Hakuna Matata

That has been the motto to remember this past week.

Let me start off with my apologizes to those who have been wondering where I have been lately.
I have been trying to write a blog every day for the past week!  Everyday has just been so busy, but I finally have two days off and I am sitting down and writing one! (And once again...it's a novel! Enjoy!)

Tuesday, March 19th:  
This was our move in day!  I wont lie, it was an emotionally exhausting day.  I had to say goodbye to our family friends who we stayed with for a week.  My parents and I headed to sign in at disney housing.  I was super nervous when I got there but was kindly welcomed by the Disney family (I mean that literally, everyone was so kind and welcoming.  The lady who brought me to my apartment greeted me with a big hug).  Right as I was about to leave the office at the Vista Way complex (Disney housing has 4 different apartment complexes.  Vista Way, The Commons, Chatham Square and Patterson Court) when I had ran into Emily (a fellow Canadian I had been talking to over facebook who was at the same interview and happened to be the other only Canadian with the same start date as myself) and found out we were roommates!  We headed over to Chatham Square (the apartment complex where we are living) and unpacked.  My parents took us to Walmart and we got groceries, my phone and other things.  I have to say Walmart's in the states are huge!  It's lucky my parents drove us, our cart was over flowing!  We came back and unloaded the groceries, then came the dreaded part.  I had to say goodbye to my parents.  It was difficult, but since I have already lived on my own before it didn't as bad.  Since our other roommates (I have three other roommates all together) hadn't arrived yet, Emily and I had spaghetti and watched Alice in Wonderland.  It was also and early night for us, we wen't to bed at 10pm (which was when Elli, my other roommate from England, arrived).

Wednesday, March 20th:
The first day of orientation.  The first thing we did was get our I.D cards for accessing the complexes and busses.  Emily and I came home for a bit and had met our other roommate, Ronja from Norway.  Later we had a meeting about the complex community.  So we learnt about events and different things disney and the apartments have to offer.  Not too much happened on this day.

Thursday, March 21st:
Today we had more orientation.  This was a little more intense then Wednesday, it was all about the rules and paperwork which all started at 8am.  It was exhausting.  Later a bunch of us went to Downtown Disney, it was a lot of fun!  They had a dance circle and we all joined in and danced for about 2 hours!  We headed home around 10pm and that's when I started to feel a little iffy.  But my night wasn't over.  Emily and I headed over to Patterson for our "Throw In" party (Its where all the Canadians welcome the new ones).  Since there was only two of us who were new, it felt a little awkward because all the attention was on just us (which I'm not really use to so I felt super awkward) but everyone was so fully of energy and  extremely welcoming.

Friday, March 22nd:
I was so happy that today was our day off!  I ended up getting sick and having a fever, so today I literally spent the day in bed.  I did nothing but watch Friends, sleep and make a couple phone/skype calls.

Saturday, March 23rd:
An early morning start!  All the new cast members headed down to Disney University for Traditions.  We learnt about the overall rules, safety and information about Walt Disney World.  We also got to head down to the Magic Kingdom for a quick tour and observation.  I ended up getting a horrible migraine when we came back that lasted for a good 2 or 3 hours, so I didn't really have as good of a time at Traditions as others might have.  But we got are name tags and Disney I.D's and became official cast members!

My Name Tag! 

Sunday, March 24th and Monday, March 25th:

Both Sunday and Monday we're spent doing online safety and restaurant courses.  And on Monday we also met our manager, Carrie.  She went over the regulations of the restaurant and explained what kind of things we will be doing and why Le Cellier is so popular (It's the second most popular fine dining restaurant in all of Walt Disney World.  The wait time to get in is about 6 months!).  She then answered any questions with us and gave us a booklet about the different positions, the menu and different wines to help us learn more about what we need to learn.  

Tuesday, March 26th:

It was discovery day today.  That means we got a tour of Epcot and a tour through our pavilion.  We also got our costumes today!  For the Canadians we have two costumes (we are the only pavilion to have two costume.  One for outdoors and one for in the restaurant).  As well as we got our badges to show that we are in training or as Disney likes to say "Earning our Ears". 

My costume is for outside at the popcorn vendor 

and Emily is wearing the Le Cellier costume.

I'm finally "Earning My Ears"!

Wednesday, March 27th and Thursday, March 28th:

Both days I had off and I start training on Friday.  Wednesday I went to Hollywood Studios with some friends.  Let me give you a tip....Disney during the American spring break is extremely crazy busy!  We were there from 2pm till about 6:30pm and we were only able to go on 3 rides!  It was so busy that even the fast-passes weren't available anymore!  Still a pretty good day.  And today (Thursday) I went and had a fast lunch with my friend Mat and did a quick walk around Epcot (almost met Snow White) before he had to go to work.  Then I came home and got caught up on my laundry (it was pretty bad haha) and wrote this blog!  Tonight might be an early night because I want to be well rested for the big day tomorrow!  

I think I will leave it at that...I hope it gave you a little insight to what I have been doing so far. I've also have been trying to write down things that I wish people had mentioned to me before I came down to prepare me better...so I will at some point write a blog about all of that.  I will also hopefully doing a room tour once I become a little more settled in.

Till next time,

-Janice

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

-Walt Disney

Hello from the Sunshine State

That's right!  I made it to sunny Florida! 

After seven and a half hours of driving yesterday we made crossed the border of Georgia into Florida.  We still had to drive another four hours to where we are staying and ended up driving a total of eleven hours.  Let me just say, driving a total of twenty-two hours in two days is exausting! I wasn't even driving and I was tired!

Last night my parents, our family friends (who are kindly letting us stay the week with them!) and I just relaxed by the pool. Nothing too interesting to talk about. Today was a little more active. I went to a bank down here and set up an american bank account (this was slightly stressful because I didn't have an american address, phone number or social security number yet), later we all went out to an Orange Grove that was ownd by Florida's Natural (popular orange juice brand) and learned about the history of the company and how they make the orange juice (we even got some free samples! Yumyum!).

It was a pretty big factory!

After a visit to the orange groves, we headed over to a little reastaraunt called Woody's. We all ordered the baby back ribs, which were AMAZING (almost as good as Logan's...mmm). I also took a picture of my drink because the drink sizes down here are HUMUNGUS! I've been going to Florida for eleven years and I still can't get over how large their drink sizes are!

It was seriously huge!!!  

About the length of my face!

I'm also trying to get back into a workout schedule, so after dinner I went for a ten minute jog.  After tonight, my new goal is to beable to run ten minutes without needing to slow down and breath.  I feel so out of shape!  But it did feel good to get out and run.

Before I forget, you all must be wondering about the weather.  Well, today was about 65-70degrees F, windy and rainy (however, I would take this before the freazing cold and snow!).  Tomorrow is suppose to be hot and sunny. 

I guess that's going to be all for now.

Until my next entry,
-Janice

P.S:  To all those Canadians who started their first day in Epcot today, I hope it went well (and I hope it wasn't too hecktic with it being March Break!)



"Laughter is timeless.
Imagination has no age.
And Dreams are forever."
-Walt Disney

On the Road

It has been a very long day, but I'm officially just a day away from Florida!
The past month I have been doing so much; packing, getting paperwork and seeing friends and family one more time.  It's amazing how fast the time went.  Now here I am half way to Florida and starting a new chapter in my life.

My morning today started at 5am where I woke up, quickly got ready (well as quickly as I could while still half asleep and extremely uncoordinated ) and said goodbye to my babies (Leonard and Sheldon, my beautiful rats).  My parents and I left our place around 6am.  We got to the Detroit border around 10/10:30am and we had to stop so I could get my visa papers stamped.  I don't know why, but I always feel so intimidated when crossing the border (especially when you have to go into the building and answer a bunch of questions).  I guess it's because the officers there carry themselves with power and intensity.  But my papers are stamped and I am officially a legal alien! (I prefer "Temporary American".  But, I have to say, it is fun to tell people you're an alien.)

Not too much happened after we crossed the border, we drove for about 6 more hours and drove through Ohio and made it to the end of Kentucky.  We are now about two hours from the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.  It is currently 70°F (well it's cooled down a bit since it's evening now but it was!), finally my kind of weather!  Tomorrow we have to go through the rest of Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.  Georgia, like Ohio, is going to feel like it's never ending.  But this time tomorrow, I will be in beautiful, sunny Florida!

Once I get there, I will be doing nothing but relaxing!!  After two years, of working non stop (either in school or work) I FINALLY get a relaxing vacation and think about nothing!

That's about it for now, just a little info about my travels so far.

TTFN, tata for now!
-Janice



"Think of all the joy you'll find
When you leave the world behind
And bid your cares good-bye"
-Peter Pan

It's the Final Countdown!

That's right!  The countdown is on!  I leave for Florida in 9 days!

Let me just tell you, I feel like a chicken running around with it's head chopped off.  Although I'm slightly nervous about moving down there for a year and trying to enjoy the last couple of day of being in Canada, I can NOT wait till all the prep work and packing is OVER and I am relaxing in the hot sun!

In the past two weeks I have been trying to:
.  Gather all the documents I need for my arrival at Disney
.  Renew my health insurance (so I don't loose it since I'm out of the country for over 219 days)
.  Get travel insurance (which my mom was able to help me out with a while ago, so no problems with that one)
.  Go to doctors/dentist appointments (so I don't have to go to any when I'm in Florida....unless something happens..lets hope not)
.  See as many friends as possible
.  Pack
.  Get rid of things I don't need anymore
.  Renew my drivers licence (but apparently you cant renew your licence until its exactly 6 months or less till the expiry date....and I'm a week over 6 months...which really sucks)
.  Switch to a new bank that has branches in the states so I can access my money in the sates

Also once I get to Florida I have to:
.  Open a U.S bank account (so I can do easy transfers when I'm down there)
.  Get a new phone plan (and possibly new phone)

Once I have frequent access to the internet again I will start posting entries at least two times a week.
And unless I drop by the library before I leave, this might possibly be my last entry before I leave Canada.  It's getting real!

Until next time,
Janice



"In dreams you will loose your heartaches.  Whatever you wish for you keep."
-Cinderella, Cinderella