(To the non-existent people reading this) Remember when I went to that "Business Professionals Of America event thing"? (A more accurate title would be 'BPA regional competition'.) Because of it, our chapter got to go to the state conference in Grand Rapids, held at the Amway Grand Plaza, which is really expensive compared to the places I usually stay. Ironically, they didn't have many TV channels, free Internet, or even a coffee maker in the room. You could pay for the first two, but $10 bucks a night for Internet seems kinda unreasonable to me.
I think we ended up on the lowest floor with rooms (the 5th). I had two windows in my room: The first gave a close up look at an A/C unit with a background of the other half of the hotel, with its shiny brick walls, and the second view presented me with a nice blank patch of wall. If I looked out the second window from right next to it I could see the river, spy on people on the second floor (and hear amateurs play piano [if you're going to play, play something decent and don't screw up, please]) and see the fountain on the basement floor.
My friends mostly played video games on their laptops. I'm the only one without one, so when I wasn't wandering around the city I was bored out of my mind. (We weren't allowed to leave the hotel alone.)
I can't exactly remember what order we did everything, thus there will be a lack of accuracy in my timeline. I think I should carry a notebook or something. I can never remember what I want to, even if it's important to me.
All but one of us (Though we still had seven: A former AM-OTC-er was there with his home school replaced the one taking a test) walked to a coffee shop called It's a Grind. There were only three of us as we were leaving. On our way out the door these two girls wearing red bull shirts and backpacks came in. I think Jim made a comment about wanting red bull, so they stop, one takes her backpack off and gives each of us one. I didn't like the smell of the others' so I gave it away, but it was still really cool to get random free stuff. Chris called to ask where we were or something and Jim told him about them, so the rest of the group tracked them down and got free red bull too. (I found it all very amusing) We passed a bunch of boring buildings and construction, but I should have taken a picture of that church (I took barely any pics, I was so pissed off when I realized). I don't remember much of what was talked about either. The place was supposedly a mile away, but it felt farther. I think the temperature wasn't that high, but combined with the sun, walking, and dark gray clothes it felt really hot out. Then, the inside of the coffee shop was even hotter, so I asked the guy if he could make an iced hot chocolate (They had all sorts of iced coffees and of course they had hot chocolate, why can't he combine them?). The guy told me it'd be cold or something. Duh. That's what I want. Why do people not get that there is a DIFFERENCE between cold hot chocolate and chocolate milk? There is, I've had enough of each to know. I ended up with chocolate milk with ice (It was good, but only because it was cold.) Someday I'm going to go back and get a proper hot chocolate from them. I didn't walk all that way just for that. On the way back I did discover from Curt that I'm the vice president of our BPA chapter. Mr. L did deem it necessary to tell me this. GRRR...
Friday, I ate lunch at Jimmy Johns for the first time. I got a slim 2 or roast beef on bread. I'm not a sandwich person. It tasted like if I was a sandwich person I'd like their stuff. But I'm not, so I don't.
Curt and I, the two 'voting delegates' had to go to a big pointless meeting. Then we skipped the vote the next day, so it was even more pointless than it seemed. He took notes on the people we would've been voting on. They were both true and funny.
That night we ate at a place that I call 'the not-mexican-mexican place' They tried, they had cocopelli on every thing (The was a drawing on the chalkboard near the bar of Cocopelli holding a margarita glass XD ) and they had a few Mexican dishes, but not enough of the staples for me to consider them a real mexican place. The chicken quesidilla I had was good though.
I ended up going back to sleep on Saturday on the account of nightmares of the hotel burning (I was still tired). I got two extra hours of sleep, but got ready in ten minutes after someone knocked on my door.
Every single morning, except the last, we ate breakfast at the Cornucopia place in the hotel. Yay not-filled-donuts that are probably two bucks each or something unreasonable like that. Grar.
Lunch the second day was at a sushi place next door to Jimmy Johns. I nearly ordered sushi, but because they said if you don't like fish you'll like sushi. I like fish, so will I like sushi? I'll try it eventually anyways. Our teacher learned how to use chopsticks, which I find interesting, I would've thought he'd already know how, considering how much it seems like he has traveled. None of us knew what to make of the orange dressing on the little salad. The miso soup didn't taste like any thing I've ever had before. I've decided I don't like tofu. I ordered chicken yakitori if I remember correctly. It was really good. I want to order it again sometime.
That night they had a 'formal dinner'. The salad was iceburg, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber. Psh. That isn't a salad, a salad implies it has nutrients and tomatoes are nasty in my opinion. The food didn't seem all that great to me, but I can see why it was like it was. Serving 2000 people can be kind of hard. We were forced to go to the dance. None of us wanted to. We all decided the moment Soldier Boy started playing we would leave. So when it did, we left. Wandering around a city at night in a short sleeved dress isn't the warmest thing I've ever done. I was really glad I chose to wear the tights, only my arms were cold. I didn't mind much though. We found a convenience store. Chris had been looking for twizzler pull and peel candy or something. The only thing was, you had to go downstairs to get to it. From the top of the stairs it looked really seedy and suspicious, but once down it was perfectly fine. :P
Today is Friday, March 28, 2008. 1:25 AM to be precise, so I'm gonna finish this thing up.
We had a meeting Saturday night and we were going to me at the concierge at 9:00 AM, assuming I remember. I was trying to find someone else to find out what was going on and everything, so with waiting for elevators I'm back at the fifth floor and my stuff is just inside my room all ready to go. I got a call from one of the chaperones at about 9:06 or something. I thought I was late and every one was already downstairs waiting. The chaperone and I ended up waiting long enough for him to take his and my luggage across the street to the vans. Two of our group showed up and we waited for some time until those of us who were there headed off to the award ceremony. They eventually showed up at the ceremony too. They called the tests we were in one right after the other. In PC Servicing and Troubleshooting I got first! I was so shocked and wondering how the fsk that happened that I didn't know if I was called for the second one. I ended up onstage anyways thinking I wasn't going to be called and look like an idiot, but I was called and I got third place in Microsoft Network Administration! Funny how totally forgot until now that I was also called for, I think, 5th place in the open event, IT concepts, until now.
Amusing typo of the post: Newtork. sounds like someone trying to come up with a new breed of orcs that had their DNA fused with newts. Or something like that. XD
