Saturday, July 4, 2015

Lines After Lines Pho Life

I woke up at 6:15 AM today to find myself hearing knocks on my door. It was Helen. She decided to greet me a good morning as I quickly got ready to leave my room. As soon as I left the building, I saw Shanti and Julie coming out. I stopped and once they caught up we headed toward RPCC where Mr. Chan-Law was. The three of us saw the van and quickly got in to see the guys and Helen in the back waiting. We buckled our seat belts, and off we were to get a bite to eat. We headed toward College Town Bagels to get breakfast. After getting our breakfast, we went back to the van to resume our three hour long ride to Niagara Falls. 

Once we were in the car, I stayed awake to sing some songs but suddenly I fell asleep. I woke up during the times when we stopped to pay the tolls , and during the last twenty minutes of the ride Helen and I were having a blast in the back singing to the songs on the radio. It was a fun ride, and once we got out of the van we headed toward the state park. Niagara Falls today was pretty crowded. as we waited in line for over an hour to get onto the Maid of the Mist. Once putting on our blue ponchos, we walked to the top floor to get a good view of the falls. Since we were not the first ones on the boat, we were sandwiched between people on the rail and the wall behind. I never realized how massive Niagara Falls was until we were engulfed by a sea of mist. In addition, there were so many seagulls hanging out at Niagara Falls that I was terrified to get pooped on by one of the many flying around the boat. I enjoyed being on the boat, but once we were finished I wanted to quickly get off and eat lunch. This didn't really go as planned because there was an additional line to get in the elevator to go to bridge, where we were before we headed towards the boat. I was getting really tired of the lines, but having lunch rejuvenated me; or so I thought. 

After eating lunch, we headed toward our last attraction which was Cave of the Wind. It was then when I thought the line was going to take forever. There was a first line where we had to get our ticket stamped and our beautiful sandals. Then there was a second line to actually get into the cave. In total, I think we waited for four hours and in those four hours I experienced a sign from above. Literally, and maybe figuratively, I was greeted by the seagulls up above with a pile of poop. Once it landed on my head, I was disgusted. The comedic "splat" hit my head, and laughter followed. I laughed it off with the disgust still lingering in my head as we waited. A nice mother gave me some baby wipes, and Shanti helped me wiped the pile of poop off my head. It was very nice of her to do that for me, and I really appreciated it. We waited in line for another half hour before deciding to do a Survivor-like way to settle the dispute to stay or leave. Mr. Chan-Law ripped pieces of paper, and we all shared a pen and wrote either "stay" or "go." I will not tell you what I wrote, but the tense atmosphere as Mr. Chan-Law opened the pieces of paper made us feel anxious. It seemed as if we were in a reality TV show because many people were staring at us. It was an iconic moment, and we decided to leave with the votes being 4-2. As we left, we saw a Fourth of July festival on our way out with jumpers and live music. I was enjoying the music, feeling the rhythm, and giving people the nod as I walked by. Once we went inside the van, we were off to go to Cornell.
Pho House Special

I slept more on the way back. On our way back, we stopped at a pho place for dinner. I was craving for some pho for awhile now, and luckily we were going to eat it today. At the pho restaurant, I used my Vietnamese skills to order my food. After our food, we headed back to Cornell with full stomachs and happy moments.

It has been way too long since we all hung out together like this since the beginning of the trip. We had some happy moments when we were at Niagara, and especially in the car ride. On our way back, we had one last karaoke song where we were having the time of our lives. It was weird to be back on campus, but I had a lot of energy in me. When I went into my room and checked the sky outside, I saw something amazing. A red moon, also known as the bloody moon, was outside. It was surprising to see the end of the day with a powerful, raging moon. Happy Fourth of July!

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