Kindness goes a long way.

I can't believe the act of kindness I was shown today.

I was in Walmart when a foreign couple came up to me with my camera! They asked if it belonged to me and said that they had found it on the ground in the parking lot! It turns out I had accidentally dropped it and they knew who to find because they looked through the photos on the camera and recognized my suitemate and I! It was so incredibly kind of them to attempt to find me rather than turning it into the store or keeping it for themselves. This just goes to show how kind and wonderful complete strangers can be.

It gives me more motivation to do my job as best as I can. Sometimes I feel like the small things I do don't have much of an impact on people, but then I do something like ask a guest if there's any way I can assist them, or I wish someone a happy birthday, or give a child a Mickey sticker, and the appreciation they show me makes it all worth it.

I know returning a camera is much bigger than giving someone a sticker, but the same idea still applies. Those people had a choice between keeping my camera and giving it back to me, and they decided to give it back. It really made a world of difference and I want that attitude to show in everything I do for people.

Better late than never.

I'm a little late with this but I wanted to post some photos of the resort I stayed at before I checked in for the college program. This place was GORGEOUS! By far the best resort I've ever stayed at. It was the Parc Soleil Suites by Hilton Grand Vacations.

This was the first time I used the panoramic setting on my camera and I think it's pretty cool!

A much better day.

Yesterday I had to work from 1:15 to 10:00, which meant I would have to do my first closing shift!

I woke up at 8:00 in the morning because I couldn't go back to sleep and since I had a lot of extra time, I did something different with my hair, rather than leave it straight, and I didn't feel like I had to rush to put on my costume or do my makeup. And I was able to have breakfast for the first time since I've gotten here.

To be extra sure that I wouldn't be late for work, I took an earlier bus than I needed to. It was weird walking to the bus stop on the way to work with the sun out; I'm so used to going to work at 6:00 when it's still dark outside. So I got on the bus and went to work, where I ended up being an hour early. Fortunately though, the hour went by quickly and before I knew it, I had to clock in!

I met my trainer, who was going to train me and one other girl, as well as the person who was going to train two other people in my group. Our training consisted of sweeping the streets, doing trash runs, and talking to guests.  There isn't much to say about the work itself since it's so simple to do, but after this experience, I'm definitely going to tell people not to knock custodial because it has some major perks. We had to walk behind the "Celebrate a Dream Come True" parade to clean all of the trash in the streets. We also danced in the "Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It Street Party!"  Before the parade started, our trainer told us that he wanted us to dance in the parade and to interact with guests, so we all ran into the streets and danced together. The announcer in the parade even gave us a shout out! It was a lot of fun!

Afterwards, we walked through the lands and learned about specific things that will be on our assessment like code words and safety precautions. Then we got ready for the Main Street Electrical Parade, which was also extremely easy. All we had to do was stand in the Hub, watch the parade, and sweep up whatever trash was on the ground after the parade. We can't do it during the parade because the lights are off and it's a safety hazard, which I certainly don't mind. Then we went back stage and talked with each other and watched Wishes together. From where we were standing, we could only see the top of the castle but the fireworks looked huge. It was much better than being in front of the castle.

Soon after, we walked down Main Street and learned how to do a closing trash run at the turnstiles. Again, it was extremely easy. My favorite thing about closing is seeing Main Street all lit up with very few guests around. I also got to see the Kiss Goodnight, which is just a little thing Disney does at the end of every day to add a little extra magic to a guest's experience.

Once we finished that, it was time to clock out and our trainers asked us if we wanted to go to McDonalds with them. It goes without saying that I would rather hang out people than ride a packed bus for an hour, so I went with them and we had so much fun! Our trainers told us crazy stories about the things they had experienced while working with Disney, and of course they were both very enthusiastic and animated people, so that made their stories sound all the more better. One of my trainer's roommates came along too and he used to be friends with Goofy, Woody, and the Beast, so he told us about the funny things those characters did when he hung out with them.

Then around 12:30, we all decided that it was time to head home since most of us had to be to work the next day. One of the trainers gave everyone a ride home and I was in bed around 1:00, tired and happy.

My costume.

Here is my costume! It could be worse, right?

An unexpected encounter

I forgot to mention this in my other post but yesterday, my group and our trainers walked from back stage into Tomorrowland and guess who was right there?

PUSH, the talking trash can!

For those of you who don't know about him, you can watch a video here.

I didn't think PUSH would come up to us because we were cast members and not guests, but he came over to us almost immediately. He asked us if were training since we had "Earning Our Ears" under our nametag and some things about working for Disney. Then he told us to hold on a second and he started playing Gangam Style and moving around to the music! I don't know how to dance to Gangam Style so I didn't, but everyone else tried, and not very well I might add.

Then we had to leave since we had to continue training but it was definitely a cute first interaction with him! I hope I can talk to him soon as a guest, rather than as a cast member.

My first bad day.

I just got home from work about thirty minutes ago and it certainly didn't go the way I had anticipated it would. Today was my first day of training where I had the opportunity to interact with the guests, and I was really looking forward to it. But for whatever reason, things just didn't go my way.

I'll start with last night since it seems like the last eighteen hours have blended together. My two roommates were at Magic Kingdom so around 9:00, my roommate, Chrissy and I decided to meet them there since we were sitting around the apartment. We ran to the A bus, got dropped off at the Polynesian, took the monorail to Magic Kingdom, and had some fun. Then the park closed at 11:00 and things started to go bad.

We went through the utilidoors, took a short bus ride to a bus stop, and waited for the bus back to our apartment. Unfortunately for us, it had gotten really cold and three of us were dressed inadequately for it, so that put us in a slightly bad mood. We waited for the bus for probably 35 minutes and twenty minutes after its scheduled time, the bus showed up. Since we were leaving Magic Kingdom, there were tons of other cast members trying to go home too, so the bus filled up quickly. My roommates and I decided to stand since we hadn't been working and the cast members who had just gotten off work deserved to sit down. I've never minded having to stand before, but last night I quickly regretted choosing not to take a seat.

Our bus driver kept stopping suddenly which made it really hard to hold on to the hand rails, which caused everyone to fall into one anther. The driver swerved around cars, stopped suddenly in the middle an intersection because of a red light, and seemed to completely disregard the fact that people were standing and that he was compromising our safety. I don't even think I'm properly conveying how reckless he was being, At one point, a cast member yelled at him about how there were too many people standing for him to be driving so crazy and that she would report him, so he got angry. He responded with something like, "This bus is over capacity and it's a $1,000 fine for every extra person on the bus," then he gave her his name in a really sarcastic way, acting as though he didn't care if she reported him. I wasn't sure why he said anything about the bus being over capacity; as if it was our fault. It's the bus driver's responsibility to cut off the number of people getting on to the bus when the it has reached capacity. For the rest of the ride, he seemed to do things out of spite, like making sudden stops and fast turns. The cast member who yelled at him ended up reporting him and she was told that management would be contacted, but I doubt anything will happen.

We ended up getting home around 12:30 and I went straight to bed.  Since I give myself ample time to get to work, I set my alarm for 5:20 A.M. since I planned on catching the 6:30 bus to get to work at 8:00. The next morning, I should have left fifteen minutes before the bus came, but I kept misplacing everything. I couldn't find my ID, then my wallet, then my locker combination. By the time I found my ID, I gave up on finding anything else because I didn't have time, so I grabbed money and left. On top of that, I almost forgot my keys and I didn't have time to put on sunscreen, which was important because I would be outside all day and the sun is like ten miles away from Florida.

Two days before, I had gotten my costume and shoes but today was the first time I was required to wear them. It turns out my shoes were too small even though they felt okay when I tried them on at Costuming and by the time I made it to the bus stop, my feet were already blistering. I then realized I had missed my bus and the next one didn't come until 6:45. This made me really nervous because it takes about 40 minutes to get to work, taking traffic, driving conditions, and the amount of time the bus spends at bus stops into consideration. On top of that, there was a shift change at Vista, so we had to wait for another bus driver to get there and drive us to Westclock. At this point I was having an internal meltdown because I really didn't want to get a half point on my record this early in the game.

Somehow, we ended up getting to Disney with twenty minutes to spare, but I didn't recognize where the bus had dropped us off. I got off the bus, looked around, and realized I wasn't in front of the utilidoors. I ran back onto the bus where another girl was asking where the utilidoors were, and the bus driver had no idea. So we ran off the bus together and asked a cast member for directions. He told us we had to take another bus to get to Westclock, and when we saw the bus stop he was talking about, the bus was already there. Since we didn't want the bus to leave without us, we decided to run and I somehow managed to accidentally trip her! She fell onto the ground and she ripped her tights and scraped her legs. I felt utterly horrible for it. I kept apologizing as I helped her up and grabbed her bag off the ground. We continued to run for the bus but she was half running, half limping while I struggled to run because my shoes were rubbing up against the back of my feet. We got to the bus in time and I kept apologizing and asking if there was anything I could do to help like get first aid but she insisted it was okay. Even though I know it was an accident, I still felt awful about it. (For future reference, Westclock buses come one after the other. You never really have to wait for a bus, but we didn't know that at the time.)

We made it to Westclock in time and after helping the girl to the best of my ability, I went to find the people I was training with. At this point, I was walking on the backs of my shoes to keep my feet from rubbing up against them. That, combined with the uneasy feeling I had that morning and the guilt I felt for causing that girl to fall made me feel like turning around and going home.

Even though I knew there was no way I could go to Costuming before work, I asked my trainers if there was any way I could get a different pair of shoes so I wouldn't be in pain all day. They told me I had to go to Costuming and that the building wouldn't even open until 10:00 that day. That meant I would be forced to walk all around the park and talk to guests while wearing those shoes. Needless to say, I didn't feel very much like making magic. And to my dismay, we walked around every land, through the backstage areas, and interacted with guests from 8:00 until after 1:00. I literally felt like I couldn't walk anymore because my feet were in so much pain, but I kept pushing myself to have a cheerful disposition with every guest I met. I was more nervous to talk to guests than I thought I would be, but my trainer gave me lots of praise for crouching down at children's eye level, talking to people wearing birthday/anniversary/first visit buttons, and referring to kids as "princess," "space ranger," etc. Even though I loved interacting with guests, I was so relieved when we finally took our lunch break.

Since I started training, I've been doing e-learning for two to three hours everyday and I really hate it because it's boring and I always almost fall asleep. But today, I couldn't have been more grateful when it was time to do it. After about two hours of e-learning, our leaders informed us of the chemicals that we'll be using and did a mock BBP (blood born pathogen) clean up. That was torture because we had to stand but I tried to keep my negativity to myself. After what seemed like forever, 4:45 came and I clocked out, then got on the bus to Costuming. When I told a cast member that the shoes were too small, she told me that if I tried to return shoes again, I would have to pay for them. The added pressure made finding the right shoes all the more stressful. I went up a size and it was hard for me to tell if my feet hurt because of the shoes or if it was because they were already aching, but I traded in my old shoes for new ones anyway and got the bus home.

For the first time since I've gotten here, I'm going to take my own advice and go to sleep early. Everyday I've told myself I would, but I haven't. I think my brain and body really need it.

Despite today's series of events and the negative feelings I have had for the last couple days, I'm really trying to keep a positive attitude. Fortunately, the new shoes seem to fit alright and I don't have to work until 1:15 tomorrow. I also got my schedule for the next two weeks and almost everyday is a late shift. I would much rather have late shifts than early ones since the early shifts are killing me.

Hopefully things will go much better tomorrow.

Check in: the longest day of my life.

The day of check in was a very interesting day. My roommate, Taylor and I decided to spend the night together in the same hotel the night before check in to ensure that we would end up together. After spending all day in the parks, I was pretty exhausted already but my excitement and anticipation for check in helped me deal with my fatigue.

I put some things in a backpack and drove over to Taylor's hotel where we met for the very first time!! We then went to Applebee's and had the worst experience I've ever had in a restaurant, but I won't get into that. We stayed there until about 11:30, then went back to Taylor's hotel where I met her dad and we got ready to leave for check in. Before we knew it, it was 3:00AM and we were texting our suitemates, Erin and Chrissy about meeting up in line. We walked the short distance to Vista, (for future cp's, Sunspree Holiday Inn is a great place to stay the night before check in.) and got in line. It was a lot longer than we thought it would be. There were about seventy people in front of us, and the people in front had gotten there at 1:00AM. 

Soon Erin and Chrissy arrived and honestly, it was like we weren't meeting for the first time, but that we were old friends. I guess that happens when you talk to the same people every day for three or four months! About thirty minutes later, Taylor and I decided to get some McDonalds since we would probably be starving later if we didn't eat soon. We drove over to a McDonalds and realized that the entrance to Walt Disney World was right across the street! So we ran over and decided to take some photos in front of it!

On second thought, it's getting late so I'm going to continue this post tomorrow when I have time. I'll write a more in depth description of what the check in process is like, but for now, I never went to sleep last night and I have to get up early tomorrow for a housing meeting, so I should probably get to bed. 

Last day as just a guest.

Yesterday my family and I decided to go to Hollywood Studios and EPCOT with the intention of riding Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Soarin', Toy Story Mania, and seeing Fantasmic. The day didn't go quite as planned.

We drove over to Hollywood Studios and the plan was for me to run over to Pixar Studios to grab fastpasses for Toy Story Mania before they ran out while everyone else rode Rock n Roller Coaster. First of all, I've only been to the park one time before and I've come to the conclusion that the park wasn't designed for efficiency. It's like everything goes in random directions and it just doesn't make any sense, at least not to me.

While I was searching for Pixar Studios, I happened to notice an older woman and a girl around my age dressed in custodial costumes. I walked over to them to ask for directions and I noticed that the younger girl was earning her ears. I then asked her if she was doing the college program and she is! I talked with them about where I wanted to work the most, when I was checking in, etc. and they were SO nice! Unfortunately I can't remember either of their names but I'm very happy to have talked to them nonetheless.

I grabbed fastpasses for TSM and walked around the park for a little while since I knew there was a long wait for Rock n Roller Coaster. After two hours of waiting for my family, we decided not to ride Tower of Terror because there was a 90 minute wait, so we headed over to EPCOT to try and ride Soarin' since our Toy Story fastpasses weren't until roughly 5:00 to 6:00.

When we got to EPCOT, we ran over to Soarin' to grab fastpasses for that ride also. That fastpass wasn't for until around 9:00, and we really wanted to see Fantasmic for the first time.

Since the rides aren't really that great at EPCOT, we decided to walk around the World Showcase since I knew there was Limited Time Magic going on in Canada. Some characters were dressed in winter wear and it was snowing! I felt bad for the characters because despite the snow, they must have been really warm dressed in jackets and scarves since the sun was shining so bright. We then walked around other countries and I got my first pins, saw Mary Poppins for the first time, and ate beef udon at Katsura in Japan!

Later on during the day we decided to see the Beauty and the Beast show instead of riding Tower of Terror, just because we've ridden it before, and I definitely loved the BatB show more. Belle sang really perfectly, Gaston did a great job, and it was nice just to see something new.

We then went over to Hollywood Studios to ride Toy Story Mania and waited in line for five minutes when the wait for the regular line was 120. That ride is one of my favorites! We also met up with Buzz and Woody in Andy's Bedroom and got pictures with a green army man too!

Afterwards, we went to Fantasmic and it was GREAT! My favorite parts are the beginning when Mickey does that cute little dance and the end when all of the characters come out on the tugboat. When the show ended, we decided to go home instead of going to Soarin' because I needed to get ready for the long night ahead. I had to check in to the DCP the next day and our feet were killing us anyways. Overall, I had a really great last day as just a guest!

Here are some pictures!

A day of firsts.

I'm really tired right now and I don't really feel like writing all about my day. But I still want to post something so I'll give the abridged version with pictures.

We went to Magic Kingdom and it was so much fun!

• I got a "We're Celebrating" button to commemorate my dcp.

• I got pixie dusted! 

• I ate my first dole whip! (It was delicious by the way.)

• I walked around the parks by myself to get an understanding of the layout.
• I WITNESSED MY FIRST MARRIAGE PROPOSAL!!!!!
• Rode Peter Pan's Flight, the Dumbo ride, and the new Little Mermaid ride.
• Saw New Fantasyland.
• Ate at Pecos Bill
• Saw the trolly show! Super cute!
• Met Gaston! He was perfect. He saw my dcp button and said "Are you going to be working in my village?" and I said I wasn't sure but anything was possible. He then said something about how it would be a good thing for me because I would get to see him every day. His facial expressions were the best.
• We got surprise fastpasses for Mickey's Philharmagic when we got Peter Pan's Flight fastpasses. 
• Saw Celebrate the Magic! It's not as good as the Magic, the Memories, and You but I liked it!

Here are a few more photos from today too.

I also saw a group of people walking around wearing business attire so it was completely obvious they were in Traditions. I told my roommates about it and I just wanted to put my text here to remember it. It won't be long until I'm in their place!

And I'll leave you with that!

I'm in Florida!

I packed the last of my stuff yesterday morning, said goodbye to some of my siblings and dogs, and I left with my parents at around 9:00 AM. I teared up a little saying goodbye but I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be. We then drove for the duration of the day until stopping to spend the night in Georgia.

This morning we got up bright and early and began driving again for about three hours until we reached Orlando. We then drove to the resort we're staying at where we met my sister, Heather since she flew in from Virginia the night before. We're staying at the Parc Soleil Suites by Hilton Grand Vacations. This place is the nicest resort I have ever stayed at. I'll probably post pictures of it later just to look back on later. After spending an hour or so getting situated at the resort, we went to return my sister's rental car to Orlando International (she drove here from Tampa and was told she could return it there).

Ridiculousness ensued. 

The rental car return signs at the airport didn't have a sign for the company that my sister rented from and it was crazy busy, so it was hard to do anything quickly. We asked five different people within 30 minutes where to go and they all said to go to the second level of the garage. We asked one woman how to get up to the second level since the garage was huge and confusing and couldn't figure it out. She said to turn right at a stop sign and "loop around." Since her directions were completely ambiguous, we ended up driving away from the airport and all around the interstate because we never saw a stop sign and the loop we thought she was talking about went around the airport and out of it. Forty minutes and eight toll booths later, we managed to get back to the airport and finally find the second level of the car return garage. But when we got up there, an employee told us the rental company my sister needed had relocated. We asked FIVE different employees and they couldn't have told us that? It was crazy.

We quickly found the new location and returned the car within two minutes. The employees told us that tons of people are misinformed on where the company is all the time. We then went to Downtown Disney and tried to have some fun despite the chaos we had just gone through. We were starving so we decided to go to Fulton's Crab House because I had heard a lot of really good things about it, and I thought it was really good! The cast members were super nice and they made me all the more excited to work here! I loved the costumes the waiters wore. I tried a fish taco as an appetizer and had the roasted chicken and tomato pasta for an entree. 

Both were really good!

We then headed over to World of Disney and walked around for a while. The place is overwhelmingly huge! My favorite part was the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique because I loved seeing all of the little princesses getting makeovers! After WOD, my sister and I split up from my parents and watched a guy on stage dance to a bunch of different songs while the crowd danced along. I loved it! I kept sending my sister at home videos of it saying things like "I'd like to see people do this where you work." Then my dad called me and said he wanted to go back to the resort since it was cold and raining.

Tomorrow we're going to the Magic Kingdom and I can't wait! It'll be nice to go back to the one park that made me realize I needed to work here. I'm hoping that it makes me more excited about doing the program since I'm still not feeling very great about my family leaving without me. I feel like I"m on vacation and it's so weird to think I'm not going to leave. 

On Sunday we're going toe Hollywood Studios and Epcot, and then I check in on Monday! Honestly, I still feel like this is a dream. 

I'll update you then!

A dream and a suitcase.

The day is finally here! In just a few short hours I will be packing my things into the back of a car and driving down to Florida to begin my Disney College Program. I'm so excited for all of the new things I'm going to experience and for the lifelong friends I'm going to make, but most of all, I'm excited about how I expect to grow as a person.

So far things have worked out in my favor and I'm going to take that as a good omen. My roommates and I have bonded really well since contacting each other, I'm excited about my role, and I got into the program I wanted most. Everything is seemingly falling into place and it makes me feel so blessed because I know how many people want to be where I am right now.

Nevertheless, I'm still very apprehensive about moving to another state by myself. As cliché as it sounds, I find myself comparing my situation to Rapunzel's. She dreamed about leaving her tower and when she finally got the opportunity, she hesidtated but went for it because she knew she had to. I feel as though I'm at that point in my life. I'm scared to death to leave my family and the only place I've ever known, but I know that this is something I desperately need to do. And just like Rapunzel was afraid that seeing the lanterns wouldn't live up to her expectations, I'm also worried that the program won't be everything I hoped it would be. Although I've been dreaming of doing this program for a very long time, it's be scary to finally face my dream.

Despite my doubts and fears, I know that everything will work itself out. I have a great support system, especially at home. I can't thank my family enough for the emotional, financial, and tangible support that they have given me thus far. I really hope I have effectively conveyed my gratitude to them. I also know that there are thousands of other people who feel similarly to me about doing the program. They're just as anxious about leaving home and supporting themselves, so I find a little comfort in that. I just have to learn to be brave and adjust to the changes.

It feels strange to be at this point in my life. It's surreal that in just a few hours I will say goodbye to all of the normalcy in my life, drive down to Orlando with my parents, and begin the adventure of a lifetime. I can finally stop reading about the things that happen during the Disney College Program and start experiencing them for myself.

"All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney

Conversations with my roomie.

I have mostly everything packed and I'm not quite as nervous as I was a few days ago, although that's not saying much. Only two days until I head down to Florida!!!

Going away cake

My lovely sister made a going away cake for me!! I'm going to miss things like this.

My new mantra.

I've been feeling very apprehensive about the college program for the past week or so, but then I saw this quote and now I don't feel so fearful anymore.

"In every aspect of your life, there is fear. Either the fear will defeat you, or you will defeat the fear. Nothing will defeat the fear quicker or better than passion. If you're really passionate about something, nothing can get in your way of defeating that fear and turning it into passion. If fear becomes a passion, then the fear is gone."

See what a little wishing can do?

I've been seeing a lot of posts on tumblr about how people are excited to apply for the DCP 2013 Fall Program and it makes me all the more grateful for this opportunity.

Not too long ago, I was in their situation, eagerly waiting for the day that I was able to apply, and now I'm only 14 days from living the dream.

It's unreal.