another disney post.... part 3...

my first day of training was fun… it was discovery day and we got to learn about epcot and walk around the entire park and learn a little about the countries and the food and wine festival. the second day we all met in our costumes (the flag shirt and white shorts) and sat in the odyssey and learned specifically about the festival. i sat with kyle (the most amazing bf i could have asked for) also with phil, janie, and another older woman. it was so much fun. we all laughed and talked and had a great time. i loved every minute of it, when it was boring we all made it fun and funny. the second day of training we were split into smaller groups and were given a more in depth tour (like where all the break rooms for merchandise only were and also where to clock in). i was also with kyle and we were the youngest so we got to hang out with older couples who were so nice and fun. hugh, becky and jason were our trainers and it was too fun. we even got to go the 3rd floor of the land (which at that time was closed to the public) for more training.... we even go to open wine bottles.

the festival started on september 24, which was the soft opening and cast preview. it was a great day. nothing was really open yet so we got to hang out and give out stickers to the guests.

my time at the festival was amazing. every part of it. being in merchandise there were 5 possible locations that we could have been to work… beer hop, new york wines, canada, morocco, festival welcome center (wonders bar, book nook, …). in the beginning i was always at the morocco tent. and i loved it. i worked with the most wonderful people and the environment was wonderful. that was what they were most known for. later, they started moving me around.

the welcome center was in the wonders pavilion which it was formally known as. that is where they had the body wars ride and stuff like that. when the festival isn’t going on the building is closed.

they started putting me in the welcome center a lot. and i loved it!! i got to work with all my favorite people and even got really close with our zone checkers (the group of girls/ladies who helped us out, they weren’t the managers but they acted like it and closed out the areas with us and helped us open them and basically were wonderful).

during this time, my friends micki and her boyfriend joe came to visit. then my friends shay and todd came to visit it also. it was a nice mini vacation even though i didn't actually go anywhere.

disney interview: numero dos ....

yes. i know. i don't know why i just applied again for another disney college program? well actually i do know why. i was sitting in my room and i was skyping with danielle. we were both REALLY REALLY frustrated because neither of us have job right now and we had been applying for jobs around town with no luck.

it was like 1 am. and i was sick of it... so i went to the disney college program website... filled out the application which took like an hour and then called the next morning and made a date for a phone interview.

the interview was today. i was a lot less nervous for this one... which i don't think was that great. the last time i was at my desk with a mirror in front of me (which they suggest) and i was smiling. this time, i was on the couch and i felt like i didn't do as good of a job as i would have liked to.

i mean honestly, i don't know if i will actually accept the role if i do get in but it was just a random idea and i went with it.

i guess we'll just have to see what happens...

another disney post.... part 2

the whole process was fascinating. disney is such an intense company and i was just still so freaked out that i actually was going through with it all. i was given my location (merchandise in DINOLAND, USA) (GAG ME NOW!!!) i was so sad when i was given that because it is like the trashy part of disney world. i then went to DAKlamation (animal kingdom orientation) and had about 4 or 5 days of training. i got trained on the registers and also in photo. photo is when you ride a ride and there is photo taken at the end. well i was the one who edited and sold the photos for dinosaur the ride. that was probably my favorite part of what i was going to be doing.

the first couple of weeks i absolutely HATED every minute of it. all of it. i would get really annoyed with my roommates. i was missing my friends SOOOO much and i couldn’t even put into words how much I missed my family, especially my parents and grandma. if i was at my apartment i was either asleep, watching tv or on the phone with someone from back home. i would cry every single night and was planning which day i would leave to go home for good. i also disliked dinoland. a lot. the people were all really weird and i couldn’t talk to anyone and i felt like my bosses were all fake and crazy. the weather was horrible (sooooo humid) and i hated the way i looked in my costume. they were absolutely horrible and unflattering and ugly. everything from back home was so much more appealing and everything I was going through just seemed that much worse. some days were better than others. i went shopping with my roommates a couple times and even once by myself and that was fun but the bad days seemed to outweigh the good ones.




one day, i had a really sad status on facebook (my only one actually) and bethany came home and said she saw my status and told me she felt the exact same way. and we decided then and there that we would do all we could to make our time worth it and start going to the parks and having a better time. that night we went to fantasmic.

while i was working one day, i checked my schedule and it said that i had training and epcot for the food and wine festival. i was actually pretty annoyed when i saw that because i was JUST getting used to dinoland and now they were sending me to epcot for something new.

so I finished my last days at dinoland and started epcot…. little did i know epcot would be EXACTLY what i needed to make my time more enjoyable.

real housewives...

i can't begin to tell you how much i love bravo. i love every bravo original show especially real housewives. i love real housewives of new york, i love real housewives of oc, i love real housewives of new jersey and i love real housewives of atlanta. i can't get enough.

i know this is a random post but i just really needed to tell someone.

another disney post... part1

i decided that i really wanted to try to recollect all my memories and feelings from my college program. so i am going to try to break up my time and write a few post-disney journal-like blog postings.

i honestly didn't think my life back home was going to be like this. i didn't think i was only going to want to think and talk about disney and all my friends i met there, but it turns out i do. i also didn’t think that this was basically going to be a blog about disney. but it turns out it kind of is. and so it is….

i left my home and my true loves in new mexico on august 23. i'm going to go ahead and say that was one of the hardest and most emotional days of my life thus far. i woke up at my dad’s after packing all night and headed to my grandma’s to pick up my mom so both my parents could drop me off at the airport. i still had to pack and repack some of my things so i was a little stressed out and didn’t really have time to be that sad.

may i add, two nights before my best friends all had a going away party for me at micki and les’ house. which was absolutely amazing and wonderful and so much fun. i got to hang out with all my friends and have one last wonderful night before i was off to florida. the next day i had a lunch at which wich and got to say bye to my best friends in my life (micki, les, ashley, jess, danielle s., sara and rach) then i got my hair cut and went to say bye to dez and erin. the night after, which was the night before i left, my family had a going away bbq at my grandma’s. that was also so much fun but also very bittersweet. i think i cried every time i looked at my dad and every time i had to say bye to someone.

back to that morning… we headed to the airport and i had tears in my eyes the entire drive there. even as i write this my eyes welt up because it was one of the hardest mornings. we checked in and got to sit together because we had about an hour to waste. when it was time to get up and say bye, i completely broke down and couldn’t even breathe. my dad hugged me and immediately walked away. he couldn’t even say bye or look at me, which broke my heart even more. my mom tried to make me feel better and talk to me but it wasn’t helping. i eventually just had to walk away, completely sobbing. the security guard lady who checked my id gave me a tissue and could tell that i was saying goodbye.

i walked through and waited at my terminal. sunglasses on. tissue in hand. anna called me and tried to cheer me up but it wasn’t really happening. i then boarded the plan and realized as i was sitting there that there was no turning back and that i was going to have to try to embrace my time and make it the best i could. once i got to florida, it was a lot better. i talked to my parents and i wasn’t as sad as i originally was. i met up with nichole (my first roommate who i met during the summer and became good friends with through facebook) and we headed to the hampton Inn to meet up with sydney and bethany our other two roommates.

we all went to dinner with syd’s parents and then went back to the hotel to hang out and get to sleep. i skyped with my friends (les and ash) and then went to sleep.

the next morning we all woke up early and got ready and headed to vista way to check in. we got a 2 bedroom apt in chatham square. the first couple of days were a blurr. we went to casting, which was in a cool disney building that was alice in wonderland themed. we also attended traditions (the class that everyone has to take before they start work at disney. it gives the history and information about the past, present, and future of the company). we also took a few trips to walmart and got stuff for the apartment.

seattle..

i went to seattle with jessica for our spring break. we went to visit our friend lauren aka “lo.” lo was one of my best friends when we lived in the kappa house and we have kept in touch and talk at least once a week. she moved away from albuquerque about two years ago and to seattle about a year ago.

i have always had a special connection with that rainy city. my brother stephen used to live there when i was a kid. my family and i would visit him often. it is a fabulous city! he was a doctor and worked with prisons and people with AIDS. he was a smart smart man. he passed away when i was a sophomore in high school. it was really hard for myself and for my entire family. that was last time i was in washington; to go to a service for him and help clear out his condo. seattle will always remind me of him.

the last time we actually went, i was in high school but we didn’t tour or look around the city like we once had. so for me, this spring break trip would be like reopening a chapter of my life that i once considered closed.

the trip was great. we did a lot and saw a lot. and of course we did plenty of touristy things. things i once had done as a child but got to see with new adult eyes. we went downtown, to pike’s place market, to the freemont troll, to the beach, to ikea, the university of Washington campus to visit their greek row (the kappa house was wonderful) and just to local restaurants and bars.

it was amazing to see all these areas and sights with virtually a new pair of eyes.
and it was weird to me. i remember absolutely loving every little parts and area of that city… but for some reason it was a odd this time around. everything was how I remembered but i just was able to see things differently and i’m not sure how much i liked it. as i think about it now, i can’t help but think that my love for the city had a lot to do with my brother. he was such a cool person and i used to look up to him when i was younger. maybe that was the appeal of the city.

i went to seattle with the thought of moving there. scoping everything out as if i were going to live there soon. i did this because i really actually contemplated moving. but for some reason being there this time, i couldn’t actually picture me living there. and just saying this and admitting this is freaking me out because this was always the place that i wanted to live.

disney post #2...

some days i wish i had never left to experience florida. and not in a way in which i regret that decision but in a way that i wish i was still there. i wake up some days and STILL expect to see my korean roommate in the bed next to me. or the random smell of SPAM in the morning. it makes me sick sometimes because i just wish that was still my life. it’s somewhat difficult to explain to someone who has no idea what i experienced but i try so hard each day and i will try now.

my third and last placement wound me up in main entrance merchandise at the magic kingdom, which was hardly merchandise at all. this job would encompass locker, wheelchair, ecv, and stroller rentals; along with cleaning strollers, stacking them in piles of 5 and also selling some small merchandise. i was very upset with this placement because i had loved working at epcot so much. i also heard horror stories about working in “strollers,” which it is known as around the disney community.

but when i got there, my entire world changed. i met some of the most wonderful and loving people here. and in some weird and crazy way, we all became family. we all have different backgrounds. we all have different lives. we all have different cultures. but it worked. and that’s what i think i miss the most. i can literally say this was the best time of my life. everyday was a new adventure and being a cp (college program praticpant) it really was. somedays we closed the park at 4:45am (this is not a joke) and others we had to be in at 6:00am (this is also not a joke) but it all never seemed to as bad because we were all together.

we adopted a song. a motto…. “we’re all in this together.” it comes from high school musical. and it worked so well with all of us. we were all in it together. and we will always have that…. “the time of our lives.”