Disney Time… with roller coaster rides

The Friday morning was the first full day of our Disney trip which started at Animal Kingdom; I’m not going to go through each ride we went on…so all you need to know is we had an amazing time! I also discovered that apparently I pull really funny faces while on roller coasters.

Yip, thats me in the yellow and green shirt

We watched the Lion King show which was really good. We were seated in the Elephant section which really doesn't mean anything, but I thought I should add that. We also watched a Finding Nemo show, and since it's one of my favourite kids movie I was really excited to see the show. I thought it was well done and took the opportunity to take as many pictures as possible.

Finding Nemo, Nemo's tank

Next we headed to Epcot, which was totally awesome! One ride that I have to mention is ‘Soaring’ where you are sitting in the ride that ‘flies’ you over California, you feel like you are in a hand glider…it was so much fun! Later that night we headed to the countries of Epcot, where we watched a laser/firework show that was done over the water, in front of Asia, spectacular! After that we headed towards ‘Norway’ where we took a scenic tour on a little boat…it was very cute! We also went shopping at the different "countries" I brought a super cute top from 'America'. It was really lovely to see what each different country has to offer. I was a little disappointed that there was nothing that remotely resembled South African cuisine.

Shopping at Epcot

On Saturday we went to Magic Kingdom and all things fairytale inspired. There were lots of fun rides, a street parade and of course a show titled ‘dreams come true’ and in true Disney style it had us all believing in the magical power of dreams!

Ah, Disney magic

One of the rides we went on was a "Safari" type of ride, there were 4 other South Africans in the 'jeep' with me. We spent probably about 50% of the tour debating weather the animals we saw were real or not. I'm still not convinced. In fact I know the elephants were NOT real, the other animals...I'm not so sure.

The fake Disney elephants

We later watched the electrical parade, which was a festival of lights that had me thinking about the load shedding in SA…and how this would truly mess with the magic of Disney…but of course no load shedding here! Although some of the carts did run out of battery power near the end and had to be towed!

Cinderella and her Prince

*Hi-lighted words are explained in the glossary page

Feeling like a kid...and acting like one too...

Okay, so the next part of my adventure is VERY exciting and will make you feel either like a kid…or a very old adult! Monique and I joined 50 other au pairs in the quest for eternal youth and made our way to Never land a.k.a Disney World!

Monique, Karolin and I having fun in downtown Disney

The day we arrived we had no access to any of the parks but we were able to explore downtown Disney. We meet up with one of our roommates (Karolin from Germany, working in NYC) and all made our way downtown. It is very retail orientated, and I cannot imagine trying to steer a kid through there without ending up with at least a T-shirt, a tiara and overstuffed Mickey Mouse ears! Thank goodness we are adults and we able to restrain ourselves…hmmm. I also have to tell you that I won the "happily ever after hula hoop champion' apparently I can actually do this pretty well, maybe it's the belly dance training?

About to hit the "dance floor"

We ate at a restaurant called T-Rex, the food there was amazing, but the atmosphere is definitely the reason to go there, it has different sections, like ice age, under the sea and the jungle and every 20 minutes they have a meteor shower! Which is basically just them dimming and flashing the lights and loud noises…but added that you are seated in “the jungle” and have moving dinosaurs in the surrounding scenery, it makes for a very exciting meal! Being that my birthday had pasted a few days before Monique thought it would be funny to get the T-rex staff to sing “happy birthday” to me while bringing me a volcano looking dessert. Okay, yes I enjoyed it! Haha.

Downtown Disney, FL

We even saved some for our other roommate who we had yet to meet, imagine her surprise when we walked in at 12am singing “happy birthday”, her reply? “It’s not my birthday?!” my reply? “Nope, it’s mine, have some chocolate cake” Well I don’t think she was too amused, especially since the next night we sang “we wish you a merry Christmas” … not sure if it was the time of our ‘attack’ or our method, although I’m sure sounded pretty good!

Disney Princesses? Maybe...

Mad-Town

My first trip of 2o1o was a trip to Madison which is Wisconsin’s capital city. Madison is known as a college town as there are so many students there. I went for the whole weekend; I visited a friend that I met in Milwaukee. We went and saw the Capitol building, which is very beautiful. We also went to a farmers market where they had beef jerky that wasn’t smoked or oily so it ALMOST tasted like biltong! Yum! We also went out to a few of the local bars, where I met so many more students. Everything is really close together (as I said it’s a college town, so everything is geared towards them) We walked everywhere, which is totally fine…if there isn’t two feet of snow on the ground plus two frozen lakes close by! Needless to say we would “suit up” and ran to our destination! I had a great weekend with Kevin, who is actually the first ‘American’ friend that I made (on the 4^th of July)

The Capitol Building, Madison, WI

A friend of mine (Monique) who was in her 2^nd year when I arrived completed her au pair year in January. We decided as she had never been out with the girls we had to take her out and show her the town, she was about to leave! We did a surprise party on the Friday night (at Hooters) haha so we were stared at by all the male patrons there. 

Birthday girls and Monique at Hooters

The Saturday night was spent at one of our favourite places to go dancing…Buckheads Saloon! She had a great time as did we, of course! When we go out we always get people to guess where we are from…which can be extremely funny! (Since it’s usually Germans, South Africans, Swedes, Norwegians, Columbians, French, and Brazilians…etc) Nobody can ever guess where I’m from but they usually say Britain (followed by some very badly executed British statement) or Australia…so I have started let them guess the continent. That is just as funny! I have been asked if I’m from the continent of Russia??!! Really! Or when people guess “all” the continents (forgetting Africa) they say well that’s all of them so where ARE you from? Most people would believe me more if I said I was from Asia rather than Africa! (Although once they get Africa, South Africa is ALWAYS the next guess)

Monique, Miriam, Arati, Fernanda and I at Buckheads

Bring on 2010…

A new year, a new start and NO new year’s resolutions! Making resolutions on New Year Eve only leads to disappointment and failure. Instead I try change things as I see fit, although (and this will make my mommy proud) I did make a list of goals for the year ahead, after I have read the list from the previous year. It’s pretty amazing…you totally forget what your goals were but it gives a direction to your life (whether you are continually reminded of it or not, I write them down and don‘t look at it for the whole year until next NYE)

(Image by google)

 In previous years most of my goals were either met or exceeded…which always makes you feel that the year was totally worth it, and gives you hope for the year ahead. However when reading my letter I realized that I had met…ONE, yes one of my goals! This should have made me feel disappointed and despondent, right? I realized that I set goals that took my life in a certain direction, but I know that I made the right decision when I changed the direction…so the one that I achieved…to Travel :)

Atwater Park in the snow, WI