I'm Baaaack

 Words will never fully describe my time in China.  It was an adventure.  It was incredible.  It was fun.  It was so difficult.  It was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life.  Well... top three for sure!

To sum up what happened: I taught English to 300 boarding school students grades 1-4 on the Guizhou Province in southern China from August to December.  Three other foreign teachers were with me, but taught the older kids (Grades 5-8).  Together, we had some of the best experiences of a lifetime.

 We saw ancient sculptures and toured ancient cities.

 We saw the Terra Cotta Warriors and visited the place where the guy who had them built was supposed to be buried (but apparently he died early so they didn't actually bury him under this mountain pictured behind us in the above picture).

 We walked across the scariest "bridges" I've ever gone across.  I get scared easily.  But I guess this is how they did it a long time ago.

 We saw Panda bears in Chengdu.

 We shopped along ancient streets with thousands of other people.

 We ate the nastiest most unique food I have ever had in my life.

 And I taught 300 of the most amazing, smart, fun, cute kids in the world!

 We saw funny signs.

 Again with the gross food... that "floss" stuff is dried meat!

 We found a few Western toilets that had directions in English on how to use them.  (but no directions in Chinese... I'm pretty sure if someone can speak English they probably know how to use a toilet...)

 And again with the students.  I can't get enough of these guys!

China totally rocks!  It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life.  But I would never, ever change a bit of this experience.  Thanks to China Horizons for providing me with the best adventure ever!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

DIANNA'S NEW BLOG! From China!

I'm in the People's Republic of China!  Wow!

My dad started a new blog for me, and he's going to post all my emails and pictures and stuff for everyone to share.  (A trifle overstatement, but in general, he'll be my new Blog-keeper for a while.)

Check out the new Blog:   djfchina.blogspot.com    

Pretty lame, I know.  But the URL is easy to remember, especially if you know my initials and can remember the fact that I'm in China now.

Keep Moving Forward

I've been avoiding thinking about this upcoming month at all.  I don't want to think about how my internship is coming to a close.  I don't want to think about organizing all the stuff I own into what I want to leave here, what stays in VA, what goes to donations, and what goes with me to China.  I don't want to think about leaving my friends, figuring out where to stay, things to do before China, insurance, medical, my car, just everything.

But today was the day.  I had to accept that my life is about to change.  Yet again.

I began packing today.  I actually got quite a bit done.  I really enjoy packing.  It's just the stress of leaving and moving that makes it difficult.  Then I went down to the pool for a little R&R.  I did a few laps and got shown up by some 80 year old lady who had flippers on.  Sad.

Then I went to work.  It was a fantastic day at work and my coordinators were just great.  Suddenly one of the managers started calling across the Base so everyone could hear.  He made the announcement that some people who have "been with us these past several months are leaving soon,"  and I started wondering, "Oh, I wonder who that could be."  Then he called out the first name, a fellow intern of mine and it hit me.

I'm leaving.

We all received our little Mickey trophies (One my most prized possessions now.  I know it's silly, but I am seriously so ridiculously proud of that trophy!) and posed for pictures.

And now my life will forever be changed.  Again.

Bring on the next challenge, world.  I'm ready.

Cast Members Overheard

I was in the cafeteria the other day and overheard these girls talking about their schedules.

"I'm so excited, I actually have a real weekend next week!"

"Oh, that's so exciting!"

"Yeah, two entire days off, I don't even know what I'm gonna do!"

"Is it Fri/Sat, or Sat/Sun?"

"What?"

"Or did you get Sun/Mon?"

"No, no.  It's not a real real weekend.  It's Tues/Wed, but it's two full days!  I'm so happy!"

It's okay, CPs.  Someday you'll get a real real weekend. :)

Also at work yesterday I was sitting at the Merch table (the most boring table during the day, but at night, Foods becomes slightly more boring).  We have TV screens that play the news all day but the sound is off.  I wasn't watching the TV, but overheard some people talking about what was on TV.

"I can't figure out what this commercial is for!"

"I thought it was for adult diapers?"

"But with football players?"

"Why would football players need adult diapers?"

At this point I curiously looked up.  Just in time to see the "Febreeze" logo shoot across the screen.

Note to Febreeze advertisers: Yer doin' it wrong.

Then again, both adult diapers and football players smell nasty... so they may have a point.

Anyway, today's terribly sad.  It's the first day of my weekend.  I was so happy to finally get to see the sun.  And it's raining.  Can't go to the pool.  Don't wanna go to Disney World.  And there's nothing to do but clean the apartment.

Ah well.  Maybe tomorrow.  After all, I have a real two day weekend this week! (First time in a month!)

Leadership

One of my teachers in college had a knack for trying to give us "life experience" in the classroom.  He was one of those "different" teachers who was "different" in a really good way.

Well, one day he had the class separate in half.  He sent my half to another room to tell us a story about two businessmen.  Our group was one businessman, and the other group was the other.  I don't remember the details but he basically created a conflict between our two groups.  Our group, he told us, was the innocent one.  We were very successful, had tons of clients, had worked very hard to get where we were, and the other group, the bad guys, we trying to rain on our parade.  The other "guy" just barely started with the company, but, due to his superior interpersonal skills, and what we perceived to be unfair arrangements, had made it just past our level.  Now this "new" guy was trying to take away our clients and give them to other people which was completely unfair.

Well, I don't remember the details well and it's not important.  The important thing is that the teacher went from room to room, allowing us to pass messages to one another for communication, but we had to trust the teacher to deliver our messages, exactly as we put them.  Finally, after this went on for a few days of class, we were able to convince the teacher that we wanted to meet in person and figure this whole thing out.  I still remember as my group walked back into our classroom, my friends who were in the other group were acting all mad at me.  They told me, "Wow.  Sorry your group had to be the bad guy in this case."  I thought, "What?  You guys are in the wrong!  Not our group!  What the heck?"

As our groups talked to each other, we figured out where the other was coming from.  We found out that the man who we thought was the bad guy was simply trying to get his clients back because we had, without realizing it, stolen them years before from a third party (complicated situation, hard to sum up, but you get the point).  In the end, both sides were just doing what they thought was right, and both thought they were the ones being treated badly.

Situations like this come up in life all the time.  One of the most difficult things for me to do is to continue to be nice to someone who I think is being an ungrateful jerk person.  There's a certain person who has basically made a name for himself by yelling at the people in my office and just being rude.  It's hard for me to change my thinking from wanting to punch this guy in the face, to wanting to understand why he hates us so much and feels the need to yell at us.  Maybe he just doesn't understand.  Maybe we just need to take him down to our office and show him how our system works so he realizes how unrealistic he's being sometimes. He just doesn't know.  Maybe we should just be patient and explain it to him.

Anyway, I'm highly impressed with management at Disney World.  They are some of the greatest leaders I've seen.  One called me the other day concerned about someone in our Department who he felt wasn't doing a very good job.  Instead of getting upset and giving them bad feedback right away, he contacted me and asked (making sure I could keep the conversation secret) if this CM had a reason for doing a not-so-adequate job.  And actually, he was right.  This CM was doing the best they could, but due to reasons beyond their control they just weren't able to do a tip top job that night.  I explained the situation, and the Manager gave appropriate feedback.  Instead of saying "This person was a terrible DA and we ran into all sorts of problems and they didn't get fixed in a timely manner" he was able to give much more constructive feedback understanding where the CM was coming from.

I only hope that I can be that sort of leader someday.  If and when I ever get to lead an operation.  And I'm certainly grateful that I get to have so many great leaders in my life to learn from.  Seriously, most Disney leaders I've met really have it right.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

It's funny.  Holidays at Disney World are either the most wonderful thing in the world, or so horrible you just want to throw things and collapse on to the ground from stress! 

It's the most wonderful thing ever because of the crazy amount of happiness, love, unity, magic, joy, family, music, adventure, fireworks, etc. that you get to experience.  Worst thing ever from the crowds, stress, bad weather warnings, stress, crowds and stress.

I choose to look at the glass half full, though.  Today was a great day, despite things going just terribly on the "let's keep CDS going well" side. 

And I was lucky enough to get to watch the fireworks!  Best. Thing. Ever!  I've become fairly numb to the "normal" Disney fireworks shows since I've seen them so many times.  I mean, they're still incredibly impressive, but I've seen them so much I don't stop in my tracks anymore.  These fireworks tonight literally blew the pants off of any fireworks show I've ever seen in my entire life though, comparable to the Christmas ones and maybe even a teensy bit better!  And we got a great view, too, without having to deal very much with the crowds.  Geez, I'm sooooooo glad I'm not a PAC CM anymore.  At the same time, I absolutely respect anyone who works a PAC shift at Disney on a Holiday.  One of the hardest things I've done in my entire life... and I had to do it several times.

But the fireworks?  So.  Freaking. Awesome.  I love my job.  I love my life.

God Bless America.  I love this country.  And will be slightly sad to be leaving it in just 47 days...  However, I do hear that China has decent fireworks too. :)

You Know Your Job Rocks When...

I love the smell of smoke from the fireworks in the tunnels.  One of my favorite things, EVER!

People in my department think it's funny to make me laugh right before answering a phone call.  We just get too crazy sometimes.  Today I had a few calls where I just plain couldn't stop laughing...

I worked in Foods today.  It's the easiest of the areas I can work because I just wait for people to call me and then answer their requests.  Really nice and relaxing.

Even now that I've worked here since January, I'm still learning new things.  Every day, it seems, something new happens (or breaks) and I have to figure something else out.

I love parking in the "Manager" parking lot.  It makes me feel official.  I don't really choose to park there very often, but it's always fun when I do.

My favorite phone calls are the ones that aren't time changes and call ins.  I love super random calls.  Especially when I ask people where they work and their answer is, "Oh, Disney World."  No wait... that last thing I hate.

I love getting phone calls from people I know and then being all like, "Yeah, I know you!  Muahahaha!"

I love going home at night right when the fireworks begin going off!  LOVE IT!

Sometimes I miss working on stage.  I miss having funny guest stories (even though I have quite a few funny Cast stories I could tell, but not sure I should) to tell.  I miss being in the middle of the magic and happiness.  I miss walking around instead of sitting in a boring chair all day long.  But still, I have to say, I LOVE my job.

Oh CDS

In case I haven't mentioned it before, they tried to update CDS again this week.  And, again, it keeps crashing.  Fortunately, the updates continue to improve and I didn't have tons of trouble.  Just that random, uncalled for logging you out in the middle of something.  Annoying.  I wonder if it'll be any better today than it was Tuesday, the last day I worked.

I feel like a lot has happened lately.  My roommate and I tried to go to the beach on Wednesday because we both actually had the day off together!  Super exciting actually!  We went to Port Canaveral.  We were on the beach for less than an hour before they closed it down due to weather, though.  Unfortunate... but we also got to go in the cool shops... and had roommate/girl bonding time.  It was fun!

Thursday I went to EPCOT with a friend.  And then Institute was that night.  I stayed after and played basketball with some guys.  Apparently there's this game called "21" in basketball which is basically 1 on 1 plus 1.  We were each on our own team individually.  Three players.  I scored 2.1 points, thank you very much!  I ended up making them count when I hit the rim as .1 point because I fail so bad!  Actually, I'd rather look at it as the fact that Mike is just really good.  I'm not sure they necessarily went along with my .1 idea.. but I liked it!  In my defense I was playing barefoot (I didn't wear basketball shoes to Institute). (Also, I just noticed that 2.1 is 21 with a dot... so technically... I should have won, right?)

Anyway.  This morning I went to work my first official shift at Give Kids the World by myself.  I worked in the Hula Hut and set out breakfast and such for people to come eat.  It was a lot of fun, actually.  I seriously can't even WAIT to volunteer again.  This is just such a great organization and I learn so much from the people I work with.  Everyone just has such interesting stories.

So now I'm headed off to work soon.  I'm in Merchandise today.  Recently they've been sending us all around the department.  I didn't even realize I was technically trained in Foods and Merch, but I've been working shifts there so I guess it's good.  But I do miss Operations.  I miss the people in Operations and I miss the structure.  Foods is the least structured.  When I worked there I literally just answered the radio when it rang.  I didn't have to worry about regular updates or the number of minutes we were behind on breaks or even the bumpouts!  Crazy!  Merch is a little harder, and we do give regular updates.  It's a lot more straightforward than Ops though.  You can just drop certain registers if you have to and you don't have to worry about safety critical things in most areas.

I love Ops.  It just feels like home.  I'll be back tomorrow.  But today is Merch.  Also the new interns started this week.  And one of them shadowed me on Sunday!  I decided I like it when people shadow me.  It makes me feel like I know what I'm doing! Gosh I love my job!

Funny Guests

As stressful and difficult it can be to work with guests, I do miss it sometimes.  It makes for great stories, that's for sure.  A few weeks ago I was working Safaris.  I was at the departure dock opening the gates to let guests on.  This woman came up to me and asked in her cute English accent, "How can you be so jolly with all these darn people around!?"  I appreciated the compliment. :)

Today I was working the Fastpass entrance queue.  A family came up to me and I noticed the older couple had on the "Happy Anniversary" buttons.  As I let them through I said, "Oh!  Happy anniversary!  How many years?"  The husband answered, "50!"  "Wooooow.  That's wonderful, congratulations!  That sure is a long time." "Yeah, well.  It wasn't all with the same one.  It's fifty all combined together ya know."  He said this sarcastically enough that even I realized it was a joke and the whole family was laughing.  I didn't quite know how to respond.  Then he continued.  "She's my fifth.  Every ten years or so I get an upgraded edition.  This is the best one yet."  The old woman walked past me laughing, "Yeah, right.  Do I look like an upgraded edition?"

I can't believe he said that about his wife.  But I couldn't stop laughing about it for five minutes.

Also, I have to admit, I still haven't stopped using my elephant fact of, "The mother elephant carries it's babies for 22 months!"  I can't get enough of hearing the little kids in the back ask their parents, "But mom... where does the mommy carry the baby?"  Those conversations get really funny, really quickly.

Also, I got to see baby warthogs for the first time today!  I'm so happy I finally get to see them!

What a great day!  People really are quite funny.

Disney's New Art of Animation Resort!

My roommates and I were allowed to go to a "test night" at the new Disney's Art of Animation Resort this past weekend.  It doesn't open until the 31st to normal people, so this was really, really exciting that we go to be the first people to be there!  We even got the first test night, too!

I have to say, I didn't think Disney could blow my mind anymore.  But really, when it comes to staying in a Disney resort as opposed to some other hotel around property, it's totally worth it.  Despite the higher price.  Although our price was free, so I can't really judge. :)

 

Elizabeth, standing outside the Animation Hall (the main building where you check in).  It's incredibly colorful, and all about ART! 

John Lasseter himself signed one of the paintings on the chandelier.



 The resort consists of four "sections" of buildings you can stay in.  Currently, the only set opening is the Nemo building.  So we stayed in Nemo.  Cars will open next, then The Lion King, followed by The Little Mermaid themed section.  Of course, I can't wait for The Lion King to open.  But that won't be until August, just days after I leave.  I'm terribly offended by this.

However, the food court still have a Lion King themed section you could sit in.  This worked for me!  I made us sit here as we ate our meals.  Which also happened to be free!

We then proceeded to the room. The room keys had the little chips in them so you don't have to swipe.  Just hold your key up to the door and it clicks open!  And there's a "hidden Mickey" on the lock.

I had never gotten to use an Inova bed before.  So this part was pretty cool.  And actually, this was the bed I slept on.

I LOVE the picture of sleeping Nemo on the inside.  You can only barely see it in this picture, but there are some LED lights above and a little dial where you can turn off the lights and such without getting up and without taking up space on the nightstand!  And in this picture you can sort of see into the master bedroom.

 This is the living room.  I love how ocean themed it is.  Every detail is just so well thought out it blows my mind!  And below is the master bed.  We decided it was kind of small.  We don't get why this bed isn't King size...  It was still nice, though.  And, of course, no Disney room is complete without a Mickey Mouse towel!

 One of the two bathrooms.  Notice how the mirror says "Fish are friends..."  They were going to put "not food" except that they serve fish in the food court... so that wouldn't have really gone down very well...  So they just stuck with the first half of the quote I guess.









Back in the living room.  The TV was great and the drawers were nice and big.  That orange chair looks really cool... but I found it incredibly uncomfortable.  My roommate liked it though.

 Just another part of the theming.  I just love Disney and their creative towel pet things.  We had stuff like this at Pop Century too. 

 This is the other bathroom, I think.  We were literally the first people to ever stay in this room.  Ever.  That said... we did have some trouble turning on the shower for the first time.  It was stuck really tight.  We eventually got it, though.

 They gave us free popcorn to "test the microwave with."  Really awesome, but it smelled kind of funny!

 Next Elizabeth and I visited the arcade.  We got there way earlier than our other two roommates.  I totally beat the snot out of her at air hockey.  Actually... I think it was a close tie.  Whatever.

A storm was coming, so I didn't really get a good photo of the pool area.  Which is lame, because the pool totally rocked!  It's the biggest pool on Disney property.  And it has underwater speakers.  It was possibly the coolest thing ever to listen to Hannah Montana above water and then old country music below water.  Loved it!  Plus there's a kid play area around there too.  And a pool bar called "The Drop Off."

 This was our building.  There was talk about how often the seagulls are going to go off saying "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!"  At first they were going to have it going all the time.  But then they decided that would get annoying to the lifeguards and those in the pool.  So then they considered once an hour on the hour.  And even that seemed like too much.  But for now they said they're going to leave it at every hour and go from there.  They were completely turned off for our stay though.

 This is long enough.  But stay tuned for the photos of the Cars building!  We got to take the tour in there.  Even though it's not opened, we were allowed to do a walk through.  It's so stinking awesome! This was the best 18 hour vacation of my life!

Loving Safaris and DAR

I haven't worked at Safaris in a while.  Since I last worked, they've gotten three new lions (cubs... sort of... more teens in lion years), baby warthog piglets, the pregnant rhino had her baby, and there's a new reticulated giraffe.  And there is no longer Wilson which means it's the new spiel.  And some minor operating changes (particularly the new Fastpass stuff, yeah, it's been a while).  I've been trained on all of this, but have yet to have actually practice any of it.

I've been wanting to pick up shifts there for a while, but it just hasn't worked out.  But today, I finally found a 10.75 hour shift on EHH.  And I definitely just picked it up.  Bring on the extra hours!!!

And, bring on the Safaris!  I have no idea what's going to happen next week when I work this brand new safari with a totally different spiel!  But I am sure it'll be awesome!

You know what else is awesome about next week?  My roommate, who is on the opening team for the new DAR (Disney's Art of Animation Resort) gets one free "test" night to stay in a room with some friends (and apparently "test meals" are included too, but we're not sure that all four of us will get to participate in that just yet).  And so the girls of our apartment will be chilling in the new resort next week for FREE before it's even opened!

Oh, and I just paid for my plane ticket to China today.  Just throwing that on top there as well.

I have the best life EVER!

Lessons Learned

We had a meeting today.  It was actually incredibly informative.  And it made me feel really important, you know, being a meeting and all.  It was complete with a Powerpoint presentation.  However, there were only four slides.  And one of them was the intro slide that just said something like "Ops Meeting, May 5, 2012" or something.

I've really been learning a lot lately about companies and how they're run.  And how everything is interconnected. I mean, just how the simple act of dropping a position for a few hours could affect that area's workload for a year from now!  There is so much detail and research done to figure out things like budgets and workloads and efficiency it blows my mind!  I've been learning about budgets and how money is spread throughout organizations.

I've learned how much our department depends on other departments.  We are all so interconnected.  The front line workers really depend on our department to get things right.  When other places make mistakes, it messes us up.  And when I make mistakes, it messes them up.  We all really, really depend on each other.

We looked at some charts and graphs in the meeting today showing trends in our area.  The goal was for the red graph to show a downward trend, and the blue one to go upward.  As they showed us certain areas that were doing better than others, I was surprised that no individual names were mentioned.  While Disney certainly has enough research to pick and choose names of the individuals making these graphs worse, the leaders didn't do that.  They simply pointed out that, as a team, we are improving, but certain areas are struggling more than others and we need to continue to work hard to get these numbers in the right directions.  It made me realize how I really am part of a team.  And that as much as I can succeed individually at what I do, and even get recognized for it, the team as a whole needs to be successful.  And if the team isn't successful, then my success isn't really even there.

I've learned about being detail oriented.  It's oh so easy sometimes to try and change a CMs shift as quickly as I can and skip over important steps.  Like in some situations it is kind of annoying to take those extra steps to recalculate someone's breaks.  But, if I skip it, first of all that's illegal because that person's getting paid incorrectly and could go to the union and create all kinds of mayhem.  But second of all, chances are I'll get a call a few hours later from their leader telling me to fix it anyway.  Or I'll just be creating more work for someone else.  It's best just to do things right the first time and not try to skip steps because I think I'm in a hurry.

I learned a lot about people working as a front line Cast Member.  But now, I'm definitely grateful for the experience of working in an office.  It's not something I want to do long term, that's for sure.  But for now I'm really learning a lot and loving every minute of it.  Even if it gets stressful at times.

Also, I've learned about Murphy's Law.  And how it applies.  Every single time I choose to answer the phopne, my radio will go off as soon as I pick it up.  Every time.

Dumb Technology...

Technology has not been on our side this last few days.  On Sunday (or maybe it was Monday... I don't actually remember), the radios decided not to work.  Like, the signal just plain wasn't there most of the day.  And in the rare case that it was there, it would cut out in the middle or we had to keep saying "10-9?" "What?"  "Repeat please?"  So weird!  However, I learned it was much easier to deal with that, than the problem we encountered the next day.

We had CDS issues next.  They "updated" it.  I came into work Tuesday and stood by the guy whose radio I was taking.  "How's it been?"  "Terrible."  Now, the people in my office have gotten into the habit of lying to me because they think my gullibility is funny.  So this time I didn't believe him.  And this time, he was telling the truth.

I sat down, logged in, got some calls, and began working on it.  I clicked on the box where we open up the tree to go to a specific location.  Except that the tree was no longer there!  "What?  No tree?"  I exclaimed.  The guy beside me snickered.  "Yeah, that's a new feature."  No no.  It was supposed to be there.  Just it was broken and only showing me Dinoland Ops.  And I needed Future World.

Then I finally got the location to pop up (had to memorize the name and just type it in) and I clicked to open it.  "This is taking forever!"  I said.  "That's a new feature too!" He told me.

I finally got the location to open and clicked the CMs name who I had to change.  Loading.... loading...

and then CDS crashed and logged me out.  "New feature!"  The guy beside me said happily after I yelled "NOOOOO!" at my computer.  "Now it randomly logs you out throughout the day!"

Then, apparently (I didn't work yesterday, but heard from one of my friends), they undid the update. Needless to say, work has been exceptionally stressful these past few days.  It's reeeeeeallly hard to do my job when the systems aren't working right.  Not only hard, but stressful.  Because the people who aren't using the systems and are asking for help aren't necessarily patient and don't necessarily understand what's happening on our end and how it's not my fault!

On a happier note I still love my job.  Most of the stress has just gotten to the point that I just laugh.  That's all that's left for me to do.  I can laugh, or get angry.  I choose loopy laughter.  Really, there's nothing much to get angry about.  Fortunately, I work in a place where my bosses are wonderful.  The other day I was telling a manager about my fears of getting bad feedback for a certain situation.  She laughed at me and told me what someone else told her.  "Babies are not dying if you don't do your job correctly."  It's just not a big deal.

Thank.  Freaking.  Goodness.

I've learned a lot since working in an office environment "backstage."  I've certainly learned that offices are breeding grounds for gossip.  But also, from what I've heard, this Disney office is apparently one of the best offices to work in compared to a lot of "outside" offices.  Sometimes our bosses even give us free pancakes!  Well... that was just the one time.  But I still like it!

I really love my job.  I'll be sad to leave in a few months.  But I'm so happy for this experience and wouldn't change it for a second.  And, I can't wait to come back already!

Luckiest Kid!

Next week, Safaris changes forever.  A new spiel.  No more Wilson.  No more poachers.  No more baby elephant at the end.  So very different.

Of course, I was worried about them changing the spiel.  It will never be the same.  But I asked some managers and we worked together and I am lucky enough that they set it up so that I can still pick up safari shifts!  I'll have to learn some new stuff (we're getting some new animals and baby warthogs!).  And memorize some other stuff.  But I am 100% happy to do it.  Especially if it means I get to keep driving my trucks!  So I have a shift set up for tomorrow and hopefully, I'll be able to learn everything quickly enough that I can still pick up the shifts.

I think I love safaris even more now, even though I don't even work there anymore.  So awesome.

Not that I don't love Deployment.  Because seriously, I love Deployment as well.  I love feeling like I'm a part of management!  It's just awesome and amazing.  I am so ridiculously lucky.

RIP - In Memory...

I heard the news last Wednesday.  A CP student was killed in a hit and run accident around the Crossroads area this past Tuesday night.  Someone told me during my Safari shift on Wednesday morning.  They finally found the lady who did it and are doing an investigation.  They think she was driving drunk.

Of course I felt sad, but didn't think much of it.  I don't know CPs anymore.  I still went home and looked it up.  Just to make sure it wasn't another one of those rumors that goes around.  I found out it was actually an ICP.  International College Program student.  An Asian girl.

Today in church they announced that Lydya, the only Asian ICP I know currently, knew, was killed on Tuesday night.

I was shocked.  Lydya.  The Chinese girl.  She had been coming to our ward for a while.  She and her uncle who lives here in the States had converted, I believe.  She was the one who was supposed to help me with my Chinese.  The one who was so excited for me to come visit her and her family in China.  The one who was always so incredibly happy.  The one who would help me with my lesson plans because I'm moving to China soon.

And now she's gone.  I will never see her bright, happy face again.

I didn't know her that well.  I hadn't even seen her for a few weeks.  But I'm definitely sad that she's gone.  Her family's not reading this, but I certainly wish they could know what a great person she was. She will for sure be missed.

Best Safari Shift Ever!

I know I've said this a lot, but seriously.  Today I had the best safari shift EVER!  For real this time!

It all started when I picked up the shift from EHH.  Because seriously, I love safaris so much just the fact that I was working there for the first time in a  month had me excited.  When I got to work, bright and early at 7am, I was notified that it was Cast Appreciation Day!  Score!!!  Free food!

So then I went to work. Opened a truck, went through a few rounds, asked for an extend on my shift (I wanted more hours cuz it was so fun) and they approved it!

I got another truck and when I drove up to the departure dock, for the first time ever, I got red flashing lights.  Red flashing lights is bad.  I've never gotten it before, but I've heard about it.  I wasn't really sure what to do, but I called it in.  Despite the fact that my truck appeared safe to load, the red flashing lights meant something was wrong so I'd have to try again.  Under normal circumstances, I'd just take the truck off the nearest exit, quickly drive it back on, and try again.  But, the nearest exit was actually closed for some freak reason, so I got to do an entire empty round!  So awesome!  And no worries, the next time I docked it worked out fine... but I'm still not sure how I managed to get red flashing lights...  someone told me that particular truck does that sometimes lately though.

So I did another round with guests and drove up to the exit dock.  And there, waiting for me, was a backstage safari.  This means I hand the mic over to someone else and all I have to do is drive around and listen to her spiel.  Love it!

After that I got my 45 minute break meaning I had time to go to the cast appreciation event.  I walked over there and grabbed some food and sat down at a table of my fellow safari-ers.  Shortly after, the prizes lady started walking around looking for people to hand out random prizes to.  This one girl got a DVD of Finding Nemo!  Someone else got a digital camera.  Then she walked around looking for the third person.  My friends were going nuts this whole time, standing up, screaming, yelling, shouting, the works.  I was laughing at them, and smiling and trying to yell.  Honestly, I was torn between trying to be invisible and wanting to fit in.  I find myself in that situation a lot.  So funny.

Anyway, the lady finally walked over to our table.  I knew that it would be one of the screamers.  I looked down at my baked beans and started eating, trying to be invisible.  Then I heard the lady say, as she walked around the table, "Hmmm, I think I'll pick... the quietest person at the loudest table!"

I looked up.  Yep.  Every eye on me.  She made me turn beet red in front of everyone and then gave me an Ipod shuffle. 

I received an Ipod shuffle because I have loud, crazy, obnoxious friends.

I freakin' LOVE my job!!!  I felt bad for a bit and tried to offer the Ipod to one of them.  But it was really one of the funniest things ever, and my safari friends just laughed. 

So then, after getting my giant chocolate cupcake and a magical cup that's green but turns blue when you put cold stuff in it, I went back to play work.  I drove a few more safaris and had some very fun guests.  Definitely one of the best days ever.  And then, just as I was beginning to get tired because I only slept for five hours last night (that's how excited I was for this shift today, seriously), someone came to bump me off of my truck and it turned out I got an Early release from my extend.  Right, exactly, in perfect timing.

Such a great day.  My life is so totally awesome.

Not that I don't love Deployment.  Cuz I totally do.  But I love Safaris as well.  I am so ridiculously lucky it drives me crazy.

Systems Day

It's getting harder and harder to blog regularly because of all the awesome stuff I want to write about, but either can't or don't want to.  Laaaame.

Anyway, a lot has been going on these past few weeks too with my brother getting married and then friends visiting.  Now, life is finally back to normal and I have not one, but TWO Safari shifts this week!  The awesome thing about working at Safaris on my day off is that it doesn't even feel like work anymore it's so much fun!  Doing it every day, day after day, for weeks and months at a time got a little old.  But now, it's so much fun to do every once in a while.  To go see my friends, remembering my facts about animals, meeting the guests again, oh my gosh I LOVE it!

This past Friday we had a switch out of the norm as well.  Instead of a normal schedule, I had an eight hour "systems day" on my schedule, as well as a six hour shift after that.  Loooooong day.  At Systems Day, they brought in people from around the Company who created a lot of the computer systems we use, or at least were incredibly knowledgeable about them.  And they taught us more about them and answered questions and such.

I'll be honest, before the CDS people came in, I had a bad attitude about CDS.  It's a great program, and certainly does a LOT of different incredible things.  In fact, it already amazes me at what it can do.  But in February, just after I came out of training, they "updated" it. And this "update" ruined a lot of random stuff and it's been incredible annoying.  So, when the CDS lady came in, she may have even expected to be bombarded with the two hundred questions about "why won't this work, and when are you going to fix it!?"

She was extremely nice, though.  And then started to explain the details of what happens with CDS.  With computer programs, especially that detailed, you can't "just fix" something.  Biggest thing I learned at systems day.  It took about eight seconds of her beginning to explain how CDS worked and the tests they have to do to add a simple checkbox on a screen and I completely didn't feel bad anymore.  It's so ridiculously detailed!

And the good news is that they coming out with another update here in just a week or two.  Hopefully that will fix all the things that broke in the last update.  And they're undoing some of the things from the last update that slowed down CDS, because honestly, we would much prefer speed over just about anything.

Anyway, Systems Day was fun, and it made me efel smart and special to be in a conference room watching a powerpoint. :)

I love my job!

Tornado At Work

CDS died today.  Only for a total of about five minutes.  But it was probably the craziest five minutes ever.  CDS is the computer system that basically runs Disney, so when it dies, things go crazy.  Of course, Disney has back up plans and can still run without it... I've actually been in that situation before as a CM and am always impressed at our management's ability to suddenly cope without technology.  Of course, it's much, much more difficult that way.  Literally as soon as it died the noise level in our department tripled and phones started ringing off the hook (we're apparently the CDS help line and everyone thinks if they call us we'll magically make it work... except that we're not IT)

My computer was also going unbelievably slow.  I mean, to extend a cast member, which normally takes me about a minute, too me almost ten minutes, and that's only because I finally just had the girl beside me do it on her computer because mine wasn't working.  Stupid computers.  Stupid computer systems.  So annoying.  The worst part is that they just put in this "upgraded" version of CDS.  But it's only been worse.  But I think it was just that computer I was on that was slow because when I switched computers the new one was much quicker.

The good part is that there are actually like five different computer systems we use and the others worked fine.  And then CDS was working again.  So all was good.  But it seriously felt like a tornado blew through temporarily.  Everything was just crazy.

In other news a new song played on the radio today.  I never know whether or not I should be excited when I hear a new song on the radio.  On the one hand, I'm glad to hear something new.  On the other, I know that that new song will now be overplayed a million and a half times and I'll get sick of it and no longer enjoy it.

I'm eating chocolate again.  That's something else that's noteworthy.  My roommate and I went to IHOP today in celebration and I got chocolate chip pancakes.  Then I got chocolate ice cream at work and then Kim made the best homemade chocolate chip cookies EVER when I came home from work.  I consider it okay that I get to spend one day of my life eating all the chocolate I want after going more than 40 days without.  I'm glad I did it.  But I'm also glad it's over!

Anyway, it's going to be a fun week!  I can't wait for my brother's wedding!  And then some friends are going to be in town next week.  We made reservations at the Garden Grill at one point as well.  I'm definitely excited!  I love that restaurant.

Note To Cast Members

When asked where you work, answers such as "Downtown Disney" and "Merchandise" don't count as real answers.  In fact, that tells me nothing about where you work.  Just notating that.

Also, if you're late to your shift, you can't just call Deployment and have them change your time.  It's a good try, but it's not that easy. :)

My favorite thing about my hours lately are that I've been finishing right as the fireworks go off!  I love walking through the parking lot, hearing all the car alarms going crazy.  One of the most wonderful things ever.

On a different note, only two days before I get to eat chocolate again!  Really only one more day I have to go without chocolate.  I gave it up for lent.  I'm glad I did... but at the same time I'm not sure I'll ever do it again.  I don't really feel that much healthier.

Give Kids the World

I wish I had taken photos of tonight.  I forgot to bring my camera.  But no worries, there will be other opportunities. I am definitely going back to Give Kids the World to volunteer.  I don't think I have ever been so happy to help people in my entire life.

I signed up like a month ago to join this random team from Disney who was going to volunteer.  Disney's cool like that and is always sending groups over, but I've never been able to commit any of the other times because of my crazy schedule.  But tonight, it worked out!

So we served Christmas dinner to the kids in the Gingerbread House tonight.  Every Thursday night is Christmas.  To be honest, I don't even know what they served for dinner, I was busing.  At first, I was a little bummed to be busing as I was expecting to serve food, but it turned out to be possibly the best time I've ever had busing tables.

The families were sincerely some of the best people I've ever met in my entire life.  All of them, so happy, so grateful, so kind, loving, and just to reiterate, happy.

We carried the trays for the families to the tables, especially the ones with little kids (it was cafeteria style).  Then walked around tables asking if people wanted refills on drinks (we weren't technically supposed to do that, but those cups are TINY! it's impossible not to).  Then cleaned and bussed after the family was done.  At one point I asked a family if I could take their dishes and the little boy in the wheelchair held up his little bowl of corn.  Just a few kernels were left in it, but as I reached for it his mom said, "No honey, look.  There's still corn in there.  We don't waste food."

Normally when a parent tells a kid to finish their vegetables there's at least a bit of a fight.  This boy put the bowl down and looked at it.  Then looked at me grinning.  "Oops.  One second.  I have one more bite!"  His dad helped him scoop out that last bite of corn, and really it ended up being two bites.  He obediently ate it and then held his plate high to me to take away, with a huge smile on his face.  And then he told me "thank you." 

You would think a family who was getting unlimited food for free for a week wouldn't even notice that.  But these people notice everything.  Most of the plates were entirely spotless.  Cleaner than when I used to bus tables at Texas Steakhouse.

It's funny how, when you take money out of the equation, it changes people.  Well, I guess you take money out and put in some life threatening illnesses, it really changes them.  The truth is, I didn't even think once about how these children were so sick tonight.  It hardly even occurred to me until I was on my way home and started thinking about that little boy with the tube in his throat playing the clapping games with his dad and showing me how he could dance.  The girl who we carried the tray for because she couldn't walk without her crutches.  The kid who was in that wheelchair finishing his corn.

No, I didn't cry.  No one did.  We were all having too much fun seeing Santa and getting ready for the little parade.  We had too much fun laughing with the little kids and meeting the families.  I had too much fun meeting the people I was working with.  The guy I was busing with was from Alabama and was visiting here on some conference for work (he's some important guy that works at Sam's Club).  There were also some kids from a college in Minnesota.  They said for their Spring break they chose to go on a service trip down here for a week and help out at GKtW.

I felt so humbled by the incredible families and their joyful lives.  So humbled by the people who travel hundreds of miles and choose to go to Give Kids the World, when I live twenty minutes away and this was my first time.  It felt like I visited a whole different world tonight.  And I certainly plan on going back to it.  I just hope it will always be my choice to be there.

Men vs. Women

Our shower has gotten some rust stains in it recently.  I was really worried about the rust, even though it was just a tiny bit.  I was worried it would be permanent and that we'd be charged the price of an entirely new shower when we moved out because it's been totally and entirely ruined.  I worry like that.

Well, after talking with my roommate, we decided to go online and see if we could fix these rust stains ourselves.  We searched and searched and eventually started Youtube-ing things to figure out what would actually work.

In doing this, I learned a little more than just how to get rust out of a shower.  All of the videos we watched that were created by women had fixes using household products such as salt, vinegar, cream of tartar, etc. 

The videos made by men only included power tools. 

One dude has this funny looking buffer/sander type thing he used on it.

Considering "the girl way" is far cheaper and simpler, and less dangerous (power tools in a bathtub, really?) I went with that.  Even if it's not as fast.  It hasn't been quite as effective.  I've now done the salt + lemon juice thing twice and the cream of tartar + vinegar thing twice and still have a little bit left.  But, I refuse to spend money on power tools. 

Gotta love the internet and all you can learn from it.

The Hunger Games

After Harry Potter became my favorite book series ever, I was fairly certain no other book would capture me as well as it did.  Then Twilight came out and proved my theory even more accurate.  So when The Hunger Games series became "all that" I was very skeptical.

But my roommate Kim just loves to read and talked me into at least trying to read the book.  And I have to admit, she got me hooked.  If I didn't have work and sleep to deal with I would have read the whole book in a day!  Okay, no, I'll be honest, it took me a few chapters to really get into it because I was so determined to not like the book.  Especially since it is slightly horrific!  In fact, I'm a little nervous to see the movie because of the violence I know will be in it.

Oh yes, the movie.  It comes out Thursday.  I picked a great time to get into this series!  I finished the first book last night and have two more to go.

I would definitely highly recommend it.  I was skeptical at first, especially with how totally horrible and demonic it is, but I think it's leading to something great.  At least, I hope so.

I'll check back in when I'm done with the next two books!

First Phones Shift

Today was my first phones shift.  I'm running out of firsts, as I've been working here almost two months now.  But I still want to consider myself the "new person" as long as I can until I stop making mistakes.

Well, one of our systems has been down for the past day.  I can't tell you what a huge hassle this has been.  It's been messing up clocking, ERs, extends, call ins, basically everything with the resorts.  None of the cast member's schedules came out today like they were supposed to.  Well, they were made and were ready to come out.  But the system that allows you to see your schedule from home was the one that was down.  At one point, cast members couldn't even log into the Hub, and we were getting calls about that.

And me being on phones, I was dealing with it first hand.  Absolutely crazy, but so much fun.  It kept me on my toes today as I took care of everything.  I was far busier than I thought I'd be but it was still so much fun.

It's very satisfying to have a job where I solve problems all day long.  Slightly repetitive sometimes, but very satisfying.  I love it!

Learn Something New Every Day

Today I learned that Spinach tortillas at Publix are exactly one penny cheaper than at Wal Mart!  I didn't think that was possible!

 I learned that eating Mrs. Freshleys powdered sugar donuts, while very messy, are almost as satisfying as chocolate.  Oh, yeah, so did I mention I'm not eating chocolate?  It's for lent.

I also learned that instead of going until Easter Sunday without eating chocolate, I only have to go til Palm Sunday which is the week before!  Which means I can eat chocolate at my brother's wedding!

And I learned that the radio that I thought I hated, isn't too bad as long as the locations are staffed well.  Yesterday was a great day.  And I intend to have more of those days.

Florida Wildlife

I go running every once in a while.  I really appreciate the fact that we have sidewalks all around where I live.  When I first moved here, I'd hoped to run to Disney since it's so close, but since realized there are no sidewalks to get there, it seemed just a tad too dangerous.  Maybe if I had a bike...

Anyway.  I've run up and down our road numerous times and it's always nice.  Along the sidewalk, I pass by several lakes.  Really they're like ponds.  They seem to small for lakes but too big for ponds.  But you know what I mean... As I run past them I'm always imagining alligators coming out to attack me.  There's not a lot to think about when I'm running, okay?

So, inside my head, these alligators come out of the water and attack me.  This makes me run slightly faster as I eye the water suspiciously.  Then I usually spot some sort of bird or duck in the water and it makes me feel better.  If I were an alligator, I'd want to eat the convenient ducky before trying to attack something almost the same size as I am that's twenty feet away from the water.  My run continues.

Well, I'll be honest about running.  A lot of my run is spent jogging, or even *gasp* walking.  Speed walking, though.  I'm not terribly lazy.  So I was power walking and listening to my music today, when I came across something far scarier than an alligator.  Mainly because this animal was actually real and up close to me instead of a made up situation in my head.  I heard something rustle a little in the bushes.  And then saw something black slithering around.  Snaaaake!  A black, three foot long, scary, nasty, slithery, horrible, snake.

I didn't actually know that I was afraid of snakes.  I've held snakes before and everything!  But not this snake.  The snake slithered away before I even had time to register how totally freaked out I was.  In fact, I think the snake was as scared of me as I was of him!  Immediately I ran.  I mean I ran away from there as fast as my legs would take me after having already run jogged power walked my way two miles down the road and one mile back.  I was exhausted, but suddenly the adrenaline gave me all the energy I needed to finish my run.  The good news in all of this is that I got a super good workout.  Also, I'm not dead from snake venom.

The bad news is I never want to run again.  What if that snake was poisonous?  What if it had bitten me?

Okay, so I'll keep running.  But next time I'm bringing my cell phone with me.  Just in case.

Working Overnights

I worked 7:30pm-4am last night/this morning.  I thought this shift would be easier than the 4am-12:30am shifts for some reason. 

It wasn't.  Not at all.  Especially when I've been waking up between 4:30am-7am for the past month.  And then suddenly I have to stay awake until after 4am.  Bleeeeeeeh.  So freaking difficult!

I kept getting into trouble for "looking tired."  The girl I was training with, however, was somehow plenty awake the whole time.  I didn't even see her yawn once.

She yelled at me, "What the heck?  You're not a morning person, and you're not a night person?  What kind of person are you!?"

"The kind that needs sleep!"

Staying up til 4am is the worst thing ever.  I'm soooooo glad I didn't choose those shifts when I did my schedule bid.  Thank goodness it's almost over!

I Can't Wait!

New changes to safaris.  I can't even express how excited I am for this!  I hope they still let me drive the trucks!  Chances are lookin' a little slim, though, since I'm going to China and all.

ZEBRAS!!!!!!

I can't WAIT!!!

On Toilets...

We fixed our toilet this week!  From the day I moved in here I noticed that it ran constantly.  Fortunately, toilets are extremely easy contraptions to deal with.  At least, any problem I've ever had with a toilet has been easy to deal with (knock on wood).  But after a tiny investigation I discovered that our toilet flapper thing was very misshapen.  So I ran to the store on the way home today (yes, it took me a month to get around to it) and bought a new one for $1.97 plus tax.  We were apparently supposed to turn off the water to the toilet before switching them, but neither my roommate, nor I, could figure out how to do that, so we just switched them out as quickly as we could.  And it worked!  It actually stopped running!  Thank, stinking, goodness!

Annnnd, I got a tour of the Feature Animation building over by Hollywood Studios today.  It's where movies like Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, and Brother Bear were created.  Really, really awesome.

And that is all. :) 

On Costumes

I picked up another Safaris shift yesterday.  I really miss that place.  The people, the trucks, the animals, the trucks, the long breaks and the trucks.  I love it all!

Well, as I made my five minute walk down to my car, these guys in a golf cart came speeding around the corner.  I kind of jumped out of the way and they noticed me at the last second and slammed the brakes.  Then, the guy driving looked at me and his first words were not, "Oh, sorry!  I didn't see you."  No.  His eyes were all big, then he saw me, smiled and said, "Heh, I like your costume."  And they drove off.

Seriously?  I  couldn't help but laugh.

I'm normally extremely averse to wearing Disney costumes in public.  Any time I go to Walmart and see cast members with their IDs out and their Disney shirts untucked it just makes me mad.  I'm fairly certain they told us in Traditions not to ever do that.  And I'm a stickler when it comes to rules.  But yesterday, I was coming home from work and I was incredibly thirsty.  I don't have my water bottle anymore so I was in the hot sun all day with nothing to drink because the break room was out of cups.  I even went to the cafeteria on the way to my car but they were closed and had gated off the drinks part.  Including the water fountain.  The only water was another "fill up your cup" station with no cups.  Stupid.

So not only was I thirsty, but I was craving mac & cheese.  My ridiculous cravings made me decide to run through Publix on the way home.  I got out of the car and was halfway in before I remembered I was in my costume, still.  I took off my belt and nametag and unbuttoned my shirt (I had a white tank top on underneath, no worries, but I wasn't about to go into public with just that on).  And I went inside hoping to look as discreet at possible.

I didn't expect everyone to stare at me.  Even more, I didn't expect people to whisper about me as though I didn't have ears.  "Does she work at Disney?"  "Look, that's a cast member."  "Do you think she works in Animal Kingdom?"  I pretended not to notice as I drank from their water fountain for like five minutes straight.  I got up and turned and it was just like in Beauty and the Beast where they were all staring at me and as soon as I turned around they turned back to what they were doing.  So funny.

I grabbed my Mac and Cheese and headed to check out.  As the guy bagged my mac and cheese (and I asked him to un-bag it because I don't like wasting them) he struck up conversation.  "So, do you have to wash that costume yourself?" 

I think I grossly underestimated how much I'd stick out.  Either that or people that shop at Publix just love Cast Members.

PI Group

Our training leaders invited us to an event through our Disney emails.  We have those, ya know.  They told us it wasn't required but was "highly recommended" that we all go.  Just the twelve PIs that is. 

What was this event?  They told us we'd be playing in Hollywood Studios and then having dinner at Applebee's.  Well, they didn't lie.  But we figured out pretty quick that they didn't give us the whole truth.  We spent days trying to guess.


We went to Rock'n Roller Coaster! And not only that, we got to ride with the lights on and music off.  Coolest.  Thing.  EVER!  It's actually scarier with the lights on, though.  And I still had trouble figuring out which way is up.  At the end we were held for a while while they put some limos away.  It's actually kind of scary to be trapped in those restraints at the end for an undetermined amount of time with no one else around.

They considered this a learning experience since in my job we have to know the operations.  But we just found it awesome.

We're such a great group!

I love my job!

The Circle of (My) Life

I still remember the first day I worked at Disney in 2009.  I was scared to death, because the Dianna in me was freaking out, as usual.  The first guest I ever dealt with as a cast member came to my register.  It was register 2 at the Imagination Pavilion.  My trainer was standing next to me and I froze for a second, scared to death thinking about what was going to happen next, entirely unsure of myself, with my mind speeding through every possible scenario of how I would mess this up.  Then, the guest spoke.  "Hi!  Is there any way I could get this shipped to my room, please?"  Her little girl beside her kept messing with the little bouncy balls that we keep by the counter.  It was so normal.  She had no idea I was training.  Her confidence in my abilities to do my job, and the complete calmness she held completely overwhelmed me.  And then, just like that, all that worrying went away and I just did it!  I did my job.  And I did it right.  And it was awesome!

The same thing happened at safaris just months ago.  I was nearly paralyzed with fear as I drove up to the dock to pick up what would be my first set of real guests ever!  I stopped the truck and put it in park and just sat there for a second.  I think I may have even told my trainer, "I can't do it.  I can't."  I was nearly crying.  He told me to say the word.  The code word we have to say showing that we're ready for guests to board.  "Karibuni everybody!"  I said in the most confident voice I could muster, still shaking with fear.  The gates opened and the people flooded on.  As they were chatting amongst themselves, finding their seats, I realized their confidence in me.  Their confidence in Disney, really.  Confidence that this ride would be worth the money.  Worth the wait.  And their confidence that I could present them with that.  And then, just like that, all that worrying went away and I did it.  I continued my spiel not even thinking about worrying.  There was so much stuff to think about there was no more room in my brain for the worrying.  And I did it!

Now I'm encountering those same feelings again as I train this job.  I feel like each time it gets progressively harder.  Today, as my trainer had me answer phone calls and even call a manager for an update, I felt those same feelings rush back.  I called the Future World East manager.  My hand was shaking the radio as I said, "Hi, this is Dianna at Deployment, are you ready for an update?"  My mind was racing with worries of the manager hating me, of stumbling over my words, of not knowing what to say, of saying too many things, of getting things wrong, all the way down to the computer suddenly crashing.  She responded, "Oh yes!  I'm so glad to hear form you because I was just going to call you.  I needed your help with something else, but go ahead and give me the updates and then I'll tell you what I need too.  Actually it's two things, but go ahead with your update."  No questions asked, she had confidence in me and my abilities to do my job right down to the point where she had questions for me.  A manager.  In EPCOT.  With problems... for me to solve.  Me! But I did it.  Just like that, the worrying went away, and I did it.  And I fixed the problems she had, with help from my trainer, of course!  :)

And so continues a circle in my life.  The lackage and then gainage (I know they're not words.  Deal with it.) of confidence.  I'm grateful for the lessons I learn here at Disney.  I'm glad I can trust my trainers never to give me more than I can handle.  I am learning so much not only about the company, but about myself.  I'm (hopefully) becoming a better person with every semester.  I don't think I'll ever fully be confident with myself.  But that's okay.  I like me anyways.

Also, I like Disney.  And my job.  And my friends.  A whole, stinking lot.