My Supermegafoxyawesomehot Vacation

Hello, anyone who actually reads this blog!  It's been quite a while.  But I've had good reasons!  (Most of which are related to school, college applications, and the super-amazing-fantastic vacation I went on over Christmas break.)

Where did I go on this awesome vacation?  Universal (Wizarding World of Harry Potter!) and Disney World!  How insanely awesome is that?

Our first stop was Universal, where we stayed at the lovely Portofino Hotel.

Isn't it gorgeous?

I wanted to spend every second of our time in Harry Potter World, but it was ridiculously crowded, so I just ended up spending most of my time there.  The first night we were there, my sister and I went to the parks while everyone else stayed at the hotel, so she got to witness my initial reaction, which involved more excitement than I've felt in forever.  Everything about Harry Potter world (aside from the crowds) is simply amazing and I wish I could just live there.

"Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."  -J.K. Rowling

We all got chocolate frogs, which are wonderful, but I'm still trying to figure out how to eat it.  It's solid chocolate, so I nearly broke my teeth trying to bite it.  The chocolate cauldrons are equally yummy and much easier to eat.  The butterbeer was also amazing, though it's so sweet I wouldn't want to drink much of it at a time.  I recommend the frozen butterbeer.

I had lots of fun editing these photos, in case you couldn't tell.

The rides are also amazing, though the wait for the Forbidden Journey is as crazy as everyone says.  Luckily, they opened the ride at 6:30 a.m. for resort guests (because of the crowds), so we only had to wait an hour.

I also enjoyed Seuss Landing and several rides in Universal Studios.  The roller coasters were especially awesome.  Seuss Landing was my second favorite place at Universal.  I adore Dr. Seuss and they got everything perfect.  I particularly recommend the Cat in the Hat ride and the Trolley, both of which I did three times because I'm really a little kid at heart.

We're all a bit minion crazy.

Yum, Chocolate Frogs!

We spent three days at Universal, and the next seven at Disney World!

We had lunch at Akershus and got to meet several of the princesses there.

 Sarah and I, sometimes along with Violette and Sam, were on a mission to get as many signatures as possible.  We got a lot of them, including the princesses, classic characters, and a whole bunch of others.  The most effort was probably waiting three and a half hours in the rain to see Anna and Elsa.  (If you haven't seen Frozen yet, go see it because it is incredibly beautiful and wonderful and amazing.)

We're super adorable.

Anastasia, Drizella, and Lady Tremaine were hilarious!  Mom told me to grimace, but apparently Sarah and Violette didn't get the memo.

Look at my new dress!  It's fun to spin in.

I got this book in the UK section of Epcot and I'm super in love with it.  It might just be one of the coolest books ever.  Also, please notice the wonderful tiara I got for Christmas.  Thank you, Santa.

Everyone had so much fun, despite the crowds being completely ridiculous.

We ate at the Be Our Guest restaurant and, of course, had the grey stuff.  It really is delicious!

I love every part of Mary Poppins' outfit and I would wear that dress everyday.  Every single day.

So that's my story about my superbly amazing time in Florida this Christmas.  I hope everyone else had a lovely holiday as well.

We've got spirit, yes we do! We've got spirit, how 'bout you?

Guess what week it is (was).  Spirit Week!  I love spirit week.  Unfortunately, I was sick on Monday and so I didn't get to participate in 'Merica Monday.  Tuesday was Twin Tuesday, which I did dress up for, but my twin was sick and wasn't at school.  (Silly Eleanore.)  However, starting with Wednesday, I did successfully participate. 

 

Can you guess what day it was? Wacky Tacky Wednesday!  (I chose a floral theme, as you can probably tell.)

 

Kali and Kevin being silly.

Here's a closer look at my hair and lipstick, which caused several people to do a double take.

 Of course, Thursday was Halloween!  I decided (about three days before Halloween) that I wanted to be Marie Antoinette.  I started searching through my wardrobe, and two things quickly became evident: this was going to be a somewhat modernized version, and it was going to be black and white rather than pastel, which would be more accurate.

Here's what I came up with:

Please excuse the messy room and horrible selfie.

Just kidding!  This wasn't my final costume, but it was the basis.  I dug through my scrap box and found an old lace curtain that I decided had a lot of potential.  After a lot of sewing (by hand because my sewing machine decided not to work), especially because I accidentally sewed one of the sleeves on backwards and had to redo it and I sewed lace around the neck before deciding it looked horrible and undoing all the stitches, I came up with this final result:

I think I did a pretty good job.  I had a big lace bow in my hair but you can't see it in this picture.  I also covered my face in baby powder and drew on a beauty mark.  I had a parasol too, but I couldn't use that while inside the school building.  The skirt was huge (thanks to a square dancing crinoline I just happen to have lying around) and made sitting very difficult.  Driving was especially challenging, but somehow I managed it.

Here we have Marie Antoinette, Hannah the Sleepy Senior, Hana as Jess from New Girl, Kali as Minnie Mouse, and Kevin as a nerd.

Today was Phoenix Friday (that's our school mascot), which basically meant wear school colors and school apparel (t-shirts, sweatshirts, pajama pants, etc) and was kind of boring.  I actually forgot to get any pictures of it, too, so just imagine a lot of blue and gray and navy.  (Our colors are, I believe lapis lazuli and gray, technically at least.)

Happy Halloween to everyone! 

Older, wiser, and apparently more photogenic

A couple weeks ago, I got my senior portraits done!  It was really fun, and I got some great pictures out of it.  I'm not sure which one I'll pick for the yearbook, but I thought I would share a few of my favorites.  All pictures courtesy of Tracey Washburn photography.

This is probably my first pick for my yearbook photo.

 

I was so itchy after doing these pictures in the grass in my shortest dress.  The color contrast was worth it in the end, but it was rather unpleasant at the time.

This is definitely one of my most favorites.

I also just recently had my birthday, and I am now officially an adult!  (Which is a really frightening concept.)  I spent the entire week at the beach with my family and friends having a fantastic time.

 I got a fun hat.  I also got an awesome Doctor Who mug, the Marauders' Map, a unicorn pillow pet, spectrespecs, loads of Tim Burton movies, an Audrey Hepburn picture book, gift certificates to the Tea Room, and some other cool stuff.

Me, my siblings, and our friends.

Birthday dinner!

 We had fresh seafood for dinner almost every night, which made me very, very happy!

Can you tell I wear this dress a lot?

We had breakfast on my birthday at Yana's, which is one of my all-time favorite restaurants.  It's packed floor to ceiling with 50s memorabilia (mostly focusing on Elvis and Marilyn Monroe), and they have the most amazing fruit fritters and pancakes.

 Sadly, this week has been back to the real world of homework and college applications.  (I got my first application sent in, though, which was very exciting!)

International Delights

Today was the International Festival!  This is the second year I've gone, and I love it so much!  Eleanore and I left for the festival right after school (as it's only a few minutes from our school), and then had over an hour to kill before it opened.  So we wandered around, got slightly lost, and managed to, eventually, find one of my favorite thrift stores!  The clothes are a little pricey, but there are so many treasures to be found.  I found these awesome old comic books and am already planning the different crafts I can use them for.

The festival is in the convention center, and it includes rows of booths selling stuff from different countries and cultures, booths with cultural information, and a long row of booths selling different foods.

Our strategy was to wander around all the booths, then wander back through, then wander through the food section, then wander back through all the booths, then wander back through the food, then back through the shops in no particular order at all.  We looked at everything and bought probably far more than we should.

Eleanore hates it when I take her picture.

We had some awesome food, too.  We both had some pea soup from the Dutch stall, which was delicious.  And then we shared some matcha ice cream from Japan, which is what Eleanore's eating in the previous picture.  And I also had a custard bun from one of the Asian countries, but I forget which.  We had bubble tea, too, but I didn't really care for it.

Proof that I was, in fact, there as well.

Some of my favorite things I got were a beautiful Egyptian glass bottle, an Egyptian necklace I'm fairly certain is Isis, a Chinese purse, and a couple hair clips, one from India and one from Russia.

 

A great time was had by all, and by all I mean me and Eleanore, because our other friends couldn't make it.  I think several of them will go tomorrow, though, so that's good for them.  It was an especially lovely reprieve from the hectic rush of school and college applications. 

Also, I have recently begun (and finished, so far) listening to Welcome to Night Vale, a highly amusing and wonderfully bizarre podcast that I recommend to everyone.  And I finally watched the 1995 miniseries of Pride and Prejudice, which is one of my favorite books.  I think some parts are better than the recent movie, especially the close following of the book, but other things I like better about the 2005 movie, like much of the acting (though I do love Colin Firth), Longbourn, and some of the costumes.  By the way, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries series on youtube is delightful and everyone should watch that as well.

I hope everyone has had a pleasant week, and if you haven't, you should watch Pride and Prejudice and listen to Welcome to Night Vale.  I believe it would instantly brighten your week!

Wanderings in the Woods

School has been leaving me pretty burned out, so this weekend, I decided it was time for a change of pace.  And I thought the easiest way to accomplish that would be to have a change of scenery.  Thus, I decided I would go to the park.  I love the park, but I haven't been there in at least a year, probably longer.  I always think I don't have time, but I should really make time for it more often.

 

 

It was also a wonderful excuse to break out my awesome hat that I rarely have a chance to wear.

 

The park has lots of trails, many of which lead down to the lake, which is a nice place, if a bit sunnier than I like.  I prefer finding a bench or a log in the forest to sit and think or write.

I did manage to get some writing done, which was my goal, but not quite as much as I'd wanted.  I did, however, get lots more exercise than I'd planned.  You see, the trails around the park are like a maze: each large path has many different, smaller, sometimes unmarked paths leading off of them.  And my theory when walking is to choose the most interesting looking paths, which generally tend to be those tiny, barely traveled paths.  (Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and all that.)

This usually isn't a problem, because all the small paths eventually lead back to a larger path and all the larger paths eventually lead back to the park.  The only issue is knowing which direction to go.

So eventually I found myself back on a larger path and randomly chose which direction to go.  At some point I realized that the path was taking me around the lake, but I didn't think much of it, because the path twisted and turned and looped back so much that I had no idea where I was.  I did eventually get to the end of it, only to see this:

 
Yup.  The trail ended, not at the park, but at a road.  And the park was three miles back the way I'd just come.  I was not a particularly happy hiker at that point.  For one thing, I was wearing a long skirt and non-hiking boots, which wasn't the best for lots of hiking.  Also, I hadn't had any water since I'd left my house about three hours earlier, so I was pretty thirsty.  Next time I'm bringing a water bottle.

I did get back to the park eventually, but I was pretty exhausted and my feet were quite sore.  Despite all this, I had a really fun time at the park and did have some time to sit peacefully in the middle of the forest and write.  

My Not-so-Adventurous Month

Today (actually several weeks ago now, because I forgot to post this) was one of the best school days of the year: second Friday!  My school, which is the most awesome high school ever, has this tradition that on the second Friday of the school year, we get out early, everyone floods to the picnic tables outside where pizza is sold for a dollar a slice and there are coolers of free soda.  All the clubs set up booths and people wander around, collecting free candy and sometimes baked goods and signing up for more clubs than you can possibly attend.

I think I signed up for more clubs than last year, and I'm really hoping I'll have time to attend them.  I signed up for French Club, German Club, Japanese Club, Indian Culture Club, Drama Club, Photography Club, Your Name Your Story, Model UN, and Student Legislative Assembly.  Most of the clubs meet at lunch, so it's easy(ish) to be part of lots of them.  I was actually Vice President of French Club last year, but I decided I'd rather not do it again.

In other fun news, I got my new backpack!  It's pretty awesome, and actually fits all my stuff!  This means I can stop using the lime green monstrosity I've had since third grade or something.

It's a little darker in real life, but it has the most adorable red striped lining!

Also worth reporting is the wonderful time I had at my friend's tea party last Sunday.  There was lots of delicious snacks, several types of tea, and, of course, delightful company.  (And a ridiculous amount of mosquitoes as well.)

Credit for this lovely photo goes to my friend's mom, who is wonderfully artistic.

School, despite it only being a month in, is already crazy and hectic.  I'm losing hope of ever getting a full night of sleep this school year.  My classes are really pretty hard and require a ton of homework.  It's stressful, to say the least.  But I'm sure I'll get in the swing of things eventually and it will get easier.  (This is such optimistic thinking I'm having trouble even typing it.)

School has kind of taken over, so I really haven't done anything exciting since mid-August.  The most interesting thing I've done is spontaneously go to Fresh Market with my friend.  We have, however, decided that we should visit the tea room and possibly have picnics dressed up in Victorian clothing, complete with parasols, so maybe I'll have something interesting to report soon.

I did get a fun and artistic picture of the Elderflower Lemonade Eleanore and I found.  It was actually quite good, and the bottle is adorable.

I hope that all of you in school are having a better time of it than I am.  Oh, well.  At least I get to see my friends on a regular basis.  (And, despite my complaints, I really do enjoy most of my classes and find them interesting and fun; they're just a lot of work.)

Also, happy Friday the 13th!  I actually get really excited when we have Friday the 13ths.  I'm convinced the reason we've had so many of them this year is because, for one thing, it's 2013, and also because the world was apparently supposed to end last year, so this year isn't supposed to happen and is therefore unlucky.