A LOT OF STUFF :D

Hey hey,

I know I haven't updated since forever, but writing two blogs is really hard, especially if practically no one reads one of them while and whole family is begging for more at the other one... But I've been writing this for a while. To be honest, exactly since the last day of camp. I meant to post it pretty much every day since, and now i finally caught up to the present, so here it is, in pretty much a diary form...


It’s over!! The camp is over! so weird…

Sorry, I haven’t really written anything since like the second week, but it just got too hard to do two blogs at the same time.
Anyway, now it’s over, and I wanna give you a brief summary of everything before I move onto the next part of this "work and travel" vacation :D

I think I haven’t written about Dorney Park… It’s an amusement park, with lots of scary rides. IT was awesome, really. This was my first time in a park quite like this, and I think I can say I had the time of my life there :D

We had many programs during the summer, like one night our boss took all the kitchen staff out to a Chinese buffet. We ate soooo much. We laughed, that we all (the Polish girls and the Czech guys too) grew up in Eastern Europe, and, you know, if something is for free, we have to take as much of it as we can. This is probably a really bad thing, but it was funny to see that it’s not only a Hungarian thing :D

We also had two days off one week, and out bosses took us to Scranton, which isn’t such a big trip, but we slept in a hotel, and got to go shopping!! I bought a really nice bag, I’m in love with it :D

The last 2 weeks went quite slowly, since pretty much all of us was really excited about finally leaving. It’s not that it was bad, or anything, just long, and a bit boring sometimes.

The last week we got to try some of the waterfront activities. It’s called “tube” but I’m not sure if it’s an official name… :) Two of these rubber donut-like thingies were pulled by a motorboat, and we were sitting in it (one in each). It was really awesome, I loved it, Although the next day everybody had sore necks from the sharp turns :D

During the last weeks everybody was planning their travels, booking flights, rooms, renting cars, or trying to find hosts on CouchSurfing. I think everyone was successful, so we are now all really excited to be on our way to NYC!!!


***Aug 16th – NYC***


New York was nice… Sadly I had to say goodbye to almost everybody, since they were staying in the city for at least a few days, and only wanted to chill for a few hours around the metro line they needed for their couch hosts, while another guy and I had our flights from JFK early in the morning, so we stayed together. We dropped off our luggage at a storage for $10, which was sooooo worth is, because the trip to JFK with a 50 lbs suitcase, a really heavy carry-on bag and a laptop was horrible. I’m glad I didn’t have to drag all these with me while sightseeing :)

We had a few things we wanted to check out in NY that fit the few hours we had. We went to Wall street, walked there a bit, then went to see Ground Zero, walked a bit in SOHO, and saw the Columbia University :) I loved it, it was beautiful, and it had this real collage campus feeling around it.

Well, that was pretty much all we did that day, because it started raining and getting dark too, so we went back for our luggage, and headed to JFK. It was awful, the temperature was at least 100° and the humidity must have been like 200%, :S lol but really, with all the heavy stuff I had, in this heat, dragging them up and down stairs, trying to find the right metro line… it was horrible.

When we got to the airport, I still had about 3 hours until it was reasonable to start checking in and everything. Funnily enough, it was freezing at the airport… at least I was cold, but I was trying to sleep, so I guess that’s why…

Checking in, dropping my bag off, and boarding the plane was easy, I was worried that my suitcase might be overweight, but they didn’t charge me for the 2 extra pounds (thank god!)

The flight was smooth, I slept the most part, and when I wasn’t sleeping, I was staring out of the window :)


***Aug 17th – trip to Chico***


After my flight arrived at SFO, and I collected all my stuff, I was supposed to spend about 6 hours in SF till my bus left for Chico. I didn’t really know what to do, so I just got on the BART, and got off at a seemingly nice station (nice on the map ;) it was underground). And I couldn’t have done better with knowing exactly where I was going, cuz I got off at the closest stop to the greyhound station. It was still hard to pull my stuff up the hills, but at least I didn’t have to buy a MUNI pass just then. After I found the bus station, I just waited there. I was too tired to walk around the city, and I didn’t know what to do with my luggage either.

The bus ride started out nicely, I had to transfer in Sacramento, and until there it was all right, but there we had an hour delay. We weren’t told why, or how long we’d have to wait, we were all just lined up at the door waiting for more than an hour, and then when we got on the bus, some people were told they had to stay, because the bus wouldn’t make it to their destination, and they had to take a bus the following day 1am! :O I would have been really pissed!!

Anyway, after leaving from Sacramento, everything was all right, we arrived to Chico an hour late. I had to wait a bit for Anna to pick me up, cuz they went to pick up a truck and it took longer than they expected, but it was nothing, really.

That night after dinner we didn’t do much, I was pretty tired from my night at the airport in New York, so I went to bed pretty early, and slept till noon :D


***Aug 18th***


Nothing really happened that day, I got up really late, and we kinda just stayed at home. We watched Ice Age 3 though, that was pretty nice. I love Ice Age, and I hadn’t seen the 3^rd movie :)

Later Jerrod friends came, and later we were supposed to go to them, but I stayed, because I was so tired. I felt a bit bad, that I’m ruining their fun, but actually that’s why I wanted to stay. I would have ruined their fun there, I was really tired. So I just went straight to bed :)



***Aug 19th – trip to SF***


After we got up, got something to eat, and got the tires and oil checked in the car we left Chico. It was a long drive, Anna took me to the ocean, to a beach where she used to party when she was in high school, and which insipid the beach party in BGL ;) :D
And I could actually stand in the water!! :) *happy happy*

We got to San Francisco at about 5, and first Anna wanted to make sure she knew where to drop me off then we went to have a coffee in Starbucks :) Because long ago we agreed, that she’d take me to Starbucks in SF. Although it was not my first Starbucks experience any more, it was still nice to do it :) Sadly soon after that we had to say goodbye to each other, since Anna had a long drive ahead of her.

My host was pretty nice, they lived (about 5 ppl) in a nice Victorian style house, which was cut up into 3 apartments; so it was tiny :D It was one long corridor and the rooms opened to each side along it. I stayed in the living room, which was by far the biggest one. They had a really comfy couch, with a soft and warm blanket, which was awesome, because the house was really cold. like freezing-my-ass-off-cold.


***Aug 20th***


Next morning I got up early, and went out to explore the city. I didn’t really have exact plans, I wanted to just go down to the bay, and see whatever I could. It ended up being a long but awesome day.

The first half hour I spent ginning like a fool that I’m in SF. Like in SAN FRANCISCO!!!! :DD Yeah, that has always been a place I wanted to visit, and I was so happy that I actually really loved it.
It was pretty cold and cloudy the first day. I couldn’t see pretty much anything from the Golden Gate Bridge because of the clouds, but there was so many other things to see!

I spent a while walking down the streets, taking pictures of houses, parks, streets, everything. I walked along the Fisherman’s Wharf, and then up to Coit Tower. It’s on a hill called Telegraph Hill, and I found a semi hidden staircase under the gardens that led up to the top of the hill. It was the most amazing thing. I’m sad the pictures don’t do it justice, because everybody should see that. it was sooooo wonderful. :) In every little corner there was a door to a house, and the whole place looked somehow like in Venice, only not water, but stairs :D (if that makes any sense…)

Up at the top we had a beautiful view of the city, especially from the top of the tower. It was really pretty :)

After that I went to see the Lombard Street, which is said to be the crookedest street in the US. It has 8 s-turns.
IT looked really cool with all the flowers and bushes next to the road, and the cars that were actually using that street! :)
Walking up to the top of the street made me really tired so I decided to just go at a park nearby and sit there for a while, but it was so cold n the park, that after about half an hour, I decided to go. I wanted to see the Chinatown, but my battery died so I could only take a couple of pictures there, and after that I went back to my host. It was a really tiring day, I walked my legs off, but I saw a lot, and I had a great time.


***Aug 21st***


The plan for the day was to walk around in Golden Gate Park. I didn’t leave too early, because first I moved my stuff to my second host. He was really nice, gave me keys to his apartment, so I wouldn’t have to worry about him being at home or not. I was finally on my way around noon. First I went to the civic center, took pictures of the City Hall, the opera, and other nice buildings, and then headed to the Golden Gate Park.

The park was pretty nice, and there were a lot of things to do in it. I only went in to the Japanese Tea Garden, but that was awesome! I loved all the tiny trees and little ponds there. Really, it was so so pretty!

It took me the better part of the day to walk about the half of the park, but that was the more interesting part, the other side had golf courses and such, but I don’t really care about that….

Since the weather was so nice, I decided to go on a Cable Car ride. It is a typical SF touristy thing, and I didn’t want to miss it. Plus, my MUNI pass was good for that too, and otherwise a ticket would have been $5 :D

I went down to the bay with the cable car, and since the weather was so mice, I walked to the end of the dock, to take some pictures of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. Finally there were no clouds, so I could actually see it :)

After that I went back to the Chinatown, to finally take pictures too :) it’s a funny place, I’ve never been to a Chinatown before, in Hungary we don’t really have anything like that. :)


***Aug 22nd***


Next day I went up to the Twin Peaks, which is two hills. You can see the entire city from the top, it’s really nice. I’m really happy I went there too. The weather was really nice too, I just had an awesome time :) although it was quite a walk to climb up there :)

And the weather was so nice that I decided to walk the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really long, but I’m so happy I did it. I took some awesome photos too. It doesn’t sound like much, but these two major things took me many hours, so that’s pretty much all I did for that day. I also went back to a shop to buy a bag I saw there, because I realized I had nothing to take to the Grand Canyon tour, and I definitely didn’t want to take my nice new leather purse :)

That night another couch surfer came to my host, a Russian girl. She was nice. I totally assumed she was from the European part of Russia but she was somewhere from the east! It was exciting to hear what it’s like to live there :)

Sadly that was my last day in San Francisco, the next morning I had a light to Las Vegas, which sounded really exciting, but still, I was really sad to leave SF :(


***Aug 23rd***


So I flew to Las Vegas! IT was awesome that I could see all the big hotels on The Strip from the plane as we were landing! it was really cool!
It was a bit hard to find the hostel where I was staying, but after some help, I got there. It was pretty nice, I booked a 8 bed female dorm room, or rather I originally booked a mixed dorm (idk how that happened, the last time I had to check my booking it was female, but in the confirmation e-mail, it was mixed) but at the front desk they could put me in a female dorm without a problem, so I was really happy :)

It was awfully hot in Vegas, so I pretty much spent my first day in the room cooling :) There was another girl already in the room, Kate from Ireland. she had such a cut accent :) I was proud that I could understand her, but she said “sh” instead of “t” :D it was cute.
She took to me see the “Fremont Street Experience” :) we were staying on the Fremont Street, which is the old Strip, in downtown. They had this ceiling above the street, and they had a lights show there. It was pretty awesome. :D

That was all for that day, I was rather tired, and the next day I had to get up early for the Grand Canyon tour.


***Aug 24th – Grand Canyon***


The tour pick up was at 6.55 in front of the Golden Nugget hotel, which was about 10 mins from where I was staying.
We were taken to Las Vegas North Airport (this might not be the exact name….) and the tour started from there.
The bus driver and tour guide was pretty cool, and we had films of the Canyon and Hoover Dam on the way. We went across the Hoover Dam and had some time to take pictures too. It is really impressive :)

We had two stops at the Canyon, and each time it was amazing! I really really loved it, it was beautiful. I climbed out to the edges of rocks to take pictures, or get pictures taken of me :) IT really was amazing. Just to think that a river did all that :)

We arrived back after 11pm, I was so tired I could only fall in the bed and sleep that night :)

*** Aug 25th – Las Vegas***


Wednesday I planned to get up early and go see the strip before the heat gets unbearable, but I couldn’t because my mom caught me on FB, and I had to chat with her a bit. Not that I minded :) Ohh and it was my father’s nameday (I know, you probably have no idea what it is, but it’s pretty obvious…) so I talked to him a bit as well, and I finally left around 11, got on the bus, went to the end of the strip, and started walking back, taking millions of pictures :) It was really nice, but it was so hot, that I’m surprised I didn’t get heat stroke… It was a terrible idea to wear my flip-flops though, because in this heat, they practically tore off the skin from my feet… it hurt like hell, but I couldn’t really do anything, so I tried to ignore the pain as much as I could. It worked quite well actually. :) Anyway, I took lots of pictures (you can see some of them on FB :) )

Around 4 I went back to the hotel to cool down a bit, and to have breakfast/lunch/dinner, however you wanna call it… :) With Kate, the Irish girl we planned to go back to the Strip at night when it’s dark, to see the lights, and the watershow and fireshow that they have there.

During the day 2 more girls arrived to our room, a Scottish and a German one, so finally, I wasn’t the only not native English speaker in the hostel. :) They decided to come with us at night too, so the four of us left at about 8.30. we wanted to make it quick, but we spent almost an hour on the freaking bus, because of the awful traffic…

We took lots of pictures, saw the fireshow at the Mirage (I think, but I’m totes not sure) and the water show at the Bellagio. That was AWESOME!!!! To the “Time to say goodbye” the fountain shot water, like it was dancing ballet or something. It was so beautiful! I made a video of the whole thing, but I have to use a spec program that I only have at home to decode it, so you guys have to wait, but I swear if I manage to do it, I’ll put it up here, because it was unbelievable :)

When we finally decided to go back to the hostel, of course we couldn’t catch a bus, we had to wait more than half an hour. by the time we got back it was over 1.30am… and I had to get up at 4.30 for my plane, so I didn’t sleep much last night.


***Aug 26th***


Nothing much happened today, I arranged myself a shuttle bus from the hostel to the airport, cuz I didn’t feel like dragging my stuff through half of Vegas to the bus stop, where I had no idea when I could catch a bus if I even could at all….

At the airport everything went easily, I’m getting really good at this :D and I’m so proud, because I booked all these flights and tours and there wasn’t a problem during all my travels so far. I’m really happy about this :)

Anyway, I got here to NY, met the guy I’m staying for the next 5 days with, and I haven’t really done anything since then. I’m crazy tired, so I guess it is nap time for me soon :)

I just wanted to finish this finally.
I will try to update more often in these last days, but I can’t promise anything, since the net really sucks here :S


That's it BBs, I hope someone actually reads it... you know, if you do, you could maybe leave a comment or something... esp, if you're writing fics, and expect reviews... you know what it's like to get a comment... :)

bye bye

Day off

Hey sweethearts!

Today I had my first day off since i arrived here. It was so nice to wake up at 10, not 7, and we also made a trip to walmart!!! lol I know it's probably not as exciting to you as it is to me, but this is the first time i had the chance to go out of this place, and wear a skirt and heels and feel like a woman! I LOVED it :DD i mean the feeling, walmart was a bit chaotic. not that we don't have thing like that at home, we do, they are just slightly more organized at home. or things are arranged in a way that makes more sense for me anyway...

It took me like forever to find hand creams for my chapped and dry hands. they look awful, but the one i got for them already helped :)

Anyway, after Walmart I went to swim in out lake. Finally we have summer weather here. The last two days i slept under two blankets in my sleeping bag, wearing 3 layers of clothes... It truly felt like july ;) *sarcasm*

Anyway, that's pretty much all i did all day, but it felt really good to have some rest after 2 weeks.

Ohh oher things. Today i tried Skittles, they are awesome, and i almost bough Oreos too, but i didn't really have the money for it, so that's for next time, anyway, if anybody has something that i still have to try here, just write me a list, i don't wanna miss anything :D

That's all for now sweeties

Olivia
xoxoxo

just a quickie

I had so much fun tonight!
We went bowling, and although i sucked hard, i had a great time. :)
today we has Mac & Cheese... i have no idea what you like about this.. i had to put a LOT of salt and pepper on it, sour cream, and then i was able to eat a bit.. and i was apparently a good one... the kids loved it... lol

umm that's it, i said it would be a quickie :)

ohh and i just wanted to say thattoday i really felt that i am in the US. we had a 40 min ride to the bowling place, and we went through Honesdale and some other cities, and all the houses were huge like in the movies, and had Us flags on them, and everything. I felt like i was in a movie :)

ok, now really bye

xoxoxo

:)

So the kids arrived yesterday! They are nt that bad  Really loud and everything, but c’mon, I remember being that old, and I know shouting with 200 others is a great fun :D Even if the kitchen staff goes mad after a few days XD I don’t mind it, I think they are mostly polite, at least most of them said please and thank you to me when they asked for more water, and i guess that’s enough for me :D I’m a simple person :DDD
We are supposed to have internet at our bunk, buti t died by today.. i was so sure it would, I’m not even surprised, lol.
Today i had to chop fruits, like pine apple, watermelon, and a lot of different melons that i can’t remember the name of… lol and strawberries, and grapes… those are for every brekfast. Sometimes they get blueberries too. I love that we have so much fresh veggies and fruits.

Ohh do you want to know what is the biggest difference i noticed so far (apart from the language :P ) American toilets work differently… The way they flush the …stuff int here is different than at home. I can’t explain how though… they even look a bit different… LoL
I think that’s all for this morning, I’m starving, but we have a lot of time till lunch… but whatever, i’ve been eating like a pig so far, so i don’t mind the feeling of hunger.. I know I’m weird XD
Anyway, I hope our net is gonna get fixed soo, b/c this is just annoying… I think now I’m gonna go take some pictures of the camp, because the last time i took photos were in NYC…

bye-bye for now

olivia
xoxoxo

I'm back :)

Okay, sorry I had no time to write in the last few days… Today was a sad day for us, but I’ll get back to it later…
I am at Lewis Village, you know, the camp has 2 sides, Poyntelle and Lewis Village, and I’m in this kitchen. Here are the kids from age 13 to 16. We don’t have kids yet though, only the counselors, but we’re not giving food yet, just preparing for Sunday, when the kids arrive.
Yesterday we did the Shabbat dinner though. It was hard, especially since i was doing dishes with Kasia, one of the polish girls. She’s really nice, i love her, we had fun, but it was quite hard work.

After dinner we went out to a bar close to camp. Lol the five girls in my bunk went crazy :DD we were discussing what to wear, putting on makeup, doing hairs… everything, you know, even if you don’t have anyone you’d like to dress up for, it still feels nice to dress as a woman sometimes, especially after a week of cleaning scrubbing, and wearing dirty clothes. And you know there is this guy….. lol ;) anyway, this is where the sad part comes… you know I’m not 21 yet. which is okay, it sucks, but I can’t do much about it… but we couldn’t go into the bar, there was this separated room for kiddies :S And there was this guy (I won’t write his name, I1m not sure he’d be okay with it) who is 20 too, but accidentally got a wrist band that said over21, so he could go in the bar with the others…. but he got caught… by the police. He got fired, he already had to leave, he only had 2 hours to pack his things, and he has 3 days to leave the country  I’m very sad, not only because I kinda liked him, but also because he was a nice guy, and I know that any of us would have done the same if we had this opportunity. In Hungary I know he could have gotten away with it, but here it’s just a bigger thing… And now he’ll have to pay a fine, and pay a lot of money to camp leaders for the program too. I’m really really sorry for him 
I don’t really have anything more to say now…

Love,
Olivia
xoxoxo

New York!!!!

Hey people :) I arrived safe, my flight was an hour early, so it was really nice :) still 8 hours though, but we had movies, and such so it wasn't that bad :)

After landing and not finding the shuttle bus we were to take to the hostel, we went by cab. it was fun, you know in those yellow NY cabs :)) the hostel was pretty nice... for a hungarian after 8hrs of flying.. lol and 24 hrs awake XD but really, it wasn't that bad, but REALLY damn expensive!! (we'll get the money back later though -- from camp)

After a quick shower in the hostel we went for a walk in New York, we had lunch at Mconald's, just to fee american, you know ;) ( not that we can't do that at home..) Ohh i forgot, there were like 10 other hungarians on the plane who slept at the same hostel (and some more who wet to another place) so we were together till the following day when we left for our camps.

Anyway, after "dinner" (I'd like to say that i only had salad!!!) we went to see the Time Square. IT was sooo fucking awesome. Really just that "OMG I'M really in New York" feeling. I loved it, the crowd, the lights, we took photos with the cops lol :D

The next day we were supposed to be met by a bus in front of another hostel that should have taken us to camp, but the bus driver fucked up (went to the wrong place) so we had to take a regular bus to Honesdale where some ppl came to take us to camp :)

Camp is nice, it has 2 parts, Poyntelle and Lewis Village, we're at LV at the moment, I'm with 2 hungarian girls and a guy, 2 czech guys and 2 polish girls. they are all really nice, we talk a lot, laugh a lot, so we're having fun :) we probably won't stay like this, b/c we're going to be mixed with the staff of the Poyntelle kitchen, but it's okay, they are great ppl too :)

the bunks are nice too, not dirty, it's like what you expect from a camp :)

umm what else to say? if you have questions, just comment (and comment anyway, it'd be nice to have some feedback... (i know I'm being a hoor right now)

anyway, that's all for now

Olivia
xoxoxo

Nostalgia + my room

I had a nostalgic day... I have this box i got Christmas presents in from my friend... I keep all kinds of stuff i brought home from my trips abroad in it. Not from all trips, just the "big ones" like the two trips to England, one to Germany and one to France. I think that's all.













So today i found this box and opened it, to go through all the stuff i have from England. It's kinda pathetic, i kept EVERYTHING!! like really, have a look:



























Totally random, but: I don't know if you have these, but they are, i swear, the best thing on earth:











And now here are some pictures of my room. I just got new furniture. Actually everything in absolutely new. I love it. Don't you think it looks just awesome?


































And just a few pics of my bro's room, because it is just the best room ever. (those are my beddings, sorry, he'll get cooler ones soon ;) )













Ohh, and please remember the rooms are not ready yet, we'll have pictures on the walls and selves and such. :)