Thursday, March 5, 2009

My Favorite Vacation

(Original) Vacation in Orlando
My favorite vacation was in the month of May in the year 2005 when Jordan, my friend, and I visited our good friend, Eugene, in Orlando, Florida. We visited him because he was graduating from high school. I have known Eugene since I was in elementary. He moved to Florida in 2004, while I have known Jordan since I was in middle school. So we have known each other for a while and have become really good friends.
So it started out with Jordan asking me if I want to go to Orlando for Eugene’s graduation and to stay there for about a week, of course I said yes to his offer. We asked each of our parents if they could buy us plane tickets so that we could go to Orlando because we were not old enough to drive yet, and plane tickets were still pretty cheap during that time, about two hundred dollars, nothing me nor Jordan could not pay back, and so our parents agreed for us to fly to Florida. We went through all the websites online, like Orbitz and Priceline, and then we finally got our tickets; two coach tickets for Southwest Airlines with destination to Orlando.
We left at 10:00 of a Monday morning for a two hour flight. The flight was so boring; I could not wait to get Orlando. I was so excited, even as soon as I woke up that day. I could not stop thinking about actually being there. I have never been to Florida, so I did not know what to expect, but Orlando was beautiful. Two hours later, we have arrived in airport. I have heard about Disney World and Universal Studios and how beautiful they are, but I have never been in either of the two, yet outside those theme parks and points of interests, it was more than I could have ever imagined. The oceanfront, the “strip,” palm trees everywhere, it was gorgeous. Great blue sky, it was sunny, it was perfect. Even Jordan could not believe that we were in Florida.
As soon as we got to Eugene’s house, Jordan and I were amazed at what we were seeing. The neighborhood was so perfect that one will not see a single piece of trash on the street. The houses looked mostly the same just like everybody’s lawn were cut the same way, due to the fact that the neighborhood has its own lawn care company for which it is free. Can you believe that? The neighborhood hires people and they would cut your lawn for free. But the workers do not work for free; of course they are paid by the owner of the neighborhood, so as Eugene says. The neighborhood was very peaceful, quiet and serene. I would have loved to live in that neighborhood, but I wouldn’t live there just because of the neighborhood, the whole city caught my attention.
The second day we got there, we went to a few of the popular places. We went to the oceanfront, the boardwalk, the beach, and the mall; gorgeous women walking around everywhere, I felt as if I was in paradise. We also visited his high school. The high school there was about six times bigger than the high school I went to. It was ridiculous because there were twelve-hundred students in his class alone. They had a Subway and a Chik-fil-A restaurant inside the cafeteria. Speaking of restaurants, the McDonald’s in Orlando has a bistro, in which they can make you any kind of sandwich from delis to subs that a person would like. It was one of the fanciest McDonald I have ever seen. I have worked in McDonald’s, and ours doesn’t compare to the McDonald’s there. So we went there for a late lunch and decided to go home because we were so tired. For some reason, Jordan and I were still jet lagged. It might have been the really hot weather and/or because of the clothes that we were wearing and the clothes that we have packed were as if we were from Virginia Beach. Jordan and I never wore shorts except for basketball shorts and even then, we would be wearing those inside our jeans. I guess we were not “Floridian” enough. We stayed up until around midnight talking and catching up on things, but then I dozed off, and so I don’t remember anything else that happened that night.
When we woke up the next morning, Jordan and I were surprised because Eugene’s relatives has arrived, sitting on the table and eating breakfast, while we were still in our sleeping clothes walking around half asleep. It was kind of embarrassing, but we got over it pretty quickly, they knew us, no surprise in that. As soon as Jordan and I were ready to join everybody else on the table, once again we were surprised. One of Eugene’s aunts bought us three, plus the four other kids that were there, tickets to Universal Studios. It was like Christmas everyday there; surprises, surprises, surprises. I love surprises. So we went to Universal Studios; it was just like how the commercials were, “WOW....” I had so much fun I didn’t want the day to end, and I’m sure everybody else did too.
The next day, Eugene, Jordan and I went go-karting; that was also a lot of fun. The place had four tracks: one that you could go really fast on, one that is kind of like a roller coaster ride that has a downhill, one with just like going up a circular stairs, and one that’s just a normal track people can race in. The fast track was everybody’s favorite of course, but I remember it so vividly not because of how much fun I had in the track, but because of Jordan hitting me on the broadside. So I was driving and all the sudden I come up to a turn, but the person behind me, instead of staying behind me, he tried to go around me, and purposely spun me out of control by fish-tailing me. And here comes Jordan out of the corner, smashed right into my kart, for which he got a warning for because you’re not supposed to BROADSIDE another racer. But he did anyway so that is why I remember it like so.
So finally came Saturday, the big day for Eugene to graduate. The place that we went to was enormous. I imagine it would have to considering that it had to accommodate 1,200 students and their families. It was a very long ceremony, I was actually falling asleep. Jordan had the same problem. One of Eugene’s cousins had to keep elbowing for me to stay up. His last name is Mateo, that’s basically in the middle, so it took a while to get to his name. I would say that the whole ceremony took about three hours. Imagine calling out 1,200 students’ names and imagine being the audience and having to listen to the speaker for that amount of time; it was ridiculous. When the ceremony was done we took some pictures then we headed to the restaurant. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but the food there was definitely delicious. I had the steak, of course, and it was one of the best tasting steaks I have ever had. The whole meal was good including the mashed potatoes and the broccoli. Even their sweet tea was really good; I couldn’t get enough of it because it was so addicting. So we went home, celebrated for a few, and once again us three stayed up to hang out for the last time before Jordan and I had to leave for Virginia the next day.
Surely enough, the morning came, it was a little depressing. Neither one of us wanted to leave. We have had so much fun in Orlando, and we wanted to stay there a little bit longer, but it was inevitable. We wanted to make that city, that neighborhood, that house, our home, but our freedom away from our parents cannot last forever. We had to go back to our normal lives sometime, and that time was right then there. Eugene and his parent drove Jordan and me to the airport. Once again our flight was at 10:00 am, but this time it was a Sunday morning. Goodbye was so hard say, but as how it always goes, we said our goodbyes, hopped into the airplane, looked outside the cabin window, and said farewell to a city that we fell in love with.

(Revised) Fun-Packed Week
My favorite vacation was when my friend Jordan and I visited our best friend Eugene down in Florida on May 2005. Eugene used to live here in Virginia Beach, but his dad got relocated to Orlando in 2004. Eugene, Jordan and I have known each other since elementary school. We all went to different schools, but somehow we all knew each other. I knew Eugene because we lived in the same street and I met Jordan through Eugene because their families were close to each other. Ever since then we have been really good friends.
In 2005, Eugene was still a junior, but he was smart and had so many credits, the school had no choice but to graduate him. Eugene told us almost the last minute, about a month before, that he was graduating that year. So basically we did not have that much time to plan. I was only 15 years old and Jordan was only 13 years old. We did not know much about what to do. We were still pretty young, but we weren’t going to sit back and not do anything about it. It took us a week of begging to our parents for us to go to Florida. Finally, after talking to Eugene’s mom over the phone, our parents said “yes.” First thing we had to do was to look for really cheap plane tickets. It took us about two days and we finally found a fare that we could afford. It was about $200 dollars to fly with Southwest Airlines. Now that we have gotten our plane tickets, the only thing that we had to do was pack our bags, and get ready for an experience of a lifetime.
We left our houses to get to the airport by 9:00 to catch our 10:00 flight. This is the first time Jordan and I ever traveled alone. We were so excited while we were waiting in the airport at ORF, we could not stop talking. We were talking about how Orlando is so much nicer than Virginia Beach. Getting into the plane made us even more excited; we could not wait to get to Florida. We have seen and heard so much about Orlando from the television and from other friends, saying how beautiful Orlando really is and how much fun it is to be there.
To be honest, the flight was pretty boring. I was excited, but I have flown so many times to other cities that I fell asleep for the most part of the flight, so did Jordan. When the captain said, “Please fasten your seatbelt and get ready for landing,” Jordan and I looked at each other and we knew that “the fun was about to start.” Our vacation started when we got to the airport in Norfolk, but the fun started when we touch downed in Orlando.
We arrived in Orlando at around 1:00, and there they were, Eugene and his parents waiting for is at the baggage claim area. The weather was warm with blue skies; it was sunny. The neighborhood that their house was on felt as if we were in the suburbs. There is a gate at the entrance of the neighborhood and will only open if one has a remote to open it. The neighborhood felt empty and quiet, but at night everybody came back from work, and the driveways were filled with cars. We arrived at the house around 1:30 in the afternoon. It was still pretty early in the day, so Eugene’s parents asked Jordan and I if we wanted to do anything that day. Jordan and I said no, we just wanted to unwind, to calm down, soak everything in and relax. So we stayed at the house to catch up on what we have missed the past year. Talking the whole night until past midnight, I dozed off.
The third day Jordan and I were surprised because Eugene’s relatives has arrived, sitting on the table and eating breakfast. As soon as Jordan and I were ready to join everybody else on the table, we were surprised; Eugene’s aunt bought us tickets to Universal Studios. We went to Universal Studios after we ate breakfast. Jordan and I tried to hurry because we were the last ones to eat and we were excited to go.
Universal Studious was incredible and humongous. Take Bush Gardens and quadruple the size and ten times the people. We had no idea where to start, there were so many places to go. Yet we were so excited, we figured we should ride the roller coasters first. So we stood in line for The Incredible Hulk, which was the closest to us. The line was so long; it felt as if we were there for hours waiting in line, but it actually took about 30 minutes. When we finally got to the front, adrenaline just went right through my body. The adrenaline was still rushing through my body as the roller coaster climbs up to the top. It slowly reaches the top… and then, “Whoo!,” the best adrenaline rush I have ever had in a roller coaster. There were many other things we did in Universal Studios, but that was the highlight of the day.
When we got home at around 7:00 at night, staying there for about 8 hours, all of us were exhausted. We took showers to get cleaned up, ate dinner and then we went to bed. Of course the kids did not go to sleep, we were talking about how exciting and how much fun we had that day at Universal Studios.
So finally Saturday came; the big day for Eugene to graduate. The place that we went to was enormous. I imagine it would have to considering that it had to accommodate 1,200 students and their families. It was a very long ceremony, I was actually falling asleep. Jordan had the same problem. One of Eugene’s cousins had to keep elbowing for me to stay up. I would say that the whole ceremony took about 4 hours. Imagine calling out 1,200 students’ names and imagine being the audience and having to listen to the speaker for that amount of time; it was ridiculous. When the ceremony was done we took some pictures then we headed to the restaurant. When we arrived at the house we celebrated for a couple of hours, but Jordan, Eugene and I stayed up to hang out for the last time before Jordan and I had to leave for Virginia the next day.
Surely enough, the morning came, it was a little depressing. Neither one of us wanted to leave. We have had so much fun in Orlando, and we wanted to stay there, but it was inevitable. We had to go back to our normal lives sometime. Eugene and his parent drove Jordan and me to the airport. Goodbye was so hard say, but as how it always goes, we said our goodbyes, hopped into the airplane, looked outside the cabin window, and said farewell to a city that we both fell in love with.
(Images courtesy of Guide to Orlando and travelmuse in order of appearance)

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