Visiting Florida's Capital: Tallahassee

So....its been a while since my last blog, and its probably about that time again then to update it, huh?Well let's see now, where did I leave off?

Oh yes, last Friday we got the white glove award for having one of the cleanest apartments; needless to say, my apartment once again is trashed and looks like an apartment with 6 girls smushed into would normally look like: a hot mess. Pretty much after inspection, I went to work and then home to sleep.

Saturday (11/13/10) I went to work, and had a shift gap. During the gap, I played around the park with Amanda, Gina, Dakotah, and Tamiyah. Pretty much we didn't do anything, but wander around the park. After we wandered, we went back to work for the double Main Street Electrical Parade. The fun thing about this night was Snookie was at the park! Snookie is a character on the reality TV show called Jersey Shore. This is a celebrity that I recognized and I ended up talking to her dad. I had no idea it was her dad until I asked if he had made it to Epcot's Food and Wine, since the 14th was its last day, and he looked and me and asked if I assumed he would be at Food and Wine because of his daughter...(insert pulling at the collar now). He was just joking, but of course I was super scared that I had somehow offended them. My favorite part about Snookie being at the park, was how she looks just like she does on TV, orange with giant hair (she even had a little princess tiara)!

Snookie at Magic Kingdom

 Anywho, the next day was then Sunday (11/14/10) and I worked. But it wasn't my normal 1:45pm to 4, shift gap, then 6 to whenever. No, this day I worked 10am to 4pm! So when I got done at 4pm I had no idea what to do with myself, suddenly all this free time was available and I was just left confused. So after work, Amanda, Gina, and I decided to watch a movie and make some baked goods, so we went to the store and played around. The floor was so slippery that Dakotah was pretending she was an ice skater! We finally left the store with the fixings for puppy chow, oatmeal raisin cookies, and strawberry bananas pie. Then we returned to my apartment and put it all together. Somewhere during our cooking/ laughing, Gracie came and joined in the fun! We got so distracted with our cooking and laughing that we never ended up watching a movie, instead Amanda made a ton of JibJabs. JibJabs are a website where you can instert your friends faces into movies and then watch them dance and stuff. Here is an example of a Halloween one and Christmas one that Amanda made:

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/qU96oMPbcxNmHIi0?cmpid=ey_fb_self
and
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/VPTc1em6SXxTz7FN

After that excitement, it was Monday (11/15/10) and once again I went to work. I worked until 8:45, went home packed really quickly for my visit to Tallahassee, then went over to Tamiyah's apartment because people were throwing Alex a surprise birthday party! Since Alex was forced to extend, he didn't get done until after I had already left, sigh. I left early so that I could get to the bus station an hour before my bus departed like my ticket told me to. That is some lies that Greyhound fed me. There was absolutely no reason for me to have been at that bus stop that early! Whatever, Dakotah and I got to chill in a super sketchy bus stop at 1am. True life: we were the youngest and only females in the entire place. Luckily, there were a ton of cops there, so I wasn't too scared. I got on the bus, sat next to a woman who was asleep, and then I feel asleep on the bus.

The Capital Building of Florida

I got to Tallahassee at 5:50 in the morning. That was a disgusting time to be awake. Jenny picked me up, and then we went back to her apartment and went back to sleep until about 11am. Then we went to a seafood restaurant called Crystal River. It was good, but not as good as the hole-in-the-wall place Barnacle Bills. After some nom noms, we went back to Jenny's apartment and as she got her lesson plan in order for teaching that night at TCC (Tallahassee Community College) I distracted her by showing her pictures of my adventures! After I got done showing her all of them, I was time for her class. This is her Introduction to Statics class, and I got to sit in on it. It was interesting sitting in on a class that I'd already taken. I knew all the material and it was pretty self-explanatory the way Jenny was teaching it, but these kids were simply not getting it and frankly, didn't seem to care. Its hard to see students not care when you come from a background of academic integrity and success. I feel like I was always pushed to do my best in my studies and treat my teachers with respect, but alas these students were not raised this way.  Anyways, after class was over, Jenny and I went to a scrumptious dinner at Food Glorious Food! Then, we went back to the apartment, watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Toy Story 3, and finally went to bed.

Tallahassee Community College

 The next morning (Wednesday 11/17/1) we got up and went to Florida State University so Jenny could get herself ready for class, grade some papers, and such. At FSU, we also ate at the food court, we had Caribbean food at Pollo Tropical, it was indeed quite tasty. Then we walked a little bit of the campus, visited the book store, and enjoyed the August-type weather that was occurring in November. Frankly, if I didn't own a calendar I would have no idea what month it is. The weather in Florida is so bizarre to me, its almost always nice out or hot. A part of me misses the simplicity/ complexity of the MN seasons. Well, once we made it back to Jenny's office, I got to meet some of her fellow students working on their doctorates in bio-statistics. Then, it was time for Jenny to go to class, so I sat in her office, talked to Mom, and tried to plan what Mom and Aunt Barb are going to do in Orlando when they come to visit. Thus far, I believe they are going to do the Magic Kingdom backstage tour: Keys to the Kingdom; Mickey's Very-Merry-Christmas Party; some sort of nice dinning; and who knows what else! 

The statistics building at FSU

 After a good long time of trying to figure that out, Jenny got done with class, and we went shopping. Since I've been living in Florida for a while now, I never had a need to restock my jeans that were destroyed by last years winter, basically I've been surviving just fine in shorts. But as January quickly is upon us, I fear that winter in Belgium simply will not allow me to wear shorts for fear of hypothermia. So, Jenny and I went shopping and I got some jeans and a new winter hat. I was so excited about my hat, until I went outside and remembered that "Oh wait, its still 80 degrees out, I don't need a hat!" After we got done shopping, we went back to Jenny's apartment to drop off our stuff, then sat around for a while whilst figuring out what we were going to eat for dinner. We went to a cute little French cheese place called Clusters and Hops and I had some of the best food that I have ever eaten in my life! Jenny and I split a meat and cheese tray with cheeses from all over the world (my favorite!) Then, I had a duck and prosciutto dish with some sort of pasta/peas on it; and then I had a peanut butter chocolate dessert which consisted of a scoop of pumpkin spice ice cream,  peanut butter and chocolate cake, a smore made with thin mint Girl Scout cookies, and almonds. YUMMY! NOM NOM NOM! I wish I had taken a picture it was so good! After we left, I went into a food coma as we watched The Sandlot and L.A. Confidential.


I feel asleep to LA Confidential and woke up at 4:30am to Jenny telling me I should get ready because my bus was leaving Tallahassee at 5:50am. I got up, changed, said my goodbyes to Murrs, and we were off. Since I had forgotten to grab something to eat at Jenny's, we grabbed a fancy breakfast at McDonalds and went to the Greyhound Station. Once again, I got to deal with the odd folks who ride the bus. Unlike my last encounter with the bus where it was early, this bus was an hour late in leaving the station. Jenny left to go home and sleep, but I stayed and got to deal with the weirdos. My bus driver tried to make a joke about Minnesota saying, "I've had cream soda, grape soda, lime soda, but I've never had a Minnesoda. What's that like?" To which I wittily retorted, "cold and with a lot of lakes." Man, I am not on my A game at the early hours of the morning. So the bus was late, meaning that I got to Orlando at 12:20pm. Luckily, Dakotah was a saint and picked me up, then the two of us booked it to our apartments to get our costumes, changed in the car, and still somehow made it to work on time early. From leaving the bus stop in downtown at 12:20pm, we got to work on time before 1:45pm. AWESOME! Then I worked for 10 hours, that was not so awesome, but Dakotah and I got to be parade escorts together for the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade, so that was pretty rad. When I got done with work, I went home and slept.

Friday (11/14/10) I got up and went to work thinking that I had a shift gap from 4 to 6:15, but luckily CDS decided to bridge my gap for me, so I ended up working another 10 hour day. This day I got to be parade escort again, but this time it was for the Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade. Still pretty cool to be parade escort! When I got home from work, I once again just passed out.

Saturday (11/15/10) I got up and starting writing this blog post, but then had to go to work, so stopped. I worked the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade on the west side, and when I got done I had a shift gap. During the gap, Nesa and I walked around the park looking in stores for potential Christmas gifts. Plus, we rode the Stitch's Great Escape ride, so there goes another ride off my checklist of things to do. Nesa wanted to ride the Carousel of Progress, but about five minutes into the ride, it broke, so I had a minor freakout that I was going to be late for work at 6:15, but we all just peaced out and got off the ride ourselves, so it was all good. Then during the Electrical Light Parade I had mean people say rude things to me, but alas, yet another day working PAC. Now, I am home and ready to go to sleep. Goodnight!

PS: Thank you Sandy for sending me my Girl Scout cookies! You're the best!!!