I managed to get a G-Mail account thanks to a Blogger promotion type thing, and I've got to say, I think it's pretty good so far. The storage space is incredible (1000mb) and I like the fact that replies to emails are displayed as a "conversation". One thing that's a bit frustrating is that if you delete an earlier message in a conversation, all the following messages are automatically deleted as well, but it's still in the Beta phase, so hopefully they'll change that.
Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this is because currently G-Mail isn't available for just anyone to sign up for. As a G-Mail user, however, I have the ability to invite up to 2 friends to try it out, so if you're interested, just email me. There's a lot of discussion going on about privacy issues with G-Mail and stuff though, so make sure you read up about it before you ask me to invite you.
In other news, I went to Pennsylvannia for four days and three nights, and it was fun! At one point there were eight of us there (my parents, my brother, Alan and his mom, Diana, Alfred and myself) but Diana and Alan's mom left on the Wednesday morning (we arrived Tuesday afternoon), so for most of the time it was just six of us. It was a lot of fun!
We played a lot of board and card games: Axis & Allies, Scrabble, Phase 10, Lunch Money, and mah jong. Lunch money especially is great! I can't really describe it, but the basic premise is that you "beat up" other players to make them lose their lunch money! So you have attack card and defense cards, and game play sounds something like this:
-"I'm going to Headbutt you!"
-"Oh yeah, well, while you're running with your head down, I'm going to Humiliate you by pulling your pants down, and then I'm going to Kick your bare butt!"
Headbutt, Humiliate, and Kick are all names of cards (hence the capitalization), just for your information. Part of the fun of the game is how you describe your actions. Alfred and Nathan were pretty good at that, but I sucked because I lack creativity. I usually just stated what I was doing. Alan was better at it than me, but he wasn't quite as good as Alfred. Alfred was the pro, I'd say. =P It sounds brutal, but it's a lot of fun!
What else? Oh yes, we went to Hershey, PA, which apparently isn't officially named Hershey. It's actually the Township of Derry, but every calls it Hershey since the town was basically built around the Hershey chocolate factory. We went on this trolley tour around the city which explained the history of the town and the factory, and it was quite informative and interesting. We also got a fair bit of free chocolate from it! =D They had a free ride inside Hershey Chocolate World that explained the chocolate making process, which was fun. And of course we bought a heck load of chocolate. We got an entire box of Hershey Special Dark bars, because you can't really find them here, and they're my favourite! Also we got special things like White Reese Peanut Butter Cups, and a mixed bag of mini white chocolate, dark chocolate, and regular Kit Kat bars. They also had some cool stuff that we didn't pick up, like ice cream flavoured Kisses (strawberry cream and double fudge, or something like that). It's a little bit insane how much chocolate we brought back!
We also did quite a bit of shopping! The Wal-Marts there are HUGE! They have full grocery sections that are open 24hrs, and the rest of the store is open until like 11pm! Crazy! I bought two pairs of shorts (it was really hot and humid there, and I hadn't thought to pack shorts), three pairs of jeans (the old pair I wore there developed a hole, so I had to throw it out, and I needed more pants anyway), a pair of running shoes (just because they were pretty!), and a swimsuit! I was really happy with the swimsuit because it's actually three separates--a bottom, shorts, and tank-top like top--so it's much more flattering than the traditional one piece! Basically the reason I haven't swam in years is because I didn't have a swimsuit I would want to wear to go swimming.
So yes, it was a very good trip! Relaxation and shopping (with someone else's money), what more could I ask for? ^_~
