Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving my parents came to visit and they kept me very busy! I was completely exhausted by the end of the weekend! I got really lucky because I ended up having Thanksgiving and Black Friday off because my normal days off have been Thursday and Friday. This was great given that my family was flying in on Wednesday night. On Thursday we went to a character breakfast at the Grand Floridian, where we were staying, so that I could meet a couple characters that have been on my list, most importantly Mary Poppins!

After our character breakfast we went over to Hollywood Studios and did some shopping since I have 50% off now and rode Tower of Terror. Dad chickened out, but Mom, Brandon and I went. The park was really busy so we basically just decided to go over to Epcot before dinner. Mom wanted to see the holidays around the world, but there ended up not being like any holiday stuff in the world showcase so we walked the world showcase, had a couple drinks and then went to Italy for dinner. Yes, we ate Italian food on Thanksgiving. It was a nice restaurant and we all liked whatever we ate. Brandon said it was some of the best spaghetti and meatballs he had ever had. After dinner we did some more shopping and then went back to hotel since we were getting up early the next morning!

On Friday morning Mom had signed us all up for a backstage tour of Animal Kingdom called Wild by Design. It was a really interesting tour about how they designed each area of Animal Kingdom. He was saying how the ground was supposed to show you where you are and then how the different countries were supposed to look as they really would look. This is different than the World Showcase where the countries look like postcards! We also got to meet with a couple of the keepers, one that works with the gibbons and one that works in the aviaries. The aviary keeper was actually a cello performance major in school which is funny! It was a great tour and I am sure my Mom could tell you more than I could!

Afterwards we explored Animal Kingdom and despite Brandon's protests we got some character pictures!

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to chill out for a little while because we were all tired. We had dinner at the Grand Floridian and then headed over to Magic Kingdom and did a few rides while people were watching the parade since the park was open until midnight!

Here is the beautiful castle all decorated for Christmas!

The next morning we headed back over to Epcot so they could get fast passes for Soarin' and they had always wanted to go to Le Cellier which is the steak house in Epcot and probably one of the most well known restaurants in the World Showcase. My family loved their steaks and my salmon burger was great. Then I had to go to work and they continued playing in Epcot. It was a great weekend, but I was completely exhausted!

Ryan is coming again next weekend which is funny because last time my parents were here and then he was here. We will be going to Universal Studios though, so it will be a very different weekend!

In reflection...

I am now realizing that I am nearing the end of my program and I have been thinking about this program and the effect it has had and will have in my life. What I realized most is that I really want to be a teacher. While playing in the parks and our little side trips have been fun, this type of work is so not what I was meant to be doing.

I hear about my friend's student teaching experiences all the time and I am so jealous of them! I miss being in a classroom and working with kids that are not on vacation! Sometimes I get worried because the kids drive me nuts half of the time, but when I am their teacher they will not treat me the same as the lady on the glow cart.

I have always known that I wanted to be a teacher, but this experience has confirmed it. When I found out that I was accepted to the program, I was nervous that I might like working in disney better than teaching and that I wouldn't want to come home at the end. This is funny to think about now because it is quite the opposite. I could not be more excited to begin teaching!

A few weeks ago I received confirmation that I will be student teaching at Kendall Elementary School in Naperville District 204. This is great because not only is it a great school with a great teacher, but there is at least one teacher retiring in that district at the end of this year.

This summer I took a two week course called Orff Level 1 which is a method of teaching general music created by Carl Orff. My teacher for the course emphasized using children's literature in her teaching. This really inspired me and opened my mind up to even more possibilities for teaching! When I finished the course, I really was not excited to go to Disney at all because I just wanted to use all of those ideas!

So the sum up, I can't wait to be a teacher! Disney was a fun little adventure for me to have and now I am ready to enter the real world and be the best teacher I can be! I am so incredibly excited for my future and thanks to ISU I feel prepared for whatever I will face!

Georgia on my mind...

Since almost August my friend Sarah has been planning on going on a trip for the weekend in November 12-13. So, we requested it off months ago and have been planning on going. At the time, it seemed like such a long time from now, but time really has been flying down here!

We left in the afternoon on Thursday and drove about 4 1/2 hours to Savannah, Georgia. We decided we were really going to be tourists. So, we picked up tons of pamphlets and figured out what we would do!

For the first night we arrived we just explored the downtown area, got dinner, and then went to the pool for just a chill night.

The next morning we took a trolley tour of Savannah where we were the youngest people by about 20 years. It was funny because the driver kept making jokes and we were the only ones that laughed. Most of the jokes were surrounding the fact that anywhere you walk in Savannah you can carry an "alcoholic beverage of your choice"as he kept saying. This is because many people hop from bar to bar and basically everything is within walking distance! The trolley tour was only $15 which was the most expensive thing we did in Savannah, which is quite different from Disney prices that we are getting used to! The tour gave us a good idea of the area and what kinds of things we would want to do the rest of the day.

It turns out there was so much to do in Savannah! We went down to River Street which was a great shopping area and we had a coupon from one of the pamphlets for River Street Sweets! It was a very pretty cobble stone street right along the river!

The last shopping stop we made was to The Paula Deen Store. If you have ever watched the food network, I am sure you know who this lovely Southern belle is! She also has a restaurant, which we decided not to go to, but we did get a slice of butter cake from her gift shop!

Savannah is also well known for being one of the most haunted cities in the country. So, we had lots of options for different Ghost tours to take. The one we decided to take was a hearse tour. Yes, we rode in a hearse all over Savannah and the tour guide showed us all of the haunted houses where there were lots of crazy murders! Then he drove us out to this cemetery where he told us a very creepy story about this kind of outcast guy in the town that was accused of murdering children. Then he slammed on the breaks and screamed. All of us screamed, but my friend Aleks who is standing next to me in the picture below was crying and had the best reaction ever! She was absolutely terrified to take this tour to begin with. It was a ton of fun, but the best part was waiting at the hotel for the hearse to pick us up!

The next day we had a big list of things to do! So we went and started the day with a good breakfast at Goosefeathers which is a really sweet little breakfast place where you can tell a lot of locals go to get breakfast in the morning. In fact, a bride and all of her bridesmaids were in line behind us! We had some amazing quiche and were off to start our day. Savannah is a city of squares. You walk a couple of blocks and there is a square, walk a couple more, and there is another square. So, we decided to walk around and visit the square where Forrest sat in the movie Forrest Gump to tell his story. There is no bench there, but you can see where they sat.

We decided that we definitely needed to do a mansion tour so we decided to tour the Davenport House Museum. This was quite a disappointment. The house was basically empty and the refurbishment wasn't very good.

The last stop of the trip was to the Savannah History Museum. Let me tell you that we paid $5.00 for this museum and it was really not worth even that much. It was a very tiny museum that basically pay the $5.00 to see the actual bench the Forrest sat on, but it was a nice little end to our day.

Before we left, we had to get some barbecue so we went to Sticky Fingers, which we found out later is a chain, but it was really good! Then we were on the road headed back to Disney. It was a great trip and we didn't want to go back!

Everyone here is ready to go home including me. Pretty much everyone has a countdown to the day they leave. While I have had fun here, I will definitely be ready to go home!

Wow! So behind! Christmas parties!

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have been kind of lazy with my posting!

Since Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parties began I have only worked them twice. This is because I am normally off on Thursdays and Fridays and those are party nights.

I am not sure if I mentioned this on my blog, but I went to the cast preview for the christmas parade with a bunch of my coworkers and we had a blast! The parade is the longest parade we have and it end with everyone's favorite guy, Santa!

The parade was absolutely fantastic! It just makes you feel happy and some of the floats smell like evergreen trees and gingerbread! It is a lot of fun to watch and guests seem to really like it as well.

On christmas parties nights there are also special fireworks. They are definitely not as exciting as the halloween fireworks, but they are pretty. The section that always gets me tearing up is the "I'll be Home for Christmas" section because I will not be home for Christmas. In reality, I will probably be working a very very long shift that day. It will also be a crazy work day for me because the park will reach capacity at about 80, 000 people. Up until now I have not seen the park go above 60, 000. To be honest, I am actually pretty scared!

In addition to the fireworks there is a stage show called Celebrate the Season. It is an adorable little stage show where Goofy dresses up as Santa and the characters sing all the classic Christmas songs! The only other bonus of the Christmas parties is that you get hot cocoa and cookies, but you are actually paying for that with your additional ticket for the party!

I almost forgot the best part of the holiday season! Every day, meaning not just on Christmas party nights, Disney does Cinderella's Christmas Wish. It is an adorable little show where the characters all come out and comment on how beautiful Main Street looks with all the decorations, but the castle isn't decorated! So Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, and Donald all discuss how they think the castle should be decorated. The fairy godmother comes out and tells them that it really should be Cinderella's decision since it is her castle after all! Then the fairy godmother calls Cinderella comes out and requests that the castle glitter like her glass slipper. Then with a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, the castle is sparkling with lights. It is absolutely breath taking and gets all of the girls working glow crying!

I wish I had a picture of the castle, but I haven't really had much time to go to the parks lately!  I will definitely get one soon!

For now, as promised, here is a picture of my Christmas party costume!

Acing the Interview

As a part of the Disney College Program, people can take classes. Since I am finished with all my course work I decided not to take any of these classes. However, they do offer seminar classes. I decided on Monday that I would go to a class called Acing the Interview. Disney is such a well known company that I thought that their advice on interviewing would be really great to have, since interviewing absolutely terrifies me!

The course was taught by this really awesome lady that has been with the company for like 20 years and has been a recruiter, meaning she conducts lots of interviews, for a very long time. She really taught the class well using a step-by-step process. Starting with before the interview, getting the call about the interview, rehearsing the interview, what to bring and after the interview.

She gave some really great advice especially about things that you would not have thought about before. The best piece of advice I took away was about rehearsing the interview. She said to ask yourself 4 basic questions:
- Why are you here?
- What can you do for our team (school in my case)?
- What kind of person are you?
- What distinguishes you from the rest?

I think that those are great things to think about especially being a teacher because what sets you apart is how much you care about the school and the students. Doing the research beforehand is so important because then you will know how to answer the questions so that they fit the job you are interviewing for.

Another piece of advice she gave about making an impression is first to have a great handshake. Disney is big on handshakes and if you don't impress them right away you will probably not get the job. She also said to think of the interview as a conversation between 2 people. Before I took this class, I just thought about it as almost a presentation in front of a panel of people, but it really is a conversation between 2 people. This way they know the type of person you are and whether you will be a good fit for their school, company, etc.

The other advice they gave was to always send a thank you note! Disney hospitality at its finest. She said to keep Thank you cards in your car and after the interview go to your car, write the letter and send it. One time she was between 2 candidates for a job that were equally qualified and she decided to choose the candidate after receiving a thank you card.

The other great advice she gave was if the answer is no and you do not get the job. She said don't be defeated, give yourself credit, say "thank you," and ask for feedback. I think that everyone feels like a failure if they don't get the job. I know that this is going to happen to me many times over the coming year (hopefully not too many) and I need to give myself credit and always ask for feedback. I feel like that would be important since I will not have much experience with interviewing.

This class really put me at ease a little bit about the interview process. I know I will be really nervous, but I feel a little more prepared now!

Mickey "Blankets with Sleeves"

This past Saturday a cool front came through Florida. It was in the 50s and down to the 40s at night. This felt really cold to me which is funny since that is warm for Chicago this time of year. I guess I have adapted to Florida weather. Of course, the night a cold front comes through I have to work outside on a glow cart from about 6:00 until 11:00. My total shift was from 4:30-12:45, but really it was about 4 hours spent outside. Just as Disney sells ponchos and umbrellas when it rains, they sell blankets when it's cold.

I go downstairs to check in to work and I am told that we were going to have a mickey "blanket with sleeves" cart out tonight (this means Mickey Snuggies, but Snuggie is copyright so we have to call them blankets with sleeves or "Mickeys" that they were trying to make happen.) Of course, I jumped at the chance to work the blanket cart and no one else wanted to do it so I volunteered. The problem was you couldn't really see the sleeves because the blankets were all rolled up so I decided, along with my managers, coordinator and coworkers that I needed to wear the "blanket with sleeves." So I put it on and hiked it up, put my name tag on the outside and tied my cash apron around my waist. I looked pretty ridiculous, but I figured it would be the only way to sell them.

The thing that is different about the blanket cart is that it doesn't stay in one place. I got to walk up and down main street and around in front of the castle all night. This was really nice because the blanket was keeping me warm and because I kept moving I never really felt cold.

When I stepped onto Main Street the whole street was decorated for Christmas. If you have never seen Disney at Christmastime (or November I guess which still baffles me since christmas is almost 2 months away!) you really need to see it! There is garland and wreaths everywhere. It was fantastic. It was such a nice surprise because I didn't know that the decorations were up already!

Now, I am walking up on down the street and all I hear is people laughing as they walk past and little kids saying "Look mom! It's a Mickey Snuggie!" It was so funny! I was laughing right along with them. This all seemed ridiculous, but they sold REALLY well! Guests were chasing me down! I had to get restocked twice throughout the night. We ran out of blankets. Guests were going up to other carts looking for the "snuggie lady" as I became by the end of the night. It was so much fun!

We got downstairs and I ended up being top seller selling about $1600 worth of blanks and another couple hundred dollars on the glow swords and other glow merchandise that was on my cart. I ended up making $1852 that night and I would have made even more if I had more blankets!

It was just such a fun night for me. From now on, I will always volunteer to work the blanket cart. Everyone was so cold sitting and waiting for the parade that they were desperate for something to keep them warm!

It was my favorite night of work yet. Tonight I get to work the first Christmas party. I will take a today when I put on the costume and try to blog tomorrow about the party!

I went to the cast preview of the Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade and it is the cutest parade I have ever seen. It just makes you feel really happy and totally puts you in the Christmas mood, even if it is November 8!

It's really not so scary...

So the halloween parties ended yesterday, but I did actually get a chance to attend one as a guest which was pretty exciting! It has been over a week, but I have been so busy I have not had a chance to blog about it!

I attended the party with my friend Sarah and her parents. Sarah had always want to get her hair "booed" as she called it, but really is just getting sparkly pixie dust stuff put in your hair. They do this at the barber shop on Main Street. It turned out pretty crazy and it literally looked like tinkerbell threw up on my hair. It was a lot of fun and we got lots of comments about it that night! There is also purple paint in my hair under the sparkle to match my shirt!

Then we of course rode some rides and got tons of candy all over the park, which we definitely ate as we walked around. When we went to haunted mansion there was this lady sitting outside on a bench talking to guests as they passed. She was really funny and I had no idea she was there! By far my favorite characters I saw that night were the stepsisters and stepmother from Cinderella. They were so funny and said, regarding our hair, "I think Tinkerbell burped on your hair!" then some sound came from the castle and one sister was like "Thanks Prince Charming!" while the other said "Yeah, like that would ever happen!" They were so much fun yelling at people as they passed and were the favorite characters I have seen since being at Disney.

The other extra special thing about the halloween parties is that the princes are out with their princesses so we got to see them together which was really fun! They were so sweet to us!

Then we got more candy and saw the parade and fireworks which I have now seen probably over 20 times, but it was nice to be able to get pictures of them!

The finale! The fireworks are all around the park! It is so bright!

Now that the Halloween parties are over the Christmas parties start on Monday and I am working glow the first one and just wait until you see the costume! You thought halloween was crazy? Just you wait! 

Ryan comes to visit!

So, just as I had recovered from the lack of sleep and energy from my parents visit, Ryan comes to visit. I worked all week after my parents left. Thursday night I worked until 12:15, getting home around 1:30 and then the next morning I was on the bus at 7:22am. I was meeting him at the hotel he was going to be staying at while he was here, All Star Music. I actually had never seen the All Stars so it was interesting to see. While I was checking him in, since I had booked it for him with my cast member discount, he snuck up behind me and scared the bejeezus out of me. It was so good to see him! I had missed him a lot since we really had only just begun our relationship before we left. We have been doing really well with the long distance relationship thing, but I definitely missed him a lot.

Just as soon as he arrived, we were off to the parks. We were doing 4 parks in 2 days which was a challenge and we were pretty exhausted at the end of each day!

First, we went to Animal Kingdom since there is not that much to do there we decided to hit that first. We rode the safari, Expedition Everest (which he hadn't rode before), and we saw The Festival of the Lion King, which is one of the best shows in Disney. I got calls from people and texts all day given it was my birthday. One particular call from my friend Mary got me tearing up. I was pretty homesick on my birthday missing all of my friends from school that I had celebrated my birthday with for 4 years and now I am not with them. I think I just realized that college was over and that it will never be the same again. Ryan was amazing, as usual, and actually expected that I would get a little emotional missing home on my birthday.

Anyway, I put my smile back on when the show began and then we headed over to Magic Kingdom. I have to say we were Magic Kingdom masters! Even though the park was busy we rode every ride in the park that was worth riding. We fast passed rides that had long waits and while we waited for our fast pass time we waited in the shorter lines like Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. It was crazy. I couldn't believe how well we did. We even got to ride Space Mountain twice because this lady handed us our fast passes. We were going to go to a nice dinner, but all the restaurants were overbooked. So we went to Cosmic Rays and it ended up being a better deal because we got a great view of the castle!

The next day we had planned on doing the other 2 parks. We started at Hollywood Studios and got fast passes for Rockin' Roller Coaster even though the wait time was only like 30 minutes. The park was pretty slow actually. I think because a lot of people were either at Magic Kingdom or the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. We rode Tower of Terror, of course, and the Great Movie Ride. I found out that he had never seen the Beauty and the Beast show or the new stunt show Lights, Motors, Action. So we did both of those and in between did the Backlot Tour that I had not even done since I got here.

After all this we headed over to Epcot. We were planning on meeting my friend Courtney who has the same birthday as me and whose boyfriend was also visiting and my friend Sarah. While we waited for them to arrive we went and did Turtle Talk with Crush which is so much fun! The kids get to talk to Crush and ask him turtle questions. One kid asked Crush what he eats and Crush said vegetation and then Crush asked the kid what he likes to eat to which he responded with "Fish." It made for a very funny moment for Crush where he said "Fish are Friends, not food, man!" It was really funny.

We met up with Sarah and we rode Spaceship Earth, the ride inside of the big ball, which I also don't ever remember riding. Eventually, we met up with Courtney and her boyfriend and we walked around the food and wine festival. There was a fight that broke out near Mexico where there was beer flying. It felt like I was back in college again. People were yelling that this is a family place, but it didn't change much. I heard that this happens quite a bit with the amount of drinking people do in Epcot, but it was crazy to witness. Hard to believe this would happen in Disney.

It was crazy busy in Epcot, much busier than the previous weekend when my parents were here. So we walked around the world and then decided to get dinner off property. We went to Olive Garden, which is funny because we always used to go there for people's birthdays back at ISU. So, it all came full circle.

The next morning Ryan met me for breakfast at Panera, which is around the corner from my apartment, and then he headed back to Tampa to spend time with grandmother who lives there. I miss him more now than I did before, but he is hoping to come back in November some time pending my work schedule!

I am a really lucky girl! For my birthday present he got me the pictures we took from the Photopass Photographers and a picture frame, since before this trip there was only one picture of us together! I had some taken with my camera too so I would have them in electronic form too!

Mom and Dad come to visit!

So I guess now 3 weeks ago my parents came to visit. They were supposed to be arriving at the hotel around 11:00pm so I took our cast member buses over the Animal Kingdom Lodge and waited for them. This was the resort we had stayed at 4 years ago after I graduated from high school and walking through the front doors really brought back memories from that trip.

I checked them in and then we headed to the room where there was a Mickey made out of towels on the bed. A little bit of Disney magic to keep reminding me how great Disney really is. The magic really hasn't been lost for me yet.

The next morning we headed straight to the Magic Kingdom and decided to stop in the bakery for breakfast because I really wanted my mom to try the chocolate croissants, one of her favorite things. Then we took in a ton of rides and honestly I don't really remember that much about that day in the Magic Kingdom. One thing we did was the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. None of us had done it before so we decided to check it out! It was ended up being so much fun! It was an audience participation little comedy show. They would talk to people in the audience and before the show you can text jokes to this number and then some of them get read during the show. It was really cute and the inside looked like a Monsters Inc. comedy club. It was a lot of fun!

The next day we went to Epcot because of the Food and Wine Festival. It was really busy over there the day we went, but we still got some good tastes of some yummy food. I didn't eat much since I am a vegetarian, but I did have some great drinks. In a effort to turn me into a wine person, I tried a Riesling and that was pretty good actually. It is like juice, but eventually they think I will like wine. I doubt it!

I also loved this orange liqueur drink we got from France that was delicious. I also had this Cosmo slush, which was like a cosmopolitan in a slushy form and it was the best thing I have had at the food and wine so far. My parents liked pretty much everything they tried. They shared little plates and tried lots of different things that I cannot even remember.We also bought a hidden mickey book while were there. there are hidden Mickey's all over the park. It usually just the 3 circles and they are really hard to find. Mom got the pictures and they were really cool. We found a couple in Canada that were really cool and discovered the one in Peter Pan. It is really fun to try to find them and really hard at some times. A guy that had already found the Mickey's in Canada gave us extra hints to help us find them. It makes for something more interesting when you have been to Disney many times before!

That night I had to work glow, so we headed back to the hotel and then back to apartment to make it easier for the next day when I had to work again. I took the cast member bus back to my apartment and then got a ride with Sarah to work. I was pretty exhausted after doing the parks the day before and the day of work. Afterwards, I just stayed at my apartment because we were working until 12:45 and it would have been considerably later going back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  This night they actually came and visited me at work which was nice. It was weird to see them while I was working. I am not used to seeing familiar faces while I am working!

The next morning I met them at Animal Kingdom and we did the safari, which you always have to do first and at the beginning of the day. We got to see park open which is really cute over there because Mickey and Minnie drive by in a little safari car and welcome people to the park. We also saw Finding Nemo the Musical, which my mom really wanted to see. It is a pretty cool show where they puppeteer and act at the same time. It is similar to The Lion King Broadway show, but they don't have masks on. Mom loved the show and thought it was great. Then we decided to eat at this Yak and Yeti Restaurant in Asia that we had never heard of/been to before. It was amazing! Some of the best food I have had in Disney. It is, obviously, Asian food and it was delicious. We all loved our food and ended our meal with wontons which were melt in your mouth good. Our waiter was also a really cool guy which is nice because sometimes when they find out you are a cast member they shut off and waste their energy on non cast members. I am glad that he was good for my parents still!

Then I said good bye and went back to work again.

It was a really nice weekend. I was pretty exhausted with all the working and playing, but I had a lot of fun and it was good to see my parents.

Daytona

So I know I have not updated in a while. I have been super busy with visitors and things the last couple weeks!

The week before my parents came to visit I actually took a little side trip to Daytona with a couple of my friends.  It was really windy and the waves were really bad on the beach. The three of us were standing in the water and this lady stands on the shore close to the water and just starts screaming, a terrifying scream. We figured out someone was drowning and needed help. We all thought that it was a child. My friend Sarah had her protective instincts kick in and she swam out to help while my other friend and I ran to shore. My friend grabbed her cell phone, but by the time she got it there were lifeguards coming to help. It turned out it was a grown man and it was really scary because we didn't even see a head pop up for a while. When Sarah and this other man that eventually came to help brought him in we were all surprised that it was not a child. He was okay, but he threw up and he looked really bad. That just shows how big these waves and how strong the current was because this was a grown man who was built. The type of person you would expect to save someone not be swept away.

We were pretty freaked out and Sarah had swallowed a lot of water so we didn't go back in. There was another drowning scare which turned out to be a false alarm. That was enough for us to stay out of the water!

After the beach we went to Bubba Gump's for dinner and headed home for the night. It was fun, but a really weird day. Daytona was so dead. There were no people around. It felt like we weren't supposed to be there!

Food and Wine Festival in Epcot

Last Thursday I had the day off and so did a couple of my friends. So, we went to the cast preview of the Food and Wine festival over in Epcot. Anybody, including guests, could go to the festival, but we could use our main entrance passes to get up to 3 people into the park without having it count towards our 6 days and 3 people pass. Sounds confusing, but basically we could have gotten 3 people in for free to Epcot, which included the Food and Wine Festival.

The world showcase has the countries that are year round like Mexico, Norway, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Morocco, Germany, Italy, and France, but for the Food and Wine Festival there are about 50 (I think) other countries that are brought in. There are little booths where they have sample portions of food from that country and then a few drink options (wine, beer or liquor depending on the country). It is really fun because they have Puerto Rico, Brazil, Ireland, Poland, Australia and a lot more. It is kind of pricey so my friends and I didn't go to crazy. I tried a tangerine mimosa and falafel from Morocco (which is funny because Morocco is always there, but they don't always have the tangerine mimosas!) and I got a lava cake from actually I can't remember which country haha. My friend got Godiva liqueur coffee and I tried some of hers and it was delicious.

The festival runs from October 1 through the middle of November, so I think attendance will start picking up again.

Funny story: while we were in Epcot we stopped and said hi to Princess Aurora over in France. We stopped to take a picture and she asked us if the 4 of us girls have princes. All of us, but my friend Sarah answered yes. So Princess Aurora proceeded to tell Sarah how to find a prince. You go into the woods and just start singing, but you have to be barefoot! then your prince will come and you will live happily ever after. It was super sweet and pretty funny actually.

Overall we just had a lot of fun hanging out and these girls are my best friends down here! We have had a ton of fun together and we are planning more adventures to the opera, Savannah, and more!

I am excited for my parents to visit next weekend and then my boyfriend Ryan will be here the weekend after that! October is a busy month for me!

Apartment Inspections

So last week we had our apartment inspected. I guess this happens every other month while we are here. What this means is that the apartment has to be spotless! All the dishes have to be done, vaccuuming, wiping down bathrooms, clean mirrors, NOTHING can be on the floor, etc. My roommates and I went crazy the day before and the apartment basically looked like no one lived in it, which is funny. They have vaccuums and mops and such that we can rent so we rented a vaccuum the day before to make sure it was clean.

On the day of inspection my roommates and I sat around forever waiting for them. I went to the gym and came back and they hadn't come. So I went to the pool, then came back and still no inspectors. I didn't want to eat anything and dirty a dish, but I eventually had to give in and eat and hand wash the dish and put it away.

Then finally the inspectors came and it took them less than 5 minutes to inspect the apartment and we got the white glove award! Ah! The way it works is you either fail (which is bad because you pay a $25 fine and pictures are taken of your apartment), pass (clean and did everything necessary), or the white glove award which means you went above and beyond! So we were all excited about this. However, it is really not that exciting. You get a generic thank you note, a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and your picture on the board in the clubhouse. However, I don't think out picture is up there because I didn't see it when I was in there the other day. Oh well, I looked pretty horrible because I hadn't been able to shower because my luck would be that they would show up while I was in the shower!

Anyway we are all good. The apartment looks a little more lived in now, but really we keep our apartment pretty clean!

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Parties!

So this past Saturday I worked the halloween party wearing that killer outfit you see from my last post! It was so cute! All of the families come dressed up in their halloween costumes, there are trick or treating places, and special parade and fireworks. There were some pretty awesome costumes that I saw. Whole families dressed as characters from alice in wonderland. I saw the 3 fairy godmothers from Sleeping Beauty. complete with light-up wings and glowing wands.

I cannot even begin to say how cool the parade was! By far one of the coolest parades I have seen. I am hoping to attend the party as a guest eventually so that I can take pictures. The parade has all of the villains and the haunted mansion ghosts. Plus almost all of the characters are dancing in the front of the parade. It was amazing!

Then the fireworks are really amazing too including remixes of all the villain songs. Even though I was working it was still amazing!

I have also worked glow a couple times since on non-halloween party nights and it is pretty crazy! People just swarm my cart and kids just keep pulling toys out all over the place! I really have to watch my cart because stuff gets stolen off our carts all the time!

Otherwise, everything is going by so fast now that we are in the swing of things! Last week we went to Cocoa Beach and we had a blast. We have plans to go to the beach more throughout the semester! I am off today and tomorrow and I am so grateful! I have been exhausted! Because I am a cp I pretty much close the store every night or I am working glow. I am just so glad to have days off which I won't have in November as I have heard.

Hope all is well back home! It is sad to not see fall in Chicago. It is summer here all the time!

Finally my costumes! (sorry the pics are kinda blurry....self timer did not like me!)

My favorite costume of all time! This is my glow costume for the Not-So-Scary Halloween parties! So excited to wear it tonight!

My general glow costume....yes those are white knickers! Where did my figure go?

Arrgh! I'm a pirate! You can barely see the socks but they are yellow and red stripes! That belt is super uncomfortable!

My adventureland costume! Those pants have vents on the sides! We refer to them as our MC Hammer pants!

Epcot Fun!

Mulan! I had never seen her before! I really need to crop these pictures because are so far away!

The lovely Snow White!