The trip

Record of my adventures / food diary
Covering gap year travels and my year abroad in Mexico!
....And now also providing procrastination from my internship

Sunday 24 April 2011

Nooooooo

Right your never gonna believe this, but right after i posted the massive article. Guess what popped up under drafts???
That´s right the one that got deleted on thursday!! All that for nothing when it was there = not impressed! Can´t be bothered to compare them, I´m pretty sure ´ve said everything important and then some ramblings on top of that!

Arequipa

Right so sorry for not updating in a while, just after it deleted my last massive update I didnt have the will to re-do it. Hence this is gonna ve to be an abreviated version, though I dont seem particularly able to shorten things so we´ll see. And i apologize in advance for any typos however this computer only has like 8 keys with letters on, the rest have faded away! lol
Anyways, so I´ve been here in Arequipa for almost a week now amd have been pretty busy. So from where I left off being happily asleep, I was rudely poked awake at 6 in the morning, so i could be given breakfast. Not that i wanted to get up, but once the horrendous music was turned on full blast and then the lights came on, not to mention movie cats and dogs playing in the background, even i found it hard to go back to sleep. Anyways, arrived all well in Arequipa and was picked up from the bus station adn taken to meet the family im staying with. The lady has two grown ip daughters one of which is married and lives elsewhere with her husband and son santiago. and the other who lives in the house. First day had a wlaking tour of the city, and we did some serious walking! Did i mention that its really warm here,as is calleed the city of eternal blue sky or something like that methinks. Anyways was totaslly knackered after the four hour walk, but still had to find the office for the volunteering organizarion here in Arequipa as I´d said i´d pop in when i arrived to sort stuff out. Turned out it was back n the centro so ha to walk the 20 mins back there, only to spend another 20 mins loooking for the office. Gave up in end and went to internet cafe to check the afddress. Was on the third floor of a building which explains why i couldnt find it fromt he street! Got tht all sorted and for those of you who dont know, I´m teaching english in a school for my month here in ther afernoons. My mornings are filled with spanish lessons! :) God knows why I decided to take lessons for 4 hours when I struggled to concentrate through a one hour lesson at school?
So between the lessons in the morning and the teaching in the afternoon, all in all, m week is pretty busy. Tuesday was my first day at the school and so went with som others as is 30/45 mins  by combi(small dangerous forms of transport, effectively a camper van acting as a bus). Then on Wednesday was day before easter hols, so school was easter themed. And in playtime we did a treasure hunt ending at la cancha (playground) where one of the volunteers was dressed as a giant easter bunny, much to the kids delight. They all got given chocolate by the easter bunny and then proceeded to chase it round for the next half hour. All in all a good day! Not to mentin when i got back, the cash machine gave me money! (Obvs u wuill be unaware of this, but i kinda ran out of money opn Mday and then my card was rejected from a large selection of machines accross the city! = not good)
Tuesday was really long day as had lessons in morning, then had to head into centro to got to office to meet up with ´chief´´ voluinteer at school, as didnt know how to get there, so only had enough time to power walk there, grab an empanada, have mycard rejected from 4 more machines and then head off to the school. After school, went back with the other volunteers to the volunteer house for the weekly meeting, so got the chance to meet the others who work at orphange as well. However, meant i didnt get homw until 9.30 having left that morning at 8.45!
It was semana santa here from thursday to today, so whilt i still had spanish classed in the morning there was no school in the afternoon. Thursday i headed into el centro as there was supposed to be lots to see. However there really wasnt anything so went to internet cafe and had long chat with fam and major update session only for it all to be deleted!But when i left  the cafe it was dark and there were just people everywgwre! Also there were tons of people ion the street selling food and drinks all over the place. I decided to follow the crwds and go between the churches. On my way i bumped into some guy who´d been in my sandboarding group in Huacachina, then in my hostel in Nazca and now in the street in Arequipa! Decided three times was too much so stopped to chat. Was German, so natur spoke perfect english aswell1 Turns out he´s following roughly the same route as me though going to Bolivia instead of Ecuador. Anyhows, spent the evening with him, we followed all the locals between allt the churches. Aparently its a tradition to visit the churches on this dday though ur supposed to go to at least 7, but being unaware of this we only went to 5.Also got to try the food on offer. Had a really nice kebab that i was told was llama! Also strawberries and marshmallows coated in chocolate. Then there was some strange drink tthunk called poncha? Anyways tasted like christmas to me as it turns out it had cloves in it. Though stupidly i had mine ´con leche´which didnt as you might think mean with milk, instead it was creamed cocnut! Rather interesting taste not gonna lie!
However, Friday was like the opposite as there is nothing that goes on! It´s officially the day of rest, with the only event being a special three hour mass! Considering i cant cope with the normal one hour one..... wasnt gonna happen! And was actually a good thing as come evening i was feeling pretty miserable. Unbelievably cold considering was warm outside, and a killer headache, so actually wnet to bed at like 8.30 and slept for 13 hours! Felt a lil better the next morning though still not great so had a pretty relaxd day. Just went to the big centro commercial to have a look round then in the evening thyere was extended family coming for dinner so stayed there. Though have to say when like 10 people all speak spanish really quickly asnd all over each other is a lil hard for me to follow, ten on top of that they were talking politics! lol Anyways, i also played a bit with Santiago (2 1/2) who never runs out of energy, he is like on the go all the time. We´d been playing cards earlier which was really him hiding them all under a rug then getting them all out again, or me and his dad making a mimni card tower, and Santiago knocking it over!
Today, again kinda relaxed, didnt actually leave house till gone 12. then went to participate in a lil bit of retaiol therapy. Also gave in to a lil bit of vanity when i found straightners for a fiver! lol Other than that jsut had an interesting convo with the fam, as i could hear and see them but they couldnt hear or see me. So i had to type all me replies,though mom seemed to struggle with the concept of giving me time to reply before moving onto the next question and then getting confused as i was still replying to something said earlier! But all worked out!
Sorry if that wasnt in the most logical order, was just kinda putting thingsa as i remebered them! ;)
Am gonna copy this into something else before i post it just in case, as seriously coulkdnt face doing it again!!!

Thursday 21 April 2011

I give up

Right just spent actually ages filling in last few days and cant afford to re-do it right now as it just ALL got deleted = not impressed. Does this computer not realise how long that took to write?!? Will have to do it in the next couple days! :( grrrrrr

Nazca

So, know there´s been a lil gap but have been kinda busy!
Well, from where I left off....
.... Day 2 in Nazca. Got up to have breakfast only to find out buffet really wasn´t that impressive and certainly not worth my 2 sols! Decided to go to the supermarket instead, and as a result didn´t have the most exciting breakfast! Also, nowhere sold peanut butter, honestly! I still had a bit before I had to check out so went to change some money as i think i was down to like 4 sols at this point (less than pound). The place was fully booked so couldnt keep my room for the night, but they had a place to store my rucksack. Anyways, headed into town to get the bus to the mirador. You actually get one of the coaches that goes between cities and it only cost 2 sols each way for a 25 minute ride! Anyways, turns out you literally just get dropped at the side of the panamericana with nothing but desert in any direction, except for a rather rickety metal tower the other side of the road. Also, lines seriously werent worth the hype. I mean how you´re supposed to tell what they are, i dont know. But we were told they were the frog and tree! I thought they´d be a lil more impressive seriously was like someone had just dragged a giant stick through the dirt! ;) So, all this had only taken like an hour including walking from hostel to bus so far, and this had been my plan for the entire day! Anways, i saw two guys from my hostel there aswell and turns out they´d planned for it to take up their day aswell, so wasnt only me with bad planning. Basically just have to wait until another bus comes along going in the right direction to get back. We were told they come along every 15 mins, they really dont. However, some crazy japanese people provided entertainment with there strange photo ideas. Although my camera managed to delete my photo of me in middle of panamericana :( Anyways back at the hostel had like 6 hours to kill before bus time so watched a film and played cards, then after they left to go get their bus, I watch another film and a half with some americans. Fun times! Anyways, decided to kill more time and save 3 sols, I would walk the 15 mins to the bus station at 10pm! (No worries mom did actually ask hostel guy if was alright to do so) Turns out i was the only one getting on that bus so had to hang around the bus station with all the peruvian people who work there, as they were waiting for me to leave so they could lock up. Bus was only an hour late! So didnt actually leave nazca until 11.30 :( On other hand seats were insaaanely comfy! And so began the 9 hour trip to Arequipa

Saturday 16 April 2011

Huacachina

Not the best nights sleep yesterday, due to being insanely hot and music blaring until like 3 in the morning. However, awoke to find both hostel and Huacachina look much nicer in the light of day. Had a pretty lazy day tbh, just kinda wondered around waiting until it was time for the sand buggy tour. So come 4 o´clock i wonder on out, only to find that they´re not ready to go yet. So bout 10 mins later me and 3 peruvian people get in the giant death trap aka the buggy;) then we go and pick up 4 others from a different hostel. Head on over to ´the exit point´where there´s a whole ton of these buggies cause basically seems everyone does them at the same time of day. Turns out you have to pay s3.6 to continue on your buggy tour, and get a little slip of paper. So, finall we´re off..... stop like 5m down the road as turns out at 4.30 we´re still waiting for 2 more people who haven´t shown up yet. Reverse all the way back to hostel, and the driver goes out to find out if they´re here yet. Couple minutes later they come dawdling along, and the lady is wearing flip-flops.
The buggies go pretty fast but they´re awesome, it´s like a mini rollercoaster. So we stop for picture time then it´s off to the first hill to try out the sandboarding. Met one girl on my buggy who was from Canada, so chatted to her whillst waiting to go again. As our driver had gone for a spin on a motorbike across the dunes. Decided to try standing up for my first couple runs, not quite the same as snowboarding as board isn´t exactly responsive. Still really fun though. So three hills later and we´re off again in the buggy. Up to the top of an even bigger sand dune. This one we all decide to go down on our stomachs and you actually go waaay faster, but end up with sand like everywhere. Did i mention it´s really tiring though as you do dunes in groups so have to wallk up bits of the next one. Anyways, all is going well, until the last duen on that run where some crazy peruvian guy decides to ignore the one by one rule and goes shooting down the slope only to crash into one of the girls in our buggy at the bottom. Most of us are still at the top so not really sure what´s happening but the girl gets up ok, though the guy is still lying in the sand. He eta checked over and after a while also gets up, though now there's still like 20 ofbus at the top an weirdly enough no-one wants to go first! Back at the bottom we have to hike up this massive dune to reach the buggy so totally dying by the time we reach the top. The guy who crashed has cuts and marks all over his face and looks pretty beat up, so when we dire off again the driver has to do it really smoothly and whilst is still fun nowhere near as good as before when you would literally fly or your seat! Also I think we missed out on the last sandboarding runs as none of the other groups we ha been with came back at the same time! Back in my room turns out shower was perfect for getting ridnof the sand which had managed to get everywhere! Also was quite refreshing having a cold shower after being boiling all day.
After the chicken sandwich decided to go a lil safer and went to one of the other hostels to have dinner.had a very good burger and fries - I know mom isn't it great me expanding my culinary tastes ;) Have to say though whilst burger was really good, not entirely sure what el carne was, and didn't really cre to find out! Also sampled local beer which was pretty good, Tbh as long as it's a light beer, most of them taste the same to me! Was a nice place to eat though as overlooked the water and there were street performers just outside.
However after dinner had a headache so attempted an early night though the music had started at 6.30 and was still going at 4.15 this morning. Not sure why it was necessary though considerig the absolute lack of people in tue bar the last time that I checked! This morning was onto nazca, on an even comfort bus than last time. Apaz cause it's a cruzero service! Rolling into nazca it didn't give the greatest impression as seems to be just a stopover town for those moving on/ seeing the lines. Arriving at the bus station still can't say I'm used to being accosted by taxi/tour people the moment you step into the terminal. After getting a bit confused as to finding a phone that turned out to be like 5 fy away from me, I then couldn't actually get t to work! On end I gave up and got one of the security guys to help me do it, eventually getting my hostel which sent someone to Pick me up. Shows a difference between ere and home when there are proper gun toting security guards for buses!this hostel seems quite nice and has free internet plus a lil pool who I'm gonna check out later. Went for a lil walk around town and really wasn't much to look at. Just need to find some dinner though bwfoe I starve! Though tomorrow they have an eat all you can breakfast buffet for like 8sol (£1.90?) so will make good use of that assuming it's any good. Then off to see the nazca lines aswell tomorrow though taking the happy taxi/ mirador option as costs like £1.20 as opposed to the £60+ for the 1/2 hour flight over them. In fairness I'll only see two but I'm pretty sure they're all kinda the same and that'll cover it for me ;) then I've got my night bus at 10.30 tomorrow so should be fun! I've got like a bed seat on the bus so should be pretty good considering I could have easily slept on the normal seats especially when there's no-one behind you as you can properly recline the seats. Though I suppose that doesn't really tell you much about the seats considering I can sleep anywhere pretty easily! ;) in hindsight defo dot need to pay the extra for bed seat! Anyways think you've probably had more than enough of my ramblings now. Though u better appreciate this post as has been deleted multiple times by rubbish Internet!

Thursday 14 April 2011

Heading Down South

So managed to ook a whole ton of stuff whilst I was with Rosie for our future travels! Also, was sooo lucky I ended up staying there in the end as probably would have been stuffed by myself. Martha (Lady whose house I was staying at) wa awesome. She phoned the Cruz del Sur bus people to check all the times/costs for me. Then when I was having issues finding somewhere to stay for tonight/tomorrow she just called somewhere chatted for like 3 mins in Spanish and was like right all sorted! The whole family were really nice, and this morning so we wouldn´t get lost again JD came with us to change money then we went for lunch at Bembos, which is a Peruvian fast food chain, but tasted really good and came with Inca Kola too! ;)
So got the taxi to the bus depo, and the taxi guy was Martha´s brother in-law, and he helped me buy all my tickets and check me luggage in, then it was onto Ica on 4 hour bus journey! wooo Bus was actually pretty comfy and really empty so everyone had two seats each meaning you could spread out a bit. Had interesting safety announcement, highlight must be the ´toilets are for urination only, i repeat again toilets are for urination only, should any opther toilet needs arise, please alert a member of staff immediately´! Anways, what followed was some really cheesy videos, a movie which kept skipping and the most insanely annoying music in the world, thank god for ipods! Anways, took bout 4 1/2 hours so arrived just after 7. Got out bus, and immediately accosted by taxi people, probs overpaid as just randomly went with one to Huacachina (lil óasis´surrounded by sanddunes, quite pretty apaz but is really a stagnant lake!) But got to hostel safely and was shown my room with ensuite bathroom. I use the word bathroom loosely judging by state of floor and lack of toilet paper! ;) anyways seems alright and I was convined to go on a dune buggy/sandboarding tour tomorrow afternoon with the hostel aswell so that should be pretty fun! :) Went to get a bite to eat, though wasn´t the best chicken sandwich in the world so am gonna go look for something to wash it down with in a bit! Also, currently being eaten alive, so will be interesting to see how I sleep with no A/C!

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Made It

Landed safely in Lima last night after 12 hours of traveling and a connection in Panama. I am currently staying with my friend Rosie at her friends house who very kindly is putting me up for two nights, then tomorrow gonna start heading down south. Flights here weren't really that bad just long with limited entertainment. They didn't tell you when the films started so missed the first 10/15 mins of both Gullivers Travels and True Grit though were both pretty good tbh. Plane food wasn't bad either had ravioli for my main meal on both flights and also was loaded up with enough food/snacks from aunty Donna to last me possibly the next month or so! ;)
So, slept in this morning as didn't get to bed till like 12. Went for a walk earlier armed with a hand drawn map and a poor sense of direction. Needless to say we got a lil lost and after about 1/2 hour Rosie phoned home to be told we'd gone in the wrong direction and so we headed back after stopping for a drink. Did I mention it's seriously hot and sunny? Anyways, got my first taste of Inka Kola which tastes quite nice actually, kinda like Chubbys if you know what they are. Back now and spent some time copying pages out of Rosie's guide book ( as clever me forgot mine), whilst Rosie naps as she isn't feeling so great at the moment. :(
Later gonna sort out plans for getting down to Arequipa then also travel plans for future as after Rosie's finished her teaching in Lima and done a lil traveling of her own, she's gonna meet me in Arequipa then we're gonna travel together eventually ending up in Quito where I'm spending two months.
Have to say this post took a while to do as I had to type it all on my iPod. Not the easiest thing as my thumbs are a lil big for the keys! ;)

Filling in the gaps

It has been brought to my attention I may have missed an event or two in LA. First and foremost considering my many references to food, should defo mention the trip to Yoghurtland! Now, back home frozen Yoghurt as an alternative to ice cream seems to be a newer concept and truth be told, don't think it tastes that great. But yoghurtland is a whole new experience. To begin with they have tons of flavors and you get these lil sample cups so you can try all the flavors before you decide. Plus they put ones that go well together next to each other so there's actually a special lever which you can pull and gives you a swirl of the two flavors combined together! So, after you've put whatever you want in your cup, the fun isn't over, you then get to decide from a massive variety of toppigs what should go on top. Ranges from fruit for the healthy to all kinds of chocolate bits and sweets, not to mention the sauces aswell! Most definately am an advocate of Yoghurtland now! As we were eating them, we decided to eter the competition to make the best creation using their products, with the winner receiving free yoghurts (up to a certain vale of course). Anyways I think we ended up doing like three different entries as we had so many brilliant ideas! ;)
Second thing I forgot to mention wasni got to meet another bit of the family. So we went for dinner with Stacey, Brooks and their daughter Ava and also cousin Kelly. Went for Chinese which had these massive crabs sitting in tanks by the entrance. Ava was unbelievably cute and friendly! :) and was nice to see them as hadn't met Kelly before and had only met Stacey and Brooks once before when they visited briefly, but there was no Ava at that time!
Think that covers missed items!
As for rest of last day in LA, after aunty donna finally got me to pack (much to her relief methinks!) we went for dinner at In and Out which Uncle David had been hyping up all week so I was expecting something good! ;) what was amazing was that everytime we'd driven past the place there had been a massive queue all the way round for the drive through and so naturally I thought it'd he really busy inside as well but it was really quiet despite the queue outside! Anyways, got laughed at as aunty Donna got is to have our photo with the server, at the table and outside underneath the sign! Food though was good, and pretty filling after all the fries and the shake in top of the burger. Went home, and played a round of sanco to round off the evening, which u Dave won (just). Was up early next morning and boys came with A donna to drop me off at the airport. Didn't really wanna leave as had such an awesome time, so thanks for having me! :) p.s coming back in two summers time and think alix wants to come too! ;)

Monday 11 April 2011

Me and Flying seem to be having issues

So, I went to check-in for my flight tomorrow, only to be told by the website that my flight has either been cancelled or expired, one of two great options! 20 mins of panicking follow as I try different variations of my check-in number, including swapping o and 0 and trying capital letters. As I booked all my flights with a travel agency they have a copy of my whole itinerary, so I log onto that only to find that as some of my later flights had changed time by like 6 mins the whole reference number had changed..... they just hadn't bothered to mention it :( So sorted that whole lil debacle out and confirmed I actually have flights tomorrow. The way I'm going means I have to change over in Panama, however my connection time is 50 mins. Did like triple check at time of booking this would be ok timewise, but I still worry, especially as when I printed out my boarding passes earlier, the boarding time of my second flight was 10 mins before my first one even lands! lol Will see how it all works out!
On the plus side, rode the bikes down to the beach again this morning to have late breakfast/lunch at this great place right by the beach! Gotta say - awesome curly fries! ;) Just gotta go through the whole packing process now, that should be interesting considering how long it took last time!

Sunday 10 April 2011

Awesome News....

My clothes did not shrink in the tumble dryer!!! woooo genius that I am have totally no idea whether or not stuff can go in the dryer, I mean seriously how am I supposed to guess from a lil circle with a cross through it?!!? Anyways, half way through having stuck everything in dryer, thought I better consult with Mom, who made me panic that all my stuff especially my only thick hoodie was gonna come out tiny! Not impressed, rushed to turn it off, but the world is good as it is all still the correct size!! :)
Also, just had the most awesome cookies and cream ice-cream for dessert and tomorrow we're off to Martha's for breakfast (Dad's favourite place when he visits) as I was offered breakfast aka stacked up pancakes coated in syrup or flipflops as a leaving treat, needless to say I picked the food..... the way to my heart is totally through my stomach! ;)

Seeing the Sights

So, on Friday we went up to Hollywood Boulevard to see the walk of fame with all the stars. They seriously go on for like forever! So we just did the ones around the Kodak theatre and the chinese theatre where they have the hand/foot prints aswell. The area surrounding the walk of fame definitely got nicer the closer we drove towards the kodak theatre, where it was quite touristy and they had all the people dressed up as different characters/stars. So, after a wander around there, getting some of the best stars, Winnie the Pooh of course ;) we stopped by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory where they had THE most amazing selection of chocolate/toffee coated apples. They went from simples like chocolate coated with sprinkles to like smores apples! In the end we went for a cookies and cream one which tasted awesome!!
Anyways, after all that excitement we headed down to the beach for an hour, and played football(american) and baseball. Though Aunty Donna thought it was way too cold and spent the first 20 mins huddled in a blanket on the sand! The boys then had baseball practice, so Aunty Donna decided to take me to have pedicures! lol Interesting experience, especially for someone with really tickly feet! Also, watched Shrek 4 in the evening, and was soo much better than the 3rd one methinks, though can't say I have the greatest sense of humor so.......
Yesterday, I got to use up my birthday present from Aunty Donna/Uncle David and we went to Knotts berry farm, which is kinda like Thorpe Park ( big amusement park), except for Aunty Donna who hates rollercoasters. Had great time as I love anything that goes really fast, especially the ones with all the loops etc. Twins didn't want to do one of them with me, so Uncle David bravely volunteered, though spent the whole ride with his eyes closed! Ben came on a few of the bigger ones with me too, and then we rode the 'Big foot rapids', first time was fine as came out pretty dry, though U. David was soaked. Then Miles made us go round a second time and I came off dripping. Didn't actually fully dry off until the very end of the day :( Then went for dinner - mexican - with another family they're friends with, who also have a guest from England!
Today, had a nice lie-in as per usual, then off to see the boys soccer game rounding off my sports viewing. They won so alls good there! Anyways, hoping to go to the beach this afternoon so....

Thursday 7 April 2011

Universal Take 2

Yesterday had to cancel the beach trip due to bad weather so went karting instead! Unfortunately, any kind of activity like this just encourages my overly competitive streak so needless to say I totally beat all the 11 year olds! ;) Ben keeps complaining that I was supposed to move over so he could over take me which is why he crashed into me ( though if you ask him I apparently 'took him out'?) and hurt his leg a lil. Have to say though that's not how racing works, as if i'd just pull over and let someone pass, lol. Plus they were wanting me to pull over to the wrong side of the track anyways, left all the way! ;)
Then perfect way to round off the day, once the weather cleared up, I went for a run along the beach front with Aunty Donna - 4 1/2 miles. And got back just in time to watch the sunset on the beach! Have to say the houses all along there are actually amazing, would kill to live there for the summer, can't imagine how much they would cost though!
Today, was back to universal to catch up on all the stuff we missed last time. So first off was the studio tours, which was really cool as they took you around all these sets they use for different movies, then there was this 3D King Kong special effects tunnel, definately the best bit of the tour. Though there was another bit where the tram stopped in the middle of a subway set and then it simulated an earthquake and flood around the trams! Also went to see Waterworlds show again, still just as good the second time round!
Also, got to the stores today to get some headphones and a memory card for my camera - finally. Kept meaning to do it before I left, but as usual, totally never happened! Glad I'm so unorganized though, cause turned out to be way cheaper here anyhows so.... :)

Tuesday 5 April 2011

You get to live here?

Giant kid that I am, universal studios was top of the list to visit whilst I'm here. So got to visit on Sunday, and had awesome weather! Went on just over half the stuff there even managing to do some rides twice, but we're going back again on thursday to do everything we missed. (There was an offer which was buy a ticket online and get a 6 month pass sooo... :) Anyways, me and lil cousin Ben got absolutely soaked on Jurassic Park being right at the front at the edge. Aunty Donna tricked me into switching places with her just before we left! Also, got to see the waterworld show which was amazing, though they actually soaked some parts of the audience.
Was also introduced to american tradition of kids 'TP' ing a house = covering it in toilet paper! lol So, we got a tip-off that house was gonna be TP'd so spent evening booby trapping garden with miniature trip wires, then keeping guard with Nerf Guns! Needless to say our formidable defenses deterred any would be TPers ;)
Then yesterday, we had a kinda relaxed morning then rode the bikes down to the beach and had a picnic lunch there. Can't describe how cool the houses on the beach front are, only thing I can say is blatantly coming to live here next summer! ;) There's a great bike/running track all along the beach front, then all these nets you can play like beach volleyball on, etc. Only downside is really cold water, though when it's so hot out, cool water is definately what you need!
Today, we went for a hike up by the hollywood sign, though actually ended up on a different hike which took you to a nearby hill rather than up behind the sign! Still got some really good views of downtown LA/the sign from up there though! So, when I finally put pics up, the ones with an obscure white blob in the background - it's actually the hollywood sign! 
Anyhows, gotta go as I'm off to join in the karate class, which should be interesting as i get the impression it's pretty different from kickboxing!

Saturday 2 April 2011

Off to a flying start

Was up at 5.30 am on Friday morning to pack up the last few things and say bye to the family then it was off to Heathrow with dad. Ended up being really early as only took us 50 mins to get there!
Anyways, go to drop off my bags and the lady says they had to move my seat so they could put a family together, obviously being on my own this isn't an issue, so the lady prints me off another boarding pass. Then as I'm going through security this lady keeps asking me whether i'd already been through and come back out again? After a couple minutes of repeating this she lets me through. I think nothing of it at the time as, firstly she didn't speak that great english so i was kinda confused by her anyways then on top of that after all she let me through right!
So, I'm sitting eating breakfast and am checking the screen to see what gate I am. However, looking at it, I'm thinking i'm sure that's not the same gate the lady at check-in told me. So I get out my boarding pass to double check, only to discover that it doesn't have the same gate as the screen is telling me, and hey wait a sec I'm also not going to New York, and I am most definately not a Mr Howard Chiung?
At which point simply put i start to panic. So after several minutes of wondering in circles and just generally worrying what on earth I'm supposed to do, I mean what if my baggage is on that flight. Didn't actually occur to me at this point to check the luggage sticker they'd given me, noooo that would be far to sensible/obvious! I finally spot the handy customer services counter situated about 5 feet from where I am! Luckily they sort it all out for me after I tell them my litttle problem!
After, that I had a pretty uneventful flight albeit very long! Not to mention the 30 mins it took to park the plane, another 20 to get off then another 40 to get through security/customs and get my luggage! Arriving in LA I thought i would have a nice relaxed evening to recover..... wrong.
Aunty Donna picked me up from the airport in brilliant sunshine, such a contrast to england, especially considering that at 3000 feet above LA it was still twice as hot as england! We had to rush home and dump luggage to head to the twins school for talent show rehearsals. Then it was straight to baseball practice, where I got to field and bat! Home for 30 mins for a quick change and then off to a basketball game. Still not over though, as then we went out for dinner! After 24 hours being awake on only 5 hours sleep, let's just say I slept pretty well last night!
This morning we went to see the boys play their league baseball game, which was really good though they ended up playing a second game for another team afterwards. Meaning I was sat in the bleachers for 5 hours!! And today was not good weather, I was soooo cold at the end my butt actually lost all feeling! But we're having a nice evening in tonight and then tomorrow we're off to universal studios!!! wooooo