Summer Exchange - Florida Part 1

i figured i should blog about my exchange as much as possible since it's still the holidays. once the semester starts i may not even have time to blog :(

continuing from the last summer exchange entry, we took the internal flight, delta, from new york and landed in orlando.

a group shot before boarding the cab. check out our tired faces!

we stayed at Best Western Orlando Gateway Hotel which is really convenient because it's located just opposite the Wet and Wild theme park, a few minutes away from both premium outlet malls and also the universal studios. they also provide transport to a few of the attractions!

the hotel lobby. being deprived of strong wifi in new york, the six of us plonked on their comfy sofa and tapped on their fantastic wifi signal using our phones while waiting for check in. the hotel allowed us to check in at least three hours earlier! :)

so amazed at our huge conjoining rooms having squeezed together for a couple of nights in new york. moreover, the price we paid was much lesser than that of new york's. we were so comfortable that we decided to just pig out in our rooms for that day! florida is so resort-like; i like!

the view from our room :)

we had pizza and milkshake from the cafe at the lobby. oh my they have the best milkshake ever! at least seven scoops of hersheys ice-cream went into making that one cup of milkshake. simply heavenly! don't think about the calories.

the next day was universal studios!!! arranged transport with the agency at the lobby. i shall let the pictures do the talking.

jielin was already high early in the morning and she went up to sing SPONGEBOB SQUARE PANTS!

nobody wanted to take picture with victor, so poor thing! perhaps it's because he was the bad guy. he was striking poses all over the place but every one ignore him. so i went to have a picture with him! :)

and how can we not have a picture with the minions! they are just so cute i had to turn one of them to face the camera and hold him in place for the photo to be taken.

these two saw me whipping out my camera and started to pose for me! can anyone do what he did with his mouth?

we split up because three of us are brave souls who love roller coasters and three of us are scaredy cats who are happy with just walking around and taking pictures. so while the three are queuing up or coasters, cheryl, allicia and i went for the horror make-up show!

allicia got picked to be the volunteer and it was just hilarious watching her freak out on stage and letting out her really high-pitched scream. they introduced the make-up and effects of horror movies from the past to present, and also sawed allicia's arm! with those knife that you can press the handle and squeeze out fake blood and which has some spring which can pull the blade to fit your arm so that it looks like the blade had already cut halfway into your arm.

settled our lunch in one of the restaurants before we caught the fear factor live show!

this unfortunate volunteer they picked out during the show had to endure about five scorpions crawling around her head! and some others had to drink this blended mix of worms. gross max!

we came across this booth that sells engraved leather accessories, so pretty i almost wanted to get one. waited for the girls to get for themselves and their boys.

it was revenge of the mummy after that! so proud of myself for conquering that! though i must say that it was so jerky it swung my head in every direction i thought my neck would break.

haha, even the stroller parking signs are according to theme!

went for disaster! it was like demonstrating how a disaster film is being made and it involved all of the audience. at the end of it, we got to watch our very own disaster film in which we starred in! :D really interesting!

while waiting for the rest to conquer this:

we walked around again. and this girl is so funny, she wanted to buy a hat because the weather's so hot. but look what kind of hat is she looking at!

and here's a preview of the magical world of harry potter!

i wanted to bring home this minion so bad! it's quite cheap actually, around 15 or 19 USD. sadly, my luggage has no space for it! really lucky i didn't buy it.

and check out these wands! so exquisitely designed! they belong to harry, hermione, ron, draco malfoy, lucious malfoy, dumbledore, bellatrix, voldermort, etc (not in order). *wingardium leviosa*

do check back for the next entry on hogwarts! :D