DAY 1 THROUGH NICOLE’S EYES
FIRST DAY! We were all extremely tired because we took a red-eye flight to Florida, but we were not going to let that turn our excitement down. We met Rachel Newell, our State Advisor, right when we entered the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. After settling our luggage down, Rachel gave us a tour of the Conference site. I was simply stunned at the grandeur of the Resort. I knew this Conference was going to be a great one. 10 o’clock. We met at the hotel lobby, grabbed a taxi, and headed to Universal Studios - one of our major goals at Florida. We rushed right into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter where we all went crazy. Right at the entrance was Hogwarts Express, and into the park was the magical school itself. We ate at The Three Broomsticks and felt as if we really were in Hogwarts. We ordered The Great Feast and Butter Beer, and they were absolutely amazing! It was one of the happiest meal I have ever eaten. We spent about half a day at Harry Potter land and continued to explore the rest of the park. Lucky us, we could not get on any ride in the afternoon due to the weather. Our greatest adventure of the trip began when it started pouring out of nowhere, forcing us to run in the rain to get to our ride. The taxi driver told us that this was no normal Florida weather. Well, I guess the Sunshine State gave us a rather unique welcome. We got back to the hotel to find ourselves in the midst of frenzy. Everyone was running all over the place to either turn in events or cramming to finish the events. I went to turn in my event (yay me for not procrastinating... to the last minute!) and was stunned by how crowded the hotel suddenly became despite its huge capacity. What amazed me even more was how friendly everyone was – there was no such thing as rivals. After all the event turn-ins were taken care of, we proceeded to Conference Kick-Off held at the Gatlin Ballroom, and it was eye-opening. The National Conference had over 5500 participants and everyone made new friends at the Kick-Off. Pin trading, a tradition at Nationals, was very fun - it felt like trading Pokémon cards! We ended the day with not only a California State Delegation Meeting but also a visit to Tennessee State Delegation where we got to chat with the State Officers, Trevor Dixon, and Gus White (Trevor and Gus were the National Officers for the 2012 - 2013 school year). I went to bed looking forward to more excitement to come!