So I just got back from Atlanta for a class trip
it was interesting
in a weird sort of way
I...realized a lot about myself
and others


Some Key Moments

• The first day we traveled to Atlanta for about 5 hours. We ate at burger king. I had bacon for the fist time in my WHOLE life. It. Was. Terrible.                          
• We went to the CNN head quarters and rode the biggest freestanding escalator in the world! It was….really scary. We saw how the news is recorded, seen, and transmitted. It looks like a VERY stressful job.

• When we got to the CNN HQ, there was a large gathering of people (mostly Asian) protesting the Beijing Olympics/CNN covering the event and making it a political arguement. It was exciting and enlightening at the same time. It was pretty awesome.

• We explored the turner broadcasting (host of CN and [adultswim]) gift shop at the CNN HQ. It was…pretty awesome if I do say so myself….

• We went to some park across the street after that. I wasn’t paying too much attention, so I don’t really know what to say about it except that it was apparently tied to a place where the Olympics were once hosted. Other wise, I have no idea.

• Our group traveled to Stone Mountain, a giant mountain of granite with the largest bas-relief in the world. We were SUPPOSED to take the lift up, BUT it was raining so we had to walk. The group quickly split it half, to people who could make it up1,683 ft hike to the top, and the people who couldn’t. I was determined to make it up with Courtney, and so with many breaks, sweat, and about 30 minutes out inspirational speaking on my part, I and she made it up. Dead last of course, but we MADE it. And that meant something. Plus the walk down was the easiest thing ever, BUT we got rained on half way there and had to run to the bus in the rain. The WHOLE bus was chiming with laughter and congratulations.

 

• We went to see the laser show at Stone Mountain. It was my first laser show, so obviously it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I sat with Courtney, Melissa, Shannon, Renee, and Kalil.

  I will admit, it reminded me of the fireworks at Disney that me and Kyle had a first kiss to. I didn’t let this thought get me down, but I just wondered if he even thought about me at all. Probably not.

• The second day we went to some martin Luther king jr. memorial. I honestly was too excited to pay attention, so I, Courtney, and Renee just played around in the visitor center. Fun fun.

• We had lunch at the Atlanta underground. Basically, today was six flags day, so we didn’t eat anything. I wasn’t hungry, so we just shopped around and took funny pictures

• We got bored and decided to play with a few things around the underground. There wasn’t much to do, because it was rainy and cold. But we found SOMETHING.

• We went to six flags after this. We rode EVERY rollercoaster except the goliath. No time.
• The superman was the single best rollercoaster ever. It was like nothing I have ever experienced(we rode FACING DOWN!!!). Even though we had to wait about 30 minutes (the rest of the rides were prolly 5 minute waits if that, b/c it was a weekday, and it was raining earlier) . IT WAS WORTH IT
• Monster plantation scared the SHIT out of me. Really. I almost cried.
• I lost my sun glasses on the ninja, which was pretty funny
• After six flags, the bus decided to take the group to a disgusting Chinese food buffet for dinner. It had a health rating of 70, and cost about 12$ to eat there. The girls and me got all vegetables, took some Pepto-Bismol, and hoped for the best (though Renee dared Jarell to eat frogs legs for 3$. He did it, and seemed to enjoy it, until he got really sick on the bus and almost threw up). I got some pictures of the bus ride....

• Tonight, me and the girls ordered room service and had a little pizza party. Nothing special, just chilling. This was the night that about 15 in our group got caught going to McDonalds in the middle of the night by Mrs. Willett. I and Courtney watched her curse them out from Melissa’s room on the other side of the hall. It was…pretty funny since, for once, I wasn’t the one in trouble.

Courtneys FEET after her rainbows leaked

• I spent this WHOLE day with Courtney, Alex, and Renee (with assorted others, but mostly them.)

• Today we woke up bright and early to go to habitat for humanity. The night before, we had stayed up pretty late so I was tired. I slept most of the bus ride there, and listened to the song above.

• I sat 2 seats in front of Kyle, so there was only Alex and Courtney between me and him. It was….strange being so close to him after so long. 

• Before we went to HFH we ate at a cool hotdog place. It had the BEST CHEESE FRIES EVER.  I felt SO fat but it was SO worth every calorie.
• We reached HFH, and our group or 53 split into 2 groups. I just HAD to be on Kyle’s team, because fate hates me. We watched a movie in the lobby of the HFH HQ, while the other group explored the outside exhibit first. During the movie, Kyle (who was in front of me) reached back and touched my foot (not on purpose of course, He was trying to keep his balance while sitting, and I was behind him with my legs outstretched. I didn’t sit behind him on purpose either, but it was only place left). The minute our skin brushed, he looked back and our eyes locked in this shameless stare. I don’t know what I felt at the moment, probably shock, but the second our intense stare was over, I recoiled and scrunched up as much as I could in the fetal position. He took his hand back and put it in his lap the rest of the movie. It was…another blow to my heart I felt. I haven’t looked into his eyes for so long, it took me completely by surprise by how much I missed them and how I used to like to stare into them for as long as I could manage when we dated. I also realized that I really missed his hands.
• After the movie we explored a little mock shanty town that they had set up to look like the ones that they repaired. It was rather difficult to see how people lived, and how horrible the conditions. It made me feel both depressed and grateful.

• During this tour, Kyle and I tied to separate as much as possible (or at least I did). If he was in a house, I didn’t go near. But we kept getting close. In fact, I don’t think he even paid attention, because he would go to a house whether I was in it or not. Plus more likely than not, would catch up with me when I tried to escape him (though I doubt this was on purpose).
• After HFT we went to a civil war town, where the Andersonvillecivil war prison was. We went to the POW museum, the drummer boy museum, and the Andersonville cemetery for the prisoners.
• The drummer boy museum was very awkward to me. It was located in a small, slanted, dusty back room of a sort of old civil war house. It had A LOT of old and priceless artifacts that I can’t imagine would end up in a musty old place like that. The curator was a middle aged country woman in overalls with a thick deep south accent and 5 snaggle teeth in her almost empty mouth.

• The POW museum was pretty awesome. I bought a kaleidoscope, and took some fun pictures. Jarell followed us on this one after a minute or so.

• The cemetery was…average. I mean, it didn’t nothing to make me feel bad or anything; it was just a bunch of white tomb stones. There were six headstones separated from the group that I was interested in. It was said that they don’t get flowers because they were killers or something. After the snaggle tooth lady told us that, I had the sudden urge to leave a flower or something. Maybe…just maybe, they weren’t traitors after all and just victims in a horrid misunderstanding.

• On our ride to dinner, the girls (plus Jake) had some camera fun, and were the LOUDEST ones on the bus. It was fun.

• The group was supposed to eat at Denny's, but the girls plus Melissa and jarell decided to got shopping in the strip mall around Denny's instead (I heard that Denny's is racist and will spit in your food if you are black, so I wasn’t too thrilled to dine there anyway….).  We decided to dress Jarrell in preppy guy clothes in old navy. Eventually, we got tempted to dress him in woman clothes as we moved on. He only agreed because he has a huge crush on me, it was that obvious. He kept looking over in my direction whenever we were tempted to put a baby doll dress over his shoulders, and I, being the tease I am, held out my hand and told him how cute I think he is. Just imagine. big, black, boyish jarrell. As a chick/gay. can you spell PRICELESS? (well if you cant, you spell it like THIS.....)

• We found an old 50 cent merry go round ride outside of old navy while shopping. I had forgotten those things even existed, so I paid for Renee to ride on it for about 5 minutes, while I and jarell filmed. It was rather enjoyable.

• Jarell bought a pair of dangling hear earrings for his one ear piercing because I told him to.
• Once more, the girls and I decided to order room service pizza for dinner. This was the last night before our last day so we decided to have a little party in our rooms.
• Jarell came over my room and we ended up in the bathroom talking. This part, I will skip the details on mostly, because they are irrelevant. Basically, he poured his heart out to me, in the best way he could and still keep his masculinity. I could tell he was nervous, but he had obviously done this before. I didn’t tell him ‘no’, or ‘yes’, but a simple ‘maybe later’. At the time, I didn’t know what to say because I like flirting with him, but I was full of excuses for not dating him (I don’t want a BF/I am really screwed up at relationships/he’s a pervert and I want to keep my v-card for a lot longer than I think he would like/we make better friends/he’s black, and we are different/blah blah blah….). Then curfew came and I told him he had to leave, so he did. He tried to give me a kiss, but I told him that he shouldn’t. I didn’t give him a reason really, but he got the picture and left. The reason i wouldnt kiss him: I had NASTY gummy bear breath. NEVER eat gummy bears before and intamate moment.
• After this, the girls CLAWED me with questions. Me heart was in my throat for about 5 minutes, because I didn’t realize what had happened and what I had done
• I packed for the rest of the night, after Shannon snuck into our room after hours and Courtney and Renee cursed us out for breaking rules and being loud. So Shannon left and I packed away the silence until 2 AM. I also wrote 2 of the most EMO poems about kyle in my sketch book. Ill upload them later.

• We went to the coke-a-cola factory in the morning. It was truly a great experience, not only for the free coke, but for the 4-d movie, the free coke, the special exhibits for coke advertising, the free coke, the gift shop, the free coke, and the free coke. Did I mention the free coke?

• Jarell couldn’t keep his hands off of me in this museum, which got really annoying after a while. At first I just went with it, an flirted back, even though it felt wrong, but after a while I just wanted him to let me go and stop acting like we were a couple.
• Him a Joey started to compete for my attention after a little while of being in the factory…
• We went o the varsity restaurant to lunch. I had chicken fingers and fries. Personally, for the praise that the place got, it was awfully nasty. The food was greasy, the service was rude, and the French fries tasted like they had been drowned in vinegar. My chicken was pretty good though. Once again, jarell wouldn’t leave me alone, and Courtney kept instigating that he sit next to me and talk to me.

• Then we went to a giant aquarium. It was…pretty awesome. I touch sting rays and starfish, walked under a giant tank of colorful fish swimming overheard, saw an otter beat the crap out of a plastic container holding food, and got some greats shot of the aquarium tanks and fish.

• Once more, jarell kept trying get my attention. After a while though, I think he got the picture and backed off. He just seemed to float sadly in the background. Only went Joey came and started to fight for my attention, did he perk right up and fight back. It was infuriating, and eventually, I stopped touching either of them and tried to see the aquarium in peace

• After this, we boarded the bus for the last time and left Atlanta. We traveled on the 5 hour trip home. On this trip, jarell didn’t talk much to me, even though he stole Alex’s seat in front of me. He wouldn’t even look at me. Courtney was texting him, but wouldn’t tell me what they were saying so obviously I was annoyed. Unfortunately, I had no ipod (the batteries were dead), so I was forced to sit on the bus for 5 hours, completely conscious that Kyle was in the seat opposite me on the other end, happy as can be chatting it up Jeremy and Alexandra while I sat next to Courtney, bored and confused. I didn’t even say goodbye to everyone when I got off the bus, I just grabbed my things, cantered into my dad’s car, and drove off.

• “Oh look at this two inch hill, this is noth—OH SHIT!!” –Renee
• I got addicted to coffee with hot chocolate and a whole cup of half-n-half in it over the trip
• “HEYYY BAABEH, how YOU doin!?” – All of us

• Courtney farted in my face while in our room. I had been lying on her hips when she started to laugh and just let it out. My mouth was WIDE open!! It was terrible!
• We all bought food with us to snack on in the room and kept it in the bottom drawer for safe keeping.
• We left the room a ABSOLUTE mess when we left
• Sharine drove us CRAZY the whole damn trip, she wouldn’t stop following us.
• I realized when I got home that I never really liked jarell. Renee pointed out to me that I am somewhat of a tease, flirting with no intention to go to the next step just because I can, I realized that it the only way I really know HOW to interact with guys, and I realize now that I probably lead jarell on. I feel really bad about this, mostly because he a real guy, who really likes me, and I cant stop flirting long enough to see that I am hurting him. I am about 55% sure that I don’t like him, but I am not sure I will tell him that. I know its bad to keep him guessing, but I am NEVER sure about anything, so if I tell him one thing and change my mind, that’s it. I think, for the time being, I will leave it open.
• Alex has a ‘crush’ on Mr. Walker and Mr.Treala.
• I lost my sunglasses while waiting for Renee and Courtney to ride the ninja. I had been jumping (because me and Alex where calling their names while they rose up the hill before the drop) on the railing when they just fell off my head and into the pond below.
• The ninja gave me the worse case of whiplash I have even had
• I got a cute little plushy for my mom while in six flags. Its supposed to be the snooty cat that peppy le pew is always trying to molest.
• Me and Courtney had the biggest drinks EVER after our hike up atone mountain
• “pink shirt, back in the box” security on ‘the batman’ talking to Alex when she moved from the exit box before the ride had come a complete halt after she waited for us get off.
• The star spangled banner I s LONG AS HELL (learned form the stone mountain laser show)
• Out tour guides name was Beth Ethel, and she was constantly booed by our group, who didn’t like to listen to Atlanta's rich history
• I saw A LOT of hobos
• The trip realized how far I have come from the days when I and Kyle dated, and how far both of us have fallen (mostly me). I noticed though, that we are completely different people now, as we always were deep down. At least I know we could never work again.
• There was this giant pole of gum on the way to Stone Mountain, which was pretty cool.
• I left an inspirational message is the Martin Luther King JR. visitor center guestbook
• This was the first tip that me and Kyle didn’t get together (in a way.). Sure, he was around me, but we didn’t speak a word to each other (although Joey, his roommate, kept asking me to drop by their room for ‘video games’, which I never did. I vaguely wonder what I missed….)
• It isn’t, however, the first class trip I HAVENT been asked out. It never fails really. EVERY class trip, someone asks me out. For the last 2 yrs it has been the same person, and I have always said yes. This time however, everything was opposite… (this guy was black, not kyle, and I said maybe)
• ‘HEY SEXY’-me being stupid
• I kept taking pictures of fields while on the bus

http://www.underground-atlanta.com/dining/restaurants.html
http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f75/Mushroom_Chopstix/