orlando, florida

We had an adventurous journey here from UConn, which involved missing our bus to new york; waiting in the cold for 2 hours in the evening in 1 of the top 10 most dangerous cities in the US; the godawful experience of lugging 2 heavy uncooperative luggage bags around and up and down; relieving ourselves of them in a storage space; overnighting in an airport (thankfully not alone this time); eventually reaching florida worn and shagged.

2nd night in our Kissimmee hotel room (that really is the name of this town) in Orlando, Florida. Bed 1: tiffoo, lilian, caro, steph. Bed 2: hazel, myself, eliza, val. One of the best places in the US to be right now, with winter quickly taking over most other parts of the country. Despite FL being 1 of the warmest places though, it was chilly today and we were grateful for our jackets and winter accessories which gradually turned up from within our bags as the day drew on into night.

Universal Studios Islands of Adventure today! My favorite part was the Harry Potter themed section of the park, though we had to queue just to get into Hogsmeade Village and then queue some more for the rides. The village was wonderful, and so was BUTTERBEER (carbonated butterscotch with shortbread) and the HP-costumed staff telling us to keep "all muggle artifacts" in the lockers before getting onto the Dragon Challenge ride, Hogwarts Express and the cheeky conductor, little kids fully outfitted in Hogwarts wear robes, tie, wands, even one owl, everything and the scarves were gorgeous too if i lived here (and thus actually had some use for it) i'd totally have gotten one. Loved the rides - Forbidden Journey was the best (that's the one where we get to walk through the castle and Dumbledore's office). Outside HP we also took other rides like the Fear Fall which was (as the name suggests), a fearful falling experience. Conquered the hullk coaster ride and was quite proud of myself cos I was pretty scared to get on >< the plunges scare the crap out of me, but the Hulk had more twists and turns than dives, so it turned out to be pretty good.

Disney tomorrow, I'm so excited (: princess time.