...On A Real Train

Plotting out my plans for Belgium while trying to finish up everything at Disney.

Yesterday (11/29/10) I went to Hollywood Studios before work with Brittany and Catharine. There we met up with Nesa. At Hollywood Studios, we did The Great Movie Ride, Walt Disney: One Man's Dream,  The Magic of Disney Animation, Star Wars: Jedi Training Academy, Hollywood Studios Backlot Tour, and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" Movie Set Adventure. It was a great day! Also, we got to meet Mike Wazowski and Sulley from Monsters INC. and Lighting McQueen and Tow Mater from Cars.

Walt Disney: One Man's Dream

Mike and Sulley with Brittany, Janice, and Catharine

Lighting McQueen and Tow Mater

Today, I just had class, then started planning my trip in Europe.

Countries I want to visit with my Eurarail pass:

Eurail Pass Countries

• Belgium (obviously)
• France
• Finland
• Spain
• Germany
• Netherlands
• Italy
• Ireland
• Luxembourg
• Denmark
• Greece
• Switzerland
• Norway
• Hungary
• Sweden 

So...I'm going to get the pass of 15 days in a 2 month time span

Happy Turkey Day! [GOBBLE GOBBLE]

So kids, its been a while, so let me quickly catch you up to date on my life. I've been working a lot. Every single day last week was spent at the Magic Kingdom. I worked about 48 hours, and this week I get to do it all over again. But on the plus side, I got two days off from the work! Also, since I've been working a lot and the holiday discount went up to 50% on merchandise, I've been spending a lot. So, when I haven't been working, but have been at Magic Kingdom, I've been doing some Christmas shopping.

Here are some pictures of me at work:

The Disney Basics picture of me going ABOVE AND BEYOND!

Pulling the Riverside Cart for West Side Breakdown

Setting up ropes at Castle Crosswalk North 2

We played hide-and-go-seek with Brier Rose for about an hour one night: Making A Magical Moment

 Now then, onto what I know you all want to hear about...TURKEY DAY!
Thursday (11/ 25/10) was Thanksgiving and the plan was for me to host a Thanksgiving meal with some co-workers and my roommates. I was going to provide the turkey, ham, cheese, and location, and everyone else coming was to bring five dollars and a dish of their own. Earlier in the week I had had a minor freakout over what I was going to do for the holiday meat, so asked my managers about the idea of buying turkey legs and just doing it that way. Little did I know, what a rip off that way is. I could buy an entire cooked turkey and ham for the price it would cost me to buy 9 turkey legs at the parks. And that's exactly what I ended up doing, I bought the turkey and ham pre-cooked from Boston Market, along with some chicken noodle soup.

So, Thursday the plan was get up around 8am, clean, get the food from Boston Market at 10, and have people show up anywhere between 10 and 1. Unfortunately, I have this thing where once every semester I simply refuse to get up for my alarm. Now its not that I just refuse, its that I'll subconsciously hear the alarm go off, turn it off, and wake up about an hour after I needed to be somewhere. In this case, I awoke at 10:30am, throwing off all my plans of being a grand hostess.

FRANTIC me waking up late!

In my state of chaos and confusion, I ran to my phone to realize I had 13 missed calls and 9 new text messages. I rushed out into my living room and said some bad things--man, at this time, I was running late! Plus, my ride to get the turkey decided to put stuff in her oven, so was unable to come to my aid. Instead, I frantically called Nick, who came and picked me up to collect the turkey, ham, and soup. He luckily came to my rescue and we got the key food items for the day. Then, we returned to Vista Way and got things organized for Turkey Day. Lucky for me I have such great friends to help out, because Nick helped me get a ride, and Brittany actually stayed at my apartment and helped clean and get stuff prepared for the day while I ventured off to get the turkey. Brittany is my hero! After we returned with the food, people slowly began to trickle in, and finally at 2pm once our final guests arrived we got our food, and went around the room saying what we were each thankful for. It was a touching day. I had a lot of fun and was happy that I had good friends with whom I could spend it with. After the party ended, I sadly had to go to work to help make others nights just as magical.

NOM NOM NOM [GOBBLE GOBBLE STYLE]

THANKSGIVING 2010

After an intense game of Guesstures, Amanda and I dance to "I'm On A Boat.

The next day was Friday (11/26/10) Black Friday, and I went to the outlet malls near the college program housing for a little while and got a dress and Twins shirt. Then I saw Tangled, a really cute movie I might add. And finally, I went to work. Saturday, I got up early went to ESPN Wide World of Sports and worked the Harlem Globetrotters basketball game. I started off helping with the entrances, then they moved me to turnstiles once they found out I had an ATS code. Eww.... After ESPN, I went back to the Magic Kingdom to work some more. Now today was Sunday, and I FINALLY got to see Harry Potter 7: Part 1. It was good, but there were a few things that I had to question. For instance, what was up with that weird scene where Harry and Hermione randomly decide to dance? Or later, when Ron sees Harry and Hermione naked making out! I was shocked!!! Anywho, yep, just  a few random things bothered me, but once I got done with the movie I went to work again. Surprise, surprise. And so ends my day of fun. Good night and good luck!

Me in my ESPN Wide World of Sports costume

Harlem Globetrotters

Things yet to do at Disney Parks

RIDES:

MAGIC KINGDOM:

• Astro Orbiter (12/6/10)
• Donald's Boat
• Main Street Vehicles
• Peter Pan's Flight (12/6/10)
• The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm
• Tom Sawyer Island (12/2/11)
• Tommorrowland Speedway (12/6/10)
• Tomorrowland® Transit Authority PeopleMover (12/6/10)

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS:

• "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" Movie Set Adventure [11/29/10]
• Journey Into Narnia: Prince Caspian
•  Playhouse Disney—Live on Stage!™ 
• Sounds Dangerous with Drew Carey
•  Star Wars: Jedi Training Academy [11/28/10]
• The Great Movie Ride [11/29/10]
•  The Magic of Disney Animation [11/29/10]
• Toy Story Mania! 
• Walt Disney: One Man's Dream [11/29/10]

ANIMAL KINGDOM:

• DINOSAUR (12/1/10)
• Kali River Rapids® (12/1/10)
•  Primeval Whirl® (12/1/10)
• TriceraTop Spin (12/1/10)
•  Wildlife Express Train

EPCOT:

• American Adventure Pavilion 
• Canada Pavilion
•  Captain EO starring Michael Jackson (DID)
• China Pavilion
•  France Pavilion 
• ImageWorks – The Kodak "What If" Labs (DID)
•  Journey Into Imagination With Figment (DID)
• O Canada!

CHARACTERS:

• Peter Pan (12/6/10)
• Wendy
• Lilo (12/7/10)
• Timon
• Jiminy Cricket
• Abu (12/7/10)
• Brer Bear
• Brer Fox
• Brer Rabbit (12/7/10)
• Country Bears (12/7/10)
• Launchpad McQuack
• Flik
• Mike Wazowski [11/29/10]
• Sully [11/29/10]
• King Louise
• Tinker Belle
• the Fairies
• Duffy
• Handy Manny
• June
• Quincy

Visiting Florida's Capital: Tallahassee

So....its been a while since my last blog, and its probably about that time again then to update it, huh?Well let's see now, where did I leave off?

Oh yes, last Friday we got the white glove award for having one of the cleanest apartments; needless to say, my apartment once again is trashed and looks like an apartment with 6 girls smushed into would normally look like: a hot mess. Pretty much after inspection, I went to work and then home to sleep.

Saturday (11/13/10) I went to work, and had a shift gap. During the gap, I played around the park with Amanda, Gina, Dakotah, and Tamiyah. Pretty much we didn't do anything, but wander around the park. After we wandered, we went back to work for the double Main Street Electrical Parade. The fun thing about this night was Snookie was at the park! Snookie is a character on the reality TV show called Jersey Shore. This is a celebrity that I recognized and I ended up talking to her dad. I had no idea it was her dad until I asked if he had made it to Epcot's Food and Wine, since the 14th was its last day, and he looked and me and asked if I assumed he would be at Food and Wine because of his daughter...(insert pulling at the collar now). He was just joking, but of course I was super scared that I had somehow offended them. My favorite part about Snookie being at the park, was how she looks just like she does on TV, orange with giant hair (she even had a little princess tiara)!

Snookie at Magic Kingdom

 Anywho, the next day was then Sunday (11/14/10) and I worked. But it wasn't my normal 1:45pm to 4, shift gap, then 6 to whenever. No, this day I worked 10am to 4pm! So when I got done at 4pm I had no idea what to do with myself, suddenly all this free time was available and I was just left confused. So after work, Amanda, Gina, and I decided to watch a movie and make some baked goods, so we went to the store and played around. The floor was so slippery that Dakotah was pretending she was an ice skater! We finally left the store with the fixings for puppy chow, oatmeal raisin cookies, and strawberry bananas pie. Then we returned to my apartment and put it all together. Somewhere during our cooking/ laughing, Gracie came and joined in the fun! We got so distracted with our cooking and laughing that we never ended up watching a movie, instead Amanda made a ton of JibJabs. JibJabs are a website where you can instert your friends faces into movies and then watch them dance and stuff. Here is an example of a Halloween one and Christmas one that Amanda made:

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/qU96oMPbcxNmHIi0?cmpid=ey_fb_self
and
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/VPTc1em6SXxTz7FN

After that excitement, it was Monday (11/15/10) and once again I went to work. I worked until 8:45, went home packed really quickly for my visit to Tallahassee, then went over to Tamiyah's apartment because people were throwing Alex a surprise birthday party! Since Alex was forced to extend, he didn't get done until after I had already left, sigh. I left early so that I could get to the bus station an hour before my bus departed like my ticket told me to. That is some lies that Greyhound fed me. There was absolutely no reason for me to have been at that bus stop that early! Whatever, Dakotah and I got to chill in a super sketchy bus stop at 1am. True life: we were the youngest and only females in the entire place. Luckily, there were a ton of cops there, so I wasn't too scared. I got on the bus, sat next to a woman who was asleep, and then I feel asleep on the bus.

The Capital Building of Florida

I got to Tallahassee at 5:50 in the morning. That was a disgusting time to be awake. Jenny picked me up, and then we went back to her apartment and went back to sleep until about 11am. Then we went to a seafood restaurant called Crystal River. It was good, but not as good as the hole-in-the-wall place Barnacle Bills. After some nom noms, we went back to Jenny's apartment and as she got her lesson plan in order for teaching that night at TCC (Tallahassee Community College) I distracted her by showing her pictures of my adventures! After I got done showing her all of them, I was time for her class. This is her Introduction to Statics class, and I got to sit in on it. It was interesting sitting in on a class that I'd already taken. I knew all the material and it was pretty self-explanatory the way Jenny was teaching it, but these kids were simply not getting it and frankly, didn't seem to care. Its hard to see students not care when you come from a background of academic integrity and success. I feel like I was always pushed to do my best in my studies and treat my teachers with respect, but alas these students were not raised this way.  Anyways, after class was over, Jenny and I went to a scrumptious dinner at Food Glorious Food! Then, we went back to the apartment, watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Toy Story 3, and finally went to bed.

Tallahassee Community College

 The next morning (Wednesday 11/17/1) we got up and went to Florida State University so Jenny could get herself ready for class, grade some papers, and such. At FSU, we also ate at the food court, we had Caribbean food at Pollo Tropical, it was indeed quite tasty. Then we walked a little bit of the campus, visited the book store, and enjoyed the August-type weather that was occurring in November. Frankly, if I didn't own a calendar I would have no idea what month it is. The weather in Florida is so bizarre to me, its almost always nice out or hot. A part of me misses the simplicity/ complexity of the MN seasons. Well, once we made it back to Jenny's office, I got to meet some of her fellow students working on their doctorates in bio-statistics. Then, it was time for Jenny to go to class, so I sat in her office, talked to Mom, and tried to plan what Mom and Aunt Barb are going to do in Orlando when they come to visit. Thus far, I believe they are going to do the Magic Kingdom backstage tour: Keys to the Kingdom; Mickey's Very-Merry-Christmas Party; some sort of nice dinning; and who knows what else! 

The statistics building at FSU

 After a good long time of trying to figure that out, Jenny got done with class, and we went shopping. Since I've been living in Florida for a while now, I never had a need to restock my jeans that were destroyed by last years winter, basically I've been surviving just fine in shorts. But as January quickly is upon us, I fear that winter in Belgium simply will not allow me to wear shorts for fear of hypothermia. So, Jenny and I went shopping and I got some jeans and a new winter hat. I was so excited about my hat, until I went outside and remembered that "Oh wait, its still 80 degrees out, I don't need a hat!" After we got done shopping, we went back to Jenny's apartment to drop off our stuff, then sat around for a while whilst figuring out what we were going to eat for dinner. We went to a cute little French cheese place called Clusters and Hops and I had some of the best food that I have ever eaten in my life! Jenny and I split a meat and cheese tray with cheeses from all over the world (my favorite!) Then, I had a duck and prosciutto dish with some sort of pasta/peas on it; and then I had a peanut butter chocolate dessert which consisted of a scoop of pumpkin spice ice cream,  peanut butter and chocolate cake, a smore made with thin mint Girl Scout cookies, and almonds. YUMMY! NOM NOM NOM! I wish I had taken a picture it was so good! After we left, I went into a food coma as we watched The Sandlot and L.A. Confidential.


I feel asleep to LA Confidential and woke up at 4:30am to Jenny telling me I should get ready because my bus was leaving Tallahassee at 5:50am. I got up, changed, said my goodbyes to Murrs, and we were off. Since I had forgotten to grab something to eat at Jenny's, we grabbed a fancy breakfast at McDonalds and went to the Greyhound Station. Once again, I got to deal with the odd folks who ride the bus. Unlike my last encounter with the bus where it was early, this bus was an hour late in leaving the station. Jenny left to go home and sleep, but I stayed and got to deal with the weirdos. My bus driver tried to make a joke about Minnesota saying, "I've had cream soda, grape soda, lime soda, but I've never had a Minnesoda. What's that like?" To which I wittily retorted, "cold and with a lot of lakes." Man, I am not on my A game at the early hours of the morning. So the bus was late, meaning that I got to Orlando at 12:20pm. Luckily, Dakotah was a saint and picked me up, then the two of us booked it to our apartments to get our costumes, changed in the car, and still somehow made it to work on time early. From leaving the bus stop in downtown at 12:20pm, we got to work on time before 1:45pm. AWESOME! Then I worked for 10 hours, that was not so awesome, but Dakotah and I got to be parade escorts together for the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade, so that was pretty rad. When I got done with work, I went home and slept.

Friday (11/14/10) I got up and went to work thinking that I had a shift gap from 4 to 6:15, but luckily CDS decided to bridge my gap for me, so I ended up working another 10 hour day. This day I got to be parade escort again, but this time it was for the Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade. Still pretty cool to be parade escort! When I got home from work, I once again just passed out.

Saturday (11/15/10) I got up and starting writing this blog post, but then had to go to work, so stopped. I worked the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade on the west side, and when I got done I had a shift gap. During the gap, Nesa and I walked around the park looking in stores for potential Christmas gifts. Plus, we rode the Stitch's Great Escape ride, so there goes another ride off my checklist of things to do. Nesa wanted to ride the Carousel of Progress, but about five minutes into the ride, it broke, so I had a minor freakout that I was going to be late for work at 6:15, but we all just peaced out and got off the ride ourselves, so it was all good. Then during the Electrical Light Parade I had mean people say rude things to me, but alas, yet another day working PAC. Now, I am home and ready to go to sleep. Goodnight!

PS: Thank you Sandy for sending me my Girl Scout cookies! You're the best!!!

DINOSAUR!

Well hello again,

Now the last time we chit chatted, it was that end of old time and I suddenly gained an hour of new time. AWESOME! That means that time fell back and I was able to get 9 hours of sleep instead of 8! How rad. Well after I got all that lovely sleep, I got myself up worked on my resume and cover letters for internships in Belgium. Had a tiny freak out about them, as I've been having all week long! See I'm not very good at writing resumes and cover letters. Also, I am applying for real internships, not theatre internships. And since I am a theatre junkie, all I have to base my life off of is theatre stuff. I have tons of resume credible stuff for theatres or slanted to theatres. This stuff won't really help me when applying for a political internship or an art gallery internship. Hmmm....so working on these things has been the dark cloud that's been looming over my head all week long and most likely it will continue to loom since they aren't due until Monday. ZONKS!

Anywho, let me tell you about the adventures that I've been having instead of working on my cover letters and resumes. So it was Sunday and I went to work. At work, Al gave me the position of VIP viewing and I never really think anything of it, I just chat it up with everyone and try to get them excited about the Main Street Electrical Parade. But as fate would have it, there was someone famous in my section. Turns out that Steve Young, the quarterback for the 49s was in my section! It was really cute because his daughter (dressed as Snow White) stood next to me the entire parade waving at everyone. And when Captain Hook came past she got scared and looked away, so I comforted her and I assured her that Pan would take care of her. And that was that. I don't really recall Steve, but his daughter was precious!

After work was the cast preview for Mickey's Once Upon A Christmastime Parade and since everyone from work was going, I decided I might as well stick around for the fun. Things I will say about that night:

1. I had a wonderful time!
2. We PAC Attacked it, so we got to the front of the line and pushed our way as we ran to see our friends, who were working it.
3. I am slightly bitter that I didn't get to work that cast preview because it would have been overtime and its something that I know see every night.
4. Minnie Mouse looked like she was having a seizure, she was shaking so much.
5. I got to see the Castle Lighting Show, and the castle looks beautiful all light up!
6. The parade is sooooo long! It takes a solid 40 minutes to get to Townsquare.
7. Despite the fact that most of us weren't working, we still did PACivities of jumping rope and playing duck-duck-Donald to keep us busy. 
8. The parade comes with smells, so different floats smell like different things. Case in point, the Clara Cow float where she is making gingerbread cookies smells like gingerbread, and the Goofy candy float smells like peppermint.

And that was my night at the cast-preview and now every other night I get to watch the exact same parade for the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. That is actually how I spent my Monday: going to work and working the first Christmas Party. That's right Christmas starts at the Magic Kingdom on November 8th!

Amanda, Gina, and Janice at the Cast Preview

PAC ATTACKing it up at the Cast Preview

So Monday came and went, and before you know it, it was Tuesday (11/9/10). Tuesday morning I woke up, and went to class. My Entertainment Show Production seminar was meeting earlier in the day, so we could go to Hollywood Studios and visit backstage of Fantasmic. As you may recall, I LOVED seeing Fantasmic! As taken from the Disney website, "Fantasmic! takes you into the colorful imagination of Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice in this nighttime musical special effects extravaganza! Join Mickey as he invokes the characters and spirit of such favorite Disney classics as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Aladdin, Pinocchio, The Lion King, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Tarzan, and more. But when the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs gathers such classic villains as Ursula, Cruella de Vil, Scar, Frollo, Jafar and a larger-than-life Maleficent to turn Mickey's dreams into a nightmare, leave it to Mickey and the power of imagination to save the day."

So my class got to tour this sweet show from backstage! First we met Nina (a technician whose been working on the show since 2003) and the stage manager Erin, who is also sometimes the stage manager for Beauty and the Beast. They first showed us the call booth where all the technicians call the show, and there we talked about how technology has changed the show and how the dragon, Vivian, is the cause of most delays in the show. From the call booth, we went onto the mountain. On the mountain we got to see where Mickey's lift is (the trap door of sorts where Mickey is raised up from the basement to the stage) along with Maleficent's lift. From there, we got to see the places where the Jafar snake goes and the places where John Smith jumps and where Pocahontas stands her ground. It was pretty cool standing in those spots and look to the stands that can hold up to 9,200 people. So, we got to tour the mountain and all that went with it, including the basement. Side note about the mountain, its actually an island. Since its an island, there are no bathrooms or really anything on it, so once you are on the island you better be ready to perform and you better have a reason as to why you are on that mountain, otherwise you are simply out of luck.

The dragon from Fantasmic: Vivian

 After the mountain, we got to tour Steamboat Willie. Its a pretty slim boat when you actually get up on it. I got to pretend to drive it and hear about what characters go on the boat and why certain characters are seen on it sometimes and why others aren't. It has to do with if a character is ready, and if they're not a spare jumps on the boat. And sometimes different characters are only allowed to play certain roles, hence different people on the boat.

Steamboat Willie

Once our epic tour came to a close, I walked around some stores at Hollywood Studios and then Dakotah picked me up and we went to dinner at Panera. That was delicious. I got a tasty fall salad and then Shayla met up with us. Shayla met us because we all picked up a shift to be citizens of Main Street USA. So, Dakotah got to wear the Ice Cream costume, Shayla got to wear the Confectionery costume, and I, unfortunately, had to wear the Park Greeter costume. Pretty much, we spent an hour in the break room waiting for the park to be cleared out, a half hour on Main Street welcoming the guests that bought out the park a goodnight, and 15 minutes walking out. In essence, I got for 2 hours of work, when I really only did half an hour. AWESOME! After this little shift, Dakotah and I finally got to see the movie The Social Network. The story of how facebook was created. I went in not sure how I felt about the movie, thinking it would be too soon, but it was so well done. It was a movie full of wit, spunk, and betrayal. I adored it and kind of want to see it again...

Now then Tuesday came to a close, and Wednesday came into light. On Wednesday (11/10/10) Amanda, Gina, Dakotah, and I went Dinosaur World in Plant City, Florida. We started off the day like we do with most Dakotah trips by going to Starbucks. Then we bought gas using 5 different debit/credit cards. Pretty sure it looked like we were robbers stealing gas! Finally, we made it to our destination of Dinosaur World! Dinosaur World is a pretty janky place. It has 150 life-size statues of dinosaurs. What your supposed to do is walk around and learn about the dinosaurs, what we did was played on the dinosaurs. It was great fun! From a land before time, we went to Tsunami, a hibachi restaurant, for sushi. And from there, we booked it back to Orlando to go to the Orlando Magic vs. Utah Jazz NBA basketball game. That game was lots of fun. Before we even got into the Amway Center, the bus had us watch Hercules, one of my top 5 favorite Disney movies. Also, the Magics had a ton of free stuff happening outside the center, so we got our faces painted, we made signs, we got caricatures made, we got to try new flavors of Mountain Dew, we got to try some McDonalds smoothies, and got balloon people. At the game, we sat in the highest section available, aka the nosebleed section. Sadly, the Magics lost to the Utah Jazz, 104 to 94. But overall, it was a great night!

What's over there my dear dinosaur friend?

VICTORY!

Dakotah, Gina, Janice, Amanda, Hilary, and Becka at the Orlando Magic game

We've got the Magic in us!

After the excitement of the Magic's losing on Wednesday, it was Thursday (11/11/10) and I got up and cleaned to get ready for inspection on Friday. Then I went to work, had a gap so did some shopping on Main Street USA, and then worked some more. That's all I did, not that exciting of a night.

Now today is Friday, and our inspection just happened. Guess what: WE GOT THE WHITE GLOVE AWARD! That means that we have one of the cleanest apartments in the program and we got our picture taken and a box of Ferraro Rochelle chocolates.

WHITE GLOVE AWARD!

Up, Up, and Away!

Hello again, 'tis Janice, your favorite blogger here to tell you more about my adventures!

Last time we left off, it was Tuesday and we watched Human Centipede. Well the next day then was Wednesday (11/3/10) and I had high hopes of having Nasa's space shuttle Discovery launch. But alas, it was postponed again due to yet another leak and high winds. Since I had taken the day off work to go see the launch, I had nothing to do. Instead of sitting around like a lazy, I did something that I'd always wanted to: I flew in a hot air balloon. Actually, it was more like the largest tethered balloon, but still an awesome experience. Dakotah and I finally got to ride Characters in Flight at Downtown Disney, after having been told on countless occasions that the weather was too bad, etc., etc. It was lots of fun, plus Hilary got to go for free because some woman's son wanted to go and she is terrified of heights, so paid for Hilary to go with her son, so he could experience it. Up in the air, you could see 3 out of the 4 Disney parks, the only that you couldn't see was Magic Kingdom, but its all good from 400 feet up in the air you don't really care that you can't see one little castle. Its the overall experience of seeing the world from a distance that catches you off guard and reminds you how lucky we are.

Chilling with the Captain of our hot air balloon experience!

 

UP, UP, and AWAY!

Janice, Dakotah, and Hilary at Characters in Flight in Downtown Disney

After we were done with our hot air ballooning travels, we ventured off to Epcot leaving Hilary at Downtown Disney to see Night of Stars, a College Program housing talent show. At Epcot, Dakotah and I were set on doing Innoventions, so we went to the left side of the buildings first and did the Stormstruck Severe Weather replicator. Then, we made our own roller coaster while learning about all the math and engineering that goes into it at the ride Sum of All Thrills. From there, we played around with different things like the safety procedures that go into making a house weatherproof, how much waste we create a day, etc. Once we had finished up with that side of Innoventions, we went forth to the Universe of Energy Ride hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. That ride is 2 things: surprisingly long, but also really interesting. It even has Bill Nye the science guy in it helping explain to Ellen why energy is so important and where energy comes from.

Sum of All Thrills where we created our own roller coaster

 Next, we went to the other Innoventions building and played with a fire truck, then put out some common house fires, and finally rode a Segway! Riding a Segway made me feel like Job from Arrested Development the entire time, it was hilarious. Then, we met up with Kurt from work and we went to the World Showcase just as it was starting to rain. Dakotah and I quickly got some sushi from Japan and then went to Via Napoli for some sit-down Neapolitan pizza. It was delicious food. After dinner, we went to Mexico and we colored some Duffy's. After that we called it a night, played with some abandoned wheelchairs in the parking lot, and left Epcot.

Riding a Segway

When Thursday came around, it was our dear friend Alex's last day of working PAC with us. If you are an ICP (international College Program student) you have to have 2 jobs during your time, so Alex's first job was PAC, and now he has been switched over to sell turkey legs over in Frontierland. It was a very sad day. So in order to have a good night, we decided we were going to watch a movie and make him cupcakes. When we asked him if he wanted to join us, he said of course and then we set out to find a place to do this and get supplies. Originally, we were going to meet at my apartment, but since my roommates don't really like people over because they work early in the morning, they were less than pleased to see people. So we left to Chatham where Alex lives. Dakotah went to Walmart and bought another pizza kit and cookie mix, so we were set. Basically, all night we just baked pizza and cookies and chatted it up. It was a nice low-key night.

Then it was Friday (11/5/10) and after work I had plans to once again have another low-key night, just make spaghetti or something, but then more people from my work told me they were leaving to other jobs! Alexa, Scarlet, and Bob were leaving to go to different quick service food and beverage jobs. And Alexa, invited us over to her apartment for some traditional Chinese food, since she is from Shanghai, she would know how it should taste! And it was DELICIOUS! It was some of the best food that I have ever eaten. I don't even know what half of it was, but it was good. After this fine dinning, a group from work were going to see Paranormal Activity 2, but since I am not a big horror movie fan I opted out and instead watched Beauty and the Beast with Hilary.

Catharine, Alexa (our lovely hostess), and Dakotah NOM NOM NOMing Alexa's food!

The gang eating some NOM NOMS!

 When I awoke it was Saturday (11/6/10) and Brooke was just getting done with work. They had her work from 2am to 10am or something crazy like that, so she was tired and hungry and wanted to go to IHOP. Since I have never been to an IHOP before, I said let's go and Brooke, Hilary, and I were off. IHOPs are ok places they remind me of a Denny's or Baker's Square type place. Good food, bad service, it happens. After IHOP, I booked it into my costume for work and did just that, I went to work.

My first time at an IHOP

 Now I know that I'm from MN, so shouldn't be that cold when it hits 40 degrees and I am outside wearing a thin blazer, I am going to feel pretty cold. But once thing I will say that makes it better was seeing all the Christmas lights around the Magic Kingdom, it was beautiful and made me excited for the holiday season. At work, I had a 3 hour gap, so played in the park with Dakotah, Amanda, and Gina. Mostly we just bought goodies from the Confectionery and ate them while talking about the weather. Plus, I finally got to try a hot dog from Casey's Corner and it was so tasty! After the gap, it was back to work and when I got done at 1am, I went home, switched my clock back an hour, and went to sleep. ZZZZZzzzzzzz

HUMAN CENTIPEDE

Hello again,

So let me pick up where I left off on Sunday. It was Halloween. The real Halloween, aka October 31st, 2010, a day that I hope never to forget. The day started off ok, I wrote to you kids, cleaned, went to work. Work just wasn't going the way I wanted and I was left with a sour feeling. But luckily, a guest made a magical moment. Now many of you may or may not find this funny, but I was fortunate enough to see the humor in the situation. After the second parade, my fellow cast members and I were pulling the station and rope cart backstage, when we noticed a foul smell. Some cast member made a rude comment about it smelling like human waste, and that's when we looked down. There was in fact a trail of human feces leading to the women's bathroom. An extra who had picked up the shift hadn't looked down quite in time and stepped in it. Now, many of you may be thinking that poor woman how terrible. Yes, I'm sure it was a tragic night for her. But all I could think was "well I guess I'm not having that shitty of a night." Sorry about the vulgarity of this story, I just thought it was entertaining that someone pooed on the floor of the Magic Kingdom.

After the excitement of Halloween, it was Monday (November 1st) and the last night to celebrate Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. But since I didn't work until 5:45pm, I went to the Magic Kingdom to play like a guest. I went with Amanda and Brittany and once there we met up with Zack and Catharine. Unlike most times when we enter either through the tunnel or main entrance, this time we entered through Toon Town and took the train to Main Street. On Main Street, Amanda's dreams came true as she met Snow White. Then we did the original thing and got our picture taken in front of the castle. After that I went and got some Christmas presents for folks in Liberty Square and Frontierland. Once we finished some shopping, we went on the Boat Landing.

Catharine, Amanda, Janice, Brittany, and Zack at the Magic Kingdom

Janice, Zack, and Brittany on a boat!

Then like every other guest in the park, we got behind those white ropes and watched the 3 o'clock Celebrate a Dream Come True parade, because I clearly don't see it enough! Mostly we watched it because Josh and Ashley were the parade escorts and we wanted to get pictures of them hard at work. From there, we got a funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow, then marched over to Tomorrowland, so Amanda could get her ruben hot-dog. After everyone was done eating, we went to Fantasyland in hopes of meeting Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. Feeling like we'd met royalty, we departed their meet-and-greet area and went to It's A Small World. Boy-oh-boy, does that song get stuck in your head! By the time we were done with everything, it was time was for work.

Rapunzel, Catharine, Amanda, Brittany, Janice, and Flynn

 After work, PAC decided to have a celebration at Buffalo Wild Wings as a final salute to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party. So most of us went wearing either our bats or our bat shirts. It was a great night.

PAC (aka these are some of the people I work with)

WINGS NOM NOM NOM

Yesterday was Tuesday (11/2/10) and I got up with the intent of going with Dakotah to do Characters in Flight at Downtown Disney. Alas, it was stormy out, so for safety reasons they were not going to let us ride in a hot air balloon. Sigh. Instead, we walked around Downtown Disney and then went to Joanne fabrics to look at discounted Halloween stuff. There I bought some cinnamon-scented pine cones to get myself into the holiday season cheer. And straight from there, it was class time. I seriously love that class. This week we talked about how you should Measure Twice and Cut Once. After class, I went home and went grocery shopping. The original plan was to make sushi, but silly us Target does not sell the supplies for that endeavor, so we got stuff to make pizza instead! It was a tomato basil pizza and it was delectable! And while we ate the pizza, Gracie came over and we watched a movie I've been waiting to see since August: The Human Centipede. A movie about a mad-surgeon whose dream is to make three people one. It was disgusting, but also really entertaining. And that is how I ended my night!