Roomies & Traditions

I don't even know how to start off this post. I feel like the past couple of days have all been smushed together. My brain is fried and work hasn't even started yet. I guess I'll just go from the verrrrry beginning of all of this.

Marianne, Erica, Me, Monica, Brittany, & Natalia

My check-in date was on Monday, June 6th, so Mom, Dad, Caroline, Sloane and I left Athens Friday morning and drove the 12 hours it took to get to Orlando. We stayed at Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary and then moved to the Boardwalk. I wasn't very nervous until Sunday night. I couldn't sleep at all, which sucked because we had to get up at 6 or so to get ready for me to go check in. Check-in wasn't until 9am, so I thought I was doing a good thing by getting there somewhat early (I aimed for 8am- I got there at 8:45am. Typical.) WRONG. I guess they started doing all the stuff way early or something because the line was ridiculously long and they were letting us go through. We had to park wherever we could and then walk to the pavilion, and I walked there with the girl named Brittany. Brittany and I were then in line with this other girl Monica. We talked as we stood in line and filled out papers. An hour passes and we are finally up to where we can pick our apartments. We all three decide hey, we should be roomies! And now we're living together for the next seven months. I'm also living with Marianne (who I'm sharing a room with), Natalia, and Erica. So that makes six of us ladies in a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment.

After we got our apartment in Vista Way, we got our picture taken for our apartment ID (which was a HUGE close-up picture of just your face- gross), and then got I got sent to casting. Casting took two hours, which would have been okay if I wasn't starving and about to pee in my pants. There I found out where I was working, which is at Disney's Port Orleans Resort in the food court. I just thought it is funny that out of all of the places I've been in Disney, I have never been there. Oh well. We turned in paperwork, got fingerprinted, went over the Disney look, got our traditions and training schedules, etc. After that I went to my apartment and unpacked and then went to Wal-Mart with some of the roomies.

Goofy! My favorite character!

Tuesday we had to attend a housing meeting at the Commons, which is another apartment complex but for international students only. I'm totally going to hang out there. Mmm. But anyway, the meeting was pretty boring. Two hours of just learning rules that I already knew. We went to Target after that and then I met the fam at their hotel and went to Hollywood Studios. It was so much fun and a great idea.. until I got back to the apartment at 11pm and didn't get to sleep until 12am.. and had to wake up at 5am to catch the bus at 6:45am for the 8am Traditions class!

My heel after Traditions. Pretty disgusting.

So today. Traditions. You watch a lot of videos that make you want to cry because you are so happy to be there, actually working for Disney, your dream job (or at least MY dream job!!!) You get your shiny new name tag and my cast ID. We got to go to the Magic Kingdom and walk around in the utilidors, which are the underground tunnels Disney uses to "keep the magic." But let me tell you, wear shoes you've worn before or wear band-aids on your feet because if you wear new shoes, your feet will die. I didn't have the right kind of shoes so I bought some flats last night. I didn't even think that 1. they would bother me, 2. we would be walking as much as we did, and 3. that my heels could bleed like that. Because my heels were bloody, my shoes were bloody, and by the time we got back on the bus to go home my feet were numb.

Our first time in MK as cast members!

After Traditions was over, Erica, Natalia, Marianne and I went to Chick-fil-a. It is within walking distance of my apartment, thank god, because I was really going to miss not eating it from the student center everyday. Then we met our friend Darrian and headed over to the Magic Kingdom for a couple hours. And guess what? We get in- FOR FREE! Whenever we want. Gosh, I'm going to love this. It's Erica's first time to Disney World so we made sure we got her a 1st Visit button, and all of us got We're Celebrating buttons to celebrate our first day as cast members! I start my first day of training tomorrow. Wish me luck!