Traditions - 16th Jan

SORRY FOR THE DELAY - HAD A VERY BUSY BUT FANTASTIC 24 HOURS!

So this morning was quite a chill one. The most exciting thing that me and one of my roommates did was we went and bought a second-hand Clothes Air-dryer. As stupid and ridiculous as it sounds but Americans do not know/use air dryers or at least not down in Florida!! We asked multiple times at Walmart and no one could help us! There is a Trading Post Facebook page for DCP (Disney College Program) people to join and sell things amongst each other which is where we found this clothes hanger. The roommates and I were more then happy to get it - it was hilarious how happy we were! Apparently American's machine dry everything! ANYWAYS, so we headed off at about 9am to the bus to Chatham (another housing complex). A we didn't really think about it but once we go the air dryer we would have to carry it on to the bus - and of course I was nominated by my roomie to carry it: 

I was freezing in this photo!

So once we got it home we had a few hour to kill before our next Orientation session! This session is called 'Traditions' it is a right of passage for every Cast Member at Disney! So I made some lunch (chicken breast and salad) and then I got ready. We had to wear business Attire. 

Traditions:

So we were already for Traditions at 1:30 for it to start at 3pm. To get to where the Traditions was being held we had to go on to Disney property!!

 Traditions was held at Disney University:

Traditions went for about 6 hours in total! It had it's "boring parts" where they talked about the necessary safety and workplace procedures but there was also a lot of fun things! 

1. We got our first set of Mickey ears!:

2. We left Disney University and had a tour of Magic Kingdom and the backstage areas aswell! 

AND WE GOT TO SEE THE CASTLE!

3. Then we came back and we got to meet the Boss!

I don't know about you guys but he is going to be the best boss EVER!

4. And then last but certainly not least - we got out name badges!

I love it! Even if it does say "South Brisbane" on it! And I can't wait to wear it proerly as an Official Cast Member of Walt Disney World Orlando!

After Traditions finished we rushed home (had about 10 minutes at home) and then ran back tot he bus and caught it to Downtown Disney!

We met the other Roomates there and went to:

It is like a food place that is also a Bowling Alley! It was a lot of fun! We all bought cups that you can take to machines that look like this: 

It has HEAPS of different flavours of soft drink that you can choose from a nd fill up as much as you want as many times as you want! It was great!

Laura and I shared a BBQ Chicken pizza! It was massive but delicious! 

And then we shared a equally yummy dessert - Browny with Ice-cream!

It's gonna be so hard not to get fat in America! But the food is so good and SOO cheap its ridiculous! Overall it was a great day!! And a great night out with the Roommates! It was the first time we had sat down and ate a meal together! We are gonna have a great 6 months together, I think!

Orientation Sessions - 15th Jan

Today we had an early start as we had to be at the bus by 8.15am! And the we were taken to another Complex which is called the Commons. And we had another Disney Orientation Session which was all about Immigration and making sure that we know what is involved with that. It didn't take long - only about half an hour.

At the Immigration Session

Then we came back to our apartment and all the flatmates hung around for a little while and then we decided to go and watch a movie in the Clubhouse - but unfortunately because we are not 'official' cast members yet we aren't able rent out the movies (until tomorrow when we have traditions - which I shall explain later) so we just watched some TV down there for a while. And then I just had a cruisey afternoon until about 2;30 which is when I had another Orientation Session.

Orientation Session:
This afternoons orientation was purely all about signing and sorting paperwork for different aspects of living here at Disney! But the greatest and most exciting thing happened while I was at this session: I FOUND OUT WHERE I AM WORKING!! :O I had a very basic wish list for my dream workplace but I never thought I would get any of them BUT I got the Grand Floridian Resort (Full Service Food and Beverage - which is similar to a Maitre d in the resorts restaurant 'Citricos'. 

This is my Restaurant

It is the most high end/expensive resort at Disney! Seriously Google it! It is absolutely amazing and I am so so excited! The lady there told me that Michele Obama and the Prince of Arabia and many other wealthy people have stayed a the resort and dined in my restaurant! So exciting!

We also found out when our 'Traditions' session is tomorrow, mine is at 3pm. Traditions is a right of passage for every Disney Cast Member so tomorrow I will become an official employee at Disney - excitinngggg! 

After our meeting finished we walked back to our apartment and it was about 5pm and decided to make Dinner early - tonight we made Carbonara - I know two pasta dishes but we are giving this week a pass as we are still settling in and getting things sorted. 

Movie Night:
Disney Housing put on events for the College Program Students ALL the time and tonight happened to be a movie night that they screened Maleficent! It started at 6;30pm and we were given free popcorn and a soft drink! It was a great night out with most of the Roomies and the movie was great also!

Although it has been so cold and drizzly yesterday and today! I mean, I know it is "winter" here and everything but c'mon I wanna see some sunshine please Florida! 

So yes tomorrow will be an exciting day - we are hopefully planning on going to Magic Kingdom tomorrow night as we get our Employee Passes tomorrow!! YAAY! 

I'll keep ya posted! 

Random Day - 14th Jan

So today we didn't do an awful lot. Well we did - but not really compared to other days!

We got up early as we wanted to get some washing done - which if you want to put it in the dryer it takes an hour and a half! It took us a little while to get the machines working but we eventually (& successfully might I add!) mastered our first load of washing and drying at Disney!

Walmart - Take Three (I think? I've actually lost count now!)

We then headed out at about 11am (we did some kitchen cleaning first) and caught the bus to Walmart again. This time we mostly bought food stuff. Last night we made a list of some meals that we can prepare and wrote a shopping list for all the ingredients. So we were probably in Walmart for a good 2 hours again! 

But this time we were determined to catch the bus home and sufer the sore shoulders and hands - because well - its free and the taxi is certainly not! Once we got home and unpacked it all we had a quick sandwich (BTW - their 'Sara Lee' loaf of bread is oddly very sweet like they accidentally tipped a bucket of sugar into the mixing bowl when making it) and then headed off to the bus!

First Disney Meeting:

At 4pm we had our first Disney Meeting which was exciting! It was a housing meeting so we learnt all about the housing complexes - the do's and don'ts and the rinmportnat information. This season was about 2 hours long!

After that we came home and when we walked in - it actually started to feel like home! We had food in our fridges and we had stuff  unpacked in our rooms - it was good!

First Official Dinner:

We had decided on something easy for dinner as we are still rather tired from the last couple of days! So we made Spaghetti Bolognese  We made it slightly healthy by adding broccoli and mushrooms! Although slightly simple - it was delicious and I think we did a good job if I do say so myself! (Haha) 

After dinner, all the roommates actually sat down and had a little chat for the first time!! It was really good to have a good chat with them all! But yeah we have an early start tomorrow morning as we have another Disney session (8am though....ahh!) we headed off to bed quite early!

SIDENOTE:

There are many many weird things that I have come across over here in America and if I were to share them all then this blog would be full of them! But this one I had to share: 

On the left hand side is a bottle of normal Wine and the right is well......that normal one on steroids! Hahaha. ALSO and probably the most important is that trying to find instant coffee is like finding Gold at Walmart - they have about one shelf and its only Nestle1. Not happy jan I need my coffee! So I have settled for that until i buy a perculator (they have about 10 to choose from and the cheapest but best quality is about $15)

Check in Day - 13th Jan

Today was check in day! It was a full on day!

We were up super early (7.30am) because we had to pack up our hotel room and try and fit everything that we had bought from Walmart into our suitcases (which didn't work!) We had to put all our bedding stuff into garbage (or should I say "Trash") bags and leave them at the hotel and just take some of our actual bags. The other girls had 2 suitcases each so thankfully I only really had 1 big one! But although it was only over the road it was still a long trek with VERY heavy luggage to one of the Complexes 'Vista Way' and then a long walk to the back of the complex where check in was. 

Check In;
This was a rather fast process! Oh check in time was 10pm and we were out by like 10.20! Firstly we found out where we lived - I got Vista Way (I'll explain a little more later) and so did a friend of mine from Uni! So we became roommates - Yay! This became a very easy task to move our luggage to our apartment as we only had to walk to the other side of the complex. 

The Complex/Apartment:
So Vista Way was not one of my first preferences - thats a definite as it is the oldest (however cheapest!) but I was looking on the bright side. Until I got here....Like its not completely horrible but it definitely wasn't fantastic! We had last pick of the bedrooms, unfortunately, which meant we didn't get an ensuite with our bedroom :( but we still have our walk in cupboard and the bathroom is right outside our room (so not far to travel) Anyways, when we got there the apartment was really really dirty which was awful to walk into. 
But we didn't have time to stop1

After we had a little look around and met a few roommates then we had to return back to the Holiday Inn and collect our other stuff we had left. Which was another hard walk back to our apartment as the 2 of us had all 3 of our stuff - not a lot of fun! But we made it! And then when we got back to our apartment we were able to meet more of our roommates! And we organised things that we need to buy for the house and what not, so we made some shopping lists! After all that we definitely had worked up an appetite as it was about 12pm! So we walked around the corner to Chick-Fil-A for some lunch.

Chick-Fil-A:
This is a fast food place that only really serves Chicken! But like chicken in any and every form! I got a chicken wrap meal - it was great! And it also came with what they call 'Waffle Fries'.

'Waffle Chips'

Walmart - Take 2:
Then on to Walmart again! This time we caught the buses that Disney provide for us to get around it took about 40minutes but we eventually go there. This was a different Walmart to the one we went to the day before it wasn't as big but still definitely HUGELY MASSIVE! We got a lot of house products like cleaning and kitchen appliances it was good because we had already bought our bedding the day before! However we had sooo much stuff again that we had to catch a taxi back to Vista Way and then we had to carry to all from the carpark to the room which is about 400meters - and we had a lot of stuff! 

After we got back to the apartment again we go to work! We cleaned absolutely everything in our room! Like everything. We swept, and wiped down every surface possible! It was a mission but once we got it done - it was so much better! We then made our beds up and started unpacking. And then once we finished that we were so exhausted that we didn't really eat dinner we just made the shopping list for the next day (yes - we had to go back to Walmart again!) and then we just had showers and went to bed!

It was a big first day but you know - so I'm just riding the roller coaster whatever will be will be! 

And although we have an older apartment/complex we are right on a cute little lake and we are literally 100 meters from the clubhouse which has many facilities. But one is that they have over 3000 Disney (and other) DVDS that you can rent out...free...of...charge!! So I'm pretty excited for that! 

 And did I mention our lake has Squirrels that like to hang around? We have seen about 3 so far! SO cute! 

 One of the first things I did in my room was put up all my photos! And I managed to fit them all up there too! Overkill? Nah I don't think so! Loving that I can look at my wall and see all my favourite people smiling at me!
P.s Missing lots and lots of people unfortunately - printing photos was a last minute decision and I don't have a photo's with everyone - sorry :(

MORE PHOTOS TO COME!!

1st day in Orlando - 12th Jan

I had a brilliant 10 hour sleep last night! It was the greatest sleep after the long journey the day before! We had a slow morning just having break and stuff as both Bec and I were still pretty tired! And then we decided to take a walk around and found a Subway - which turned into our first meal in America! After a cruise morning we decided that we should do something productive so we walked to Walmart - which turned out to be about an 1 hour and half walk!! But it was so easy and it didn't feel that long! 

Walmart:
This store is AMAZING!! You can buy everything here. Like literally EVERYTHING! From a pet fish to a mattress to all kinds of electronics to absolutely everything!  We were in here for at least 2 hours and we bought everything for our beds (sheets, pillows, comforter set etc) and basic room stuff like coat hangers and towels. We then had to catch a taxi back to our hotel as it was raining now and we were never going to be able to carry all our shopping! It the car, it only took up about 10 minutes to get back to the hotel - which didn't cost much! 

We then unloaded everything up into our room and Bec and I decided that we needed Sim Cards for our phones because as soon as we leave the hotel we don't have service! So we looked up the nearest T-mobile store which annoyingly enough was right back at Walmart! See didn't I tell you? Walmart has literally everything! 
They even had these and it was really hard to resisit not to buy them: 

So we caught another taxi back to Walmart sorted out our phone Sim Cards and then caught another taxi to dinner! 

Olive Garden:
We had dinner at the greatest Italian restaurant...ever! We had free Entree's and Breadsticks! So we all got Gnocchi and Chicken Soup - amazing! And a few breadsticks each!

And for the main (which they call Entree` and what we would call Entree, they call Appetisers - so weird!) I got Cheese Ravioli with a Marinara sauce! It is safe to say that we definitely rolled out of there that night! 

  And because it had stopped raining by this time we decided to walk home which was great because we were able to see this sign. 

When we got back to our room we were watching TV and talking and then all of a sudden we hear these banging noises from outside so we rushed to the window and we were able to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from our hotel window! This isn't the greatest photo but you get an idea of how close it is!