EPCOT Escapades

My family went to Orlando, Florida a lot when I was growing up. We also went a lot after I had grown up. My favorite part of the Disney experience was always EPCOT. It was a world showcase right in my own country, what more could I ask for? There was food from around the world, makeup and clothes from different countries, and of course, foreign hotties.

One of my first experiences with an EPCOT employee was when I was maybe 15. I wasn’t exactly a catch at this point in my life. I remember entering the Canadian pavilion and wanting to get some popcorn. In EPCOT they will assure you that popcorn was created in Canada. This bit of info seems wrong. Even my Canadian husband has pointed out that Canadians couldn’t have been the first people to heat up kernels. There’s no way.

At the popcorn stand was a super cute guy named Sean. He was blonde and tall and just my 15-year old type. He looked like Barbie’s Ken. After that, I looked at him from afar and pretty much stalked him for the rest of the trip. Exhilarating.

A couple years down the line I was wandering through the Morocco pavilion when a Moroccan guy, not much older than myself ran up to me. He told me that I was beautiful and wanted to see me again. His name was Amine (pronounced ah-meen) and we became instant lovers. And by lovers I mean that we held hands and walked around a theme park together.

One night we decided to watch the fireworks. I could feel my phone vibrating in my purse but I didn’t want to interrupt this romantic moment we were having. I was basically Jasmine and he was my Aladdin. When I was leaving the park, I called my mom only to find out that she thought I was kidnapped. My brother had been out looking for me and even asked Amine’s manager where he was and when he had last seen him. My mom is basically Liam Neeson.

When is she gonna learn that no one will ever want to take me?

You would’ve thought I’d learned my lesson to answer my phone but I didn’t. Years later a similar scenario happened. I wonder what my life would’ve been like if I grew up in a decade without cell phones. I guess people would’ve just assumed I was dead after every date.

My last and most exciting EPCOT lover was from the UK. On this trip I was with my friend Janna and we had been walking around for a while when we ran into my mom. She told us there was a really cute guy in one of the shops in the English pavilion for Janna. My first thought was, “What about me?!” So we met this guy and talked to him and he invited us to go to a club with him—yes, Disney has clubs. There, we met up with him and his friend Christopher.

Of course Christopher wasn’t as cute as Janna’s guy (I forget his name) but he was funny and I wasn’t picky. We ended up dancing and making out until midnight. I knew I had to be back at midnight because I was basically Cinderella. After that trip I realized that it’s less work to just admire guys from afar at EPCOT.

Especially the guys in the Norwegian pavilion.

Taken 2 aka LOL

I usually trust my mom’s movie advice. She and I seem to have similar taste in films. Last week she had seen Taken 2 and enjoyed it. I couldn’t help remembering how convenient things were in the first Taken movie. Liam Neeson finds his daughter who is lost in the underground Parisian sex slave trade. There is no way that would happen in real life. I don’t care who your dad is. Side note: I remember I was told not to go to Paris after this movie came out.

I just want to address some comedic highlights in Taken 2 so none of you have to spend your money on this (unless you want a good laugh). The first 30 minutes is pure cheese. Like, the cheesiest cheese you could imagine. It was bad acting. And this is coming from the girl who forgot her lines in a play and ran off stage crying.

In the beginning of the movie we learn that Liam Neeson’s (I’m not referring to him as his character because he’ll always just be Liam Neeson to me)  daughter, Kim is just trying to live a normal life after her dad saved her from being sexed up by crazy Turks. Is that PC? She’s dating some loser named Jamie and taking driving lessons from her dad. Sounds fun.

Kim and her mom surprise Liam Neeson in Turkey while he’s there on some Turkish business. I don’t know why they had the urge to go to Turkey, but okay. One part that actually made me laugh out loud (along with the rest of the audience) was when Liam Neeson called his daughter and told her, “I don’t want you to panic, but your mom and I are going to be taken.” See if I were Kim, I would’ve been like, “Geeze Dad you’re so embarrassing!” But instead she just starts crying. Weird.

Dad, I’m trying to relax. Get to the point.

Liam happens to have this sweet mini phone that’s never been invented. Maybe he had an in with dead Steve Jobs or something. Anything goes in this movie. He talks to his daughter and walks her through how to save them. He basically tells her to go in the closet and find his grenade stash and throw the grenades everywhere in the city so that he could hear them to figure out his location. Kim pretty much destroys Istanbul doing so.

The movie continued on and the entire time I was hoping that Liam and his clan would either die or get arrested and rot in Turkish prison. Liam lets Kim drive in a getaway scene which is actually the most exciting part of the entire movie. She didn’t have her license, and you sure could tell! Damn Kim messed up Istanbul real bad. She honestly should’ve gone to jail.

Kim trying to drive while her father shoots people.

And then, to wrap it up, Liam ends up escaping with his bad fighting moves. Couldn’t they have afforded a stunt double for this guy? Everything ultimately works out and the movie ends with the family, safe at home, going out for milkshakes. With Jamie.

I wish I was kidding.