Monday, August 7, 2006

My US Trip: Day Two
Comments!

Kei: Thank you ^_^ It's actually been recorded by someone's DVD camera, so if I can rip it I'll stick it on YouTube, hehe.

Lea: I will. Glad to see you back, hehe.

Shy: I don't know, actually. I don't think Netflix has a UK branch, but I'll look into it ^_^

And you're coming up, don't worry. I've lots to say :p

Mamma Vash: I'll try that, too ^____^ Thankee.

Arcadia: Well, I'm not usually a pork pie person, but these were particularly nice ^_^

If you're in the Uk for your next birthday I'm sure I could arrange something for you :p

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I'd bought an alarm clock on the plane because I was worried about there not being one in my room, only to find that there was one sat on the bedside table, looking very prim and proper. You can even see it in the dark. So I wasted £17 *shrugs* But now I have a battery-powered clock that projects onto the ceiling in four different colours! Bargain!

Anyway, I can't really remember what time I woke up the next day; probably about 8am. It was incredibly sunny outside, but the thermostat in my room kept everything at a lovely 72 degrees Farenheit. Although the temperature I wanted to be typically lay somewhere between 72 and 71, so I'd either feel slightly too cold or a little too hot >.>; There's no pleasing an Englishman when it comes to temperature.

So, my lack of food yesterday evening notwithstanding, I went downstairs to partake in breakfast. Swanning down into the lobby (not that there's much room for swanning in a lift), my only choices were Starbucks or one the hotel's restaurants. The other one I needed to be 21 to enter, damn them. Still, this looked appetising and I could read the menu from outside. I hadn't heard of most of the stuff they had on it, though, so I opted for the all you could eat breakfast buffet. Sensible choice, no?

I was sat down by a very friendly... waiter? attendant? Spanish guy who offered me toast, and once I understood what he was actually saying, I said 'yes please, thank you very much', then went to get food.

I was a little puzzled at first because I couldn't see the plates. I sat back down for a second and waited to see if one got brought to me, but upon closer inspection I saw them sitting inside one of those plate-warming 'holes'. So I picked one out and began circling the trays of yumminess. Or at least, I hoped they'd be yumminess.

The first thing I came to was scrambled egg, which looked... slightly dubious. I never ranked scrambled egg as being the most aesthetic of foods anyway, but this was slightly less aesthetic than I remember. But I was hungry and I've recently started liking poached and fried eggs, so I figured there couldn't be that much difference. I scooped some up and plopped it onto the plate.

Next was ham. I'm always one for ham and meaty things, so on that went. Same with the bacon. Then I came to these weird things that looked a little like spring rolls make with pancakes, but shorter and fatter. The sneeze-guard told me they were a species of 'Cheese Blintz'. I like cheese too, and although I could guess that the majority of this three centimetre-wide behemoth was pure cheese I took one (and thus limiting the damage that were to be done if I were to have taken two) and placed it at the edge of the plate. Some slices of bacon (which had more the look of a stained-glass window than meat, I must say) and some breakfast potatoes later, I poured myself some orange juice and sat at my table, where two slices of toast and some of the strongest coffee I've ever tasted was waiting for me.

Knowing that the eggs would probably be the least favourite item that I'd selected, I had them first. They needed a bit of salt and pepper, and by the time I'd finished I decided that I didn't really like scrambled egg very much.

The toast was gorgeous though- thick, warm and with real butter. The ham was more like what I'd know as bacon, which was a little bizarre. Perhaps even more bizarre (but not entirely unexpected) was that the bacon tasted pretty much like pure fat, so I wasn't as impressed with that as I'd hoped. Still, I was hungry and I needed sustenance, so I ate it.

The first high point of the meal (and subsequent meals) was/were the breakfast potatoes, though. Oh my God, the taste was amazing. I love breakfast potatoes so much it's unreal. If you can make them I will marry you and love you forever. They're either sliced (or, as they were for most of my stay) thickly grated potatoes, fried with bits of onion and red and green peppers. I picked out the green peppers cause I'm fussy, but I was suddenly not afraid to eat in America any more.

I still had the mysterious Cheese Blintz to go yet, though. Once the potato ecstacy had worn off I inspected it and dragged it over to the centre of the plate with my fork.

This thing was a surprise from beginning to end. I stuck the knife in and dissected it about a third of the way along, expecting to see something like Mozarella inside- instead I was greeted with what looked like cottage cheese. Immediately I was put off because I'm not a cottage cheese fan, but I was determinted to try different things, and since I didn't know when i'd be coming back to the US again I thought better of myself than leaving it alone.

In the mouth it goes, and... it's sweet?! What the hell kind of cheese is this? Apart from the fact there's a tiny bit of fruit in it (whether it was meant to be there or not I never found out), it was more like a sweet, half-solidified yoghurt than any kind of cheese I've ever had. It was nice, but of the most surprising consistency and texture ever.

I ate it, not entirely sure whether I'd be tempted into a second. Pondering the potential fat content, I decided against, and went for my orange juice.

Cue second high point of the breakfast, and one of the high points of the entire trip, actually. That orange juice was bloody spectacular. I want to go back just to drink some again. Worth it, worth it, worth it.

Little did I know that there were actually three more sections of the all-you-can-eat area: a section where a chef makes an omelette of your choice right in front of your face, a cereal/muesli/fruit bit and a whole section entirely devoted to muffins and croissants. I stole away some bananas and an apple and stuck them in my bag for later.

Pre-Reg Queue Goes On and On and On and On...
Thank God for iPod.

I took my first set of photos (which I'll start showing off tomorrow) that morning, outside the convention centre. I couldn't believe the size of the trees, as well as the buildings and the roads and the entire area in general. Once I'd finished marvelling at the pyramid-shaped ash trays I went inside to see where pre-registration was. I didn't know if I really intended to join the queue at this point, but I did anyway. And considering the size of it even at that stage, I didn't want to be much further down the line.

MyiPod and the first two volumes of the Bleach manga helped me feel like I was part of the queue- everyone else was with friends or reading manga, so I guessed I should be doing something similar. I didn't feel particularly confident with socialising at the point, so being antisocial came pretty easily :p

It was about an hour before the line started moving into one of the convention halls. We were directed to one of the three large computer stations at the end of this massive, massive empty hall. Our queue was the shortest by the look of it, but I figured that didn't necessarily mean we'd move any faster.

Some people behind me started playing Monopoly on the floor behind me- I guessed that was a cue to sit down and prepare to wait for a long time. I started on Bleach Vol 2, and immediately wished I'd ordered more ^_^; till, even though my iPod batteries were starting to run low at a rather alarming rate (I'm sure it's not 14 hours like they say it is), time passed relatuively quickly. The queues filled up slowly, with more and more people filing into each line. Some were in costume already.

Even though I had my lovely converted Luftwaffe jacket I still felt a little annoyed that I couldn't make a proper cosplay outfit. I was beginning to recieve compliments from a number of people (even one of the AX staffers with a video camera said that "I win at life" when I told her I'd put the design together myself), but it wasn't quite the same as having a costume that people can recognise and want to have pictures taken with. I have big plans for the London Expo next year ^____^

At about half past twelve, a massive cheer went up from the crowd as the AX staffers manned the comouter points and began processing everyone's badge pick-ups.

I was a little unsure as to whether I could tear it in half or not- above a perforation line it says 'Do not tear above this line before registration or else your ticket will be invalidated', or something like that, which had me petrified of even touching it until walking in the next day. To save myself the embarrassment in case I was being a paranoid itiot, I folded it up neatly inside the clear plastic badge holder instead, and nobody was any the wiser ^_^

Straight after picking up our badges we were marshalled to a place where hundreds of slaves volunteers were packing bags of freebies behind a big black curtain. I got a cool set of badges and the usual 'this is what this convention's about' bumf that is near enough essential if you want to find out what's going on. I had a feeling I didn't need to print off all those schedules before I left >.>;

I had a quick flip through the two Expo books and thought I'd pass the time by finding out where the House of Blues was. According to the map I'd looked at, it was only down the road.

God knows what scale that map was in though, because the roads are bloody massive. I got to the end of the junction for the Convention Centre and turned round because it was too hot, and Disneyland Drive looked to be at least a mile away. So I decided to go back to the hotel room instead ^_^

That's where I spent most of the day. I wandered around some of the hotel floors and the convention centre area, hoping I'd see someone I knew or that someone'd strike up a conversation about my badge. Unfortunately neither happened. But upon discovering the hotel had its own gym, I found a new way to spend my afternoon/evening ^_^

I like weight lifting, heh. I feel really good about myself when I get down to it.

Still, there's only so much you can do in one evening. I would have gone swimming as well but I didn't have any trunks and I didn't particularly feel like buying any. I didn't have anywhere I could dry them anyway, even if I had dunked myself.

I don't really remember much of that evening. I think I just read a couple more volumes of manga and went to sleep. I had a feeling it was going to be a pretty uneventful day in the grand scheme of things. I was really looking forward to the next day, though. I set my alarm for very early and geared myself up for shopping, costume sighting, voice-actor workshops and other such pleasures...

To Be Continued ^_^
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