#very long car ride tomorrow to drive up to my university campus with my dad

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

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[aventurasdecassie]

First Post

01/16/2019

When I created this blog I meant to post nightly, so I could remember the events of the day. However, my free time and level of energy at the end of the day is slightly different than what was expected. My new hope now is to make, at minimum, one post a week. Hopefully those who read this blog will prod me with reminders. 

Since this post is being made a week and an half after I arrived in Costa Rica, I will try to include everything important that has happened each day, that I can remember.

01/05/2019

This was the day of my flight. This was the big adventure day, so it is definitely the longest section. The day prior was filled with trips to Walmart and packing. My flight was at 5:15 a.m. in Chicago, and all Google searches suggested arriving three hours prior to my international flight. Since the drive itself was four hours, my parents decided to drive over the night/morning before. The entire family (5) wanted to come, plus my boyfriend, Joe. Originally the 8-seater Suburban would have been our transport, but it had a tantrum the week prior and was out of commission. Unbeknownst to me, Dad had rented a minivan for the trip, just so everyone could still come. We left Independence at 10 p.m.  I was supposed to nap on the way, but the entire day I had butterflies in my stomach, and they weren’t about to calm down so I could sleep.

We arrived at O’Hare at 2 a.m.; right on schedule. After navigating our way to the ticket counters (where I had yet to get my boarding pass as an international traveler) we found no staff in sight and many tired-looking folks spread amongst the area surrounding the counter. I dug into the depths of Google to find when the counter was supposed to open, and finally found it, wildly tucked away; 3:30 a.m. As tired as my parents were, they agreed to stay with me until I was on my way. 

Finally, around 3 a.m., some staff members appeared and started to form the line barriers. My dearest mother kept pushing me to be assertive and weasel my way in line. I figured I would get there one way or another, and was too tired to push elbows. Somehow, even after letting people go ahead of me, I managed to find myself at the front of the line for those traveling internationally. The same thing happened a few minutes later, while waiting in line to hand off my checked bag, when the TSA agent opened the barrier in what we thought was the middle of the line. Hah, take that, Mom. It was just a fun little coincidence to start off my adventure. 

After getting my tickets and dropping off my bag, it was finally time to say goodbye. Dad got some awkward photos, Mom hugged me several times, Joe and I had a quick kiss; and then I was on my own. 

I haven’t flown very much, but the best part (well, the only good part) of flying is takeoff. When you are above the city and everything looks like it was made by tiny ants. The view is even better at night, when you can see the golden veins of the roads beneath you.

Oh, I guess there was one other good part of this flight; I had an exit row seat. My little legs could stretch to their heart’s content. The funniest thing about my row was that all six of us were women under 5′ 5″, while there were a few (salty) 6′ & up men behind us.

I had a quick layover in Fort Lauderdale, where I met several other students also heading to Costa Rica. The second leg of my trip was slightly less enjoyable, as my exit row seat didn’t have a window, and we had a delayed takeoff. Although I wasn’t able to see much of Costa Rica as we landed, I did get a quick snap of some vaguely mountainous terrain from the window behind me.

My flight was supposed to land at 12:15 p.m., which should have given me plenty of time to get through immigration and customs, and meet my program’s (ISA) pickup group at 2 p.m. However, it was not meant to be. Due to the delay, my flight landed around 1 p.m. It then took 20 minutes for people to disembark the plane, as we had landed on the tarmac and needed to take a bus to the terminal. The stairs down to the bus were difficult for even me, let alone the mass of older folks at the front of the plane. At this point I was holding my breath, praying that 40 minutes would be enough time. We got into the terminal, and saw the immigration line. At first I thought it would be pushing the 40 minutes, but then I realized I wasn’t even seeing the end of the line yet. As I started walking to the end, any hope of catching the 2 p.m. van vanished. I finally reached the endpoint, and set about contacting ISA to let them know. Luckily for me, there was a 6 p.m. ISA bus. 

Ultimately, I almost missed that too. I ended up spending a grand total of 3 hours in the immigration line. However, I did end up meeting a new friend, Julia. She was also going to study at Veritas, but was in a different program. We bonded through the line, learning to adapt to the new 80 degree heat; with no water, food, or bathroom opportunities. Finally, we made it to the front. Julia managed to pick a much faster agent, and I lost sight of her shortly after. Not to worry; we had remembered to exchange contact info. She checked back in later to make sure I had made it to my program pick-up alright as well. After the three-hour immigration line, I found my checked bag (rather easy with its bright pink color), and faced a new obstacle: customs. 

Which went really fast. Like, five minutes. The agents barely glanced at the declarations form they had us fill out on the plane, and the lady watching the x-ray machine was chatting with her friend. I had no complaints, as I left the terminal with time to spare until pick-up. 

Leaving the terminal was . . . jarring. In the arrivals area there were, like, a million different people. A ton of taxi drivers asked me if I needed a ride, which became a chorus of “No, pero, gracias” as I made my way down the sidewalk along the terminal. I was told by ISA to gather by a place called Restaurante Malinche, but I could only find a Deli Malinche. I was unsure if it was the same thing, so I wandered like a homeless child up and down the arrival line until my program got back to me that, yes, that was the spot. As I tried to find my way into the cafe, I heard someone yell “Cassandra!” I turned to see two girls, and quickly found out that one of them was my roommate, Emily. We had been SnapChatting each other in the days leading up, and while in line. We waited together for the bus and got to know each other in person. 

Finally, we arrived at the Universidad Veritas at 7 p.m. It had been an incredibly long day(s) with only 1-2 hours of sleep. There were about 20-25 of us on a tour bus, and we were told that our host families would be coming to pick us up from the university. When my and Emily’s names were called, our host parents, Letty and Juan, helped us carry our bags to what I thought would be their car. 

Nope, we walked. About two steps. Our homestay was practically part of campus. 

This has grown to be one of the best parts of this experience thus far. Juan and Letty gave us a quick run-down of house rules (in Spanish, which my half-asleep brain only half-understood), and let us settle in, and sleep.

I know I said I would put all of last week in this post, but obviously it has already become much longer than I intended, and I’m impressed you made it this far (if you didn’t just skim down the post). The first day was one of the most exciting, and was filled with a lot of new experiences. Right now it is about 11 p.m. here, and I have class in the morning. So tomorrow (fingers crossed) I will catch y’all up on the rest of the week.

[bosstoaster]

Oooo, fun! How about a scooby doo/mystery gang au? ~sleepyhunk

Teddy, I love you.

0) It’s not a one-to-one

In one universe, there four teenagers and their dog.  In another, there’s five teenagers-ish.  And-

Look, most of all, no one is anyone.  Shiro’s not Freddy - he has the closest thing to his position, maybe, has his tendency to play the hero of the story.  Shiro’s never cast himself in that role, though, merely stepped into it out of duty, plays leader mostly by gritting his teeth and refusing to let anything else through.  Pidge has shades of Velma - small, wears glasses, the main brains of the group.  But she’s never had Velma’s shy streak, was never anything but loud and proud, even when it hurt.  And anyone who bumped into her wouldn’t leave her on her knees, but punching back.

It falls apart even more for the rest.  

They don’t fit those roles.  They fit their own.  They wouldn’t have it any other way.

(read more below)

I) It’s Keith’s van, but Pidge’s idea

Keith got the van from his dad.  It was part of the inheritance he got when he was 18, along with the middle-of-nowhere shack and the abandonment issues.

Having a van makes him ‘the friend with a car’, no matter how much Keith protests it.  No one else has one at the university.  Shiro was a city kid who still isn’t used to not being able to catch public transit wherever he wants to go, so he’s never bothered.  Lance had a car (his parents had a car, more like), but it went to into trust for his next-youngest nephew when he went to school, so he didn’t bring it.  Hunk has a car, but he honestly hates driving anyway, and he lives too far away not to fly (though he hates that too), and his isn’t available.   Pidge is a freshman, and therefore not allowed to have a car on campus anyway, and-

Look, there’s just no one else with a car.  And it sucks, because it means everyone needs a ride and Keith feels obligated to give it.

So when Pidge has her bright idea, Keith has no choice.

“Just look at the news report!” She cries, eyes bright and nearly feverish.  “Have you not seen any of it?  There’s already memes.  Pictures of a ghost attack, Keith!  From less than an hour away!”

Keith stares down at her laptop, then sighs deeply.  “Seriously?  You know this is going to be like- that balloon boy or whatever.”

Staring up at him, Pidge’s eyes go very big and her bottom lip juts out.  Because she’s evil.  “Keith, this could be history.  Do you really want to miss it?”

Dammit all.

“Okay, but we’re bringing Shiro.”  Keith doesn’t want to do it at all, but Shiro is at least capable of wrangling Pidge at her worst.  When he’s ready to go, Shiro will oblige.

Pidge nods immediately, grinning like the sun.  “Awesome!  Lance and Hunk already said they’d come too.”

Great.

II)  The ghost is fake.  But the thrill isn’t.

“A man in a mask,” Lance cackles, piling into the back of the van.  Keith’s actually not sure that the weird side-facing seats back there are actually legal.  He knows the way Lance and Pidge have been flopping around on the mattress during the drive is definitely illegal.

(He really needs to get rid of that thing, or at least replace it, because gross)

Hunk presses his forehead to the window, snickering too.  “I know!  I can’t believe someone actually did that!  For, for- some stupid land rights?  ‘Well, guess this place is haunted, I’ll sell after all’.  Yeah right!”

Grinning, Shiro climbs into the driver’s seat, because he likes night driving in the van more than Keith.  Both his natural hands grip the steering wheel tight to counter the adrenaline tremor.   “Might have worked before the internet.  Ah, well.”

“Still!”  Lance enthusiastically punches the air, just barely missing making a dent in the ceiling.  “I can’t believe you tackled that guy!”

“He startled me,” is Shiro’s mild response, but his shark’s grin is anything but polite.

Pidge gave a low sigh.  “It’s disappointing.  He faked it pretty well.  I honestly thought-”

“Ghosts aren’t real,” Keith repeats, for probably the hundredth time that night.

Crossing his arm, Lance snorts.  “That’s what you think.  Just ‘cause this one is fake-”

Pidge points to him, head bobbing.  “Right! Here, there’s another place down the hallway with all these reports-”

“Is there?” Shiro asked, eyes flashing and grin still too wide.  “On the way?”

Picking his head up, Hunk considers them all.  “Are you really thinking… it’s like two AM.”

Keith glances over the group, then clips himself into the passenger side seat. “We don’t have class tomorrow.”

“True,” Pidge agrees, her smile just as vicious as Shiro’s.  “It’d only be an extra hour, tops.”

They don’t get back to school until Monday morning.

They make the paper, and they actually make a little money from the grateful theater owner.

III) It just grows from there.

Shiro is the first to graduate.  He’s also the one with the most credibility (and money, though he’s shady about that part).  He doesn’t go out solving any mysteries without them, but he does trademark a couple of names and get the van repainted.  They don’t go out unless they can pick him up somewhere else.

Keith is next.  He thinks about the courses he took, about the aeronautics degree he just spent so much money to get.  He thinks about the mix of reviews from his professors, ‘brilliant and driven’ in the same breath as ‘frustratingly stubborn’.

He throws all of it away without a second thought.  He and Shiro start doing research on the side, learn to fix up the ancient van (finally replacing that mattress), while working side jobs.

Lance, Hunk and Pidge graduate together, with Pidge taking summer classes to catch up.

Then, they’re not just a bunch of random college kids running out at night.

They’re Mystery Paladins Incorporated.

IV) Mystery solving doesn’t pay the bills.  But the internet does.

“Get that camera out of my face,” Keith snaps, shoving his palm over the lens.

Lance yelps and pulls it back.   Pulling out the cleaning cloth, he rubs over it, scowling right back.  “Dude, don’t smudge it.  You’ll ruin our footage.”

Ignoring that, Keith steps closer to Shiro, watching Pidge through the corner of his eyes.  This was the closet they’d been able to coordinate some weird reports to an actual location, and Pidge had been nearly bouncing to check it out for weeks.

Besides him, Shiro is alert, flashlight in one hand, the other hold over his gun holster.  He has his preferences, and wandering around the woods in the middle of the night isn’t it.  Shiro likes the weird ones, the killer clowns in abandoned amusement parks, giant lobster monsters attacking port towns.  Creepy weirdos in the woods?  Too likely to be something mundane and dangerous.

Keith relates.

“Guys?” Hunk called.  He holds a microphone in one hand, the other pressing one side his headphones harder onto his ear.  “I think I hear voices ahead.”

Immediately, Lance grins and bounds ahead, surprisingly quiet.

Cursing under his breath, Shiro darts after.

There’s a crack in the distance, and a scream of pain.

Keith knows it’s Shiro.

V) Sometimes, the mysteries are people. Bad people.  And Mystery Hunting is dangerous.

Keith leans back in his chair, rubbing his eyes.  The tiny hospital room is full with the five of them.  Hunk takes up one chair, head back as he breathes deeply and slowly.  Pidge his crashed mostly in his lap, her legs danging over one of the arm rests and her head on Hunk’s shoulder.  From here, he can’t tell if she’s asleep or just has her eyes cracked.

On Shiro’s other side, Lance is gripping the sheets of Shiro’s bed, eyes roaming over his face again.

Now he has a much shorter haircut, with white streaked through what’s left of his bangs.  The wound over his nose is finally healing, but when the nurses change the bandages, Keith knows it’ll scar.

And his arm is gone.

“Hey,” Keith murmurs gently.  “You okay?”

Lance looks up at him and swallows.  The he shakes his head.  “He’s going to be so mad when he wakes up,” he managed, voice small and surprisingly young.

“No he’s not,” Keith shoots back, because it’s true.  It’s Shiro.  “He knew what he was doing.”

Shaking his head, Lance screws his eyes shut.  “If I hadn’t been so focused on that camera-���

It’s a useless train of thought.  Taking a pen off the counter, Keith throws it.  It hits Lance in the forehead and bounces off. “Yeah, the shot that pays for gas and food.  You were doing your job.  Shiro’s not going to be mad.”

Lance doesn’t seem to be certain of that, but he finally nods, rubbing his forehead.  “What now?”  He asks.

Keith doesn’t know.

But when Shiro wakes up, he does.

VI) They’re Mystery Paladins Incorporated.  Then and After.

Bonus) Aliens are Real and So Can You.

“Holy shit,” Lance breathes, shining on the woman climbing out of the ship.  The light catches on the pink markings on her face and the earrings dangling from her long, pointed ears.

Pidge whoops.  “Finally!  One of them is real!”

“Well,” Keith mutters.  “I’ll be damned.”

[itsjayyyy]

September 18, 2018 4:53 pm

wow since it’s been a few days since an update, I had a lot of things to open this entry with, but of course only one topic can be the first i talk about. so, the most recent one: I was just laying in bed thinking about how I need to study for my bio exam tomorrow and also complete the next two modules for econ, but then I realized it’s tuesday and econ hw is due monday nights, and freaked out. I literally went through all five stages of grief, before I was like “it’s okay, it’s only the homework, the exam will pull my grade up” and opened my laptop to start reading for bio. but then I checked econ and apparently because there’s an exam this week, there wasn’t any homework due so HOLLA.

so this past weekend has been annoying, as always. I was at ioa for friday, but we only had three workers total (we normally have 6) for closing, so it was hell trying to close on time. and then saturday I went to usf, which is always hell. not to mention, hhn started so we had to spend an hour cleaning so the night crew would be set. and at the end of my shift, the usf manager has the nerve to say to me that she wants me to pick up some shifts this week. I tell her that I have four exams, and I’ll have to check my schedule, but she says “oh but your availability says you’re free after 4 on tuesdays, thursdays, and fridays” what the fuck!!!!!! don’t go looking at my availability when I’m not your employee!!!!!!! so I kept saying I had to study, I had to see, two of my exams are online, etc and she kept pushing for me to at least take shifts on friday afternoon and saturday, since I should be done with exams by then. I took the saturday shift because by this point my shift ended a minute ago and I wanted to leave, and told her I’d call her to let her know if I can take friday (I won’t.) SO SUNDAY I walk in to ioa (home sweet home), and we have a new coworker!!! And by new I mean he used to work at usf but transferred here permanently. What. “Oh jay we send you to usf because they’re understaffed and we’re overstaffed.” Okay. So I tell my manager that they’re stupid for accepting MORE workers when we have that issue, and she has the audacity to say to my face “oh it’s more than that, he didn’t like it at usf” as if I haven’t spent the last two months telling both ioa and usf managers that I hate usf. Okay. So Sunday, when I next work at ioa, I’m going to speak to my highest manager and tell her that she either tells the scheduler that I am not to work at usf again, or I quit. I have enough money in my savings account to last me a while.

wow. rose deadass drank 6 apple juice boxes out of the 8-pack we had. this bitch clearly doesn’t care if I starve huh.

so yesterday I met up with heather after class in the student union. did I mention how much I love cafe bustelo? I really love it. a good cafe con leche really warms me up. we talked for a while, then I walked her to class. In our conversation, our birthdays came up at some point (I think I said something along the lines of “you didn’t get me anything for my birthday this year! and she said “you didn’t get me anything either!”) and I was like “I bet you don’t even know my birthday” and she said april 22nd. and then later she was like yea well I bet you don’t know mine and i immediately said march 19, so she said she’d buy me starbucks today to make up for it.

today’s morning was really gr8 and also really un-gr8. like, I woke up at 7 thinking I had to leave the house at 8:30 for my ortho appt, and laid in bed for a while before finally getting up and showering. but when I stepped out of the shower and saw the time was 8, I realized that I didn’t leave the house at 8:30, my appointment was at 8:30. cue getting dressed while still partially damp, forgetting heather’s gov’t textbook, and going 75 in a 45 zone. I thank the gods daily that motorcycles don’t get red light tickets.

while driving down the main road leading to my university, I had this white car weaving between traffic. at one point he was behind me, but then when I slowed down in a turn he switched to the right, which ended up being right behind a campus shuttle (you know, the ones that drive 5 mph under the speed limit at all times and you can barely see around. and they’re diesel, ugh!). as he saw me speed up at the end of the curve, he switched back to behind me and sped up too, but as soon as I reached level with the front of the shuttle (and the pickup on the other side of me), I slammed on my brakes so he couldn’t try to go around. Definitely risked getting run the fuck over, but it was so worth it seeing the look of frustration on his face.

I got nearly instant karma, though, because he entered the university through the first turn, when I went for the second a little ways up since it’s closer to my garage. but the traffic light was down, so I had to merge into one lane with everyone else, and then they wouldn’t even allow left turns because it’s too complex for the person directing traffic, so I had to make a right then a u-turn. But it was made up for by the fact that the trike that normally parks in my spot was probably also deterred by the traffic, and I got to claim my righteous spot.

so when I got on campus, I went to heather’s class, or rather, the building it was in since I couldn’t find room 106 exactly. I remembered that my annoying coworker said that her classes were in that building + the one next to it also on tuesdays, but I thought that there was no way I’d actually bump into her considering there are over 60,000 students and the buildings are pretty large, plus I didn’t know what time her classes are.

well, now I know that her class gets out at the same time + same building as heather. we walked towards the starbucks (which is near her next class), and I introduced her to heather, we talked about how it was to work at universal, the sort. and then she was like “well I gotta go to class now, bye!” and i was like bye and smiled and when she was more than 20 feet away I turned to heather and said “that’s the coworker I told you that I hate.”

I love pumpkin spice season!!!!!!!! got a frappuccino tho, because it’s never truly fall in florida. heather got a mango dragonfruit refresher bc I recommended it to her, and it’s funny because the person ordering before us was also named heather and also ordered a mango dragonfruit. As a barista, that’s like my worst nightmare. Luckily they were able to tell it apart because the other heather got a grande. We sat in the starbucks for a while, I explained how weed is a lot more safe than cigarettes, talked about pine hills’ reputation, and how samantha’s mom is so damn disrespectful. This woman drove heather home one day when picking up samantha, and the whole ride was bragging about how samantha was going to be so successful because she’s majoring in some type of psychology and will be making over 90k a year. and then she turned the conversation to how teachers don’t make that much money, and she asks heather how she could do that, just take such a low-paying job. and lemme tell ya how MY GIRL HEATHER FUCKIN SNAPPED. she done said she tired of people saying teachers don’t make a lot of money yall. she said to samantha’s mom, “I don’t know how you’re looking down on my salary when you have three children from three different men with only a salary of $30k.” Y’ALL. the point that heather was trying to make the point that “people from working-class families act as if a salary less than 100k is unacceptable even for an unmarried, childless young adult despite working class families often having a household income of 50k while supporting children just fine,” but damn she really went there. goin off on this good catholic woman for having baby daddies. well samantha’s mom and samantha became very upset. and they told heather’s dad who would not leave her alone until she apologized. as in, he was banging on her door telling her she had to apologize. I said put headphones in and ignore it, she was like “girl you don’t understand haitian parents. my dad literally opened my door with a knife when I locked it.” so she had to apologize :/ but she also made it clear that she didn’t like the way samantha’s mom disrespected her. she tried to make it seem relatable, and be like, “oh what if i said that to your mom, wouldn’t you tell me to apologize” and I’m like???? no???? I would make my mom apologize for being disrespectful first the hell??? then I reminded her about how I literally lived on the streets for 3 weeks because my mom was disrespectful to me.

today after class I decided to take the city bus home, for 4 reasons: I wanted to stay humble and remember where I came from, I wanted time to be able to finish this book, not walking the last half-mile home every day this semester has caused some weight gain, and I really wanted to hold my parking spot against that damn trike, and it seems he comes too early in the morning for me, so I just left my bike there overnight. yea I’m petty.

The book was really good. It’s definitely a hard read, for sure. In the sense that it really will make you cry. At the end, it listed all of the school shooting victims since columbine, plus a small snippet about them (it was like 20 pages long). The one that really got me was an 8 year old, whose text read “shoot me first,” as he wanted to take a bullet so it wouldn’t be used against his classmates. Then, below that entry, a seven year old, who said “shoot me next.” Just typing that is making my eyes water again.

The walk home was super tiring. I’m super out of shape, it was hard for me to even imagine that I did this every single day the entire first semester of college. And I have to do it tomorrow morning again, ugh. Can you believe heather wakes up at 5:30 am???? I’m never seen out of bed before 7, and even then it’s only for things like appointments. But I guess I really should start waking up earlier, because whenever I get on campus around 8 I feel great because I have so much time to study and stuff. but that means I have to buy a coffee on campus, and I don’t know if I want to commit to that expense.

edit: so I originally posted this to my main, and when I saw that I copied it, then deleted it, then tried to paste it into a new post, but I guess I didn’t press ctrl hard enough because it didn’t copy. and I was about to cry bc this is close to 2k words, but then I realized I had a tab of my main open that still had the original post showing, so I copied from there.