Hey all!!!
So I've made it to Florida, and with almost no hassles!!
Wed, June 15, 2011
My first flight (from Calgary to Chicago) was delayed 2 hrs and then once we finally boarded we waited for them to change the plane's oil and whatnot so we ended up finally leaving around 9:30am rather than the original 7am time. Sorry but thank you so much to Jocelyn and my mom and sibs for being there with me at 5am:) You're all troopers!! Love you!
Anyways, so once we landed in Chicago it was right about time for the connecting flight (to Washington, DC) to depart so many of the passengers on the Chicago flight stayed behind so the connecting passengers could make it to their departure gates in time. I didn't take time to look at the board, I just followed the other passengers who looked and started running down the hall!! Luckily our gate was only a few gates away:) So we all arrived there, panting, and then waited for 30 min to be boarded:) crazy! This flight was only about 45 min late departing so I made it to Washington with plenty of time to board my last connection (to Jacksonville). It was when we landed in Washington that I remembered to use the "restroom" and eat something:) I had a beautiful salmon salad at a place called Cosi. I HIGHLY recommend this place to anyone! And it wasn't horribly priced either. So I found the right gate and made the trek over there, then discovered that for some reason I had to go through security AGAIN before boarding this one. I'm still confused about it but whatever; good thing I still had everything in place from when I went through security in Calgary. So it all worked out, I boarded and ended up getting a window seat at the back, and there were only a few passengers so many of us (including me) got three seats all to ourselves. That was nice:) By the time we were in the sky at 8:30 it was already dark!! I know now I'm living in Eastern Time but still I was shocked! I guess the sun rises here around 6:30 which is nice, and perhaps one of these days I'll wake up in time to see it...? haha maybe:) So I arrived in Jacksonville, FL around 10:20pm ET and was welcomed by my friends Stephen & Jenna Hansen with their baby Colby to pick me up. It was great to see familiar faces and nice to sit down knowing all my luggage was in the same place again:) Stepping outside felt like a SAUNA but man was it nice!!! I told you all I would LOVE the heat and humidity here, well I was not wrong:)
Thurs, June 16, 2011
Yesterday was a relaxing day, I slept til I felt ready to wake up, which apparently was 1pm! I know its ET but still that's like 11am MST! Oh well, I'm blaming it on "jet lag" haha. Jenna and I watched a couple WaltDisneyWorld shows on netflix and then I had a shower which was also nice. It's funny how many things didn't even cross my mind that probably should have while I was packing/preparing to leave, and one of those was showering:) haha don't judge me:) So then we watched Step Up 3 while carpet was laid in the guest room in their house. (Stephen & Jenna are rennovating the entire place, so I guess I showed up just in time to use the guest room. Post-carpeting they set up a bed in there and Stephen has even painted the room bright lime green!! I'm so excited!!!) After helping to move things into the room and set them up Steve's brother Jimmy came over with his 2 girls to go swimming in Steve & Jenna's pool. We all went out there, it's really nice, although I only dipped my feet in. And probably a good thing, because they had forgotten to turn off the solar heater for the pool so it was more like a hot tub than a cool refresher haha! Oh well Steve tells me it's much better now that he's turned it off:) But I had a great time chasing toddlers around the pool. Then the missionaries came over for supper and we had a grand visit with them. Both elders from Utah, no surprise there:) One is definitely letting the "southern" accent slide into his speech and I actually somewhat fear that might happen to me! And I've only been here 2 days!! Can you imagine, me with a southern drawl? haha you'll have to let me know when you see me next cause I probably won't even notice:) So after doing dishes for Steve & Jenna (yes, I actually like to do dishes and it's the least I can do since they're being so hospitable) I headed to bed. On the way, I heard distinct sounds on the windows coming from outside. I had to go into the bathroom to see what was crawling around out there, and I was definitely afraid to find out... Turns out gecko's hang out here at night!! Which is totally ok because they're not spiders:) I can completely handle little lizards!
Fri, June 17, 2011
Today I woke up earlier, around 10 ET which is 8am MT so yay for me!! haha It was nice to wake up in a room and with bright green walls all around me:) I got up and ate some cereal and watched the 20th anniversary celebration of Sesame Street (yes its old but it was still SO awesome!!) with Colby while Jenna had a shower. He's a little character:) Every time he wakes up he is grumpy that I'm still here but after a little bit his groggyness fades and he comes to play with me. He's 16 months and so funny! doesn't say much or even laugh that much but today I found his ticklish spot and I finally heard that epic toddler laugh! he's great:) Anyways after Sesame Street Jenna, Colby and I went to Wal-Mart for groceries and to get me a phone for down here. I found one that's supposed to allow me to RECEIVE (not make) calls from Canada so that will come in useful when we can get it completely set up. The phone company said to give it 24 hrs so I'll keep you posted with that info. But for the time being I still have my AB phone which does allow me unlimited texting within Canada and the US so feel free to text me:) After Wal-Mart we came back and put Colby down for a nap. I stayed with him while Jenna ran more errands. When Steve came home from work we decided to head to Ichetucknee Springs. It's a beautiful State Park here in Florida, but I swear it looked more like we were in Utah when we got on the road! All of a sudden the road was lined with farmhouses and tall tall pine trees and thick vegetation which did NOT include palm trees! Beautiful but so weird for Florida:) The actual park looks a lot like Writing On Stone or even Indian Battle Park (or a Cold Lake campground) once you get there but instead of a large train bridge or hoodoos we walked down to a forest-surrounded path to a small pool that looked like something out of a book. It was so gorgeous! The water was cold, really cold for Florida but def not as bad as Waterton. I was a bit of a baby at first, you know, easing my way in, but it really was colder than I wanted it to be:) After a few minutes though I did finally go all the way in and then it was really nice. Relaxing, refreshing, and the water was so clear! Amazing! When you swim out to the middle of the pool you can see the cave where the water comes in and it's really neat. You can even feel a bit of the pressure from the water. So when we got out the thing I realized right away was that I was warm! Weird, because I'm so used to being in cold water and then getting out and freezing in the wind but again I was in love with the warm humidity of Florida! I didn't even shiver! SO AWESOME!! haha it was great:) You all need to try that sometime, it's quite a shocker:) So after that we came back and Jenna made home-made chicken pot pie. So good! Last night Steve made bbq ribs:) 2 home-cooked meals in a row and I'm not even family!! these guys are way too good to me:) love you all!!
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THE BIG MOVING DAY!!! I was excited, nervous, and also sad to leave Stephen & Jenna & Colby, but that's what I came for right? I woke up in the morning and made sure 2 or 3 times that I had packed everything, then we packed up the car and headed to Orlando. On the way we stopped at a mall in Gainesville so Steve could get a new Florida Gators hat. We did a bit more shopping there (I window-shopped, although I did buy myself a yogurt at Red Mango which I had missed so much!!! ---it's similar to Yogen Fruz but better, you can get flavored yogurt and all the fruit is fresh--SO GOOD!!) then got on the road again. We got to Orlando and went straight to the temple so Jenna & I could make the 3pm session. It was so wonderful!!! She and I were literally the only two people in the session but it was still awesome:) And it was a new experience for both of us haha:) Up til now my fav temple has been Provo UT, but Orlando topped it:) It was so so gorgeous I just cried! And besides, this one has palm trees!! haha Afterwards we got some pics outside by the fountains and palm trees and then went to Downtown Disney! We parked by Planet Hollywood and walked through the crowds of people to the other end to make a reservation at The Rainforest Cafe. There is always SO MUCH to see at Downtown Disney, so we took a few pics and did a lot of window-shopping and actual shopping, and Colby even got to ride a little train roller-coaster ride:) He wasn't quite sure what to think of it but it was cute:) We took pics beside the huge lego figures that are located just outside the LEGO store there, and they are ALWAYS amazing!! I've included a couple pics of them, the Sleeping Beauty one is my fav! It's hard to believe that its ALL made of lego!! Ya, so sweet! I don't know how often they change it but I guess I'll find out; it's probably really frequent. Anyways, So when it was time to eat we went back to the Rainforest Cafe. If you've never been there it's FANTASTIC! The food is really good but its mostly about the restaurant itself because the entire inside of it is designed like an actual rainforest, right down to the RAINSTORMS! Yes, it actually rains INSIDE the restaurant (not on the people obviously, but still its so cool). The walls and ceiling are all covered with vines and leaves and lizards and monkeys and butterflies and trees, and there are even animatronic elephants!! Yes, they move and blink and make noises at you while you eat haha it's incredible! And the middle of the ceiling looks like an african sky, with blinking stars and changing lights. And like I said, every few minutes all the lights flash and you hear thunder and it actually starts raining! SO COOL! And the bar stools have animal legs and tails and when you first walk in you go underneath a MASSIVE fish tank! SO crazy cool!! When we finished eating we made our way back over to Planet Hollywood and went inside to look around at all the movie props and costumes and memorobilia. All the different Planet Hollywood locations have different things from different movies but this one is the biggest one. It's shaped like a huge PLANET! I know, seems obvious but how many buildings are shaped that way? Anyways, they've got 3 floors you can eat on and there's even stuff hanging from the ceiling!! like Herbie the punch-bug! yup, hanging from the ceiling:) CRAZY!! So cool! So after we had looked around there they drove me to Vista Way (one of the 4 Disney program complexes) where I was welcomed by some awesome people. I said goodbye to Steve & Jenna so they could get home, then I was driven to my complex, which is called The Commons. Most of the people in the International program live here, so that's nice. My roommate's name is Mai (rhymes with "eye") and she is from Japan. She works in the Japanese pavillion, and she's been here for 9 months. She is SUCH a sweetheart!! I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful roommate:) The other girl that lives in our 2-bedroom appartment is from Italy and she's almost finished her program here. I guess they have arrivals and departures every week here so it should be interesting and easy to meet new people all the time:) I'm super loving it here so far!!
