EPCOT

Our seventh grade field trip to EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow)was on Thursday the 21st. Here's how my day went (the times are estimates):

4:15 AM- Alarm clock went off. Snooze button got hit two times.
4:30 AM- I'm actually awake now. Went downstairs and got breakfast.
4:45 AM- Sleeping.
5:00 AM- Getting ready to leave, although still half asleep.
5:10 AM- Running really late. You have to get to the bus ramp by 5:15.
5:13 AM- Driving to school.
5:17 AM- On bus and the teachers are taking role call.
5:30 to 7:30 AM- Sleeping.
8:00 to 10:00 AM- They showed a movie (Alice in Wonderland) on the TV. I played Blackjack with five other people sitting near me though (somebody was thoughtful enough to bring a deck of cards on the bus). We played so many rounds that after a while, somebody actually started to tell time from it (example: "What time is it?" "It's five Blackjacks after 8."
10:15 AM- We depart from bus. Park tickets and dinner passes were distributed.
10:30 AM- The teachers let us loose. Now that you're in seventh grade, you no longer need a chaprone with you. You only need a buddy along with you.

My buddy and I started by visiting the gift and souvenir shop, Mouse Gears. We bought a bag of cotton candy.

11:30 AM- Ran into a group of friends at the ice cream shop. Agreed to rendezvous at Norway at noon, in front of the boat ride, Maelstrom.

11:45 AM- Finished up ice cream and started to head towards Norway.
11:50 AM- Decided to visit Mexico on the way to Norway.
11:55 AM- Touring Mexico Square and looking at wooden animal carvings.
12:00 PM- Speed walking towards Norway because we're late.
12:10 PM- Arrived at Norway. Didn't see anybody we know there.
12:15 PM- My buddy phoned one of the friends. She said they'd be there soon.
12:20 PM- The group shows up. They were late because they were riding Test Track.
12:30 PM- On the boat ride, Maelstrom. At first, it went pretty well. We were riding along water, looking out at scenes of Vikings. Then, the boat wandered into Troll Country. The trolls were unsightly, so I closed my eyes (before you laugh, try looking at a troll without making a face). They were chanting,"This is Troll Country! Go back! Go back! Go back!" The boat went backwards (the trolls were supposedly pushing us back). We passed by polar bears (I didn't get this. The trolls pushed us back through a different path. But why were there polar bears?) Anyway, then while we were going backwards, we were going up on an incline (not a steep one though). We looked behind us, and saw light coming in through an archway (almost like a door), which all of us knew leads to the outside (we saw a waterfall on the front side of the ride entrance and thought it was for show). But then, a thought occured to all of us. We're going to drop down backwards. We were all screaming and holding on the the bar in front of us. A few seconds later, the boat turned to the right by about a foot or so, and we slid down a little slide. Then we went up another incline, but this time, we ended up at the entrance/exit. "That's it?" we had all asked in unison. I later realized the people behind us weren't screaming like we were when we came to what looked like the backwards drop. They probably have been on the ride before, and now think that we are complete lunatics.
12:25 PM- The ride duration was about two minutes, but we were all a little spazzed out because of the illusion of the fake drop. The people who were afraid of drops probably had jelly arms from holding on to the bar too tightly. After that little
escapade, we decided to visit the countries. We went with China, since it was the closest to Norway (besides Mexico, which my buddy and I already visited). We merely passed through and did some sightseeing. The group bought umbrellas that look like panda bears. After China, we visited Germany and its sweet shoppes (that's how it was spelled). We looked in Karamel-Kuche, looking at all the caramel apples and being sure to look at the pickle tree(in Germany, kids decorate Christmas trees, and the adult hides a pickle ornament somewhere on the tree. The first kid who finds the pickle, gets a little extra gift from jolly old St. Nicholas. They were even selling some pickle ornaments, but they cost something around eight dollars each. No. Way.) Our group visited Japan and we spent a lot of our time there. I kept on getting annoyed by the robot that pops out of a display rack (it's part of the Kim Possible thing). Japan has the COOLEST and most RANDOM stuff!! There was a demonstrator outside who's showing everyone how to make Japanese candy. They look SO real!! She made a giraffe, a flamingo, a dragon, a monkey, and who knows what else! She was kneading the colors in, molding it, and painting the finishing touches on it. It was so cool. I took pictures.

Around 1PM- Our group separated in Japan, and my buddy and I went back to Italy, which we had skipped while we were going to Japan. Simply some sightseeing.

We passed the Great American Adventure without really looking into what it is. It wasn't really a country, so I guess we didn't really pay attention to it.

Then, after that, we passed Japan again and went to Morocco. There were street vendors selling stuff like jewelry and belly dancer outfits. The floors, walls, and the streets were made out of stuff that replicates the buildings in the real Morocco. Dried mud, it looked like. But I'm sure they built it out of something else that looks like mud or clay. I don't like the penny pressing maching in Morocco. It ate my two quarters, AND my penny!

The city I've been wanting to go to, FRANCE! I bought souvenirs there including a gold Eiffel Tower chain, and a French fridge magnet. We also saw the show happenning out on the street. There were two guys, and one's dressed as a chef, and he had a whistle. The other guy was standing on top of five chairs stacked together (which was AMAZING!). Then, the guy on the chairs did a handstand on the back of a chair and a giant four foot tall plastic champagne bottle! I took pictures of that, and I'll share them with you once I figure out where I put my camera.

We crossed the International Gateway (with some difficulties. It involved getting confused and losing all sense of direction) and explored United Kingdom and Canada. The Beatles actually perform in UK; we passed by the stage. The gift shops were even selling Beatles posters.

We had gone in a circle, and we decided to finally do the Kim Possible thing. We went to the recruit center at the entrance, and we got sent to the nearest country, Mexico. We just went and discovered some clues about what evil plan Drakken and Shego is up to. We simply try to find the items Wade showed us on the screen of the phone we got (it's called a Kimmunicator. Get it? Kimmunicator. Communicator. Ha ha). Once you find that item, press a button (I didn't get to touch the Kimmunicator. My buddy was the one doing it. My fingers were sticky cuz the cotton candy. Hers too, but she has an available hand. I was holding the cotton candy bag and the map of EPCOT (never put it away. I hate getting lost)on the Kimmunicator while standing close to it and something will happen. We finished our mission pretty quickly. The last item was to find a box. We found it at the side of the Mexican building and dropped the Kimmunicator into the box. We were done.

In the latter half of the day, my buddy and I bought another bag of cotton candy. That and the ice cream sundae was pretty much what we ate that entire day, if you don't count water and breakfast. Then, at around 5:00 PM, we went back to the meeting place, the Electric Umbrella. The teachers took role call, then we boarded the bus at 6:00 PM. This time, no Blackjack. I was just sitting there and watching TV. Shows on Nickalodeon like iCarly and Victorious was on. So I sat there and listened to girls singing the theme songs while the boys mumble. One of our chaprone teachers exclaimed after the girls were done singing,"So you can remember THAT, but you can't seem to remember that a negative plus a negative equals a negative?!" That was pretty funny.

A little while later though, about ten minutes from the school, a bus broke down. Not kidding. Our Astro bus stopped right in front of Wendy's. We were pretty confused on what was happening. Some people asked,"Are we getting Wendy's?" About five minutes later, we were informed that a bus had broke down. After a little while of sitting there looking out at the Wendy's place, several students had climbed aboard on our bus. I guess the kids in the broken bus divided into four groups (there were five buses in total) and each group got into the remaining four buses. I didn't have anybody sit next to me before, but after that incident, I did.

Anyway, we continued on. I don't know what they're doing with the broken bus back at Wendy's, but the rest of us are heading back to school.

Ten minutes later, we arrived back at Deerlake's bus ramp. I checked out with the chaprone to make sure that I came back from EPCOT, and then I went home with my parents, who were waiting for me at the ramp. I told them all about the trip there, my day at EPCOT, and the trip back; I explained to them why I was late in arriving.

After telling my story, I decided to blog about it. It was a pretty fun trip. I can't wait until I'm in eighth grade. I hear you get to go on a cruise!

After telling my story, I decided to blog about it. Hope you enjoyed reading all the trouble I've gone through. The reason it took me this long to post this was because my computer kept messing up and I lost what I've typed TWICE. I finally typed it all up again. Halloween post coming up shortly.