p.s

p.s-- have photos and video, will post tommorrow

Here at last!

Wow, today was awesome. I love it here, so far. Obviously nothing has really started, but it was a really good day.

I spent last night at my nana's house, en route to Buffalo where I caught my flight. We left at around 11:00 am on our way to the border (this is wierd-- it is 3 am-ish the next morning but it kinda feels like its been weeks since then!) and then crossed the border at about noon. It was a long hot drive and I felt a bit nauseous the whole way through, though whether it was car sickness or nerves I don't know. The border wait was long, though we chatted between the cars with a family originally from St. Lucia, which was kinda cool, and then I had to go inside the customs office to get my paperwork done up and that was a bit time consuming as well. Once that was all done, we weren't far at all from the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. I checked in there at about 1:20, (and as I left the check in counter ran into ellen, a girl who was at my interview in toronto months ago. I recognized her and also noticed she was carrying the disney congratulations package, which I had just finished putting back into my packsack) and went though security really quickly, no lines at all. I said good bye to my momma and Jordie and went to wait in gate 14. There was a plug in for my lap top, so I watched some episodes of the Office and Heroes and ate a salad. My plane was about 15 minutes delayed, which wasn't really a big deal, but it made the wait that little bit longer. The plane was smallish, or smaller than I remember my last planeride to be, but that was four years ago so maybe the plane was normal sized, i dunno. I was seated in row 28, which was just behind the wing and just in front of the engine/propeller/big round thing that makes a lot of noise. It wasn't too bad, but it bugged me a bit. Nobody sat beside me, which was nice because the armrests can go up so I put my feet on that seat. The take off was kinda funny-- a little girl in front of me screamed as the plane went up and her mother quickly shushed her and the girl, who was only about three said "that was fun. Was that a rollercoaster?" it was too cute. No movie on this plane, but the trip went quickly, mostly because I was a bit of a nervous flyer so I just stared blankly out the window making sure we weren't dropping out of the sky-- as if my peering out the window could stop us if we were... There was radio in our armrests, so I listened to Radio Disney the whole way there to get me in the spirit of things. We spant a good portion of the flight along the coast, and being on the left side of the plane that meant I could see no land at all. It was a pretty sunny and clear day, with almost no clouds at all the whole trip. Finally we landed in Orlando.

I got off the plane and walked through the gate to a monorail/train type thing to the main terminal (very cool) and then made my way down to shuttle to my apartment. My shuttle also had a lady on it from Georgia and her two sons who were going to stay at a hotel closeby, and we got chatting, they were very excited that I was a Disney Cast Member. Also in my bus was a guy from Glasgow, Scotland who was also on ICP, which was kinda neat.

We arrived a Vista Way, one of the disney apartment complexes and the central welcoming spot for the 300 arriving international college program participants. I had thought it was amuch smaller program than it is-- I was thinking like 40 people would be arriving today... I was WAY off. The door of our shuttle was opened by a cast member who welcomed us and told us, "you're home now". I was very excited. They had quite the system for dealing with arrivals, they were well prepared for the influx of people, with places to put our luggage before we headed into what was essentially a three stage presentation which kept us rotating and kept the amount of standing around to a minimum. We picked the name to appear on our nametags, then moved into the pavillion to see a short 3 minute video talking about the security in the complex, then recieved welcome packages and some freebie things, and a book with all the merchants in the orlando area that give discounts to CMs. We also recieved our housing location and key. The ICPs are spread through the 4 apt complexes, but I'm in the Vista Way complex (i was so happy I didn't have to travel to another spot, the welcome center is at Vista.) I met up with Angelica, whi had already checked in hours earlier, and she helped my walk my stuff to my complex. I liveon the third (top) floor of my building, and it is very cute. I haven't really gotten to know my roommates yet, and don't actually remember all there names. I dumped my suitcases on my bed and asked my room mates (there are 5 plus me in my apartment, I share a room with a girl named Fanny (i'm not sure if that is spelt right) from Hong Kong. if they had already been to Walmart. They head, so I immediatly went with Angelica, who, lucky girl, has a car this week whil her parents are in town. Lucky me, too, cuz I didn't have to take a bus with all the stuff I needed. (including tinkerbell sheets :) )

We didn't get back from walmart til almost 10:30, and because of the time changes most of my apartment mates were asleep or headed to bed. I unpacked and set up all my stuff, ate some KD and then, since my apartment was asleep, headed to angelica's, which is a 2 second walk from mine (just across a volleyball court). Turns out Giuliana, who I danced with in Ottawa, is also in Angelica's apt, and we hung out and chatted along with Sam from Nottingham, England and Gemma from Wales for a couple of hours-- as in til about 3 am. It was awesome, I feel like we really clicked-- which is good and bad- I know I'll click with my apartment mates too, but I haven't even met them all and I've really bonded with this other apt. Maybe our 2 apts can just kinda totally connect, I guess we'll see.

So now I am sitting in my very quiet apartment's living room typing this up. I'm exhausted, but not sleepy...

Tommorow I have to attend an orientation at 10:15 am, which will be a housing check in, then I have a break at 11, then at 1:15 I have a welcome session at Chatham Square.

Tuesday we have a presentation from the Disney bank and some other stuff in the morning, then it looks like, from the schedule, we'll recieve the info on our actual job training.

Wednesday is our traditions class!!!! which will be cool.


Anyways, I'm gunna go try to sleep. I still can't believe I'm here :)