GRADUATION

"As we go on we remember all the times we've had together and as our lives change, come whatever, we will still be friends forever."

OMG we actually Graduated yesterday. I mean I wasn't really that sad because there wasn't a whole ceremony or anything, but it was very surreal knowing we have been here all year and it will soon be over. I am definitely ready to go though - I will just miss Disney World in my back yard though and all the friends I have made over here. i kinda wish we could all live in the same place again cause it would be so much fun.

The graduation was very low key - we arrived and got our ids scanned and then we lined up for our certificates. It was weird for me as the lines were alphabetical by first name so instead of being the last line at the back I was the second in the C-E section. Our certificates say J1-E Spring Advantage on them as our programme name which is kinda weird and I am not sure what the E stands for??? After that we lined up and got our ears - because we are Internation College Programs we get a special picture on the front from the rest of the CPs which is cool. They also gave us a poster and a photo box and a wind chime? which is kind of strange coz they are leftover cast holiday presents from 2008.

Then we got in line for a photo with Mickey and Minnie - that line was like 50 minutes and the rest of the stuff only took us 20 minutes, but we finally got our 1 photo per camera and then we got food and then it was over. We did get a photo with the Disney poster which is very pretty.  After that we went back to Vista and dropped off all of our stuff and then headed to All Star resort to pick up Jill's friend, Luke who was visiting from Australia. We all went to Magic Kingdom where we randomly went on The Carousel of Progress for probably the last time as well which is kind of sad. I love that ride "There's a great big beautiful tomorrow, just a dream away". After that we walked over to Splash Mountain anad Luke and Mikaylah went on it, but Sarah, Jill and I didnt want to get wet so we waited for them coz the ride was only 5 minutes. Then we watched Magic, Memories and You and I was still disappointed that my favourite part has been cut out for all of Christmas and I am not sure if I will get to see it again before I leave because it might not be back to normal by January 5th - so I am a bit guttered by that, however Wishes is just as good as always - I actually haven't seen it since October I think so it was nice to watch it again. Then we all went to Tony's Town Square which is the restaurant based on Lady and the Tramp. I had Chicken Parmigiana which was very good. And because we were using Jills Dining Plan meals we got dessert as well. I had the chocolate cake which was very rich!!

We also got our ears from Graduation embroided and we saw Mickey and Minnie again and got a group photo. It is the last three members of the Calderwood Family! So sad! Then we headed home coz Magic Kingdom was closing.

Lol Today I just lazed around watching random movies all day - I was going to go to the Post Office, but I just didn't end up going so everybody's christmas cards are gonna be super late, but I will still post them, maybe before work on Monday?? Tomorrow I have a 12 hour shift half of it at Jedi and half at Epic and then we have our Epic Graduation dinner at 50's Prime Time Cafe - so we are all excited about that!! Only I am starting to get a sore throat and I really cannot afford to be run down over the next two weeks so I have been sucking strepsils all day and tomorrow I will go and buy some Nyquil and Dayquil if I dont feel any better - that stuff is amazing by the way I am gonna bring heaps back to NZ just in case we dont have any over there. Does anyone know?

Anyway our last day in New York City was fun, but a bit hectic as public transport is such an uncertainty. We hadn't really been to Central Park yet so we packed up all of our stuff and checked out of the hotel, luckily they let us keep our bags there as we were getting their free shuttle back to the airport. Then we subwayed into Manhattan and walked up to Central Park - that place is just so breathtakingly beautiful. We walked through the most beautiful walkway with all the autumn leaves just like in the movies and we saw the bethesda fountain and the boathouse - it was all amazing. We actually stood right next to people getting married on a bridge in the middle of Central Park - it was amazing, but sad that they didn;t have family and friends around coz it was basically just them, two witnesses, the photographer and the celebrant. Then we walked back to the subway stopping for our last new york hotdog on the way. We got back to the hotel perfectly on time even though we were nervous we would be late and we got dropped off at the airport kindof early - we couldnt even check in for another 30 minutes. After we did check in we got food and looked around terminal 5 of JFK airport. It isnt all that much different from Auckland Airport. Going through security I had to get one of those body scanner things which is very creepy and then I had this metal buckle attatched to my skirt so I had to get the wand waved over me - so I was kinda freaked out, but everything was okay. I really like flying Jetblue - it is a budget airline but you still get comfortable roomy seats, a free drink and snack and free direcctTV so we were kept very well entertained on the flight back.

I booked my flight to San Francisco for my last week and I booked with Jetblue just because of the direct tv thing. I have a 2 hour flight to Boston and then an 8 hour flight to San Francisco so I want to be entertained.

Well that is all from me for the moment
xoxo
E

The day of queues

So last night I actually ended up having to go the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party as the tickets were sold out for Friday which was the day I was planning on going. Yesterday was my last chance to go so I had to take it. I am so glad I went though, Cinderella's Caste looked absolutely breathtaking. It was so beautiful as they had the Castle covered in lights that looked like icicles. They also gave out delicious cookies and Hot Chocolate for free. I ended up watching the parade twice as for the first time I watched it I had a bad spot so I could only really see the floats. But then I got a hot chocolate and a cookie and I had a good spot to watch Magic Memories and You, but they added a christmas (holiday) part into it and it replaced my favourite part of the show which was kindof sad, but we are going to Magic Kingdom tonight after Graduation so hopefully we can watch the real show. yay.

After that we saw Holiday Wishes which I liked but it is definnitely not as good as normal Wishes which is just beautiful and gives you warm fuzzies when you watch it. Then they had a holday version of the castle show which was very cute and the music was really cool I have this "Must be Santa" song stuck in my head now. After taht I found a  really good spot to watch Mickey's Once upon a christmastime parade -over in adventure land. There was noone standing in front of me so I got a good spot for taking a video of the parade. The best part though was that half way through I turned around and two of the country bears were standing right behind me watching the parade - it was so crazy!!! I ove Disney sometimes!!! After the parade I headed home before all the rush of people and since I was by myself I kindof didnt want to do anything with just me. I did line up toget a photo with minnie and mickey though!!


Day Three of our New York Journey was a long one we had decided that we wanted to go to the 9/11 Memorial so we had to go the preview site to get free tickets at 10am - we managed to get a 1.30pm time slot so we then took a yellow cab to the Empire State Building and waited in about a million lines to get to the top. You entered into the lobby and there was like noone there so you went up the escalator and turned the corner and suddenly there is a line. So we lined up for security, then we lined up for tickets, then we lined up for a picture, then we lined up for the first elevator, then we lined up for the second elevator - but we just decided to walk the 6 stories to the top - it took forever it wasnt really six staircases it was more like 10. Then we had to wait for someone to move so we could see the view which was amazing you could see the whole of manhattan and new jersey, queens and brooklyn and even the statue of liberty. It was a pretty okay day so we got beautiful pictures of the city. And I finally got to see central park. Then we had to line up for the elevators back down , but we ended up walking and then the line for the next elevators went straight through the gift shop so we stopped and browsed and i bought another pin with the empire state building on it. We finally made it back down to level ground and took another yellow cab back to the 9/11 preview site, but then we had to walk to the actual memorial which was about 5 minutes away. We were very close to the financial district so we saw a whole park full of people protesting Wall Street, but it looked very peacefull to me they were just chanting and holding up signs. (The crazy thing about all this is that American police are so brutal towards protestors even if it is peaceful they still use brute force - which I think is absolutely crazy and why I would never trust anyone in the American police force) A lot of things I have seen on American tv would never be gottonn away with in new zealand there would be an uproar!

Anyway we had to queue up again to go though security and to get into the memorial, but it went pretty fast considering the line was so long. The Memorial was very beautiful even in its early state of completion, they had massive fountains where each tower was and all the names were carved on the sides. Some were very sad as it would say 'La La and her unborn child'. I even remembered some of the names from when we watched the memorial on tv on the 10th anniversary.

After the site it was freezing so we went and had kebabs at this little place that we found up a random street - it seemed to be where all the people who worked there came for lunch. they were really good. Then we caught the subway back to Times Square as I wanted to go to another show so I waited in the line to for tickets and Hannah and Brittany explored Times Square a bit. I eventually bought tickets to Billy Elliot. Then we went to The Museum of Natural History. We only had an hour there but we saw the dinosaurs and the african cats, it was fun but not as cool as I was expecting they didnt have a lot of human exhibits and I realised that is what I was more interested in ( since I studied Anthropology - it really should be too). We took pictures outside though which was awesome coz it is exactly like in the movies so that was fun and then since the museum is right across from central park we walked through a bit. Even though it was incredibly cold it was still beautiful!! I am in love with central park I could live in New York just so that I could walk through that park everyday it is gorgeous. The movies don't even do it justice.

Then we went back to Times Square and I went to watch Billy Elliot. Which I loved it was beautiful. The only sad thing is we could never do it in Timaru cause we could never find a kid that brilliant to play billy. The boy was amazing. My favourite bit is when young billy and oder billy dance  a pas de deux to swan lake. It was incredible absolutely breathtaking.

Well that is it from me for the moment, I have to go and get ready for graduation this afternoon - i cannot believe it is almost over allready it feels as if we have been here forever and then it feels as if we just arrived.

xoxo
E

New York I love you!

So today I worked 12 hours at Jedi - which is a pretty normal Jedi shift me and it also helped me get my hours up this week to over 45 - which is super good. Tomorrow I am back to Epic, but now thanks to my manager and my friends Romulo and Ashlea I only have to work at Epic once next week yay!!! And my hours have been upped yay!!!

Okay so after work tomorrow I am going to a workmate Jenny's house for an "Icon" (that is the area at Hollywood Studios where I work in attractions) christmas party to watch christmas movies etc. So that should be fun.

On the second day of our New York trip we got up pretty early but we had actually slept for about 11 hours the night before so we were pretty well rested. We had breakfast in our little hotel and I made my first waffle for breakfast although the waffle iron did bring back dreadfull memories of my deployment to Epcot when I spent hours and hours making waffle bowls for ice creams - I never ever want to see a waffle bowl again as long as I live!!!!
Then we caught the Subway into Times Square again cause we were going to buy tickets to a broadway show, but on that particular day the ticket box office didnt open until 3pm so we ended up subwaying down to the bottom of Manhattan and buying tickets to Lliberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. Seeing the Statue of Liberty in the distance was very exciting - it made me feel like I really was in New York City! We bought tickets and ended up having to wait for nearly an hour and a half just to get into security so we could board a ferry to Liberty Island. Security was almost as bad as the airport but at least we didn't have to take our shoes off.
This was where I had my very first New York vending hotdog and also a pizza pretzel. Both were very delicious.
Once we got on to the boat we got a spot on the top deck so that we could see the Statue of Liberty - it was like in Titanic when they sail past only it wasn't raining. When we got to Liberty Island we decided to look in the gift shop and I bought a new york pin for my pin collection and a statue of liberty charm for my charm bracelet. Then we had lunch at the restaurant on the island. It was very crowded inside but outside there didnt seem to be too many people about, but it was very cold and windy the day we went which most liekly drove a lot of people inside. We didnt end up buying a ticket to go inside the statue but we took pictures of it - it is massive!!! and we also took pictures of manhattan from the island which were also very cool pics. When we were trying to head back to Manhattan the line was cut literally right in front of us, which was ironic as we had prophesised that happening on the way over (and it hadn't). The boat ride back was extremely windy and so we sat inside. It was very choppy and almost scary when we were trying to get off and the shihp kept rocking up and down - I always have bad luck when it comes to rough weather and boats.

Once back in Manhattan we subwayed back to Times Square to get in yet another line for tickets to see a broadway show. It was kind of difficult to decide on a show as we all wanted to see different ones. In the end the only show we all could agree on was Mary Poppins so we bought tickets to that show at the New Amsterdam theatre, which was absolutely gorgeous although not very big compared to theatres in New Zealand. It is similar to theatre in Chrsitchurch in that the reception area is very small and it is more impressive vertically than horizontally. Mary Poppins itself was a mixture of the books and the movie. It was very good and the woman playing Mrs Banks was fantastic. The kids in the show were kind of annoying thouugh and far less likeaable and pitiable as in the movies - but the overall show was excellent and the songs were amazing.

Continuing on our day of eating New York food we decided to have New York Cheesecake for dessert. It is vanilla flavoured and was actually delicious and I do not even like cheesecake - but I liked that cheesecake.

Anyway I will leave of here as after that we just made our way back to Queens lol even though it was extremely late (or early) and we were a tiny bit worried - we were fine.

Write Soon
xoxo
E

And all that is in between

So I know it has been a super long time since I updated but I have been so busy since then I will attempt to update as much as I can tonight while I actually have time. First of all I only have 3 and a half weeks left of my programme and then I am finished. Aaaaaahhhhh. It is so crazy that almost a whole year has gone since I came to America and Walt Disney World. At the moment we are gearing up for the busiest time of the year. Our park estimates for christmas are at 47,000+ which is basically at capacity for Hollywood Studios. So far I have never worked when it has been higher than 40,000.

At Jedi Training Academy we are going to have two teired shows (which means we have two stages for each show and can accommodate twice the kids for each show)  usually the kids get to fight either Darth Vader or Darth Maul when we have two tiers up. We had this during the week of Thanksgiving which was also busy but no where near as busy as Christmas is expected to be. During Thanksgiving we had 5 shows of 1 tier and 8 shows of two tiers and that is what we will have next week leading up to Christmas. However, the week of Christmas Day to New Years we are going to have all thirteen shows at two tier so we will be signing up 400 kids a day for Jedi Training that week.

Indiana Jones (Epic) is the consistently busiest show in Walt Disney World so they are having up to 9 shows a day instead of our usual 5. So at Epic we will be having super long shifts too. I am working a mix of Epic and Jedi next week cause I swapped my epic shifts for jedi ones as I really like Jedi. I like Epic too, but I am at the point where I am ready to come home so sometimes dealing with annoying and angry guests is the last thing I want to do.

Allrighty - enough about my work rambles let's talk about NYC. OMG I loved going to New York. First of all it was super cold, even though the temperatures were only like mid teens,  that is super freezing when you have been used to 35+ degree heat and humidity. We were actually very lucky to have gone when we did as the next weekend it snowed and we would have died from frostbite I am sure - even in New Zealand it doesn't get that cold in the winter. I went with two Kiwi's Hannah and Brittany and we flew out super early on the wednesday, I didn't even get to sleep at all the night before. We arrived at JFK and were lucky enough to be able to check straight into our hotel. Lol we stayed in a nice enough hotel it was kind of like a backpakers as in we got free breakfast in the wee breakie nook which was very cute but the rooms were like a hotel. The hotel was actually in Queens so we weren't sure what to expect once we were there. We didn't know if we were in a safe neighbourhood or not, but nothing even remotely bad happened so it was all good. We had a pretty good location - close to the Subway and to fast food which we utilised when we came home from the city extremely late.

The first day we took the subway to Times Square and had fun even though it was cold and raining. It took us a little bit to get our bearings but we sorted ourselves. We had fun taking in all the sights and then dropped Brittany off with a few of her rellies from NZ who were visiting at the same time. Hannah and I then went to lunch at TGI Fridays in Times Square which was okay but not the best ever our local applebees in Orlando is 10x better. Then we managed to get ourselves to Rockeffeller centre using the best map ever that I left at TGI Fridays and we were never able to find a good enough map to replace it (It really was very sad). Anyway we found Rockefeller Centre and we saw the Ice Skating rink that is in all the movies and we walked around for a bit inside where it was warm. It was very crowded with New Yorkers. We eventually got a hot chocolate from starbucks and were lucky enough to find a seat by the ice skating rink. It was very beautiful. After that we tried to find Grand Central station but without a map we got a bit lost as we couldn't remember what street it was on. It is very difficult to get lost in NYC though as all the streets go north and all the avenues go west and they are mostly in number order) so we eventually found our way back to Times Square via 5th Avenue - and saw Sacs 5th avenue and Michael Kors - it was very exciting.  Once we got to Times Square we got a new crappy map from the visitors centre and after talking to Brittany decided to head to her in SoHo via Grand Central - this time though we took the Subway.  Grand Central Station is absolutely beautiful - the ceiling has star consellations painted on it and the architecture makes you feel as if you are in a palace. We found the whispering wall as well - I can't remember where I first heard about it but it really works I swear. If you and a friend stand in opposite corners of this particular intersection you can actually hear the other person whisper into the wall. It is amazing - it sounds as if the other person is directly behind you and they are really across the room. Once we met up with Brittany we checked out some of the shops in SoHo and then decided to head back to the Hotel as we were all very tired from lack of sleep and it was about an hour back to Queens. That was the night we stopped at Maccas and then we watched tv from bed until we fell asleep.

Well, it is getting late now so I promise I will finish this soon,

Merry Christmas
xoxo
E

Up till now

OMG so October has fully been the best month ever and hopefully will continue to be awesome! I am not sure if I posted this but my trip to New York City is all booked for next week I am going with Brittany and Hannah who are both from New Zealand too - so it is kinda cool that I actually have Kiwi friends now seen as for my first 6 months I hung out with mostly Aussies Lol! Anyway I am super excited about that and I have been busy working heaps which is kinda hard to do where I work because the hours are so limited at Epic a full day -open to close is 8.30am-6.30pm and at Jedi a full day is usually 8.00am-8/9pm, so I have been trying to work full days lately. This week I worked over 50 hours which is good because this weeks paycheck goes in the day after I go to NYC so I can used my allready saved money for the first day and the my paycheck for the rest of the days. I really hope to be able to see Museum of Natural History, The Met, Rockerfeller Centre, Tiffany's, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Times Square and like a million broadway shows!!!

Anyway I am trying to update with everything that has happened up till now. So what has happened?

Well the Epcot Food and Wine Festival started at the beginning of October. I went last week with Sarah. It was pretty neat, but we spent so much money trying all the food. It is really cool because they have a New Zealand Stall which sells Scallops with a Kumara (yes they actually used the word!!) and red curry paste and then they had 'Lamb Sliders' - sliders is a word Americans use for a very small burger - do not get me started with this though because first of all we don't have "sliders" in New Zealand and second of all it is practically blasphemous to use Lamb mince in a burger! That is what beef is for! Lamb is premium meat it should be used for chops!! Which is ironic because at the Australian stall they have Lamb chops - Where do these people get there information??? I did have some Mohua Savignon Blanc from NZ though it was very nice!! We also had lamingtons at Australian (fully English!) they were okay they just tasted kindof hard like they had been frozen and then unfrozen. The Apple Strudel from Germany was amazing and I cannot wait to try some more!!! Yummy!!! The most dissappointing part was the raviolli from Italy; while it was good it just tasted like something you could buy frozen at the supermarket and I was expecting so much more. The best thing however was les escargots from France. It was delicious I am converted. It was my first time eating snails but I just tried not to think abbout it when I ate the first one and I actually really enjoyed - I even have pictures which I will put on facebook lol!

This week has been so much fun - yesterday my Aussie friend Loren came back. She has a job on the Disney Dream Cruise ship which is the new Disney Cruise ship that just launched in January. She starts on Sunday morning and is at Disney World for Traditions etc. It was so amazing to catch up with her - we met up yesterday morning at Magic Kingdom and we were supposed to meet by security but she surprised me by meeting me off the cast bus at TTC and I fully didn't see her untill she walked right up too me I was so surprised and excited lol! We spent a beautiful morning at Magic Kingdom, we went on Space Mountain and I finally went to the Enchanted Tiki room which was hillarious with all these crazy sining birds it was so weird. We also watched PhilharMagic which I haven't seen in forever. I haven't really been to any of the parks much since Loren left in July actually. After that we met up with Jill and Sarah and after talking with the Mayor of Magic Kingdom for a while we went to the Laugh Floor which was cool because they had changed the first part of the show so I had never seen that bit before. Then we had lunch at Pinocchio's Village Haus. After Lunch Jill had work but Loren, Sarah and I went to Hollywood Studios where we rode Star Tours and I was able to use my awesome influence to get VIP seats for Indiana Jones - a show that Loren never saw before she left. She had always wanted to be an extra in the show too - so we made that happen. Aaah so nice to know people in the right places.
After that we neede to head home to get our passports as our ids and tehn we went to Epcot where we watched Billy Ocean - so exciting!!! He sang When the going gets tough! Loved it way better than this weird middle aged Latino singer who none knew, and obviously hadnt made it big, that Sarah and I saw when we went the first time. I also had the snails again!!
After Illuminations I met up with Kimie and Angela from work and we went to Jellyrolls it was fun but not as rocking as it usually is -so we ended up heading home at 1130pm -pretty early for a night out lol!! I also do not know wat I was drinking but wen I got home I felt really sick and I had only had one drink - I know there was vodka in it but it tasted kinda licorice-y.

Today I picked up a shift at Epic and had the best day of work ever - this Make A Wish family came in and I found them and seated them in VIP and then we got the little boy a Mickey Mouse dressed as Indiana Jones plushie (soft toy) and got them to meet Indiana Jones and he gave the boy a signed hat and they had photos and I orchestrated it all, with help of course. We were so happy after work that we had made Magic for the family and tehy were so happy about it too. It was funny cause this other lady was watching and she was all teary and taking pictures of it and was like 'i don't even know these people and I am so happy about it' lol! Was best day! especially cause Kimie, Courtney and I also booked a cruise for Bahamas on Disney Dream from Nov 6-9. It is gonna be so much fun I can't wait!!

Have a Magical Day

xoxo
E

Boo to You!

"This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. This is Halloween, This is Halloween."

So Halloween is absolutely insane in the US. About a month and a half ago, Halloween candy, decorations and costumes started appearing all over the place - at Walmart, at Walgreens, at Disney! It is amazing though too -they really go in fo it here. And of course we already know that, but it is just very different from experiencing it for yourself.

Courtney and I decided we were going to go to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party on the 23rd of September as Cast Members got a discount  on tickets but only through September - cause in October it starts getting busier and there is only a certain amount of tickets available.

This was a pretty last minute decision though, as I recall we made it on Wednesday, on Thursday I went to Hollywood Studios to buy the tickets from Company D (this is a cast exclusive shop) and then later that night we went to Walmart to buy costumes - I was Athena and Courtney was a Crayon!
Side note - the bus ride home was a nightmare we didn't end up leaving Walmart until 45 minutes after we were supposed to leave and the bus driver left us standing outside in the rain and forked lightning for half of that. Then we were supposed to stop at Vista first, but the bus driver took us to Chatham, Commons and then Vista - so much drama.

Friday I finished work at 5.45pm, but Courtney didn't finish until 7.30pm so I just hung out in our break room until she was done and then we got changed at costuming and just missed the bus to the TTC by a minnute so we took another bus to the Contemporary where we boarded the resort monorail - this was lucky actually as the express monorail was broken. I think we made pretty good time. We got to Magic Kingdom just after 8.30 so it only took us an hour to get changed and ready, and get all the way to MK.

When we got there we were just intime for the Boo to You parade, but we did miss the headless horseman, who rides the parade route first (so I need to go back to see that as Sleepy Hollow is one of my favourite scary movies - especially when I was younger! lol

We did get to see all the characters out trick or treating and the villains and the grave diggars from Haunted Mansion - it was an awesome parade - the best part of the whole night. After that we went and got a place to watch Hallo-Wishes. Which is the Halloween version of the Wishes fireworks. It was good, but I think normal Wishes is better and I was expecting so much more of them as all the other fireworks displays I have seen have blown me away!

After Hallo-Wishes we rode on Haunted Mansion - an absolute must at Halloween, It was so cool because all of the cast members had ghostly make-up on and their hair was done - it was amazing. I really wanted to work there just for the Halloween days! Then we went trick or treating around the park and ended up with a multitude of "candy". Unfortunately half of the lollies over here aren't that good so I have barely eaten any of it! Oh well it was the getting of the candy that was fun!!!

We also rode Space Mountain and Whinnie the Pooh and the Carousel and I bought my Halloween Souvenir Popcorn bucket. I have no idea how I am going to get these popcorn buckets home I now have four! The night was pretty fun, we got photos with the genie and with Terk and Cinderella's Pumpkin Carriage. I was guttered as Tarzan was taking pics with Terk, so we got in line specifically to get a pic with Tarzan, but he left literally after the group in front of us - it was very dissappointing as they hadn't even told us he would be leaving!

The ride home was not pleasant - the only mode of transportation back to the TTC was the boat and it was so packed we were only allowed through onto the second boat and that was basically by inching ourselves in front of other people for 20 minutes filling in any space forward possible! Lol

Anyway that was my first experience with Halloween and I cannot wait till the real Halloween, some of my work mates said they might tae me trick or treating to the rich part of orlando, and I really want to go to Halloween Horror Nights but I am so scared it is supposed to be really scary, like people chasing you with chainsaws scary!!!

Write soon

xoxo
E

May the Force be with you!

So about 3 weeks ago I was crosstrained at the Jedi Training Academy. This means that I now get scheduled either at Indiana Jones or at Jedi. The Jedi Training Academy is a pretty cool experience for 4-12 year olds 'cause they get to learn a light saber routine and then fight the "dark side", usually they get to fight Darth Vader but sometimes they fight Darth Maul. It is pretty funny watching the kids fight. Some of them are really into it and practically smack Vader around instead of doing what the Jedi master is telling them to do and then some of the little ones barely hit anything, but they are so cute.

On Thursday that week Ashlea, Sheila, Angela and I went to Animal Kingdom which was fun we rode on Everest twice and Dinosaur and Kali River Rapids and We went on Safari which was cool, because although we didn't see many other animals we had an awesome view of the Lion which never happens! We also got our pictures taken with the characters which I haven't done in Forever!!!!

The best news came aswell, my friend Loren who left in July got a job on board the Disney Dream Cruise Ship and will be coming back on October 11th for traditions and then to start her job - so we are all very excited to see her again! Life at Disney has been less adventurous since Loren left. At the moment I am trying to find someone to take my shift on the 12th so I can hang out with her the whole day!

The last few weeks I have mostly just worked and slept as I am in the process of trying to save for my trip to New York City in tw weeks!!! aah so close!

Ashlea and I one wednesday ended up going to Florida Mall, which was fun as I hadn't been to the Mall yet while I have been here. It was massive and it wasn't even a large mall - it was tiny apparently. To give some perspective it was probably about 4 times the sie of Riccarton Mall. I was so lost but they luckily had maps! We went to Forever 21 which is now my new favourite store - I loved the clothes they had there! and so cheap you could get tops for like $5! CRAZY!! We also went to Victoria's Secret which was pretty fun - they had some really nice things there! Lol! Then we went to Macy's which looks just like Farmers except it is all brands like Ralph Lauren and GAP and everything costs like $200! We also went to American Eagle and JCPenney and a few other shops. I am going to try and go back there before my trip to NYC because I need some warmer clothes!

Well I will try and write soon about Hallowe'en

xoxo
E

Guess What? It's Fall!

So with September Disney seemed to calm down a little bit as all the Kiddlywinks had gone back to school and our park estimates suddenly went from 26K to 13K a day which is super slow. It is actually kind of boring wen it is slow and I sometimes find myself looking forward to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas when the park will become extremely busy again - However then I remember how hectic it is when it is busy and how bitchy some of the guests can be and I decide that it is better to be bored than yelled at!

The next week on my days off I ended up hanging out with Courtney which is incredible as we went through like 6 weeks of barely seeing each other as I worked early shifts and she worked late ones - it was crazy as we actually live together! We went to Publix on Wednesday night and I finally bought an umbrella which has proved useful but just adds wood to the "umbrella ella ella" fire!
On Thursday we went to Universal Studios and I finally got to visit Harry Potter World properly after nearly 8 months of living in Orlando. We were gonna go with Ashlea my friend from work but she was unfortunately able to go so we went by ourselves!

First up we went on the Poseidon Tour which used some incredible special effects it was actually pretty amazing in some parts. Then we had a bit of a look around Harry Potter World which was super fun! We went into Zonko's and the Pygmy Puffs were so cute that we both bought one each. Courtney's is pink and is named Shrek after Shrek the sheep (cause we were talking about how it looked like a sheep), mine is Purple and somehow got named Black Sheep, like the movie cause the faces look a wee bit creepy like that creepy genetically engineered lamb in the movie. The stroe clerk who we 'adopted' them from announced that Shrek and Black Sheep were worthy of being adopted by Courtney and I to the whole store and everyone clapped - it was seriously funny!! Afterwards we had a look in the other shops and went to the Ollivanders Wand Experience - where you get to watch (and one kid gets picked out) the scene in the book where Harry's wand chooses him! It was pretty cool for the kid that gets chosen!

Then we went and watched the Sinbad Show which was okay but I found the acting very week and it was pretty boring! Not as much fun as Harry Potter World. After that we went on the Castle ride and we went through the queue which I hadn't been in before. It was awesome we saw the Mirror of Erised, the green houses, the Sorting Hat, The house points counter thingie, Dumbledore's office, the Defence Against the Dark Arts room and the mmoving and talking paintings - so amazing!
Everyone should be proud of me as I kept my eyes open during the spider part of the ride this time and those giant spiders are very scary!!
We ended up going to the three broomsticks for lunch which was fun! We both had the fish and chips which was better than the fish and chips at Epcot but not as good as the ones from home!!
I also finally got to try Butterbeer - Omg IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!! It kind of tastes like a spider mixed with I ce cream soda taste but I loved it and really want some more!! I also bought my very own wand when I was there it is so cool!!!

After that we went over to Universal Studios and rode on the Mummy ride, Men in Black and The Simpsons rides. All in All we had an awesome day and the weather was perfect in it didnt rain until we got home. Also the lines for the rides were so short coz it is the off season now which rocked!!!

Well I will write soon I swear, promise - maybe later tonight as I am going out to Walmart with Courtney to look for Halloween costume accesories and then tonight Vampire Diaries and Secret Circle are on so lots planned for this evening.

xoxo
E

Kuwa Macho Wajangili!

So folks, I know I hate that word too but I have to say it about a million times a day at work, anyway I know it has been like a month since I last updated so this post may be in two parts - it depends on how bothered I can be to write today - plus new season of America's Next Top Model is on in an hour.

So my last post finished with me heading to Animal Kingdom the next day with Sheila who is from Idaho and works at Epic with me. We had a pretty fun day - we went on Safari although we didn't get to see many animals for some reason. We also went to see the Lion King show then we rode Dinosaur - my favourite ride at Disney seen as it is the only ride that actually freaks me out. I get petrified on that ride every single time. After that we rode on Expedition Everest and then watched It is Tough to be a Bug ( I actually kept my eyes open this time during the spider scene - Last time I saw the show I was clutching my roommate, Amanda's arm and had my eyes squeezed tightly shut. Finally we finished up at Finding Nemo The Musical. It was such a fun day we travelled back in time to the late cretaceous period, visited Africa, Asia and Australia.

After Animal Kingdom Sheila and I heade back to Hollywood (Studios) to pick up Ashlea after she finished work so we could go to Downtown Disney together for Silvia's goodbye dinner at Earl of Sandwich. To get from Hollywood Studios to Downtown Disney though we have to catch a resort bus to a resort and then catch another resort bus to Downtown Disney. We ended up going to Carribbean Beach resort. There was this really cute kid who kept telling everyone which bus was coming - it was hillarious, his mum asked if Disney hired 10 year olds cause he was perfect! Lol

When we finally got to Downtown Disney we were early by about an hour so we explored a few of the shops and then met up with Richie from work who was also early. We ended up having to wait for like another 30 minutes coz everyone else missed the bus from Vista. Eventually we all arrived and we ate our Earl of Sandwiches which was very good. Silvia was pretty sad and took photo's with all of us. Afterwards we walked down to Haagen Dazs and some people got ice creams or milk shakes. It was a great last get together for Silvia with all of her work friends. It was good as Richie and Jason gave us all a ride home.

The next day Silvia and I went to a Nail Salon near The Commons and I got a manicure which was so much fun and I am now addicted to them! Silvia got acryllic nails stuck on and she was very excited as it was the first time she had ever had nails on as she bites hers. After that we went shopping at the premium outlets and Silvia nd her awesome Italian fashion knowledge helped me to choose a perfume - which was ver expensive. I really want to buy a really expensive perfume from Dulce and Gabbana before I go home!!

For Silvia's last night we went to a housing welcome event and had free pizza and just hung out and talked for a bit - we also saw some other people there who said goodbye to Silvia. It was very sad to have to say goodbye to another friend - I think that is the absolute worst part of this experience having to say goodbye to some of the best friends I've ever had.

Okay ANTM is on now so I will write very soon with the rest of my last months I promise

xoxo
E

Back to School!!

School has gone back in the United States!! It was kind of strange watching the back to school stationary ads etc in September. The Northern Hemisphere people thought it was hillarious that we have our back to school ads in January! (IDK) Because of all the kids headed back to school, the amount of people at the park hs gone down considerably so our show loads are not as hectic!! Unhectic shows are soooo much nicer than the hectic ones as the guests aren't as cranky :)

On a better note all of us Epic cast members have been hanging out! We have been to Cici's (a pizza buffet place) twice now and we have a dinner at Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney for Silvia's goodbye! I can't believe she is leaving - Epic will definitely not be the same without her! We have plans to meet up in Italia! when I make it to Europe and Silvia promised to take me to Vatican City even though it is like 8 hours away from where she lives, but still should be fun!!!!

Also I have people and plans to go to NYC in October apparently this is a pretty good time to go as it won't be too cold but not too hot either and not as busy as it can sometimes be. I am going with two girls from NZ who came over in July and my days off have been approved -so just need to book flights and accomodation and "Thunderbirds are Go!" Lol.

Tomorrow is my day off and seen as I did my washing and cleaned my room yesterday I am taking the day to visit Animal Kingdom with Sheila, who is a new American CP (college program) from Epic. She just came last week and we both have the day free so we thought we would hit up the Animals before saying Goodbye to Silvia =(

Next week I also have plans to finally see Harry Potter World at Universal properly with Ashlea so very excited about that -Butterbeer here I come!!!! Maybe we will eat at the Three Broomsticks???

Well I will keep you updated on whats happening in my somewhat adventurous life (basically I work and sleep!)

PS My roommate from France leaves this week as her programme is finished too so I will be getting a new roommate from goodness knowss where soon!

xoxo
E

Ups and Downs

So It has been a super long time since I last posted but basically nothing much has happened. Two weeks ago my friends left to head home. Kristen went back to Oklahoma, Rebecca went back to Iowa, Cody went back to Michigan and Kolbi went back to Texas. Plus a few of my new friends from Epic have left no too. The last day I hung out with Rebecca and Kolbi and went to Hollyood Studios and Magic Kingdom to watch Wishes. It was sad having to say goodbye to yet another friend. Later that night I met up ith Sarah and we went to hang out ith Cody at a friends house. We wathed this really stupid horror (comedy) called Killer Klowns from Outer Space. It was seriously funny. We then had to say goodbye to Cody who we met only a few days into our programme so it was very sad!

Since they have left I have only really been out twice - once was to Applebees with Kimie from NZ and Silvia from Italy - both of whom I work with and then two others from NZ who came over in July and Silvia's roommate Ezra from Turkey. It was nice getting out again and meeting new people. Then I went to Chick-fil-a with Sarah and Jill. It as good hanging out ith our 'Calderwood' family even if it has shrunk a bit.

Work has definitely had its ups and downs. Mondays in particular are horrific - I can officially say I don't like Mondays (but don't worry I don't have a gun so I'll vent by being perfectly nice to the evil guests). Somedays like yesterday and today are good though. There was this lovely family that thanked us especially which was very nice. They gave us a photo of their family with a thankyou message from them on the back as that is all we are allowed to accept. It was very strange but they also asked us to sign their autograph book as 'we are the ones who really make their vacations' we were very appreciative of their appreciation!!!

Well tomorrow is monday so fingers crossed it goes better than other mondays!

xoxo
E

Goodbyes and Hellos

so I am now settled into my new job. It has been a while since I last wrote so there is a lot to catch up on. First off there is a Kiwi working at Epic with me - so excited to have a friendly kiwi to converse with. Her name is Kimie and she is from Auckland. She is very nice and now since I have been at work a while I have had the chance to meet other nice people as well. Lindsay, Ari and Reggie are all CPs from America, then there is Richie he is really nice too but he isn't a CP. There is also Silvia from Italy - I will hopefully be able to visit her one day and Camille from Paris and Cem from Turkey. I have also met a few other people who work in my area but not at Epic but I have only chatted to them for a few minutes in the break room. It is sad and annoying though as all the CP's who work at Epic presently are leaving in the next month so I won't have the chance to hang out with them or get to know them better which is  a shame but hopefully lots of new CP's will come in to replace them.

Last Week was Sarah's last week too as her her programme finished as she headed back to England. On the Wednesday I went with Sarah, Rebecca, Kolbi, Sascha and Alyssa to Applebees after they had finished work. It was sad!! And then on the Thursday Rebecca, Sarah and I went to IHOP for brunch. That was exciting as it was something I wanted to do since I got here. IHOP is in all the movies and now I can say that I have been there. I had pancakes with maple syrup and it was sooo good!!
After that we went to this massive discount store and I found earphones for only 4 dollars and they actually work (amazing). Then Kolbi came and picked us up and we took Sarah to property control for the last time, unfortunately it didn't really have anything that good. Then Sarah went to have dinner and hang with her English buddies on their last day and Kolbi, Rebecca and I met up with them later on that night for Wishes. It was so sad saying goodbye to Sarah - I have only known her for 3 months but it feels like I have known her forever. We are really good friends and I cannot wait until I head to England to visit her!! We have so many plans for our travels around the UK and Europe - we are going to go on the Chunnel! and have tea at The Ritz and go and watch Wimbledon!!

Wednesday afternoon I also hung out with one of my other English friends - Collette as it was her birthday. I met up with her and some of her friends at Hollywood Studios and we went on Star Tours, Muppets 3D and Tower of Terror. We also had dinner at 50's Prime Time Cafe. That was the best dinner ever, it was so much fun. Basically your server acts like a parent and you are all the kids eating dinner in the 50's so they tell you to wash your hands, elbows off the table, put your napkin on your lap, ask permission to leave the table, eat all your vegetbles etc etc It was so funny cause you get yelled at and all the kids tell on their parents. HILARIOUS! So much fun and pretty decent priced as well - I definitely want to go back there!

Then Collette and her friends went to Fantasmic! I was going to go too, but it was Sarah's second to last night so I decided to hang out with her as Collette will still be here for another month so we will have heaps of time to catch up later =)

Last night I spent with Sarah and Cody and some of his friends after I had finished work - I took a bus, a monorail and a boat to get to Fort Wilderness and just as I get there It Rains!! Murphy's Law!!! So we ended up just going to Chick-fil-a for dinner and then Sarah and I walked back to Vista cause we both had work this morning and the others were headed out on the party bus!!!

Work definitely has its bad parts and its good parts. Basically work is great except for the extremely rude people. If people listen and are polite and friendly then we love them - people who don't listen and are rude and grumpy we hate. Most cast memebers will do anything for nice people but we hate it when people treat us badly and so we are less inclined to help =) If you want something - Be Nice to Us!

Well that is my little vent I will write soon

xoxo
E

Working at Epic!!!

Monday equaled my first day of Training for Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! Which everyone just calls Epic. I had to be at work at 8.30am so I had to catch a bus at 7am to get there in time to try on costumes and figure out where I was supposed to go. The costuming cast members are very unhelpful though so it took me a while to get sorted - as well as all the sizing over here is weird so you have to try on like 5 different sizes before you can find one that fits but still looks good on as well as Disney has the worst fashion sense!!!!!

I finally managed to get a costume sorted but then I had no idea where I was supposed to go - so with only like 5 minutes before I was meant to start work I just went around to the front of the theatre and luckily there was someone there who directed me where to go and I was only like 2 minutes late - but I really hope that I won't get a half point because of that!

I was training with a girl I knew from Australia who had come over in January aswell. Her name is Ashlea so it was good to have someone to talk to while training. Our trainer on Monday was Kathleen and she was really nice. We learnt all the positions and it was a little bit overwhelming at first as it felt like there was so much to remember and so many things happening at once but by that afternoon I was pretty much set.

We started off  "pushing water" which happens every morning as the theatre is hosed down every night and we have to squeegie all the benches and make sure that the all the water is pushed down to the bottom and there are no puddles of water anywhere. It really sucks and is very boring!! But hopefully we don't have to do that very often as apparently CPs don't normally get given the opening shift. Then we leart all of the positions there are "House - Left, Right & Centre" they direct the people to seats and take car of the quests in weelchairs. Then "packer" gets everyone to "fill up all available space" and "slide to the centre of the theatre". "Photocell" is the person who lets people into the theatre and directs the weelchairs to a cast member to be taken care of. "Greeter" lets people know when the next show is, when to come back for the show, pulls people in to watch the show and gets to pick a kid for each show to be the junior director! Everyone has to help clean up the theatre after every show - that is the worst bit!!

My training days were pretty easy and this job is 100% easier than Quick Food and Beverage. Only issue with this job is that it sucks having to mass pack - this is where you stand down the front and yell to 400 people to move towards the centre of the theatre and you have to do it all fun cause it is Disney! I am going to have so much confidence after 6 months of doing this several times a day. The other part that sucks is the mean guests that get angry cause they can't sit down or the show is sold out or they can't see - I hate guests sometomes they are so nasty sometimes and 99% of the time it is their own fault for coming late!!!

On Wednesday I was supposed to have the day off but my training schedule and CDS (cast deployment service) which is responsible for everyones shifts were different and so my schedule got all mucked up but it was sorted in the end it just meant that my days off this week were Fiday and Saturday instead of Wednesday and Thursday. It also meant I had 3 days off this week as I already had Sunday off. Days off are good and all, but your paycheck is always very small which sucks!!! I have found that due to my early finishes every day I have so much time for my chores such as laundry, walmart trips etc and I do not need two days off anymore except for socialising. And due to most of my friends leaving in the next 3 weeks I will have plenty of time to pick up extra shifts and I will try to get scheduled for 6 days a week! Every extra penny helps when you have so many things on your American Bucket List to get done and now only 6 months left to do it!!!!

Thursday was my assessment so I am now officially an Epic Cast member! Yay! So much better than training as they do tend to treat you like an idiot or a baby sometimes. The assessment consisted of a written test (and by written I mean multi-choice) which I got all right!! Yay Me!!! Then we walked around with our assesor and she asked us questions and then observed us doing all the different jobs. Was a wee bit scary but went well. After that was finished I was put into rotation which meant that I was given jobs to do all by myself. Unfortunately I got House Right three times, but I got a greeter posistion for a little bit as well - which was fun!! I have decided I like greeter and photocell (when it isn't too hectic) the best!!

For the last show I saw my friends Sarah, Rebecca and Victor who all came to watch - it was very fun seeing them and getting to tell them where to go - highlight of my day!! Oh the other day we picked the Junior Directors for a show and when we asked the family if they were having a good day they told us that they were having a horrible day and when we asked them if the kids wanted to do the Junior Director thing and that they would get to meet Indiana Jones afterwards and get VIP seating they were so happy and told us it just made their day!!!! I was so happy that we had made some magic!!!

After work on Thursday I hung out with Sarah and Rebecca and we went to Lone Star for dinner. The meals were very filling and it was nice to hang out with my friends while they are still here. On Friday Rebecca and I made a deal - I would go shopping with her in the morning if she came with me to see Harry Potter. So I finally saw Harry Potter 7 pt 2! I thought it was okay definitely not the worst of the adaptations, and overall a pretty good movie, but only as a second parter as there wasn't really a beginning or a middle! I was glad Neville got to kill the snake as that was a part of the book I would have been so mad to have been changed. The ending was just idiotic though and really cheesy even worse than in the book.

In the evening Sarah and I went to Rebecca's after she had finished work and watched A walk to Remember and Mary Poppins - It was nice and relaxing!

Today I didnt really do anything except Laundry and go to Walmart where I bought a watch as my new job requires me to know the time and a new MP3 player as mine broke.

Well It is back to work tomorrow - now that I am not training I will have to see what the day offers me!

xoxo
E

A new Job!

So Saturday rolled around and we finally got sent an email telling us the location of our new job. My email said Hollywood Studios Icon Attractions - so of course I was like wat is Icon Attractions??? Anyway after a wee bit of asking around I finally found out that Icon Attractions are: Star Tours, Muppets 3D, Indiana Jones, American Idol, Jedi Training Academy and Great Movie Ride. So I would be at one of these attractions. I was just so excited that I wouldn't be working at The Honey I shrunk The Kids Playground - It is very boring there apparently you just yell at kids to go down the slide feet first and tell people they cant bring food into the playground (yawn) But Yay!!! cause I don't have to work there!! So of course I wanted to know exactly where I would be working but unfortunately I would have to wait until my training schedule was sent to my managers at Sunset and that wasm't until Thursday.

My last week of work at Sunset I had aweful shifts 3 of which were closing Dishes. Luckily I am so seasoned at Dishes now that I can get through with pretty much lightening speed, especially if I have good people to close with!!

On Wednesday I basically had a lazy day but I did get to Walmart and my awesomely brilliant mum gave me some money to buy clothes so I got four pieces of clothing for like $45 bucks was v good!!! The rest of the day I just lazy bummed around watching tv shows.

Thursday was Loren's last day as a cast member so we went to Property Control - but unfortunately there wasn't anything good there on that day which sometimes happens. Some days are crap and other days are brilliant for good finds!! I did buy some pins for my collection from Cast Connection though.

After that we went to Hollywood Studios with Cody, Sarah and another friend of Loren's and we got to watch Beauty and the Beast from the VIP section which was really cool - plus we had the good singer!!! I also got my training schedlue and found out I would be working at Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! not my first choice but anything is better than the playground!!!!! So, excited that I finally knew where I was going to be working. We then met up with Ruth and rode on Toy Story twice and I finally got to the Beaver - yay!! Both times I was a Beaver but I did improve on the second time so aiming to just keep getting better every time I go!

After that we went home for a wee bit (ie a shower cause we were all sweating pretty bad (eeeeewww) I know it is gross but it is so hot and humid here - cannot wait until October hits and the humidity dies down a wee bit). Then Ruth, Loren and I headed to Epcot as the others were going to ditch us to see the Harry Potter midnight showing! Losers!!! lol

We had dinner at China and went on Test Track - I love that ride. We were going to go on Soaring but Loren didnt want to miss her last showing of Illuminations which was very good I just love the music that accompanies the fireworks it makes them spectacular. I think Timaru should have music to the New Years Fireworks as they use many of the same fireworks that disney use lol!!!

Once Epcot closed we went to Jelly Rolls which was alot of fun. I love that place!!! And we even went to the Dance Hall and all did the cupid shuffle!! lol!! Later at like 3am we went to Dennys and I had Pancakes for $2 and Bacon but the bacon is weird here it is fully hard not just crisp like it is back home so I didnt really like that - but the pancakes were really good!!! I did feel pretty sick though. I think it was most likely a mixture of the alcohol, sun, lack of sleep and probably dehydration - but once I got to bed I was fine. Friday though I had to get up early to go with Loren to the hotel as I had reserved the room and needed to show my cast ID for the discount before I started work!! It was very weird being back at Pop Century as that was where our whole Disney journey started!!

Because all my friends are leaving I kindof feel a bit sad that I am not going home as well. Not because I don't like it but because all of the absolutely amazing and lifelong friends I have made here are all going to leave me and I am needing to make new friends again. But then I think of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years and I am glad that I will get to experience all of those events both in America and at Disney!!!

On Saturday I got up early and made Afghans for all my work friends to sample. I was quite surprised noone knew what an Afghan was even the Brits and Aussies , as I didnt realise they were a NZ invention. My last teo days were sad - but was good knowing I could come back and see some of my friends who will still be at Sunset. I took loads of pictures with everyone so I won't forget them!!

Sunday was the last day to spend with Lorena and Narelle ever until we go to Australia or they come to see us. I met up with Loren in themorning at Downtown Disney and we decided to go on the Balloon - it is a hot air balloon that goes up 400m and you can see almost all of Disney from the air. It was a pretty windy day so we only just managed to get on but we had both wanted to do it from the start of our programme so we were glad to get it ticked off!! We went with three of Loren's friends from work and we all ate at Earl of Sandwich together afterwards.

After that we went back to Pop Century and I burned Festival of the Lion King, Illuminations, Wishes and Disney Wishes! (CDs which Loren bought at Property Control) to my external hard drive - I love the music and am so excited to have it yay!!! Then we went to Hollywood Studios and I got them in on my Main Gate Pass which means I aonly have 2 days left on it now =( Then I had to go clean my apartment and go to Walmart to get more phone credit cause I had run out so I met up with them again at Magic Kingdom for fireworks - but we also went on Laugh Floor and for some unbelievable reason we also went on It's a Small World. We watched the Fireworks for Loren's last time - and I had a great spot but due to unforeseen circumstances involving food, Haunted Mansion, pins, a phone not working, bridges, people and confusion I managed to get separated from the others - but I just met up with them at the train station later and we took pictures with our old ganag from Pop Century again!! lol

Then we had to say goodbye and tears were shed - they never told us we would have to say goodbye to so many great friends and great people!!!!!!!

Well this is the end of the first half or my programme let's hope the next 6 months are just as fun-filled and rewarding as the first =) !!!!!!!

Write Soon

xoxo
E

Well...It has been a while....

Okay so It has been quite a while since I last wrote but the truth is I have just been so busy the last two weeks that I haven't been able to find time to write. Okay so after Independence Day work was pretty much back to normal and although I was sad to leave I felt pretty stifled in the job. I was definitely ready for a change and was definitely counting down the days until I changed jobs. For those of you that don't know the Australia / New Zealand 12 moth programme entitles you to two jobs -each 6 months long. So for the first 6 months of my programme I worked Quick Service Food and Beverage and for the second 5 months I get to work Attractions.

That Wednesday was one of Loren's last days off before she (on the 6 month programme) goes back home so I spent the day with her. We firstly went to Animal Kingdom in the am. It was amazingly fun - we rode Dinosaur (my favourite thrill ride at Disney) and watched Festival of the Lion King - I love that show!!!!! We were going to go on Kli River Rapids but the line was like 80 minutes and honestly ythe length of the ride does not constitute a wait time of over 10 minutes! So we skipped that one!

After Lion King we were getting a picture with Donald and this guy calls out for people to volunteer to have a song made up about them and Loren in her infinite "meanness" volunteers myself!! It was very embarressing at first but the song was actually amaazing and afterwards Loren got a song written about her too! Best Magical Moment of the day (or eva) but I still have 6 months to go so maybe something even better will happen!!!!

After AK we headed to Magic Kingdom where we rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (my favourite Rollar Coaster at Disney) and we got to eat dinner at Casey's which is this food joint themed for a baseball concession stand so they sell hotdogs aka "american hot dogs" and cracker jacks and candy floss etc it was pretty cool. Then we watched the fireworks from the train station. It has an amazing view but someone had the bright idea to build a giant flag pole right in the middle of the view of the castle so it sucked for taking pictures or videoing the show!!!

Thursday was official Lazy Thursday with Sarah and Rebecca my buddies from work. W e watched movies all day and enjoyed junk food and Pizza as well! Such a fun day and we didn't even do anything. In the early afternoon this massive storm blew over top us and some massively close and massive lightning and thunder right above us caused the power to go out for like an hour right in the middle of our movie watching. We couldn't even get the dvd out of the dvd player to watch on the computer. The annoying thing was that after about an hour the power came back on for like 10 seconds and then died again and this kept happening for like another 20 minutes!!!!We didnt even have internet so we had to just sit around staring out the window and talking - was kindof exciting though!

That is the thing they don't tell you about Florida though - they said it would be hot and that it would be humid and that it would rain for an hour or so every afternoon. They did not tell us that there would be massive thunderstorms every other day or that it would down pour for hours at a time some days - the amount of rain they get here is crazy!!!!

Anyway I promise to write soon this time

xoxo
E

Indendence Day

So this is my 50th post! Wow I cannot believe I have actually been writing this for so long - I am never able to keep up a diary or journal so I am quite proud of my 50 post accomplishment!!

Last Saturday I didn't start work until 4.45pm so I went to Hollywood Studios with Loren. She finally made it to Toy Story and we both made it into the 90,000's with our score as on this ride you sit in little carts and have to shoot at 3D virtual things like plates or balloons or ring toss etc. It is very fun but definitely not worth the wait of over an hour that some people wait. The other day it was a 2 1/2 hour wait - Crazy!!! Anyway If you are just in a two when you go on the ride you get to skip half the queue - which is so brilliant!! I have almost made it to beaver!!!

We also went to American Idol and Star Tours. After Loren went to work I went to drawing class and got to draw piglet!!! I think my piglet is pretty cute =)

Work that day kind of sucked - but it wasn't as bad as the day before where I got soaked walking to work and then had to change my costume after an hour of condiment bar and had wet shoes all day!!  We had to get new shoes which would be fine but they were too small, but my other shoes were wet so I wore them however it was entirely uncomfortable!

Sunday I gave away my shift so I was able to go and see the fireworks at Magic Kingdom!!!!!! This was amazing as they were the same fireworks that would be shown at Magic Kingdom on July 4th for Independence day!! They were so cool! I spent the afternoon at MK by myself of course. I went to property control in the morning with Loren. I also took my shoes back and managed to swap them for a size bigger they are so much better now that my pinky toes aren't cramped. It amazes me how small american's feet are - in NZ I wear about a size 8 which is just below average but here I wear a size 9 1/2 and the average is like a 7-8. So strange!!

I bought at property control a photo album, some pins, Disney playing cards, a Hollywood Studios T-shirt and the cutest little outfits for my dog and cat - so excited for them to try them on! Liddy you must send me a pic of Abbs and Precious dressed up!!

After dropping my neew stuff off at home I headed to MK and hung out all day by myself. I watched the 3pm Parade and the Mickey float broke in front of me - I was a wee bit worried for those people that are friends with Characters in the parade casue it was ridiculously hot outside, but they finally got a little cart to tow the float for the rest of the parade.

I also went to see PhilharMagic (Love it!), Carousel of Progress, and since it was independence day - Hall of Presidents (I was almost falling asleep in that one!) I also visited Beasley at work, pin traded, ate dinner and window shopped!! Was a very long, busy day!! People were lined up at like 5pm for the 9pm fireworks - I got a position at like 8pm and my friend Collette from England arrived just before they started she had been working. I filmed the fireworks and they were just magnificent - they completely surrounded us!!

After the fireworks we watched the electrical Parade and then Memories show as Leroy who also is from England and works with us and who had met up at with us after the fireworks, hadn't seen them before. It was mental when they were over as everyone was trying to leave the park at the same time! Crazy!!!

Then it was back to work for the fourth! I was lucky enough to be able to watch the last 5 minutes of the fourth or July Fireworks at Hollywood Studios from outside my work. They were incredibly pretty and I really want to see if I can find them on Youtube so I can watch the whole thing!

Well I will write soon,

xoxo
E

More Goodbyes

Work has become very monotonous and boring as of late. It really drives me insane when I am working with people that I do not like and I have to remind myself that I only have a few days left; as of now I only have 7 more days of work. So excited about the change, but also a wee bit nervous especially about which job I will have. I still do not know, but on Sunday we will be getting our schedules for that week so if I do not know before then, I will on Sunday! I really hope there are lots of nice people to make friends with at my new job as come August basically all my friends will have gone home. Lisa left last week and Loren and Narelle leave next week. Sarah and Victor leave two weeks after that and Kolbi, Kristen and Rebecca all leave in the first couple of weeks of August. People I have been friends with since January will suddenly no longer be here which officially sucks!!!

Anyway since Lisa was leaving last week we had a fun day at Hollywood Studios last Thursday and then dinner at Applebees on Friday. Thursday was fun! Sarah and I went early and saw the rope drop at Studios and then went to get a fast pass for Toy Story. It was crazy!!! Everybody was basically shepherded to Toy Story but the line for both fast pass and the ride's were massive, so we went and rode the Backlot Tour. When it was over like 35 minutes later there was no queue for fast pass so we got one but it was for 3pm already. Then we went see Beauty and the Beast while we waited for Lisa to arrive. She fully called us just as we finished Beauty and the Beast and asked us to meet her at Beauty and the Beast for the next show - so we ended up watching the show twice in a row. But I really love that show!!!!

Then we met up with Rebecca and went on the Great Movie Ride, Art of Animation and Muppets. Since as Lisa used to work as Disney Junior Live on Stage we watched that also. Unfortunately Lisa didn't tell us that you had to sit on the floor. It has been a very long time since I have sat on the floor for a   long period of time. Luckily the people in front of us left so we were able to stretch our legs out. But we got to see Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates as well as all our favorite Disney Gang. Lol!!! (Kim and Sarah - Reminded me of our Banana's in Pyjamas excursion!!!!)

We ended up having lunch at work - Lisa and Rebecca had Rosie's and me and Sarah had Eddie's. Then we got Ice cream from Scoops. At 3 pm Sarah and I went on Toy Story and Lisa and Rebecca went on Rock 'n Roller Coaster. It was so much fun but I still only got a rabbit as a prize which is like the fourth lowest prize I am trying to get the next one up which is a beaver. Then we went and watched Indiana Jones and then American Idol. Rebecca and I did Tower of Terror while Sarah drank her Hot Chocolate. After that as Lisa had gone home to pack, we all got Popcorn and watched the finale of American Idol from outside. The girl we voted for didn't win though, but the guy that did was pretty good.

After Studios we came back to Rebecca's and Lisa came over and we watched Tangled as Sarah and Lisa hadn't seen it. We decided that we should have Lazy Thursday this week and just eat junk food and watch videos all day.

I also had a very good night on the Wednesday as we watched Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba. It was fantastic!! I went with Sarah and two of her friends - Katie and Becky, from England. I ended up buying a program of the show as you couldn't take photos. These little girls were absolutely amazing on the diabolos. It was such a good show and I really want to go again before I leave. I even managed to pick up a souvenir Popcorn Bucket that someone had left on the ground after the show!

On Friday after work we all headed to Applebees which was a lot of fun and a great send off for Lisa. Unfortunately we had some annoying people from work who turned up that I really do not like so we sat down one end of the table to them since as they weren't even there to say goodbye to Lisa! Work fully isn't the same without her now and we all miss Lisa so much!! =)

Write Soon

xoxo
E

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

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

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

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