Happy Halloween!

Crystal's comment from last time made me feel bad about not blogging in almost a week (thanks a lot for that!  but I'm glad you like my blog!).  So here we go.  A Halloween post that has (almost) nothing to do with Halloween!

Things have been a whirlwind lately.  First of all, everyone's been getting sick.  And it's all been different sicknesses too.  This guy I work with actually caught the chicken pox!  I didn't even realize that was possible at our age!  My roommate is sick with some nasty thing, and I've caught some sort of sore throat, goo-in-the-lungs kinda deal.  Not fun.  But the good news is I feel totally fine.  It's just I can feel liquid in my lungs when I take deep breaths and I've been coughing and sneezing a TON!

Anyway, the animals are still as fun as ever.  One of the baby elephants was chasing vultures the other day!  Soooo adorable!  She would find a bunch on the ground and charge at them until they flew up in the air.  Then she'd stop, look around for mom, try to get mom's attention, and then try to do it again wherever the vultures had landed.  Cutest thing EVER!

Today this little girl on my truck, maybe nine, got a little freaked out at the beginning when I mentioned it was a two week safari.  She just had to ask me, "Is this really a two week safari?" When I told her that "Of course is was" she told me she couldn't leave for two weeks because Dad had to work and she had to go to school to be educated.  I told her she'd be educated plenty on this.  We had biology.  Then she mentioned math.  I told her we'd count the giraffes.

Finally at the end of the safari she got my attention one more time.  "Um, excuse me, I have a question."  "Yes?"  "Umm... why...?  um... why... never mind!"  And she dug her face into her mom, embarrassed.  Her mom urged her to ask the question, and finally she looked at me.  "Why couldn't it be a two week safari?"  she asked.  Cutest thing ever.  The story on the ride is that our safari gets cut short because we have to chase the poachers, and I make it clear that that's the reason we have to "come back early."  She understood this, I think.  But I also think she understood the poacher thing was a story, but the two week thing could have been real.  I feel bad throwing people off sometimes, but other times it's just plain fun.

It's really sad when little kids leave my truck crying because they don't want to get off.  They cling onto the truck or scream, "But I wanna go again!!"  I feel bad for the parents, but I feel a slight sense of satisfaction as the slightly annoyed parent explains, "I know you enjoyed the ride, but it's time to get off.  Maybe we can come back later!"  Some parents enjoy it too, and I love it when I get requests for rerides!  (no, it almost never ever happens, and only sometimes I can actually allow it!)

My favorite is when I get a little kid in the front seat with mom and halfway through the ride the kid makes a comment about how "This is my favorite ride!" and mom says, "I know, this is your 6th time!"  Ours really is one of the best family rides I've ever been on in my life.  Every single age absolutely loves it.  Even people who don't speak a lick of English will ride it, because it doesn't really matter if you don't know what's going on.  The animals are the show!

I had "Training" on my schedule the other day.  I was totally confused, wondering what sort of "Training" I'd have since I've been here more than two months (it feels like it's been a lot longer than it sounds!).  Anyway, the training ended up being a tour of the village of Harambe (the village within Disney that I work in).  We learned the story behind our town and they pointed out a LOT of details throughout the town that I had never noticed before.  Crazy!  I'm thoroughly amazed at Disney and the detail and extent that they go to when they do things.  Fantastic!

Next week I have more "training."  This time, though, it's in preparation for the DAK PAK Olympics!  Animal Kingdom is by far my favorite place I've worked so far because we have so many cast activities and things.  A lot of them I haven't even written about on here, but trust me, it's been amazing!

The DAK PAK Olympics is basically what you'd think it is.  We have six managers over our area, and each cast member is assigned a particular manager who is called their "DAK PAK Leader."  DAK PAKs usually do fun things, for example ours toured the ride Dinosaur one morning.  Another DAK PAK I know got to go do the backstage tour of Everest.  Sometimes they'll take you backstage to the animal houses or do other fun things.

Well, apparently every few years they do the DAK PAK Olympics.  The different DAK PAKs are competing against each other to "win."  What do we win?  I have no clue.  But I don't really care, I'm just excited to play!  The "awards ceremony" will be in December and they even passed out these official looking invitations for us to RSVP because we're allowed to bring one guest.  The whole thing is super cheesy, but also super awesome.  It just cracks me up!

So the different things we have to do for our "Olympics" are all basically things that we do for our jobs anyway, for the most part.  One is parking ten feet away from a giant plastic zebra we have, because with animal stops, we're supposed to stop the truck ten feet away from animals.  Whoever can get the bumper closest to ten feet away from the plastic zebra (without going too close) wins.  Other events are timing things, like how long it takes us to switch out in the jog (switching trucks), or getting guests on and off the trucks in a timely fashion (it's all supposed to take about 30 seconds, but realistically... well, you can't really yell at guests to hurry it up).

I'm so excited for this!  It's just such a good idea and so funny.   Judging begins in another few weeks.  I can't wait to start.

Anyway, tonight for Halloween, my roommate and I are making dinner.  I know.  Lame.  Well, it's dinner in a pumpkin, so it's a little bit in theme!  We also did Grocery Bingo: Halloween Edition the other night.  I love playing Grocery Bingo, even though I haven't won yet.  It's a free event housing puts on every once in a while for us poor cheap college students as a way to win free food!  And sometimes Duffy Bears and Ipod Nanos.  But I digress.

So my roommate and I are making dinner in a pumpkin.  It's a recipe she found, and has apparently made before.  She's not home yet, so I started making preparations.  I cut up the peppers and the mushrooms... not sure how much I'm gonna like this meal, but hey.  I'll try it! (I normally don't like peppers or mushrooms)

But yeah, I dressed up as a foreign tourist for Halloween.  I went to a few parties, saw a haunted house, got scared, watched Halloween movies, and now am eating a Halloween dinner and carving pumpkins tonight.

Now I'm ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!  The most wonderful time of the year is right around the corner!  And I can't even WAIT!