oh. my. god.
holy crap. im back safe and sound in the U.S. after perhaps the craziest 8 days of my life, even to rival spring break. who would have guessed it was a family vacation? actually, i didnt really even see my family all that much, except at dinner. we went out of manhattan on the carnival legend. the boat was so big it was entirely possible to search for someone all day and never find them, which is annoying (esp. when they are hoarding all the sunscreen!) so my lack of reapplications of sunscreen left me with some pretty bad sun poisoning. im alright, just really really itchy with a rash type thing. it was like africa. the bottoms of my feet are burnt to a crisp from walking from my lounge chair to the pool. i have never experienced weather so incredibly hot before, but oh man, i am tan =) at least the sun poisoning didnt ruin that or you'd never hear the end of it.
so let's see...some of my less-than-stellar highlights include wasting a shitload of money in the huge casino on-board after teaching myself how to play poker while intoxicated, breaking my camera by dropping it two decks below, breaking my CD player, breaking my cell (the only thing that was able to be fixed), swallowing half the ocean during my near stingray attack/snorkel adventure, hitting my head every morning on the bunk bed, using my eyeglasses to mix my drinks, smoking in the 2x2 shower, waking up some dude's sleeping underwear-clad parents to borrow the dad's bong, almost flying off a cliff in an insane taxi ride gone terribly wrong, and of course, somehow managing to karokee to britney's i'm a slave for you.
but all of these things all brought much laughter after the fact and made for some very entertaining pictures.
the first two days we were at sea so jess and i just hung out by the pools all day eating ourselves to oblivion cuz there wasn't much else to do. but the second night we went to the club and made some smirnoff-induced friends. hi anthony and seth =) second night was formal night so it was fun to get all pretty and dressed up. my dress was funky! every night of the cruise after our yummy 5-course dinner all 15 of us (my fam, donna+jess, aunt+uncle+cousin, kathy+ian+julie) went to see the amazing shows in the palace-room. the boat was so gorgeous, i cant get over how fancy and big everything was.
but anyway, third day we got to puerto rico. i thought san juan was beautiful. the beach was so tropical, but the city part was nothing really special i guess. crazy puertoriccan night, i was so tan at this point everyone in the town was speaking to me in spanish, convinced i was a native. might have been the night of the four-person wipeout on the lido deck. hahahaha fun times, fun times.
next day was st. thomas. i've been there before but that island is so amazingly beautiful no matter how many times you go, you're still in awe. went shopping in the morning, but then it rained so me and my mom went back on the boat to hit up the spa instead. cleared up late-afternoon and we hit up the beach on a near-death taxi ride that had me saying my hail marys. went snorkeling at the beach (read: freaked out) and got ripped off some island beers. i was a little wild this night, doing a full britney spears impersonation at the karokee bar. lol, but hey, i made a lot of friends.
tortola was hands down the nicest place ive ever been. the island is breathtaking, even though its where i got sun poisoning. banana boated again cuz i am brave. chopped down my own coconut to make some coconut rum punch which was nasty. another amazing night, comedy shows, massages, clubbing, and star gazing.
the last two sea days were out of control. anthony kept us up latenights, so i just melted into my loungechair in the morning and tried to sleep. couldnt find a single person from my family all day, so i somehow wound up next to a family who only spoke italian. i had to interpret for them the whole day. it was kind of neat though.
i had the most incredible time but i was ready to come back home. i couldnt take the plethora of newlywed couples on the boat by the last day. it was almost unbearable to watch couples hand-in-hand everywhere i looked. i missed shawn so much it's sickening, i was practically in tears on the phone. we had a wonderful long weekend together right before i left and i got spoiled. *sigh* i love that boy. and in one more night this awful long-distance obstable is going be over.
if you read this all the way to the end, go find yourself a hobby.
so let's see...some of my less-than-stellar highlights include wasting a shitload of money in the huge casino on-board after teaching myself how to play poker while intoxicated, breaking my camera by dropping it two decks below, breaking my CD player, breaking my cell (the only thing that was able to be fixed), swallowing half the ocean during my near stingray attack/snorkel adventure, hitting my head every morning on the bunk bed, using my eyeglasses to mix my drinks, smoking in the 2x2 shower, waking up some dude's sleeping underwear-clad parents to borrow the dad's bong, almost flying off a cliff in an insane taxi ride gone terribly wrong, and of course, somehow managing to karokee to britney's i'm a slave for you.
but all of these things all brought much laughter after the fact and made for some very entertaining pictures.
the first two days we were at sea so jess and i just hung out by the pools all day eating ourselves to oblivion cuz there wasn't much else to do. but the second night we went to the club and made some smirnoff-induced friends. hi anthony and seth =) second night was formal night so it was fun to get all pretty and dressed up. my dress was funky! every night of the cruise after our yummy 5-course dinner all 15 of us (my fam, donna+jess, aunt+uncle+cousin, kathy+ian+julie) went to see the amazing shows in the palace-room. the boat was so gorgeous, i cant get over how fancy and big everything was.
but anyway, third day we got to puerto rico. i thought san juan was beautiful. the beach was so tropical, but the city part was nothing really special i guess. crazy puertoriccan night, i was so tan at this point everyone in the town was speaking to me in spanish, convinced i was a native. might have been the night of the four-person wipeout on the lido deck. hahahaha fun times, fun times.
next day was st. thomas. i've been there before but that island is so amazingly beautiful no matter how many times you go, you're still in awe. went shopping in the morning, but then it rained so me and my mom went back on the boat to hit up the spa instead. cleared up late-afternoon and we hit up the beach on a near-death taxi ride that had me saying my hail marys. went snorkeling at the beach (read: freaked out) and got ripped off some island beers. i was a little wild this night, doing a full britney spears impersonation at the karokee bar. lol, but hey, i made a lot of friends.
tortola was hands down the nicest place ive ever been. the island is breathtaking, even though its where i got sun poisoning. banana boated again cuz i am brave. chopped down my own coconut to make some coconut rum punch which was nasty. another amazing night, comedy shows, massages, clubbing, and star gazing.
the last two sea days were out of control. anthony kept us up latenights, so i just melted into my loungechair in the morning and tried to sleep. couldnt find a single person from my family all day, so i somehow wound up next to a family who only spoke italian. i had to interpret for them the whole day. it was kind of neat though.
i had the most incredible time but i was ready to come back home. i couldnt take the plethora of newlywed couples on the boat by the last day. it was almost unbearable to watch couples hand-in-hand everywhere i looked. i missed shawn so much it's sickening, i was practically in tears on the phone. we had a wonderful long weekend together right before i left and i got spoiled. *sigh* i love that boy. and in one more night this awful long-distance obstable is going be over.
if you read this all the way to the end, go find yourself a hobby.