Departure and Florida Part 1
16 Dec
We spent the day roaming around Cornell, exploring the places that we haven't. Brain collection at Uris Hall, Sage Chapel, the moving stacks at Olin library just to name a few. We also revisited some of our favourite haunts, like the Ag Quad, Dairy Bar and McGraw tower. At 4.30pm, we met up with some of the other Singaporeans to go traying on Libe Slope. Traying is pretty much like sledding except that instead of using a sled (which most of us obviously don't have), we use trays "borrowed" from the dining halls instead. The slope itself is pretty long and has varying gradients so we all "warmed-up" with a moderate portion of the slope. Then the 4 of us exchange students started to build a snowman (Whee!). Snowman-building is actually pretty tiring but we managed. Haha one of my long-time dreams fulfilled. After that, Jowyn and I decided to challenge THE slope. Gosh, that one was really no joke. I can't really judge how steep it was in the dark but the tray picked up speed really really quick. Then there was this bump near the end of the slope and I flew off the tray, landed on the snow with a thud, rolled once or twice before coming to a complete stop.
Ouch.
Yeah dun worry, I was just shaken but not hurt. Then we had to climb back up the slope. Now that was really tough. And quite hilarious too. Jowyn actually slid backwards after she struggled up the slope for so long. Then some of the guys (I think Guo Jian and Yizhuan) tried to help us from the top but they too slid down the slope.
So after that, Cherlyn and I went back to our room to pack. Really furious packing. Shavonne dropped by at 7 or 8pm I think to say goodbye to us. Really very touched by her sincerity cos by that time, the wind and snow was already quite heavy and yet she braved them both to come see us. She's really a great friend. Laura, our RA, came to check our room at 11.30pm and at 12 midnight, we started the tedious and tiring job of pushing our luggage to HILC. We were going to catch the 4am bus to NYC so we could have checked out later. However, Laura had a paper the following day so we thought it would be really unfair if we made her stay up so late. Hence we decided to check out earlier and spend the remaining hour or so at HILC with Jowyn and Denise. I can't really say this was a really smart decision now cos what was normally a 7-8 min walk to HILC became a 2 hour journey through the snow with extremely heavy luggage. Each of us had 2 luggages and we couldn't manage them both at the same time so we had to make 2 trips. We were totally exhausted and extremely annoyed at the end of it. So you see, I actually left Cornell not in the best of moods haha. Well it was much better later when we had to transport the luggages to the bus stop cos there were a couple of guys who helped us with it. Especially Shannon. Forever indebted to him. Guo Jian too.
17 Dec
I slept like a log on the bus after the extreme physical exertions. When we reached Port Authority Bus Terminal, we said goodbye to the freshies except for Yuan Xiang and Joseph. We were to deposit one luggage each at Yuan Xiang's hotel room so it'll make our travelling easier. Joseph was very kind to help us with it. After our luggage woes were settled, we made our way to LaGuardia Airport to catch our flight to Florida. We arrived in Florida at approximately 6pm, checked in at our hotel (more like inn) and headed out for dinner. We marveled at the fact that we could venture out in the night in just one layer of clothing compared to the normal 3 or 4 layers we have to wear in Ithaca.
18 Dec
We spent the day at Universal Studios. Well before that, we woke up early to stuff ourselves with the complimentary breakfast. The inn provided the best breakfast I've eaten so far while travelling. The muffins deserve special mention hee. Anyway, we ate the breakfast and missed the free shuttle to Universal Studios. Sigh. So we walked there. Our inn is quite near Universal Studios so it only took us about half an hour to walk there. We met up with Jowyn's sister and her friend at the ticket booth and proceeded in for a day of fun and excitement haha.
The first ride we took was the Shrek 4D thingy. It's a 3D show so we all had to put on the silly-looking 3D glasses. What made it 4D was when Shrek and Donkey jumped into a river (for example), some water is sprayed on our faces, or when there were spiders scuttling on the floor, something will seem to brush past our feet. Pretty cool :) Other rides we took included Jimmy Neutron (simulation ride), Twister (marvellous special effects, we all came out with messy hair), Earthquake (sitting in a subway train when an earthquake strikes), E.T. (riding a bike to save E.T.'s planet). The Mummy ride was the best. It was an exciting roller coaster ride with plenty of special effects too. M.I.B. was pretty cool too. We each had this gun that we were supposed to use to shoot aliens and earn points. We went for several shows too, like Beetlejuice Graveyard Rock, Animal Planet. The best one was definitely Fear Factor Live. The contestants were park visitors who volunteered to participate in the stunts. That was really way cool. We also went to the largest Hard Rock Cafe to pick up some gifts before catching the shuttle bus back to our inn. We're on a budget so dinner was Maggi Mee. Luckily there was a microwave oven in the room.
We spent the day roaming around Cornell, exploring the places that we haven't. Brain collection at Uris Hall, Sage Chapel, the moving stacks at Olin library just to name a few. We also revisited some of our favourite haunts, like the Ag Quad, Dairy Bar and McGraw tower. At 4.30pm, we met up with some of the other Singaporeans to go traying on Libe Slope. Traying is pretty much like sledding except that instead of using a sled (which most of us obviously don't have), we use trays "borrowed" from the dining halls instead. The slope itself is pretty long and has varying gradients so we all "warmed-up" with a moderate portion of the slope. Then the 4 of us exchange students started to build a snowman (Whee!). Snowman-building is actually pretty tiring but we managed. Haha one of my long-time dreams fulfilled. After that, Jowyn and I decided to challenge THE slope. Gosh, that one was really no joke. I can't really judge how steep it was in the dark but the tray picked up speed really really quick. Then there was this bump near the end of the slope and I flew off the tray, landed on the snow with a thud, rolled once or twice before coming to a complete stop.
Ouch.
Yeah dun worry, I was just shaken but not hurt. Then we had to climb back up the slope. Now that was really tough. And quite hilarious too. Jowyn actually slid backwards after she struggled up the slope for so long. Then some of the guys (I think Guo Jian and Yizhuan) tried to help us from the top but they too slid down the slope.
So after that, Cherlyn and I went back to our room to pack. Really furious packing. Shavonne dropped by at 7 or 8pm I think to say goodbye to us. Really very touched by her sincerity cos by that time, the wind and snow was already quite heavy and yet she braved them both to come see us. She's really a great friend. Laura, our RA, came to check our room at 11.30pm and at 12 midnight, we started the tedious and tiring job of pushing our luggage to HILC. We were going to catch the 4am bus to NYC so we could have checked out later. However, Laura had a paper the following day so we thought it would be really unfair if we made her stay up so late. Hence we decided to check out earlier and spend the remaining hour or so at HILC with Jowyn and Denise. I can't really say this was a really smart decision now cos what was normally a 7-8 min walk to HILC became a 2 hour journey through the snow with extremely heavy luggage. Each of us had 2 luggages and we couldn't manage them both at the same time so we had to make 2 trips. We were totally exhausted and extremely annoyed at the end of it. So you see, I actually left Cornell not in the best of moods haha. Well it was much better later when we had to transport the luggages to the bus stop cos there were a couple of guys who helped us with it. Especially Shannon. Forever indebted to him. Guo Jian too.
17 Dec
I slept like a log on the bus after the extreme physical exertions. When we reached Port Authority Bus Terminal, we said goodbye to the freshies except for Yuan Xiang and Joseph. We were to deposit one luggage each at Yuan Xiang's hotel room so it'll make our travelling easier. Joseph was very kind to help us with it. After our luggage woes were settled, we made our way to LaGuardia Airport to catch our flight to Florida. We arrived in Florida at approximately 6pm, checked in at our hotel (more like inn) and headed out for dinner. We marveled at the fact that we could venture out in the night in just one layer of clothing compared to the normal 3 or 4 layers we have to wear in Ithaca.
18 Dec
We spent the day at Universal Studios. Well before that, we woke up early to stuff ourselves with the complimentary breakfast. The inn provided the best breakfast I've eaten so far while travelling. The muffins deserve special mention hee. Anyway, we ate the breakfast and missed the free shuttle to Universal Studios. Sigh. So we walked there. Our inn is quite near Universal Studios so it only took us about half an hour to walk there. We met up with Jowyn's sister and her friend at the ticket booth and proceeded in for a day of fun and excitement haha.
The first ride we took was the Shrek 4D thingy. It's a 3D show so we all had to put on the silly-looking 3D glasses. What made it 4D was when Shrek and Donkey jumped into a river (for example), some water is sprayed on our faces, or when there were spiders scuttling on the floor, something will seem to brush past our feet. Pretty cool :) Other rides we took included Jimmy Neutron (simulation ride), Twister (marvellous special effects, we all came out with messy hair), Earthquake (sitting in a subway train when an earthquake strikes), E.T. (riding a bike to save E.T.'s planet). The Mummy ride was the best. It was an exciting roller coaster ride with plenty of special effects too. M.I.B. was pretty cool too. We each had this gun that we were supposed to use to shoot aliens and earn points. We went for several shows too, like Beetlejuice Graveyard Rock, Animal Planet. The best one was definitely Fear Factor Live. The contestants were park visitors who volunteered to participate in the stunts. That was really way cool. We also went to the largest Hard Rock Cafe to pick up some gifts before catching the shuttle bus back to our inn. We're on a budget so dinner was Maggi Mee. Luckily there was a microwave oven in the room.
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