Disney Delirium

First full day and it was great. I'm exhausted, but i don't wanna forget anything so this'll be a bit of a quick and dirty post with just the facts-- unless i get distracted and start putting more detail in it, which i probably will...

I woke up pretty early this morning, especially considering the time I went to bed at last night. When I opened my eyes I was instantly fully awake, which is so wierd for me. Anyways, I got up just about right away and chatted with people on facebook and msn for a bit, and ate breakfast with my roomies and finally really met and got to know them all a little better. There is Fanny, my roomie from Hong Kong who will be a quick service food and beverage server, Alexandra the lifeguard from Quebec City, Patricia from Mexico, who I think is doing housekeeping, and Sara from England and i cant think what her role is... I've met so many people it is hard to keep it straight. So after breakfast and a shower I went over to Angelica's apartment, which right now I'm still way more bonded with than my own, which I think is fine. My apartment is really organized with our cleaning schedule and good talks about what we need for the common areas in terms of shared stuff and responsibilities, and we all chat with each other, but all of us kinda split up during the day because we all have other people we know and are hanging out with. It actually is a good dynamic because you are way likely to fight with someone that you are not best friends with. Apt 2402, on the other hand, I've clicked with most of them completely and pretty instantly. There is Angelica from Canada who will be a custodian, Giuliana from Canada who is a quick service food and beverage server, Gemma from Wales who is merchandise (i think... I might be wrong there...) Samantha from Liverpool, England who is a Lifeguard, and then two Jennifers from hong kong who haven't really spoken much to the rest of us, but seem nice. It is mostly the five of us-- Gemma, Angie, Sam, Giuli and myself-- who have really spent a lot of time chatting and joking, I feel like I've known all of them for ages.
I think one of the things happening is language barrier divisions. Though everyone speaks a little english, it is way easier to find similar humour when the language is the same-- although with the accents and slang sam and gemma use, sometimes we might as well be speaking different languages. I've learnt lots of new words, some fun curse words and helped clear confusion about crisps and chips and how they are different :)
The way the five of us get along hasnt taken anything away from the dynamic atmosphere of living with people from all over. It really struck me in the shower this morning as i looked at everyones toiletries on their little shelves-- spanish, chinese, french and english were all there. It was really neat. Right now, Fanny is showing Patty places in Asia on google and patty just finished showing mexico. English is neither of their first languages, but both are speaking it. I admire people who emmerse themselves completely into a different culture the way people on these international programs have. Even the europeans like gemma and sam are faced with big differences, it would be crazy to be in a foreign country with only a basic knowledge of the language.
Anyways, tangent over, back to this morning. for orientation we have been divided into groups and we have different timeslots for different things. It's really well organized, with 300 people getting loads of paper work done really quickly and without ever really standing in line. So Angelica's was early, like 8:45 am, so around 9:30 i headed over to her place, she was done the first part of her orientation, which was just a bunch of forms and such, but the people at the border hadnt given back one form that she had to have, so that was a bit of an issue but its all solved now. So then gemma and I headed over to the welcome pavillion for our allotted time of 10:15. There was music playing outside, and a guy asking trivia questions periodically (really easy movie trivia, I got a photo album with the international programs logo on it for answering the question "where does Mufasa's family live in the Lion King" (Pride Rock). ) we gradually snaked around the room filling out various forms and getting our id photo taken for access to the apt complexes and going through the disney look book procedures and having our medical insurance checked and our visa status confirmed by immigration people. There were enough people helping at each station that once you finished one station you could go directly to the next with no wait. All the Cast Members helping us with the costume read addressed us by name (we were wearing nametags, but still) and asked us how we were doing and everything right away, it was nice.

So all that took a little under an hour, but I think if it was any other company attempting to get that much stuff accomplished for that many people we would have been there for hours and hours standing in long lines. So then I went back to my apartment and ate lunch and visited again with myapartment mates, then went against my schedule (gasp!) and went to an earlier housing welcome session at the commons than I was supposed to. Since we wanted time for a swim and to go to Downtown Disney, it didnt make sense to wait around doing nothing while waiting for our session to start-- the 5 of us were all scheduled to take a 1:15 bus to the commons for a 3:00 presentation, but instead we took a 12:15 bus for a 12:30 presentation and were out of there by 3 with way less waiting around. The housing welcome session was a presentation from Price Management, the people that oversee our housing, and disney about rules and protocols and special events and such. It was long but sometimes slightly amusing.unfortunately, they had it set up that we needed to pick up some documents organized by name after the presentation, and since we werent technically in the group, ours werent ready yet, so we went home for a swim for an hour or so then caught a 4 oclock bus back to the commons, and picked up those papers. Part of my paperwork was the notice that my audition will be thursday afternoon at 3:00 :) I'm excited! Most people will be finding out their work locations tomorrow and meeting with their trainers-- not sure how that works for me but i'm sure they have something planned, since it is on my itinerary to do that as well. After getting that stuff, we went straight from there to downtown disney.

Sam has never been to america before, or to disney anything before (she was a disney virgin!) so she was entranced by downtown disney (cant wait for her to see magic kingdom or any of the parks, she was so impressed!).

I definately finally felt like I was in Disney World when I got off the bus and saw all the kids with ears on :) In one of the stores we all put on ears and took a pic of ourselves (its not on my camera or it would be on here) we figure when we "graduate" at the end of our program, and they give us the graduation ears well take the same picture, which will be cute.

So ya, we did the marketplace section of downton disney and decided that we're gunna go to Planet Hollywood and to see cirque de soliel on my birthday, which is a month today (well, now we're past midnight so I gues yesterday), because a special discount for cast members to see cirque for $40 which is 50% off, ends two days later, plus its my birthday and I want it to be a fun night.

Then we were hungry, and since we were all a little dressed up we didnt want fast food, so we decided to check out the Rainforest Cafe. The wait was over an hour, but as were discussing whether wed wait or not a guy came out and asked rather quietly to the back of the line if any of us were parties of 6. We said, no were a party of 5 and he said wanna sit now in the bar area or wait an hour, and then he seated us right away! (now thats disney magic) so we waited literally less than 30 seconds!

I'd never been to a rainforest cafe before, and it is def my new fave restaurant! It's all setup with animals and toadstools and such-- I have a video of it that i'll put here in the next couple of days, i just havent had time to put them on here yet. The bar is under a mushroom thing with water dripping off the edges-- it's hard to describe but really cool, and periodically the sky gets darks and it storms a bit, then there is a rainbow... too cool! The food was good too.

So we shopped a bit more, bought mystery bags at the mickey mart and were way to excited about opening them (we got binoculars, playingcards, a ratatouille watch, and some other stuff) and pressed some souvenir pennies, which i've kinda decided to collect while i'm here. An then we headed home, (we were directed to the bus stop by a security guard named mickey. We decided that maybe people named after characters should get paid more, because it is entertaining to guests) and had another swim in the pool and the hot tub. Then we chatted a bit and seperated for the night.

So that was pretty detailed, it's taken me an hour and a half to write, and I am going to sleep like a rock tonight, i'm falling asleep in this very uncomfy chair. g'nite!