ORLANDO for winter. pt 2: my heart will go on

Previously: It was very brief. We stayed inside the plane while looking out to the still-dark, Kansas landscape before the plane took off for Boston...and this time for real.

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- DAY 2: DECEMBER 18, 2011 -

We got off at Boston at 7:27 am, and by the time we reached it, we missed our connecting flight which already took off at 7:10 am. This fuss forced Elda and me to rush all the way to Jetblue counter, which was located at the other end of the airport. We were soon informed that our next flight to Orlando was actually BOARDING NOW, and even more, the gate was located at near the gate where we just got off earlier, which was at another end of the airport.

Ta-dum-ta-dum, we were running like two lunatic amateur travelers along the hallway of Boston airport. Thank God we made it on time. It was 8:00 am and we barely ate anything for over 10 hours (we did get good snacks on the flight to Boston, but what I mean is, we haven't had a meal rich enough to store some energy). Elda managed to help herself with a bar of chocolate while boarding the next flight, Jetblue Flight 955 straight to Orlando.

We're finally here!!!

Finally....after some long, butt-burning flights, we made our way to Floridaaaaa

Orlando, here we are!

But Elda and I knew our time for having fun wasn't there yet. We've got things to settle and that's specifically regarding our baggages. Yes, our baggages somewhat went missing (not to mention Elda and I got separated while we were getting into the monorail to the arrival hall. Elda got on first but before I did, the monorail door closed and I needed to wait for the next one. The awkward moment was when everyone there seemed to be staring at my dumbfounded face #funnymoment).

Once we got to Jetblue office, it turned out that several other passengers from the previous flight from San Francisco (same flight with us) encountered similar issues. After taking some time to track our baggages, the staff informed us all that the baggages were still somehow stuck in Boston and would soon be sent to the passenger's residences. Elda quickly gave away our hotel address for the sending convenience.

After getting to our booked shuttle, we went to the hotel, which was located right across the Walt Disney World complex in Kissimmee area. On the way to our hotel, we were given glimpses of the complex while sending some passengers to the hotels located inside the complex. We first thought our hotel would be located inside the complex (even when I saw the Hollywood Tower Hotel building scraping up in the distance, I thought it was our hotel! Excuse my drained energy due to the long flight).

http://5bestvacationrentals.com

Worldgate Resort was our hotel. Though it was considerably small, at least it was convenient! It might not be as grand or luxurious as a five-star hotel (cos it wasn't). But for us students traveling in the US, the place was adequate, reasonable by price, and at least, the most important thing of all, it was clean.

Master Yoda on our room key!

After checking in to the room 505, Elda and I asked for some recommendation on nearby restaurants and transportation. Before leaving for lunch, we asked the front desk to kindly book us a cab to go to Titanic: The Experience (our first attraction in Orlando, sort of our appetizer before the Disneyland), since public transportation was a bit troublesome.

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It was 2:15 pm and please note that we haven't had any proper, heavy meal for almost 18 hours. Elda and I quickly took off to find the most promising restaurant close to the hotel. We stumbled upon Denny's and helped ourselves with soups and cheese fries. Feels good to finally munch on some HEAVY delicacies!

http://thediligentdiletante.blogspot.com

Elda and I went back to the hotel just in time the cab reached the lobby, at around 3:30 am. Half an hour later, we were already at the parking lot of Titanic: The Experience at International Drive. The place turned out to be smaller than what I thought, as the building was shared with stores along the row. But what certainly distinguished the Titanic place along with the other stores were the huge Titanic decoration on the entrance's wall.

As we got in, Elda handed the online ticket she already booked to the cashier, who we noticed to be wearing old clothes, perhaps referring to those dating back to the early twentieth century. The ticket was then exchanged with a sophisticated-looking 'boarding pass', as if we were really about to get on the ship herself.

We were told to wait for a few minutes for more visitors to come. When it was time, the cashier guided us in. It turned out that he was the tour guide for the day. What even makes it mesmerizing is, he did some kind of role play during the tour, like revealing his other side, a completely different version of him: a cheerful, Scottish-accented guy whose persona matches the tour guide's costume (he basically wore an early twentieth century working class outfit complete with a beanie cap). Aside from being a tour guide, he pretty much also acted like the story teller of the ship. I couldn't wait to see what he got to say.

Btw, the cashier we met earlier and the tour guide were the same people

All aboard!


The fascinating telegram room

Ship's sitemap!

The awkward moment when this reminds you of a specific scene from a movie

Chilling in Verandah Cafe! Best used by 1st class passengers

The tour guide said that we were exclusive enough to catch a glimpse of 1st class most luxurious suite. It was said that there were only two suites like the one depicted above in the ship. The owner must be hella RICH.

And the best of the whole main exhibit goes to...

Wait for it...

The Grand staircase

Can't help but to have the Titanic theme song ringing in my head and imagine Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet standing on top of staircase while entering this room. This part is actually the highlight of the entire exhibit

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Things got very emotional when we reached the latter part of the exhibition, where we stepped into a room that resembled the exterior deck overlooking the sea. The night was sound and we all could see stars scattered in the jet black sky hovering the sea. The eerie, cold temperature of the room sent goosebumps, and my feeling was confirmed: the tour guide recounted that it was the night the Titanic sank. The tour guide/Scottish guy narrated how the situation was like that night, as if he really was on the ship at that very moment.

At the end of the main exhibit hall, we found ourselves in a relatively small room with thousands of names written on the wall all over the place. The tour guide amazingly said goodbye to his alter ego, the friendly Scottish-accented guy who has guided the tour all along - and returned to his normal, subtle voice. His upbringing's transition absolutely blew my mind. At that moment was immediately convinced that he must have been in a theatre school or something. Anyway, the tour guide mentioned that his alter ego, the Scottish guy, never left the ship or in short (the Scottish guy the tour guide just role played was obviously fictional)

To close the tour, the tour guide kindly asked us to find the name on the wall in the room that matches the name on each of our boarding pass given in the beginning of the tour. We were to identify whether the person whose name we had on the boarding pass survived or not. The name of those who survived were written bold, and those who didn't were...un-bold. I thought it'd be really hard considering there were LOTS of names on the wall.

But I quickly found the name matching with the name on boarding pass, and she apparently survived the incident.

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Anyway, the room led to a small gallery at the end of the entire exhibition, and the gallery was dedicated to Titanic movie (yes, that famous movie who cleaned up the Oscars back in the 1998 by James Cameron). The hall basically contained of attributes and items from the movie set.

And last but not least...


Holy cow, Leonardo di Caprio's real Jack costume!! #spazzing

After the tour came to an end, Elda and I hung around the gift shop for around half an hour while waiting for the same cab to pick us up.

Once we got back to the hotel, we thought of having dinner at the Downtown Disney, which we thought would be a walking distance from the hotel. But apparently, it's further than seen on the map and requires a shuttle to go there, while shuttle service at that time was no longer available. So we decided to have dinner at Sizzler, who was located a block away from the hotel (remember the receptionist lady informing us about some good restaurants along the hotel rows earlier?)

Sizzlin' Sirloin Steak for dindin!

Right after the fulfilling dinner, we dropped by at McD on the way back to the hotel to buy burgers for breakfast tomorrow. Then approximately at 11.43 pm, we went to bed, as we needed to save some energy for tomorrow because....

Magic Kingdom awaited!!!!!

-Verandah cafe pictures are credit to Elda-

<< Part 1 • • Part 3 >>

ORLANDO for winter. pt 1: departure

As promised, I finally managed to jot down my winter break experience! I might want to focus on Orlando trip and a bit of New York (since I didn't write much journal entries in New York). Anyway, let's get going!

Note: I didn't take lots of picture on the journey. Too busy handling the travel documents and carrying my bags around ^^

- BEFORE THE TRIP -

By the way, a bit about our planning. Aymee first initiated with the idea of going to Orlando on September (in the middle of summer break). I was a bit hesitated at first because going to Disneyworld, as she suggested, didn't sound that appealing to me in the first place compared to going to New York. But I vividly remembered that posted Disneyworld pictures on Facebook and tagged me and Elda on them, consider that as a form of persuasion.

Plus, Aymee mentioned that on Christmas break, everything would look magical in Disneyworld, given the decoration and Christmas-y vibe. After doing a bit of research, I was drawn to Aymee's idea. Thus, we began our planning for real during the Fall quarter that came after the summer break. In the end, it was confirmed that four of us – now with Aymee's boyfriend, Ardy, as the new participant – were positively in for the trip.

Elda and I completed the whole booking for ourselves: hotel, flight, and even Disneyworld. However, Aymee and Ardy seemed to be caught up in a technical glitch while booking for the flight and somehow their flight's schedule was moved to the 19^th. So that makes Elda and I taking off to Orlando two days before they did.

Booked the ticket!

Nothing could beat the happiness of receiving my Disneyworld ticket (been saving my money for this yay)

So all set for the trip!

                               DAY 1: DECEMBER 17, 2011                             

What couldn't have been more relieving than finishing all final exams and a great vacation awaits you? That was what Elda and I felt on December 17, 2011. We were too occupied with our finals that we didn't have time to pack for our upcoming trip to Orlando.

Back to the departure day, believe it or not, I managed to stuff and squeeze everything into my – I don't know – possibly 40”x40” luggage. Seeing that I will be going to New York after Orlando to visit my cousin, I would need to shove both my thick winter jackets and T-shirts to the luggage. These two notable cities in the US are geographically distant, and that quite affected the temperature especially on winter: New York had a potential of snowing while Orlando was relatively warmer than Bay Area.

What a contrast, isn't it?

Anyway, the shuttle was scheduled to pick us up at 7. After packing was done in a flash, I rushed to the post office with Elda in a bit to mail my university application documents, and later on, we went to Ariake Sushi to have a late lunch (it was around 3:30 pm-ish). Then we went back home, did final checking and at 6:30 pm, we got on the shuttle that would take us to San Jose airport.

The journey didn't take long as we arrived at the airport at around 7:00-ish. Our flight was still at 9:30 am. After checking in, we surprisingly met Bill and Siyun in the scanning counter. Bill was taking Siyun to the airport, who was on her way back to Korea for winter break. We soon parted with Bill and the three of us moved to our gates. Elda and I first took Siyun to her gate and talked for a moment because she would be leaving earlier than us. We indeed had a great time but at 8, she had to board the plane. So off she left to LA, before continuing her journey to Seoul.

Elda and I slowly moved to our gate, which was surprisingly located exactly near the same old gate to LA on spring break last year. I munched on Oreo while waiting for the flight, seeing that we wouldn't have meal for at least the next nine hours.

Finally, at 9:26 pm, we were called to board Jetblue flight number 472 on the way to Boston before resuming our flight to Orlando! Our ultimate destination!

See you in 12 days, Cupertino!

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However, midway, I felt the plane was descending. I glanced at my watch for a second to see that it was still midnight, while we were supposed to be arriving in Boston early in the morning. My curiosity was answered when the captain announced that the plane needed to land in Kansas City (excuse my lacking in US geographical knowledge: I barely know where Kansas exactly is located) for medical emergency. Apparently, a passenger was having health issues that they needed to board a doctor in Kansas to check if he's okay. Hope nothing was serious.

It was very brief. We stayed inside the plane while looking out to the still-dark, Kansas landscape before the plane took off for Boston...and this time for real.

Part 2 >>

よろしくね！ (Nice to meet you)

In the midst of uni applications and school hectic-ness, I felt a bit grateful due to this particular volunteer activity. For your info, I haven't participated in any volunteer events this quarter mainly because I had to skip them for other needs (TOEFL test, sudden stomachache on Saturday morning, etc).

Basically, the volunteer event this time didn't take place on Saturday unlike usual, instead, it took place three days in a row on weekdays. I could only attend two out of three sessions though. Basically, De Anza students signed up to interact with Japanese students from Kokusai Junior College in Japan who were on some sort of a field trip to US. We were supposed to give them "American experience" and share stories. Seeing that I learned Japanese for two years (I'm never good at it though), I considered this volunteer pretty much as a chance to finally apply what I have learned for two years in high school in real life.

~DAY 1~

I was quite surprised to see all the Kokusai students turned out to be all girls. They were simply outnumbered by DeAnza students, but that didn't reduce the fun. Anyway, after the icebreaker on the first day - Tuesday, February 21, 2012, Kokusai students and De Anza students had one-to-one conversation on the long table.

The icebreaker game - find someone who could provide answers of these given questions!


The Kokusai group was kind enough to give a souvenir to each De Anza volunteer
An authentic chopstick from Japan! I got the pink one luckily xD

I happened to sit across this cute girl named Airi. I managed to greet and introduce her in my super limited Japanese: "Hi, my name is Carissa. Nice to meet you!". She went "Sugoi!" then I continued in Japanese that I learned it back in high school. Sometimes, when she got caught up in explaining a word in English, she turned to Saki, who sat next to her and asked for a translation. かわいいですね：）

Remember when I said De Anza students should give the Japanese students an "American experience", apparently that wasn't what exactly happened in the end, because instead, it happened in a reverse way. Thing is, Airi asked if I liked Japanese music in the first place, and I couldn't help but to keep the conversation flowing. We ended up talking about J-pop musicians that were familiar to me, like Arashi, NEWS, and Hey!Say!JUMP (mostly Johnny's). On talking about Arashi, I told her my bias is Ninomiya Kazunari, especially after I saw him briefly act in Letters from Iwo Jima. Apparently Airi was a big, big, BIG fan of Sho Sakurai of Arashi and Yamada Ryosuke from Hey!Say!JUMP.

We went screaming, spazzing, fan girling or whatever you call it everytime we mentioned any Japanese artists that we both knew. Every after I mentioned names of Japanese artists I knew, Airi would turn to Saki and talk to her in Japanese, possibly telling her that "Hey this girl knows a lot about Japanese music! >///<". I could see Saki's surprise expression that came afterwards.

Maybe she was surprised I would know that MUCH Japanese artists. Even in the end, it turned out Airi and I were the loudest in the room, where everyone else was just having quiet, adequate conversation. Airi and I were just devoured in our own little fangirling realm.

But it wasn't until we reached the climax, where it was later revealed that we BOTH LOVED NISHIKIDO RYO. Holy...

That reminds me how long it's been since I last spazzed about Jpop. After all this time, I have been drowned quite a while in Kpop industry.

In addition, I also mentioned that my roommate, Elda, was a fan of Japanese culture. I told Airi that Elda introduced me a lot to Japanese stuff and contributed to enriching my Japanese vocabularies. Aww...wish she were there...

I got to bump into other Kokusai students and tried to greet them, again, in my poor Japanese (there's nothing wrong to try, is it? ^^"). They were very friendly and welcoming, though at some points, I was a bit intimidated with their regal looks. For instance, I met this particular Japanese student called Ai and I'm telling you she was super stylish and super tall. She was so sweet anyway :). I bumped into a lot more who mostly came from Saitama and Tokyo.

~DAY 2~

More De Anza volunteers participated this time, and the Kokusai students got even more outnumbered. I didn't quite talk a lot that day since my volunteer shift was short, about an hour or so (I had a class to catch earlier), and especially the new De Anza volunteers were given priority to have one-to-one conversation. So I went on to the side of the room and had a friendly chat with my fellow volunteer folks.

The highlight of the day was the presence of my playful Japanese friend from De Anza, Mona. We finally got to sit down for one-to-one conversation even though it was considerably short.

Mona and I shared conversations with Kate, a Korean-Japanese girl. Mona kinda served as a translator for me. From their conversation, I could hear a bit that Kate was surprised to know Mona was a Japanese, despite living in the US. Kate told Mona and I that she and the rest of the Kokusai students just went to LA the other day, where they got to visit Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, and Universal Studios Hollywood! Kate ecstatically shared her favorite ride of each theme park.

OMG, I was positively jealous with the students at that very second.

Luckily, I still got to greet some of the girls I met yesterday. When I met Airi again, she went: "Oh...(You're the one who likes) Ninomiya Kazunari!", I knew that Airi and other girls I met yesterday still remembered me :)

~DAY 3~

Day 3 wasn't exactly one of the sessions (I missed the actual Day 3 due to History exam), but it was by far the most impressive day out of all Kokusai volunteer days. It took place today, on Friday. I first heard that today's Kokusai meeting was exclusively for De Anza volunteers who came to all 3-days session (because that particular last Kokusai visit day in De Anza would involve lunch and chit chat), while I didn't. But my friend, Channon told me to just come along.

The format of today's meeting was different than any other sessions. Instead of having one-to-one conversation on a long table, the Kokusai students were free to roam around with De Anza students, sitting on the floor, and taking pictures in every corner of the room.

Seeing that Airi, Nozomi, and Haruka did Kpop dance covers previously, they apparently are avid Kpop fans. Airi excitedly scooted over to show Zoey and me videos of particularly Big Bang she keeps in her phone. She told me that her bias in the boyband is T.O.P and we even briefly got to sing 'High High' as performed by T.O.P and G-dragon.

Aside from Kpop, Airi showed me pictures of T.O.P and Chinen Yuri of Hey!Say!JUMP (since I told her before that I loved that boyband). We then briefly danced to Dreams Come True

At one point, I noticed some girls I met on the first day were practicing Kpop dance, like Girls' Generation's Gee and Mr. Taxi. I hesitatingly observed them and complimented their effort. When they figured out I could keep up with the dance's choreography, they instinctively went to their sensei and mentioned something about Girls' Generation to him. The sensei just came to us (the Kokusai girls, Zoey, and me), bringing his laptop over, and guess what he did...

He showed Gee's MV on his very own laptop.

And that was totally unexpected! XD

Yes, so it was revealed that the sensei was a SONE (Girls' Generation's fan), and he even claimed to favor Yoona as his bias of the group lol. That's just amazing! Then he excitedly showed a video of Airi, Haruka, Nozomi as well as other girls who were not on the Kokusai tour performing Gee's dance cover on an event (as well as Ai's drumming skill) to Zoey and me. Zoey and I were instantly mesmerized by the girls' talents! Zoey even took a chance to promote De Anza's very own Kpop dance club :)

The sensei soon encouraged Airi, Haruka, and Nozomi to re-enact the Gee dance they did in the video in front of everyone around the room. Before I knew it, they invited me to join the simple dance cover performance spectated by everyone in the room. I told them I never quite learned Gee's dance in depth, but they kept on encouraging me to join them so I did.

Yeah, I ended up dancing to a Kpop song - Gee - with Japanese girls. The experience was indescribable!

In the latter part of the meeting, we spotted the girls introducing Japanese game involving some sort of hit-and-defend method as you can see in the video below.



Zoey and I put some effort in trying out this game and much to my surprise, Zoey was a quick learner! I got beaten very often. She's so good at this XD


Channon and Kate


Me and Ami!


Saki looks fierce and cool at the same time, doesn't she?


Rock on!

Time flew so fast as we enjoyed our time. The Kokusai students needed to leave for their next destination, Stanford University. We hugged each other when they were just about to take off. They said they would be coming back next year to De Anza and expected to see me, but I would be then transferring to the university :(. "Then find me in Japan!" they said everytime I hugged them. Yes! I'd love to go to Japan and see them by any chance!

It's been such a pleasure to interact with them. The event has become simply more than just volunteer work but a chance to get together with these fantastic Japanese students and gain a priceless experience :)

By the way, the girls are leaving today back to Japan.
よいフライトを*! Wish to see you in another chance!



* : Have a nice flight!

Pictures are credit to:
Ami Matsumoto and Andy Nguyen

3D stuff

You might be surprised to see me coming up with completely different design type. I'm not surprised if you ARE surprised, because 3D is something I have never approached before. Honestly, it takes up more effort than doing 2D (especially that'd be a plus point if you have a good 3D sense, which I'm lacking of, unfortunately). So taking a 3D class this quarter is definitely a challenge but I've liked it so far.

The following two pieces that I produced - you might think, "only two?", but seriously the work time took FOREVER - are the results of the last seven weeks of studio time.

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THE DEMENTED CAT AND ITS POOR PREY
(Wire project)
Medium: Black wire of 20 gauge and 24 gauge, white wire
Inspiration: Tom and Jerry
Highlight: The cat's face
Emphasis: movement
Note:
I wanted to emphasize movement and aggressiveness as portrayed by the cat's pose, hope that came out well. In addition to that, I also thought of making the two "sequels" of the piece, involving the cat lifting up the mouse in its claws, followed by the mouse - now dead - clutched in the cat's mouth. And yes, it's hard to crimp and twist the thick wire since you need a tool for it, whose name I forget. Wish I could have developed more details on to it though ><












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BIG BANG
(Geometric form)
Medium: cover papers of assorted colors and patterned paper contributed by Indri
Inspiration: Solar system????
Highlight: I just loveeee the two balls hanging on each sides of the wire. By the way they are movable.
Emphasis: Interpeneration, Interlocking, Juxtaposition, movement
Note:
According to my classmates and instructor in the critique today, the piece looks "fun, entertaining, and funky". I'm pleased that it received positive reviews. I didn't know where I got the inspiration from cos basically I didn't have the basic sketch for it. I instinctively started off making various kinds of unit (blocks, cubes, pyramids, and even the ball) then put them all together.



















Okay, I'll stop it right there. Don't worry, I'm not going to convert this blog into a complete design blog. I'll still be working on stories, but let's just wait for the right time.

Have a great President's Day long weekend holiday!