Cancun-Travel Journal- DAY 1

Alright, so I realized I still haven't told you people about my trip to Cancun.
I don't want to be boring and say it was spectacular and great and awesome and sublime and superb and... etc. etc. etc.

I wrote a travel journal while I was in Cancun. Why? Was it homework? Requested by the teacher? No. I CHOSE to do this. All right, call me a nerd now, but you won't be saying that later on when you wash my limo for a living (no offense to people who DO in fact wash limos for a living).

So I was there for a total of 7 nights and 8 days. Quite a while to enjoy the sunshine and soak in some vitamin D that we lack here in Vancouver.

(-ahem- Vitamin D: a steroid vitamin which promotes the intestinal absorption and metabolism of calcium and phosphorus. TRANSLATION: It's essential for optimum health and growth, and developing bones and teeth. How do you get your vitamin D? By being under normal conditions of sunlight exposure, and eating eggs, fish, and dairy products.)

So as I was saying, we stayed in Cancun for about a week, which is plenty of time to see everything. As you know, I'm from Vancouver, B.C., Canada, which isn't the warmest climate there is. We rarely get past 30 degrees (Celsius) in the summertime, let alone 40 degrees. So us Vancouverites go out in the sun whenever it's out. Even if it's only 14 degrees out, for us it's 'Who cares? The sun's out, and we rarely get this kind of weather! I'm going out today. Even if it's not that warm.' We are sun seekers. The sidewalks/seawall (a seawall is a sidewalk right by the sea) swarm with people because of the weather. So living in a cloudy and rainy city and then going to Mexico really called for some major adjustments. I needed to wear sunscreen EVERY DAY. And the sunscreen had to be on every part of my skin that was exposed. I couldn't get used to not having to throw on a sweater, jeans, and sneakers to go out. I kept thinking I would freeze to death going out in my short-shorts and my tanktop. It really didn't take long to get used to the weather though. Pfft, it never takes long to adjust to something really nice...

So the weather was around 30 degrees, which I consider extremely hot. But nice. It was great swimming weather, so we did that a lot. If we weren't swimming, we were eating. If we weren't eating, we were lounging in the beach chairs by the beach. If we weren't lounging, we were out and about, touring Mexico city and all it's major landmarks and amusment parks. We always had something to do in Mexico. So this is how my day began.

DAY ONE



I woke up at four in the morning, tired but excited to go. First thing I did was go to my room and try to wake up the big snoring heap that was my brother. He sleeps like a bear in hibernation, and when you wake him up, he gets as angry as a bear that was woken up during hibernation. It's a risky process trying to wake up my brother, but I went anyway. I opened the windows to let in the chilly early morning air, flicked the light switch on and off, banged on my piano, tore the covers off the bed, only to find that... he was still sleeping. Amazing. So I slap him. That was the biggest mistake I've ever made in my entire life. He wakes up roaring and pushes me off the bed, my rear end thumping hard onto the floor. He tells me, and I quote, "DON'T YOU DARE EVER DO THAT AGAIN, OR I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!!!!" Of course, my 'Im-the-youngest-kid-in-the-house-so-I-can-get-you-in-trouble-easily' instincts snap in and I make my eyes start to well up with tears and make the most convincing helpless whimper I can. Even though I'm almost twelve, this method still works. Because my brother is 25. My brother's eyes grow wide and he knows what'll happen.

My mom will run into the room when I start bawling to see which one of us murdered the other. She'll see me on the floor crying and run over to my brother and hit him sharply on the back, saying "WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME?!" I'll smirk and stop crying right away, now that I've gotten revenge. Then of course, she'll turn on me and say, "WHY ARE YOU SMILING LIKE THAT?!" which will cause me to put on my frowny face and then she'll condemn us both to our rooms.

But of course, my brother wasn't going to let that happen. We were going on a vacation and would be in Cancun in a few hours. So he takes a deep breath and tells me that he's sorry for being so harsh but reminds me firmly to never slap him again. I sniff up my tears and stick out my tongue at him like I would do when I was little. He sighed and finally got out of bed. I got up off the floor and started to double check that I'd packed everything. And then we took the skytrain to the airport, did all that checking stuff and all the other stuff, and boarded the plane. Look who I found there! A girl from my school in my grade was sitting in front of me in the same plane! So I spent a lot of the plane ride playing angry birds on her iPhone with her. (By a lot of the time, I mean an hour or so. And the plane ride was around 7 hours.) What did I do the rest of the time? I slept. I read. I ate airplane food (ew I don't like airplane food). And I slept some more. And before I knew it, we were landing in Mexico. As soon as we got out of the plane, the humid, hot air hit me and my clothes stuck to my body as if someone had just splashed water on me. I immediately went to the airport's washroom and changed into my summer clothes. MUCH BETTER...

After we'd gathered our luggage from the conveyer belt thingy, we went to the information desk, for no particular reason at all. The people at the information desk tried to sell us a package deal that sent us to all the famous places in Mexico. Talking to them took around 40 minutes, and guess what? The bus that was supposed to take us to our hotel left without us. LEFT WITHOUT US. We didn't know what to do because apparantly it's dangerous to just wave down a taxi and get in, because the taxi drivers could be human traffickers. We eventually had to take a cab though. The people at the info. desk called down a cab, and they claimed to know the driver. We were still reluctant, but was extremely relieved when we got to our hotel safe and sound. The hotel was really beautiful.

                                                                         

That's our hotel lobby. Pretty cool, huh? The ceilings were extremely high and it had no doors. I guess that can be dangerous, but it was still really awesome.

AND THIS IS OUR POOL!! There are three parts to the pool!!

Anyways, we went to our room and finally settled down. The hotel's elevators-TERRIBLE. They were probably the slowest in the world and they were constantly broken. The wait was so excruciatingly long that we took the stairs a couple of times. And we were on the 9th floor. Each floor had two flights of stairs. UGH.

So this is all we did for the first day.

But of course, I forgot that we ate dinner at the hotel! Our hotel was all inclusive, which means that you pre-pay for the food. You just walk into a restaraunt, eat, and walk out without paying a single penny. It was so awkward doing that... it almost felt like stealing!

The restaraunts were only open for dinner, which sucked, because the buffet food wasn't so good... who am I kidding, I really didn't like it. Everything was so... so.... Not fresh.

Ew.

 ^^^^^

This is our room!!

Well, after eating, we kind of just went up to our room and slept...

SO THIS IS THE END OF DAY ONE IN MY TRAVEL JOURNAL!!

STAY TUNED FOR DAY TWO!!

Book Review #10 ~ The Hunger Games

Hi Everyone! I'm back to write more like I promised~!!
But unfortunately, I haven't got anything to write about except for more books. Yes, I think you have discovered that I am a bookworm. I devour books.Alright, so I'm pretty sure this book is well known. It's called 'The Hunger Games.'

(I've finally gotten my hands on this book after having it on hold at the library for over A MONTH.)

Oooh, I know, it's a scary, yet intriguing title. Well, at least to me it was.
It is, in fact, a scary manner, for each district, (There are 12 in all. District 1, District 2, District 3, and so on.) two tributes are selected. At Random. One girl and one boy. The ages range from age 12 (Youngest) to age 16 (Oldest). This selecting of the tributes is called 'The Reaping.'
But this isn't something you would want to be chosen for. You don't compete in a nice race and win a prize. Nothing like that at all. See, there are 24 tributes in all, and they are put in an arena. The arena isn't like a big concrete stadium or anything. It's a huge chunk of land with animals and trees and rivers and lakes and streams and all that jazz. It's a fight to the death. The games will end when there is only one tribute left. It's pretty much every man for himself. The 'Gamemakers' control everything that goes on in there. Except for the wild animals of course. They have brains of their own. Let them do what they want. Anyways, the Gamemakers can control weather, start forest fires, and can just kill a tribute if they get bored. Just like that.
Welcome to the Hunger Games. Brutality. Ruthlessness. Ferocity. (WOAH THAT SOUNDED DRAMATIC. AWESOME.)
Every tribute is pampered until the games start. Then they're all on their own. Sort of. You see, they have sponsors. The sponsors sometimes spend money on their tributes and send them gifts of whatever they need most. But this doesn't mean gifts raining down from the sky. It's only a once in a while thing. If they don't like what you're currently doing, you don't get anything. Nada. Also, every part of the games is brodcasted live in every single district, which means everyone will be glued to their T.V.s. So you also have to please the crowd, do something one way instead of the other if you think that will gain you more popularity. Not only do you have to fight to stay alive, you have to make sure that the crowd will love you.
WAIT.
I've just realized I haven't mentioned the main character yet.
Her name is Katniss Everdeen. She's excellent with a bow and arrow, and can really hunt. Unfortunately, her father was killed in a mining accident.
Okay, I'm sort of jumping around here. Let's go back to the reaping. Originally, Primrose Everdeen, Katniss' sister was chosen. She's a frail little girl and is only twelve, meaning that it was her first reaping. Not wanting to risk her sister's life, Katniss volunteers and asks that she go instead of Primrose. This takes a lot of courage, because who would want to throw their life on the line in some stupid fight to the death between so many people? But it's pure love for her sister that makes Katniss want to do this, and so it's decided. She is the girl tribute. The boy tribute? Peeta Mellark. A baker's son. Who happened to have a crush on Katniss since they were 5.
ANYWAYS BACK TO THE GAMES (AGAIN)Alright so at the games they are known as the star-crossed lovers because during their interview, Peeta confessed that he was in love with Katniss. Their publicity has gone over the top because of this, and they are encouraged to keep up the act throughout the entire game. Maybe even exaggerate their love and overdo it a little. Just for publicity.
BUT the thing is that there's only supposed to be one winner. Aw, too bad the star-crossed lovers are going to have to kill each other sooner or later...
All of a sudden, change of plans. Because of public demand, they change the rules. Now there can be TWO winners, but from the same district. Yay yay yay now they can both live!GUESS WHO WINS.
It's obvious, isn't it?
The book ends after they win the games and return to their district, not revealing ANYTHING of what happened after the games.

Except for one thing. The whole time Katniss has sort of been faking her love for Peeta for the crowd, except Peeta really actually loved her. Peeta discovers this after the games and is angry and unforgiving. He shuts himself up in his room for the rest of the train ride home and won't talk to anyone. He finally appears when it's time to get off the train, and this is how the book ends:'We just stand there silently, watching our grimly little station rise up around us. Through the window, I can see the platform's thick with cameras. Everyone will be eagerly watching our homecoming. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Peeta extend his hand. I look at him, unsure. "One more time? For the audience?" he says. His voice isn't angry. It's hollow, which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me.

I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.'

END OF BOOK ONE

That's how it ends. Leaving you hanging. Maybe you can read it for yourself while I wait another month with book two on hold. Book two is called 'Catching Fire.' by Suzanne Collins.

ANYWAYS, I hope you weren't too bored with me blabbing on and on about this book!

So come back for more! Hopefully I'll have something other than books to write about next time...

Book Review #9 ~ The Mysterious Benedict Society

Fellow readers (if I have any left, that is...) I am so sorry that I haven't posted in... A MONTH?! Wow. I have to admit that is pretty harsh. -sigh- I was busy with homework... and other stuff... Okay. I didn't have that much homework, but I still had work. I just had to make an excuse. Alright. I will find something to write about. Books? Maybe. Okay, books. I've read a lot more than ten books this year, just so you know. In fact, I'm working my way through my 30th book! (THIS YEAR)

Now I see those with the sad sad lives that have read 2 books. In five months. And there are over 1000 books just sitting around in the library waiting to be read. I find it a waste. Of what, I'm not so sure. A waste of knowing how to read, of books, I don't know. It's just a waste.

So I got sidetracked again and began a rant on people who don't read enough, and I will go right back to my book review.
THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY - TRENTON LEE STEWART

I have to say, this is a GREAT book. It's fantastic. Superb. Sublime. You get the point. I rate it 6/5 stars. No, I didn't get mixed up, I gave it a bonus star because it was so insanely awesome.

So the story is about these 4 genius kids that take a test (they don't know what the test is for, I guess they just got bored and decided to take it) when this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper:
"ARE YOU A GIFTED CHILD LOOKING FOR SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES?"
Not just four of them showed up though, it was a bunch of other kids, but they failed the test. The test isn't like the tests that we take at school. It's crazy questions, weird questions. The test itself is a riddle. Anyways, these four kids pass this strange test and they get to meet Mr. Benedict, an old and mysterious man whose nose looks like a vegetable. He is on some kind of secret mission to stop an evil man who is leading an institute for children that are gifted. He is using the children for EVIL things that I can't tell you about because, well, it's secret, and it's really no fun if you already know what's going to happen. This is sure to keep you on your toes, for there is an extreme level of suspense. More than this much. -stretches arms wide to indicate size-
I was thrilled while reading this book, my eyes sometimes skipping all the way over to the next paragraph because I want to find out what happens next. I liked the fact that  I felt a surge of many different emotions throughout the book. I would recommend this to my peers who love adventure, mystery, and mischief. You know what? You don't even have to like any of those things. Just read the book.
Well, thanks for tuning in! I hope you didn't find this post too boring and will come back for more!