Being a tourist

On Monday, 10th of January I was ready for the arrival of my parents and much of the time I spoke of how I really wished my sister Lynda- Jane could come. So I went up to the airport and waited for what seemed forever for my parents to come through the gate. I ran over to them as soon as I saw them.

I gave my dad a hug and then saw a look on my mum’s face that said “You hugged him first?” so I reached over and hugged her too. All the while I was completely unaware that right in front of my nose was my big, little sister (She’s older but shorter!)

When I noticed her I went into complete shock. She had told me lots of times that she still needed to inquire about her holidays and that it just wouldn’t be possible for her to come. Of course she maintains that she didn’t lie to me because she didn’t phrase it exactly like that. I’m not so sure.

She says that she really didn’t know if I was going to hug her or strangle her, but of course I hugged her and then broke into tears. I’m sure if you ask Charlie nicely he’ll give you the photographic evidence.

So I spent the first day recovering from the apparently nice surprise. I don’t think any surprise is nice cause I don’t like surprises, but I guess it could have been worse.

The next day I took my family into the office and introduced them. I’m pretty sure that they remember no one except for Charlie and Renee. Possibly the Care College teachers because they gave us food.

The rest of the week was spent shopping, not very appreciated by my dad. He did have fun at the Apple shop and of course I did too cause he bought me a new laptop - for university. We did take one day off shopping and went to the beach and the cinema.

It was nice to show them around but I got sick of all the driving.

The second week we did a lot. We spend half of Monday at Disney MGM, which really wasn’t very good apart from The Muppets section- I truly believe The Muppets are where my obsession with puppets comes from.

Tuesday we went to Disney Magic Kingdom and went on every ride possible. It was fun to plan it all out and a few rides we had time to go on twice. My sister and I did get quite wet on Splash Mountain though, as we had to sit at the front.

However, it was no where near as wet as we got at Universal. We went to Islands of Adventure and went on the Ripsaw log flume ride. My sister and I thought it would be fair to make my parents sit at the front. However, this ride was designed to make everyone in the log soaked to the bone from head to toe. My dad has the evidence of that.

In my opinion Universal and Islands of Adventure were definitely the best. We had such a good day even though we spent most of it dripping and squelching.

We spent part of Thursday at Disney Epcot and I was pleased to find a proper English pub (without all the smoke). We went in for lunch and had proper fish and chips. Nearly as good as all the delicious food my mum cooked! Ireland is definitely the place to go for proper food! Thankfully we found the nice food after we went on the Mission Space ride. It is a simulator for astronauts. You sit in a rocket and are blasted off into space, with proper G-forces and lightheadedness. I felt quite ill afterwards, but my parents thought it was the best simulator they had ever been on. I’m just glad I never have to do it again.

On Friday we left my dad with Gary (the dad of my host family) so that they could go fishing and my dad could avoid more shopping. My sister and mum piled into my car and we drove back up to Orlando. After getting lost for a while (it was only about 30minutes) we finally made it to the Orlando outlet malls. We decided to leave early so my dad wouldn’t be mad with us, but unfortunately we got lost again. I think we were only lost for about 45minutes, but the route we ended up taking home made us 2hours late. Lucky we left early otherwise we wouldn’t have made it for dinner.

Yesterday I went with my family to the airport and it was really hard to say goodbye to them. I won’t see them again for about 5months (unless my visa doesn’t work out) but I’m sure that they’ll be in touch a lot so it won’t be too bad. The last five months flew by so I’m sure the rest of my time will too.

It was also a bit strange to be in the airport but not be leaving myself. It felt like I should be going too, like it was only a holiday or something. Thankfully Charlie is trying hard to get me back into the old routine so everything will fall back in to place soon I’m sure.