CH-beware, it's contagious

Goodness! It has been over a month since I have posted to nobody about my escapades.
Well, in October I went to England. Hoooo! What a good time that was. I went for only a week, I'm afraid, and even more unfortunately, the trip was very "touristy" overall. I would have much rather just gone and experienced it for what it is rather than seeing the sights and flashing photos and wearing the ugliest, smallest matching backpacks with everyone else on the trip that you could ever imagine. Well, perhaps they weren't that ugly, but they were ugly nonetheless.
Alright. So. In England, we had many adventures, and despite my disgust at tourists (whether it is I or someone else who is touring), I rather enjoyed myself. We went to London, and it has such old, magnificent buildings all over the place. I loved looking at the architecture and as absurd as this may seem, I also rather liked feeling the old stone and walls and such. It made the buildings more real to me, I suppose. We saw all the sights one is supposed to see: Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, London Tower, Westminster Abbey--but what I enjoyed the most was when we simply had free time to roam the city for an hour or so. I usually went with my brother when we wandered, and we both ditched the backpacks so as to blend in and not be labeled as sickeningly touristy tourists. I love the cobbled streets and twisty-turny markets.
We also visited Bath for a day, seeing of course the Abbey there and the Roman Baths. My brother and I wandered a little too far and got lost for a short time, but we managed to swing on by the coach bus just in the nick of time.
Stonehenge is not as thrilling as they make it out to be.
Our hotel was "dodgy", as our Tour Director Gavin would say. Everyone else (eg. Collingwood Hicks, all of whom suffered from Collingwood Hickism) called it "sketch" and the name for our week there was "Sketch is the Word". It was sketchy, though. Really shady and dirty. It was a cheap hotel with pink walls, unchanged sheets, hairy bathtubs and all-around disorganisation. The Continental breakfast was horribly bland.
I liked taking the tube around. It was a good experience and I can now confidently negotiate my way around London's subway system, something most Collingwood Hicks would be proud of, but which I am merely stating. It's just a stupid subway, after all.
I had a lot of fun on this trip, I really enjoyed being surrounded by accents and the lingo worked it's way into my writing quite a bit while I was there. It's very cute to look back on that writing and see all the uppity British slang wriggling next to the casual Canadian slang. I made some new friends, met some babalicious men and learned a lot about the history that I don't much care about, but was valuable regardless.
While I was there, I was desperately missing my best friend and nonsexual love, Katelyn. I was alone in my hotel room, an atrociously atypical girl surrounded by supremely typical girls with nothing on their minds but having perfect hair and backstabbing. I so longed for Katelyn's companionship, I cried a little. I wrote her a sappy love letter. I wanted her to be there so bad! I didn't realise how much I do indeed love her until I was without her. However, I made the best of my situation and hung out with my brother and some people he knew. I was happy, but I could have been happier (I love you Katelyn!).
I also really missed my dog.
Anyway, when the time came to leave, I didn't much want to, and wrote about my longing to remain in London in my writing book. I captured it well. I was truly unhappy to leave, but I'm also glad to be home with my family and friend and dog. And the cats too, although I have a different relationship with them than with the dog. I'm a t peace with leaving London, and Collingwood still sucks. Everyone here still suffers from Collingwood Hickism (CH), surrounded by their quaint little bubbles that will more than likely never be popped.
I feel for you, Hicks. I do.
Thankfully, I've never been limited by a bubble, and I can't wait to get out of this crap town and get a life.
What else?
Hm.
Oh yeah!
I went to Wonderland yesterdayyyyyyy! Woot! That was also a lot of fun! We didn't get a chance to go last year for some reason, so this was my first time back in a while. The last time we went, Paramount still owned it, and we went during Fearfest, which is just Wonderland but Halloween-y and spooky. It was reasonably spooky.
But now that Paramount doesn't own it any more, all the ride names have changed, which isn't a big deal, and Fearfest has changed to Halloween Haunt, and it's WAY better. That's what we went to, obviously, as yesterday was Halloween.
It's a night, from 7-12-ish. Very spooky indeed. My brother's girlfriend almost made one of the actors who would come up to you and scare you at the entrance laugh because of the face she gave him. He smirked and had to turn away. One of the actors came up behind me and I knew he was there, and I turned around to look at him, and he made this ridiculous noise at me which I guess was supposed to be frightening, but it really wasn't. It was hilarious. It was this high-pitched squeaky screech thing and all three of us (my brother, his girlfriend and I) all started laughing our heads off. I imagine he was embarrassed and turned away. It was sooo funny. He did a bad job of scaring me.
But that was not always the case! The park was very spooky indeed, with lighting effects and decorations and dry ice and scary music and such. It was definitely very well done, the atmosphere was realistic and impressive. The Mountain looked particularly good with the moving spotlight.
Oh, Wonderland is a huge amusement park by the way, for those who don't know. I think it's the biggest in Canada.It used to be Paramount Canada's Wonderland and a lot of rides were named after movies, but they sold it so now it's just Canada's Wonderland and the ride names are different. Well, the movie ones are, anyway.
The newest ride is the Behemoth, which truly is behemoth. It's SO HUMONGOUS it's hardly believeable. It's the biggest coaster in Canada, and it greatly surpasses Darian Lake (or Six Flags)'s Superman. The drop is so steep it's craziness! And there are six drops in total. While the average roller coaster takes about 5-10 seconds to go up the initial hill, the Behemoth takes 30. 30. That's a big difference. I wanted to go on it sooo bad, but we didn't get the chance and the lineup was ridiculous. Next year, next year. It looks so fun! The other roller coasters don't cut it any more. I want a bigger thrill.
So, Wonderland in al it's greatness, was even greater on Halloween night. Super scary, super fun, super HUGE rides. Excellent, excellent. I love that place!
Anyway, so England rocked, wonderland rocked, and CH continues to plague our town with resilience.