Ahh yes. The housing talks. JOY. Okay, having to sit through them all again is a small price to pay for being a Disney Alumni because obviously it's only two mornings of your life but it is rather dull stuff about not drinking underage, how not to get terminated, not to lose your passport etc etc. Sooo I had these housing talks yesterday and today... got my temporary housing ID for Vista Way yesterday as well with a super cheesy picture of me on it. I also signed my life away with all the paperwork you have to do for Disney... it's crazy the amount of stuff you have to sign!
Other than that... yesterday I had the talks from 10am until about 2pm. We then went to Starbucks (had to cross the road of death aka the 535 outside Vista Way) and chilled out there for a bit. I went to Walgreens and got a multipack of water because it's sooooo much cheaper than buying it when I'm out or in the parks. Struggled home with that (it was 24 x 500ml bottles!!) and then chilled out for a bit before heading over to the computer lab to see if I could access the Hub. I managed to set up a password but it still won't let me on which I think is because we haven't done Traditions yet so I'll have to just be patient. Then I got the bus over to Tyler's apartment where we were having a bit of a 'pot luck'. This is an American thing (well, this side of the pond anyway) and everybody brings a dish but it's random and you don't generally say what you're bringing. Then everyone shares... so I bought crisps and cookies... we also had pizza, pasta, chicken nuggets, carrot sticks and microwavable cheeseburgers (ughhh). And wine and beer. Win.
So after we'd eaten and had a few drinks we got the A bus to the TTC and then walked to the Polynesian Resort. We went to the bar by Ohanas for a cocktail which was an extortionate $13 but it did taste amazing and included a glowing cube which I kept! :D Then we went down to the Polynesian's man-made beach and got ourselves some sun loungers to watch Wishes from as it overlooks the Seven Seas Lagoon/Magic Kingdom. It was pretty cool. I want to go back again now that I'm getting to grips with my new camera and try and get some more firework pictures from that distance... but now that I have a year to do these things it's allllll good!! :D
Sooo... we headed home after that as we were all pretty tired and Ty & Steffie had their Canadian throw-in. Today we had more talks (Immigration Compliance - FUN TIMES!) and then we all walked to the Outlets and had McDonalds for lunch. Then we walked to Publix (about 5 minutes away from McDs) and got some ingredients for fajitas later on... I came back to Vista and I think the others all headed back to their apartments for some rest, relaxation and to unpack. Things like that anyway. I have to head back over to the Commons to pick up my passport at 4pm and then it's over to Tyler's again for the aforementioned fajitas!
I have now put about 200 pictures up on Facebook so go check them out! I will make them public albums so anyone can see them.
*edit* Here's the link to the photo album: click here but you can find the links for my albums on the Links Page above.
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
This is what happens when you tempt fate...
You get put in Vista Way for the third time!! HAHAHA. Okay, sooo let's start from Sunday - after a lazy morning, Nick and I headed out to the Florida Mall to sort out my phone. We went to Olive Garden for some lunch and I had salad and breadsticks (of course) and a chicken flatbread thing which was really good. And raspberry lemonade because it rocks. Then we went to the Mall and I ended up at the T-Mobile shop...even though I was all set on going with SIMple Mobile. This was because there was an actual shop for T-Mobile and I could talk to the advisor and make sure I was getting the best deal so I felt a bit more confident in it.
The guy who helped me was very helpful if a little bit creepy. Eventually I settled for a $50/month pre-paid plan for my blackberry which gave me unlimited minutes, texts and data. But no blackberry internet service (i.e. BBM, Facebook and Twitter apps, push email etc). And another $10/month for unlimited international landline calling because I figured I paid way more than that last summer to call home. So... about $60 later I had a phone number (FYI, it's 407-334-5298) and also the guy told me to come back towards the end of November when I have a Disney ID and address because he could set me up with a year contract (especially for people working on a visa apparently) and even with 15% disney discount... now, this sounds too good to be true but we shall see!! Sooo... we got back to Nick's apartment and I kinda realised that the blackberry was a bit useless without the Blackberry Internet Service so I went onto the T-Mobile website to see if I could add it on for this month (it's pre-paid so I've already paid for this month's service if you see what I mean)... however, the only result of registering with their website was that it suddenly enabled a 'child lock' on my phone which meant I couldn't even access Facebook through the browser! So annoying!! Especially as to turn it off, the website required a verification of my address - which I'd never given! So it couldn't verify it! Long story short, I ended up (eventually after an endless set of menus) talking to a mexican call centre who sent me to the nearest T-Mobile store to 'unlock' my phone. All of this was done whilst exhausted and still jet lagged. YAY.
So I didn't do much for the rest of Sunday - Nick and I met up with one of his friends from Soarin' and we went to the cinema at Downtown Disney. We saw 'Three Muskateers' which was good but I was so tired I didn't really take any of it in! We got home and crashed out at about 2am.
Monday... Nick had college from 11.30am-5.30pm so I pretty much just spent the whole day in his apartment vegging out on his sofa watching a mixture of the Weather Channel, the Food Network and the Michael Jackson trial live on TV. It was a good lazy day. He got back and I got ready to go to Downtown Disney dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz! I got to downtown about 8pm and met Steffie and Tyler (Canadians!) and Sophie (another UK'er) who all start on the 1st November as well. We got food at Paradiso 37 (I think that's the name) which was good... wondered around Downtown Disney for a bit and then went back to the All Star Sports and hung out by the pool having a drink. It was really nice. Nick picked me up about 1am and we went home to sleep again.
So that brings me to today!! It is November 1st, the start date! I was quite apprehenseive of today just because I don't like the whole having to meet new people, new apartment, lifting luggage around, heaving shopping home from Walmart thing which comes with the first day of a College Program! But actually it worked out fine. Nick took me to Vista Way for check-in just before 12 (I don't know what I'd do without him, he's been a star!) and we stopped by at Chick-fil-A on the way (woooooo, waffle fries!!). I actually arrived right at the same time as Steffie, Ty, Sophie, Dan and Paul so we went in and had a quick presentation. Got given our schedule for the next few days and our apartment keys...
Soooo... I was joking around about being at Vista. Then karma came and bit me on the arse as I got given Vista Way!!! I couldn't believe it! I'm the only one from the people I know who started today to end up here. I'm back in a 3-bed apartment just like 2008 and 2010 but this time in building 10. Good thing is, it's right by the bus stops and as of now (11.30pm) there's nobody else moved into my room so looks like I get my own room tonight. I've met a couple of my new roomates and they seem nice (there's 2 americans and 2 puerto-ricans here) but it's a bit strange because I know I'm only going to be here for two weeks maximum before they move me into the Commons or Patterson Court. So it's a little bit weird to make friends with people before you just say adios in a couple of weeks! Nevertheless... at about 2pm we headed to Walmart for the epic shopping trip. It cost me $140 which wasn't too bad. Seen as I'll be moving apartment soon, I tried not to buy too much because I'll just end up moving it all. We had a lovely taxi driver on the way back and then I borrowed a trolley from Vista security to shift my shopping from the car to the apartment so it was actually quite non-stressful. The fact it's not 35 degrees also REALLY HELPS!
So the 8 of us (Steffie, Ty, Sophie, Samantha, Clare, Paul, Dan and Me) went to Crossroads this evening to get food. We went to TGI Fridays which was okay. Seen as I'm the only one at Vista, I got off the bus before them so that I could wash my hair before Nick came by to drop off my other suitcase.. I don't know if they're all hanging out tonight or whether they went back to their own apartments. I'm soooo tired... this jet lag seems the worst it's been coming TO America but I think it's because I haven't slept well and I've been going to bed late every night. Start as I mean to go on, eh? :P
So tomorrow I have housing talks and also on Thursday morning. I have Thursday afternoon off and then the whole of Friday off too... there's talk of going to Universal that day seen as we won't have our Disney IDs to get into the Disney Parks yet. Then Saturday is Traditions YAY! After that I'm not sure but I'm sure we'll get our training schedules on Saturday. I will try and upload some pictures to Facebook soon but my camera cable is buried in my luggage at the moment and all I want to do is sleep! So you'll have to wait!!
The guy who helped me was very helpful if a little bit creepy. Eventually I settled for a $50/month pre-paid plan for my blackberry which gave me unlimited minutes, texts and data. But no blackberry internet service (i.e. BBM, Facebook and Twitter apps, push email etc). And another $10/month for unlimited international landline calling because I figured I paid way more than that last summer to call home. So... about $60 later I had a phone number (FYI, it's 407-334-5298) and also the guy told me to come back towards the end of November when I have a Disney ID and address because he could set me up with a year contract (especially for people working on a visa apparently) and even with 15% disney discount... now, this sounds too good to be true but we shall see!! Sooo... we got back to Nick's apartment and I kinda realised that the blackberry was a bit useless without the Blackberry Internet Service so I went onto the T-Mobile website to see if I could add it on for this month (it's pre-paid so I've already paid for this month's service if you see what I mean)... however, the only result of registering with their website was that it suddenly enabled a 'child lock' on my phone which meant I couldn't even access Facebook through the browser! So annoying!! Especially as to turn it off, the website required a verification of my address - which I'd never given! So it couldn't verify it! Long story short, I ended up (eventually after an endless set of menus) talking to a mexican call centre who sent me to the nearest T-Mobile store to 'unlock' my phone. All of this was done whilst exhausted and still jet lagged. YAY.
So I didn't do much for the rest of Sunday - Nick and I met up with one of his friends from Soarin' and we went to the cinema at Downtown Disney. We saw 'Three Muskateers' which was good but I was so tired I didn't really take any of it in! We got home and crashed out at about 2am.
Monday... Nick had college from 11.30am-5.30pm so I pretty much just spent the whole day in his apartment vegging out on his sofa watching a mixture of the Weather Channel, the Food Network and the Michael Jackson trial live on TV. It was a good lazy day. He got back and I got ready to go to Downtown Disney dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz! I got to downtown about 8pm and met Steffie and Tyler (Canadians!) and Sophie (another UK'er) who all start on the 1st November as well. We got food at Paradiso 37 (I think that's the name) which was good... wondered around Downtown Disney for a bit and then went back to the All Star Sports and hung out by the pool having a drink. It was really nice. Nick picked me up about 1am and we went home to sleep again.
So that brings me to today!! It is November 1st, the start date! I was quite apprehenseive of today just because I don't like the whole having to meet new people, new apartment, lifting luggage around, heaving shopping home from Walmart thing which comes with the first day of a College Program! But actually it worked out fine. Nick took me to Vista Way for check-in just before 12 (I don't know what I'd do without him, he's been a star!) and we stopped by at Chick-fil-A on the way (woooooo, waffle fries!!). I actually arrived right at the same time as Steffie, Ty, Sophie, Dan and Paul so we went in and had a quick presentation. Got given our schedule for the next few days and our apartment keys...
Soooo... I was joking around about being at Vista. Then karma came and bit me on the arse as I got given Vista Way!!! I couldn't believe it! I'm the only one from the people I know who started today to end up here. I'm back in a 3-bed apartment just like 2008 and 2010 but this time in building 10. Good thing is, it's right by the bus stops and as of now (11.30pm) there's nobody else moved into my room so looks like I get my own room tonight. I've met a couple of my new roomates and they seem nice (there's 2 americans and 2 puerto-ricans here) but it's a bit strange because I know I'm only going to be here for two weeks maximum before they move me into the Commons or Patterson Court. So it's a little bit weird to make friends with people before you just say adios in a couple of weeks! Nevertheless... at about 2pm we headed to Walmart for the epic shopping trip. It cost me $140 which wasn't too bad. Seen as I'll be moving apartment soon, I tried not to buy too much because I'll just end up moving it all. We had a lovely taxi driver on the way back and then I borrowed a trolley from Vista security to shift my shopping from the car to the apartment so it was actually quite non-stressful. The fact it's not 35 degrees also REALLY HELPS!
So the 8 of us (Steffie, Ty, Sophie, Samantha, Clare, Paul, Dan and Me) went to Crossroads this evening to get food. We went to TGI Fridays which was okay. Seen as I'm the only one at Vista, I got off the bus before them so that I could wash my hair before Nick came by to drop off my other suitcase.. I don't know if they're all hanging out tonight or whether they went back to their own apartments. I'm soooo tired... this jet lag seems the worst it's been coming TO America but I think it's because I haven't slept well and I've been going to bed late every night. Start as I mean to go on, eh? :P
So tomorrow I have housing talks and also on Thursday morning. I have Thursday afternoon off and then the whole of Friday off too... there's talk of going to Universal that day seen as we won't have our Disney IDs to get into the Disney Parks yet. Then Saturday is Traditions YAY! After that I'm not sure but I'm sure we'll get our training schedules on Saturday. I will try and upload some pictures to Facebook soon but my camera cable is buried in my luggage at the moment and all I want to do is sleep! So you'll have to wait!!
Sunday, 30 October 2011
I'm here!
Okay, so to sum up the last 24 hours:
The Flight: Was nearly 10 hours long because of bad weather in the New York area it had to take a different route... other than that it was very smooth, hardly any turbulence and the food was awesome! I had cheesy pasta, bread roll and chocolate mousse for lunch, an ice cream, then an egg sandwich and a cookie for "tea" and they were constantly bringing drinks. Well done Virgin Atlantic. The people who sat next to me were an older couple but I figured they weren't married or anything - in fact they didn't even seem to know each other too well. He was quite pleasant, sitting on the aisle but she was a grumpy old cowbag! She barely spoke to him for the whole flight and just moaned all the time. Unfortunately she was sitting next to me as I had the window seat. In other news, I watched Super 8 (it was okay, I lost track in the middle because I was eating), Cars 2 (I fell asleep for an hour in the middle of it), Glee (Nationals in New York!! One of the best episodes!) and then listened to a bit of Will Young's new album and the Glee 3D Concert Soundtrack on the audio channels. So yes, thumbs up for the flight. The landing was amazing too.
Arrival at MCO: The customs queue was an hour long which sucked. But the customs lady was nice and processed my Q1 visa without much hassle. I picked up my cases straight off the carosel next to customs and then went to arrivals. Cue massive confusion for about 30 minutes. I had no phone and I was an hour late arriving so Nick couldn't find me.. and I couldn't find him! I had no coins for a payphone and the annoying man at the information desk refused to call him for me as it wasn't a "local" number. Anyway, then I remembered the fact there is free wifi in Orlando Airport so after a quick bit of Facebooking we finally located each other. It took a while to find the car because we got lost but then we were on our way... I finally let the airport at about 7.30pm.
Orlando: We drove to Nick's apartment via Panera Bread (have never actually been there before, it was pretty cool) and then we crashed out at about 10pm because we were both tired and sleep deprived.
Now it's bright and early (curse you jet lag) and we have some fun stuff to do today. I just skyped with my mum, dad and sister which was cool because they'd not really used it before... I think they just need to get a better webcam than the £5 one I nabbed from amazon ;)
The Flight: Was nearly 10 hours long because of bad weather in the New York area it had to take a different route... other than that it was very smooth, hardly any turbulence and the food was awesome! I had cheesy pasta, bread roll and chocolate mousse for lunch, an ice cream, then an egg sandwich and a cookie for "tea" and they were constantly bringing drinks. Well done Virgin Atlantic. The people who sat next to me were an older couple but I figured they weren't married or anything - in fact they didn't even seem to know each other too well. He was quite pleasant, sitting on the aisle but she was a grumpy old cowbag! She barely spoke to him for the whole flight and just moaned all the time. Unfortunately she was sitting next to me as I had the window seat. In other news, I watched Super 8 (it was okay, I lost track in the middle because I was eating), Cars 2 (I fell asleep for an hour in the middle of it), Glee (Nationals in New York!! One of the best episodes!) and then listened to a bit of Will Young's new album and the Glee 3D Concert Soundtrack on the audio channels. So yes, thumbs up for the flight. The landing was amazing too.
Arrival at MCO: The customs queue was an hour long which sucked. But the customs lady was nice and processed my Q1 visa without much hassle. I picked up my cases straight off the carosel next to customs and then went to arrivals. Cue massive confusion for about 30 minutes. I had no phone and I was an hour late arriving so Nick couldn't find me.. and I couldn't find him! I had no coins for a payphone and the annoying man at the information desk refused to call him for me as it wasn't a "local" number. Anyway, then I remembered the fact there is free wifi in Orlando Airport so after a quick bit of Facebooking we finally located each other. It took a while to find the car because we got lost but then we were on our way... I finally let the airport at about 7.30pm.
Orlando: We drove to Nick's apartment via Panera Bread (have never actually been there before, it was pretty cool) and then we crashed out at about 10pm because we were both tired and sleep deprived.
Now it's bright and early (curse you jet lag) and we have some fun stuff to do today. I just skyped with my mum, dad and sister which was cool because they'd not really used it before... I think they just need to get a better webcam than the £5 one I nabbed from amazon ;)
Thursday, 27 October 2011
AHHH! 48 hours to go!!!
I hate packing! It's just too many decisions to make! I sat down and did a good lot of packing and sorting last week... but today is my last day with "nothing" do so I have to sort my case once and for all. I'm ashamed to say that I will be taking two cases... :( I really wanted to only take one, as I vlogged recently, it's a lot easier just taking one case and of course, your allowance is really only one 23kg case as well. However... I have gifts, a halloween costume and my whole life to pack into that 23kg and it's just not happening! SO, I'm taking a bag on wheels as well as a proper case... I am still trying to be really good and not take anything unnecessary though. I am thinking I will probably end up sending this bag back with my mum in February full of the stuff I'll not want by the 4th month of my program. That's the plan anyway! Ultimately, I realised that if I'm over 23kg when it gets weighed at the airport then I'll have to pay excess baggage which is £30. But I could plan ahead and pay £32 to get another whole 23kg to myself... so the latter was chosen!
I'm feeling quite nervous now... the "cold feet" feeling has set in! I've said goodbye to my grandparents, friends and neighbours... my last shift at the Disney Store is tomorrow and then we drive up to Gatwick in the evening. My flight is in 47 hours time - 1pm on Saturday. The other exciting thing is that (probably) the last Hurricane of the 2011 season is active in the south of the Gulf of Mexico.. it's called Hurricane Rina. Having said that, it looks to be severely weakening now and will probably be nothing more than a tropical depression by Saturday. At one point it was heading straight towards Florida and was forecast to be a Category 3 which would have been quite major! But looks like it's gonna just have to be hot and sunny for me instead ;)
Right... better get back to this packing and get it done! See you in Florida!!
I'm feeling quite nervous now... the "cold feet" feeling has set in! I've said goodbye to my grandparents, friends and neighbours... my last shift at the Disney Store is tomorrow and then we drive up to Gatwick in the evening. My flight is in 47 hours time - 1pm on Saturday. The other exciting thing is that (probably) the last Hurricane of the 2011 season is active in the south of the Gulf of Mexico.. it's called Hurricane Rina. Having said that, it looks to be severely weakening now and will probably be nothing more than a tropical depression by Saturday. At one point it was heading straight towards Florida and was forecast to be a Category 3 which would have been quite major! But looks like it's gonna just have to be hot and sunny for me instead ;)
Right... better get back to this packing and get it done! See you in Florida!!
Friday, 21 October 2011
8 days to go!
Just a quick post to link to a You Tube video which has been posted by the official Disney International Programs YouTube Channel... they've been focusing on all the roles within the world showcase at EPCOT recently and they've now got to the UK! And more specifically, it's all about food & beverage!
So basically, this sums up a little bit of what I'll be doing whilst I'm in Florida. Enjoy!
So basically, this sums up a little bit of what I'll be doing whilst I'm in Florida. Enjoy!
Click above! And watch out for James who I know from my ICP 2010! *small world*
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