Summer..
Well, summers come, and summers gone. In one week from tomorrow we, the students of Flagler Palm Coast High School (among other high schools in the country), will be setting foot in the hallways for another year of school. For some of us, like myself, it will be our last year.
I will, however not dwell on the upcomming school year, but will look back in retrospect on the summer that is now almost a memory.
My summer started out by flying to Venice the day after school let out. We flew to Venice a day before the cruise so that we could check out the city. Venice was beautiful. We took a gondola ride in the canals, it was quite an experience, though, the water was quite filthy, but a clean-up project is in the works, thankfully.
The next day we went to one of the Ports in Venice to board our cruise ship. There were tons of ships in the harbour, some of them dwarfed ours, like one liner, the "Coasta" which could hold over 4,000 people. Our boat was only 1,300. So we got on the "Rotterdam" and set sail for Dubrovnik, Croatia that evening. The rest of the cruise is pretty much one large blur for me, I dont remember all the ports, I dont remember all the sites, but I do remember the moments worth remembering. So thats all I need. The times in "the Loft" were perhaps the most enjoyable..charades, improv, kareoke, the killing game, and some other things. Also, staying up till 1am playing shuffleboard with Anna and just talking with Anna was awesome. I have pictures from the cruise, but there are far too many to post on this, so my dad made an album of about 15 pictures per day from the cruise, so I do have that and will bring it into school one day for all those eager to view it.
After the cruise was over I was quite sad. I really, really had an amazing time on the cruise, a memory second to none. Then we flew from Rome (thats was our last port) to Brindisi (the equalivent of Tampa to Daytona Beach) which is on the other coast of Italy. From Brindisi we drove to Galipoli. Galipoli was nice, but personally, I coulda just gone straight back to the states after the cruise, but I was here, and was gonna make the best of my visit. We saw family and some sites, but thats about it. An interesting fact, though, back when Galipoli was founded, hundreds of years ago, my family was the family that started the fishing industry there. We're in the history books. Its pretty cool. From Galipoli we drove back to Brindisi and flew back to Rome, where we stayed for another four days. We did a few tours of Rome, the ancient city is really extremely interesting, but the city itself was filthy. The garbage men were on strike when we were there, so there was trash littering every corner.
Then we departed Europe. The flight was 10 hours. 1 hour longer than the flight to Europe, but this flight was SO MUCH better. We each had our own personal television in the seat infront of us, as opposed to one big tv for 100 or so seats on the flight to Europe. So that was good. When we landed in Philly we only had like a hour to get to our next flight back to Orlando, not NEARLY enough time. We had to go through Immigration and Customs and stuff. So we ended up missing our flight. We took the next flight. Got in a couple hours later than we wanted too, so we stayed in Orlando overnight, instead of just going straight back home. Atleast we were back in the US.
Then we drove back to Palm Coast. It was really good to be home. That evening I went to See Batman Begins with friends, my entry of that is a few back.
My next trip took me too Tallahasee with Smooha, Taylor, and Luke. We all went to Boys State. It was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it very much. The only complaint was that there were NO GIRLS! Gooosssshhh. One week w/o a girl to talk to...Lucky me, Anna and I talked every night, or so. So that was good, I atleast had female contact on the outside world. My boys state account is also in another entry, so feel free to take a look at that.
The Saturday we got back from Boys State was the Saturday of DCI. It was AWESOME! And, on top of that, I got to see Anna again, for the first time since the cruise. I sat next to Matt for the trip too and from Orlando. It was fun.
That Monday, Anna, her friend Sarah and I went to Disney. That was probably the best day of the vacation. It was a blast. Especially the rain. This story, like many of mine, is also in an entry from the past.
Then I had about two weeks till I went to Washington DC with Jerry for a week-ish.
On July 29th we went to see War of the Worlds, which was a awesome movie. We went to Steak n Shake after it. Good, good times. Elaborated in a previous entry.
July 4th was fun. Hung out with RD and company for most of the time. Was supposed to meet up with Adam and Laura, but they were afraid of the rain :P
Again, my July 4th entry is back in my Journal.
Then on July 5th we went to Washington DC. It was fun. Not as good as NYLC was but I still enjoyed myself. I met some awesome people. Haha, almost every conversation had "Family Guy" in it. It was great. FG is so universal. I also became efficient at Texas Hold 'Em. Which would be good for me in upcomming events of the summer. In the airport I called Anna and we talked about "Saw" for like half an hour.
After I got back from DC I saw the Fantastic Four with people. It was a good movie, not as good as Star Wars, Batman Begins, or War of the Worlds, but it was still pretty good. After that we went to Steak n Shake for food and another spitball fight. Fun, fun.
Then one night I went to see Batman Begins again with Lauren, Ashley, and Kim. That was fun. But, I've seen Batman more than Star Wars and thats an atrocity! Bah! Oh well, Star Wars will be on DVD by November..
Then after about a week of being back from DC I headed to Chicago for an Arts Conference at Loyola University. That was so much fun. Wow. Chicago is an awesome city. I love the skyline. And the water and everything. We went to a comedy club. That was HILARIOUS. My room mate was a cool guy. He was from Boston. I also met a dude from Hawaii, he's a cool guy. Reminds me of Julius, actually. Being asian and all. And a guy named Johnathan from Baltimore. Frank, John and I hung out together most of the time. But we also had our own Team groups. John and I were in the same one, Frank was in another, but he was Johns roommate. One time I busted into their room and Frank was inthere alone, John was in the bathroom, I asked where the other minority was. He laughed. I miss those guys, and my group. I had an amazing group. 13 girls, 2 guys, including myself. VERY good girl to guy ratio, if you ask me. The entire conference had only 19 dudes and 131 chicks. Needless to say, I got my groove on at the dance. Well, not really. They werent playing music, only rap. So, I didnt dance unless dragged onto the floor. The night after the dance Anna and I talked for a good hour, thats a new record for me. The rest of Chicago was really fun.. I enjoyed that trip. Hell, I've enjoyed my summer very much so.
Now, all of my trips are over. So I have time to do school work..haha..school work. I've read two books and thats it. BUT now that I'm not in Honors English IV anymore those two books I read did not have to be read..that pissed me off. Now I gotta read a whole new set. I was almost done with the other one. Bah. So much for reading Harry Potter this summer..Although, I think I'd be able to fit that in.
The past couple of Tuesdays I've been at Josh's house with people. Its been a lot of fun. Especially poker. Yesterday I won a COMPLETE pot. Cause I'm cool like that. Granted, it was a face up hand cause we wanted to get to the next game, but I still won!
This has by far been the best summer I've ever had.
Anyways, today I went to the dentist and then went to wal mart. I picked up an oasis cd (whats the story morning glory) and a pack of gum. My receipt said that my change due was $1600's! I was like Its christmas all over again! But, in reality, the cashier only owed me a quarter. So that was a let down. Oh well. Its a good cd.
Reminds me of the cruise.
Ah, nostalgia..
-Tom