Wednesday, June 20, 2012 @ 1:37 PM
i know it's been some time since the last entry, but here i am again! :) finally done with all the assignments and tests, what's left are the finals. done with traveling out of toronto as well. treasuring all my remaining time here to do all that can be done. not going to waste any of it!
so yup, this entry is supposed to be about orlando. the first day was spent pigging out in the hotel because we were all so tired. and we're so happy with the hotel that we didn't feel like going out. the rooms are so big, and what's more, we had connecting rooms, which makes our place seems even bigger! the view was superb from our rooms as compared to new york's, and the wifi was fantastic! it's also much cheaper than the hotel in new york! we had milkshake and pizza from the cafe downstairs. oh my god, the milkshake is the ultimate! at least 7 scoops of hersheys ice-cream for a milkshake. sinful but tastes really great! :D
the hotel lobby
our room
view from our room
next day was spent at universal studios. jielin dewi and yanyee went for the roller coasters while cheryl allicia and i were happy with taking pictures of the pretty buildings in universal studios. we caught this horror make-up show which was awesome! allicia got picked to be the volunteer and oh my, it scared the hell out of her. with the rubber bloody arms, sawing of her wrist and the wolf that suddenly came to life when it was supposed to be under her control.
universal studios orlando!
the horror make up show!
if only i had a house like this!
oh my god minions! i almost bought one back!
these two are really into their characters!
i really love this. they managed to film a disaster trailer on the spot and involved all the audiences. nothing beats the tram ride for universal studios los angeles though!
and we watched fear factor live! participants are actually volunteers in the park. eew, creepy crawlies, disgusting much!
after much convincing, i did take revenge of the mummy. wow, it was fun but i really can't take such dips! i could hardly open my eyes. felt as if my contact lens are going to drop out because the "wind" was too strong.
the island of adventure was next, which means HARRY POTTER!!! excited much! oh my god i really LOVE (i can't emphasize enough) that place! the butterbeer taste so good i had two cups. i bought the mug too! :D but we got cheated because buying from the carts are so much more expensive than buying in the restaurants.
look at that magnificent hogwarts castle! the interior is awesome too! dumbledore's office, holograms and all. that simulator ride was damn fun! though i had a little bit of motion sickness at the initial part. the dementors were like in your face!
butterbeer and pumpkin juice!
hogwarts frog choir
that's slytherin by the way. and oh, i bought the gryffindor scarf! :D
the shopkeeper!
and we lunched at three broomsticks! so cool! it's like where the characters of harry potter always dine in the books and movies :D
and there's bertie botts every flavour beans! i wonder if they really have it in ear wax flavour.
the weasley's joke shop!
this is so cute!
the great feast!
more butterbeer! :D :D it kind of tastes like rootbeer. can't make up what the top is made of. it kind of coagulates after some time.
view from the kiddy ride!
wands of draco malfoy, lucius malfoy, bellatrix lestrange, voldemort, dumbledore, harry potter. pretty!!
oh, and my most enjoyed ride of the day!
shopping at the outlet mall the next day followed by downtown orlando which nearly scared the hell out of jielin, cheryl and i. we had uber salty fries and onion rings at the bar for dinner though.
on our last day at orlando, we chanced upon the titanic exhibition and decided to go ahead with it. we had an awesome guide who was really into the character. she made the whole journey through the exhibition a really interesting one.
our tickets came in the form as a "boarding pass" which allows us to "board the ship". each of us were given a character with a story (named after real people with their true stories) and we were supposed to find out in the end if we "survived".
our guide :D love her! she keeps saying jielin and i are in bathing suits and that we'll freeze on board haha!
and then, we were off to toronto, where school begins! actually, there's only two days of school per week so the other days were spent traveling :D check back for the next entry!
Friday, June 01, 2012 @ 1:20 PM
finally! there is time to blog! made full use of our time here, so much so that our schedule is so packed i can't find time to watch the videos i downloaded and to blog. just slogged out two assignments due today without much sleep the past few nights. i feel so free now, well-deserved weekend! that's the thing i look forward to here. just came back from the planetarium for star gazing, oh my god it's so cool! we got to see mars,saturn and moon. saturn's so pretty with its ring! i took for granted that the stars we see at night are just stars, little did i know that some of them are actually planets! and we get to see transit of venus next week. once in a lifetime experience okay! :D
i won't be able to cover much of my trip so far on the blog because bedtime is in a few hours. for those who didn't know, i'm on exchange at the University of Toronto in Canada, so a group of us decided to travel around new york and florida before the term starts.
so we flew off on 4th may by qatar, had a terribly long 8 hours transit at the very cold doha international airport with no plugs and expensive hot chocolate selling for USD $10. when we finally reached new york, it was already 5th may on the US side. by that time, our body clock was so screwed and we suffered from jet lag for a couple of days. i'm unfortunate to meet people who like to push their seats all the way backwards even when they are not lying on them :( it was so far back that my table cannot even support a tiny water bottle. and that inconsiderate guy refused to adjust his chair when we politely asked him to because he claimed that he paid for the flight and doesn't see why he should adjust his chair to accommodate me. hello, i paid too!
okay, done complaining. we stayed at marrakech hotel in new york, which is about 20 steps away from the subway and 5 minutes to times square. it has free wifi as well, but the connection is only strongest at the lobby and quite weak in the rooms.
and this is the surroundings of the hotel.
the next day, we took the subway and headed over to times square for the maddam tussauds wax museum.
and then we walked around the area while finding the tkts booth to queue up for cheap broadway tickets! along the way we bumped into elmo and cookie monster! actually a lot more characters. oh, and a deformed hello kitty.
so we found the tkts booth and bought tickets to chicago! before the show we settled our dinner at shake shack. heard that it is a must try. the queue is really long though. fortunately we didn't have to queue at that time. i feel that the food is over-rated though. doesn't taste exceptionally nice to me.
all of us were so tired we were dozing off during the show. the show is really fantastic, the humour story dance and all, we were just suffering from jet lag. i had to have coffee to keep myself awake. thank goodness for the free coffee handed out on the streets! :D
and this is only day 1!
for the next two days, it was hardcore shopping at jersey gardens and woodbury respectively. didn't get a lot of stuff for myself though :( coach is really cheap! i'm aiming the tommy hilfiger bag for now, that's the first thing i'll grab when we go back to woodbury again the next few weeks. and maybe more coach :)
look at that loot! i only have one forever 21 plastic bag! :(
some photos stolen from cheryl! :D next entry will be on florida, good night people!
