Well, I made it to Disneyland.
I am sitting in the gutter in the middle of the roundabout just in front of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. There will be fireworks very soon. I arrived about 30 minutes ago. The place is buzzing, the conversations around me are very “family”.
In the shuttle from the airport, I heard a radio ad for a Bank of America Dodgers card “show your devotion” was the catch phrase. You can get the Dodgers logo on all your banking products (or 99 other sporting teams!). We have so much to learn!
Disneyland has changed a little from when I was here in 1985, but is essentially the same. Mary Poppins’ merry-go-round seems to have disappeared, maybe because Mary Poppins is so out of date! So far it looks pretty much like Hong Kong Disney did last year when James and I went there. The difference is the Americans.
Went to a class party last night after the improvised Shakespeare. We had a “mini-Olympics” on the roof of the Brits’ house. Canadalia, or Austranada (me and 2 Canadian women from Calgary) did pretty well in the Beastie Boys rap competition, bummed out on the leap frog/name a country comp, and KILLED in the musical hot spot using only Canadian or Australian songs or artists (although it was close). For the sake of the competition the Californians seceded and made a separate team. The UK included South Africa, but I think the USA won overall (it got a little foggy by the time the closing ceremony rolled around). The opening and closing ceremonies involved passing a lit candle along a self-perpetuating human line to the sound of Chariots of Fire. Once again proving that improvising is like being at a 5 year old’s birthday party!
Got home round 2:45, and woke at 9am to juggle my luggage and get to the airport by midday.
Arrived here at 5pm (7pm Chicago time). So I’ve spent most of the day travelling. I have watched all but 70 minutes of season 2 of Dexter, and 3 downloaded episodes of the Gruen Transfer (on the ipod).
Disney is open till midnight, my hotel is a cushily refurbed motel with HBO and great beds. I have a 3 day “multi-park” pass (there is a 2nd park called Californian Adventure, which is a mini-California (hmmm), with rides). So much to discover.
