I have officially shed my teen self. On the night of the 9th, a group of us I-Housers celebrated, yup, the ending of my teenage era and my entrance into the 3rd decade. Interesting presents were received, including a kiwifruit. My apartment was "booked" as usual with yet another Chilean party, so we got together in Mohit's town house (6 person) apartment (which has a foozball table and a perfect beer pong platform). It was a great night, where we foozballed, tried out some new and novel concoctions of the potent variety and busted out some karaoke (thanks to a portable karaoke machine). Memorable moment: When I least expected it, Chris, one of Moh's roomies, pinned me by the arms and by then I knew straight away what was coming. I saw the creamy blur come without hesitation at my direction, and me, being a good sport, took it well. That was the first official caking I've had, and it was a good one according to the satisfied spectators in the apartment. Soft and chocolatey too.
The night couldn't go for too long because the next morning, there was a UCSD college funded trip to Six Flags: Magic Mountain that coincided nicely with my actual birthday. Those going (many I-Housers) had to all get up at dawn to catch the early bus to northern LA. Magic Mountain is a theme park with 16 crazy rollercoasters, some being the best in the world. I caught up on some well-needed sleep on the bus ride up. As we approached Six Flags, we could see the high-rise, snakelike and colourful metal rails in the distance. I could hear the expected "Oh, my"s, "Oooh, aaah"s and even the "OMG, this is a big mistake coming here"s. It was a scorching hot day. Getting off the bus, we saw many thrill-seekers and adrenalin-junkies at the crowded entrance. Many of them seemed like high school students craving some serious speed.
We went on a good handful of rides considering the wait times, these being Viper, Goliath, Superman, Tatsu and Batman. Goliath was the tallest rollercoaster in the park, which teased us with an agonisingly slow ascent which gave way for the 255 foot (that's almost 80 metres guys!) near vertical drop into a subterranean tunnel! It was a very fast 3 minutes. Superman was a ride that we waited 2 hrs for, for a 20 second thrill ride. It accelerated us horizontally from 0 to 100 mph (160 kph) in six seconds, up a vertical ramp and back down again. Tatsu was the newest rollercoaster of them all (with the longest waiting line), and this awesome ride had us with arms and legs free, positioned horizontally so that the effect of flying was achieved. Four of us rode the very front of Tatsu, and I had a proper bet with Moh that I could go the whole ride with hands out in front, with no contact. Something I doubted myself many times whilst seeing the coaster corkscrew turn like mad and drop unbelievably fast over and over again during the wait, turned out to be something that will feed me well one evening in the near hungry future.
As expected, souvenirs and food were very expensive, but I tried Dippin' Dots which were tiny balls of ice-cream that were frozen on the outside. This amusement park favourite melted in the mouth and were beautiful, especially in the intense heat. Overall, Six Flags: Magic Mountain was a fun and exhilarating experience, living up to the stereotype of American theme parks without doubt. Once the adrenaline levels died down as we all boarded the bus again, drowsiness shot up and we succumbed to the remarkably heavy eyelids. It was a birthday like no other.
I have final exams next week, including two 3 hour exams on Tuesday separated by 30 minutes! The great reward on the other side though is Spring Break! The tentative plan is to road trip up the coast of California from San Diego via LA to San Francisco, explore this beautiful city and the Bay Area (seeing the sights like Golden Gate Bridge, Berkeley, Stanford), and then go skiing at picturesque, world-famous Lake Tahoe. If that's not enough, we are going to then road trip it from LA to Las Vegas for the Friday night and then venture into the Grand Canyon for the final weekend. All in 8 days!
