Travelog: Universal Studios Florida

We decided that the last place we would visit in Orlando was Universal Studios Florida. It was a pretty eventful day as a lot of interesting stuff had happened.

The day started off well as we went straight ahead to the Transformers ride as soon as the park was opened. We even managed to be the first group to snap a photo with the Optimus Prime (I assumed, forgive me if I got this wrong)! We also managed to take a picture with Cyclops and had a small chat with him.

Cyclops: In case you guys wanted a shorter man, Wolverine is right over there. *points to a direction*

One of our 'favorite' ride was Revenge of The Mummy. We went inside, queuing not knowing what we were in for. We were expecting a moderate ride since it was indoor but, we freaked out when we saw 'high speed roller coaster' warning while in line. However, it was too late to back out and we just went ahead. In short, the others screamed at the top of their lungs while I, stayed quiet, closed my eyes, and held tight to the safety rail.

The shows we watched here was very entertaining as well! It has been a while since I had a good laugh and Horror Make Up Show was super awesome, I almost fell off my seat laughing. We also had a good time watching Animal Actors (because we didn't get to meet real celebrities, animal was good enough) and pretty much spent half of our life waiting for the otters to come down and proceed with the show as it was having too much fun playing with water...

I also had the chance to be in a 'movie' as we recreated the scenes on a Disaster ride. We were the actors and I got to see myself on TV for a few seconds as our clip was chosen. The clip shown to the rest of the people on the ride (-_-) was of my friend and myself, faking our scared and panicked face, as an earthquake was happening underground. We were so pro at it, people should hire us...

However, our least favorite ride there was the Terminator 2 show. It was so boring, I felt asleep! While waiting for our turns for that ride, we were greeted by a Chinese couple. We talked for a while and agreed to meet up after the show for a cup of coffee and so, we did!

We found out that they both were Malaysians working in UK and went to Florida for a holiday, like us. They were so nice, they treated us drinks and snacks. She even wiped our tables and prepared the utensils for us. We felt like kids, going out with their mom for a while. We chatted a bit but we had to leave as our bus was scheduled to come soon.

We were in panic because we wanted to buy souvenirs before we left. We only had 10 minutes and ran towards the gift shop. I grabbed whatever stuff I could and went straight to queue up. Half of us was done with our purchase and half was still in line. We split up and decided to have the others went ahead to buy us some time. It was the most intense 10 minutes of my life.

After the rest was done with their purchase, we ran for our life to the designated bus parking lot (it felt like deja-vu because we actually ran for our bus the night at Disney World too). Halfway through, I saw people still waiting and no sight of the bus and felt relief. It turned out that our bus broke down and we had to wait for another hour for the bus to come... *sigh*

Food in class

If there's one random thing that is interesting to me in class (other than the lecture), it's food.

Everyday is a food-fest for my classmates. The variety of snacks and lunch is so wide and healthy, you can't help to take a glance and enjoy the wafting smell that fills up the whole class. As a result, your tummy grumbles and that's when you should sing 'conceal, don't feel, don't let them know'. -_-

Ever since last two years, I try my best to pack lunch for myself every schooling day. I usually cook a lot for dinner and keep the leftover for lunch. I have my lazy days and sometimes, I ended up with just rice and scrambled eggs... My all time comfort food. However, for now, I am quite contented with what I have done all by myself (the fact that I actually cook and pack lunch *pats self*).

My classmates bring huge backpacks to school (I do as well, but not as big and heavy I suppose) and it is usually filled with two or three containers of food; lunch, snacks and late lunch.

Drinking habits aside, I look up to their commitment to have a healthy diet. From what I have seen, the food that they bring as snacks and lunch are granola bars, nuts, fruits (like bananas, apples, berries, pears), raw veggies (like cucumbers, baby carrots, salads), and stuff like pasta and rice.

The healthiest food I have ever brought to class is most probably my trail mix and fruits but those only occur once in a blue moon. -_-"

Most of the time, I usually resort to sugar to keep myself awake in class...pfft!

Travelog: Islands of Adventure II

After we explored Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, we went to explore other lands inside the Island of Adventures Theme Park.

The Seuss Landing is obviously a kids' fun zone. It is a very funky land and I like the colorful and cute buildings that they have. My favorite ride here is most probably the Cat in the Hat ride.

Since I was dizzy from the Butterbeer, I went to this store to buy myself some sour candies.

 

The boring stuff is inside here. We came in here to rest but we ended up being extremely competitive when we decided to play a quiz against kids half our age... we won though. :P

 

The lies they told visitors that came inside. They even included our country! I have never seen any dinosaurs in Malaysia!

We also decided to bring the kid in ourselves when we climbed this tree house... We stayed here for awhile as we lied down on the nets, talking, discussing our next ride.

 

The Lost Continent was the last place we went to because it didn't seem to be interesting enough to us. -_-

However, we enjoyed The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad Stunt show (although the heroin had an extremely annoying voice). The characters were super sexy ('shirtless' and all) but very entertaining as the dramatic effects were awesome. We wore our rain jackets the whole time while watching the show because we were next to the splash zone and we did not want to get wet (the irony).

 We ended our day with the show inside this building. It was a great ending to our day I would say. It told the story of the battle of the Greek Gods(?) in an interactive way and I did not fall asleep, so it was all good!

Travelog: Islands of Adventure I

On the third day, we went to the Universal Orlando Resort.

It has two theme parks and we decided to go to both. How can you ever choose between Harry Potter and Despicable Me's minions?!

However, we chose to go to Islands of Adventure first.

The name that took forever to be typed.

Once inside, we went straight to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hogsmeade because we wanted to get in queue for the rides as soon as possible before people would crowd there as well. However, we noticed that everyone was heading towards the same direction as us. -_-

As you can see, it was really sunny despite the bad weather prediction. It did get a bit cloudy when we were in the Harry Potter World but it enhanced the real atmosphere of being in one. The coolness of such feeling was indescribable.

The Monster Book of Monsters. It was inside a cage in the souvenir shop. It moved and roared, just like the thing in the movies!

I personally think that the ride in Hogwarts was one of the best rides in the theme park. I would have gone on a second ride if the queue was not so long.

We bought a butterbeer just for the sake of trying. It was not exactly the kind of drink you should have before any kind of extreme rides. I was pretty dizzy for the rest of the day.

Don't worry. It was non-alcoholic. It just had this weird sweet taste that made you mual after having it. -_-"

Away from home

The damage is done.

I am officially returning home for the summer after a year and eight months away!

Being 9000 miles away from home, I cannot deny that I cannot help but to feel homesick sometimes. It is not a regular feeling for me but I have days when I just wished I can pack my stuff and take a bus or flight home. I wish home is not 48 hours away...

I have learnt to accept the fact that life goes on without me. Therefore, I have managed to be indifferent to pictures of family gatherings, friends' outings and scrumptious food that I received on a regular basis to make myself feel better. I have learnt that it is hard to be happy for other people's happiness, but I always tell myself that I cannot be bitter (which I am, at times). (To further explain, I am not saying that I am not happy for their successes or achievements but I am just unhappy that I could not be there in person myself to share those moments, e.g., weddings, graduations.)

However, I love my regular Skype sessions with my families and my Whatsapp group with my friends. They keep me up to date with daily or weekly happenings and I appreciate those very much. It makes me feel like I am not missing a lot (though in reality, I am). It just feels good to know that I am still part of their life and not just a face or somebody that they used to know (hopefully).

All in all, I cannot wait to be home!
Countdown: three and a half more months.