sometimes glass glitters

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zx. 20+. wants(1 gpa to stay abv 4.00 (2 big watsons dog/guitar lessons/tohoshinki cds/dvds/polaroid camera(on a whimsy)/new sandals/dresses!/skirts/tops/shorts... (3 summer holidays to come soon

more than diamonds

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goodbye


designer: eminence.
image: Sara Bareilles' Site
background: Photobucket quote: Terry Pratchett

Thursday, July 02, 2009


30/06/09 - 01/07/09

OMG the past two days will probably rank high amongst the most interesting things I've ever done since I've been at Yellowstone.

We actually planned to hitchhike to Old Faithful with Peggy and Stella, but we put off our plans due to the rain. But after lunch, we met up with Chin who told us that they were still here and they had changed plans instead and were going to West Yellowstone instead. So we (dear and I) decided to tag along rather than bum around and do nothing the whole day. After packing a very light bag (dear's jacket + water bottle + wallets + one small bottle of apple juice) we headed off to meet the rest of the people (Candice, Ria, Peggy, Queena, Stella, Nicole, Chin) who were well armed with cardboard signs advertising that we were employees and where we wanted to go.

The first car we got on to was apparently meant for the group in front of us, but because we were closer and uber excited that a car actually stopped in front of us, we ran towards it and got onto a car with a family of people from Texas. They very kindly dropped us at Norris, where we went to explore Norris Geyser basin (which took all of about 20 to 30 min). By the time we walked out to the main junction to try and hitch a ride to West Yellowstone, it was about 2plus? Luckily we met an employee, but she could only give us a ride as far as Madison, so we hopped into her car (Queena, wk and I) and got caught in the Norris-Madison jam for nearly half an hour before getting off at Madison and waiting for a ride to West Yellowstone. The last ride we took to West Yellowstone was actually a construction worker at the Norris Madison construction site who was on his way home to West Yellowstone.

After not being out of Yellowstone for nearly 2 months, it was refreshing and vaguely startling to see a town as urban (I use this term very very loosely as you'll see later) as this was. We were supposed to gather at the petrol station when we reached, but we found like 4 petrol kiosks. Thankfully wk spotted them walking into a shop and we rushed over immediately only to find out that they had been there for a while (and even finished watching a movie at the iMAX theatre while waiting for us). They were at the T shirt outlet store where you could choose your shirts/hoodies/jackets whatever and whichever print you liked then paid for it while it was being printed on the spot. After which we settled at a diner style place called Canyon Street and had dinner (shared with wk) before heading out for more walking at the supermarket (with a time limit of 15 minutes) and along the street. Since some of the girls wanted ice cream (and hiking shoes), Chin brought us to Dairy Queen and bought some Oreo cookie swirl thing and a strawberry waffle basket one. Needless to say the Oreo cookie + brownie + chocolate syrup one was extremely sweet and 腻. Since all they needed to buy was hiking shoes, Chin told us to go back and start attempting to make our way back first since there was no need for everyone to be hanging around.

Despite the sky still being bright, there were like 100 cars leaving YNP for everyone 1 car going in (which made hitchhiking supremely hard) and by 8ish (lots of madness from Chin and relentless attacks from mosquitoes), we gave up and decided to spend the night at West Yellowstone then make our way back in the morning. The grand plan was to find a room at a motel, squeeze all 6 of us inside (3 of them, Candice, Ria and Queena managed to make it back and we let them go first since they had to work the early shift the next day), watch Transformers 2 then make our way back in the morning, a full day adventure of sorts.

Unfortunately, West Yellowstone being one of the most immediate small towns outside YNP, was not only a supremely touristy area, it was also nearly completely booked full! Took a while to find a place with an empty room (but of course they didn’t allow 6 people to squeeze inside so we sneaked in) and while walking to the motel, we passed by the theatre where we discovered it showed only one film a day at 730pm (which we had already missed) and the shows playing were not the most recent. (2 weeks of Terminator Salvation once a day, followed by 2 weeks of Ice Age 2 then only in August would Transformers be showing) Anyway, we abandoned the idea of watching a movie, but managed to rent a room, but decided to take precautions and not enter so early anyway (wait till it’s dark and all). Plus Chin, having not been prepared to spend the night at all, didn’t bring a jacket, so we all trooped back to the T shirt store for him to print one where I bought a sadistically cute shirt for my nephew JR ^^ After which they went into the Candy (homemade) store, where they (Nicole and Chin) bought nearly a pound+ of fudge, while Peggy and Stella were shopping at the supermarket for shampoo, soap etc so they could shower while at the room. Since the sun doesn’t set 9ish and it was still early, we decided to go to McD’s, where we had supper, fudge and waited for it to be dark enough to go back. Of course with the darkness came the cold (and we had rain clouds and lightning that night too.)

While attempting to sneak into the room in batches, the thunder and lightning got closer and louder and there was a period of time where the rain clouds obscured the light from the moon, making everything that much spookier, darker and colder. =S Thankfully there were benches at the Laundromat across the room so we hung out there till we thought it was safe to go in. The room was kind of small (for 6 people it’d probably be hard to find a spacious room meant for 2 people anyway), but the 4 girls squeezed on the bed while the 2 guys slept on the floor. Watched a ridiculous TV programme, watched interesting commercials (too long without TV?) before trying to settle to sleep. Eventually I guess I did manage to, the room was thankfully not too cold as well, but didn’t feel very rested in the morning since I did wake up a few times during the night. We skipped breakfast and town in general to walk back to the place we waited at the day before to try and get a ride back to Canyon. This time we let Stella, Chin and Nicole go back first since Stella had to work at 3pm the day itself and we didn’t know how long it’d take before we got the next ride. (In the end it took nearly 2 over hours to reach Canyon after taking a ride in a truck with a dad and his son, who wanted to take a picture with us but realized his camera was spoiled but still sent us to Madison, and a Chinese couple on tour with the car in front of them (who had a humongous watermelon in their car and talked to us about tea) and last but not least a couple heading towards Fishing Bridge (camping I guess) who sent us on the last leg from Norris to Canyon). It probably has not felt so good to see the familiar signboards and little wooden buildings ever before.

Went back to my room to see my very worried roomie (oops! Sorry =x) since the others that came back first didn’t inform her about why and where we were. (No one expected to spend the night at West Yellowstone anyway). Apparently the night before one of the dryers in the laundry room was smoking and the entire of my dorm was evacuated at 1am in the morning. =S We proceeded to lunch after taking a nice warm/hot shower and chucking our laundry into the machines in the dorm next door before I came back and attempted to finish reading Twilight (which I have finally finished).

Roosevelt Cookout
A few hours after lunch, we were headed to Roosevelt in Jaxcine(sp?)’s car courtesy of arrangements made by CG’s very influential boss. The sun was hot and scorching (and I didn’t put sun block) so after getting our boarding passes for the wagon we were mostly hiding in the shade and trying not to step on/smell horse poop which was near impossible of course, but worth a try anyway. We finally got on the wagons after quite a while (with ominous rain clouds hovering in the background and splashing of thunder heard in the sky), and less than a few seconds after we did, it started to drizzle. INSERT: on the way to Roosevelt we saw another 2 black bears! These were in a valley below where we were driving but still quite close to the road. We were also slowed down by a bison walking against traffic in our lane for a while before it decided to follow traffic and block the people in the other lane. /INSERT The ride to the cook out grounds was quite fun, especially since it was a horse-drawn wagon (bug spray helped make the experience much more fun) and the horses would accelerate through little streams, causing splashes of water and a mild thrill. ^^ The rain stopped once we reached the cookout area (but started again not long after we got our food), where we had our first cup of cowboy coffee (strong stuff) and ate steaks, Roosevelt beans (yummyyyy), corn, coleslaw, potato salad, peach cobbler, fried chicken, had soda, hot chocolate and Cowboy Bob singing (though once it started raining and the speakers squeaked, he kind of had to stop). Super full and satisfying dinner, though the interesting bit was talking to a little girl at dinner, a teacher from LA after dinner (who discussed with us amongst other things, the American education system with regard to immigrants, the new administration, Western and traditional medicine and travelling around in LA) while we were waiting to get up the wagon and two sisters on the wagon who were very sweet old ladies. The cherry on top of the entire trip had to be when we were returning to where we began and saw 2 rainbows! ^^ Made it back to our dorm safe and sound and punctual this time, thanks to cg’s manager who was also in the team that won the league softball championship earlier in the evening. Probably my most exciting weekend yet, though we’re going camping in the Tetons next week, which might top even this weekend. Looking forward to it! XD