Sorry for the delayed post; I can tell that several of you have been checking here every day, wondering when the hell I'd finally get back on here and tell you all that I have been up to! C'mon, admit it...you're curious. :)
My spring break was great! My family and I spent the week in Orlando, FL. We rented a house out for the week, and let's just say I now know what it feels like to live in Thornberry Creek. :) This place had 4 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, two living rooms...and our back patio was actually this huge screened-in porch with a little wading pool about the size of a hot tub, where water was heated and pumped nonstop to cascade down this glass-block waterfall into the swimming pool, big and shaped like a kidney bean. Although we had some problems with keeping the hot temperature of the pool regulated (first it was too cold...then we switched on the heater and the water got up to a steamy 104-degrees)...we had our own pool boy, Rueben, that was nice enough to come out every other day to check up on our pool. He was a nice older guy, and sure liked to kick it back with us on our patio drinkin' a Pepsi and talk about his wife, or 'back in the day when I lived in Nuh Yowrk'!
We went to Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios, Epcot, Pleasure Island + Downtown Disney, and the Universal Studios City Walk. Everything was totally cool, like a dream!! My parents sure know how to plan a vacation, I tell ya! For being a 21-year-old trying my damndest to look cool, I honestly had a blast in a world geared towards families with little kids. The last time I was at Disney was probably when I was a freshman in high school, and even last week, I felt the magic of Disney!
We got to do more of of the 'grown up' rides this time around. Namely: roller coasters. The last time we were at Disney, my bro was probably only in fifth grade, and terrified of roller coasters. Any time I wanted to ride on Space Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, as well as both of my parents, one would always have to put up a sacrifice and sit behind with Steve on the sidewalk while the other parent would be gone with me for an hour, waiting in line and enjoying the ride.
Alas, since then my lil bro GREW UP a lot, and last week, there was not a roller coaster in sight that we could get him to shy away from. We got to do the classics that I have loved for all these years (Space Mounty, Big Thunder), as well as two TOTALLY COOL ones: the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster at MGM Studios, and Test Track, sponsored by GM, at Epcot.
I found the Aerosmith ride to be especially memorable because it is the only roller coaster I've been on to-date where they fuggin' BLAST delicious rock music for you while you're shrieking and on the ride. There are speakers built into the headrests of each of the riders' seats, so your ears are right there, listening to Aerosmith music while your eyes are popping open at the sight of the track in front of you. It's just a great fit to add to the adrenaline that is flooding the cells of your body, the anticipation, the thrill-seeking...it's all greatly choreographed!
Honestly, and I am sure you could figure this, but Test Track is my favorite Disney ride. The ride is like a slalom course that mocks every stage and crash-dummy testing step a GM vehicle must pass before being put into production. However, YOU ride in the car, instead of a crash dummy. FUN FUN FUN!!!!! From an engineering standpoint, it is brilliant and marketed impeccably. Even waiting in LINE is fun, because they have intricate, intelligent displays that I could understand and explain to my family, like the stress-strain testing, applying the forces in various vectors, impact time, mass flow rates in the engine, etc. They had full-size cars on display, either hanging from the ceiling, sitting in pieces in the aisles of the line, or cut-away on the display floor so you could glance into the engine block or transmission/steering column. They had a Corvette, a Cavalier...even Scott's new Malibu!!...all there. The end of the ride, where you got up and out of your car, actually poured you out into a showroom floor, set up identically to the auto shows I've seen in Chicago and Milwaukee, chocked full of GM cars: Saab, GMC, Cadillac, Pontiac, Chevrolet...I could have stood in one spot there, turning in circles in awe, the whole time.
I guess the other highlight of my trip was the day we spent at Epcot. If you've ever been to Disney World, you'll know that Epcot has a mad-made lake in the center of the park, with little mock-villages around the circumference of the lake. Each village is from a different country, replicating its culture. Mexico, Norway, Morocco, France, Japan...and GERMANY are all there.
You can bet your sweet cookies that I "went back" to Germany!!! I loved it! They had authentic German food there in their biergarten restaurants, dessert shops where I once again was able to buy my favorite German chocolates, a Christmas store where I bought a pickle to hang on the Christms tree for my own family someday (German tradition, ask me later!), and building facades that mocked the old-town, timber frame, and pre WW1 buildings I saw in German towns like Witzenhausen.
The four of us stopped at a German 'all you can eat' buffet for lunch...and since in German culture, their biggest meal of the day is lunch...you can AGAIN bet your sweet cookies that there was a la-ha-ha-ha-HOT of food and I savored it all! Dad, Mom, and I ate a pork schnitzel (Es ist mein lieblingsessen!), potatoes, rolls, salads, and gorgeous apple strudel slices for dessert.
All of the Disney employees are from all over the world. In the Epcot "Tour of Countries," though, they had natives of the replicated countries work as employees. This means that I had native German waitresses, chefs, and bussers at the restaurant!! I checked out all their name tags to read their names and what city in Germany they came from. Many were from Berlin, Bonn, and Hamburg. One was from Kassel, where I lived!!! I talked to my waitress about how I studied abroad in Germany, and asked if anyone there at Disney was from Kassel. She said yes, this woman named Claudia was, but she was out on her coffee break while I was there, so I juuuust missed her.
It touched me the most to speak with my waitress though, about something only she and I could cherish: an understanding of each of our worlds. I could tell she enjoyed me coming to her with enthusiasm about her home country and sharing my opinions of it, just as much as I enjoyed listening to her, knowing where she came from, and what she thought about my home country. I could have sat there and gabbed with her all day, but Dad and Steve kept rolling their eyes and sending me signals to shut up and keep moving on. Sonja here at UWM must be rubbing off on me, ha ha...social butterfly!
Anyway, thank you to Mom, Dad, and Steve for providing a fantastic, carefree, lightweight week for me. We got along great all week, and I love how we have managed to stay so close, despite me increasingly being flung farther and farther away on business. I loved sharing all the inside jokes and slurs we shared and guffawed over, it is great!! Good ol' backcountry Republicans that are critical of others being independent and not mildly-retarded, hee hee hee. It's nice to spend a week with people that are thinking the exact same thing you are thinking. You don't even need to say anything, just exchange a glance and let the smile start unrolling from the corner of your mouth!
I love you guys!
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