The outdoor restaurants. Many don't even have an inside seating area and everything is outdoors with maybe ~20 tables at most. During the later afternoon-early evening many restaurants are now offering 50% off their meals and drinks. A real bargain. Can get a nice meal for under $15 USD, unheard of before the recession me thinks..

Sadly, I wasn't legal and drinking with my family is too awkward, so I couldn't really take in this street to its full potential. Hopefully in a couple of years when I come back it'll be better. Hopefully. Their mojitos looked so damn good..

Travelled by car back to Orlando at around 10pm. Ate at IHOP at 2am in the company of kids coming from Prom. Annoying as hell. I forgot how "old" I am now.

Camped at the airport till 7 20am where I boarded my flight to San Fran->Vancouver.

Came back to cloudy skies and then pissed rain on me at night. I hate Vancouver sometimes. After 2 weeks of blue skies and 30 degree weather, rain and greyness do not go well.

Plus, the Canucks lost today. To say the least, I'm bummed. Pissed. Sad. Angry.

And I'm peeling from the burns. Fucking Aloe Vera does not work.

I am a beach bum.

For the past two days all I've been doing is spending time at the beach. It's accessible from our hotel and since it's still considered low season here in Miami, it's never too packed. I am a beach bum. I lie there from 11 till about 4.

No lunch, just drinks. Maybe a dip into the warm ocean, but that's it. I am a beach bum.

It's relaxing to say the least, even when my right contact slipped out today. Thankfully I had an extra pair. It was all gunky from the sunscreen that I had plastered on my face. I'm trying to tan away my burn. HAHA.

It's working!.. not really. I swear I have allergies to the sun. It doesn't even make sense that I would, but I do. Random lil bumps appear on my skin.. maybe the sun's just boiling my blood and this is what happens.

And so, my vacation is coming to an end quite quickly. I'm sort of sad that I have to get back to reality, I still haven't fully mourned over my poor marks in school. I guess I should only have myself to blame. I spent so much time and effort on Chem (it paid off) but pushed Bio and Math to the side. Math is what killed me the most. And English. Ugh. I don't think I'm going to pursue my English minor anymore. I thought my mark on my final was pretty unjustified. But, such is life. I will take one more English course in third year before I jet off to Australia and if once again my mark is low, I'll curse myself for taking electives that have left my GPA.. well yea.

At least I'm still going to make it into Cell Biology and Genetics. Hopefully.

Happy Hour's starting at the Hotel. I wish I were 21. $3 wine, beers, and maragaritas. They're pretty strict on ID even when you have parents around. Boo.

Sigh sigh. No more nice hotel room to come back to :'(. Now if only the Canucks can win their game tomorrow..

Miami is making me cry.

GPS works very well..even if it leads you on a highway that costs $15 in toll-fare. Damn American systems, I hate tolls. I hate them a lot. But I guess it's a system that works.. Got into Miami around 6:15. Detoured through Downtown Orlando, nothing there at all. Dead in terms of people, lots of banks..and clubs. Nothing special.

Miami is gorgeous. So many palm trees, sky's a lot bluer, and it's a couple of degrees cooler than Orlando. Staying at the Ocean Point Double Tree Hotel. We originally had a regular two double bed-room. Upon check in, I asked the guy if our room had a good view. His response was very mysterious, "trust me, you'll like your view. I guarantee it.".. Below are some of the pictures. My mouth literally dropped as we went in.
View from our balcony. Beach is only for the surrounding hotels/resorts to use. I hope it wont be too busy tomorrow.
I step foot into this. Ginormous. Gah. Drool.

Master bedroom. Mom + Dad will be in here. Has their own deluxe washroom. With Neutrogena products. Balling hotel..

Kitchen! I will be hitting up Walgreens to make some brekky and lunch. I refuse to pay $14 for a continental breakfast. 99 cents for a dozen eggs! What the hell, cheap as..

Large living room

Sister and I will be in this room. Each room has their own doorway out to the balcony that overlooks the ocean. So fricking sweet.

Suffice to say, we got upgraded. I think I will give that guy a hug on my way out. Or not, he might beat me up. The cookies they gave us were really good too. Oatmeal chocolate chip. mMMm. Anyways, going to go back up to jump around in my bed again. This is by far, the nicest/biggest hotel I've stayed in in my life. Well maybe the Wynn was a bit nicer and more updated, but regardless, this suite is huge. Totally did not expect this. And there are numerous walk in closets. And a washer/dryer in the room that we will be abusing.

Best of all, I get access to Versus, the American channel that will be broadcasting the Canucks game tomorrow. Finally, I get to watch a game! I've been missing them Canucks.

Oh right, had dinner here tonight. Really..really oily sauce for my linguine. But they already remade it once so I didn't want to make them remake it a third time. I work in a kitchen and if someone sent back my meal twice,... I'd be cussing the shit outta them. Heh.

I feel so poor here. Everyone has such nice cars.. everyone.

Bye bye Orlando, Hello Miami.

I finally slept in! Till 9:15am. I feel so accomplished. Finally, I get to go Miami, the relaxing and de-stressing part of my vacation. Hopefully. The sun will continue to burn away at me but I can only pray that I will have most of my worries at least die down for a little while..

Disney Day 2 was spent at Epcot!You can see that sphere like thing in the distance. It reminds me of Science World.. I'm sure most of you will agree. I kept on referring to it as Science World throughout the day too.. Got a coupla stares by people around me. The exhibits at Epcot were very reminiscent and similar to Science World too though.. I quite enjoyed it. Sadly, no one else appreciated it in my family. I wanted to play this team game where you work together to launch a space ship, seemed so cooL! But no one showed any interest.

This is the line up for taking pictures with Disney characters: Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Donald Duck, and Goofy. It took us an hour total from beginning to end. There was not a single ride at Universal or Disney that took over an hour on this trip, in terms of waiting. But taking pictures.. Shall refrain from bad words. I'm too embarrassed to show any of myself and the characters.

So, there's this World Showcase type thing at Epcot. There are many "Countries" that surround this lagoon. Some to note, Canada, Norway (hehe), Germany, Italy, France, and even China. Everyone working in those countries were actually from there. PEI boy worked the Canada store. CANUCKS! $113USD. Expensive. Sadly, I felt Canada was heavily shafted. All our place had was a dinky store that had the most stereotypical Canadian items being sold (maple syrup, raccoon hats, hockey jerseys..more maple syrup..) Some Parliamentary thing, and that was it. Other countries had really nice nooks and a collection of stores and whatnot that made it feel like you were really in the streets of say, Germany. Plus, lotsa beer around. Guess Disney didn't like Canada :(

My American heritage, shall leave it at that.

At night they have this fireworks show. Didn't get any pics of that on cell phone. There's also a fountain at Epcot that looks pretty nice at night.

So, Disney came and went pretty quickly. Finally ate a churro. Took me ages to find one.. only in Mexico-land. Mom was like, "why the hell are you eating from Mexico? Swine Flu!!"..

Chinese mothers make no sense.

Miami today. Family is packing away. Lots to carry out. I sure made a mess myself. I think I am also allergic to the sun or something. Little red spots appear in random areas..

No free internet at our new resort :( What the hell is that?! "We offer complimentary wireless internet in our lobby, but there will be a $9.99 charge if you want to use it in your room."... If only I were more computer saavy then I'm sure there's a way to hack into the lobby's wireless internet access. How does that even work.. blocking off room access..?

On a more upsetting note for myself, had a chance to be apart of Shinerama. Sadly, interviews are only being conducted today. Was really hoping I could get that job. I had applied back in late March and since they didn't contact me, I thought I wasn't even shortlisted for an interview. But, yea. Damn trip. Maybe I'll befriend some rich person and they'll offer me a job in Florida.

Heat exhaustion, sucks. Got a minor case of it yesterday. 30 degree heat + humidity = no good for me. But shh, dont' tell my parents. They just thought I was tired.

I'm fat once again! Hooha!

If anyone knows me well, they'll know that I love to eat. But I also have a terrible habit of saying I'll be full when I have three bites of anything. This trip, has changed me. I don't know if for the better or worse.. I'm thinking the latter. I was really hungry one day after a long day at Universal Studios so our family was eating at the TGIFs across the street from the hotel.. our second time there, in a row. Anyways, they're having this ridiculous cheap deal of $5 menu items and I'm talking regular full sized sandwiches, burgers and salads here. I have no idea how they're even making money considering these items are nearly 50% off from their normal price, some even more!

Anyways, I was hungry so I decided to add a piece of chicken to my chicken burger. Now, chicken breasts in the USA are oddly quite large. Bigger than the ones we use at White Spot.. To say the least, my double double chicken burger came and it was ginormous. This picture doesn't do it justice. The waitress told me everyone in the back was talking about this burger and couldn't believe that someone could finish it. Well guess what you fat Americans, this born and almost bred American finished it.. and even had dessert back at the hotel! HAHA. I'm such a pig. But I seriously ate it all.. no problem WITH the side salad that it came with (no dressing Justin). The busser also noted that he was impressed that I could finish it. And today, I had a smoked turkey leg. Two turkey legs. Doesn't sound impressive? You will soon see.. Shall post pictures of that feat another day. To all you people out there that accuse me of eating too little.. HA! I automatically turn American in more than one way when I'm down here :'(. Get me back to Canada!!!! Anyways..on to today.

Disney World!

Here you can see my loot of Aloe Vera based products that I have been stocking up on during this trip. The burn has finally decreased by one shade of tomato red to light tomato red. Still itches and prickles like crazy when I'm in the sun.. But I'll make due. Spent over $16 USD on these products. If I start peeling tomorrow before Miami.. Let's not talk about that. Just like how I won't be watching the Canucks game tomorrow because I'll be at Epcot during it. No more Nelson-curses. Each time I rush back to the hotel to watch it's during the period where the Hawks score 3 goals. Can't be a coincidence twice now right?..

But yea, today was Disney World. Woke up sorta late.. got there at around 10 30.





Boarded the Monorail (skytrain-esque) thing from the parking lot to Magic Kingdom! I was surrounded by strollers, mommies and daddies and their little kids in outfits/hats. I felt so old once again! Garrrr!. Everyone was so excited and giddy. Me? Annoyed. Heh.


First ride, Splash Mountain. Once again, I was soaked head to toe. There's this one part where the people ahead of you rush down one hill and their residual water can come pouring down on you as you go up the first hill.. if you're unlucky enough. LUCKY ME, I was sitting in the third row, the only row that got this on them. MY GOD. I swear, God wants me to get wet on all the rides possible. Oh well, it helped cool off my sunburnt back. Wet boxers aren't fun to walk around in.



Look at the sea of strollers. There were many more of these types of stroller ''parking lots". I say there are very few young parents, Disney proved me wrong. A lot of young parents. A lot.


Parade!... Nothing too too special Sorry. I'm no longer a kid. These things don't excite me.

Lalalallala... Yeah. Battery died on camera phone.. AND my regular camera. I'm a failure.

Epcot tomorrow! Hopefully more rides..because SPACE MOUNTAIN WAS/IS CLOSED..until Winter 2009. I was so upset! That was the only ride I truly wanted to experience on this trip cuz I chickened out last time around.

Sigh sigh.

Now, off to bed! But must finish my Diet Pepsi first.

Oh, I almost knocked off Winnie the Pooh's head. My bad.

I've walked too many miles.

So, Universal Studios came and went like that. Too tired to even post any pictures. Some highlights:

• Mummy Roller Coaster: SO WORTH IT. Underground pitch black roller coasters = thumbs up. Two thumbs up! Went on it three times. Twice in a row. Each time was just as good. If not, it seemed to get even better...
• I've never felt so much like a kid going on the Jimmy Neutron, Shrek 4D, and Simpsons rides. Men In Black was cool too, got to shoot aliens! Some little girl in front of me got a score of 150k on that ride, you get points for hitting your alien target with laser guns. I only got 68k. Everyone else, <21k.>
• I'm still mad about that.
• And still mad.
• Burns hurt.
• My sunglasses tan came back..
• They ran out of Churros at 5pm. Park closes at 6. I seriously walked for 10 minutes looking for one. Was at one stand, two left. Four people in front of me. Last one taken by the boy in front of me.. Curses!
• I will find my Churro tomorrow. Watch me.
• Pretty good time there. Interesting to note, LOTS of grad kids have their graduations there. Saw like hundreds of them from one? school. I felt so old. My sister, even older. She's done her undergrad this year, and she's watching little 17/18 year olds go to college.
  
• Half of them are taller, bigger, and older looking than me. I fail.

So, today was our family's "break" day in between Universal and Disneyworld. Our break consisted of a full day's of shopping. Two outlets, 8 hours later, I come back with not too many purchases. I even started buying stuff for the hell of it!..Which brings me to..

My mom. I could write a book on her quirks. She would make a good fobby mother to laugh at in movies. She wants to lose weight, pouts that there's no salad around near the hotel. So we go to the outlet, dad and I get Subway. As we sit down, I look for where she is.. and omfgareyoucrazy?! pops into my head as I see her at..


..a fast food chinese place. HOW WILL THIS WOMAN EVER LOSE WEIGHT?! Not only that, she goes "LET ME WALK FOR ANOTHER HALF HOUR" at our second outlet. GRRRR. Fine. And because of her, I am now the owner of yet another pair of jeans. FRICKING HELL. My damn need to buy something has made me made stupid purchases. Even bought a Lacoste shirt. I am ashamed. I should return all of these purchases. I think my Australia dreams have made me frugal. Too frugal.

Red Lobster for dinner. I should note waiters/waitresses at Orlando restaurants are extremely nice.. To the point where it's like I want to be their friend! They are so easy to talk to, are attentive, and aren't afraid to make a joke. The ones back home aren't all like that. I think I'll be a waiter now. I want to make people have a good day. :)

Disneyworld tomorrow. Sister is overly excited. "I will hunt down every Disney character there is".. Great. Who will be her unwilling accomplice? Me.

At least I'll get some exercise. No more flip flops! Blisters galore from the straps. Back to le Chucks.

Oh, I was Barney-hunting at Universal. I will find that murderous purple dino one day. And sack him. Nightmarish creature.

ITCHY. GRAR.

My sunburn has mutated into some red.. monster. It has now spread to my chest and back..even the upper arms! Aloe vera better help this. Hopefully, I wont be peeling. I still have Miami to get to!

Today I went to Islands of Adventures, part of the Universal Studios Complex. I took my Gravol so my sister would not bitch the shit out of me like last time when we went Six Flags.. I think I only managed to go on one ride before I felt like my guts were going to explode everywhere. I went on all the rides today!.. Minus 2 because they span. I can not for the life of me take spinny rides. Even in elementary sports days when we did relay events and we had to spin around.. I'd feel nauseous. I'm weak, I know!
Great roller coasters there. I highly recommend Dueling Dragons. Weather was nice too. Below are a select number of pictures taken from my camera phone. Sorry, too lazy to bring my camera in..View from some escalator thing..

My favourite place to go.. HAHA. It's very kid-friendly here. Rides weren't too great.
I got completely soaked, head to toe on this ride. HEAD TO FUCKING TOE + BOXERS + SOCKS + SHOES. The water fall thing you see there, there's like 3-4 of them during the ride. EACH one landed on my sister and I. I got the worst of it because she sometimes grabbed me. We had to pay $5 for this heating room thing to get somewhat dried. Then I proceeded to just sit like a loser in the sun.. It took me a good 3 hours to get somewhat dry. Was it worth it? Hell yes. Haha. I wish PNE had something like this.. Puts the log ride to SHAME.

Umm, so there's apparently some sketchy shops near our hotel. Dad was getting scammed today. I don't mean to sound racist or anything, but both times by people of Spanish, I'm assuming Mexican, descent. Typical? I suppose so. It's come to be expected in places like these, just wish they'd realize not all their hardships in life is everyone else's fault and they do not need to resort to scamming tourists to make a living. Sighs. I wish I were there to scream at them. They thought my dad was Japanese; that's a first.

Going to Universal Studios, the main part of it, tomorrow. Islands of Adventures is mostly full of rides. Black kids make me laugh. They rap, dance, sing, hoot and holler continuously. They also enunciate a lot. REST-TOUR-RUH-AUNT.

I also like them British Folk.. What I don't like, is this:

Really now, socks and sandals in 27 degree weather?.. The shame. Have you no shame?! How did his girlfriend even let him out like that? Mind you, she was pretty damn cute too. I am such a stalker. But I couldn't resist. I should start a site that allows people to post sightings of social/fashion faux-pas.

Time to eat dinner soon. Surprisingly food wasn't too too expensive there today. ~7/meal, no drink, but filled me up pretty nicely. I was expecting $7 hot dogs.

Oh, saw girl with six pack today.

Damn sun.

Already sunburnt.

I got my first taxi ride from a woman last night. She was Jamaican. Very very short..and rotund. She had to waddle a lot. Checked into the Hotel, and holy shit, I will destroy that man..that checked us in. Just a few points on how we were treated,

• No greeting, just stared at us until we said something
• No eye contact
• Mumbled/talked 2371 words/minute. If I weren't there, I could see my mom taking over an hour to check in. Seriously. He had an East Indian accent, I think I'll thank my job for allowing me to decipher hard-to-understand-phrases.
• Gave half ass answers to everything. There were three doors to the right side of the room. I asked him how to get to our suite, he said, "go out the doors through the left".. umm, "Which one?"......He never replied until I practically YELLED it at him.
• His name is Stid. Tripadvisor will get a nice review from me completely ripping this guy a new one

Other than that, it was decent. Hotel's showing its age for sure. Not as great as other ones. Location is on the quieter side of things. We're by a lake, so it's not too bad.. Big pool.

There are a lot of big asses here, just saying. The literal ones.

Everyone white here, is British..or of some English descent. I like I like! Sadly, no real eye candy. Perhaps Miami will bring me something better.
------------
Today, just basically hung around the pool, tried to get rid of my glasses tan. I got burnt instead. My chest :'(.. Doesn't hurt yet, I hope it doesn't peel or anything. I think I turned a shade darker! I'm now the colour of the crusts of white toast.

Shall be cheering on the Canucks later tonight via radio:( Grrr! Universal Studios tomorrow, gotta find my meds so I don't puke everywhere. Shut up, I have a weak stomach. A very weak one..I even get scared lookin down the balcony from our room. SO high!

Convo of the day:
Black Girl #1: So where ya'all from from?
Me: Vancouver
BG: Vuncoooivur?
Me: Vancouver.
BG: *blank stare*
Me: Vancouver, Canada.
BG: Oh, Canada!
...her co worker comes along
Black Girl #2 (with gold grills): So, where you from? Like Ch-Ch-China?
Me: (omfg, you have got to be kidding me..) No, Canada.
BG#2: Oh.

I should have went, so where are you from? Kenya? Miss the zebras and giraffes there?