**Note to dear reader: read this episode with this music in the background:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEu-5Pwq5Js&t=472s
Below is an old episode!! A bit more about my time in Singapore studying abroad. :)
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3.29.22.
Let it be fact that my second time at Universal Studios was in Singapore.
We took a cab there on Garima's moola of course, haha. All of us were excited to do everything. Naina was brilliant and brave. She could ride all the scariest rides and still come back for more rounds. Shikhar clung on alongside her, trying to convince himself it'd get better. Neha was all about it, doing everything and looking massively cute bean. Garima tried it as well and ended up liking it! God. I never tried anything scary. I didn't have the heart too. I'd pass away. I'm sure Ian would have liked to get on, but he didn't.
There was a Transformers ride with a 1 hour wait time and instead of going with the rest to try the scarier rides with smaller wait times, he decided to wait with me even as I egged him on with the others. I know I'm not a charity case then but I kind of needed the charity. I'd be miserable waiting in line that long on my own. But in line, Ian and I talked about so much. So many questions. It felt claustrophobic too being in such a tiny dark space, with loud noises and flashing lights all around you, but the one thing I clung onto was the movement of our conversation. In and out of Korea. In and out of the U.S.
Eventually we rode it and after, I swear to god, I thought the memory of the ride was better than the actual ride. I rode Transformers about 8 years ago and I swear... uh, I should have just left it up to memory. But alas, too late. It was over. The hour was over. And we headed out to wait for the others. When we regrouped together, it felt so nice again to hear all their stories of the scarier rides. We then decided to ride the Indiana Jones Pyramid ride I think, and I remembered from childhood again, that that ride would have a backwards drop in the dark that no one could anticipate. The wait was long again, but together, we played little games. Took lots of little pictures in the dark.
Shikhar didn't anticipate the drop and his scream was the loudest, highest pitched thing I've ever heard. I couldn't help it, none of us could as we burst out laughing while the ride took us on its bigger spins and zips. It was awful but knowing how badly it scared Shikhar earlier made it much more bearable. When the ride was over, we had to all take turns laughing about this like kids. Gosh.
Out in the sun, we did other smaller rides together. A pterodactyl ride that took us high up the trees. I hated it, like usual. I'm truly not meant for theme parks!! :(
I'm made for water parks :D.
And alas, one of the last rides we waited on was the Jurassic Park ride. I anticipated a drop as well but unlike my 14 year old self who had the chance to but didn't get on, I got on this time. 21-year-old Ngoc did it. Got on. Got plenty soaked. Hated it. Ian hated the moment he heard he'd get wet. So he bravely watched our bags. Would later accompany me to revisit Shrek's castle while the others wanted to do more scary rides until closing time. So our group again, separated and will later happily regroup.
(Theme parks are meant for waiting with your friends.)
And then... after a long day of it all. We reached Shrek's castle. I loved it so much. Grounded and golden -- It felt like home. I twirled and twirled as I took it in with my group of lovely beans. We all took a picture there together, one of my favorites of us.
My heart simply melted at its sight.
Golden and golden. Dreamy in all the colors that make me yearn for the truth I grew up with. Back to when my heart would pound at every Disney movie opening and my imagination ran limitless. Peter Pan is going to fly into my window any moment now. Back when I wanted to have royalty in my blood and a happy ending by the end of the year. Because I once believed, as strongly as I believed standing still and bathed in the sunsetting glow; magic is real.
Staring up at spirals and gold upon gold of a castle convinced me so. These well-known shapes, even the scent of the air. A ball was going to happen in the evening and I'd happily be at the center of it all. I couldn't look away. I never knew I could want something so much, something so intangible and childish and almost forgotten, buried in my chest-- this feeling that my fairytale rested on these fake cobblestone steps. I was awed. Music drifted from all around, all the best soundtracks, telling me to fall in love.
Fall in love with the magic I had once known so surely in my heart.
Which is why I melted and couldn't stop thinking about going back after we walked through Far, Far Away so quickly. It was perfect tonight that I followed my heart and the magic I felt there, that I chose to overstay. Until they told us kindly to leave.
Ian and I sat there for what seemed like forever. I had been videotaping myself making a wish into Frog Prince fountain. I wished for the same things as I usually do. More certainty. That I will be where I should be. May my ancestors and loved ones guide me there.
And so that is what it is to stand below this sight (my picture below), and pretend. Yet feel so true all the magic that still lives in my heart.
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