A Closer Look at Epcot

Today for Walt Disney Wednesday we're going to continue on our closer look at the parks and what Bryan and I are most looking forward to doing at the individual parks.  This will be the last one until next month, as I have something else planned for next week.  There also won't be a Walt Disney Wednesday in two weeks because it's Christmas.  I'll be doing it on Friday instead with Bryan's help (he doesn't know that part yet).  As the title implies, we're going to be talking about Epcot today.

Photo courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epcot

Epcot opened in 1982 and is twice the size of Magic Kingdom.  It focuses on human achievement, both now and in the future.  The park itself has two very distinct areas: Future World and the World Showcase.  As the name implies, Future World focuses on the future of humans and their technological achievements.  This is also home to the "golf ball" for which Epcot is famous.  This is actually called Spaceship Earth and contains a ride inside outlining the achievements of humans since their beginning.  I'll talk more about this ride specifically in a little bit.  The rear portion of the park is centered around a large lagoon.  There, there are 11 pavilions, each one dedicated to a different country: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, Canada.  Each pavilion is a completely immersive experience with replicas of famous landmarks, employees who are from that country, authentic food, shops and art galleries.  You are supposed to feel like you are visiting that country.  When I went with my family in 2000, they also had Millenium Village, which housed smaller pavilions for many more countries.  Although the World Showcase looks incredibly crowded, there's actually room for six more pavilions in case Epcot wanted to expand.

Just like Magic Kingdom, Bryan and I will spend two days at Epcot, although they won't be back to back days.  We also haven't divided up the park like we did with Magic Kingdom, we're just going to play it by ear and eat a lot of food.  There aren't an over abundance of rides at Epcot like there is at Magic Kingdom, but there's still a lot that I want to do.  First and foremost, I want to ride Mission: Space.

The premise of Mission: Space is that you are part of a flight team flying to Mars.  Each person has a different role to fulfill, including buttons to push.  Don't worry, the buttons will light up and tell you what to do.  Even if you don't press the buttons, everything works out, the computer doesn't react or change the story of the ride (I believe there is a similar ride at Hollywood Studios that does react if you don't push a button that you're supposed to).  In order to simulate the G-forces, the ride spins you around at a ridiculously high speed.  This has actually created extreme problems for Mission: Space, including the deaths of two riders.  One was a little boy who was a little too short to ride and also had an undiagnosed heart condition.  The other was a woman who had high blood pressure and died from a stroke.  After both of these deaths, Disney created a less intense version of the ride.  Now, visitors choose between the orange version (the original one) or the green version (the lighter version).  Even though I suffer from extreme motion sickness, I didn't have trouble on this ride in the past.  I'll probably still take some motion sickness medicine before this ride, just in case.

Another ride I've gone on before that I can't wait to do again is Test Track.  On Test Track, you design your own race car and then put it through the tests that cars undergo before determining if they can drive on the road.  It sounds like a nice, calm ride, but it's actually quite fast as you zip around on a track.  When we went in 2005, we were in line forever to get on the ride, then they had to close it for the weather.  We went back later, and the guys in front of us in line were teasing us, saying it looked like it was going to rain again, and the ride would be shutdown.

One thing that is of the utmost importance for me to do is visit the Christmas shop in the Germany Pavilion.  It holds such a special place in my heart, and it will definitely be an emotional trip for me.  When my family visited Disney World in 2000, my grandparents went with me.  At the time, I had extreme issues with fireworks (I'm still not a huge fan of them, but I've gotten a lot better), and there was no way I could sit through the IllumiNations show (I saw it in 2005 and loved it).  My Pop-Pop decided to take me to the Christmas store in the Germany Pavilion instead.  Even though the store was technically closed, one of the cast members, a young woman from Germany, kept it open just for us.  To help keep me distracted, she took me all through the store, showing me different things and explaining the Christmas traditions attached to them.  My Pop-Pop was German (along with a whole host of other things), so he loved it just as much as I did.  For that reason, I absolutely adore that store, and whenever I think of it, I always think of my Pop-Pop.

There are a few new things at Epcot I want to do.  First of all, Frozen Ever After (of course).  I love Frozen so much, and I've heard the technology on this ride is absolutely amazing.  I've purposefully avoided any videos on YouTube that show the ride, as I want to be surprised when I get on the ride.

Image courtesy of: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2016/04/frozen-ever-after-attraction-set-to-open-at-epcot-in-june/

Just like many of the rides in Magic Kingdom, this ride takes visitors through the story of Frozen as they ride on a little boat.  This ride replaced Maelstrom, which was a ride that took visitors through Norway as they learned about legends and the culture (similar to Gran Fiesta in the Mexico Pavilion).  I remember enjoying Maelstrom, especially the three headed troll, but I'm also glad to see this ride.  Frozen Ever After is Epcot's first attempt to create rides throughout the park that appeal to smaller children.  Some people, however, aren't happy about this, as they enjoy Epcot because there aren't as many small children as the other parks.

Additionally, I can't wait to check out The Seas with Nemo and Friends.  The Living Seas was at Epcot when we went in 2005, but we didn't really check it out.  The Seas with Nemo and Friends is a ride that takes you through Epcot's impressive aquarium.  As you ride, technology superimposes images of the characters from Finding Nemo onto the glass of the aquarium, making it look like they're a part of the aquarium as well.  It looks like a blast, and Finding Nemo is a bit of an inside joke between Bryan and I, which makes this ride even more special to both of us.

One thing I love about the World Showcase is how immersive the experience is.  Disney really goes the extra mile to make sure visitors feel like they are truly in that country.  For that reason, they always have a wide array of performers at each pavilion, and I want to see so many of them.  British Revolution is a rock group that does a wide range of cover songs from British rock history.  Since that's the type of music Bryan usually likes to listen to (me too), it seems like a fun place to just relax and sit after walking around the park all day.  As you can probably figure out, it's in the United Kingdom Pavilion.  Also in the United Kingdom Pavilion, I'd like to see Quickstep.  They are a quartet that plays authentic Scottish, Irish and English songs.  I absolutely love Celtic music, it's actually a bit problematic.  I've been asking Bryan to go to an Irish pub with live music for a while, but we haven't had a chance to make it to one yet.  If we don't in the near future, at least we'll be able to see this.  I also want to check out the Jeweled Dragon Acrobats.

Photo Courtesy of https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/entertainment/epcot/jeweled-dragon-acrobats/

In college I was fortunate enough to see another Chinese acrobat group in college, and I thought it was absolutely magical, not to mention terrifying to watch.  It reminds me of the abilities people have when they really push themselves.  The amount of perfection is astounding as well.  It makes all other gymnastic acts look like child's play, which is saying a lot.

Matsuriza is another musical group I want to see.  They are a Japanese drumming group.  I've never seen one before, but apparently you can hear them playing from quite some distance.  Additionally, in the Morocco Pavilion, I want to hear Sahara Beat perform.  Sahara beat is a Moroccan band that plays traditional and more modern Moroccan music.  I've never heard Moroccan music, so I'm interested to hear them perform and what the music sounds like, although I imagine it sounds very similar to Middle Eastern music.

Of course I want to see characters in Epcot as well.  Most importantly, I want to meet Anna and Elsa.  I'm a little bit torn, however, because now Anna and Elsa are in their costumes for Frozen II.  I think the costumes are absolutely gorgeous, but I had an image in my mind of meeting them in their outfits from the first movie.  I do have to admit, however that the new wig for Elsa looks beautiful, much better than the original wig.  I also love Elsa wearing her hair down in general, but I talked about that in my Frozen II blog post last week.

I do want to brag a little bit right now.  The one thing Bryan has not been able to get on board with is meeting characters.  I'm so excited to meet them, get autographs, take photos and talk to them.  He, on the other hand, keeps arguing that they're just people in costumes, not the actual characters.  When talking to Bryan today, however, I was teasing him about meeting Anna and Elsa.  After we saw Frozen II last week, he started referring to Elsa as the Avatar, just like Avatar: the Last Airbender, and he said he's always excited to meet the Avatar.  I wondered how Elsa would react if he referred to her as the Avatar, and he said there was only one way to find out.  This is the closest he's come so far to being interested in meeting the characters in any capacity.  Hey, if that's what it takes for him to get excited about meeting the characters, I'll take what I can get.

I'm also excited to see Mulan.  The only place you can meet Mulan is in the China Pavilion.  Like Anna and Elsa, Mulan costume has been updated in the past few years, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.  Her costume doesn't look anything like her outfits from the movie.  I remember there was quite a bit of an uproar after the costume change.  In Disney's defense, the costume is more accurate and closer to traditional Chinese dresses.

Of course, no trip to Disney's Epcot would be complete without seeing Belle.  When it comes to the Disney Princesses, Belle is definitely my favorite.  She doesn't need anyone to save her, she's willing to stand up for herself, and she's a bookworm just like me.  She's definitely one of my favorite Disney characters and is my favorite Disney princess (maybe with the exception of Kida from Atlantis).

Rumor has it Stitch can also be found near the entrance of Epcot.  Of course I plan on meeting Stitch at Magic Kingdom, but there's no such thing as too much Stitch.  I absolutely adore him, but I already talked about that in my Magic Kingdom post last week.

When it comes to the last three characters I want to meet, I'm not entirely sure if they'll still be there when we go in February.  The Future World part of Epcot is undergoing a lot of renovations right now, so some things won't be open or available.  This includes the meet and greet for Joy and Sadness from Inside Out.  I wasn't a huge fan of the movie, but I love Sadness so much.  I think I relate to her because I've struggled a lot with depression, especially in the past year, and Sadness reminds me the importance of expressing my emotions and the fact that it's perfectly fine to be sad every once in a while.  I'll also admit that the movie Inside Out has grown on me since the first time I watched it.

Photo courtesy of https://hiveminer.com/Tags/baymax%2Cface

Finally, I want to meet Baymax from Big Hero 6.  This movie was definitely not what I expected, but I loved it because I love superhero movies so much.  Also, it's technically a Marvel movie, which makes it even better.  Baymax is so adorable and pure.  My favorite Baymax moment, however, is when he's running low on battery.  It reminds me so much of a drunk person, and I find it absolutely hilarious that Disney included it in the movie.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'll be able to meet Joy, Sadness and Baymax, as their meet and greets are closed, and I haven't heard anything about them moving to another part of the park during the renovations.

Just like last week for Magic Kingdom, I asked Bryan what he's most looking forward to doing at Epcot and made him do a little bit of research.  He said he's most looking forward to riding Mission: Space.  I don't know if he wants to ride the green or orange one though, I'll have to talk to him about it before our FastPass day next week.  He also wants to check out the Mission: Space Advanced Lab Training, which I didn't even know about until he mentioned it.  When I looked it up, it looks like a hand's on activity center for all ages where you can participate in more interactive simulations like when you ride Mission: Space (minus the spinning) and send digital postcards to families and friends.  Bryan also said he's interested in (and this an exact quote), "All the coral reef stuff".  I'm assuming he means The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends and Turtle Talk with Crush, which is similar to The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor where they use similar technology to project Crush on the tank where he interacts with the audience just like Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor.

Tuesday is our FastPass day, so I figured Wednesday would be a good day to talk about the process and what FastPasses we got.  Everyone cross their fingers for us for Tuesday so we get all the FastPasses we want for our trip.

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Some Pictures from Hannah Lynn's New Book: Whimsy Girls at Work

Hannah Lynn, one of my favorite coloring book artists, has done it again.  This time, she created a fun and whimsical book portraying women in a variety of jobs.  This may be the first of two books, as she said she had so many ideas for this book, it was hard to chose which ones to include.  All I can say is, I hope she has a second book, especially if it's as wonderful and fun as the first one.  So far, I've only colored two pictures from this book, but I've printed out plenty more that I can't wait to color (I opted for the digital edition of this book instead of the physical book).

Before jumping into my picture, a few important details.  First, Hannah Lynn drew two versions of each picture: one that is more detailed and one that is more simplified.  She does the same thing with the monthly exclusive pictures you can get by supporting her on Patreon.  This is the first time she's done this for a book though (at least that I've seen).  Also, I couldn't find my bag of colored pencils.  Luckily, a few months ago Amazon had a 120 count of Crayola colored pencils on sale, so I bought those for when my pencils were on their last leg.  I wanted to wait to open them, but I was also so excited to finally get to use them.  It might only be an extra 20 colors, but it really does make a huge difference.  With all that out of the way, on to my pictures.

The first picture I colored is titled "Veronica's Patients".  As soon as I saw this picture, I knew I wanted to go with my usual softer, pastel-type colors.  I have no idea why, but I just love using pastel color palettes when I color, even though I don't really wear pastel colors or use them in my day to day life on a regular basis.  I did step outside my comfort zone with this picture, however, when I colored her skin and hair.  I tend to color people with lighter skin and dark hair (so they look very similar to me).  This hair, however, reminded me of a former student of mine, who always wore her hair natural in a giant bun on top of her head, very similar to the girl in this picture.  That student had significantly darker skin, but this is my homage to her.

I did struggle a little bit with the animals, as I wanted them to all have different coloring, and I didn't want them to blend in with any of the neutral tones I used, especially with the cabinets behind them.  I'm not entirely thrilled how the darker of the two dogs came out.  I tried to blend two brown tones together, which I know never works out, but I was optimistic that it would work out this time.  It didn't turn out terribly, but it definitely could have come out a little better.

Something I like to do when I color is put all the pencils I use to one side so they're all in one place.  Then, when I'm done coloring, I like to count how many I used.  It's weird, I know, but that doesn't mean I'll stop doing it.  It might not look like it, but I used a whopping 54 colors in this picture, which is more than I usually use.  For some, it's typical to use well over 54 colors because they do so much shading.  I am not nearly that skilled at coloring, so I don't use three or four colors for a simple pair of pants (not including things such as buttons or other details).

The other picture I colored is titled "Seaside Signing".  Once again, I stepped outside my comfort zone in a few ways for this picture.  You'll notice right away that the colors are extremely different.  I went for much bolder colors, with the exception of the seaside scene in the window.  It's not that I don't use these darker, bolder colors, it's just not as often.  To me, however, this book store reminded me of something warmer, with wood paneling on the walls and something more aligned with jewel tones.  I did manage to sneak some softer colors in, such as the seaside scene and in her scarf, but that's about it.

Another way I stepped outside my comfort zone was by making the author have red hair.  Like I said before, I usually color brunettes.  I have no idea why, I just do.  While I love the red hair next to the burgundy for her pantsuit, I'm not entirely thrilled with how the hair came out.  I used three different shades of orange for the hair, I think it's just a little too much.  I should have stuck with the two darker shades and not the lightest of the three.  Oh well, it doesn't look awful, but I just feel like it could look a little bit better.

I'm also not entirely thrilled with the colors I made the awning in the window.  It was pretty much the last thing I colored, I had no idea what colors to use, so I just went with two colors I knew looked fairly good together.  While these colors do look pretty good together, they don't look good here.  I feel like a lot of my attention is drawn to that window, not to the author signing books, which should be your main focus.

Overall, Hannah Lynn knocked it out of the park with this book.  The pictures are incredibly detailed and show a wide range of jobs.  I hope she does a second volume for this book, as it's so much fun to see different careers represented.  You can find the book on Etsy and Amazon.

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My Thoughts on "Lilac Girls"

Let me start out by saying that usually when I write about a book that I've read, I try to keep all the spoilers to the end and mark them with a big sign saying that there are spoilers coming up.  With this post, however, there are going to be spoilers throughout the entire post.  So, if you haven't read Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly or would like to avoid spoilers, this might not be the best post for you to read.  I know, I can't believe I'm telling people not to read my post, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone!  Also, this is going to be a fairly long post.  Just like when I wrote about The King's Curse, I also want to get into some of the history of the book as well.

This book focuses on three separate stories surrounding World War II: Kasia Kuzmerick, Caroline Ferriday and Herta and Herta Oberheuser.  Two of the characters, Herta and Caroline, were real people, while Kasia was based on a real person, Janina Iwanska.  I'm going to be honest, at first I wasn't going to read this book.  The sequel (which is actually a prequel), Lost Roses, sounded far more interesting to me.  However, I decided to give it a shot.  My mom kept speaking highly of it, and if I didn't like it, I could just stop reading it.  We already owned a copy, so I had nothing to lose.

First of all, this book wasn't what I was expecting at all.  I thought the book would focus entirely around World War II and the Holocaust.  In reality, this was only about half of the book.  The second half dealt with the aftermath of the events in the first half of the book.  I found this particularly intriguing, as many books about the Holocaust don't spend that much time on the aftermath.

In this book, one of the main settings is Ravensbruck, an actual concentration camp.  Located in northern Germany, this was a camp for female prisoners from 1939 to 1945, so the entire duration of the war.  The overwhelming majority of women, approximately 40,000, were Polish, but women from all over Europe were represented there.  Additionally, roughly 80% of the inhabitants were political prisoners, like one of the characters in the book.  In all, it is estimated that about 130,000 women passed through this camp and around 50,000 of them perished.

A view of Ravensbruck courtesy of https://www.ravensbrueck-sbg.de/en/history/1939-1945/

Like I said before, Lilac Girls focuses on three different women.  They all have separate stories until they slowly begin to come together in ways that were both predictable and unpredictable over about a twenty year period.  Martha Hall Kelly does a wonderful job of discussing all three women and giving them all a chance to tell their story as fully as possible.

Caroline Ferriday

The first character I want to talk about is Caroline Ferriday.  As previously stated, she was a real person.  She lived amongst higher society in New York with her mother, and both women were philanthropists.  Previously a moderately successful actress, Caroline now volunteered her time at the French Consulate in New York City were she dedicated most of her time raising money and supplies for orphans in France.  This becomes impossible when the puppet Vichy government takes over.  In the book, Kelly also alludes to a romance between Caroline and a married French actor, although I haven't been able to find much about that online, so I don't know if was added in to just give her character a little more conflict.

In the 1950s, Caroline worked with the Ravensbruck "Rabbits", women who were used for medical experiments at the camp.  She worked tirelessly to raise awareness about them and raise funds to bring them to America.  Although the war had been over for nearly ten years at this point, many of these women now lived behind the Iron Curtain and had limited access to medical assistance that would help them overcome the ghastly injuries purposefully inflicted upon them during the war.  In the book, this includes the fictional character Kasia and her sister, Zuzanna.  In reality, Caroline and her mother really hosted four of these such women for nearly a year as they toured the country and got the medical assistance they so desperately needed.

If I'm going to be honest, I felt that Caroline's was the weakest of the two stories.  I hate saying that, because I feel like it trivializes Caroline's amazing life, but it's true.  Her story didn't interweave with the other two stories until the second half of the book, so for about 200 pages, her story just seemed out of place and completely different from Kasia and Herta's stories.  I just couldn't see how her story was going to come together with the other two.  All three stories did come together in the end, but it was definitely a struggle to see how it was going to all be done.

Kasia Kuzmerick
I'm going to talk about Kasia in two different ways.  First, I'm going to talk about her as a fictional character.  Then, I'm going to talk about the real life woman who inspired her character and the similarities between the two.

In the book, Kasia was a Catholic who worked for the Polish Resistance after a local boy she was friends with got involved in it.  Unfortunately, she was caught fairly early on and sent to Ravensbruck, along with her sister, mother, her friend and her friend's younger sister.  After being briefly detained in a ghetto, they were sent to Ravensbruck.  At Ravensbruck, Kasia and her sister were used for medical experiments, which was really just a cruel, sick form of torture.  It is later revealed that Kasia had part of her tibia removed (approximately six centimeters), and she had foreign items inserted into her leg.  Because of this, Kasia was left with extreme pain and difficulties walking.  Meanwhile, Kasia's mother, who was a trained nurse, was moved to Block One where she worked in the camp hospital doing administrative tasks.  One day, however, while her daughters were being operated on, she simply disappeared.  It takes Kasia until the very end of the book to find out what really happened to her mother.

During her time at Ravensbruck, Kasia was able to write letters to her father, who was free the entire time.  She included coded messages written in her own urine exposing the truth behind what was going on in the camp.  Her father passed this information off to the International Red Cross, along with several other foreign agencies and governments.

Eventually, Kasia and Zuzanna managed to leave the camp towards the end of the war when the International Red Cross showed up.  They first went to Sweden before heading back to Poland, only for it to fall behind the Iron Curtain.  During this time, Kasia dealt with extreme anger and resentment for what happened to her and the fact that her father moved on with a new woman in his life.  She carried this anger with her until the end of the book.

While the character of Kasia was fictional, she was based on a real person, Janina "Nina" Iwanska (sometimes spelled "Iwanski").  Unfortunately, I couldn't find a whole lot of information about Janina out there, but I will definitely keep my eye out for more and update this page with anything I do happen to come across.  Just like Kasia, Nina was part of the Polish resistance until she was caught and sent to Ravensbruck.  While in Ravensbruck, Nina became one of the "Rabbits", a term given to the women used for medical experiments for two reasons: first, they often had trouble walking and therefore had to hop from place to place and second, because they were being used for medical experiments, just like rabbits.  With the help of three other women, including her younger sister, Nina wrote coded letters to her outside family telling of everything going on in the camp.  The four women spelled out everything in extreme detail so their families knew exactly what was going on.  They even planned to escape from Ravensbruck and asked their family members for supplies.  It is unclear if they actually did escape, but all four women did end up surviving the war.

Herta Oberheuser
Like Caroline Ferriday, Herta Oberheuser was a real person.  Personally, I found her story the most fascinating in a weird, twisted way.  It was a completely different perspective from what I was used to in World War II and Holocaust books.  In a way, it reminded me of Werner from All the Light We Cannot See, who also worked for the Nazis, although he was far less passionate about the Nazi Party ideologies.  Herta, on the other hand, fully bought into the Nazi Party.  Everything she did, she did for the greater good of Germany.  It was strange and uncomfortable getting inside the head of someone who bought the party line so willingly, it was definitely a new experience for me as a reader and a historian.  The discomfort I felt definitely speaks to the quality of writing on the part of Kelly.

Herta went to Ravensbruck in 1942; she was 31 years old.  Before then, she got a medical degree and focused on dermatology.  The book discusses how Herta wanted to do more but was limited due to the fact that she was a woman, and Nazi ideology emphasized the importance of women staying home and running the household.  She served in the League of German Girls, a Nazi program for young women and eventually became assistant to Karl Gebhardt, who was Heinrich Himmler's personal physician.  Upon her arrival at Ravensbruck, Herta worked on finding a better way to treat infections.  In the book, Kelly talked about the fact that this was because one of Hitler's aides died from a wound inflicted on the battlefield and blamed the death on the fact that a specific medication was not administered to him.  Therefore, Herta recreated battle wounds on prisoners, including slicing open their legs in gruesome ways and rubbing all sorts of foreign items such as soil, glass and wood into the wound, along with bacteria.  Some women were treated with the drug in question, while others were not; all to prove to Hitler that the lack of medication administered did not lead to his aid's death.  I couldn't find anything online to lead to the veracity of this.  I hope it's not true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Lilac Girls also speculates about a possible romantic relationship between Kasia's mom and Herta.  It's only alluded to, and Herta does seem especially distraught when Kasia's mother disappears.  They also seemed to be more than just friends, although Kelly leaves that up to the interpretation of the reader.

After the war, Allied forces arrested Herta, and she was part of the Nuremberg trials as one of the only female doctors on trial.  She was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison (it should be noted that others were executed for her crimes).  Much like the criminal justice system today, Herta did not serve her entire sentence and was released after five years for good behavior.  She opened a family practice in Germany until a Ravensbruck survivor recognized her and turned her in.  In Lilac Girls, this is slightly different.  Caroline hears rumors that Herta is practicing family medicine in Germany and pressures Kasia to go and see if it really is her.  If it is, a positive identification can help to bring Herta down and prevent her from practicing medicine in the future.  Since Kasia is a fictional character, reality is a little different.  The book ends with Kasia confronting Herta.  Free from the burden of hatred and finally embracing forgiveness, she is able to finally move on with her life and be happy.  The reader doesn't find out what happened to Herta.  In reality, news of Herta's real identity came to light.  Not only did she lose her license to practice medicine, but the German government fined her as well.  Her career as a doctor was finally over.

Believe it or not, I still have a lot to say about this book.  First of all, a lot of this book reminded me of my own experiences when I visited Auschwitz four and a half years ago.  I had the wonderful and unique experience of traveling to Krakow to visit Auschwitz with a Holocaust survivor, Eva Mozes Kor.  Like Kasia, Eva was subjected to extreme torture under the guise of medical experiments during the Holocaust, but that is where their stories diverge.  Eva was only ten years old when her family was deported to Auschwitz.  Since she and her sister, Miriam, were twins, they were selected to stay alive and be a part of Dr. Mengele's experiments.  The rest of their immediate family did not survive.

Me with Eva at our hotel in Krakow.  July 2015

During their brief time at Auschwitz (approximately nine months).  Eva, her sister and other twins were subjected to all sorts of medical experiments at the hands of Dr. Josef Mengele.  Until the day she died, Eva had no idea what exactly was done to her.  One of her life's missions was to find out, as she was convinced those experiments caused all of Miriam's health problems later in life (Eva donated her one of her kidneys at one point), and ultimately her death in 1993.  Eva lived until 2019 and died on a trip to Auschwitz on July 4th.

One thing that really stood out to me was the lack of forgiveness Kasia carried in her heart.  Understandably, she grew to resent most people around her because of what was done to her.  This was compounded by the guilt that her actions in the Polish Resistance got her mother arrested as well, eventually leading to her death.  It wasn't until Kasia confronted Herta and had her say that she was able to feel lighter and freer.  One of Eva's big messages was a message of forgiveness.  She advocated for forgiveness for everyone, not because the other person deserved it, but because you deserve to live a free life without carrying that hatred around in your heart.  I feel that Kasia really exemplified that.  While she didn't technically "forgive" Herta, but confronting her and saying what she wanted to her, she was able to finally hold her head up and live a better life.  I'm purposefully not talking a lot about Eva or going into much detail because I have an entire post planned out for the anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation next month, and I'll talk about my trip and Eva in immense detail then.

There was another small detail that most people probably missed that actually had immense meaning to me.  In the book Caroline talks to Wallis Simpson (wife of the former King Edward VIII of England) about raising funds to help the Ravensbruck women.  Wallis immediately replies that the war has been over for quite some time, and she can't imagine there are still victims who still need help getting on their feet.  This reminds me of a conversation I had with my Pop-Pop a few weeks before he died.  I spent a good two hours talking to him about everything under the sun, including his time with Germany.  During the Korean War, the United States and the rest of the world worried that some still sympathetic towards Nazism would try to do something while the rest of the world was distracted with the problems in Korea.  For that reason, my Pop-Pop and others were deployed to Germany during the war. 

Pop-Pop relaxing while stationed in Germany sometime in the early 1950's.

Although my mom isn't sure of exactly when he went over to Korea (she thinks sometime in 1951), but she knows he returned to the United States in 1953.  That means he was there 6-8 years after the end of World War II.  Despite this, there was still a displaced persons camp right next to the army base.  While visiting with Pop-Pop, he told me about his experiences with the victims still living in the camp nearly a decade later.  He told me he and the other soldiers would even pay them to do their laundry with cigarettes.  All of this completely surprised me, just like it surprised Wallis Simpson that there were people who needed help.

Overall, I thought Lilac Girls was an amazing book, far better than I expected.  I thought the history was absolutely fascinating, and there were several personal connections I had to the book that drew me to it even more.  I can't wait to get my hands on the prequel and any other books Kelly writes in the future.

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A Very Pentatonix Christmas

The past few years for Christmas, I've gotten Nicholas something small and then gotten him tickets to some sort of performance or show.  We go together to see the show, and it's a great chance for the two of us to spend time together, especially given the fact that we keep completely different schedules now and barely see each other.  So far, we've seen Impractical Jokers twice and Jeff Dunham once.  This year, however, I mixed things up a little bit and see Pentatonix at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax.  We're both huge fans of the group, and I especially love their Christmas music.  For this reason, I spent a little more than I probably should have on the tickets, but I really wanted good seats.  Our seats definitely were amazing.  Unfortunately, that was just about the only good thing about the disappointing performance.

A photo of the stage from our seats.

Nicholas and I arrived at the arena super early because we weren't sure how traffic was going to be.  That was fine, we grabbed something to eat at the arena and headed towards our seat.  A little after 7 (when the show was supposed to start), the opening act, a local madrigal choir, went up on stage to perform.  Around 7:20, they finished performing, and I figured the concert would start shortly.  It started ta 7:40.  That's right, the show started forty minutes late.  Now, I've been to several concerts over the years, and I performed all through high school, so I know not to expect a concert to start exactly on time, but never in my life have I experienced a concert start forty minutes late.  It seemed incredibly unprofessional, especially given the fact that no sort of apology or explanation was given for the extreme delay.  It's important to note that there were many children in the audience who had school the next day, but that didn't seem to matter.

After thirty five minutes of performing, act one ended.  That's right, act one was shorter than the time the group made us wait for them to start.  At that point, I was furious, especially given the fact that act two of a performance is always short.  If that was going to be the case, this was going to be an incredibly short concert prolonged only by the extreme and unprofessional delay levied upon concert goers.  I sat in my chair, which I paid a ridiculous amount of money to occupy, fuming; hoping and praying that act two would break the mold and be longer than act one.

Act two started, and the group as a whole seemed to be a little bit more in their stride.  They were a little more relaxed and interacted with the audience a little more, which brings me to another point: the group didn't seem very friendly, both with the audience and with each other.  Like I said before, I've seen my fair share of concerts.  When you go to a concert, you're not just going to hear the music, you're going to hear stories and anecdotes from the performers.  It isn't just one song after another, they take breaks to share stories about the songs: what they mean to them, the thought process behind them, maybe little funny quirks about them you wouldn't get from just listening to the song.  It's also an opportunity for the performers to share stories from their personal lives and really connect with their fans.  I can't even begin to tell you all the information I learned about Hugh Jackman during his concert in July.  i left that performance loving that man even more than I already did (if that was even possible).  I left the Pentatonix concert, however, feeling very conflicted about my feelings towards the group.  I still loved their music, but I struggled with reconciling that with their actions during the show.  The biggest thing I noticed was the lack of interaction with the audience.  Often, they would go from one song to the other with either no introduction or something like, "This is one of our favorite Christmas songs to perform, we hope you like it too.  If you know the words, sing along.  This is (insert name of song here)."  That's it, nothing else.  At one point during the concert, Mitch did go out into the audience briefly to ask audience members their favorite Christmas movie, but it was minimal, and he was back on stage within a minute.  At another point, the new bass singer, Matt, went out into the audience as well, but it was also minimal.  Each time, they only spoke to one audience member only a few rows back, and then they returned to the stage.  It's not as if the group members were interacting much on stage either.  As a whole, they seemed fairly stiff around each other and really didn't talk to each other.  The only two I really saw talking were Matt and Kevin (the beatboxer).  Everyone else kept to themselves and barely acknowledged each other during the concert.  It was all very strange.

On our way home, Nicholas and I talked about the concert.  We decided not to go to the stage door because we got the feeling that the band wouldn't be that friendly to meet (not to mention we had no idea where it was).  We also discussed the strange dynamic we saw up on stage.  We both concluded that we got the feeling the band members didn't entirely get along.  Very early on in the concert (the second or third song), I also had this gut feeling that the band wouldn't be together for that much longer.  It's unfortunate to think about that, and I feel that the audience should never get that vibe from a group performing.  Not only are we paying good money to hear the group perform, but we are also expecting an upbeat performance where the group looks like they get along.  They at least have to pretend to do so while on stage.  All of this has shed new light onto why Avi, the original bass singer, might have left two and a half years ago.

Okay, now that I've gotten all of that out of my system, I can finally talk about the music.  When it came to just the singing, Pentatonix did a great job, not that I would expect anything less.  They really are a wonderful group with a lot of talent.  The overwhelming majority of their concert was Christmas music, with a random other song thrown in here or there, but those songs all had some sort of Christmas connection.  I took a lot of videos, way more than I probably should have.  I'll include a few of them, but you can find all of them on my YouTube channel (there isn't much on there, I'm not going to lie).

The first song I want to talk about is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".  I'm not a big fan of this song.  In fact, this is the only version of this song that I like in any capacity.  I enjoy the upbeat nature of it, how it seems to jump up and down (if that makes any sense).  What I love the most, however, is the end.  The song builds up to an exciting crescendo where Pentatonix then speeds up the song faster and faster with a strong beat underneath.  It's fun, exciting and unlike any other version of this song you'll ever hear.

On their latest Christmas album, Pentatonix takes on "Making Christmas" from my favorite Christmas movie: Nightmare Before Christmas.  It's a fun song, and that's definitely reflected in the performance.  If you pay attention to the image projected on the screen in the background, you'll notice it's a traditional Christmas scene with a twist: it's covered with spider webs and other spooky decorations.  It was a lot of fun to see it performed live, and it's a fun, unconventional Christmas song to listen to as well.

"Mary, Did You Know?" is Nicholas' favorite Christmas song by Pentatonix, and it's easy to see why. With its beautiful and simple scenery and the absolutely haunting harmonies, their YouTube video of this song blew up all over the internet.  I feel like this is such an underrated song.  Those who know it, love the message asking Mary if she knew the little baby Jesus would have such a huge impact on the world as she cared for him and loved him just as a human, nothing more, nothing less.  It is sobering to think about and often reminds us of Christ's humanity, not the fact that he is seen by many as the Savior (I'm trying my hardest to remain as politically neutral as possible here).  If you've never heard the song, you definitely need to check it out.  I feel like it's gained more of a following in recent years, but the song itself is 35 years old.  This means it's still a fairly newer Christmas song in the grand scheme of things, and there are plenty of people who aren't familiar with it.  I do believe it is going to become a classic, just like "Silent Night" and "Joy to the World" in the coming years.

This song was one of the few times where Pentatonix really talked to the audience and a little about themselves as a band.  Scott explained that when they first started their group, they had no idea where to find a beatboxer, so they did what most people do today: they turned to the internet.  They typed "beatboxing" into the internet, and the first video that popped up was Kevin beatboxing while playing the cello; both of which are incredibly challenging tasks to do individually, let alone together!  They sent Kevin a message on YouTube, and he got back to them explaining that he was a little busy at the moment with finals: he was in his senior year of pre-med at Yale.  They let it go, but Kevin got back to them two weeks later saying he had a little bit of free time, so he flew out to Los Angeles, and the rest is history.  Kevin demonstrated his "celloboxing" as he calls it, and it did not disappoint!  He also does it in Pentatonix's cover of "Radioactive" with Lindsey Stirling, which is just as amazing.  What I would love is to see him do something with Piano Guys.  I feel like they could make something really fun and magical happen there.  Hopefully, we'll see that happen in the future.

Before you watch the next video, you should know that it is not the best quality (not that any of my videos are top notch quality).  It was the second song in the encore, and Scott and Matt were near us dancing in the aisles with members of the audience.  I kept pushing Nicholas to get closer since the people who sat between us and the aisle already left, so you're going to hear him complain too.  I wanted to get closer because it looked like fun, and Scott's my favorite member of the band.  So, I apologize ahead of time for that.

The song I really wanted to hear Pentatonix perform was "O Come All Ye Faithful".  It was my Pop-Pop's favorite Christmas song, and while I've always enjoyed it, I've come to love it even more ever since he passed away.  This version, however, I don't think he would have liked at all.  It's fun, upbeat and exciting.  A wonderful twist on a classic song.  I knew, however, that it would be difficult for Pentatonix to perform this song, because it ends with an entire choir singing along, not just the five of them.  I remained optimistic though.  Unfortunately, they didn't perform it.  I wasn't too bummed out, as they had a wonderful collection of songs that they performed.  I have embedded the music video below, and you should definitely check it out.

         

Overall, the actual music was fantastic.  When talking to my co-worker this morning, however, she had an excellent point: you can listen to the music whenever you want, when you go to a concert, you're going for the experience.  This experience was extremely lackluster.  I hope that Pentatonix was just having an off day of sorts, and their concerts usually aren't like this, because I would definitely like to see them again.  It will probably be a while, though, because I spent a lot of money no this concert only to have a series of disappointments.

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A "Frozen" Adventure

That's right, I managed to drag Bryan to see Frozen II last night.  It was surprisingly easy, and he didn't seem to mind too much.  While there's no topping the original movie (which is often the case with Disney movies), I did think this movie was good and enjoyable.

In keeping with the spirit of the first movie, Frozen II explores the growth of Elsa's powers as she awakens the spirits of a mystical forest to the north of Arendelle while simultaneously focusing on the sisterly bond Anna and Elsa share as they support each other.  According to legend, indigenous peoples lived there, and Elsa and Anna's grandfather built a dam to help them harness the powers of the gods who also lived there.  While celebrating, however, the indigenous people attacked, killing their grandfather.  Their father was mysteriously rescued, and a mist settled over the forest; no one got in or out ever again.  Elsa accidentally releases these spirits, who force the people of Arendelle out of their kingdom.  Determined to fix her mistake, again, Elsa sets off with Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven to the northern forest to find the spirits and chase after a mysterious voice that has been calling out to her.

Wow, that's a lot to take in.  One thing Frozen II did exceptionally well was its portrayal of the indigenous people, who were inspired by the Sami people, an actual indigenous people who live in Scandinavia.  Disney even signed a contract with the Sami, ensuring they would work with scholars and tribal leaders to make sure they were portrayed as accurately as humanly possible in the movie.  This is a huge step for a company that has a song titled "What Makes the Red Man Red" in Peter Pan.  It's a sign that times are changing for the better, and we are becoming more aware of representing peoples' culture as accurately as possible.

The animation was absolutely stunning in the movie as well.  You could tell that it was Disney really showing off its capabilities.  One thing I thought was gorgeous was Elsa's dress at the end of the movie with her hair down.  For some reason, I thought it was beautiful and incredibly detailed.  It looked like real hair, not like the chunky hair that moved in clumps in old Disney movies.  The animation is slowly becoming more realistic while simultaneously still showing that it's still animation and created by a computer.  It's amazing how far technology has come in recent years.

When it comes to the music, some songs were absolutely gorgeous ("Into the Unknown" and "Show Yourself"), some were along the lines of what you'd expect in a Disney movie ("Some Things Never Change" and "When I Am Older"), and some songs were just way too much (I'm looking at you "Lost in the Woods").  Idina Menzel really blew it out of the water when it comes to Elsa's songs.  She showed off her ability to belt and pour her heart into gorgeous songs.  Kristen Bell even got an opportunity to show off her singing abilities in a soulful, emotional song titled "The Next Right Thing".  It was Kristoff's song, "Lost in the Woods", however that was probably the most cringe-worthy Disney song I've experienced in a long time, if not ever.  It makes fun of cliches from boy band music videos, including Kristoff flopping against trees in an angsty fashion, running his fingers through his hair and turning to sing into a pinecone hanging from a tree that looks like a microphone in a recording studio and even having Sven and other reindeer as backup singers.  It was absolutely awful and felt completely out of place and forced.  Most children, who are probably the only people who would find this song funny, wouldn't even get all the cliches and references, so it's completely wasted.  To make matters worse, the song went on for way too long, and by the time it was done, both Bryan and I were completely over it. 

Okay, I got that all out of my system.  If you haven't seen the movie yet and want to avoid spoilers, this is probably where you should stop reading, because I want to talk about the ending a little.

Wow, I definitely didn't see that ending coming.  I agree, Elsa was definitely happier up north where she could expand her powers and be closer to nature, but I never thought she'd give up the throne!  It was a wonderful moment of growth for both Anna and Elsa.  They had the opportunity to push themselves and really do what they were born to do.  When I think about it, I do feel that Anna was born to lead more than Elsa, but I can't exactly explain why.  I think part of it stems from the fact that Elsa still has so much to learn about herself, making it difficult to also rule over an entire kingdom.  She also spent so much time locked away and in seclusion, she really needs to get out into the world and see what's out there.  She seems so much happier up north at the end, able to stretch her powers and live a free, laid back life.  It will be interesting to see how Anna will handle challenging situations in the future, but she always seems to have the type of attitude where she'll do whatever it takes to get the task done.  Let's also appreciate that Kristoff will be king one day, which is something difficult to wrap your mind around.

I also want to talk about the scene on the ship with Anna and Elsa's parents.  It was absolutely heartbreaking, and I definitely felt myself getting a little emotional.  I can't even imagine the amount of guilt Elsa felt, knowing that her parents died trying to get information about her and her powers.  At the same time, it was a wonderful opportunity to provide the girls, and viewers, with some closure.  Seeing that ice statue of the parents holding on to each other as a wave crashes over them, however, was absolutely brutal.

I feel that in addition to Disney making sure the Sami people were properly portrayed in the film, they also took advantage of the opportunity to include a little bit of a social commentary.  This came out when it was revealed that King Runeard killed the leader of the indigenous people and used that as an excuse to attack them.  This was all after he built the dam, not to help them harness the powers of the gods, but to limit it.  This is exactly like what the Europeans did to indigenous people all across North and South America.  They took away their land, limited their power and killed them when they tried to oppose them.  All of this would, of course, be lost on children seeing the movie, and it wasn't something I entirely realized until after I saw the movie and had time to process through the plot.  I think it's great Disney's including underlying themes like this in it's movies, and this one in particular is a way to call out the horrible things we did to Native Americans, even if it was fairly subtle.

Overall, I thought Frozen II was a fun movie that keeps the spirit of the first movie while not quite living up to the high expectations.  Some of the songs were beautiful, and the message of embracing who you are is still great.  If you're a fan of the first movie, it is definitely worth seeing.

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A Closer Look at Magic Kingdom

Ahh Wednesday, before you were simply a day I had to get through to be halfway done with the week.  Now, however, I have the opportunity to discuss some of my exciting Disney plans!  This week, I'm focusing entirely on Magic Kingdom and our plans for the oldest and most classic Disney theme park.

For those of you unfamiliar with Magic Kingdom, it is the oldest of the four Disney theme parks and is home to many of the classic rides and attractions you think of when you think of Disney World.  Opening in 1971, this was the only park in Disney World until Epcot opened 11 years later.  When you first enter the park, a turn of the 20th century street called Main Street, USA full of shops and restaurants leads you to the park's most famous attraction: Cinderella's Castle.  While you can eat in the castle, that's about it.  Most people simply take pictures in front of it and move on.

Magic Kingdom itself is broken up into six different areas: Main Street, USA, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland and Liberty Square.  Each one is themed differently and has rides, shows and other attractions surrounding that theme.  The fact that the park is broken into five different parts made our job a little easier, as we simply decided to do Tomorrowland and Fantasyland one day, then Adventureland, Frontierland and Liberty Square another day.  We have yet to figure out which day we're doing the fireworks and the parade, although that might be dictated by our FastPasses.  While we're spending two days at each park, Magic Kingdom is the only park we're visiting on back to back days.  We also have no table service reservations for this park, so we'll be doing a lot of snacking and quick service meals (but more about that later).

Magic Kingdom is home to some of my favorite rides in Disney World that I can't wait to ride again.  Let's start with one of my all time favorite rides: Haunted Mansion.  I tend to stay away from things that are overly scary, I don't do jump scares.  When I watch horror movies, I tend to watch them in the middle of the day, with all the lights on, the volume way down low and close captions on.  What I love about Haunted Mansion is that it's more of a fun scary without anything that's overly scary.  Plus, it's a classic that just celebrated its 50th anniversary a few months ago.  I even made a "Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts" decoration for Halloween this year.  Before, rumor had it that if you asked a cast member at the beginning of the ride of a death certificate, they'd print out one with a funny death on it (similar to the tombstones outside the ride), and you could pick it up after the ride.  Apparently they don't do that anymore, which is a bummer.

Across the park in Tomorrowland, I also love Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.  In this ride, riders get in little cars and go through the galaxy fighting the evil Emperor Zurg and competing against each other to hit the most targets with these little laser guns attached to the front of their car.

Photo courtesy of https://d23.com/this-day/buzz-lightyears-space-ranger-spin-attraction-opens-at-walt-disney-world/

As someone who is incredibly competitive, this is right up my alley.  Additionally, with a few rare exceptions, this is one of the closest things to a game throughout the parks (there's a similar ride in Hollywood Studios and a shooting arcade in Magic Kingdom as well).

Also located in Tomorrowland, I'm looking forward to Space Mountain.  I didn't ride it when I was younger, because I used to have this intense fear of roller coasters.  I still have that "oh crap, what am I thinking?" moment when I ride roller coasters, but I always enjoy them and almost never regret them.  Space Mountain is a blast.  In the complete dark, you're whipped all over the place with lights flashing while you ride in these surprisingly small rocket ships.  It's always a fun ride to go on, even if the tiny little rockets make you feel like you're going to fall out.

Pirates of the Caribbean is another ride I've gone on in the past and can't wait to ride again.  Part of this comes from the fact that they've updated the ride to include Jack Sparrow and Barbosa.  While I'm glad they did that, because there are definitely people who visit the park now who only know the movies and don't know that the movies were inspired by the ride, not the other way around, I'm also a little bummed because I liked the original better.  I'm not going to pass judgement, though, because I haven't actually been on the ride since they updated it.  I'm going to stay optimistic, because I doubt Disney would ruin such a classic ride.

Photo courtesy of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrdQ34PIdoA

Located in Frontierland, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (another one of the "mountain" rides scattered throughout the park) is another fun roller coaster.  This one is an outdoor roller coaster where you're riding on a runaway mine train through a frontier town.  As you zip along the tracks, you're surrounded by the remnants of an abandoned town, including buildings, personal effects and animals.  It's a short but exciting ride that's always a good time.  Its facade, along with Splash Mountain, dominate Frontierland.

Fantasyland is where you find many of the classic, kid-friendly Disney attractions: Dumbo, It's a Small World, etc.  This is also where you'll find the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  On this ride, which replaced Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, you adventure through the 100 Acre Wood with Pooh, Piglet and all their friends.  It's absolutely adorable as you sit in a "Hunny Pot".  My favorite part of the ride is when you meet Tigger.  There, your pot bounces up and down with him as he explains why Tiggers are the best creatures ever.  It may be a ride more geared towards children, but I love it nonetheless.

Photo courtesy of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s-RZ3cEPbs

There are also two shows I'm looking forward to that I've already seen in Disney World.  The first is Mickey's PhilharMagic.  This was fairly new last time I went to Disney World, and I'm super excited to show it to Bryan.  I know he's going to complain about me using this phrase, but this is my blog, not his, so I don't care, but this is a 4-D attraction.  Although Mickey's name is in the title, it's Donald Duck who is actually the main attraction.  You arrive as guests to hear Mickey conduct an orchestra, but when the curtain rises, all you see is Donald, who hasn't unpacked any of the instruments.  Mickey tells him to do so while simultaneously making the mistake of leaving his sorcerer's hat behind.  Donald takes it upon himself to put on the hat and try to use magic on the instruments.  Chaos ensues.  The show includes 3-D effects, along with scents being pumped into the theater as a medley of Disney songs are played.  It's a lot of fun and definitely much more kid-friendly than Disney's other 4-D show: It's Tough to Be a Bug.

Finally, the last thing I've done in Magic Kingdom that I can't wait to do again is the Enchanted Tiki Room.  I'm especially excited to do it because I've heard some rumors that it might close down, although I haven't heard anything concrete yet.  In this attraction, over 150 animatronic birds, tiki masks, etc. entertain guests with a variety of songs.  For a while, Zazu from Lion King and Iago from Aladdin were also part of the performance, when the ride was advertised as being "under new management".  They have since been removed from the show, and it has reverted back to its original form.

         

The most famous part of the show is the always annoying ear worm "Enchanted Tiki Room", which is the attraction's theme song.  All it takes is for me to think about the song for it to be stuck in head for hours on end.  Still, it's a lot of fun and a great chance to sit down for a little while in the parks if you've been walking around a lot.

Since it will be almost fifteen years since the last time I went to Disney World by the time I go in February, there have been a fw new attractions added to the parks.  The list for Magic Kingdom is fairly small, especially when compared to parks such as Hollywood Studios, which got an entirely new name since I last visited, but there are still some new attractions I want to visit.

First and foremost, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  Similar to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, this ride takes guests on a whirlwind of a ride on runaway mine machinery.  Unlike Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, however, you're riding underground through the mine that the seven dwarfs work in during the day.  While I've seen brief videos about this ride, I'm trying to see as little as possible because I want to be surprised.  I've heard that the special effects are absolutely amazing, and I can't wait to see them all for myself.  I've also heard that the wait time can be quite extensive and FastPasses difficult to get, so we may have to work a little to get on this ride.

I'm also looking forward to trying out Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid.  Just like Peter Pan's Flight and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, this takes riders through the story of The Little Mermaid in a little purple clamshell.  Just like The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, this looks like an adorable ride, not to mention nostalgic as you travel under the sea.

There are also two new shows I'm excited about seeing in Magic Kingdom.  The first is The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History.  This is a short little show on the streets of Liberty Square where the Muppets recreate events from early American history.  As a fan of the Muppets, a history grad student and US history teacher, I just have to see this show, no matter how juvenile it may be.  It looks like a lot of fun and an attempt to build up Liberty Square, which is fairly small.

In Tomorrowland, I'm also looking forward to trying out Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor.  This is supposed to be one of the more cutting edge attractions.  Using motion capture, actors behind the scenes portray monsters from the Monsters, Inc. universe as they collect laughs to power the city.  Since it's technically actors, each show is different, and the monsters interact with the audience from up on the screen.  My cousin has highly recommended it, and it sounds like a lot of fun, not to mention a great break from all the walking.

While Bryan has been struggling with getting into the whole "meeting characters" thing (he keeps arguing that they're just people in costume), I'm 100% behind it and even have a list of characters I'm determined to either meet or try to meet in each park.

The most important character is Stitch.  I absolutely love Stitch!  I think Lilo and Stitch is a blast, and I love Stitch and the fact that he simultaneously represents family and complete and utter chaos.  I also adore Lilo, she way more dramatic than I am, which is quite impressive.  From what I've heard, you can find Stitch in Tomorrowland, near his attraction, which is considered a flop and is rarely open.  Even so, I still love Stitch, and I can't wait to meet him.

I'm also really excited to meet Cinderella.  Although my hair is now very dark brown, I am a natural blonde.  When I was little, a neighbor used to call me "Cinderella" because I had blue eyes and blonde, curly hair.  My hair is still curly, and my eyes are still blue-ish, but the blonde hair is long gone.  I know you can meet Cinderella at one of the princess meet-ups in the park.  I'd also like to meet the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella, although I've heard she's a little harder to find.  If I don't meet her, I'll be disappointed, but it won't be the end of the world.  There are plenty of other characters I want to meet.

Keeping in the theme of princess, there are a few princess whose movies have come out since the last time I went to Disney World, and I'd love to meet them.  First of all, Merida.  Bryan has really enjoyed the movie Brave, and Merida is a wonderful character.  As dorky as it sounds, I really want to ask her how her brothers are doing; they're my favorite part of the movie.  I also can't wait to meet Rapunzel and Tiana.  I know you can meet them both in the same line, which is perfect.  I love the personalities of both of them; Rapunzel is so carefree and fun, while Tiana is so determined and dedicated.  I feel that both are wonderful role models.

Jack Sparrow is also a new character you can meet in Adventureland, conveniently near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  Jack Sparrow is so quirky, and I imagine that he's a wonderful and fun character to play as an actor.  Another character that is probably a blast to play and meet is Peter Pan.  To be honest, I'm not even a big fan of the movie, but I've heard so many fun and crazy things about meeting Peter Pan, that I simply have to meet him myself.  Based on what I've seen, you never know what he's going to say or do, which makes it all even more exciting.  I can get past the fact that I don't really like the movie for that reason alone.

When it comes to Magic Kingdom, and Disney World in general, something else I'm looking forward to is the food.  I'm thoroughly convinced I'm going to gain so much weight while I'm there because there's so much delicious looking food.

Of course I have to try Dole Whip.  Nando's here has it, but I refuse to eat it there because it's a strictly Disney treat in my eyes.  Oh top of Dole Whip, I also want to try the Peter Pan float, it sounds delicious and looks adorable.  It's a key lime pie soft serve mixed with Sprite, and there's a little red feather in it made out of chocolate.  Ever since social media came out, Disney has been trying to make more "photo worthy" snacks that are more visually appealing, and this is definitely an example of that.

Also in Fantasyland, I want to head over to Friar Tuck's and try out the loaded tater tots.  The flavors rotate, so I'm not entirely sure what they'll have there, but they look and sound amazing, so I'll definitely swing by and try those out.

Speaking of rotating food options there's also an eggroll cart in Adventureland that has unique flavors that rotate.  In the past, I've heard of bacon mac and cheese flavor and cheeseburger flavor.  I don't eat cheeseburgers, but the bacon mac and cheese sounds beyond amazing, and I definitely need some of that.  I just hope that's the flavor they have when I visit.  Like I said, it's a lot of snack foods while we're there, which is perfectly fine with me.  We'll also bring our own snacks into the park, but I want to try as much food as humanly possible while we visit.

The last thing I absolutely have my heart set on, probably more so than most of what I've already talked about, are the Tangled Lanterns.  At dusk near the Tangled themed bathrooms in Fantasyland, guests can have their picture taken with the lanterns from Tangled, and the photos are absolutely gorgeous!  I already have a feeling that the pictures are going to be some of my favorite from our entire trip (I hope they live up to my high expectations).  I'm so excited to do them with Bryan and get some beautiful pictures on our trip.

Not surprising, when I asked Bryan what he was excited about for the trip so I could include it in my post, it took ages to pull an answer out of him (don't even get me started on him telling me what he wanted for Christmas, it was awful!).  Magic Kingdom is the only Disney park he's ever visited, so he has a basic idea of what's there, and he's been more recently than me, but it's still been a while for him.  He said that he's looking forward to Space Mountain, it's pretty much the only ride he remembers riding last time he went.  He's also looking forward to the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor.  My cousin really talked it up last time we saw him, and Monster's, Inc. is a fun movie.  Overall, Bryan said that he's most looking forward to exploring the park and really taking it all in.  Since we have two days dedicated to the park, I think we'll definitely have a lot of exploring, not to mention tons of food and rides.  I can't wait!

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A Weekend of Festivities

Holiday weekends are always full of excitement, time with family and generally a lot to do.  This past Thanksgiving weekend, however, things were especially busy for Bryan and I.  Not only did we have the expected Thanksgiving dinner, but we also had my 10 year high school reunion and a gathering at his parents' house to assemble the Lego Christmas village as a family.  We were going all weekend with barely a break.  Instead of breaking it into three separate blog posts, I decided to clump it all together, mostly for my sanity.

For Thanksgiving, Bryan and I join his family at his sister-in-law's parents' house (it's a bit confusing to explain to people for some reason) where we gathered with his parents, his oldest brother's family, and his sister-in-law's sisters (along with the husband of one of said sisters).  In all, it was about sixteen people.  Joy's mom, Kathy, always puts on a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with more food than imaginable.  In addition to the turkey, there are about six different sides, including three types of cranberry sauce and fresh rolls.  Kathy makes absolutely everything from scratch, from the rolls to the pies for dessert.  As always, the food was beyond amazing, and I always eat way more than I should.

This year, we didn't just celebrate Thanksgiving, however.  The day before, Bryan's nephew turned one.  Instead of the entire family getting together two days in a row, his parents decided to celebrate his birthday on Thanksgiving.  It wasn't anything fancy, we sang "Happy Birthday", and then he ate an entire cupcake in three bites.  I've seriously never seen a child eat so much before, he's like a bottomless pit!  Of course, some of the icing ended up in his nose, so he spent the rest of the evening trying to blow it out, without much success.  Overall, it was a wonderful way to spend the holiday, surrounded by family and celebrating a birthday in addition to Thanksgiving.

I didn't go out shopping on Black Friday.  The overwhelming majority of my shopping was on the computer, so I wanted to wait until Cyber Monday.  Besides, the crowds were apparently ridiculous at some places, and it simply wasn't worth it.  Instead, I stayed home and relaxed while Bryan went to his friends' for the day.  That evening, we did our usual Friday routine: pizza, a bottle of wine and streaming something on TV (lately it's been Disney+, but more about that in a much later post).

Saturday night was my 10 year high school reunion.  I'm not so much struggling with the fact that I graduated high school ten years ago as much as I'm struggling with the fact that I've been friends with some of my closest friends from college for an entire decade.  It seems like just yesterday we all started hanging out together!  The reunion was at Pinstripes in Bethesda, which was nice because it was about five minutes from Bryan's house, so we didn't have to drive very far.  We'd never been to Pinstripes before, and we usually don't go to Pike and Rose because it's a bit expensive.  I was intrigued, though, and couldn't wait to see what it was like.  Let me start out by saying that Pinstripes wasn't what I was expecting at all.  I expected more like an upscale Bowl America with fancy tables and lots of bowling alleys.  Instead, it's a legitimate restaurant on the first floor with a handful of bowling alleys upstairs, along with several ballrooms that can be rented out for private events.  I also want to say that Pinstripes is the perfect location for a reunion.  Not only is the food delicious, and there's plenty of space for people to mingle in the ballroom we rented, but it was nice to have bowling available as an option also.  We had eight lanes reserved just for us, so people weren't obligated to just stand around and talk, there were activities to do as well.  Bryan and I didn't bowl, not bowling is kind of an inside joke between us.  We've tried to go bowling a few times in the past, but it's never quite worked out, so it's become a thing between us now.  Maybe we'll get there one day, one can only dream.

Photo of Bryan and I with some old friends from high school.

I have to say, getting ready to head out to the reunion, I had no idea why I was even going in the first place.  I don't really talk to anyone from high school anymore, and, to be honest, I didn't feel the need to reconnect.  That sounds cold, like I don't care about the friends I made in high school, which definitely isn't the case, I simply didn't feel this overwhelming desire to see a lot of people.  At the same time, I was curious.  With the help of Facebook and Instagram, I could see what people I graduated with were doing, and it would be interesting to see them in the real world, not just through a screen.  All of this made me weirdly anxious going into the reunion, but only a little thankfully.  I knew I was going to have a good time, and if I didn't, we could just leave.  I did feel bad for Bryan, however, since he knew absolutely no one other than me, so he would probably be pretty bored.  Even so, he was a great sport and didn't complain at all.

It was wonderful seeing people and catching up.  Like I said, it's one thing to see what people are doing through social media, it's another thing to talk to them.  There were also people who didn't really go on social media, so it was wonderful catching up with them face to face.  It's great to hear what people are doing and about everything going on in their lives.  It was also wonderful to talk about our high school days: people who weren't there, old adventures, inside jokes and drama at school (such as the huge fight our freshman year that resulted in over twenty police cars showing up at our school).  There was lots of laughing, reminiscing and eating delicious food.  The woman who put the entire reunion together, Amanda, did a fantastic job.  It also made sense to do it Thanksgiving weekend (I know at least two other high schools had their reunions that weekend as well), because a lot of people were already in the area for the holiday, so it saved them a second trip.  In all her planning, however, Amanda forgot name tags for people, but that actually made the reunion a little better.  There were a few times where I wasn't entirely sure who a person was, but everyone was pretty cool about that.  At one point as we were leaving, someone announced, "Christina Sesok!" really loud and gave me a giant hug.  I must have had a completely lost expression on my face, because he immediately introduced himself, and I felt so embarrassed for not recognizing him.  We were in the honors program together all through high school and even sat next to each other a few times through the years.  It was great to see him and everyone else.

As if all of this weren't exciting enough, the next day Bryan and I headed over to his parents' for his family's Christmas tradition.  Bryan and his brothers grew up loving Legos, so every year his family gets together and spends the afternoon building a Lego Christmas village.  It's a huge undertaking and is pretty much all hands on deck.  We arrived around 1ish, and I left around 5:30, but most people were still there.  Each year, Bryan's oldest brother, Adam, buys the newest Lego set, so the village grows each year.  We outsourced a little bit this year, and Bryan's parents invited a little boy and his mom and sister from church to help as well.  Surprisingly, we got most of the sets built this year in one afternoon, which hasn't happened in a while.  Apparently last year Bryan's dad, Tom, had to keep building on his own for several evenings afterwards.  The past two years, I've always gone for smaller sets, something easier with a few smaller buildings instead of one larger building.  This year, however, I felt comfortable enough to do something a bit more complicated, so I went with last year's set: a fire station.  I also knew that the likelihood of having missing pieces after just one year was minimal, and since Adam always builds the newest set, I could blame him for any missing pieces.

The front of the fire station I built.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how my fire station came out.  It was definitely the most challenging Lego set I've built yet, and there were a few times where Bryan had to help me out, but it was only two or three times total.  What I like about the newer sets is they outline the pieces that are added onto the build in green, so you can see exactly where you have to put the pieces.  The one challenge I do have with the Lego sets is the depth.  Sometimes it's hard to see if the pieces are supposed to be flush or if one piece is supposed to be a little higher than another.  If you follow the directions exactly, it shouldn't be a problem because everything works out in the end.  In the end, it all worked out, and the one piece I thought I was missing showed up.  At that point, however, I couldn't access the empty spot, and you can't even tell there's supposed to be a piece there, so it really doesn't matter.

It's not just building Legos when we go to Tom and Joann's, it's also a chance for all of us to get together as a family.  There's tons of food and lots of hanging out.  Bryan, though, isn't the most social during this.  He gets in the zone and focuses entirely on whatever he's building.  It's actually really funny.  Thankfully, he's willing to help if I need any.

The back/inside of the fire station I built.

Overall, it was an incredibly busy weekend for the two of us.  We spent a lot of time with family and some time catching up with friends I haven't seen in over a decade.  While it was a blast, I'm also looking forward to this coming weekend, it's the only weekend between now and New Year's when we don't have anything planned.  Bring on the relaxation!

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