I'm poor. Again. I think that something I never realised was that on the CRP, you do less hours than on the summer program where after you're trained, you're straight into 50 hour weeks or whatever... with the CRP it's more like 35 hours and once you've paid rent (that's $102/week for my Commons 2 bed apt) and taxes (approx $40/wk) it means you're only left with about $150 to live on for the week. Okay, so yesterday I did go to Walmart and buy a Christmas tree with lights and baubles (and a star) which cost me like $60... but still. If you're reading this and preparing to come out next year, just be aware you might need extra money or be really good with not spending it! I keep having to resort to my English money which is really annoying!
Soooo... I left off with going back to work on Thursday last week. Well, Thursday was a slightly better day - I spent half of it in chippie filler and then the last half (after my break) in the restaurant greeting and seating. I think I closed greeter that night, it wasn't a particularly thrilling day... after work, we rushed back to cast services to get changed and then walked back through the UK pavilion to the International Gateway entrance to EPCOT in order to walk to the Boardwalk. We were the last people let through the gate before it was locked so that was lucky. We went over to Jellyrolls via the Cat Cora pizza window because we were all starving (it was gooood pizza too) and then got our standard $10 32-oz cocktails in Jellyrolls. We went because it was our first month anniversary! Crazy how fast it's gone! Sophie couldn't make it unfortunately because she didn't have her ID (it is 21 and over only) but it was nice to see them all again even though I wasn't really feeling the music to be honest and we only stayed until about 12.45am before getting a taxi back to the Commons.
Friday was a much better day work-wise. Yet again, I was chippie filler and then seating/greeting but for some reason I was in a much better mood. I kept myself busy by bussing tables when I wasn't seating which I think scored me points with the servers and then I closed Greeter I think which is the easiest position to close and in addition means you can sneakily watch IllumiNations as well because it's right there... at the moment it's got the special holiday bit at the end which is AWESOME. I neeeeed to go and see it as a guest so I can take pictures but my lack of days off and numerous 10.30pm finishes kind of put a stop to that. I can't remember what I did after work on this day... maybe I just came home and went to bed? The days all blur into one here!
Saturday was again, another day revolving around chippie filler and seating/greeting. It's getting a little bit repetitive seen as I never seem to get chippie tills (I've had it ONCE!) or beer cart... but anyways, I ended up in chippie for most of the day and it was actually quite a laugh with Samantha and the culinary guys (Michael and Eric whom I thought was called Jonas for most of the day because he had the wrong name tag and it claimed he was from Haiti which I KNEW was wrong...), we ended up getting a bit hyper and doing a lot of singing and dancing for which the guests must have thought we'd gone mad. But it was fun and it passed the time. We closed chippie as well and ended up getting out at about 10.30pm which wasn't bad. As we were waiting for the bus, all the servers came out so we shared a taxi with them back to the Commons ($2 each, win.). I was planning on just having a quiet night and going to bed but for reasons I can't be bothered to explain, Nick ended up picking me up at like 11.30pm and we hung out for the rest of the evening. I helped him do his mountain of washing up and general tidying of his apartment because it was a state and so we didn't go to sleep til about 3am which was a bit rediculous. Especially considering he had work at 8am so I basically got 3 hours sleep before being dragged back to the Commons... I got home and went straight back to bed for a couple of hours.
On Sunday morning once I'd got up again, I had to wrap all my Christmas presents because they needed to be posted. I spent about 2 hours doing that... they're all rather random and are more token gestures than anything else because it's actually quite difficult to buy presents that aren't too expensive or bulky to post back. Soooo apologies to my family for the fact that my presents are a little bit crap! Once I'd done that it was time to get ready for work... I was chippie filler for the day again and closed chippie again (sorry for the repetitiveness, such is my life right now). After work, Nick picked me up and we went and got Wendy's which I think has improved in quality since 2008 and I first had it. It's not that great! It was quite amusing though because we were both in costume and Nick's Soarin' costume really is the most conspicuous of them all because that blue is so freaking bright. After that, we went back to his apartment and watched some random documentaries on the Discovery Channel about the world's dirtiest jobs which was quite amusing.
So yesterday was Monday, and I had this weird shift scheduled which was 5.30pm - 2am. Now, considering the park closes at 9.30pm and nobody else was scheduled that late it meant I would have been the only one left in the UK pavilion so obviously it was an error by CDS. Still, it meant I had a whole day to do stuff! So... Nick was my taxi driver (I paid him in food) and we drove to the Commons to pick up my Christmas presents and Kristine my roomate... then we went to Walmart and got a Christmas tree. Kristine stayed at Walmart to get some other stuff, whilst me and Nick went to Olive Garden for lunch. Then we went to the Post Office which was just around the corner... that was a palava. WHY is the post office here so stressful! The lady was very very helpful though, I think she's used to dealing with ICPs attempting to mail stuff back to their own country. Basically, she said that it's not worth sending anything that weighs under 4 pounds by Priority Mail/Flat Rate boxes because it doubles the price. So I had to repack the stuff I was sending to Hayley in this random box she found and we (joint effort between 3 of us) attacked the box with sellotape - so have fun opening that Hayley!! That therefore cost me half the amount... then I was sending an envelope which I'd packed myself so that was fine plus the box for my family which did weigh over 4 pounds and cost me in the region of $40 to post. But I didn't mind because they are all my Christmas presents and tis the season to be giving. More to the point I was just relieved that it was all mailed. I just need to get Lauren's present sorted (which I'm afraid may not arrive in time for Christmas...) and some Christmas cards. I might try and get over there again on Thursday which is my day off - the cut off date for post is Friday to arrive by the 25th! After the post office, we went via Walgreens to pick up Nick's medication refills and then back to the Commons to drop off the Christmas tree. Then finally he drove me to EPCOT for work. So basically, a very productive day! Work was pretty standard - they called CDS and changed my shift so I started early at 5pm and worked until 10.30pm (although I ended up getting an ER at 10.10pm) so I really only worked about 5 hours... I was seating for the first half then I took over Greeter and closed that so it was an easy and reasonably enjoyable shift... only down side was that the wind was blowing in our direction (I believe towards the South West direction) and it meant we got showered in bits of firework. Glad I covered up the podium before we got covered in ash.
Today I've woken up early because I needed to check my shift on the Hub. I swapped with Clare so she could have today off instead of Thursday as her family are here and I'm having Thursday off instead. It's finally registered on the Hub so I'm working 3-10pm today and to my horror it says it's a stocker shift which scares the crap out of me because I really don't think I'll be a good stocker. So I'm praying that once I get into work, they'll change it and make me chippie filler or something instead. Fingers crossed. I've also done boring things this morning like my laundry, update this blog and will probably wash my hair in a minute - thrills of my life!!
No comments:
Post a Comment