Video of the day!~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12PsUW-8ge4
quote of the day!~
"watching the science channel and it was a show on how they do things. the topic was sorting train cars to go to destinations. and one of the key parts of the train yard is "a hump" where they bring cars to the top and gravity sort them to other cars right. the guy who runs it is called the hump Master. the train engine that brings the cars to the top is called the mother. the back up engine is called the snail. and the dude on tv said *were going to use the mother and the snail to push the cars and then we will hump them*. XD"--Matt
took a while to get the wifi to work. we're not supposed to get it in the rooms, but i guess im close enough to the pool. low signal strength tho.
sooooo Bahamas! yay. lots of stuff to say.
airport business--no problems there. planes were on time. but we thought they had changed the rules and made it so that you could finally bring water bottles (with water in em). well, you still can't. 5$ for 2 water bottles. rip offffffff.
the security guard right before you go thru security, sees that my mom lets me go through security all by myself. 'how old are you?' he asks me. 'er..19' i say
'what?! you look like a baby'
'um...hehe (-__-)'
i was waiting at the other side of the conveyer belt thing where they send ur stuff thru the xray machine. and i was like'hey my backpack hasnt gotten thru yet, but it was definitely before that lady's stuff' so i asked a guy and he said it probably got sent back thru' and i was thinking 'whhaa?'. so i waited and five minutes later i was getting worried. lol i look at the first thing at the end of the conveyer belt and guess what? its my fucking backpack. it was there the whole time
i didnt recognize it. so i was just like *grab and run* and my mom was just giving me that 'you're fucking stupid look'
My mom brought her kindle, and she wanted me to explain how to play Minesweeper. So I do, but then i realize...
I probably shouldn't be saying bomb on a plane. derp
"final approach"~as george carlin says, final is not a good word to use on an airplane. terminal sucks as well XD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DagVklB4VHQ the bahamian beach does look amazing, especially from an airplane. the water is so frickin BLUE.
so we're getting closer and closer to land. i was expecting loads of palm trees, roads, hotels/resorts, basically tourism central. (bahamas is mainly tourism) what i saw was brownish fields and lots of dead trees. i couldnt tell if they were just wooden sticks in the grounds or trees so dead they didnt even have branches, but either way the few healthy trees were sparse. and definitely not palm trees. they strangely looks kind of evergreen-ish. i mean, what i'd heard of Freeport, it sounded like the area near the airport would be, well, nicer looking.
the airport is small. not that im expecting it to be big. dur. but its one thats so small taht the plane just lands and taxis in next to the entrance and the passangers have to walk down a set of stairs to the ground to the outside (90 degrees out) to hurry into the airport and thru immigrations and customs. and plus, we were with a whole bunch of boy scouts. one of the troop leaders was a woman (wtf?) and they were all either 12 or younger, or really old and nerdy. (a couple looked my age and nerdy). we had a crying baby on the plane too. and they dont even give out snacks anymore, just a beverage. (US airways)
So we get thru customs and immigration ok, get our luggage no problem, and proceed to take a cab. The driver sits on the left side in the bahamas, we had been wondering if maybe they sat on the right, since the British had taken it over way back when. but no, they do sit on the left side of the car. however, they DRIVE on the left side of the road. this is just messed up. Our taxi cab was more of a van than a sedan. And it barely looked like it would hold together. But we did get to the resort ok (Island Seas), even though he did drift over to the other side of the road (the right side pff) and got honked back to attention. fare was 25$ dollars, not including tip. Later in the lobby of the resort, we found out the fare is only supposed to be 22$ dollars. We got taken, yes -__-.
Check in was at 4. We got there around 2:30. In all the other timeshares I've been too, and even at regular hotels, the staff has had our room ready before the actual check in time so we could get right in and settle down and our luggage would be delivered to us promptly. Not here -___-. Not only did we have to wait until 4, but once it turned 4, we had to wait 30 extra minutes before our room was ready. We were told 'I'll come get you in 5 minutes' at 4. Me and my mom were kind of pissed off. Plus, our luggage was given to a bellboy. We didn't get it at our room until 5. Mom extremely agitated. Me silently putting up with it XD.
The room: not too bad, really. Not impressive only in that it looked so similar to other resort rooms we've been to. But the washer and dryer isnt in the room, its in another building. and you have to pay $1.50 for tokens to use them. And you have to use a 'guest charge card' in order to get towels for the beach/pool and return the towels to the pool by 5 so you don't get charged. as in, if you wanna go swimming after 5, you better have your own towel. And at the convenience store on the resort, a half gallon of milk and a half gallon of orange juice came to $11.10. Yeah, i was taken there too, probably cuz 1.I was alone 2. they thought i was twelve 3.I tried to charge it to the room with the guest charge card, which i couldn't (every other place I've stayed allows you to do that) so they knew i didnt know shit. We're gonna go shopping at a regular grocery store on Monday; the resorts got a free shuttle there.
Speaking of shuttles, we were planning on going to this 'International Bazaar' a big shopping area. We were told by Interval International that it's only a half mile from the campus, easy walking distance. It's not. It's 2 miles. A terrible walking distance from the resort in this heat. (yeah, i know we did go to the bahamas in July of course its hot, k, shut up XP). and there's no free shuttle there, so we'd have to take another taxi (but HA we already know what it would cost to get there so try to take advantage of us now you sons of a biscuit eating bulldogs.) There's also this place called Port Lucaya, another big shopping area. The resort does have a free shuttle there, at scheduled times. Sounds cool, no? One problem. The last shuttle to go there leaves at 6:10. The last shuttle to bring you back gets there at 6:30. Wanna go in the evening, maybe have a nice dinner and shop when its cooler out? Too bad, you'll need your own way back -__-.
And speaking of limited freedom, we have to wear an ID band around our wrists. Ours is gold, because we're timeshare owners. It allows us to get 10% off meals at the resorts' restaurant (which does have good food, i must say). This is would be awesome if we could take off the thing/put it back on whenever we want. But no, this thing is a hospital band, just not bright yellow (although if you're not a timeshare owner, its either yellow or bright green). Its not meant to be taken off, and even the front desk people told us to wear it at all times before they promptly snapped it around our poor unwilling wrists. What is this, a hospital? We can't just give them our room number, and then they'd know from that information that we're gonna get 10% off? That's what other resorts we've been to have done. Sorry to keep comparing, but it's difficult not to. Luckily, the lady put mine on loose enough I can, with enough work, slip it off my hand. My mom's screwed, hers is on a lot tighter. And the end where they snipped off the extra band is SHARP. :c
Sounds like I'm just complaining huh? Well, I guess we were just overtired and pissed off for having to wait so much. The pool here's nice. We have our own private section of the beach. But I'm not done complaining just yet.
The smoke detector in our room was hanging by the wire from the ceiling. Luckily we've had that taken care of. There's weird stains on the mirror, looks like spots of oil, but they wont come off. Otherwise very nice. Pull out sofa bed quite comfy, with nice TV.
Today, my mom woke me up at 4 am to tell me she didnt feel well. Then at 8:30 am she woke me up for good, and she felt a lot worse. She has Traveler's diarrhea. We think its from the tap water. But she's doing a lot better :D, just weak and tired/drowsy since she took too many Imodium AD. I've been helping her get around and stuff, and got a lifeguard to help us too, like allowing us to move the chairs at the pool into the shade, and getting a free water bottle at the bar. Btw, dinner last night was excellent. My mom had grilled grouper, and i tried some, i loved it. I had a swiss burger and fries. very tasty. the fries are actually quite good. Afterwards, my mom had a few bloody marys, and a resulting statement was: 'let's have fun! we're in the tropic of cancercorn!' Oh mom XD <3. Also, drinking age in the Bahamas is 18. mom: 'hey want a pina colada? or a bloody mary?' me: 'no, mom that's against my integrity'. I made a promise to try as hard as I can to never drink alcohol, even when i do turn of age. today for lunch i got a TUNA MELT! (YES TUNA!! WOOT!) and more of the excellent fries which are in a take home box in the fridge right now and getting some serious NOM consideration atm.....>.>....<.<...
well, tomorrow we have to go to a 90 min timeshare selling/presentation at 9am. Pros: Free breakfast, tshirts, 3 hours island adventure/tour thing (one of the stops is the International Bazaar :D), and a free 3night stay at one of several options of places in the future, one of which was LAS FREAKING VEGAS (love it there) cons: itll probably be boring. but only 90 minutes. and my mom'll of course say 'no we don't want to buy a new timeshare, my daughter's in college.' And they'll stare at me, thinking, wait, I thought she was in middle school?
XD summary: having fun, but could be better.
