Family, Fun, and LEGO: The Orlando Diary...

Dear 9th of December, 

Let me enlighten you about my time as a tourist in Orlando! After having stayed with my grandparents in Fort Lauderdale, I was led to visit other family members in Orlando because of its close proximity to Fort Lauderdale. Thus, and without hesitation, because I was desperate to visit cousins whom I hadn’t seen in 10 years, I booked a train to Orlando. 

The train ride was about 4 hours long and as usual, no complaints because transport by train in short commutes like Fort Lauderdale, Orlando are so much more economical and comfortable than other mediums of transport. Also, on trains, nobody checks if you take 1 or 2 or 5 pieces of luggage… just putting it out there. Not that I’ve done it, but I’ve witnessed it on various different occasions. Anywho, post-train, I was picked up by my Grandfather’s sister from my mother’s side, AKA la tía Tonieta. And what was the destination you ask? Well, the hospital of course. As it turns out, one of their close friends had a heart attack the day prior to my arrival and thus they took me with them to check up on their friend’s status. Fast-forward a few surgeries later and he is now in the recovery-phase lane, next stop, fully-recovered avenue. YAY!

After catching up on the last 10 years on the hospital floor—Chiang Mai, bedbugs, Thai food, Phuket, beaches, friends, the parents, everything—we finally had time to settle at home and feast! Luckily, they had yogurt and cereal—for those of you that know, you know I was a happy man. With fermented cow’s milk that packs both delicious healthy fats and protein (WHOOP!) coupled with delicious sugary grains that have been processed more than credit scores—tempting but if consumed at large, it may lead to a bad taste in your financial mouth. I love myself some good yogurt and cereal. You know how missionaries preach Christianity? I religiously and radically preach the consumption of yogurt and cereal, especially when it’s greek yogurt (high protein baby!), and a basic healthy grain like not-so-processed granola from Kellogg’s (it’s definitely very much processed).

Side quest ended, let the real talk begin. 10 years away. Let that sink in fellas; more than half of my life (I’m young, I know), 3650 days, or 3652 days with leap years (who’s counting right?) without setting foot on the same premise at the same time, breathing the same air at the same time, seeing the same things. It’s a little while. The last time I’d seen my mum’s aunt, uncle, cousin and her family was when we visited the U.S. before our spectacular stunt to leave the world behind and move as far away from Venezuela as possible and call Thailand home. It had been so long since I’d seen my cousins that lived in Orlando from my mum’s side, that I couldn’t even recall seeing them last. My mum told me that we met in an outlet for about 3 hours, and as the parents conversed, us, the younger audience, the children some may call it, hid behind our then fortresses—parents—from our cousins (at least that’s how it felt when I was 8, now they’re shorter than me, ha gotcha!).

I stayed with them, in the living room on a couch that I kid you not, was larger than my bed back in Thailand, so yet again, no complaints. With Elizabeth and her family, my mum’s cousin, my second cousin, we celebrated our get together with a deemed classic Latin American reunion, a barbecue. Also in good Latin American fashion, the meat was “hmm” and the potatoes were “AHHH'', in other words, pretty freaking delicious. Though, I must pay my respect, my father still holds the grill master championship, but the barbecue we had was still a strong attempt at dethroning his grand status. 

Alongside my mum's cousin's husband, I reconnected with cryptocurrency. He is a trader himself and reminded me of its wonders. I remember day-trading with my peers, or well, night-trading really because we only really began at 10 p.m. earliest. The exhilarating greens and disappointing reds brought us together. Similarly, cryptocurrency, a shared topic of discussion, a passion, too brought us together. This soon-to-be crypto prodigy is sizzling and ready to retire by 30 (ideally before, but we have to have some pessimism in our lives). Amidst our cryptocurrency endeavors, he opened the doors to truly DeFi projects in the industry and I'm glad he did because I'm back baby (I have my faith in this new project: TitanX). Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor and you should take my advice at your own risk unless you seek a money printing machine then do take my barely legal aspiring analyst advice—I felt obligated to say that, don’t mind me.

With Elizabeth’s daughters (this might get a little confusing), my mum’s cousin’s daughters, which are also apparently my second cousins (like why English!?), I went to the gym; visited their workplace, a beautiful tennis, paddle, and pickleball sports center; and this really cute Christmas market near their house. At the market we even formulated an inside joke from my jokingly saying that DJ Claus—derived from Santa Claus if you hadn't guessed—was on AUX because there a remixed Christmas music met 2010s pop was on full blast throughout which was both quite humorous but fitting to the season. 

On one of my nights spent in Orlando, I reunited with my cousins from my father's side: Daniela, Leymar, and Marlin. Daniela and Leymar did not skip a beat when I asked them to go out for dinner or "whatever"—the teenage staple approach of, " let's make plans". And we did, they picked me up and we were off to meet their sister—and cousin of mine—at Disney, Marlin. Although I longed to meet with my aunt and uncle, my aunt was busy with work and well, COVID had other plans for my uncle—we all miss you. 

Nonetheless, they picked me up and my oh my they had not changed. Leymar in particular was literally—I rarely use this word so when I do it's real—the same since I'd seen her last. With a figure so feared, standing at a jaw-dropping 5'2”, she was still tiny but playful. Daniela was also the same, full of joy and smiles, like my uncle. Having so much uninterrupted fun and being able to have continuous banter with someone after not seeing each other for so long, in this case, also 10 years, brings a different type of joy to the heart and a different type of smile to the face. 

Upon arriving, I thought ‘why does this look so familiar?’ When my clenched curious eyebrows caught my cousins' glance, they said it’s because I was here 10 years ago, but then, it was called ‘Downtown Disney’. "OHHHH", It all made sense in a snap and it was nice. We walked around the various Disney shops, souvenir shops, and ate pizza in good American spirit. In the wait for the pizzas, we met with Marlin, whom I hadn't seen since I was 2. This means I hadn't seen her for 88.89% of my life—that's a lot. Marlin, her husband, and her husband's brother fit right into the banter as if we were best friends. I couldn't be more happy or grateful to have such an incredible family. Every corner and every face of my family is equally as incredible and it only gets better the more family members I encounter and reunite with. To top off the victorious night, we even paid a little visit to the LEGO store! LEGO will always have a special place in my heart, that Orlando Disney Spring store in particular—the memories of racing LEGO cars against my cousin will forever rule my repertoire of childhood memories (I probably won the race, but still fun!).

Orlando posed as a stepping stone to me "properly" beginning to meet my whole family, not from the lens of a childish 8-year old, let alone 2-year old Leon, but rather a slightly more mature, but equally as playful lens of 18-year old Leon; it’s like a surprise door except they only get better and brighter. I couldn’t have asked for a cooler, more accepting, and funny family. 

As my Orlando visit comes to an end, I am making a promise to myself that I'll be back, and as I told my cousin, "hopefully in less than 10 years". As I patiently sit on the plane that should ideally leave today for the Dominican Republic, I am not just leaving Orlando; I leave an immense thanks for the tales, the laughter, the crypto banter, the unexpected hospital visit, the sugary cereals that made my financial taste buds dance salsa, and a 5'2 cousin with a killer sense of humor—Cionara Orlando, it's been a real treat… and Hello Dominican Republic.