Band Trip

Okay, okay! I know...I haven’t posted in over a month. I have been really busy some of the time...however other times, I haven’t been busy at all. What can I say? I’m a two-headed turtle (which probably most of you know as a procrastinator). Anyway, hopefully this post will make up for the long hiatus from the blog world.




Hey, guess where I was last Saturday to Tuesday?






And for those who guessed correctly, you get the satisfaction of...well...correctly guessing! If the image hasn’t come up yet and you’re dying to know it, I laugh in your face. Ha. Anyway, I guess I should start from the beginning.



||Saturday April 22, 2006||


At approximately 3:00 A.M., both I and the Tok’ra get up from bed (I with 6 hours of sleep; more then most of my peers) and we make the final preparations for the trip. In the rain, we are driven over to our school at around 4:30 A.M. where we bring in our luggage and wait in the auditorium for the rest of the band to arrive. I guess I should let you know that this trip was for the Senior High Marching Band to perform at the Magic Kingdom...but since I already said “band”, I guess you assumed that. Moving along...we get on the buses and drive for two hours down to Baltimore where we prepare to take the two-hour flight down to Orlando, Florida. My band director, along with one other student, has to be taken aside to be checked while going through security.






As you can see, I brought my Death Star Pez long with me. I was planning to take all these pictures of it everywhere so I could post it on this blog. However, my friends started to get extremely annoyed everytime they saw me take it out since they knew I’d be taking another picture and it wouldn’t be a quick one...so...there are only really a few pictures with the Pez dispenser in it. And plus, that isn’t our plane in the background, lol, eh?






This is a picture of the wing of our plane while in flight. Of course, as I expected, I totally panicked on the takeoff. Our band director thought I was so panicky that he asked if it was my first flight (which of course, it wasn’t - it was my second time). But the landing was okay, and was never really bothered by that, even six years ago. I read the Perseus myth for Latin class on the way up and then played Mario Kart DS on my Nintendo DS. Nothing much happened except tons of waiting until we reached Epcot, our first destination.






Here is a picture of part of the ‘golf ball’ of Epcot. The first day wasn’t the most thrilling, to tell you the truth. A friend of mine and I went to Italy to eat lunch were we got some good pizza and really good bread. I mean, the bread was awesome. After that, we met up with our other friends and when on the “Ellen Degeneres Ride” (in reality, it's called “Ellen's Energy Adventure”), and that’s where I saw the “keep your appendages in the car” sign. I said, “Hey, look! They’re having a party!” and that was our private joke the entire time while at Disney, since that same sign was everywhere.

The picture below was actually taken at the Jungle Tours ride. There we were entertained by a very funny employee (“Here are Inspiration Falls...now everybody say ‘oooh’...now everybody say ‘ahhh’...now doesn’t everyone feel inspired?” It was quite a funny experience...) but this was at the Magic Kingdom, where we went the next day. Back to Epcot...we then went on the ride that was inside the giant golf ball, went to Canada where I got a Roots T-shirt, and by then we had to go back to the hotel.






Afterwards, we went to Downtown Disney for dinner, where we ended up going to McDonalds, and my food wasn’t cooked well, so I don’t think I’ll go to a McDonalds again...and that’s about it for that day.



||Sunday April 23, 2006||


Ah, the day of the parade. Of course, I’m the first to awaken in my room of three other upper classmen, which is an advantage for me since I don’t have to fight over the shower. When everyone is awakened and prepared to leave the hotel (Factoid: the chaperones take the keys to the hotel during the day so we can't return to the rooms by ourselves until a certain time), we go to the Fantasia Gardens for breakfast. There they give us a decent meal and a pep talk, which did make me excited for the parade. There was time to kill until we marched at the Magic Kingdom, so my friends and I went on Jungle Tours and Pirates of the Caribbean. Two of my other friends went on Splash Mountain (even though it turns out you weren’t suppose to go on water rides until after the parade; our director was annoyed at them when they told him, not realizing that they weren’t allowed to ride the ride). After that we ate a very small lunch at Peco Bill’s and we all met outside the restaurant to go to backstage Disney, where we weren’t allowed to use cameras or cell phones. We practiced the song, put on our uniforms, and after an hour or so we were ready to march on. Although I can’t say I didn’t have ‘fun’, I was just so hot I didn’t notice it...! I seriously felt like I was in an oven...and I was complaining about it so much afterwards I’m surprised my band director didn’t decapitate me! I feel bad about complaining about it now, but I’m just hoping my director forgot about it or didn’t hear me. I must have sounded very ungrateful, which I’m not.





Anyway, afterwards we went on the Haunted Mansion. This was one of the rides that the Nox suggested for me to go on but I didn't when we first went to Disney years ago, and when I went on it now, wasn’t scary at all. After that our group split up for a bit, and a friend and I went on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, which was a lot of fun, while everyone else went on Space Mountain. We met up after that and headed back to the hotel since it was time to do so. After eating dinner at the hotel, we then headed to Epcot to watch IllumiNations, which was a show of fireworks and the different nations lighting up. It was a neat show, but I think I would have liked to do something else instead, maybe, like see the fireworks at Magic Kingdom. However, we were able to go on Test Track because we went to Epcot, which was a lot of fun.



||Monday April 24, 2006||


Alas, this was our full free day. Again I’m the first to awaken and I’m the only one truly awake when the chaperones come around and wake everyone up. We have already planned to go to Animal Kingdom and Disney Quest, but even at the bus stop, we’re still debating which to do first. One of our friends convinces us to do Disney Quest first, since they say it gets busier later in the day. It’s about 9:30 when we arrive at Downtown Disney (since it’s located there) and the bus driver tells us that Disney Quest doesn’t open until 10:30! We’re all quite mad at the one friend that convinced us, but he said we could go shopping during this time, so we all agree, even though both the Tok’ra and I don’t really like the idea since we left most of our money at the hotel. We do buy some things, and then we head to Disney Quest at around 10:20, and the security guard there says the gift shop opens at 10:30, but Disney Quest doesn’t open until 11:30! At this point, we’re ready to decapitate our ‘dear’ friend who suggested going here first, but he convinces us to wait, and we do, despite my urges to zap him three times with a zat'ni'katel. During this time, he and I have a duel with large pixie sticks in the gift shops because we’re bored, and I end up disarming him and I pick up his pixie stick and attack him until he runs to the Pirates of the Caribbean stand and draws a plastic sword. It’s a lot funnier to see then hear, folks, believe me. I’m surprised that we weren’t kicked out of the gift shop! After waiting an hour, we finally are able to get in, and let me tell you: it was heaven! SO many video games...I drool at the very thought! We all had a lot of fun, especially playing the interactive games like the Pirates of the Caribbean game where you were in a room that had a ‘moving’ ship, where one person steered the boat and the other people pulled the strings to launch the cannons. Our friend, the one that convinced us to go there, had decided to met up with other friends at this water park, Typhoon Lagoon (don’t worry, he did tell us that he was planning to do so), however he didn’t tell us the precise moment he left, and he was by himself, which we weren’t allowed to do; we had to be with at least one other person...but we met up with him at the bus station, where he took a different bus than we did.




We then headed to the Animal Kingdom, where we first rode Dinosaur, which was my personal favorite ride. In the gift shop, I seriously scared my friend who rode with the Tok’ra and I with a dinosaur toy five times within a minute! It was so funny! After that, the Tok’ra and my friend went on Expedition Everest while I waited in the gift shop, and then we all saw “It’s Tough to be a Bug”. After that, we had to hurry to the hotel since we were pushing the deadline to be at the hotel. After dinner at the Rainforest Café (the whole band ate there, and it was a good meal even though we didn’t have a choice in what we ate) and then headed over to MGM Studios for the Fantasmic show, but since there was only standing room left at the show, we decided against it and decided to ride rides. We first all went on the Tower of Terror, including me. I hated it...even though I didn’t scream, I hated the feeling of going up and down, and not being able to tell which was which...and despite being strapped in, I pressed my feet against the floor the entire time so hard that my feet ached afterwards. Afterwards we went to the Rock n’ Roller Coaster and I waited in the gift shop for them. We then headed back to the hotel because curfew time was approaching, but we made in back with plenty of time to spare.



||Tuesday April 25, 2006||


As usual, I was the first one awake, and the whole band emptied their rooms and went to MGM Studios for our last day. As everyone promised me the previous night for having such an awful time at MGM Studios, we went on the Great Movie Ride first, since I remembered really liking it, but it wasn’t as interesting as I remembered, but still fun. When the ‘guide’ asked which movie we were in at one point, my one friend screamed, “Mary Poppins!” at the top of her lungs, and well all got a kick out of that.





After that everyone else went on Tower of Terror and Rock n’ Roller Coaster while I waited in the gift shop for both of those. After that we went on Star Tours, which wasn’t scary at all, unlike what I thought went I first rode it when I first went to Disney. We ate lunch then, and the Tok’ra and I had an argument with another one of our friends how she was always controlling what we did, and this was her fifth or so time to Disney, and only our second, and another friend’s first time. We split up after that and we went to see “Sounds Dangerous”, which was fun. We totally didn’t except to be sprayed with water. Our friends were unable to ride the ride they wanted to ride, which actually did secretly make me feel better, and we apologized when we all met up to leave Disney. Nothing eventful happened after that, except I didn’t freak at all at take off on the plane! Take off was tame after the Tower of Terror! I'm so proud of myself...lol.





Well...that’s about it. I’ve been so busy catching up work that I wasn’t able to finish it until now. Hey, at least I got one post in before May ;)