California Trip with Papa!! CWL Anahiem!!

      The past weekend, I went to California with my Dad. I got flights from here to California and back using my Delta miles. We were going to California to go to the Call of Duty World League event in Anaheim. I paid for the 2 tickets for the event and the hotel also with money I had been saving up and some of my birthday money. We flew out Thursday night at 6:30 PM and got to Los Angeles around 9:30 PM. There is a 3 hour time difference between California and Michigan, so when we got to California we had lost 3 hours. 

        The first Day of CWL Anaheim was Friday, and we went to Denny's for breakfast before we walked to the Anaheim Convention Center.  I got a meal that had a buttermilk pancake, with some eggs, hash browns, and this delicious jalapeno bacon. 

      After having breakfast we walked over to the Convention Center. It took about 10 minutes to walk there from the hotel that we were staying in. When we got there, we waited around for a while because the doors for the spectators did not open for a while. We finally got in and got our wristbands, then got in line to go into Hall A. Once we got inside, there were a ton of booths for different things. There was a G-Fuel booth, a FaZe Clan booth for shirts, an Optic booth for apparel, and a booth for a ton of different shirts and things to buy. There was the main stage at the front of the room where the main games were played, which had a ton of seats, and 3 large monitors.

There were 3 monitors, one on the far left, one front and center, and one far right, so when the games were being played, no matter where you were sitting you could always see what was happening. The first day, the games on the main stage started around 1 PM. It was the beginning so a ton of teams were fighting to get their way into the winners bracket. If a team gets into the winners bracket they then have a chance at winning some of the money from the $200,000 prize pool. The first day was really fun, I got to see a ton of new teams compete.

In each game where 2 teams play each other, there are 5 rounds in total. Each round is a different game mode. Since there are 5 rounds, to win a team must win 3 out of the 5 rounds. The 3 gamemodes that were played during this event were Hardpoint, Uplink, and Search and Destroy. 3 very different game modes, with different objectives. To keep it simple, Hardpoint is a gamemode where you hold a position to gain points and to not let the enemy team take the area. Uplink is basically soccer, but in Call of Duty, and Search and Destroy is a gamemode where you only get 1 life, and you try to defuse a bomb.

In the Convention Center, there are a ton of Optic fans, so whenever Optic Gaming plays another team, it is crazy, because everybody wants Optic to win, so if they win a game, or one of their players makes an amazing play, then the crowd goes insane. It was fun the first day, then we returned to our hotel.

Day 2 was Saturday. We got to the Convention Center around 10:00 AM. Here is a picture of the front of the Convention Center.



The first day I bought a FaZe Clan Hoodie, and it looked really awesome.



I got to meet some really awesome people on Day 2. I got to meet FaZe Temperrr who is a member of FaZe Clan, I got a picture with him, it is kind of blurry but it is awesome that I met him!



I also got to meet FaZe Censor who is a YouTuber, and also part of FaZe Clan. He has abour 2.3 Million subscribers on YouTube, and I got to meet him, and have him sign one of my Shaker Cups at the event.



I bought a FaZe Clan Jersey for 20 Dollars along with a Shaker cup. The FaZe Jersey looked really nice.



I bought 2 new flavors of G-Fuel at the G-Fuel booth, I bought Blue Ice, and Fruit Punch. G-Fuel is a tub of powder that you put in water, and it makes it a type of energy drink, but it has a ton of vitamins and antioxidants inside of it also. There are many different flavors that you can get. We watched many more teams play on Day 2, more teams that lost their games did not get into the championship bracket for Day 3.

On Saturday night, I got Taco Bell for dinner, and I brought it back to the hotel room, and Me and Papa watched Happy Gilmore on T.V.



Day 3 was Sunday, and it was our last day of MLG Anaheim 2017. Today, I met the person I came here to meet, which is Jev. He is a member of FaZe Clan and is a YouTuber with about 2.4 Million subscribers. I watch all of his videos and it was amazing to meet him. Here is Jev signing things at the event.



Day 3 we got to see who won the $80,000!!! Optic lost against a team, and Splyce, which is a European team was doing really good. The final match was Splyce against Luminosity, and who ever won would win $80,000 and the other team would win $48,000. It was an amazing game but Luminosity won and it was crazy!

Here is Splyce and Luminosity talking after Luminosity beat Splyce. 

The trip overall was amazing! We still had Monday in California so on Monday, we walked from our hotel to Target to buy some things. Then from there, we walked to an AMC Movie theater to see Wonder Woman. It took a lot longer to walk to the Movie theater than I thought, It actually took us about 40 minutes to walk there, and then another 40 back. Wonder Woman was a great movie, and I enjoyed it a lot. Then we walked back and stopped at a small Taco Restaurant to get some food.



Our SuperShuttle picked us up at 4:30 PM and we got to the airport, and flew back home. We got home early in the morning on Tuesday, at about 10:00 AM, so Papa skipped work, and I took a nap!

I would love to be able to do more trips like this in the future!!!

-June 25, 2017

Starting the Summer in Michigan!!

      Since being back in Michigan, I went with my Dad to go see Jalen, Nayda, Aunt Jen and Grandma. My Dad and I drove up to Holland, Michigan to meet with my cousins and Grandma at a place called Anna's House. Anna's House is a restaurant in Holland and it serves only food during Breakfast and Lunch. Inside is really large, and very nicely decorated. I decided to get the Breakfast Burrito for brunch when we went to see Jalen, Nayda, Aunt Jen and Grandma. Here is a picture:

It was very good, but I only finished about three quarters of it. It was very good with the guacamole though. It was nice to see Nayda and Jalen to see what they were up to. Here are some pictures we got at the restaurant. 

After eating brunch with the cousins, Aunt Jen and Grandma, Me and Papa went to Target to get some clothes for me. I got 2 new pairs of shorts, some tank tops, new shirts, and a ton of socks. I think I got 14 new pairs of socks in total, which is amazing because I LOVE socks, and I had only like 3 pairs before I got more from Target. Actually, I also got 2 other pairs of socks that had the American flag on them so they were really awesome looking. We also got some snacks, and they came out with a new Mountain Dew flavor, which is Dew-S-A. Which is 3 of the flavors combined into one drink and it is pretty delicious.

 

I also have got to hang out with Papa a lot since being back. We have been to Taco Bell a few times and we went to this one really good pizza place. We went to a place called Licari's Pizza Kitchen. It is right next to the corner of Knapp and East Beltline, and also literally 1000 feet away from Celebration Cinema North. We went to eat at Licari's Pizza right after we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead men tell no tales, which was an amazing movie. I waited until the end of the credits because I thought there might be a possibility of a last short scene at the end of the movie, just like they do in the Marvel movies. I remembered Marvel is owned by Disney, and Disney made the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and I was right because after ALL of the credits which took about 5 minutes to watch, there was a final scene. I am glad that I waited until the end to see it.

Back to the restaurant, at Licari's pizza, we got a really good pizza that had sausage, pepperoni, salami and green pepper on top of it. It was some of the best pizza I have had, it was voted best pizza in Grand Rapids. Me and Papa ate 6 out of the 8 pieces of it. 

Me and Papa recently also went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant we like to go to, called El Cunado, which is located on Grandville Ave. It is a small restaurant, but the food is delicious, and I chose to get a burrito, and I forgot how enormous they are. I almost ate my whole burrito, but I had to take some home. 

My huge burrito from El Cunado.

I also have been doing a lot of yard work since being home. I have been working in the front yard, and also around all of the trees because their are suppose to be circles of mulch around each one instead of grass, and I have to clean them up and free them of the weeds that have grown into them. Here are some before and after pictures of my yard work.

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When Papa and I went to return some cans to Meijer, I got some Takis and a huge Gatorade. I did not know they came in this big of a bottle but I love how big they are. 

I also got some work experience with Tommy, a friend who lives close to me. He is a Chef, and works at a place called Kitchen Sage. I got to go and work with him last Thursday, and it was a really cool experience. We did a ton in one day. In the morning, I helped folding 500 sheets of paper into some pamphlets that they were going to use for an event this weekend. That took a few hours. 500 pieces of paper does not sound like a lot, but when you have to fold each one 2 times perfectly, it takes a while. 

We got to go to a meat shop and see what they did with their meat. I went with Tommy to Gordon Food Service and Meijer to get some things to make a salad and other food also. I helped cut some buns up to make croutons. I am going to try to get 5 days of working with Tommy. 

-June 3, 2017

Back in Michigan!!

       After the weekend trip with Stephanie and my Mom, I had one more week of school before I was going to fly back to Michigan. Monday the 15th, everyone took their English and Irish exam. I do not do Irish so I only had to take my English exam. We went in on Monday like it was a normal school day, but at 11:20 AM, we all went to the senior hall and took our English Exam. I got to go home right after that since I did not do Irish, I did american studies, and I was writing a paper for that class instead of an exam. 

      Tuesday the 16th was a normal school day, and in Spanish and Math we just studied for our exams that would be Wednesday. At the end of the day Ms. King told all of us how Thursdays graduation night would go. I went home and studied for my Spanish and Math exams. Wednesday, I went to school, and at 10:20 AM, we all had our Spanish exam (or whatever language people were taking). It was fairly easy especially since we had just studied for it in Spanish class which I have from 9:40 to 10:20 AM. After the Spanish exam, we had our Math exam. It was pretty hard, but I recognized most of the questions. After that I had a Piano lesson at 1:45 PM. It would be my last piano lesson in Ireland until next year. 

      Thursday was our graduation night, which was at 7:30 PM. I didn't really get why there was a big night just for finishing transition year, but we all had to wear our school uniforms. All the parents came also, and the senior hall was crowded, everybody did not even fit in so they had to open one of the walls so they could set up more chairs for parents. It was very packed. There was a lot of awards that were given away to students who did special things over the years. Every form teacher went up and said all of their students names and we would walk up and grab a folder then go sit back down again. It was just a certificate saying we completed 4th year. Me and my Mom were one of the last ones to leave and we ended up getting home at around 10:00 PM. I finished my essay for American Studies that night then brought it into school on Friday.

     Friday was a normal day of school, except instead of outward bound at 1:10 PM, we all got together and walked down to Dun Laoghaire to get Ice-Cream. We finished watching "Platoon" in American Studies on Friday, and I gave my paper to Ms. Gavin. At 1:50 PM, we all met outside the new building, and then started to walk down to Dun Laoghaire. It was about a 1 hour walk, and Ms. King said we had to be there by 3:30 PM. A lot of us walked in a group, we were in the front of the group, and we went along the coast. We went over the dart and walked on the left side of it. We got there around 3:00 PM, and we were the first ones to get Ice-Cream. It was very good, but it started to get very windy after I got my Ice-Cream. I left about 20 minutes after getting my Ice-Cream. I took the bus home. 

      We were having a party Friday night just for the end of the school year. Chance and a lot of his family came over, and Scott from my school came over with his mom. I also met this girl who just finished 5th year in St. Andrews and was from Chicago. She told us about how it was doing IB in St. Andrews. We had a lot of food and Scott brought pizza which was delicious. Chance stayed a little after the party to play on the Xbox One with me, then I walked him to the bus stop that he needed to get home. 

      Saturday, I was going to go see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with some friends from school. We went to Supermacs to eat right before that. Supermacs is like KFC but not as good. Their fries were really salty and delicious. We all then went to the Cinemax nearby. Once we got to the theater it was Me, Stephen, Pierce, Jack, Iian, and James. We got tickets to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It was a really good movie, and after the movie I took the bus home, because I had to pack before the Ariana Grande concert. I was talking Levi to it and it was at 7:00 PM. I packed my checked bag before I left. Me, Oma, Levi and my Mom walked to the 3 Arena together. It was raining super hard as we were walking so we took a Taxi. Once we got there, they left Levi and I, and we found our seats. It was very packed. The whole ground floor was just for standing, and the seats were the 2 floors above the ground floor. 

We got there around 7:45 PM. We got some hot-dogs and other snacks. Ariana came out on stage around 9:00 PM. She performed for about 2 hours. It was really fun, and Levi enjoyed it also. Here is a video:

We walked home after the Concert, and we got home around Midnight. Levi went straight to sleep. 

Sunday morning, I got up at 6:30 AM. I packed my Xbox One in my orange carry-on bag. My Mom walked me to the bus stop where the AirCoach would pick me up to go to the Airport. The streets in the morning were completely empty which was weird to see since everybody is always out walking around.

 I got on the bus and took it to Terminal 2. Everything went well I got my boarding passes and checked my blue bag. It was nice because I only had 2 flights to take home. The first one was straight from Dublin to Atlanta. I had dinner on the plane, it was chicken.

The flight took about 8 hours. I watched like 3 movies on the plane, and once I got to Atlanta, I had a 3 hour layover. I got some snacks and watched Sense8 on Netflix. It is a great show, I finished Season 2. My flight from Atlanta straight to Grand Rapids was at 6:30 PM, and I got to GR 20 minutes early at 8:18 PM. Papa picked me up in his new car, it was a Mazada CX 5 and it was light blue. It was very nice inside and outside. We went to Taco Bell for dinner, I got these new naked chicken chips from taco bell with cheese sauce. They were basically just chicken nuggets shaped like triangles, but they were still amazing. 

-May 23, 2017

Killarney / Journey to Skellig Michael!

      The weekend of the 13th of May, I went with my Mom and Stephanie to drive all the way to the Southwest cost of Ireland to try to get to the island Skellig Michael. Skellig Michael is an island off the Southwest coast of Ireland, and It was used to film the final scene of StarWars Episode VII. We have tried to get out to Skellig Michael in the past with my friends Ben, Max, and Caleb but the weather was too bad so we could not get out. This was our second try.

       Saturday morning, I woke up at 8:00 AM. I had to pack my backpack, but only for one night. I packed one pair of clothes, then we left by 9:00 AM. We went to Hertz to rent a car. It was a Nissan, and it was really nice. Then we started to drive all the way to the Southwest cost of Ireland. Stephanie drove us all the way to our house and all the way back. That is probably 10 hours total driving which is tiring. We drove about 3 hours, then we stopped in Killarney, and we ate at Laurel's. It was a bar and a restaurant. I got chicken nachos. They came in a bowl and with a cute little bottle of sprite. Stephanie got a sandwich that had huge slices of bread, and my mom got a smaller sandwich.  

We went to Muckross house and garden. It was a huge house, but there was a huge garden around it. Garden does not even explain how much land was around this house, there was this one huge tree that I tried to climb, but it was so beautiful. There were mountains all around to look at. 

This was the view around the Muckross House. 

In the middle of this garden of pathways, there was this table, and it was very beautiful. It looked very old. Here is me sitting at the table. 

This is the Muckross House.

After visiting the Muckross house and gardens, we drove to a nearby Abbey. It was called the Muckross Abbey. The Abbey was cooler than the Muckross house, because it had no roof, and I found a way to climb on top of it. It was really fun, I explored the whole abbey, and I could walk on the top of the abbey on the sides, even though it had no roof. When we went in, at first there was a huge cemetery. It was very large. 

Here are some of the pictures I got while I was able to walk on top of the Abbey. 

This is the Muckross Abbey from the outside. 

More pictures of me on the roof of the Abbey. 

After visiting the Muckross Abbey, we got back on the road, and continued our drive down to our house. The next place we stopped was called the Gap of Dunloe. It is a huge area of mountains, and there is a road where you can drive right in-between them, and there are some lakes, and the views are amazing!

This is the first view that we got when we were driving through the Gap of Dunloe. 

When we were driving through the Gap of Dunloe, we stopped at a lot of places where we could get out of the car, and walk around. I got out a lot to walk around and climb some rocks, and go down by some rivers. There were a lot of rivers, and it was so amazing. There was a lot of sheep that we got to encounter while we were driving through the Gap of Dunloe, at one point a herd of sheep were in the road, and we had to wait for them to move in-order to continue our journey. 

Awesome

Here was a cool river that went under a bridge that we drove over. 

Here was a sheep that we encountered. 

After going to the Gap of Dunloe, we went to our house. Our house that we were going to stay the night at was an old school house from the 19th century. I got some pictures of the inside of the old Schoolhouse. I got to sleep in a really small cute room. 

This was our favorite room because it had windows right out to the ocean and we could see Skellig Michael. 

This was the old schoolhouse that we stayed in.

This was the view from our house, and to the far left of the picture is Skellig Michael in the distance. 

The guy who owned the house was from Wales. He said it was his vacation house, and his name was Tom. He had been out there for 3 months, just reading and surfing. He was really funny and nice, he showed us around. He told us Saturday night that we probably would not be able to go out to Skellig Michael Sunday morning because the waves and wind were really bad. He is a surfer, so he watches the waves, and how they work, so he knew that we wouldn't be able to go. We were pretty disappointed, because it was our second try. 

We just hung-out the rest of Saturday night in the house. We talked to Tom a lot, and he stayed next-door to where we slept. Me, My Mom and Stephanie each had our own room. In the morning, Tom made us some Scrambled eggs, and I got some toast also, which was really nice. I also took a shower. We decided since we could not go out to see the Island, we were going to take a different way back home. 

We drove along the Ring of Kerry a different way home. It was really beautiful the way that we drove home Sunday. There were a ton of small islands, and water in-between them.

We drove a lot with out stopping, and we finally stopped to eat in Cobh. We ate at a restaurant close to a river, and it was really nice. I got a burger, and also some Fire Fries, which came with some spicy seasoning, and jalapenos on the fries also. The fire fries were very delicious!

We went to St. Colman's cathedral. We took some funky stairs up to the church, and It was very tall. Inside was very pretty. It had a huge organ in the back, and in the front, some pretty glass windows. 

After visiting St. Colman's cathedral, we walked around, for a while longer, then we got some Ice-Cream. I got one scoop of Bubblegum and one scoop of Strawberry, but I wish I had gotten 2 scoops of Bubblegum because it was very delicious. We ate our Ice-Cream in the car because it was very windy, and then we drove home. It took about 3 More house from Cobh to get home. We did not stop anywhere else. Cobh is pronounced Cove by the way. Stephie drove us home, and we met Levi and Oma right when we got home, we saw them walking into the house. It was a great trip, although we did not get to go out to Skellig Michael, It was fun and especially with Stephanie. She did very good with driving, because there was a ton of curvy and tough roads especially where we were driving in the mountains. Very narrow roads, that did not have a middle line, and looked like only one car could go on it, but we had to squeeze past some cars at some point. Hopefully if we try a 3rd time, we will be able to visit the StarWars Island.

-May 14, 2017