Round the world tonight, a symphony in spectromagic!

I've had a ridiculous couple of days of training concerning the bus system so I'm driving to work today. My shift is 5:30pm to 12:45am, which really isn't bad considering it's President's Day & Valentine's Day weekend.. it was nice to get to sleep in instead of waking up before the crack of freaking dawn every day. I'm not really a morning person haha. Oh, and I finally earned my ears, so today is my first day of work without a trainer.. kind of nervous about that, but it's freezing and raining today so hopefully it shouldn't be TOO overwhelming. I'll let you guys know :)

Katie and I went to MK on Monday, which was nice/weird. Nice because I hadn't seen her face in a while, but weird because usually our conversations go as follows:

"Wanna hang out?"
"Sure"
"My house or the mall?"

and now it's more like:

"Wanna hang out?"
"Sure"
"Disney World?"

Just surreal is all, haha.

Anyway I have to get ready for work.. woot. Hopefully my posts won't be this bad in the future haha. Have a magical day! ;)

Katie and I at Magic Kingdom :) (And me being a bad CP by wearing my Cast Member ID. Oops.)

Park Orientation, Merchantainment, Training, etc.

SO, basically I suck. It is incredibly hard to sit here and type out everything that's been happening; I can't even REMEMBER half of it, so unfortunately most of it isn't going to be very detailed.. especially because I don't want to reveal too much and get terminated or something (seriously, I am so paranoid about getting terminated for something so trivial to me.)

PARK ORIENTATION
Park orientation was really fun for me, since I work at Magic Kingdom. Not saying the other parks aren't awesome, but everyone knows MK is definitely the most "Disney." We had to wear business attire, but the entire orientation was only like four hours so it was fine. We started on Main Street (where I'll be working at the main entrance), and worked our way over to Tomorrowland and rode the Buzz Lightyear ride; after that we went over to Liberty Square and were told of a legend/myth about the area and why they built the Haunted Mansion to commemorate it (the story turned out to be completely false, but it was to encourage us to make up stories to keep the Disney magic alive) so we also got to ride the Haunted Mansion. Which is awesome. I got paid to ride rides. At Disney World. Yeah, it's that amazing to me.

TRAINING DAY ONE
Not much to say here except that we basically walked back and forth 'on stage,' 'off stage,' and 'backstage' (you will get used to this terminology very quickly) to get better acquainted with our area. We got registered for the Hub and finished a lot of online safety/disability service courses. We got our costumes this day simply because for us, our training was before our park orientation (and I could be wrong, but I think most people get their costumes on orientation day.. don't quote me on that, though.)

MERCHANTAINMENT
This class was incredibly boring/weird. The first hour is just finishing up online safety courses, etc, and after that we got an hour and a half break, so two other girls and I went to Magic Kingdom, watched Philharmagic, ate a quick lunch, and went back for the actual Merchantainment course. Here you learn about money, counting the "Disney Way," about various situations that may occur while working at the POS/register/cash wrap (items not being found in the system, how to change the price of something to a "special price"/sale price, how to ring up a fellow cast member (as long as they're not your friend!) etc.. I wore heels this day because I thought most of it would be elab stuff but I actually had to stand for a significant amount of time while we practices with POSs and role played various situations between customers and cast members. It was weird. But at the end you get a sweet Merchantainment pin that you can only get by finished the course, so that's pretty sweet.

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Other than all of that stuff, I've been having an amazing time. All of my roommates are really awesome, I'm really lucky. Yesterday Amy and Elizabeth and I went to Animal Kingdom and walked around, rode Expedition Everest (our first time! I sat next to this 9-ish year-old boy who was so not phased in the least by the ride so I felt like a wimp because I (may have) screamed a few times during the ride.) It was mostly awesome for me because the last time I went was in 2000 or 2001, and so it wasn't build when I went last, but since then I've watched Travel Channel episode concerning the making of Everest and it just makes you appreciate it so much more, it's so cool to finally see it in person and actually experience it. Also while in DAK I ran in and visited Katie at Chester & Hester's :)

After DAK closed we went over to Epcot's world showcase, had nachos and churros, got our name written in Arabic for free by our new friend Mehdi (my name is كرستين.. woot!) in Morocco, and made friends with Abou and Marion in France (Marion noticed our Arabic names while we were buying stuff and asked us where we got them so she could get one later, so instead we just surprised her and went back to Mehdi and get her name in Arabic too. Hopefully it made her night a little better :) ) We also made friends with Jonathan (sp possibly, hah) who is also from France. Apparently every Sunday they all get together at the House of Blues so we're gonna crash those parties haha.

In about 20 minutes I'm going to head out to Magic Kingdom with Katie, even though I need to laundry.

It's seriously ridiculous how it's like, "Hm.. laundry, or Disney World?" All you fall CPs are going to LOVE it.

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The roomies and I at the House of Blues our first night! Left to right is Ren, Me, Kate, Nicole, Elizabeth, Lene, Brittany, and Amy.

Kate, Lene, Myself, and Brittany getting ready to go to Traditions. The clothing people wore varied from very very professional (ie, business suit) to somewhat casual (nice slacks and a more sophisticated looking blouse).

Elizabeth, Amy and I at DAK yesterday. Thanks photopass! :)

Me and the boss! :)

I've been slacking big time, I know..

But I am so EXHAUSTED. I have tomorrow and the next day off so hopefully I'll get some much-needed rest and I'll be able to fill you guys in on all the lovely details concerning park orientation, my first day of training, and merchantainment. Sorry for slacking though, I just wanted to let y'all know that a post IS coming, I just don't have the energy to focus too long because I am mentally and physically DRAINED.

Congrats to all of you who have gotten accepted for the fall!! I am so happy for you all, you guys deserve it!!

Check-In

Warning: I'm REALLY tired so my English is horrendous. I say "after that" and "next" to the point that it's almost unbearable, so I apologize! I'm just exhaused.

Sooooo I finally checked in today! I left Port Orange at about 5:30am in case of traffic, and I got there at about 7am. I just mainly talked to one guy in line (Maaattyy!) until my roommate Ren met up with me. We went through a line where they gave us a little nametag - this line led to a tented type area where there was a DJ who played Disney music and asked Disney trivia (I got one right and got a little post-it notepad that said "Disney College Program" on it as well as a Disney World pen.) After that they led us to fill out some papers (I honestly don't remember what exactly we were filling out right here, you fill out SO MANY papers on check-in day you won't remember what's what.) Anyway, after we filled out just a few sheets, we were led out of the tented area and into a small building where you finally get to request what apartment/amount of rooms you want - this is also where it matters who you're standing next to, as they'll likely be your future roommate. Today they were only taking Chatham and Vista so we picked Chatham, but it was between a one bedroom and a four bedroom.. so we got the latter. It sounded crazy but honestly all the girls are AWESOME, so we really lucked out.

Anyway, directly after housing assignments, we took a photo ID that will be used every time we enter Chatham or the bus system, etc.. directly after THAT, if you drove your car and have your insurance (with YOUR name on it), registration, and driver's license, then you go and get your parking decal. After this you get a little break to find your apartment, pick out a room, and maybe move in a few things (we had about an hour).

After all that you'll meet up for the bus to Casting, where you'll finally find out EXACTLY where you'll be working (I, no kidding, got Strollers at Magic Kingdom. Awesome.) After finding that out, you'll go to a little table with five or so other people and will be informed of the Disney Look - you'll also be checked to make sure you fit the Look before Traditions, so if you're a little iffy on something that might not fit the look, they'll tell you here. After that, if you didn't fill out your on-boarding paperwork (I didn't) then you'll fill it out in the next room - not really a hassle, just kind of annoying because it's a LOT of signing and reading and just takes a little while. When you finally make sure you filled out all your on-boarding paperwork correctly, you'll move forward and get your Visa, which your paycheck will automatically go onto. Here you can also ask any questions about how to receive payments (direct deposit, etc). Next you'll be directed to the next room where there will be a whole cast of, well, cast members who you'll talk to if you want to take a Disney course - if not, keep moving. At this point it gets a little foggy, to be honest, because so much happened, but basically you'll get a background check and find out when Traditions is for you and all the information you need to know. TRUST me, you will NOT be lost - they tell you absolutely everything, and if they don't, they're more than willing to answer ANY of your questions.

After I checked in and everything I went to lunch at Panera with Katie, which was a nice break from everything. After the two hour housing meeting, my seven other awesome roommates and I went to the House of Blues for dinner.

I'm still not done unpacking.. but luckily I have tomorrow off to finish. Yay. I'll talk to y'all later.