My brother's the social butterfly of the family and I'm the socially retarded caterpillar.

Dear Mibba,

Whoo, I haven't updated in forever, but my friend Gabby posting a journal inspired me to do so. Let me refresh your memories. We last left off when I was at aforementioned Gabby's house. I was talking about my week in great detail and was mad because her computer liked to eat my journal entry every time I got rather far on it. Read that entry if you want to know more.

Since then, I've hung around my house and been lazy. One somewhat interesting thing happened, and that's what I'll dedicate my blog (or journal, whichever you prefer) to. July sixth to the twelfth I went on vacation to Turks and Caicos, which is in the Caribbean. To learn more, go here http://www.turksandcaicostourism.com/.

I wrote some stuff down on my journey to the Caribbean, planning on putting it in the post card I promised Gabby. But unfortunately, I write too much, so she got a very watered down version. So if I mention 'you', I'm talking to Gabby, unless it is the ever present rhetoric 'you'.

Here's what I wrote down, word for word (except for the headings and a little bit on my boating adventure).

Anna on… the plane ride: If you looked all the way down, you could see the waves of the Caribbean. If you just looked straight out, it looked like the world was flipped and the sky was on the ground.

Anna on…seeing the Caribbean Sea: As we landed, the waters reminded me of an oil spill. The colors faded from navy blue to blue to turquoise and there were even some pink and purple spots. In contrast, the sand, and even the dirt, glowed white.

Anna on…being in the Caribbean Sea: The water was so clear you could have it up to your neck and see your feet still. My family swam out to a buoy but I freaked out because there was a rock, but all I saw was a tan lump. You're probably laughing right now and you're gonna laugh even harder when I tell you I thought it was a shark. I got goggles and swam back out to the buoy. I hadn't seen them before, but there were fish there. I was swimming above fish and they weren't swimming away in panic! (at the disco).

Anna on…snorkeling: Monday we went snorkeling for real. I was tired by the first rope, but plowed on. I was afraid a shark would eat me or something but five minutes into it, my fear evaporated. It was worth swallowing a pint of extra salty water and the same salty water getting into my eyes when I saw fish not just inches from my feet, but inches from my hands.

Anna on…the resort cats: There are two cats here. A tabby, and white and gray one. They embody the Caribbean cool persona. My mom and I first saw the tabby hanging by the sushi place, so we call it the sushi cat. The other one doesn't really have a name.

Anna on…the gift shops: My sister and I checked out the gift shops. I saw rings, so I'll buy one for you, and the other had a pretty radass scarf. No postcards or stamps were found, so if you don't get one, you know who to blame (not me). The next day we found them, so I'll send you that soon.

Anna on…Teen Nights: There are "Teen Nights" here where teens hang out at night. The first one was a bonfire, but when I was about to start making friends, my sister said she wanted to leave. The next night was a pool party. Since my sister didn't go and my brother didn't want me to be near him, I didn't go. My brother's the social butterfly of the family and I'm the socially retarded caterpillar.

Anna on…her broken iPod: On Tuesday my iPod froze and the backlight stopped working when it unfroze. This wouldn't be a huge problem if I wasn't trying to play 200 games of solitaire. My parents promised to go to the Apple store when we get back. But that wasn't good enough for me. I wanted them to fix it or pull a new one out of their butt with all my songs on it (not literally).

Anna on…free food/drinks: I'm getting spoiled here. This place is all-inclusive which means my parents paid a large amount of money so everything is free. Which means I'm eating a lot of free ice cream and drinking a lot of free sugary drinks like virgin strawberry daiquiris and virgin piña coladas. So, while you're losing 20 pounds, I'm gaining it.

Anna on…location names: All of the locations here are Japanese, Italian or French. Some examples are the French village, which is where the hotel rooms are, Kimono's Restaurant and Le Petit Chateau Restaurant. There are no obviously named Italian restaurants, but all the restaurants mostly serve Italian food.

Anna on…employees: Everyone who works here is either Jamaican or Asian and all the Jamaicans have the Jamaican/Caribbean accents. Yes, they do say "Yeah mon". Some of their accents are so thick, I need them to repeat themselves.

Anna on…her boating adventure: We first went to "Iguana Island" where I saw 3 iguanas. People found conches[1] and stole them. They must've had ten of them. Next we went snorkeling. The people who stole the conches got on the boat after 10 minutes so my family got on too because that's what most of the people were doing. The boat driver said we didn't have to and we had 15 more minutes so my parents and I decided to go back in the water, leaving my brother and sister on the boat. The extra 15 minutes was worth it because I didn't know when (or if) I was coming back. Next, we went to "Shell Island." My mom, my sister and I were collecting shells and holding their shoes. I offered to put my mom's shoes back on the boat because my sister had left hers with my dad who was taking pictures. That bit of kindness got me a butt soaking and a camera splashing, which broke the camera. Plus I got coral and two other not-so-cool shells cause I didn't feel like getting my wet butt sandy looking for better shells. On the way back, we passed an island that had one of Chuck Norris's houses and one of Bill Cosby's. I actually saw one of Chuck Norris's houses!

[1]Conch isn't pronounced how it looks, it's actually pronounced /conk/ and mispronouncing it in my presence gets you a conk on the head.

Anna on…the time difference: In the Caribbean, when they say 20 minutes, they actually mean 2-36 times that long, especially with waiting for food. So the only good places to go are the buffets.

Note: True to my promise way up there ^^ I didn't change anything except for on the boating adventure because it really didn't make sense. If you're confused about something, comment the journal about it and I'll fix it to make sense. Also, some of these were written in times of great anger, frustration, or depression, so that's why it seems like I had mood swings while writing this. The so-called 'mood swings' took place over several days.

Later Days!
July 16th, 2008 at 05:27am