Alton Towers, Schmalton Towers

Saturday 10^th December

A Very early start for an action packed day. I met up with Zack at 07:30, since today we’d be heading to six flags – Magic Mountain. A huge theme park that shares the world record for the most rollercoasters (17). The reason for the early start was that we’d be driving for an hour and a half to get there. Plus we wanted to get summat to eat first. Stopping off at Jack in the Box for a spot of breakfast, with only $5 for a breakfast platter of mini pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs and hash brown sticks, along with premium orange juice. Mmmmmmm lurrrrvely.

By 08:15 we were all feeling satisfactory, so we made tracks west towards six flags. Despite a fair bit of traffic and getting slightly lost thanks to the sat-nav (never worth the money) we made it with ½ hour to spare before the park opened. Zack had already bought my ticket, so it was up to me to pay him back while in the park.

10:30 came and we all charged towards the rides. We had planned to hit at least 10 of the 17 rollercoasters, depending on how busy the park would get. We first made our way to X2, where you’d be strapped in and fly around on your back. Despite this being our first ride, we still had to wait ½ hour. But by god was it worth it. Soaring around on your back through vertical drops and 3 loops, it was a wonder our jack in the box didn’t spring back up.

We planned to make our way around the outside of the park, so the next port of call was Viper, which housed not one, not two, not even three, but SEVEN loops. Surprisingly enough, we were on within 5 minutes, getting loopy with it. This quick theme carried on with the next 3 rides, De Ja Vu, Tatsu and Apocalypse. By this point, I was feeling fine, but Zack needed a quick breather. And that’s where I saw how I’d make the money up…Go karting.

We had to wait 10 minutes for the previous groups to finish, plenty of time to catch our breath and the butterflies in our stomachs. The go karts weren’t very fast, probably 25mph max, but I made easy work of all bar 2. I started in 2^nd and only just finished 1^st. Turns out my main competitors was avid go-karting fans who did this pretty much every weekend. After being beaten by a Brit with little experience, I don’t think they’ll carry on J

The next ride along was the Riddler's revenge, but had a 90 minute wait. We decided to come back to that one. Quickly moving on, we also saw the Green Lantern – First flight, which looked absolutely terrifying, so we decided not to go on that one either. After going for the next ride, Batman, we decided some food was necessary. So we ventured over to the Burger stand, where I experienced a true rip-off. Most people would pay about $5/$6 for a burger, fries and a drink. Here, after tax, it cost $13.21 (and I really wish that was a typo)

By now it was 2pm and we’d hit 6 of the 17 and the go karts. We were half way through the day and on track to beat our allotted amount. Zack decided to start from the opposite end of the park, which sounded sensible since everyone was heading in the opposite direction. We started with Colossus, which on a full day would have two tracks running side by side, pretty much like the Grand National at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, only longer and sturdier looking. Surprisingly enough, we were straight on, bar 1. Ironically, straight after this were Scream and Goliath, which were on the same thrill level as X2 and Viper, but had a 5 minute wait (WOW)

Skipping ahead, by 5pm, we’d hit all but 3 of the 17. Superman, which launches you at 120mph first horizontally, then vertically and back down again, Green Lantern, since the continuous flipping would have painted the whole park in a different colo(u)r, and Revolution, which was closed for repair.

We would have continued, but the night drew in and after our last ride, Oblivion, Zack wasn’t feeling good enough to venture onto the last rides and he was my ride home. Despite my offer to drive back (its stick so I knew how to drive it) Zack managed to bring us home. We headed back to our rooms where Zack apparently crashed out and I managed an early night.

The Final curtain

Thursday 8^th December 2011

This is it, the final stretch. By 4pm, my quarter will be over. I’d originally planned a few hours of last minute revision, when I got a call from Kim, my Marketing classmate called me to meet up and help with her revision. Nothing is better than dual revision, so of course I agreed. Turns out Kim had just completed a final exam in a management class with Becky from my Finance class. After meeting up with the dynamic duo, along with Steve, another of their management classmates, we headed for a bit to eat.

The destination, barely half a mile down the road and a ‘dirty taco shop’. Basically, it’s just a restaurant but the food is pretty ‘stodgy’. I barely managed to finish my taco bean meal, a plate of rice, beans, chili and soft taco skins, before the ‘stodginess’ came back up. Just blooming great, I’m feeling sick just 1 hour before my test. Upon reflection, it would have been better to actually force the food back up than keep it in.

FINAL EXAM: Marketing 305: 2pm

Putting the food to one side, the final hurdle is here, 50 multiple choice questions, relating to both the theoretical and real life examples along with 2 essay questions relating to the details of the BCG matrix and the history/ use/ use within real companies. The essay part didn’t take too much of the time, but the multiple choice took a while.

4pm and “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”

It’s all over, wooooooo.

I was literally doing cartwheels all the way back home. I celebrated with another mega sub, just like before. Unfortunately by this point, everyon else had finished their final exams and were heading home. The campus was slowly becoming a ghost town. But it doesn’t matter, after a cheeky beer with Zack, I returned to my flexible isolation state.

Where I would stay for the majority of Friday too, but with $17 left on the meal plan and only 4 hours to spend it, I met up with Amaka, who helped me to spend the rest of the money, since her meal plan ran out on Tuesday. Pretty easy when she goes to Starbucks twice a day. On the way back, we bumped into Dave, who was heading back to Minnesota. After a long chat we said our final goodbyes, since Dave wouldn’t be returning.

Another goodbye would come later on, when I met up with Claudie, a French Canadian who was also heading home over the weekend. A group of 6 of us headed down for a farewell meal at Carl’s Jr, a burger place, often frequented by this group.

About 9pm, we said our final goodbyes to Claudie as well, and I spent the rest of the night preparing for a huge amount of fun tomorrow.

The Final Exam prep

Wednesday 7^th December

So we rejoin the action on Wednesday, 24 hours before the last test. I’m still hitting the gym for the regular amounts, although I should do more since I still have $90 to spend in 3 days.

Most of the day was spent preparing for the final exam that would be the last one of the quarter. This marketing test would be slightly easier that the finance one I took 6 days previous, but the content is a lot more theoretical and more real life application than I’m normally used to. But I digress, since this isn’t meant to be a walk in the park.

By about 5pm I was getting pretty bored, but I had a little brainwave. How can you get social with $81 to spend in 3 days. Easy. Invite them to the pub for a meal, while paying for everything J

Finally after spending nearly a full week in flexible isolation, I was socializing again (yay yay). The best part however was the fact that I was now down to $32, which is a lot more manageable that 81.

After a few hours of messing around, I called an early night to prepare for the test tomorrow, which would be the final academic act of 2011.

How I miss hangovers

Friday 2^nd December

I’ve missed that feeling. I’ve been used to it since I was 18, but since I’ve been sober for 2 ½ months, it hit me really hard. The annoying things was that I had a skype call lined up with the parents at 10am, which meant I had to get up and endure the throbbing headache. Not even 2 extra strength headache pills and 2 litres of water could stop it.

Putting on my best poker face and trying to hide the hangover from the parents seemed to work as well, until I turned on the webcam and spoke, in which not even the best liar could hide it. I barely made it through the talk, also wishing my dad a happy 49^th (old git) birthday, before I needed another couple of hours to sleep. Just as I was heading for the bed, my auntie Sue wanted the update too.  Although I was starting to pull round, it still felt like I’d been hit by a train.

After the chat with folks back home, I decided to lay it low for the rest of the day, although I needed to grab a bite before 2pm since that’s when the food court closes, and I still had $148 to spend in 1 week. Apart from the midday food run, nothing else happened, since I was trying to sleep off my embarrassment of not being able to handle the hangovers like I used to.  

The best weekend followed………. I’ll keep this VERY simple, Saturday through to Tuesday, I did practically nothing, since everyone was staying in and revising for their final exams, so no-one was being social.

That’s one crazy birthday

Thursday 1^st December,

We continue our story bang on midnight. Happy birthday to me (hehehe). The joy of living in another country is that you get 32 hours of facebook messages. And boy, my friends did not disappoint, since the first messages occurred at 4pm Wednesday, After 2 hours of talking with my friends and updating them all on my progress, what I’m currently doing, and in a couple of cases “why the hell are you living in California”

I awoke slap bang on 8am, since today was going to be a huge day, not just the fact that I’m 21, but that the blasted Final exam was at 6pm. This meant that my revision was not yet over, but the distractions kept on rolling in. A gym session to get me going, only to do some revision while I’m pedaling away on the cross trainer.

2pm came and the ultimate distraction, the last marketing class, covering everything to be covered in the marketing exam exactly a week today.

This meant I only had 2 hours to refresh my memory from marketing to finance, and boy did that time fly. Before I knew it I was waiting outside the disability office for my exam

FINAL EXAM: FIN 313: 6pm

Don’t get the wrong idea, it was only 30 multiple choice questions so you’re thinking, how could this be a difficult test. It even gets easier because ei was allowed to take it 20 formulas on an A5 sheet. The problem though is that all the questions use at least 2 formulas in each question and the use of 2 calculators to calculate these answers isn’t as easy as it sounds.

The final exam finished at half 7, and I was so relieved that it was over, because I could finally have a  drink. 2 ½ months and I could finally drink. After dropping my stuff off in my room, I met up with a few friends: Amaka, Roxy, Freddy, Dave,  Zack and Becky, who had also finished the same exam as me. In the space of 70 minutes, I downed 4 beers, the equivalent of about 3 ½ pints, which originally would have been enough, but Becky had other plans. She was gonna take me on one hell of a drinking night. Zack decided to tag along, claiming that someone needed to look after me J.

In hindsight, this was a very good idea. To sum up the evening, we drove down to a retail park, where we first stopped off at Applebees, where I had 2 more beers and a Root Beer Schnapps, then we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings for plenty more beers. By the end of the night, I apparently had 13 beers (about 11 pints and the RBS was the equivalent of 1 beer and a double vodka)

Lucky for me, Becky didn’t drink much and Zack stayed off the sauce completely, and by midnight, we were done. During the drive home, I was apparently singing Pink’s Sober. That’s according to Zack anyway, I can’t really remember much of it. I remember that Zack walked me back to my door and that I somehow got into bed. Also how I wasn’t sick will remain a mystery to me :P