Poppy from Bistro Huddy

6/25/17 x2 (Time change is a mess)

Well this morning was supposed to start off much earlier than it did.. Funny story, last night, when I set an alarm for 5:30 am it was set for weekdays and considering today was not a weekend it didn’t go off. Instead, the alarm that was supposed to warn me 5 minutes before leaving was the alarm that woke me up. Nia and I were so panicked and so rushed and lets just say it is a miracle that we did as much packing as we did last night. Essentially all we had to do was change, and put a few things away. We rushed so fast and got ready with literally 4 minutes to spare before having to be down stairs to catch the bus. Wow, we really could have missed our coach, which would have made us miss our flight, and well I do not even want to think about that. We made it though! Thank god!

We headed to the airport and got to experience true Sydney traffic. People drive crazy here, especially in a big bus. We made it to the airport, got our luggage off the coach and headed into the terminal to check in. Check in was smooth so they we headed to customs. Customs operated the same way that it did in Melbourne. You took your passport, had to put it into this scanner essentially, then it directs you when to move through the gate, and then you have to do whatever you look like in your passport in order to be cleared through to the next checkpoint. Honestly, it is really cool, and helps Border Patrol to have less work. It is extremely effective and it was very impressive. I wonder how long it will take the states to hop on this bandwagon.

Then we went through security, nice and smooth, and then made our way to the gate. We grabbed some breakfast, and just waited until it was time to board the plane. I was and still am dreading this flight. I am genuinely worried about my ears, and i just wish I could be in a place of comfort right now. Even though this flight is 2 hours shorter than when we came here we are now flying in the day so we have to at least try to stay awake for 7 hours of it. You can only sit for so long and watch so many movies, and have no wifi. After this, I will not want to fly for a long while.

I am currently sitting on the plane and I cannot help but to reflect on this entire trip. There have been highs and lows (literally) but overall I do not think I could have asked for a better experience abroad. I have travelled almost 20,000 miles, been to 7 different cities, and conquered a good portion of the continent.

Throughout my time here in Australia I have done some amazing things. I will list a few here:

I have eaten some of the weirdest food I have ever eaten in my life. Seriously everything in Australia is different.

I have drank some of the best coffee at some of the most hole in the wall cafes. 

I immersed myself in cafe culture.

I had class at the Melbourne State Victoria Library.

I have gone to many museums (too many museums).

I have found some great rooftop bars.

I wandered in the alley ways of Melbourne to find hidden treasures. (Some of my favorites were Hoiser, Hardware, and Degraves).

I went up to the Eurekya Sky deck which is the tallest building in Melbourne.

We all bonded with Asian Beer Cafe (ABC- also the place that shall not be named)

I rode the Melbourne Star Observatory over the nighttime skyline.

I leaned a lot about the Aboriginal culture through our guides and classes.

I saw wild koalas, wallabies and kangaroos.

I saw thousands of penguins migrate from sea to land at Peter Island.

I shopped at the Queen Victoria Market which is the largest Open Air Market in the Western Hemisphere.

I visited the Shrine of Remembrance and the Melbourne Botanical Gardens

I went and saw a footie game in Melbourne's largest and most famous stadium.  

I travelled to St. Kilda beach and Luna Park.

I went to Federation Square many times.

I travelled to Port Douglas where we went to one of the most beautiful beaches, ate some great fish and chips, and had some great gelato.

I was able to feed and pet kangaroos and wallabies, and I got to hold a koala!

I snorkeled on the Great Barrier reef with one of the most legendary people who snorkel on the reef and call it home.  

I went to Karaoke night at Iron Bar

I stayed in an ecolodge where I really had to face my fear with bugs. Shout out to all the insects and bugs in our cabin.

I swam in a spring fed creek (and fell).

I watched a movie in the outback under the stars.

I went caving and spelunking.

I explored Aboriginal art in caves and saw some amazing views of the outback.

I watched the sunset at Balancing Rock.

I tent camped in the freakin' outback. (I will never be camping again).

I had to use a freakin' dunny… never will I ever again.

I made friends with a wallaby dog named Menzy.

I was able to see rescued wallabies and their babies on site in my backyard.

I drove in little yellow busses to the Daintree Rainforest.

I went night spotting 2 too many times.

I went jungle surfing in the Daintree Rainforest.

I ate the most unique gelato you can find in the world at Daintree Ice Cream Co. 

I did the Mijin swing in Cairns (TWICE).

I made friends with some travel company and ended up getting free drinks and food all nigh at Gilligan's. Along with meeting some girls from Ohio and all over the world.

I watched a ladies night pole dancing competition that really turned into a strip club. (YIKES)

I was able to take a harbor cruise in Sydney to experience Vivid Sydney.

I was able to meet up with Lys to celebrate my birthday in Sydney (2 times)!

I went shopping in the Queen Victoria Building and the shopping district in Sydney.

I was able to go to many clubs and spend many late nights with these amazing people I now call my friends.

I traveled to Bondi and Coogee beach.

I was able to attend the Sydney Film Festival and see the premier of Okja (which everyone should see)

I toured the Sydney Opera House and saw a show called Hot Brown Honey!! (The best show I have ever seen)

I went to St. Mary’s Cathedral.

I visited the Hyde Barracks and Hyde Park.

I climbed the Pylons on the Sydney Harbor Bridge

I went whale watching

I tried Kangaroo.

These are just some of the highlights, I know thats a long list, but that is because there isn’t enough words or time to explain everything I have done this trip or what I have learned.

I have learned a lot about myself throughout this trip. One big thing, as silly as it seems, is how much we take for granted cell service and wifi everywhere. Throughout this trip I did not purchase a phone plan so the only time I could use my phone was when there was wifi. I was unable to use maps to navigate through the city, I was unable to talk to friends and family, and I realized how much I use my phone for things. It was refreshing in a way to “unplug” sort of speak but I also now realize the next time I go to another country at least data will be necessary for navigation.

I also learned that I am not as great with directions as I had originally believed. Typically on family vacations I am the navigator and I have a very good idea of my whereabouts, however, this was not the case here in Australia. I spent most of my time turned around, and dependent on Kayla’s maps. When I finally got it down, it was basically time to leave.

I also realized that I am moderately high maintenance.  Prior to this trip, I felt that I was relatively low maintenance but this trip has changed my perspective to moderate. I hate bugs, I hate night spotting, I hate when bugs are in my space, I hate seeing the biggest spiders I have in my life, I am not a camper, I hate dunnies and I really enjoy having comfortable accommodations where I do not share them with bugs. I also realized that I am more picky than I thought. For the meals that were provided, for the most part, I ate them, but others I said “not a chance in hell."

This trip slo has reaffirmed that I love American food. As I have mentioned in previous posts, everything in Australia is different. From bacon, to ham, to “burgers”, to their spices and sauces, even their bagels. It was always interesting ordering something at a restaurant and being completely confused on what it was. For example, one of the weirdest things we realized is that in Australia they called everything a burger versus a sandwich. In the states, a burger implies a beef patty, here a burger doesn’t mean patty unless it specifies there’s a patty. Also, there food is all pretty bland, and they rely heavily on sauces, like aioli. I love aioli so this was okay with me. Long story short, I miss American food, I miss ordering and knowing exactly what I am going to get, and I am excited to not have to constantly google what the food is.

Throughout this trip, I realized I have an extreme gelato obsession (problem). I love gelato and we ate it far too much on this trip. I have no regrets, but jesus I will miss gelato .

This trip has also been extremely eye opening to the fact that in America we really are ignorant to other countries and what is happening in their worlds. In Australia, on their news they have a specific segment dedicated to around the world, the biggest highlight being America. In America, we are so sheltered and unconcerned with the rest of the world and I think that this says a lot about us.

I have learned so much about Australia that I could probably talk for days about their national identity, injustices, Aborigines, their colonization, convict culture, and their so called multiculturalism. Throughout one of my classes we examined if Australia is actually multicultural or not and I am confident to say that I do not believe they are to the extent that they preach that they are. We experienced a lot of racism, discriminatory, and ignorant behaviors and comments while in Australia as well as many cultures are incredibly underrepresented in society.

Prior to these classes, I had no idea that Australia was colonized by convicts, I had no idea about the Aboriginal people, stolen generations, hygienic dorms, or any of the injustices they faced, nor did I really have any knowledge about cinametography, or anything about Australia really. This trip has made me much more knowledge about Australia and has showed me how much more there is to learn about the world and every other country in it.

This trip has also made me more confident in traveling by myself. This was the first time I have ever flown without my parents and I did very well. I was initially very anxious about it but at this point we have flown so much it is a breeze. However, that doesn’t mean that I am consistently going to want to do.

This trip has also introduced me to some amazing people. The girl gang: Nia, Kayla, and Morgan have been the girls since day one and we just have gotten significantly closer. We all got along very well, and we balance each other out well too. Cody was also a part of our group, it was always Cody and the girls and I also enjoyed his company. Coming on this trip I was worried because I really didn’t know anyone besides Cici, but surely enough I made some friendships for a lifetime. We are already planning our first reunion once school starts. I met many other people and made many other friends that I am so happy have come in to my life. It will be awesome to see more familiar faces on each campus.

Now, I have talked about all the good, and clearly it out weighs the bad, but it wouldn’t be fair for me to not even talk about the lows. One thing that really bothered me was that to pretty much every event we were late. For someone who is extremely time oriented, this frustrated me. I also felt like a lot of our accommodations could have been nicer in the middle of our trip (not Sydney or Melbourne). I do not do well with bugs in my bed, or in my shower, or pretty much in my space at all. When I am in nature, I am in their space, but when they are in mine, it is a no go. Also, there was not enough time scheduled in between our activities. A lot of the time we had an hour to eat, go to the other side of the city and find our destination. We also were left constantly to fend for ourselves and find things on our own with no help and most people with no cellular or data. We also had way too much work. I believed, along with everyone else, that the reason we had bootcamp was so that the work would be minimal when we were actually abroad. Nope, that wasn’t the case,and to top it all off we have some brutal final projects to complete once we get back. I do have to keep telling myself that it is 6 honors credits but still, it is freakin’ annoying. I wish we had spent at least one more day in Cairns because I loved that city and there was so much to do and see. Lastly, we went to way too many museums. Some were very enjoyable and informative, but all the art museums weren’t necessary, and a lot ended up repeating the same stuff eventually. B esides, these things, I really have nothing to complain about, My biggest frustration was with all of the school work but I am STUDYING abroad so I guess you just have to deal with it.

Everything that was a low, wasn’t truly a low because it was all part of the experience. This trip has pushed my personal limits, it has exposed me to many things I would never do in my normal life, and it has given me a new found appreciation for basic things like plumbing, wifi, air conditioning,and clean beds and accommodations. As you can see, nothing outweighs the highs of this trip. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sidenote: 

This flight is miserable, we still have 9 hours left and then I have to catch my connecting flight to San Diego. Then my second vacation starts. I am already exhausted, and I am going to be jet lagged so this will be interesting. I am so excited to be reunited with my family, my boyfriend, Zoey, and just normal life again.

Surprisingly, the food was actually pretty good on the way home, much better than on the way here. I am struggling with trying to time my sleep. It is currently 2:15 pm on the 25th and we still have 9 hours of the plane ride left. I will probably attempt to take some medicine soon that will help me pass out so I can try to get a good 5 or 6 hours of rest. The hard part will be staying up for the entire day. Not to mention, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I will be reliving the 25th again!  

I arrived in Lax at 6:30am after a very long flight. A miserable flight. We went through customs very quickly and it was very similar to Sydney and Melbourne which was cool to see. Baggage claim took forever, granted there were over 800 passengers told distribute luggage to but my patience was wearing thing.

The icing on the cake was when I found out my 10:00 am flight had been delayed until 1:15 pm. I was livid. I physically could not sit int eh airport for that long, nor was it worth it to take a 50 minute flight like that. We ended up getting completely refunded for my flight, canceled it, and then I got an Uber to San Diego.

My driver was very nice and I was in SD before 10:00 am. It was so good to see my parents and the Murphy's and the Mattingly’s! We headed to breakfast and just caught up on everything. I missed them so much!

now it is time for the second vacation to start, the real struggle will be staying awake. Jet lag is about to be REAL. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don’t think there are words to describe how much I have learned and how life changing this experience abroad has been. I think traveling abroad is dangerous because now all I can think of is “Where to next?”

I am so lucky to have been given this opportunity. I want to thank everybody who pushed me to go abroad, and helped me make it possible. Specifically my parents, who worked so hard and sacrificed so much to be able to help me make my dream a reality. I would like to thank Devin, my friends and family (that includes you Mattingly's and Murphy’s) that either supported me or donated to my funds for this trip, and lastly Barrett Staff, specifically Susan and Miranda who pushed me to go on this adventure. This trip literally wouldn’t have been possible without all of you and I am forever grateful.

Thank you for the memories Australia! Cheers!

Story Time

This day, this freakin day, is maybe the WILDEST of my life. I am not exaggerating. This is probably going to be the longest post I ever write on this blog, I couldn’t make up everything that happened if I tried, and I feel like I probably won’t even remember to write down everything because there was so much, but I’m going to do my best get ready kids. The night before Sarah had told me that they wanted to shop at 10 and do tea at 11, so I set an alarm for 8 to get up and get ready because I had to shower and stuff. And just to preface, the start of this day was TERRIBLE. NOTHING went right. So I get up all responsible to get ready and turn the shower on and realize the water will not get warm. Literally let it run for a half hour and it would not heat up. But I went to a show the night before and looked HEINOUS and dirty so I had to shower. So I got in and tried as hard as I could to cope but I literally had to shampoo my hair in freezing water so I gave up and did that and just used leave in conditioner after. So things were already going bad and I was freezing but I was keeping a good mentality about it and knew the second I blew dry my hair I’d warm up. Low and behold… my hair dryer has been STOLEN. Straight up stolen right out of my room. I used it the night before, not even 12 hours prior, and it was still plugged in and now it’s gone. So I start freaking out and panicking because that means either 1. someone broke in and took it or 2. my ex-roommates still have keys and have been in the room and stole it. I live next door to the RA so i go to her to tell her what happened and you know what her brilliant response is? “Maybe it’s stuck in a drawer or something.” One, MARY, we don’t have drawers!!! TWO it was on my table when I left my room last night. THREE I always lock my door and I’m the only one living there so it’d be SUPER hard to misplace a HAIR DRYER and not be able to find it. So she was no help and i was panicking and upset and not sure what to do and on top of it I now had no way to blow dry my hair and continue getting ready and was just pacing all unsure. So then my hair is half dry and I just say F-it and start straightening it wet because didn’t want to be late. So I’m like almost ready at this point and message Sarah asking what the plan is, to which she replies that she just woke up and Dana and Amelia aren’t even awake yet…. so on top of everything I just went through to get ready they weren’t even awake/ready/going to be ready on time!!!! So I was STRESSED and mad and not wanting to go so I was like whatever let me know. So then my friend Alex texted our group chat asking if anyone wanted to go for brunch. At that point I had no idea when Sarah and them would be ready and realized I didn’t wanna go for tea anyway and I was so stressed that bottomless alcohol sounded so good so I said yes. Of course the second I agree to that Sarah texts me with the plan so I was like oops sorry I’m going to get drunk and eat brunch now so see you after. So the day started looking up, and me and Nat met Alex, Allie and Hannah at Dirty Bones (my fav brunch place) and there was already a glass of prosecco waiting for me when we got there. We had the most delicious food ever, eggs with avocado on scones and breakfast fries and also had 4 drinks each (at 11am might I add, but we’re in college so we don’t count as alcoholics yet) I had two types of prosecco, a spiked iced coffee, and a bloody mary with a sour cream and onion pringles rim. I’m including what I drank because alcohol was very prevalent this day, and you’ll see that later on, but I was actually drunk for 18 hours straight probably. I love study abroad. So brunch is ending and so is Sarah’s tea and we all agree that we want to all meet at Borough Market. Allie and Hannah leave to go home and shower because brunch was last minute and they weren’t ready and so me Alex and Nat head off to meet Sarah, Dana and Amelia and their guy friends (only one of who I know) at the market. We get there with no problem and are trying to figure out where to meet when Sarah texts me that a protest affected their ride and they were stuck on the tube for 30 min and finally got off and had to transfer and stuff so they’d be a little. So us, already being 4 drinks in were just like “ok lets go pub it until they get here”. So we found a really cool pub and all got cider and chilled until they came. I love cider?????? This one was spiked plum and omg so delicious. Finally Sarah lets me know that they are in the market and tell me where to meet them so me Alex and Nat are walking around making our way, trying some samples, mostly cheese and PROSECCO (i love london) and finally find them. Sarah took one look at me and goes “oh man ok drunky” because she’s my mom and just knows but has to love me anyway!! So we decide that we all want to go buy some drinks and have a “picnic” in this park-ish thing near the bridge, really stunning area. So we go to Tesco and buy some wine and cider and prosecco and head off and just spent some time there hanging out and drinking and taking pictures and it was so nice out and so relaxing and just a lot of fun. So as a side note, one of my friends from Canada who is studying abroad in Dublin currently is in London! And she saw on my snapchat that I was near the bridge and she was like oh my god I’m here too so I got to see her!!! Eventually everyone started leaving to go to dinner and do other things but me and sarah were still there because we were doing dinner just us two so I spent some time talking to Sarine (canada) until we realized we needed to leave for din because we had plans later too. So me and Sarah went to this mexican place called Wahaca (thanks for dinner mom) and got some margaritas and appetizers and caught up and were getting ready to order more food when we got a text from our friends that instead of being at our plans at 10:45 our promoter actually wanted us there at 10:15. Basically this guy who gets us into clubs and stuff for free and gives us free alcohol and it was his “promoter birthday” so he was holding this thing at the Vaudeville. So we paid and left and went home and we’re only one tube stop away from each other so I went home quick to change and so did sarah and then we all met at the airbnb that the guys were staying at so we could pregame. We were having fun there just hanging out, everyone was really nice and I was getting to know her friends better but then stuff started to go wrong again, as was the theme of this night (don’t worry there’s a happy ending) also keep in mind this was all of their last nights in London. So one of the guys who was there, I think his name was Daniel, was doing fine and then all of a sudden out of nowhere he was SO. DRUNK. like blackout, puking, lights out no one home drunk. But somehow his friends didn’t make him stay home because they didn’t wanna ruin his night and some of them thought he’d be okay to come. Okay whatever, I said nothing because not my friend and not my issue. So we ended up getting there like 20 minutes late and had to wait on line which is why Gary wanted us there early so we wouldn’t have to wait but it was whatever. So we’re in line realizing this kid is so drunk and none of us think he’s gonna be let in, at this point i’d been drinking for like… 12 hours straight? and I wasn’t even as bad as him. So we get let in and me and Sarah get let in first so I didn’t see what happened so like we’re in the club waiting for everyone else to get let in when realize it’s only the girls and two of the guys, and that Daniel and this kid Jeremy are still up there. Eventually Sarah’s friend Kenny (the one I knew) tells us that they’re refusing to let Daniel in because he’s too drunk (duh anyone could see that) and that Jeremy was up there fighting for him to get let in. We decided to ignore it because didn’t want it to ruin our time and we didn’t have to pay to get in but Kenny did and like everyone just wanted to have fun so Kenny bought drinks for everyone and we were chilling trying to have fun when Dana decided to go upstairs to see how the situation was going. She comes back down and tells us the club is threatening to get the police involved because these guys have literally been fighting with them for an hour. At this point they weren’t even fighting for him to get let in but the really drunk kid Daniel was claiming that the club took his ID to check it and didn’t give it back and still have it (this wasn’t true) but yeah so they refused to make it work and everyone started freaking out because like this kid was ruining all of their last nights there and it was putting them all in a bad mood that after like an hour and a half of trying to make it work we just decided to leave because wasn’t worth it. We weren’t going home tho, we just wanted to leave this place because so much negative energy about it. So we all leave and go outside and realize Daniel and Jeremy were gone which was great and we were ready to all move on and have fun. So Dana tells us about this place she used to go that was really fun so we all agree we’ll just go there instead. We all get Ubers and go over only to find out the place is closed lol. But no one was too upset, everyone wanted to save the night and were really motivated to make it work when all of a sudden who pops up but Daniel and like jumps on one of their backs and is like hey guys what’s up!!!!!!! And everyone is so annoyed to see him like GO AWAY. Literally one of his guy friends was like you need to go you literally ruined this night but he was so drunk he didn’t comprehend and was just like why’s everyone upset!!!! So him showing up really upset people again, especially this girl Amelia and at this point Sarah wanted to leave too. I was back and forth about going home but like 1. I had been drinking all day and it wouldve been a waste to just go to sleep and like 2. we’re supposed to be having fun i didn’t wanna go home all pissed and waste their last night. So I like half agreed to go home and sarah called an uber for her and amelia but when it finally came i impulsively was like nah I’m staying. So it’s like 1:30-2:00am at this point and the only people left are me, Dana, and Kenny. Jeremy was also around but hadn’t met back up with us yet. He’s Kenny’s best friend from high school so it was all of our first time meeting him. So the three of us are standing on this street corner wondering what to do, so we decide to go to Oneilll’s which is this really fun 3 story pub/club that we’ve all been to before and enjoy so we head over there. So things are looking up again, I even ran into Sarine again because when I saw her at the bridge she asked for recommendations and I told her about this place and she ended up going! So it was me and my friends and her and her friends and we were all hanging and got a drink and having a great time and then Jeremy showed up and everything was still fun until suddenly he realizes that he left his phone in his uber. Simultaneously Kenny spilled an entire cider on my phone (my phone is totally fine tho no worries) and now suddenly all of us are stressed out about finding Jeremy’s phone and trying to track it down and figure out what to do and we kind of get in touch with the uber driver but not really and we realize the driver was probably going home because we were tracking the phone and saw it was 40 MILES outside of London… and it’s like 3am at this point. We weren’t ready to go home but we left O’neills so we could hear better and try and figure out what to do so we’re on the streets of chinatown now just trying to figure it out but Jeremy had a really good attitude about the whole thing and eventually was like, “i’m obviously not getting it back until the morning lets just keep having fun” so we decide we want to go to Duck & Waffle because we had talked abut it all night and the four of us were really set on having a good time. Also, me and sarah had planned to get coffee the next morning before her flight and my trip to harry potter but then she texted me saying she wasn’t sure she’d have enough time anymore so i was pissed/upset and was like ya let’s just go have fun. Duck & Waffle is this super cool place that I’ve always wanted to go to. It’s in this 40 story building, and it’s the only thing in it like there’s no other floors just this at the very top and it’s this 24 hour fancy restaurant that all the walls are just glass and you can see the whole city and one of the like bucket-list things that people do is make a sunrise reservation at 6ish am to watch the sunrise from the top. We get there at like 3:30am and wait in line until about 4am. While we were on line we made friends with these people from Scotland and Ireland who were really funny but you definitely had to be there so I’m not gonna try and put it into words but it was really enjoyable. So we get up there and were like hahah wouldn’t it be funny if we stayed until 6:20 when the sunrises so we can see it. But at this point we were just so hungry and wanted to eat and stuff so we’re sitting and ordered food and this place is bumping and everyone who was there too was so nice and funny and friendly. It was one girls birthday and the whole place sang to her and then she stood on her chair to make a speech until they told her to get down so the whole place boo’d the employees lol but her speech basically ended up being “here’s to being young and getting drunk” so like pretty good speech in my opinion. We also made friends with the table next to us because they started making convo and then the girl who we are not sure how old she was literally could’ve been 23 or 35 or 50 idk why we were so confused about her age but she whispers to Dana that she thinks our friends are cute and I think her really buff (we later found out finance) heard her because he like pulled her over and then she looked at us and sighed and pointed to her engagement ring it was so funny but they were all still super nice about it and giving us recommendations for food and stuff. Me and Dana got colombian eggs (idk how to explain them but best scrambled eggs i’ve ever had) and avocado and toast and Kenny and Jeremy got the duck and waffles. We had SUCH a good time they’re all so friendly and funny and like the mood had changed so much and the night as a whole was just so good at this point we were joking around about all of it I had so much fun. Like despite being friends with Dana we’re still not like super close and I had only met Kenny once before. Like these are Sarah’s friends not mine but we all had the best time together. I can’t even emphasize enough how friendly they all are literally when we first got to O’neills Kenny bought all of us cider and I was like no no no you don’t have to do that and he was like “look you’re one of sarah’s friends so that makes you my friend”. So we’re done eating at it’s like 5:15am at this point. We’re not really tired yet, Dana is a little tired and we’re like…. lets just stay until the sunrise!! So kenny orders a bottle of red wine because why not at this point, literally our motto for the night was to just roll with it. So we’re drinking and eventually people start clearing out and it’s like almost 6am and Dana is ready to pass out but we’re like nope!!!! gotta power through!!! and the sky is starting to get a little blue so we were like okay we’re so close we have to. But then at like 6:05am our waiter is like lol i was supposed to kick y’all out at 5:30am because you were part of late night dining and we have to let breakfast people in now who have reservations and i’m gonna get you to stay as long as you can but you gotta go soon. So we were like okay thanks and he was really nice he like convinced his manager we had a valid reason to stay and stuff. So even when we finally got the check and stuff we were messing around and stalling so bad literally Jeremy sat there reading it for 20 minutes pretending to get the words wrong and not knowing how to pronounce it and starting over, it was hysterical, you had to be there tho. So finally we start to see a bit of the sunrise and they really want us to leave at this point so we’re like okay see ya and we leave the dining area to stand by this area with the elevators and the bar but then the guys are like lol lets stall longer so they both pretend to go to the bathroom for like 15 minutes and the manager is just like y’all… and we’re like lol. But then this random waiter is like can I offer you coffee or something and at first we said no but then we were like wait a second, if we order something we can stay!! (also we asked this before, but they said no in the dining area because of reservations but the bar area was fair game) so we all get coffee, which granted wasn’t my best move because still being drunk + caffeine = heart palpitations apparently. So we ended up staying until 7:30am and the sun was fully risen it was actually ridiculous like we somehow managed to stay at that place for FOUR. HOURS. So we finally decide to leave because I had to get ready for harry potter and I also decided to surprise Sarah at their airbnb with coffee since at this point i still thought she couldn’t make it. So we go to leave and on our way down the elevator we realized how FAST it was like we literally went down 40 stories so quick it was so fun so we went up and down three times… because we were drunk and delirious and caffeinated and five years old apparently. But yeah so then we split up and me and dana made our way to starbucks so i could get sarah coffee and literally as we walk in she texts me she had time to meet so i was like lol and ignored it and bought her the coffee anyway and just went and hung and said bye and yeah that’s where that ends lol WHAT A WAY TO SPEND 24 HOURS AM I RIGHT. Also props if you read this whole thing.