Hey all,
Sorry such a long time and no update again. It's been a long week. It should be longer, seeing as I was scheduled, starting last Monday, to work 11 days in a row. But alas, it's my supposed day 6 and I'm home sitting on my computer and not at work. Why? Because I'm ill. Of course. Working so much, not eating properly, and shoving pepto bismol down my throat all week has finally caught up with me. Just so you all know, it's not like I'm not trying to eat healthy or anything...it's just so hard to grocery shop for fruit and veggies often because they go bad and I work so much and taking the bus to Wal-Mart is a two hour ordeal.
Anyways, first off I'll adress a question I beleive my aunt Robin left last post about what it is I actually do at work? Here goes. I work in outdoor foods at Animal Kingdom, this means that any stand in which the guest orders food from well, outside, is fair game. Except for two places: the turkey leg place (thank god, who wants to smell that all day) and an ice cream place attached to Restauarantosaurus (a quick service place in dinoland). So I can be working at an ice cream cart or Kiosk anywhere in the park, although I tend to work mostly on Discovery Island - which is like the centre area of the park where the tree is, and in Dinoland. For example, the past couple of days I worked in Beastly, a kiosk that sells Corn Dogs. The day before those, I worked in another Kiosk that sold pretzels, and before that, another one that sold Hot Dogs, Popcorn...etc.
Aside from working, my week has been pretty slow. I think the biggest event was watching the Lost Finale on Sunday. Let me tell you, my mind is still reeling. Some days I'm thrilled with the way it ended, others I'm still mightly confused. But to anyone who never watched, or stopped watching, go back and watch again. I can't wait to buy all six seasons and watch em asap all in a row. Maybe all my questions weren't answered, but the message at the end was beautiful and maybe it's fiction, but it's hopeful and I wish it to be true.
Last night a girl from work and I went to see Letters to Juliet. It was a cheesy/cute romance that I thuroughly enjoyed. It even made me laugh a bit. Amanda Seyfried is my current 'it' actress.
This is nice, next week which equals tomorrow through next saturday, I only work three days! How you may ask? Well I was schedule five, which created that 11 days in a row I was supposed to work (mentioned earlier). I know my limits, and I knew it would be too much, so I gave a couple shifts away. I'm actually really excited for the time off. Hopefully can find things to do during them! Tuesday - I was supposed to come home for graduation, but it just didn't work out, so instead I bought a ticket to go see the Backstreet Boys at the Hard Rock at Universal. Very excited! Shall tell you all about it after, as I have the day after it off.
I don't really have much else to mention right now. I wish I could have come home for graduation and seen you all, I really miss everyone so so so much. I wish you could all come down here and visit me. Unfortunately, I know that won't happen. Though if you're interested, let me know and I'll book you a cheap hotel. And I have 6 days worth of maingate pass just sitting around that could get you in the park for free...
Oh well. Be warned that once I'm back, well not once, but soon after, I'm forcing my Dad to throw me a graduation/birthday shindig and everyone has to come. I'll buy a mickey eared grad cap and cross the backyard while everyone claps for me. K? Keep your calendars open. Probably labour day weekend, or the one before.
Love you all, miss you all.
Brynna
(Ps just bought the Spring Awakening soundtrack on itunes, so amazing. That's why I titled this blog that, it's a song from the musical. Soooo good. Plus it's true.)
posted by Unknown on
Saturday, May 29, 2010 § 0 comments
Okay, okay, I know it's been an eternity since I last updated. I'm truly sorry. I do have some good excuses though, and I will list them out for you now.
1) I've been extremely busy working. I'm not lying. I had six days of work straight, one day off, then two more days...until today, which I am off. And tomorrow. Then I have six more days...
2) My computer, my lovely tablet HP, decided it was through with me and stopped working on I think it might have been Sunday...maybe Monday. The days are blurring. Of course it decided to crap out just as I finished typing up a couple thousand word synopsis of Starkissed (novel I wrote) and I had no back up...
3) I haven't had alot to report. I mean work pretty much consumes my life, day in day out. But now I do have a few things, so listen up.
So from my last day off until the 18th, I did six days of work. Nothing really to report in there. Four of those days were training, one was my assessment, and one was an actual real working shift. I'm happy to report things are getting easier, but also hotter. On Sunday I think, I got sent home from my training shift because the heat made me so sick I started to throw up. Not so good. I'm still trying to handle it though. I don't really want to go make a stink about being outside and getting sick, but if it happens again, I probably will have to.
Wednesday was my day off. I didn't do much during the day. Hung around the apartment with my roommates and watched mindless television. But Wednesday night was awesome. Matt Hughes, myself, and my roommate Alex went to see Spring Awakening downtown at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre. It was amazing. I didn't really know too much about the play. I'd seen a bit from when they were doing it at the school in the first season of 90210 (btw I in no way beleive a highschool would ever allow their drama department to perform this play). I also knew Leach Michelle and Jonathan Groff of Glee originated the male and female lead roles. That one fact alone made me want to see it. I didn't really know what it was about though, or what the music was like.
First things first, I loved it I swear. But I also kinda disliked it. I'm wildly torn. The music was sensational. It was like being at a concert. The energy, the writing, and voices. I would go again and again just to hear those songs performed. Go download the soundtrack, everyone. You'll love it. Where I had issues was the plot, see for the first quarter of the play, I had no idea what was going on. It took me a long time to figure out the time period, location, everything...but once I did it was alright. It's basically a story of all these 18th century kids coming of age. Good stuff, some really funny stuff too. But the end didn't sit great with me.
I loved the songs.
So Thursday I didn't start work until 2pm. Just before I was supposed to leave, the new netbook I'd ordered on Amazon arrived. Thank god. Because I was really starting to go nuts without the internet.
Work was alright, nothing special.
Friday I worked again. Afterwards I met up with Elliot (coaster friend from back in the day) and we went to the Studios. I rode coaster for the first time since I arrived. I admit, I was full of bitter nostalgia. We met up with Ryan Morse backstage for a while, and then when we went to see Fantasmic we found Chase Mine and Jimmy Snell. Reunion circa 2006.
After Fantasmic Elliot and I went to the Ale House and met up with Jimmy and Ryan. We stayed there until 1am. Then it was back home and off to bed.
Today's been good. I went to Cast Connection and Property control and got some swell stuff. In particular this really funky bag that I love. It was there because it's got a stain on the front, but I barely noticed it. I got it for super cheap, so I'm thrilled!
Not sure what I'll do tonight. Thinking of going to see a movie. We'll see.
Nothing left to report. Lost finale tomorrow night, so I'm all a tizzy. Can't wait.
Brynna
posted by Unknown on
Saturday, May 22, 2010 § 1 comments
Work so far: The title says it all.
But I love my roommates, so it's mostly worth it.
Off today, thank god. Spent the day watching TV on Hulu and just relaxing as have barely had the chance to do so since I got here.
Another day off tomorrow, going to be seeing Joey. Can't wait.
That's all for now,
Brynna
posted by Unknown on
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 § 1 comments
Alright, now that I have a few minutes to sit down I guess I'll update this thing. So it's officially been one week and one hour since I departed Victoria. It's been one hell of a week, and it feels like I haven't been home in months, not just a week! It's just been such a packed week, I've barely had time to breathe, whereas at home I'm never ever busy like this. I'm not used to having somewhere to be ALL THE TIME.
Wednesday I had Traditions at Disney University. For those uninformed, it's a class Disney gives to all new Cast Members to learn the history of the company. Unfortunately because i'm qualified College Program, this version of Traditions was severely abreviated. In 2006 on my first program, I attended an 8 hour class. Wednesdays was 4 hrs, and we spent an hour of it over Magic Kingdom for a pointless 10 minute excercise. So basically in 06 I had 8 hrs of learning and this year, 3 hrs. Anyways, the good parts of Traditions are that we finally got our Disney ID's that get us into the parks, as well as our new nametags.
After class, we headed home and changed, then a group of us went to the Magic Kingdom. The nice part of Orlando in early May is that it isn't really busy. Most rides were 10 minute waits at the most. We made it on to Pirates, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Philharmagic, and Space Mountain all in the span of only a few hours.
At around 530 we (Alex, my roommate, and I) headed back to Vista Way and met up with our other roomies Vicky and Emily (two very nice British girls) and we all got ready along with a couple other Brits for that nights big College Program Formal. Unfortunately we didn't know about this thing until like two days before, and with orientation and what not, no time to shop. So I wore a brown sundress which wasn't very formal at all. It was held at the convention centre at Coronodo Springs and the room we were in was massive. Football field length and width, in the least. There were probably thousands of us there. They had a DJ, a ton of catered food, characters, and a 'Vegas Room' .
It was pretty fun and the food wasn't bad at all. It was kind of like being at Prom again, except it was a bit nicer. We were all quite tired from being up so early for Traditions so we headed back to Vista around 11pm and went to bed.
The next day was my only day off this week. I ended up tagging along with Vicky, Emily, and a group of others to Animal Kingdom. It was a pretty good day. We got on It's Tough to be a Bug, Everest, Safari, Dinosaur, and Primevil Whirl. I'm going to be working Outdoor Foods at AK so I spent a fair amount of time staring at carts and bemoaning the hot weather. On the bright side, at least most of the carts had fans.
After the park, we headed back to Vista and I met Matt and his roommate for Dinner at a place called Cracker Barrell. Then home and to bed.
This brings us to yesterday. I had an orientation class to Animal Kingdom called DAKlimations. It was basically like a power point presentation on the park followed by a walking tour, and then lunch and a trip to costuming to get our costumes. It was an alright day. The park is huge so walking the entire thing was a task. Especially in dress pants. I looked a mess by the end of the thing.
My costume isn't terrible, it's basically a pair of khaki shorts and a khaki shirt (although the color is refered to as Peanut Butter).
After DAKlimations headed home and showered, then realized I'd grabbed the wrong size shorts - funny thing about Disney, just because two pairs of shorts are technically the same size, they really aren't the same size. They can fit way different. So after lamenting the fact I had to return to costuming eventually, I headed to Wal-Mart to get some brown shoes for work, and some groceries as well. Got home around 7 and was in bed by 9.
Today I had a three hour class at Disney University for Food Service. It wasn't really anything new and was a bit slow, but I got out of there by 1130 so it didn't eat up my entire day. After I got home, I had lunch and then headed to costuming again and got the right shorts. Then back to Vista where I hung out the rest of the afternoon. A little while ago I met Matt and Brendan (both whom I met at Coaster in 06 btw) and we had dinner at Chik-Fil-A. And that brings me to now.
Not much else to report. I have training tomorrow at 8am and really am not liking these super early mornings. The DAK bus is so lengthy that I have to get up way earlier than when I did working at Coaster. Sigh.
My next days off are Tuesday, Wednesday. Looks like I might finally get to see Joey so that's awesome!
Alright, going to go hulu some more shows then try and sleep.
Brynna
posted by Unknown on
Saturday, May 08, 2010 § 1 comments
Sorry no update yesterday, it was a long, mostly uneventful day and by the end of it I was far too tired to put finger to key and write anything. So a brief rundown, yesterday morning we had orientation over at The Commons, 3 hrs of boredom. After this, we returned to Vista for lunch, then had more orientation stuff in the afternoon. Pretty slow going.
Once the orientation stuff was done, I headed back to my apartment and spent some time catching up on TV through the blessed Hulu. Best part of the USA. Well close to it. Last night my roommate Alex, me, and a handful of other ICPS went to downtown Disney for dinner. We ate at the new T-Rex restaurant which was pretty awesome. Very cool theme. In case any of you have eaten at rainforest cafe, it's pretty much the exact same but with dinosaurs.
After dinner we headed back to Vista and I went to bed.
Now for today, started out the morning with more orientation and paperwork over at The Commons. Thankfully it was a bit shorter than yesterday. Returned to Vista after a couple hours and watched last nights episode of CHUCK on Hulu. BTW people, if you're not waching Chuck, you should be. So good.
This afternoon was when we went and found out where we'll be working. I don't know much but I know that I'm outdoor foods at Animal Kingdom. Not too sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I'm releived I'm in a park, and I'll never have to work late because the park closes for the most part of the summer by 8pm. The downside? Well for one, it's foods. And I'm not exactly thrilled by that aspect already. Another, well outdoor is the key word here. If you've ever looked at me, you know that any prolonged exposure to heat and sun on my part is a bad idea. I'm prone to heat and sunstroke. It'll be like a game, trying to guess when the first time I pass out will be.
So that's the gist of everything. I must admit this whole thing has me a bit melancholy. I'm happy to be here, I am, but without attractions, I'm just kind of down. Hopefully the job will be alright though. And of course the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens in just 1.5 months. Enough reason to be here.
Brynna
posted by Unknown on
Tuesday, May 04, 2010 § 0 comments
So it's been about three years since I last posted to this blog. I kind of went back and forth, trying to decide whether to use my newer blog, an absolute new blog, or this blog to record my summer. This blog won because the other one is not Disney enough and I'm too lazy to go make a brand new 'Disney World' blog.
So here is the deal. In 2006 and 2007 I participated in Walt Disney World's International Summer College Program. Both summers I had the time of my life and worked at the Rock'n Rollercoaster in MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios). So after a nearly three year absense from my beloved WDW (not including two vacations I took in '08) I've finally returned to Disney as a Cast Member and in three days I'll officially have my nametag. Unfortunately I wasn't able to snag another attractions role, which believe me, devestated enough, so I'm working Quick Service Food and Beverage. Something I'm not entirely thrilled about, but hey, at least I'm here.
I left Victoria yesterday at 3:04pm on United flight 6055. 1.5 hours later I landed in San Fransico, endured a two hour stop over (where I ate a giant bowl of soup for dinner), and then jumped on another plane that took me to Los Angeles. Not such a fan of LAX. The airport is loud, crowded, and kind of outdated. The waiting area at my gate didn't have nearly enough seats and I couldn't find an outlet anywhere to plug my computer in. I ended up buying Chex Mix and a neck pillow and chilling until my flight finall boarded around 10pm. My flight from LA to Orlando was just short of five hours, and as hard as I tried, I barely slept at all. All in all, I probably garnered about 2 hours of rest. I had a window seat, not my first choice. I much prefer the aisle. Especially condsidering the two girls beside me fell asleep cutting off my access to the bathroom. Not that I had to go, but the minute you can't go, it's all you think about.
Anyways, my flight touched down at MCO just after 6am. I collected my luggage and then met up with two other ICPer's to grab some breakfast before catching a shuttle to Vista Way at 730am. We arrived at VW at exactly 8am and were told we were the first ICPs to arrive. It was nice not to have to deal with lines or anything, and it's kind of cool to be first! After being given our forms and apartment keys, we were driven off to our new homes. I'm in Apartment 412 at Vista Way. It's a top floor apartment, which is new to me as the past two programs I did, I was in bottom floor apartments. I'll post pictures eventually, but for a quick run down, it's a two bedroom (meaning I only have 3 roomies, as opposed to 5 the last two times) and both bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms! The living room is bright because of the giant windows, and the kithen is a bit tiny and outdated, but usable. Another plus, it seems they've replaced the living room carpets with laminate...or maybe it's wood, so that looks really nice. And is so much easier to clean.
I spent most of my morning in a hazy sleepy state. I unpacked my bags, set up my wireless router, and did a bit of interneting before crawling into my bed (which I comprised using a towel, a tiny Harry Potter fleece blanket, and decorative cushion I stole from a couch back home). I think I grabbed another couple hours sleep in total. I finally woke up at 1230pm (930am home time) and had a shower, brushed my teeth, and put on some of my new "Florida" clothes. I stepped outside briefly and was reaquainted with the midday Florida heat. It's not even as hot as it's going to get this summer and I'm already hiding in my air conditioned apartment.
It's almost three now and I'm waiting for Alex (who I met during my 2007 program) to get to Vista. Looks like housing listened to our begging and she's one of my new roommates!
No idea what the plan is for tonight. A trip to Wal-Mart is imminent, and perhaps dinner at Downtown Disney.
Until tomorrow,
Brynna
posted by Unknown on
Sunday, May 02, 2010 § 1 comments