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What Up?
Well a whole lot has happened since my last blog update on the night I arrived in Los Angeles, that is for certain. It has been the busiest three days of my life! I will divide this entry into the three days I missed for ya
So on the second day in LA (note the unintentional rhyme), I visited the somewhat legendary DISNEYLAND! It was truly one of the best days of my life. Prior to our visit I had been on a grand total of one roller coaster ride. After one day in Disneyland and its neighboring theme park California Adventures, I had been on 15. So the day began with a ride called the "Tower of Terror", and it truly was the most terrifying experience of my life, and also the most adrenaline filled! It involved entering an old elevator, which flew up and down an elevator shaft at random intervals, opening a window at the top of the tower occasionally before dropping to the bottom of the shaft. The falling sensation was so scary, and the worst was when it accelerated upwards and then simply stopped accelerating and dropped! The next was an AWESOME roller coaster called California Screaming, involving radical turns and loop da loops. We then visited an awesome flight simulation ride and visited Mr Incredible (photos in the LA album I have published), and moved on to Disneyland next door. It was the most well though out park I have ever been to. Everything was thematically perfect, even down to rubbish bins varying in design between the different 'worlds' within Disneyland. We began our time there by visiting first the iconic Disney Castle, which was a must-do. We then sniggered at the valet stroller parking facility as we entered jungle land. We took a casual jungle cruise with a cleverly scripted boat driver who used a pun every 15 seconds, and then moved on to the Indiana Jones ride! It was totally awesome, involving drops and bumps and unexpected turns within a very dark temple. It even had a giant boulder rolling towards us! We then ate and visited the Pirates of the Carribean ride, the Mine Cart ride involving a double horizontal loop de loop (insane) and also an imitation matterhorn ride which was a lot of fun! Finally we visited Tommorrowland, the futuristically themed area of Disneyland, where we participated in a MEAN AS Buzz Lightyear ride in which you had control of the rotation of a cart for two people and had to shoot as many targets as possible with your "laser gun" as possible. I beat my formidable opponent Jerry Chang with 149 800 points to his 9 400. Yeah, thats right, I OWNED an asian at lazertag! That night (after departing the happiest place on earth) we went to the Westchester Rotary Club where we shared dinner, performed a aka which the boys had rehearsed in the Disneyland carpark, and gave our gifts to the club.
Our second outing was the next day, and I must digress that I hardly slept that night, being in a room of awesome young people and visiting local supermarkets to purchase legendary sugary items such as Twinkies and Dr Pepper, we visited the globally renowned Universal Studios. The first "ride" I went on was the Studio Tour, which involved a drive around the studios which were currently filming CSI and movies such as Aliens VS Cowboys. We then entered the realm of King Kong on a 4D (the fourth dimension is supposedly movement) adventure which involved me and my new buddy Max being covered in T-Rex spit. It was SICK fun. We then moved on to the set of JAWS, and also Wysteria Lane, the set of the largely famous Desperate Housewives! This was succeeded by a visit to the plane crash site from War of the Worlds, and a visit to Jurassic Park and Whoville! It was truly incredible to be on such iconic sets that I had seen in movies! After lunch and a variety of other awesome rides such as the Simpsons, the Mummy, and Jurassic Park, we then moved on to Hollywood, visiting the famous Hollywood Boulevard stars and taking photos with Bumblebee from Transformers! Max and I bought wicked as Oakley sunglasses that matched, giving us 2/2500 of the most awesome limited edition sunnies ever made. We then drove on into Beverly Hills, catching a brief glimpse of a paparazzi covered Paris Hilton on the way there. We visited Marilyn Munroes first house, a variety of glamorous and hideously expensive shops, and the world famous Saks Fifth Avenue store. We then returned to our rather crappy hotel for an awesome dinner with local rotary students our age, involving another Haka and a hilarious black dude who made us all laugh consistently! That night we had an epic time chilling in our rooms and eating peanut m&m's. We visited the pharmacy twice that night which was also a laugh. I desperately required lip balm due to dehydration and lack of sleep, as did many others. I may have to add that I had completely lost my voice by this point due to the sheer volume of screaming and yelling excitedly at the theme parks I had visited during my stay.
The next day involved the big goodbye to LA. I was 5 kilos over at LA airport but moved some stuff into my hand luggage and got away with 3 kilos over. We then checked in together (to ensure neighboring seats) and set off on our 10 hour flight from LA. There was no entertainment system on this flight, so Max and I laughed for hours on end creating a stream of topical puns which never seemed to end. Sarah (our third musketeer and seating buddy) was not impressed at all. She found our puns lame, and as a result she was PUNished (see how good I am?). We finally arrive in Frankfurt after a thoroughly amusing 10 hour flight feeling somewhat down at the prospect of splitting up our newly formed family! In just three days I had made such good friends, some of which I will really try to visit and others of which I will stay mates with forever. Max is one of those dudes, and our bromance was so rad that we were pretty guttered that we had to part our ways, but also at the same time excited to be so close to meeting our host families! My final stretch of flight was to Stuttgart, a rather short 30 minute flight.
I arrived at the airport to see my hostfamily at the glass window in front of the arrivals hall waiting for me which was so awesome. What was not so awesome was having to wait for 30 minutes behind that glass wall for my baggage to arrive! Fortunately I had a Argentinian rotary exchange student who I met on the plane to talk to. Then me and my new family drove (at 200 km/h might I add) into the town of Durlach, just outside Karlsruhe. I attempted to stay awake (almost succeeding) until Moritz came home from his basketball match in order to eliminate jet lag. So after unpacking and eating a meal with one of Moritz's super cool mates Niko, I sat down to watch television...
When I woke up I was sitting beside Moritz, who had just come in and turned on the news. Little did I know that I was no longer dreaming and I was a tad freaked out. He talked to me but I freaked and just left the room and ran up to my bedroom. After cooling off in my room I returned downstairs, still involved in my dream, and only realized I was awake when I found Moritz in the TV room in the same spot, giving me a very strange look. We laughed about how spaced out I was over an awesome German dinner that night, and arranged for me to attend a Rotary Meeting that night.
The day came, and I slept in until 10:30 despite being slightly jet-lagged. I woke up and enjoyed a hot shower and my first german breakfast, involving a truly awesome german coffee. Then I was picked up at 12:30 by my host father Charlie, in all my regalia and with Euro Tour forms to be signed, and a banner to give to the Karlsruhe-Schloss Rotary Club. And if you thought nothing could go wrong at a Rotary Meeting you would be wrong. We sat down for a nice meal, and I attempted to chat with a number of rotarians, joking about the sheep infestation we have in New Zealand with a 75 year old member of the club and drinking sparkling water (normal water isn't good enough for germans). I was introduced by Charlie and the meeting began. Halfway into the second speech of the day the very same rotarian I had joked with about sheep earlier slumped in his chair, grabbing his chest and crying out to the club during what seemed to be a heart attack. The rest of the meeting was called off and the medics arrived. The poor guy seems to be ok which is good, but I hardly expected such a dramatic first meeting!
I then was dropped off at home and met Anton and Moritz, who took me out for a walk around Durlach. I climbed to the top of the hill behind Durlach and saw the entirety of Durlach and Karlsruhe which was AWESOME. We then headed into the town and finally went home, where we drank coffee and ate biscuits (german ones are SO good). I then beat Anton in table soccer three times in a row, winning 10-5, 10-3, and 10-1. Poor dude, I think he wants revenge now.
Tonight I may be going out to meet Moritz's friends. Tomorrow morning I have a meeting with the principal of my school which is exciting, and I have my first school experience coming as well. I will post my next blog at the end of this week :)
Chur for reading such a long account, its been such a mad time!
And if Max is reading this: I love ya buddy. Have a rad time in Sweden and rep the trio hard.
Out.
- comments
Auntie Jennie No wonder we haven't heard from you!! You have been "busy"! Over the jetlag yet??
James McPherson Hey bro, sounds sweet fun. Sounds like you DO need your meds tho... ;)
Grace Tarbotton Sounds like you're having a fantastic time Nic!!! Hope schools good :) keep up the HILARIOUS updates :) x
Nicolas Theis Chur y'all. Its nice to hear that people are actually reading this!
Auntie Jennie Good to see your photos of "home" & be able to imagine you in context - thanks for getting those up so quickly!