Dear people of the United States of America, the name "Belinda" is not "weird", not "unusual", and (judging by the fact that there were three of us in my year 8 maths class alone) not "unique". I do not get why every other word I say here is understood, but NOBODY understands me when I say my own name. I have never had this problem in any other country in the world. I despise being called "Melinda". There is only one person in the world that gets away with that, so unless you are a Dutchman named Erik, you can't call me that. At Christmas I took to telling people my name was simply Linda (or when the chick at Starbucks even struggled with that I simplified it further and used my Mum's middle name). Here at Disney World though, I realized that there was a shortening of my name that they would understand, so I have been telling anyone that asks that my name is Bel, and just like magic, people now understand what I am saying! Of course sharing a name with a Disney Princess means that everyone wants to put the word "princess" in front of your given name, but I can deal with that :)
So, I have spent the past week at the "happiest place of earth". Thing is, in July, it ain't that happy. It is hot (I currently have an awesome farmers tan, including a tan line across my chin where I failed to reapply the sunscreen and the hat clearly only covered about 98% of my face...), and it is crowded, and this is bringing out the worst in some people. I have been pushed and shoved so many times this week. I mean seriously people, if you didn't want to spend your vacation in a queue, why on earth choose to spend it at a Disney park? Lining up is the main attraction at these places! Next time go fishing instead...
Was highly amused that the very first character I walked into on day 1 was Peter Pan. Peter and I had a good chat. I told him all about how he was my Mummy's fav character (for those that don't know the story, that is a big fat lie, Peter and Mum got into a "disagreement" at Disney Land on Mum's birthday a few years back when he called her old). Peter decided he needed to make my Mum a gift, so he got a leaf off a tree and stole someone's pen and made this
I decided that if I saw a character, I would ask for a picture, and see how many I could get. I managed about 30 characters in total. The most amusing part was the in-character conversations I got to have. Every princess wanted to know if, given I was from Australia, I knew their friend Nemo. Ariel asked me if I took the EAC to get to Disney World, Tiana thought it was quite the lily pad jump, Cinderella thought it was quite the carriage ride, and Jasmine thought it was quite the magic carpet ride. Rapunzel was the funniest. She saw my "1st visit" badge, came barreling over and excitedly yelled "oh my, your first trip out of the tower, how exciting!!!". It is very hard to keep a straight face and play along some times.
I was at Disney for the fourth of July, this meant lots of red, white and blue, and lots of fireworks.
Gave the phrase "lit up like fairyland" all new meaning.
They even did the castle up in red, white and blue and stars.
At the electrical parade they even ended it with a lit up flag of lights, held by, what else, an eagle...
The electrical parade was very cool. Thee was a dragon
And just for Mum, Captain Hook's ship, complete with Peter Pan...
I made it to Epcot as well (on the monorail, of course).
Epcot was fun, though it hasn't dated well. It felt like 1986.
There were lots of cool things as Epcot. They have a coke pavilion where you can try different drinks from Round the world. I went with the ginger ale from Mozambique.
They had a great Finding Nemo pavilion at Epcot. There was a ride, and even an aquarium. You could even go and learn dive hand signals. I think this guy is doing some of the most boring dives known to man...Not much to see in that tube.
You could see all sorts of animals in the aquarium, like this seahorse (see, I do know what a seahorse looks like...).
I've eaten some interesting food this week as well. There was my fourth of July hotdog, with it's Mac & cheese topping
Then there was the hamburger that was really a cupcake. Complete with sugar cookie "fries"
And then there was the decision to ruin a perfectly good coca cola with ice cream and try a coke float (won't be having one of these again...yuck)
Tomorrow I am headed back to big apple for a fortnight. Very excited. Belinda's Broadway Bender, take 2!
So, I have spent the past week at the "happiest place of earth". Thing is, in July, it ain't that happy. It is hot (I currently have an awesome farmers tan, including a tan line across my chin where I failed to reapply the sunscreen and the hat clearly only covered about 98% of my face...), and it is crowded, and this is bringing out the worst in some people. I have been pushed and shoved so many times this week. I mean seriously people, if you didn't want to spend your vacation in a queue, why on earth choose to spend it at a Disney park? Lining up is the main attraction at these places! Next time go fishing instead...
Was highly amused that the very first character I walked into on day 1 was Peter Pan. Peter and I had a good chat. I told him all about how he was my Mummy's fav character (for those that don't know the story, that is a big fat lie, Peter and Mum got into a "disagreement" at Disney Land on Mum's birthday a few years back when he called her old). Peter decided he needed to make my Mum a gift, so he got a leaf off a tree and stole someone's pen and made this
I decided that if I saw a character, I would ask for a picture, and see how many I could get. I managed about 30 characters in total. The most amusing part was the in-character conversations I got to have. Every princess wanted to know if, given I was from Australia, I knew their friend Nemo. Ariel asked me if I took the EAC to get to Disney World, Tiana thought it was quite the lily pad jump, Cinderella thought it was quite the carriage ride, and Jasmine thought it was quite the magic carpet ride. Rapunzel was the funniest. She saw my "1st visit" badge, came barreling over and excitedly yelled "oh my, your first trip out of the tower, how exciting!!!". It is very hard to keep a straight face and play along some times.
I was at Disney for the fourth of July, this meant lots of red, white and blue, and lots of fireworks.
Gave the phrase "lit up like fairyland" all new meaning.
They even did the castle up in red, white and blue and stars.
At the electrical parade they even ended it with a lit up flag of lights, held by, what else, an eagle...
The electrical parade was very cool. Thee was a dragon
And just for Mum, Captain Hook's ship, complete with Peter Pan...
I made it to Epcot as well (on the monorail, of course).
Epcot was fun, though it hasn't dated well. It felt like 1986.
There were lots of cool things as Epcot. They have a coke pavilion where you can try different drinks from Round the world. I went with the ginger ale from Mozambique.
They had a great Finding Nemo pavilion at Epcot. There was a ride, and even an aquarium. You could even go and learn dive hand signals. I think this guy is doing some of the most boring dives known to man...Not much to see in that tube.
You could see all sorts of animals in the aquarium, like this seahorse (see, I do know what a seahorse looks like...).
I've eaten some interesting food this week as well. There was my fourth of July hotdog, with it's Mac & cheese topping
Then there was the hamburger that was really a cupcake. Complete with sugar cookie "fries"
And then there was the decision to ruin a perfectly good coca cola with ice cream and try a coke float (won't be having one of these again...yuck)
Tomorrow I am headed back to big apple for a fortnight. Very excited. Belinda's Broadway Bender, take 2!
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Hi Melinda, your name just reflects who you are - you are certainly "unusual", pretty "unique" and your Eurovision obsession is a little "weird", even to a European :) Enjoy NY! Erik
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