Category: Uncategorized

My first day off of school was uneventful, just like every other day. I got out of bed. I brushed my teeth. I went downstairs. I ate breakfast. I did tedious and monotonous chores. I played on my phone. I sat down. I walked around for an hour. I went to bed.

Relatives are supposed to be coming over today. My father said they’d be here around noon, if they made the flight. Noon is at 12. It’s 4. That either means my father is wrong or they missed the flight or both. There’s nothing to do, which is why I’m writing this. Nothing is still better than working, though. The worst part about this is that there’s nothing to write about. Of course, I could write a boring post about how my day was (cough cough). I’ve been considering going outside, but there’s snow so I can’t play basketball. Another problem is that my neighbor might spot me, and I’d be stuck outside for hours. I could draw, but that’s hard and takes too much effort just for one mediocre looking piece of paper. Some presents suddenly showed up under the Christmas tree, and I’ve been wondering if I should open mine to see what I have. It isn’t worth it though, because I’ll probably pull out a pair of socks once I unwrap my presents. I hate practicing the piano and the TV doesn’t work. Then my grandmother said I have to go to church with her. I hate going to church. It’s not that I dislike Christians or anything. It’s that everything in church is boring. And I can already hear some adults screeching in my ear, “You’re not in church to play, you’re here to pray.” I don’t know how to pray, nor do I particularly want to. Besides, I’ve been dragged along to church so many times that I’m sick of it. Just because my family believes in God doesn’t mean I have to. I’d rather wallow at home in my boredom than pray to someone who may or may not exist. My grandmother pestered me to go with her, told me that I’m a horrible child, and left. I don’t know why I’m supposed to go with her since all I ever do is stand there for an hour. She could bring a wooden chair to church and it would do the same thing. I think it’s unfair that I have to convert to a religion just because the rest of my family has.

There’s nothing else to write about. I could complain about the things that happen to me, but most of them are just minor inconveniences. They start to stack up and annoy me, but people would rather read about a major inconvenience. Even I will admit reading about how your house burned down is more entertaining than reading about how you accidentally spilled some toothpaste on the floor.

I’ve been staring at the screen for ten minutes wondering what to write. There’s nothing to write.

You are given a choice: go to Rome or go to kids’ club. This can be referred to as being between a rock and a hard place. This is because both choices are equally terrible. If you’re clever, you’ll learn to avoid the situation where you’d have to choose between these two.  I was not clever. These were the two choices presented to me, and I was unsure of which to choose. I knew that there was a 100% chance that I would hate the kids’ club. Although I had never been to Rome, I knew there would be an 85% chance I wouldn’t like. After thinking it through logically, I went with Rome. This was a mistake.

After sending the babies to kids’ club, I switched cards with Khoi’s grandmother because you need your own card to leave the ship. I was mainly only going to Rome for some pictures. My father was nagging me about those, so I had to get some. Not many people know, but I’m actually a professional photographer. I’ve also taken some videos, but I accidentally recorded some upside down, so half of them are worthless. Anyway, after exiting the ship, we went on a bus to some random place. This is when my trip to Rome went sour. I was under the assumption that we’d all be walking around while exploring Rome. This was not the case. There were some people with giant signs at the bus stop, trying to sucker some tourists into buying a bus tour. They’re annoying, but I understand that people need to make a living. I thought we would just ignore them while the suckers paid for the tours. Unfortunately, Khoi’s father is a sucker. Thus, we all piled into a giant van and took off to somewhere. There was a sign inside that said they had free Wi-Fi, so I was pretty excited due to the fact that I had been deprived from any type of internet for the last few days. I was planning to write my blog while on the trip, so the events were still fresh on my mind, so I was about to write something when I learned that the internet sucked. Khoi’s father is a sucker who got suckered into getting into this van and I got suckered into believing the Wi-Fi worked. The van was filled with suckers.

After a millennium of driving, we arrived at our destination. Our destination turned out to be this giant Colosseum. At least, I think it was. We never actually went inside. To any other person, they probably would’ve thought, Wow, this is cool! I was not any other person. I was an irritated boy that had just spent several hours in the car. Is this it? is what I thought when I saw the building. To this day, I still don’t know what the building was. I still took some pictures though, because it looked ancient and most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between an actual Roman building and an imitation.

We all piled back into the van to our next destination. This time, we were at Campo Marzio. I think. It was a a city looking place with large buildings on both sides of the road. Shoppers were walking around like it was a giant outdoor shopping mall. Everyone was carrying an umbrella, so if you watched from above, I’m sure it would look like a lot of moving circles. It pretty much was a mall with all the shops they had. However, just like the stores in London, most of them seemed to be selling fashion items, while I was just looking for food and souvenirs. We stopped at a cafe where we were supposedly getting a bite to eat. This was a lie. A few minutes after I sat down, my relatives kicked me out so we could go sightseeing. There was not much to see. A large flight of stairs led up to a giant church. I personally don’t believe in God, but the rest of my family does, so I was dragged along with them. Near the church was a stone engraved with Latin. I asked if it was written in Roman. TD said that they spoke Latin, not Roman. It appears that my dry sarcasm and comedic genius goes unappreciated by none. There wasn’t much to do inside the church. The only thing you could do is set things on fire. Candles, to be specific. I suppose they’ve learned nothing since Notre Dame burned down. You’re supposed to pay to light the candles, but I did it anyway without paying. That brings my criminal acts up to two: Leaving an unflushed toilet and not paying to set things on fire. I think it’s stupid anyway. It’s kind of sinful to try to profit off of some Christians trying to pray to God. Suddenly, that klutz TL accidentally blew out someone’s flames, along with their ticket to heaven. Nice going.

I really wanted to go back to the ship at this point, but these are my relatives we’re talking about. We still had about an hour before the van would come back for us. I’m pretty sure Khoi’s father did that on purpose so we would be bored. I returned to the cafe along with everyone else, and I finally got some gelatin. To share. With TL. I didn’t feel like eating after that. If you want more information about the cafe, watch my video log, which is going on my Youtube channel. There wasn’t much to take pictures of at the cafe, besides the gelatin and a statue’s behind. Then we finally left.

I wish there was something to write about our last destination, but I can’t. Nothing interesting happened, and we weren’t at an interesting place. So I’ll skip this one over.

When we got back to the ship, I headed inside first because everyone walks slow. Then I realized I could only go to the Boom Room because I hadn’t traded cards with Khoi’s grandmother. Once I entered the Boom Room, Stranger 1 kicked me out and told me to go to Khoi’s room and that they’d let me in. So I walked alone to Khoi’s room. Then I got lost. There were signs pointing me to the right directions, but I was on the opposite side of the ship. Therefore, I ended up walking down the same identical hallways again and again, wondering how to get to the room. I walked and walked and walked and walked. It took me about ten minutes just to go from one room to another. At last, I arrived at the room and knocked on the door. No response. I try again. Nobody. I try one last time. Nothing. Now what? I paced around near the stares which caused some people to stare at me. I thought of going back to the Boom Room for help, but it would take a year to return back there because I hadn’t discovered the shortcut on floor 6 yet. So I paced around some more until I decided to suck it up and endure the mundane walk back to the room. This was the exact time that the other boomers showed up, and I traded cards with Khoi’s grandmother. And then I had to walk back again to Khoi’s room. When I got there, they said I had to go to the buffet on floor 15. Great. The buffet again. I had the buffet for breakfast as well. I was dying of thirst anyway, so I went up to the buffet and got a lot of water. Another thing about the buffet is that they only serve juice during breakfast. Why? Just because it’s free doesn’t mean you have to deprive me of the things I need to live.

We ended up playing video games in my room, but Khoi was being an annoying brat by stealing the controllers and such. Eventually, the adults whisked him off somewhere. Kids get bored easily, so we ended playing with TL’s dirty shoe. I don’t know what came over me that made me decide to play with her shoe. I must’ve been delirious since I was so thirsty. There was a minibar with a lot of cold soda in it, but the adults are always harping on about how expensive it is. They act like it costs a fortune just to buy a can of soda.

The rest of the night was uneventful. Khoi and Vien were messing around and making a racket, but they eventually fell asleep. I sat awake, wondering what we would be doing tomorrow. Perhaps we would be doing something that didn’t include me being dragged along by the adults doing mundane tasks and waiting for no apparent reason. This all happened.

Every year on December 25, people celebrate presents. Not Jesus’s birth. Just presents. This is because humans are greedy by nature. Is this a bad thing? Probably. Does this matter to anyone? No. I think the reason that Christmas is the most popular holiday is that it’s the most generous one. Your birthday or Halloween are probably your second favorite because you also receive things on those days. St. Patrick’s Day or Thanksgiving are far less popular due to the simple fact that you don’t get much on those days. Of course, I’m not suggesting that people only care about the commercial side of Christmas. Getting school off is always something to celebrate. I’m simply saying that giving presents are the main point of Christmas, and is something you should not disregard as simply spoiling others. You can probably see where I’m going with this now.

I think I make my interests very clear. I like video games. I also like sports and reading. But ask anyone. They’ll say that video games are my main interest. So for Christmas, here is what I want:

 

I don’t actually know what I specifically want. Video games, obviously, but I don’t know which ones. People always say something obnoxious, like “Wow, look at that big present you got. How lucky are you?” Yes, they’re right. The present is big. I am lucky to have a big box. But I know very well that the contents inside are something along the lines of clothes or a Lego set. Before you say that I’m an ungrateful brat, I’d just like to point out that Lego sets cost just as much (some even more) than a video game. I saw a Star Wars Lego set online that costed somewhere in the seven hundred dollar range.

Of course, I’m being hypocritical. I do not know what any of my relatives’ interests are, besides Khoi. So when I was sent to buy some Christmas presents, I bought the lamest things imaginable. If you’re one of those pretentious people who pretend to care about the “surprise” of finding out what your presents are, you better stop reading now.

While I was walking near the back of the store, I saw something that caught my attention. It was a little key chain. Actually, it was a Tamagotchi. Actually actually, it was a Tamagotchi knock-off. If you don’t know what a Tamagotchi is, it was this really popular toy in the 90’s. It was a tiny device where you had a digital pet to take care of. You had to check on it every once in while, or it would die. Anyway, the thing I was staring at was a copy of that. It was called Digipets or something. I’m 99% sure that it does not work. I’m 100% percent sure that if it does work, it will not be fun to use at all. In other words, it was a perfect present for any of the Thucs.

Near the front of the store was another item that caught my eye. It was a Gameboy. If you do not know what a Gameboy is, it is also another popular digital 90’s toy. For a moment, I thought I would be able to buy an actual Gameboy, and at such a low price, too. Then I looked at the box closer. It was actually an alarm clock that looked like a Gameboy. There was also a watch that was designed to look like a Gameboy. If this was a regular looking watch, I wouldn’t have bought it. However, it had the video game aesthetic and I figured Bien would like it, not because he needs to check the time, but because he’d like fiddling with the buttons on the watch.

After stalking around the back of the store again, I saw something that really grabbed my attention. It was a Pro controller. A Pro controller is pretty much a controller for the Switch, but it looks like an actual PS4 controller instead of a red and blue stick. Pro controllers are about 60 dollars, so I knew the chances of me ever getting one were slim. But here it was, standing right in front of me, with just a 15 dollar price tag on it. At first, I was excited, but then that quickly turned into suspicion. I began to wonder why it was so cheap. It had pictures of Pokemon on it, but there was no way they would lower the price just because it looked ugly. I read every single word on the box to figure out what was wrong with the controller. It was an official product from Nintendo, so that meant it wasn’t some cheap off-brand controller. Then I saw it. “Wired controller.” Wired controllers have a wire connecting it to the system, so you have to sit pretty close to the TV. Wireless controllers, on the other hand, allow you stand way further, and it also eliminates the chances of some idiot tripping over the wire while you’re playing. I can guarantee you that at least one of my cousins will in some way accidentally touch the wire. Even so, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get an actual controller. This wasn’t my first choice of controller, but it’d have to do until I got a Pro one.

It was at this point that I met up with my grandmother. She had bought socks for someone. Imagine receiving socks for Christmas. Waiting 364 days and getting socks. Of course, I didn’t say anything about it because that would be rude. She also bought this beer thing for my father. I doubt he’ll do anything with it. We then walked to the far side of the store where my grandmother found this sketchbook that had a black zipper case and several different colored pencils. I figured either one of the younger Thucs would want it, though they’re not exactly what you’d call artists. My grandmother bought Vinh a giant Tic-Tac-Toe board. She thought it would be a good gift. I feel bad for Vinh.

We didn’t buy much else. All in all, I think the present I got were pretty lame. I think I’ve learned my lesson. Christmas isn’t about getting presents, not at all. What it’s really about is giving. And by giving, I mean giving your relatives cheap and lame presents just to fill your quota for the year. Now I finally understand why I never get video games for Christmas.

If you are not an absolute fool, you should know the history of humanity. Everyone knows that Albert Einstein created the English language and also wrote the Bible in English. You may also know that Albert Einstein’s real name is Chris. This is how Christianity was created. Albert Einstein was making up more English words when the dinosaurs attacked. Einstein had to leave his work and defend against them. These were called the Crusades. But then, after the wars, Albert Einstein got married to Elsa Einstein. This was also her name before they got married. These two had a child. His name was Christopher Columbus. At this time, everyone stopped reading the Bible and thought the earth was flat. Columbus had obtain the secret knowledge from Albert Einstein, so he knew the earth is actually square shaped. To prove that the earth was a square, he told the Canadian king that he would go to Asia. Columbus was not able to find Asia because he didn’t obtain the secret knowledge from Albert Einstein. Columbus did not want to go back to Canada empty-handed, so he invented North America and tricked everyone into thinking it was Asia. The creation of North America lead to more people beginning to speak American. American was too hard though, so they reverted back to English. This lead to the creation of England.

In conclusion, I’d like to add one more thing. Fools do not know how England was invented. However, even bigger fools think that pronunciation is pronounced pro-nounce-ee-a-shun. It is actually pronounced exactly like it’s spelled. Search it up; I’m right.

Sometimes it’s better to be negative than positive, because there’s a lot more to write about. Be honest, the amount of good to bad in your life is probably 4:6. It’s a lot more fun to complain about things, and positive writing is extremely boring to read. I don’t mean to write  negatively on purpose; I simply write about what happened to me on a particular day and how I felt about it, both of these things usually being bad. So when I say that my concert is going to be absolute garbage, I’m not being negative, I’m just being realistic and truthful.

My dress shirt is too big, my dress pants are actually just black jeans, and as for dress shoes, I simply don’t have any. I can already imagine what a fool I’ll look like when I arrive at my concert. It’s not like the band is any good, so I don’t see why I have to dress up. I think that since my father had never been to one of my concerts, he is under the impression that my band is good. I thought so too, when I was in fifth grade. While I was performing, I thought we were pretty good. Then I watched a video of it and we sounded like a dying elephant. My father also wants me to practice in preparation for the concert. It won’t do me any good, because I’m so helplessly inept at the trumpet that nothing can save me now. It doesn’t even matter how good I am anyway. I could be a god at trumpet and the rest of the band would still block me out.

As you can probably tell, I’m not looking forward to the concert.

 

So I hope you enjoy my blog guys! Bye guys!

If I’m to be honest, I think that this was the worst day of my trip. Before someone slams me with the “Stop being so negative,” I’d like to say that if I tried to be positive about this day, that would be lying. I think you would agree that lying is a more heinous crime than being negative. So I’ll be blunt: my fourth day of vacation did not shape up to be a good one.

My fourth day of vacation was shaping up to be a good one. I would finally be leaving the abysmal, appalling, and awful hotel in exchange for a superb, excellent, and wonderful cruise ship. After I exited the bedroom, I found everyone getting dressed and leaving for a place I hadn’t been told yet, because nobody cares enough to tell me where we’re going. Angel had come over last night and along with her were people’s names who I don’t know. I’ll refer to them as Stranger 1, Stranger 1 #2, and Lady with Airpods. We had to wait for Khoi’s father, who was returning from his returning of the car. And so I waited. And waited. And waited. Everyone was getting restless at this point, so we were told to carry our own suitcases down the elevator and out into the street to wherever. It turned what they really meant by “carry your own suitcases” was “Here, Nam could you carry my suitcase please?” It was irritating, but complaining about it wouldn’t do me any good. It was raining and cold, and the morning street of Milan had pedestrians trickling about. There were a lot of things on my mind at this moment. Where are we going? Where was Khoi’s father? Where’s the bathroom? The questions rattled around and around in my head. At last, we walked past a statue of a giant apple and into what looked like an ancient building. I thought it looked old, so I took some pictures of it, hoping that I was taking pictures of something with some historical significance. It turned out to be a train station.

Once we got inside, everyone started waiting for Khoi’s father to arrive. I paced around, partly because I hate standing still for long periods of time, but also because I had to use the restroom really badly. Then, Khoi’s grandmother came with the two guys from yesterday. Everyone started saying their goodbyes, and the two men left. I stood in the corner and pretended to care about what was happening. The only thing I did care about was the location of the nearest restroom. After a decade, Khoi’s father arrived, and we all headed inside the train station. Shops filled the entire main room as well as what seemed to be hundreds of people going about their business. There was a lot of neat stuff I would’ve bought if only I had remembered to exchange my money. We skipped over the stores and headed straight up the escalator. After looking at a map, we headed over to an enormous room with several trains. Then the boomers said they were going to the bathroom, so I tagged along with them, because I had to go really badly. At the entrance of the bathroom, however, was a turnstile. Apparently you have to pay to use the bathrooms in Italy. I guess Italy really wants to capitalize on my need to pee. After dropping in a coin, I noticed that the toilet stall did not have doors. At least, it seemed that way. I assumed that there was a sliding door within the stall, but I didn’t have time to figure out how to use it. I needed to go straight away. There was a toilet in the back with an actual door, so I headed in there. After finishing my business, I pressed the button on top of the toilet. Nothing happened. I pressed it as hard as I could. Nothing happened. Maybe I have to turn it, I thought. I give the little button a twist. Again, nothing. I wondered what I was going to do now. For some reason, there was a plunger in the corner of the room. Actually, there was a lot of supplies in the corner of the room. Perhaps I had stumbled upon the janitor’s private bathroom. For a moment, I considered using the plunger to clean things up. Then I remembered how plungers work. I thought about what to do next. As I stood there, the answer became more and more obvious.

Run.

I took a quick peek outside the door to make sure no one was looking, and then I bolted. I wondered if I was going to be arrested for not flushing the toilet. I pulled my hood over my face, just in case someone saw me. Suddenly, I ran straight into my grandmother. She told me that everyone was waiting to board the train. I ran over, and Lady with Airpods along with the kids were missing. I later learned that they were buying some McDonalds. If I hadn’t gone to the restroom, maybe I would’ve gotten more than a cold chicken nugget. Anyway, Lady with Airpods came running to our group, along with Khoi and Vien. Our compartment of the train was in the very front, and we were standing at the back of the train. There was a mad dash to the front of the train. This makes it sound intense, but what I really mean by a “mad dash” is me doing a light sprint and everyone else doing the slowest jog imaginable. I had forgotten the speed of the people accompanying me. The train started to leave, and everyone was in a different place: Khoi’s father, Khoi, and I were at the front of the train, and everyone else was around the middle. There was no time left, so we got on whichever compartment we happened to be nearest to. This resulted in everyone being in different compartments. Khoi’s father told me to sit tight and wait while he and Khoi looked for the others. I waited for about ten minutes. I seemed like nearly half of my day had just been waiting. A few minutes later, I found myself inside a different compartment, the one where everyone else was. Then, my grandmother said that we were going to get snacks. There had only been one other time I was on an actual train, and there had been a whole compartment dedicated to selling candy and popcorn, along with other treats. I stood up excitedly, and then quickly sat down. My grandmother handed me a little chicken nugget box from McDonalds. They were cold. On top of that, the box wasn’t even full. Along with the nuggets, my grandmother also handed me some fries. I’ll eat those last, I thought. This turned out to be a mistake. After I gobbled down the entire box of nuggets, I looked out the window. There was nothing much, so I turned to eat my fries. Then I saw Stranger 1 eating the fries. Why me? I thought.

 

Once the train stopped, all the passengers exited. There was a big line to use the elevator, which I assumed went to the center of the train station. Since our family is as slow as cabbages, we were dead last in line. After we got out of the elevator, we started walking down a long tunnel. On my left, I saw Vien talking to Angel.

“Whats nine times eight?” Vien asked Angel.

She obviously didn’t know, so I answered. “Seventy-two.”

I walked off, and that’s when I heard crying. It was Vien. Her father asked her what happened, and she pointed at me. I’ll try to explain what Vien said next the best I can. I myself still can’t comprehend the stupidity of what she had said. Vien was really upset that she couldn’t assert her dominance to Angel, so she started blubbering like a baby seal with a speech impediment. Yes, she was angry because I said the words “seventy-two”. I truly am sorry for uttering such horrible words, and I can guarantee that I will never say such things again.

After Vien finished her temper tantrum, we all piled into two taxis and headed for the cruise ship. After a short while, we ended up inside this large building with a miniature model of the ship in the middle. I asked Khoi’s father why we were sitting down, and he said we were waiting for the Thucs. So I waited. This isn’t the last time you’re going to hear this phrase. After around half an hour, the Thucs arrived. Everyone said their hellos while I stood in the corner and pretended to care. After more tedious security, we ended up in the ship. Inside was a massive hallway with stores lining the walls, sort of like a mall. I’d like to be able to tell you that I had great fun at these stores, trying new things and eating new foods. This would be a lie.

I was sharing a cabin with my grandmother and Stranger 1. Therefore, I appropriately dubbed it, “The Boom Room”. There was only one bed and once couch, and I was praying I wouldn’t have to share any sleeping space with the boomers. I ended up not having to, but a great price.

I asked my grandmother for my glasses, and she opened up her purse. There, inside, was my glasses, with one of the legs fallen off.  My glasses were already in bad shape before this, so I couldn’t say I was too surprised. Luckily, I knew how to fix them, though it would take precision, and the glasses still wouldn’t be too sturdy. I searched my grandmother’s purse for what I was looking for. Soon I pulled it out: a tiny screw responsible for keeping the leg in place. I tried to fix it right there, but my hands were far to large, so I gave up and put my glasses in a plastic bag for later. I changed my clothes and headed down to floor 6 for dinner. Already down their was Khoi and his crew. He was wearing his glasses, and one of the legs were missing, just like mine. I wondered how he kept them on. We waited for everyone else to show up, and we headed to floor 15 for dinner. While heading there, Vien kicked me in the leg. I guess she was still angry about me saying the seventy-two-word, which is a bad word. I told her to stop kicking me. In response, she kicked me. It’s not like it hurt, but it annoyed me. As the saying goes: “It’s the thought that counts.” We walked over to the other elevators as Vien continued to kick me. I told he to stop. She kicked me. I got tired of this very quickly, and right when she was about to kick me again, I grabbed her arms and squeezed them. I was going to shove her as well, but I figured that was too extra. As I suspected, Vien began to cry like a baboon that got bit in the butt. For a moment, I thought she was going to start blubbering to the adults, but she foolishly told TL and TQ instead. This was fine with me, because their opinion doesn’t matter.

At last, we arrived at our destination. I wondered what kind of restaurant we would be eating at. It was a buffet. I have nothing against buffets; I actually like them. It’s just not what I expected. I ate a burger, a hot dog, and some actual warm chicken nuggets. A real gourmet meal if you ask me. I sat at the same table as Vien, just to annoy her. This was a mistake, because now I had to watch her eat with her mouth open. I told her to not eat with her mouth open. Vien continued to eat with her mouth open. I overheard my grandmother complaining that the quality of the food was mediocre. What did you expect? A high-class meal? This is free. My family members have very high standards for the rest of the world, while they’re okay with drinking sink water. I hate sink water.

After dinner was some pointless walking around, and then bedtime. Once I arrived in my cabin, Khoi’s father arrived. He made me switch rooms with Khoi’s grandmother so she could be with the rest of the boomers. Thus, I packed all my things and headed to the room where Khoi and friends was sleeping. My new room was a lot smaller, with just one bed and two bunk beds on top. At least I would get my own bed. This is where the day ended. The day hadn’t been good. Not at all. All I could hope for was a better tomorrow.

I’m bored of this website. There’s nothing to do besides writing. You could read someone else’s blog, but everyone hardly every posts, not including Khoi. The problem with Khoi is that he chooses the most mundane things to write about. I write about boring stuff as well (like this post), but at least I try to make it entertaining. There was an attempt to make the website more appealing by adding the games section, but they don’t work. I’ve tried a countless amount of times, but they don’t work. The most pleasure I ever get from this website is when I mock the other bloggers. Another thing I do to keep myself from drowning in boredom is trolling in the chat box, although I don’t think anyone realizes it’s me. There’s no point if no one recognizes my comedic genius. Actually, my trolling is usually ignored by everyone except for Khoi, who usually says something obnoxious like, ” I think the water gang is THUCQUYEN OR THUCLAM OR NAM”. A real astute observation, Khoi.

Every once in a while, I try to read TQ’s blogs. I wouldn’t even call them bad. It’s not good. It’s not mediocre. It just fills me with an odd sense of anger and confusion. What I’m trying to say is, the blogs are bad. TL’s blog is probably the worst I’ve ever read. It’s “too negative” and “needs to be more positive”. All she does is complain, and it makes me feel bad. You should never write negatively, because you might make someone feel bad and hurt their feelings. Anyway, TL’s blogs are trash lol.

 

If you’ve ever had to be humiliated by standing outside in the rain while holding a baby seat as you try not to look like an idiot, you’ll know that it is not a pleasant experience. When this happened to me, I thought that this would be the worst thing that happened on my trip. That wasn’t true, but it seemed like it at the time. The actual worst part was the cat. Or maybe the outlets. Actually, it was probably the insomnia I received from all this trouble.

 

I don’t remember what time it was when I woke up, but it must’ve been pretty early because the plane was still flying. I sat in my seat for a long time until the plane landed. Since everyone walks at the pace of a rotten turnip, I went ahead to baggage claims. It turns out that I was supposed to go to flight connections, so I got lost for a bit. We had to go through security again for some reason, and we got on a three hour flight to Milan.

 

If you’ve ever been on a plane before, you’ll know that the middle seat is the worst seat because you can not enjoy the window. Nor can you enjoy the ability the be closest to the aisle. Nobody likes the middle seat, and that’s a fact. I say this so you can understand why I was so annoyed having to sit in the very back of the plane between two strangers. Sitting with random people is bad enough on its own, but sitting between them is practically unbearable. You can barely move around without touching anyone, and you have to sleep with your head resting on the seat in front  of you. There was no point in sleeping anyway, as I kept waking up randomly.

 

After I left that horrid plane ride, everyone stood near the entrance as if they were looking for someone. They were looking for someone. The someone they were looking for were some people I didn’t know. Everyone started hugging and saying hello to each other while I stood in a corner and pretended to care. The men left as soon as they came, and took Khoi’s grandmother along with them to who knows where. Khoi’s father had to rent a car, so we stood around for half an hour, because apparently renting a car takes a very long time. Khoi took this opportunity to be annoying and try to steal my luggage. After a long while, we finally went up to the garage to obtain our car. We got lost. I wasn’t too surprised. A lot of walking around later, we went back to the car rental place to ask for directions. There was more walking about after that.

 

We drove through the busy streets of Milan, with a honking cars and pedestrians traversing the roads. After all my relatives hyping up the beauty of Italy, I was pretty unimpressed, but I figured things would look nicer after we left the city. I asked where we were going, and Khoi’s father said a hotel. The car halted at the hotel, and I was a little confused because the hotel seemed to be behind us. Khoi’s father and Khoi went to check in, and the rest of us  stayed in the car. I was playing on my phone when Vien asked me if she could play it. No is what I thought, but yes is what I said. She played it to the point where the phone nearly died, and I took it back from her before that could happen. There was a lot more waiting until Khoi’s father came back and told us to go move our luggage to our rooms. This is when I learned that we were not staying in a hotel. Upon entering the building, I saw a flight of stairs and and an elevator. Nothing else. The elevator was tiny, and by tiny I mean only about three people could squeeze in with their luggage. Once I got out of the elevator, it became apparent that the “hotel” was just a bunch of guest rooms you could rent for a night. I guess that description makes it sound like a hotel, but trust me, it’s not. Think of like a motel, but it’s in a tall building and the rooms are only on a single floor. Our room had two beds, a closet, and a table with a small TV on it. I wasn’t too concerned about the room at the moment; I was more focused on trying to find an outlet. There were a few outlets, but they didn’t have the correct holes that I could use. I gave up on my room and started snooping around in the second room we had gotten. The same results as the first. Then Khoi informed me that I needed an adapter to use the outlets in Italy. I guess it never occurred to me that a different country would use different outlets. I used Khoi’s adapter to charge my phone and Switch.

 

Khoi’s father was picking up Angel, who is a cousin of mine that I didn’t know existed until about two years ago. She doesn’t think too highly of me, so I figured I should ignore her. Her family would be the ones staying in the second room. I ended up playing my Switch in Angel’s room because the Wifi at the “hotel” couldn’t reach my room. Out of the kindness of my heart, I let Khoi and Vien play with me on my Switch. They were both terrible though, so things got repetitive pretty quick. I was then forced to take a shower by my grandmother. Something thing I forgot to mention is that every guest at the “hotel” shared the same shower and bathroom. I wasn’t sure if I should be annoyed by that or not, so I decided to be annoyed by it. After a hot shower, I left the bathroom only to find a grey cat walking around, which I assumed to belong to the owner of the “hotel”. Everyone crowded around it and petted it a bit until the got bored. Little did I know, however, the cat was evil and was plotting my destruction.

 

At about nine or ten, my grandmother made us go to bed. Angel’s flight had been delayed, so no one had come back yet. Unlike the previous two nights, I found it pretty easy to fall asleep. And then disaster happened. At about eleven or twelve, I was awoken by a lot of talking and some blinding lights. I automatically assumed it was morning, and tried to get a little bit more sleep before I was forced to leave the bed. It was not actually morning. What really happened was that the cat snuck into our room. Khoi, for whatever reason, thought there was a person entering the room, and woke everyone up, including me. I was pretty annoyed that my sleep was interrupted, and retreated back under the covers. But I couldn’t fall asleep. I don’t know why. I wasn’t tired at all. A long time passed. It felt like an eternity until I decided to check what time it was. It was two in the morning. I tried to go back to sleep. I couldn’t the time was now three in the morning. I was beginning to think that I was going to stay awake until morning. This didn’t happen, because somehow, I miraculously passed out a short time after three. I don’t know how, but I’m grateful.

On November 20, I was speed walking down the sidewalk to get to my car but also trying to walk slow so I wouldn’t catch up to the girls in front of me because I was not in the mood to be mocked by some sixth grade girls for no reason. Once I reached my car we immediately started driving to the airport. I was wondering what we were going to do and what I was going to see and what I would eat and not at all thinking about the things that could go wrong. I’ve never been to Italy, nor have I ever had the intention of going there, but I didn’t care as long as I was skipping school. It turns out that the vacation was on the worst possible day because I was going to go on a field trip the day after I left for vacation. I was also going to miss out on a basketball game I was looking forward to playing, but none of that mattered since a vacation is better.

 

I arrived at the airport, said goodbye to my father, and headed inside. Talking to anyone at the airport turned out to be embarrassing because the employees would try to talk to my grandmother while she talked in her broken English while I just stood idly to the side. Once we got through security I went off to find something to eat. I had about a hundred dollars for souvenirs, although most of it turned out to be useless because I forgot to exchange the currency. I bought a soda and some candy, but my grandmother guilt tripped me into buying an actual dinner, so I stalked off to buy some Chick-fil-A. If you’ve never eaten Chick-fil-A, you’re missing out because it is the best fast food you’ll ever eat. I ordered some nuggets and when they asked me for my name, I told them it was Nathan because people always manage to butcher my three-letter name. When they yelled out my fake name I reached out to grab the food, but I guess there was some other dude who was using Nathan as his fake name, because he took the bag instead. Then they gave me my food and I ran away and vowed to never eat Chick-foo-A again.

 

There’s not much to write about a plane ride so I’ll skip that part. After claiming our luggage, Khôi and friends came out to pick us up. Vien was being loud and irritating, while Khoi was looking like he wanted to murder someone. We drove a bit to Khôi’s house and I unpacked my things. I played ping pong and then chess and then the Switch with Vien, who is terrible at video games. I tried to fall asleep but Florida is too hot and stuffy and I twisted and turned around in the bed and it was very uncomfortable.

 

I woke up up in the middle of the night, thinking it was day. Then I checked my phone and realized that it was four in the morning, which I guess means I woke up in the early morning, not in the middle of the night. I fell back asleep and when I awoke, there was a lot of noise coming from downstairs. I brushed my teeth, took a shower, and then headed downstairs. Then Vien asked my if she could play my Switch. My brain said no but my mouth said yes and that’s how I ended wasting my morning with Vien, who still sucks at video games.

 

After Khoi and Vien left for school, I was forced to drink warm milk, which is and atrocity. God would probably cry if he saw that humans invented warm milk. At this time, the Thucs arrived for some reason. There was a lot of chatter, and as soon as they came, they left. I got this uncomfortable feeling after they left, which is called boredom. Luckily, I knew the cure for boredom. I spent the next hour napping on the couch until it was time to leave for the airport.

 

It it was a long ride, and about halfway through, Khôi threw a temper tantrum for no reason. We were going on a plane to London, and I was wondering what an international flight was going to be like. It was actually a big letdown, because international flights are extremely boring once you get bored of he movies they have. For dinner, I had chicken casserole. It turns out that I hate chicken casserole. I tried to watch another movie, but my eyes hurt and I fell asleep instead. It was at this point that I realized the vacation hadn’t even started.

A dinner in the sky is the worst kind of dinner because your food might fall out of your hands and into the abyss below. Actually, forget what I just said; the worst kind of dinner is a vending machine dinner. When I got to the airport, I was thirsty. The vending machine was selling Gatorade. I press some buttons and see the price. Three dollars. A single drink costs three dollars. This is atrocious, dastardly, blasphemy, ludicrous, and downright terrible. This is illegal, this is an actual scam. Why should I pay theee dollars for a drink I don’t even want that bad?

 

So after I bought the Gatorade, I went downstairs where I saw another vending machine. I was pretty hungry, and there were snacks. I tried to buy some peanut M&Ms, but…

They cost two dollars.

why are the m&ms less than a drink