Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Best Day

So I finally got to talk to Kimberley and Sarah, my friends from back home - it was nice to be able to catch up as it is very difficult to keep up with everything that is going on back home. The time goes so quickly and there is so much to do!

Monday was a very long day I was supposed to work 11.15am -11.00pm but I got extended untill 1.00am as we had extra magic hours for the Disney Resort Guests. I was exhausted by the time I got home but I managed the shift fine. It is funny because when we first start working we can barely manage a 7 or 8 hour shift without having sore feet and being exhausted but now a 14 hour shift is not too bad. I guess your body just gets used to standing up for long periods of time without being able to sit down or rest. My long shift did mean that I got over 5 hours of overtime pay so that is defintely a bonus!!

Tuesday I was planning on extending again but we were pretty quiet at work so they weren't giving extensions out. I was also kind of glad I couldn't extend as I was very tired. It meant I just had a short 7 hour shift.

On Wednesday we had an awesome day. Since as Lisa (my friend from Sunset) is leaving this week to go back to China we decided to have a sort of goodbye party/day to hang out with her. In the am I went with Sarah, Kolbi and Lisa (all friends from work) to Property Control and Cast Connection. I really love that store - I bought a new handbag for $8 down from $46 and it only has a couple of scratches in the paintwork so still in very good condition. I also bought a headband with mickey heads on it. At cast connection I bought some cheap $1 pins to trade (I am getting quite a good collection of pins now and need to buy a pin book as I have way too many for my lanyard and still 6 months to go) and a coat. Now I know that it is summer, but I will need a coat eventually and it was only $27 down from $99 so huge bargain. It is very nice - double breasted buttons with fur on the hood and so cozy and warm. I love it and wore it at Kolbi's flat later that day in the air conditioning. Lol!!

After that we ended up going to this massive store called Sams - it is like Trents or Foodstuffs. It is just a massive warehouse where you can buy everything in bulk - you should see the size of things like pizza etc. It was crazy!! We just went there to buy meat as it was cheaper there than at Walmart. As we hadn't eaten anything yet we ended up eating lunch there as all supermarkets etc have food places attatched to them (I guess cause people get hungry when shopping??).

We then met up with Holly (another friend from Sunset - but she is a part timer at work and not in the college progamme) at Walmart. Kolbi was driving and at one point she saw fireworks as Fourth of July is next monday, and she yelled out so loudly and suddenly that we all jumped and almost had heart  attacks. It was so funny but I thought we were going to hit a person or something she screamed that loud. At walmart we bought lots of junk food for our party - icecream and burgers and hotdogs and chips and fizzy drinks etc. So bad but oh so good as well.

When we got home we had to carry it up three flights of stairs to Kolbi's apartment on the second/third floor. It was so hot and all the stuff was very heavy so we were all thirsty and tired once we reached  her apartment. We ended up unpacking all the stuff and then playing Wii. We played this game where you have to dance like they do on the tv - it was called Dance Revolution or something. I wasn't very good at it but it was fun and it surely would keep you fit if you did that everyday. I was kindof good at the latin dancing song - lol!!

Our other friend Ann arrived a bit later and we played Uno which I never lost but I also never won. Lisa made us these really good soy ribs things from China - they were Delicious! Then Kolbi's roommate came home and taught us to play a game called Mexican Train Dominoes which I sucked at but was actually pretty fun once we got the hang of it. Then we had a dinner of hot dogs and home grilled burgers thanks to Holly and Kolbi - The burgers were really good!!! =)

After dinner and dessert or profiteroles, cake and icecream we played a game called Truth or Lies - I ended up as the  5th most truthful out off 8 lol!!! It was so funny at some of the questions you get and whether the game thinks you are telling the truth or not!

Rebecca also dropped by for the game as she had had to work that day and didnt finsh til 8ish but she got to spend a few hours with us. After the game Ann and Rebeeca left and Sarah, Lisa, Holly, Kolbi and I watched some movie on tv for a bit until after 11 pm and then Sarah had to catch a bus back to Chatham and I went to bed as I was so tired. Day was so much fun - we even shopped for watermelons on the side of the road and they were very tasty.

Thursday was Narelle's birthday so I went with her and looked around Old Key West resort and then we met up with two of her roommates Claudia and Claire and went to Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club Resort. THey have this mega Ice cream sundae called the Kitchen Sink and it has like 8 scoops of ice cream and then it has peanut butter (cause Americans love their peanut butter with ice cream but i think it is disgusting way too sweet for me), cream, chocolate syrup, sprinkles, toffee, caramel etc etc etc. Was so disgusting really it looked pretty good when we first got given it but hten it just looked like a horrible mush of ice cream afterwards and we only ate maybe a third of it!

Then Narelle and I went to Epcot and got photos with the Disney Gang at Epcot Character Spot then we met up again with Claire and saw Pooh and Tigger at UK. We had dinner at Japan and this time I had the Beef Udon which was good but the meals are always so big I couldn't finish it. We were going to go to Magic Kingdom but it started to rain so we just came back to Vista.

Friday I was back to work and nothing really spectacular happened. On Saturday I had my first outside bussing rotation which sucked. QSR only had to start doing bussing, trash and condiment bar last week so it is a very new situation for us and many people cannot handle the heat. Luckily when I have been outside it hasn't been all that hot, but you still sweat due to the humidity! It is really gross. Lol ot was so funny on Saturday night - me and Holly were really bored so we made up an Opera about Sunset. We would sing random songs about everything that was happening. Our renditions included: "We have a ticket!", "Together, We work Together", "Victor, where are the fries?" and "The Cheese Angus Song"! Lol it was so funny but it helped pass the time and all the guests were cracking up!!

Sunday and Monday I just worked. Sunday night I was closing dishes which I haven't done in ages but we got them done pretty quick and I managed to make it home not long after 12am but then I could not sleep and my roommate didnt come home until some time near 4am and then her alarm went off at 7am and then I had to get up at 8am for work. So was very tired today and would have gone to bed about 5 hours ago but it is my little Kelly's 14th birthday back home in NZ so I stayed up so I could skype her when she got home from school. She even missed her basketball practice so she could talk to me as I am more important =) xxx.

Well I better get to bed - oh my gosh before when I was skyping home these people showed up and this guy was like can I come in and see the apartment I used to live here last year. Was so strange but I let them poke their heads in and they only stayed like 5 minutes. I think they may have been drinking even though they are under 21!!! Weird times!

Write Soon

xoxo
E

Monday, June 20, 2011

Work, Play and Friends

On Thursday morning for my second day off last week I, along with Narelle and Loren went to Fantasia Gardens mini golf - it was pretty cool but not as good as I was expecting. I guess I thought it would be more like min golf places in New Zealand like Caddyshack etc whic are amazing but it wasn't that special. Anyway it was fun and I came second which means I didnt lose (which normally happens as I suck). After that we walked over to Boardwalk and had lunch at ESPN which was really good. I had a burger and it was massive it filled me up completely. I also got to colour in the kids activity pages. Was so much fun. lol! After that Narelle left to go to work and Loren and I decided to go to Porperty Control. We had to walk through Epcot, catch the monorail to Magic Kingdom and then the bus to Property control - MISSION! Anyway we made it and I had the best find ever this awesome Beast and Belle statue which had barely anything wrong with it only $12 when it is usually $50. I was so excited!! As I had really wanted to buy it anyway but thought it was too much money!!

When we got home I just relaxed for a while before we went out for a friends birthday. We went to Jelly Rolls for Rufus' birthday and I hope she had a good time!!! I didn't get home until 3am and I had to work that morning at 10.30am so was pretty tired for work.

The last three days at work have been quite boring. They have been very slow and so the time goes slow aswell. Also the new CPs and Part Timers that have been trained are mostly annoying and some are kind or weird and creepy. I miss all my friends from the Spring College Programme. We used to have so much fun and now there are only about a dozen fun people left!!! The managers also changed the way our area is organised which means that those of us in Sunset- QSR i.e Moi now have to do Trash, Bussing and Condiment Bar as of today. We never used to have to do these horrible jobs as we did Dishes, but now we have to do all of the bad jobs which fully isn't fair at all!!!! We hate it!!! I am so glad that I managed to escape doing anything bad today, but I still have four weeks until I change positions so..... 

I really want to know where I will be working. I know it will be in Attractions and I am pretty sure I will still be at Hollywood Studios (which I am happy about- cause I really like it there) But I want to know exactly what ride or show I will be working on. Fingers Crossed it is something good!!!

I also got a new roommate today - her name is Marion and she is from France - she just arrived today. She seems really nice so hopefluuy we will have made a new friend; from Europe too!

I am excited though as tonight I am skyping my friends from NZ who I haven't talked too since January - Stupid Time Difference!

Well I will write soon

xoxo
E

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Stormy nights

We have now officially arrived in storm season. The last few days have produced daily storms - rain, thunder and lightening. The thunder is incredibly loud and honestly as I am writing this I can feel my apartment building shaking cause of the loud thunder rumblings. The lightning also is very scary, being that I am not used to Forked Lightening which a lot of it over here is. And it absolutely buckets down sometimes for just a few minutes sometimes for hours - it is so crazy. But at least the afternoon rain cools the air temperature down a wee bit.

The last few days I have been busy working hard. I worked 12 hours on Sunday, 7 hours on Monday and 12.5 hours on Tuesday. On Monday and Tuesday I had training in the morning which consisted of coming into work early to take classes. On Monday we had Safety in Motion which was 45 minutes of extremely boring information on how to lift a heavy box or pick something up without stressing you muscles as much. Basically we got told the logical way of doing it which of course we don't know and have to have repeated to us a million times like babies - such a waste of time - so glad we got for it though. It was pretty funny though on Monday as we came into work for a 9.15am start and it was like 8.45am when we were walking through the park and since I never have to be at work before 10.30am I was like why are all these people just randomly standing in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard and why are they not running to Rock'N Roller Coaster and Tower or Terror like they usually do?? But it was because they were waiting for rope drop as it wasn't 9am yet and that is when we open!! Duhh!!

On Tuesday class was a bit better, we had Basics training which is basically just all the little things you need to remember so that guests have a better experience because of how we treat them. It was a long class 2 hours but it went pretty quick and was very funny. We even got to do a little acting stint where we had to act out a scenario of cast member/guest interaction in poor service, average service and Disney service!! Lol!!! It was very funny as Ashlea from Australia was talking about a you tube video about  silly question guests ask and she said the video was really "taking the piss out of them". And me and the English girls where the only ones who understand what she was talking about - so funny that a sentance we take for granted isn't part of language over here.

They also don't know the words heaps or spitting but we use them so frequently - it is very interesting the differences in the linguistics of different countries that both speak the same language!

Today was my day off and I spent the morning of it at Magic Kingdom with Narelle. We even managed to make it in time for the morning show which was really cool - they even sang Good Morning from Singing in the Rain - my favourite musical of all time!!! W then went and waited to see Rapunzel and Flynn again from Tangled as Narelle hadn't seen them yet. And then we saw Aladdin and Jasmine and Ariel and Eric as well which was awesome as I hadn't seen Ariel yet. We had lunch at Columbia Harbour house which makes really good tuna sandwiches and then we rode on Haunted Mansion as is tradition for us when visiting Magic Kingdom. We also rode on the Train, but we were the last train ride for a while as the weather became 'inclement'. After that I headed to property control and bought a dress which was scaled from $32 to $8 and a 20 cent bracelet, a $3 jewellery box and a $2 toy LGM from Toy Story which I have been wanting for ages!

Well, I will write soon - stay strong in Christchurch my thoughts are with you
xoxo
E

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Meeting Darth Vader!!

On Thursday I had a pretty lazy day I just watched videos, Cross stitched and did my laundry. Friday morning I didn't start wrk until 4.45pm so I decided to go to Star Wars weekend at Hollywood. It was awesome - I first went and bought a 2011 Star Wars Weekend Pin for my awesome pin collection - It is a Darth Vader one as I love him - he is my favourite!! Then I lined up to meet Luke and Leia - they were pretty cool - I had my pin lanyard on and they were very impressed by all my medals - they supposed I had been awarded them for my heroism in The Clone Wars. lol! Then they asked if I was an intergalactic traveller and I told them I was that I had come from the galaxy of New Zealand. It was so funny!!

Then I was headed to find Darth Vader as I love him - I may not have mentioned that! And I saw Queen Amidala so I got a photo with her as well. And then I found where Darth Vader was but he was in the parade that was happening at that time so I got some lunch and then waited in line. He wasnt going to be back for like 30 minutes but there was not very many people in front of me in the line so as soon as he did get back I got a picture. It was much better than waiting 90 minutes as the line usually was. He didnt talk but he did breathelike in the movie!!!! It was so amazing! And the character attendant was like 'Remeber to be on your best behaviour Lord Vader is not allowed to incinerate you here but who knows what he could do later' and then someone must have called him Anakin cause he got all angry and the attendant was like 'Lord Vader does not associate himself with the name Anakin Skywalker anymore - do not refer to him as such' So funny!!! After that it was quite by luck but I managed to find the line to meet actual Anakin Skywalker. He was really cute!!! So exciting to meet him and he was really in character! Loved it highlight of the day! Afterwards I went back to Jabba's hut to see if I could meet C-3PO an R2-D2 and after a little bit of disappointment when Leia came out I finally got to see them. It was really good luck cause I was close to the front of the line and Luke came out so I was initially guttered and then both the droids came out with him. Yay!!! And Luke remembered me and let me get a photo with the droids!! Yay!! Then I went to work which was pretty boring as only a few of my friends are still here - we are getting new people in but they don't seem as fun as the old bunch, but there are a few hopefuls!

On Saturday night my friends from New Zealand arrived and so we made plans to meet up on Sunday morning at Magic Kingdom - I had to go to work in the afternoon though, but we managed to see PhilharMagic and ride on the Carousel, Winnie the Pooh and Haunted Mansion and then we had lunch at Columbia Harbour House which was pretty good. I left them to watch the 3 o'clock parade. Work was long and boring and I closed dishes which took us two hours as noone had been on dishes during the day so they had just mounted up - was so crazy I thought we would never be finished!

Monday I had managed to give away my shift so I didn't have to worry about going to work. We went to Animal Kingdom in the morning and saw Finding Nemo and The Festival of the Lion King, both shows are amazing!! I will record them one day so everyone can see them! Then we went to Epcot and rode Spaceship Earth, Figment, Living with the Land and saw Circle of Life. We didnt get to go on Soaring as the queue was between 75 and 95 minutes long while we were there.

Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios and watched Beauty and the Beast, which I love to pieces I wish I could just stand in the wings of that show!! We also watched The Voyage of the Little Mermaid and American Idol Experience and rode on The Great Movie Ride. I had to work then so we said goodbye and arranged to meet for dinner at Downtown Disney the next afternoon. We decided to go to T-Rex which is themed like the era of the dinosaurs - we sat in the Ice Cave which changes colour. And they also have a meteor shower every 25 minutes. Was really cool and the food was so good - very delicious. That was the last day that they were here so we said goodbye then.

Thursday was another lazy day doing more laundry, cross stitching, watching movies and tidying my room and I went to walmart and cleaned out my section of the fridge.
Walmart was where I was attacked by evangelicals wanting me to visit there church - it wasn't even a real religion - so it could've been some creepy cult or something, but I just stuck to my guns and was like I am a Catholic and I am quite happy being Catholic, thank you very much. I was very polite, Nana you would be proud of me. But they fully were difficult to get rid of telling me I could have a greater connection to Jesus - honestly who are these people to tell me something like that. Definitely almost a MAX situation - I could have been kidnapped by the crazy cult people in Walmart now that would have been a story!!
Americans are weird about religion apparently you arent a Christian if you are Catholic or something like that becasue they are different??? I think the gist of it is that they use the word Christianity to describe someone who believes in God and goes to a "church" but is not a part of an organised religion like Catholic, or Anglican or Baptist - it is very weird and confusing and I gave up trying to understand their concepts!!!

Friday was back at work but just for a short shift only 6.25 hours, but I had gone to bed late the night before so I was so tired so when I got home I just crosstiched, and cleaned my room a bit.

My shifts for the next week are all morning shifts (groan) but they give me plenty of room to earn more money by extending until closing!! So Yay!!!

Narelle and I just this morning made plans to go to Magic Kingdom to see the princesses on Wednesday and to play Mini Golf at Fantasia Gardens on Thursday so yay!! I love having plans!!

Will write soon

xoxo
E

Rain, rain go away!

So I believe I left off the day before we went to Universal Studios. Well that was an eventful trip we were going to go to Harry Potter World but we ended up just staying at Universal and not going to Islands of Adventure much to my dissappointment - anyway I get ahead of myself. On Wednesday morning Jill, Loren and I got on the I-Ride which takes you pretty close to Universal for only 25 cents so it is worth the walk considering it is like 25 dollars for a taxi plus tip one way. We didnt really check which trolley it was as they both go to the same stop anyway. However Loren freaked out and thought we were on the wrong bus and so she asked the bus driver if it went to universal and he was like no. Remember this is America and if they dont take you to the front of the park then they dont go there - they also dont believe in walking either. Anyway so we got off the bus and I looked at the map and sure enough we couldve just stayed on the bus and got off at the right place for a 15 minute or so walk up the road to universal. Lol!

Anyway we were in the middle of nowhere really - and when I say nowhere we were really outside this really fancy hotel called The Peabody. Anyway so we met up with this girl at the bus stop who was trying to get to Universal too and she seemed normal (seemed being the operative word) so we asked if she wanted to share a taxi with us instead of waiting for the next bus - she was very strange though once we got in the taxi. It was weird needless to say we ditched her once we got to Universal.

You know how the weather is always horrible on your day off - yes well that is what happened 5 minutes and i kid you not after we arrived it started pouring down - thunder and lightning. Loren and Jill really wanted to go on this massive roller coaster called the Rip, Rock It Roller Coaster - it is horrific. You go up like 30 metres at a 90 degree incline and then straight back down at an almost 90 degree decline - and after much pressuring, whinning, guilttripping they managed to force me onto that roller coaster. OMG I am never doing that again - it was so awful I fully thought I was going to die. The only cool thing about the roller coaster is you get to choose a song to play in your ears while you are riding - I chose Born to Be Wild because I needed something to help me get through it. NEVER AGAIN!!!! Of course it didnt help that they only opened the ride for about 30 minutes while there was a break in the rain.

We also went on the Mummy ride - which I love even if it is a roller coaster. That ride is so much more fun. It has scary moments but they are fun at the same time. The only issue is that the ride is so short I wanted it to keep going. After the coasters we had luch at this 50's themed diner - which kind of looked like burger king on the inside. Then since as I wanted to go watch animal actors show and Loren and Jill wanted to go on Simpsons and I had already been on Simpsons and thought it was boring - we split up. Animal Actors was awesome, not as good as the one in California but still pretty good. They had this really cute pig that would run across the stage - so funny! After the show we all met up again at the Kwik-E-Mart. We tried on Simpson wigs and looked at all the stuff there which was pretty cool. We also saw Shrek, Donkey and Princess Fiona and got photos with them. After that we didnt really do anything else as it was raining pretty hard and the thunder and lightning where together right above us so after checking out the merchandise stores we left getting soaked in the process. I did buy an ET doll though which is really cute!!

On the way home it cleared up as is always the way - but we decided we would have a roast dinner and celebrate the Calderwood Family reunion. We had been wearing Disney Family reunion badges all day! The Calderwood family stems from Pop Century when we first arrived - Loren, Jill and Sarah all shared a room and their welcome said Calderwood Family. I was adopted into the family as I met them the next day. Lol!! We went to Publix  and managed to find Australian Lamb - there was no kiwi lamb, but that is obviously as it is too expensive to sell at Publix. We also bought Aussie wine - coz it was like 20 bucks cheaper than the kiwi wines Lol!! It is like how the Aussie's banned us from competing in their wine awards cause we always win!

Dinner was fun Loren and Jill cooked it for me and Sarah and it was really good. So nice to have Roast again - only thing that was missing was the Roast Pumpkin - I miss it so much!!! Sarah and I decided we would have to cook them meals in return!

xoxo
E

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Star Wars

okay so Hollywood Studios has for one month Star Wars Weekends. This year it includes the opening of Star Tours which I went on a few weeks ago at the Hollywood Studios Cast only preview (so good working at Hollywood) it is a really cool 3D ride. They also have all the characters dressed up to sign autographs and take pictures - I am totally getting a pic with Darth Vader I love him-and he is the best character in Star Wars!!!!! Anyway so on Saturday I worked until 6.45PM so after that I went and met up with Narelle to watch Hyperspace Hoopla it was the most awesome thing ever and I want to go see it again. It is basically a dance and music show but they have really good modern music in it and all the star wars characters have a dance off. Of course the bad guys were so much better than the good guys and so they won the dance off lol until the good guys did an extra dance to we're not gonna take it - It was so so so funny. Anyway I work weekends so I am hoping to go get Darth Vaders pic on Friday morning as I dont start until 4 30pm. Can't wait!!

On Thursday I went to Epcot with Sarah from England. We managed to do quite alot for just spending the afternoon and evening there. We first went and got fast passes for Soarin which were for like 4.15pm and we got them at like 11.30am so It was pretty busy that day. Then we went on Ellen's Energy Adventure - the first time we went in I got a bleeding nose randomly just as the show started so I had to leave quickly to find a serviette - crazy two bleeding noses in two days and I never get bleeding noses!!! Anyway we went back for the next show and luckily my nose did not start to bleed again! Then we saw Chip and Dale so we got there autographs and a picture with them which was really cool as I hadn't seen them yet. Then we went and watched Captain EO which was the weirdest show ever. It is a 3D show starring MJ from the 80's (so he was still black -lol) but it was set in some futuristic weird 'neverending story' meets 'alf' meets 'star wars' so strange!

Then we picked up a fast pass for Test Track for 6pm and headed to World Showcase. We joined Kim Possible and helped her save the United Kingdom lol! Then we went to Morrocco for a late lunch after which we just walked around world showcase. We looked around a bit in Italy and then saw Mulan in China - I also got a photo and autograph as I hadn't got hers yet either. Then it was time to go to Soarin we managed to get a front row without asking which was awesome as that ride is just not the same if you aren't sitting in the front row. Then we looked in Mouse Gear for a bit until it was time for Test Track. I had got Sarah into Pin trading and so we both bought some new pins to trade. I also bought a March tinkerbell which is really pretty. I also pin traded quite a bit and picked up some new Cinderella pins to add to my Cinderella pin collection - I now have 6. Test Track was really cool and afterwards I got a photo in a yellow camaro. I rather fancied myself in that car it was very nice -except the steering wheel was on the wrong side lol!

By that time it was getting on so we went on Spaceship Earth and then the Maelstrom in Norway before grabbing some food before the fireworks. I had a churro finally which is like a donut but not round it is just a stick - it wasn't as great as everyone seems to make them out! We had a pretty good spot for IllumiNations (I love those fireworks). Then we headed home after that. Was a very good day!!

Friday I worked during the day and then after that met up with Narelle - we were going to go play mini golf but as we got there it pured with rain so we ended up going to Caribbean Beach Resort for Dinner. It was a pretty neat resort with a really awesome swimming pool and waterslides themed as a ship wreck.

Tomorrow I am going to go to Universal Studios with Loren and Jill. Should be fun!!

xoxo
E