Thursday, August 05, 2004
Busch Gardens, Hugs, New Jersey, New York, etc.
I should have updated this a few days ago...now I'll probably forget some stuff...
On Saturday, we went to Busch Gardens theme park with the Diakun kids for about 10 hours. I used to go there all the time. It was lots of fun. I made it my goal to scream on every single ride...before the ride started. This resulted in lots of stares. Fun fun fun!
Example: The Loch Ness Monster - roller coaster
1) Stand in line for the front seat.
2) Get on the ride.
3) The ride starts.
4) We start moving up the first hill.
5) I scream, "AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHH!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! LET ME OFF! LET ME OFF!"
Another rather interesting experience occured on the water ride, Escape From Pompeii. The basic summary of the ride: We sit in little boats and go into some "ancient ruins" meant to look like Pompeii. As soon as we were inside, I yelled as loudly as I could into the ears of two girls sitting in front of us. They jumped, and then looked back at me like I was nuts. Then lots of things caught on fire, statues fell over, yadda yadda yadda (it's supposed to simulate the city falling apart after Mt. Vesuvius erupts)...and I started singing. Yes. Singing.
Da roof, da roof, da roof is on fire!
Da roof, da roof, da roof is on fire!
That was all I knew of the song. However, the two girls in front of us heard me singing and started dancing and singing the rest. It was pretty funny! Then, we came to the end...a plunge down a huge slide where everyone gets soaked. As we came to the edge, all you could hear was me...
"No! No! Not the drop! It's coming closer! Help! We're going down! Mayday! We're all gonna die! We're going down! We're going down! We're going dooooooooooowwwwwnnnnn..."
Cue the big splash.
Yes, I was hyper. But I had lots of fun screaming, waving at the people who ran the rides, and giving big smiles to everyone who stared at the crazy gringo. Let the transformation to extrovertism...er...extrovertedness...er...whatever...BEGIN!
On Sunday, we went back to the church we used to go to in Virginia. I saw lots of familiar faces, hugged lots of people I didn't remember, etc. That afternoon we visited the Cleckleys, whom I did remember. I had a good time swimming and hanging out with their son David and his cousin (or something like that, I don't remember exactly who he was). Then we visited some other people and I spent a couple of hours playing with the cat, which was rather boring.
On Monday we drove for 10 hours to New Jersey. We hadn't planned on visiting Columbia or Princeton since it's expensive to stay in a hotel, but somehow we found a family to let us stay in their house. I suppose it was God's will. The family was nice, but RICH...James and I had to sleep in a room filled with ANTIQUE DOLLS. Everything was so lacy and Victorian and...kinda creepy being surrounded by all these dolls with glassy eyes.
On Tuesday we went to Princeton. It was a pretty cool place, especially considering they'll provide 100% financial aid WITHOUT loans. No other university will do that. It was very historic, with lots of paintings and statues of old guys with wigs, stuff like that. Definitely a possibility for college, especially considering the no loans part.
On Wednesday we visited New York City! Woohoo! New York is awesome. Columbia University is awesome. I'm definitely applying there. It's definitely a liberal place though. There were advertisements on the bulletin boards encouraging people to go disrupt the Republican convention. Many of the individual suites are co-ed...meaning the bathrooms are as well. Freaky. I could be taking a shower and have a girl in the shower next to me...which would be awkward (depending on the girl of course). Our tour guide was definitely gay. He had his eyebrows waxed and was wearing womens' sandals.
We walked through Central Park, which was nice. Fifth Avenue was cool. We took a tour of NBC studios, which was neat. Unfortunately, all the interesting shows like Conan O'Brian and Saturday Night Live were filming, so we didn't get to see those studios. Just the ones for Dateline and some new Oprah-like show with a lady whose name I can't remember. Time Square was awesome...lots and lots of big signs with lights. Broadway shows. Lots of people.
And we spent today coming back to Virginia. Tomorrow we go visit my grandmother and stay with her until Saturday or Sunday.
I Heart New York (yes I got one of those t-shirts).
On Saturday, we went to Busch Gardens theme park with the Diakun kids for about 10 hours. I used to go there all the time. It was lots of fun. I made it my goal to scream on every single ride...before the ride started. This resulted in lots of stares. Fun fun fun!
Example: The Loch Ness Monster - roller coaster
1) Stand in line for the front seat.
2) Get on the ride.
3) The ride starts.
4) We start moving up the first hill.
5) I scream, "AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHH!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! LET ME OFF! LET ME OFF!"
Another rather interesting experience occured on the water ride, Escape From Pompeii. The basic summary of the ride: We sit in little boats and go into some "ancient ruins" meant to look like Pompeii. As soon as we were inside, I yelled as loudly as I could into the ears of two girls sitting in front of us. They jumped, and then looked back at me like I was nuts. Then lots of things caught on fire, statues fell over, yadda yadda yadda (it's supposed to simulate the city falling apart after Mt. Vesuvius erupts)...and I started singing. Yes. Singing.
Da roof, da roof, da roof is on fire!
Da roof, da roof, da roof is on fire!
That was all I knew of the song. However, the two girls in front of us heard me singing and started dancing and singing the rest. It was pretty funny! Then, we came to the end...a plunge down a huge slide where everyone gets soaked. As we came to the edge, all you could hear was me...
"No! No! Not the drop! It's coming closer! Help! We're going down! Mayday! We're all gonna die! We're going down! We're going down! We're going dooooooooooowwwwwnnnnn..."
Cue the big splash.
Yes, I was hyper. But I had lots of fun screaming, waving at the people who ran the rides, and giving big smiles to everyone who stared at the crazy gringo. Let the transformation to extrovertism...er...extrovertedness...er...whatever...BEGIN!
On Sunday, we went back to the church we used to go to in Virginia. I saw lots of familiar faces, hugged lots of people I didn't remember, etc. That afternoon we visited the Cleckleys, whom I did remember. I had a good time swimming and hanging out with their son David and his cousin (or something like that, I don't remember exactly who he was). Then we visited some other people and I spent a couple of hours playing with the cat, which was rather boring.
On Monday we drove for 10 hours to New Jersey. We hadn't planned on visiting Columbia or Princeton since it's expensive to stay in a hotel, but somehow we found a family to let us stay in their house. I suppose it was God's will. The family was nice, but RICH...James and I had to sleep in a room filled with ANTIQUE DOLLS. Everything was so lacy and Victorian and...kinda creepy being surrounded by all these dolls with glassy eyes.
On Tuesday we went to Princeton. It was a pretty cool place, especially considering they'll provide 100% financial aid WITHOUT loans. No other university will do that. It was very historic, with lots of paintings and statues of old guys with wigs, stuff like that. Definitely a possibility for college, especially considering the no loans part.
On Wednesday we visited New York City! Woohoo! New York is awesome. Columbia University is awesome. I'm definitely applying there. It's definitely a liberal place though. There were advertisements on the bulletin boards encouraging people to go disrupt the Republican convention. Many of the individual suites are co-ed...meaning the bathrooms are as well. Freaky. I could be taking a shower and have a girl in the shower next to me...which would be awkward (depending on the girl of course). Our tour guide was definitely gay. He had his eyebrows waxed and was wearing womens' sandals.
We walked through Central Park, which was nice. Fifth Avenue was cool. We took a tour of NBC studios, which was neat. Unfortunately, all the interesting shows like Conan O'Brian and Saturday Night Live were filming, so we didn't get to see those studios. Just the ones for Dateline and some new Oprah-like show with a lady whose name I can't remember. Time Square was awesome...lots and lots of big signs with lights. Broadway shows. Lots of people.
And we spent today coming back to Virginia. Tomorrow we go visit my grandmother and stay with her until Saturday or Sunday.
I Heart New York (yes I got one of those t-shirts).
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 8/05/2004 10:07:00 PM 
