Today At Work...

At work today a very nice man came in who had just been scuba diving in one of our tanks. I chatted with him as I sold him our SCUBA DVD and he went on his way.

He came back just a few minutes later. He asked if there was any way I could get him back up to the SCUBA locker rooms (which were now locked because that was closed) because he left his glasses up there.

I glanced up at the glasses sitting on his head and then back into his eyes.

I asked if it was his goggles that he left in the changing room. "No." he replied, "They're just my glasses. I searched all my bags time after time but I must have just left them up there."

Again, I glanced at the glasses sitting on top of his head hoping he'd follow my eyes that were continually moving up there. I still wasn't sure he had another pair of glasses, and I really couldn't think of any way to let him know they were on his head without making at least one of us feel stupid. Finally (mostly because I truly had no clue how to get him back up to the locker rooms) I asked him if he was looking for the same pair of glasses that were on his head.

He looked confused for a second and then slowly moved his hand up to his head, rolled his eyes... and the rest is history.

And that's how I got my boss to like me. :)

All the Goings On

All day long I think of thing after thing to post on here but then I sit down to post and I can't ever think of anything.

I got off work at 10:30 tonight. I took my final assessment and passed so I'm now able to pick up any Merchandise shifts anywhere in any of the parks or resorts on Disney property. Tomorrow I learn how to do photo image editing and learn how to take pictures of the guests and make puzzles and stuff. I'm soooo excited for that! It should be easy to pick up shifts because there's such a huge variety of locations where I can work. I could pick up a shift next Monday, but I'm still not totally comfortable with knowing the system well enough to pick up shifts. Maybe next week. I'm already scheduled for 41 hours next week! Yippee!!

All my free time is spent playing in the parks or sleeping. That's like, all I ever do. It's amazing. Today I went to play in EPCOT with Kelly before my shift started at 2pm. We went this morning so I basically spent like twelve hours in EPCOT.

Other things I'm gonna mention but realistically will never talk about are...

all the little kids I do pin trading with... one little girl started kissing the new chip and dale pin I traded to her yesterday, sooo cute!

how much I freakin' LOVE Disney World

I signed up for a People Management class starting in October and am super excited

I went on Mission Space and almost puked

It rains a lot here

I love free Coke from various countries

I got my new Driver's License in the mail and I hate it cuz it's ugly and the pictures sucks

I still haven't gotten in touch with the window fixer guy (no phone numbers work) and will now be known as "the girl whose window is broken" to the security guards at the front gate

Tuesday night is Papa Johns pizza night because we get 40% off there on Tuesdays (well, that hasn't actually happened yet because we didn't know until too late but maybe next Tuesday)

My roommate just took a picture of what she's eating because she "had all of the food groups" and "wanted to document it." Makes me laugh because I'd probably do the same if I ate cantelope, chicken and green beans in one go. Usually I blend my foods together cuz it's soooo much easier that way. Not those foods though because cantelope is gross.

I can't wait to go beneath Magic Kingdom

I haven't been sunburned yet but my tan has been getting darker! Yay!

There's a shuttle taking off tonight and apparently they built Mission Space so you could stand on one side of it and see the shuttle taking off in the distance and it looks like it's taking off from the building Mission Space (which looks like a planet so it's super cool). But yeah, the launch takes place at 11:59 tonight. Yay!

Pictures will come soon. I'm dying of tired right now but I don't work until noon tomorrow so I thought I'd update. But I'm gonna go now. So bye!

Hard To Keep Up

I'm determined to continue posting on here as much as possible. Mostly for my own sake, but I guess my fans might benefit a tiny bit too. Maybe. Haha, yeah right.

There's just so much to say there's no way I could include it all in my limited time to document. Seriously, the only time that I've had to write on here has been when I'm cooking at home. Not much. Hmm...

I went to a class called Merchantainment today. Yesterday's training was completely one-on-one and was super fun! I loved it and got to go all around my work areas. I'm working in Imagination, The Land, and The Seas. We went in all the employee areas!

We're going to EPCOT for my first play time there tonight.

Oh, kay. Gotta go... maybe I'll write later.

Lesson Learned

Don't leave your brand new box of dryer sheets in the laundry room even if you're only gone for fifteen minutes. They'll be stolen, however if your robber is nice enough, he/she may leave a single dryer sheet so that at least you can finish your laundry (thank you robber).

Fortunately, I had the sense of mind to bring my phone, keys, and card w/ money on it with me because I knew that anything and everything I left unattended was subject to being stolen. But dryer sheets? Really? Jerk...

In other news we played in Animal Kingdom all day yesterday. I called Gina, my friend from Idaho who worked in Animal Kingdom and she became our personal tour guide practically telling us where to go and how to get there. We did "It's Tough To Be A Bug" in the tree first. Natalie and Kelly had never seen it and even though I had, it was still hilarious and I was glad they enjoyed it. We did the Kali River Rapids ride and Kelly and I were the only two on the entire boat of eight that got totally soaked to the bone. So not fair! But at least we were cooled off. We also rode "Dinosaur" which I'm embarrassed to say actually scared me. We rode Everest and I screamed the whole time because it was fun. We rode Dinosaur and I screamed the whole time cuz I thought I would die. So amazing!

Then I came home and was so tired I just collapsed on my bed and slept for almost two hours. I had been texting a friend and I actually heard the phone go off a couple of times while I was laying there, but I didn't have the energy to answer it.

The I got up and ate too man cheez-its and felt sick. I did laundry and went to my friends apartment because I didn't want to go upstairs to my apartment. It was a fun night. My body woke up at 7 this morning and I couldn't get back to sleep and my bus doesn't leave for another half hour. I get to work all day today AND it's my first day actually in costume! Yay!

Tidbits

We went to the MK again last night because it stayed open the latest.

Church is held in a hotel. I made four friends today by driving them there this morning and one invited me over to dinner tonight.

I'm eating Ramen and veggies with my fingers because all our forks are dirty.

All roomies are out at work and I'm sort of bored...

Playin' in the Parks!

I got to take my Traditions class yesterday. Afterward, we hurried home and changed clothes (it was professional dress) and went to the Magic Kingdom!

We hadn't really eaten all day so we ate a little in the MK and then rode a few rides (Thunder Mountain RR, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tiki Room-not really a ride, and the Haunted Mansion were just some of them) and watched the fireworks show which was so totally AMAZING! As we left the parade was beginning, but we didn't stay because two of us had to be awake really early this morning for training.

On the way out I had my bus schedule in hand as we went back to where the buses dropped us off. It takes a long time to get in the parks because the buses drop us off but we still have to ride the tram. Actually, on the way in we had to ask a guest for directions because we couldn't find the trams... needless to say we didn't tell him we worked there. Anyway, as we left I had my map out and we were searching for our bus. Then one of the worker men called me over. He leaned in close to my ear and said quietly, "You a cast member?" Worried I was in trouble I slowly nodded and folded up my map. But of course, no worries. He pretty much could tell I was brand new and had no clue where the bus was. He pointed to a small group of people in the middle of the parking lot and told me that that was where I needed to be if I wanted to go home tonight. I told my friends who were with me and we all went out there. I don't know what we'd have done if he didn't notice my map and the fact that we were all hopelessly lost.

This morning I got up bright and early and had to be at EPCOT by 8am. It's about an hour to get there by bus so I was out by 7. Part of the training was classroom, but the majority was out into the parks. We got a full tour of EPCOT. We even went on the Spaceship Earth ride in the giant golf ball!

We also went on a boat tour in the lagoon as we learned more about the park. So much fun!

Oh, and I got my costume today. I'll actually have three that I'll switch around. Part of my work area will be the "Living Seas" (that's for Dad!) but it's now something like "Nemo and Friends Sea Adventures" or something. Eh. Whatever. I had to go buy new shoes AND socks (I needed black socks). That was lame, but hey, I'm prepared!

Now I'm waiting for my friend to get off work so we can go to the parks. As tired as I am (I got like 5 hours of sleep last night) I really want to go play still. We're planning on going to Hollywood Studios today because Kelly wanted to ride the Tower of Terror. I can't wait to ride "Test Track" in EPCOT because it's supposed to be the fastest ride at the whole resort.

Anyway, I'm gonna go clean a bit now.

Amazing Day... And I'm Not Even in the Parks Yet!

Since I finished all my meetings yesterday, I had today off. Meaning nothing to do. I slept in. All the way until 8:15. Yeah. Pathetic.

So I got up but our beds are super noisy so I woke up my roommate as I rolled out of bed, I think. Oh well. I grabbed breakfast and my roommate went to take a shower. Except the hot water wasn't working. Eventually we realized that it's just that the hot and cold waters are mixed up. You have to turn it to cold to make it hot. My old apartment was like this too, so it's not really a big change to me. The lights also took forever to get bright in the bathroom, but it turns out they're special "earth energy" lights that are supposed to do that.

Don't get me wrong, our apartments are SO TOTALLY AWESOME!!! I LOVE where I'm living. While two of my roommates were in a meeting, I went with Natalie to explore the property. We walked by the pool and walked around Mickey's Retreat (which is tons of play area, but only for a group bigger than the two of us), we checked out the weight rooms and the clubhouse and figured out how to get some other places. We learned more and more of our benefits for working here.

We took an inventory of the stuff in our apartment and it turns out we were missing quite a lot (mostly just dishes and kitchen stuff). We took the paper down to the front desk and the lady thanked us so we turned to leave. "Don't you want your stuff?" she asked us. We didn't realize they would give it to us right there, no questions asked. Especially since we were missing so much, we figured they would think we just missed an area of the kitchen. But no, we got it all within a few minutes.

On that sheet we also put the problems within our apartment. Within two hours we had a maintenance man at our door and it was fixed. Incredible service!

Now if only the internet would be a little nicer...

I was going to Walmart to get some stuff I'd forgotten and brought Kelly and some other friends along. That took forever, but I'm glad I have vegetables now!

The pool party was from 6-8pm. Free pizza. I was definitely there! It was Star Wars themed and they had all you can eat pizza, chips, soft drinks, and ice cream! All kinds of Star Wars characters were there and they blasted Star Wars music. It was amazing. Our $100 program fee at work! Now I can say that I've been to a real college party.BYU-Idaho just doesn't count. Haha! :) There's a Twilight movie night next week with popcorn and drinks.

We left after about an hour (after Natalie answered one of the trivia questions and won a free beach ball and we got our pictures with Jedi Mickey and Luke and Leia... I wanted the storm trooper but we couldn't find him again) and went to our own pool in Chatham (the party was in Patterson). We went swimming here because there were less people. I'm not sure we'd have fit in the pool at the party at Patterson. But it was just so cool.

We hung out at the pool for a looooong time. We were alone in the beginning but as the night came it grew more and more popular. After a while of hanging out there we finally left. It's been a pretty relaxing, slightly boring, yet fun day. We keep talking about how tomorrow we'll finally be allowed in the parks and we're all super excited about it. Tomorrow things will probably start getting busy and I may be too busy to blog. Maybe. Hopefully. We shall see. I have both Sunday and Monday off at this point so maybe I can spend those days playing. We'll see. Anyway, I'm super tired, I may even go to bed soon. Hopefully soon I'll make friends and then not be lame enough to go to bed before ten at night! Haha!

First Day

First day on the Disney College Program. What a day!

I'm torn on how I should write this post. Do I include every detail? Just the "important" stuff? Nothing? I dunno.

I have three roommates. One is Merchandise like me and the other two are in Quick Service Food and Beverage. We are all at different locations.

I will take my "Traditions" class on Friday and then my first day of training is Saturday and my second day of training will be Tuesday. Meaning Sunday and Monday I will have off!

I got a wonderful location. I'm so totally the luckiest kid in the world by this. I met one girl who's merchandise like me but was put in the "Magical World of Sports" or something. I felt bad because she was really bummed by it. But hey! It's Disney World! And everyone's happy! For now.......

I'm mostly moved in. I've had meeting after meeting after meeting and received paper after paper after paper. But it's over... at least til Friday. Our apartment complex is awesome. More later.

Oh yeah, and my location. Wanna know where I'm working? Heehee, I saved the best til last! But in case you were wondering I'm in EPCOT, Future World West Side. Woot woot!!!!

Emotional... Sort of...

I won't be updating this for a while because we're leaving tomorrow right after church. But the next time I do update this (probably) will be when I'm in Orlando and will, hopefully, know where I'll be working. I reeeeeally hope it's the Magic Kingdom. We'll see.

In the meantime, as with any big time my life (I have traveled to Europe a few times and been on numerous other vacations and have traveled out to college for the first time 100% alone) I'm getting that mix of ten thousand emotions.

For anyone who knew me when I was 12 you'll know I'm the queen of worrying. I've been worried about whether this isn't going to be all it was cracked up to be, that no one will like me, that something will stop me from making it down there, that the work will be way beyond my ability, that I won't be friendly enough and I'll get kicked out, that I'll somehow hurt myself or get in an accident and be sent home or unable to work, that I'll be put in AK and get next to no hours and not be able to pick up any shifts... and then I realize I'm having Kindergarten worries all over again. Pathetic!

Don't worry, cuz I'm not. I am a little scared but I'm sure I'll get over it. I'm more excited than anything. Excited to be in a new place and see how Disney World has changed since I was little, see new places, experience the magic, know what it's like to work in a place like that, to go to the beach and go swimming, to learn the new area, to live in Florida, to meet new people my age who will be a bit more normal than BYU-I kids, to learn my discounts and go to the parks and most of all have FUN!

I'm also feeling extremely privileged. And lucky I suppose could and should go along with that seeing as how this address does remind you all that I'm the luckiest kid ever! I'm privileged to be a part of the Disney program and lucky enough to have been raised in a place where my parents don't make me feel bad for leaving and they don't hover. Lucky enough to have been blessed with a sense of adventure and a love for trying new things so that I can do this kind of thing. Lucky to have had the past experiences I have had so that I could get this job.

Yep, whether it's lucky, blessed, or privileged I don't know. But whatever it is, it's me!

My Past Week

Yes, I know my life's been utterly and unbelievably pathetic lately. Here are some pictures and hopefully the pictures that I post a week or two from today will be much more exciting!


Faraday. Sitting in MY chair. Giving me "The Look"



DC with Dad









Mom wanted chicken for dinner...



I was trying to make the farther chicken jump but didn't notice the one closer to me pecking my other hand with more food.



Faraday stole our food. And every time I put the pork in her food dish she insisted on taking it out and moving it back out into the hall for all to see.



VA Safari Park--we got some food and drove through and fed the animals.

In case you can't see... his head was in our car!






These stupid animals didn't seem to understand the meaning of "roadkill."





Black with white stripes? Orrrr... white with black stripes?



Tigers get into slap fights too!



Hey fatty! Wassup!!!

Less Than A Week! Disney Info

---I actually wrote this post last week but then didn't post it because I decided it was long and boring. But then I remembered. This is MY blog and I put what I want on here! So I guess this is just a warning that over the next two weeks or so there will probably be more incredibly long posts about Disney. Just letting you know!---

I thought I'd make this a super long blog post about Disney World and all I've found out about it. I'm mainly making it for personal reference, as well as the fact that if I have friends in the future who want to see my experience they can see it. I know I've wasted hours of my own time reading CP blogs of times past. (did I really just talk like that? wow...)

Okay, maybe I won't include all I've learned, but a portion.

Classes

While at Disney in the college program they have these classes by Disney that I'm allowed to take. There are two types of classes that you can take. Well, actually three.

The first, and the one that I immediately kicked out of my list of classes, is the major specific classes. I can't even remember the proper name of these classes because I figured out pretty quickly that I didn't qualify for them. But, for example, one of them was an "Animal Experience" type course for Pet or Wildlife majors. Stuff like that... yeah, I obviously know hardly anything about that one.

The second is the "Collegiate Classes." These are the ones that at a normal college you would get credit for taking. But since I go to BYU-I and BYU-I is a weirdy school I can't get credit for taking these. At the end of the program you get a "Ducktorate Degree" for completing one of these classes. They are typical business/management/finance type classes. Human Resources was the class here I was looking at taking. But I didn't want to deal with the pressure of 11 weeks worth of homework, exams, readings, projects, etc.

So I opted for the third choice. BTW, keep in mind here all of these classes are 100% optional. You don't have to take any of them. But I decided to in order to spice things up a bit. Anyway, the third choice is "Experiential Classes." These classes aren't really graded (although you have to attend and be good in order to pass). Only very rarely will a college give credit for these classes, but they look good on a resume and at the end of the program you receive your "Mouster's Degree" at graduation. Not quite as good as a Ducktorate, but hey! These classes don't require tons of homework and they don't have exams to study for. Instead it's like every week (for the 8 weeks that the course lasts) you go on a field trip behind the scenes of Disney World and learn how it works. In my case I'm planning on signing up for the People Management course, so I'll be learning about that. I think. I hope.

These classes are usually one day a week and about three-ish hours a day. Disney gives you at least one, usually two days off a week anyway. So they just plan for one of those two days to be your class day so you don't lose any hours unless you sign up for like a million classes. Although I think the limit is two so that's not even a problem.

Anyway, moving on.

Housing

I will be paying for my housing. It'll be right in the area of $90/week. They pull it directly out of the paycheck. The housing is freakin' INCREDIBLE! I'm hoping to be in a four person/two bedroom apartment. But they range from one bedroom to four bedroom (two people per bedroom). Anyway, each bedroom has it's own bathroom as well as a huge walk-in closet and it's own linen closet. Niiiice! Way better than where I'm living now! Plus, parking is free and I'll have a car. Transportation is also free, so I'll plan on taking buses to work and back. But for those late nights when I may be working ridiculous hours that don't go around bus hours, plus those random trips to the grocery store, a car will be super duper handy! Housing is really really nice, though. Just trust me. :)

My apartments will be right beside a nice lake that we can play at, along with tennis courts, a pool, weight room, etc. etc. etc. I can't even remember all the wonderful stuff it comes with. But trust me, it'll be nice. I hope...

Work

No, I haven't forgotten that I am going down there to work and have a job and earn money. I'm hoping to get extra hours and I hear that merchandise allows for many extra hours. I hope to work in the Magic Kingdom. But here's my list of the order of parks that I'd like to work in highest to lowest (these aren't necessarily my favorite parks, but for working purposes they are)

Magic Kingdom
EPCOT
MGM Studios
Downtown Disney
One of the Resorts (they have little shops)
Animal Kingdom

I won't be in the water parks. Probably a good thing. Animal Kingdom is the only on that I'm actually against being in, but if that's the worst thing that I have to put up with while I'm there, I think I'll survive.

The people I've met/seen/read about who worked merch said that they mostly worked evenings and worked super late sometimes into the night. Like, didn't get home until 3am kind of late. One girl said that on New Years Eve she work from 12(noon) until 3am the next morning. The good part of that? Super overtime! Anything over 8 hours in a row is overtime!

Benefits

As if all the stuff I've already stated wasn't benefits here we go...

Well, okay. I won't go through all my benefits because I might make some of you jealous (and because I don't even know all the benefits I'm gonna be dealing with) but suffice it to say it'll basically be discounts on a lot lot lot or stuff as well as free entry into the park anytime I want.

Check-In

My check-in day will be the 19th. There are a LOT of College Programmers (we call ourselves CPs for short). Around 3500 I hear. So check-in has to be spread over more than a month. We will leave VA on the 17th and be down there by the 19th. On check-in day I won't get paid (all you do is check in, give/get employment info, move into the apartment, sign up for classes, etc.) and the day after is pretty much a free day I hear so the first two days I won't get any pay. But the third day I have to attend this class called "Traditions" and it will be my first day of work. It's basically an "Intro to Disney" type class and that's when I will get my ID (so I start receiving benefits on that day) as well as figure out where I'll be working. After that I find out my area and begin work! And I get my ID and can start getting into the parks for free!!

So there's all I can think of for the moment. I hope it didn't bore too many to death. I've begun the process of packing and figuring out stuff to bring down there. If all goes as planned I'll be in Florida a week from today. And I totally can't wait!!!

Weather

On my IGoogle page I usually have a little block that tells me the weather. I used to just have my home here and Rexburg, ID on it. But then recently, for obvious reasons, I added Orlando, Florida.

It's supposed to rain there today. And tomorrow. And the day after. And yesterday. And every single day that I've had those little blocks on my IGoogle page! It has the little picture of rain. Every. Single. Day.

I guess I can take it off my page now and use the space.

I can predict the weather for Orlando every day from now on.

A Real Update... Mostly Disney!

I haven't updated in a while. I think it may actually be a record for me. Wow.

Well, okay, I mean a real update. Nothing's really been going on. Take the word "boring" and multiply it by like, a thousand. That would probably be my life right now.

Except for the fact that I'm moving to Disney next week. :)

We went to Washington DC last Saturday. "We" being my dad and me. We mainly just stayed on the mall and went to the Smithsonian museums. We saw the Castle, the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and the Art Gallery. It was a long day, but fun. Definitely. We didn't get back until after midnight. They were doing work on the metros so it took forever to get into DC. We parked just outside of DC because it's so much cheaper. The museums are all free, but they must get their money from the parking. Blech!

We're looking at going on the Safari thing down near Natural Bridge later this week. There's a Fipplefest on Saturday (go to my mom's blog for that). So life is moving on along pretty nicely. :)

As for Disney I've actually made several posts about that but never really posted them. I think I will start posting them now because obviously that's pretty much my life right now.

We leave next Monday and my check-in day will be next Wednesday. In preparation I think I'm gonna buy a ton of food while I'm still up here in VA because the prices are probably much much much better. Not the food like bread, milk, butter, eggs. More like spaghetti, possibly a box or two of cereal, spaghetti sauce, Ramen, Pasta Roni (no, mom, of course I don't live off of that!), maybe some canned foods or soups. Things like that. Then I'm going to get started packing. I kind of kept my suitcases from Idaho out in middle of the front hall (no one uses that door anyway!) so I'm going to start figuring out the stuff that I won't be using and packing and putting it all in the car. I have to be careful to pack so that I'll be able to have everything for Idaho down there as well.

So yeah, that's the plan for this week.

The power flicked yesterday. I lost internet for a while. But now it's back. Making this whole entire paragraph pointless.

Annnnd, I guess that's it! I'll try and update a bit more. I'm planning on keeping a real detailed update of the day I check in, what I do, and what happens for the few days after. By detailed I mean they'll probably be a series of super duper long posts. I'll keep them mainly for personal record and also in case other people ever want to read my blog on what happens at Disney. I know at least I'm obsessed about it, and I've found a forum online of a bunch of other obsessed people on Disney College Program. So ihey, there are others like me. :)

Kay, for real. That's it.

PS. I think it's funny that I'm ending up tagging this post with both the word "Bored" and "Excited." Haha! Maybe I"ll tag it "funny" as well.

Notice:

I haven't posted lately. Even though I've actually made several posts. I never actually posted them.

But I would just like to remind you all to kindly note that dwindling number on the right hand side of my page. The number that (right this moment) reads "14 days" however will change to "13 days" in less than ten minutes.

We leave in 12 days, soon to be 11.

Just making sure you're all paying attention. It's not like I'm excited or anything. Noooooo.