My first roadtrip with a bunch of almost-journalists to Daytona!

What happens in Daytona stays in Daytona! Not really, I got alot of stuff on video and what do you expect when a conference is held at a hotel on the beach and it's all expenses paid? We party like Journalists. so this is what happened from what I can Remember....

DAY ONE

There were five of us. Kyle, our editor-in-cheif, Gustavo, the managing editor (second in command) Rogianne, the south campus bureau chief, Alexa, our design editor and Me, the features editor. The plan was to meet early in the morning on south campus, and our Advisor Jen would drive the rental car down from west palm where she lives. That plan quickly went to hell when
1) both the guys were late to meet us and
2) the car wouldn't start in Jen's drive way.
Kyle was the last to arrive, but Gustavo had overslept, so we piled into Kyle's death trap of a car and drove over to Gustavo's to wake him up. After a few minutes of waiting and a fun pic with the girls infront of his house, the girls piled into Kyle's car. Since I'm not exactly comfortable in it, I rode (and bonded) with Gustavo to Jen's in west palm, where she figured out what was wrong with the car (absolutely nothing, the car key was plastic and clunky and she didn't know how to turn it on, the woman she called for help didn't understand the problem and neither did Jen's husband. Everything was good by the time we got there.)
 It was 9:45 by the time we finally left Jen's in the van and to prepare ourselves for the long ride up, we entertained ourselves. It was awesome, because it felt like we were going to disney world, but it was the "Florida College System Publication Association's 53rd Annual Awards Conference in Daytona. The title is a mouthful so it's FCSPA for short. anyways we did this. Kyle is the one on the phone, Gustavo is next to him, Rogianne is next to me and Alexa is in the passenger seat.

If you couldn't tell, Kyle pranked called some girl from Gustavo's job about her degree at FIU. always the Prankster. These guys are like Pauly-D and Vinny, bros til the end, completly inseperable. So adorable!

The rest of the trip up was pretty chill, and by the time we got to the Hotel, we missed the welcoming. The day was still early, so after checking out my awesome room and eveyone else's we went our separate ways until dinner, after all, we just spent like four hours in a mini van. we got our name tags and journalistic goody bags Alexa and I went across the street so could get cheap and cute flip flops. The shop was adorable and pretty cheap. We met with Rogi at the pool after checking out (and nearly being knocked over) the beautiful powdery white sandy beach that was right outside my window, then we hung out in the indoor fancy jaccuzzi. This is when things get kind of college-y. After the Dinner with a bunch of other community college newspapers, we (as in the staff and I) went up to the guys' room (because they shared a room and all the girls got their own room!) and found out what the guys did while we were at the pool
 and beach. They were buying tons of cheap beer. That's right, how many underaged drinkers were in that room? Three out of  Five, and I won't say which three, or post the massive collection of emptied bottles from the two night trip. That's on Gustavo's instagram. I can almost taste the bitter, foamy beverage settling on my tounge the more I think about it. Bud Lite is the drink I'll forever associate with Daytona. I eventually made it back to my own room and found myself feeling a bit homesick, since the only thing I had brought from home was the stuffed spock Josh got me. Tipsy thoughts left me thinking about life, love and what would've happened if there was one of those awkward office hook ups happening. We don't work in an office, but still. AWKWARD!! 

DAY TWO
My alarm went off at 8am, but after remebering just how much everyone drunk the night before, I didn't expect anyone to be up. Turns out I was the last one up and out of my room. I tried to eat breakfast with everyone across the street at Denny's but I got there late and only snacked on Gustavo's toast before the first workshop of the day, which happened to be held by a Multi-media Journalist from the Orlando Sentinel. It was absolutely gorgeous outside, but we had to be inside for th workshops the majority of the day.

If you can't see the picture, it's me holding the microphone from the speaker, which says Orlando Sentinel. That dude was awesome and finally gave me an official title for my career, which is Multi-Media Journalist, because I would love to work for an online newsoutlet, like Yahoo! or The Huffington Post, things like that. the speaker talked about all the kooky and fun things he reports, like a star wars convention, a bacon-off, which is exactly what it sounds like, and other fun features stuff. I didn't see much of the group on the second day. I was still slightly hungover from the first night and everyone wanted to attended different workshops, like Alexa for Design, Kyle for some kind of group exercise, Rogi for something I can't even remeber, and Gustavo for sports reporting. We got a pretty gross boxed-lunch, and mingled with other colleges. I didn't eat it, making me hungrier, crankier and desparate for a nap, so I ditched the Editor's roudtable (which was all the editors that came get together and discuss their problems, share Ideas, and network.) for take out breakfast (The grand slam for 6 bucks!) from Denny's across the street and a four hour nap before the big dinner and awards banquet.

I wore my new dress thanks to the wetseal, and that was the 10th floor hallway. My room was way at the end, like the shining. Kyle wore a replica of Michale Jackson's Beat it video, and he wore it with pride as he went and accepted most of the awards that we won, which inclluded first place for best design and general Excellence. it was a great night for BC. Kyle even did the spin when he accepted the first award. His fearlessness is something to admire, and his sanity throughout somethings is something to question. I'll totally miss him when he graduates.

There was a dance held for us and it was nice to just dance and let go with everyone, even if there were some bad dance moves here and there. At the same time as the dance, the hotel held a kareoke night, so after a long-island iced tea--courtesy of a very nice guy who from Palm Beach State College--Rogi, Alexa and I sang the oh SO popular kareoke song, Don't stop Believing by Journey. I like to think I wasn't all that messed up. The girls had my back.

The guy holding my phone was named Scott, we never got his last name. we did, however, nickname him McLovin, from Superbad. From what I remember, he said he'd only joined the paper two weeks ago and was offered this awesome trip. I don't even remember what college he was from! I hate to say it, but as much as I responsibly drank with my co-workers, I don't remember much else, other than mingling with our rivals from Miami Dade college, who ended up being really gracious about the dozens of awards they won comapred to us. Two girls from The Reporter, Claudia and Chelsea, actually hung out with the guys, and I tagged along simply to finish my beer because kareoke made me thirsty, and we totally hit it off. Not sure how the guys felt about it, but I didn't care when it was happening and I don't care now. It sucks that the theory girls talk was proven, but Women talk way more. At the stroke of 2am, I left the party in the guy's room, simply because of a famous and true quote from How I met your Mother, Nothing good ever happens after 2AM.  So I went to my room and set my alarm for 8am again because we were supposed to be meeting in the lobby to leave at 9.

DAY THREE 

I woke up at 7:45 surprisingly well-rested, but I shifted over and saw my suitcase and all my clothes scattered on the bed closer to the window. I wanted to feel more at home, so there was a mess on the floor on one half of the room. I got up, showered and started packing because I really wanted to see the goregeous beach one more time before being stuffed into the van and going back down home, which I was excited to do because I had plans with Josh, but I didn't want to leave this all expenses paid paradise. 

Yes, I bought 5 pairs of shoes and like 7 different outfits, even though there were two shirts I didn't wear. repacking everything plus the flatiron in the bathroom was hard, but I found saturday Morning Cartoons, so I felt right at home again. I was ready to go home. You don't see much from the pictures because the actual pictures are kind of big, so I made them smaller. Eventually I finished everything and got to take in the sights one last time. I met up with everyone who was oddly quiet, and for a second, I panicked and thought I made a huge ass of myself, but I saw Claudia from the night before and she told me what happened after I'd left. again, Women Talk. and Laugh hysterically. I won't say what was said, but I'm glad she was safe with her situation. We traded numbers, and I'm still going to try and find her on Facebook, later. After that little hilarious conversation, I made my way to the beach and took these: 

We finally piled into the mini van and head home, and although I didn't anticipate the amount of homesickness I'd have, I didn't want to leave. No one was coming back next year because everyone would've graduated by then. It was an intresting learning and bonding experience. We won awards, found out who's a bigger partier and got some tips on how to design an even better newspaper.

It was a pretty awesome, slightly fuzzy weekend.