Ok I got behind again...

Well I got a little behind again, I guess late nights and early mornings will do that. I'm going to do my best to sum up the last 4 days, the last two will be fairly short/easy to remember but I'm sorry Sunday and Monday will be a little off since they seem ages ago.

Saturday June 24 2006

Early morning today as mentioned at the end of my last entry. I ended up getting up at 5 AM for my Food and Beverage basic training. This wasn't very long but it was boring. THe first hour and a half was in a class room where we were introduced to Food and Beverage in general, watched a few movies, answered a few questions and watched a couple little role plays. It was a little tougher to stay awake in this class and one guy from Norway did fall asleep. When that was over we went up to a computer lab where we had to do about five online self directed classes, when we were done we could leave. About halfway though the classes (which were about things such as safety, guest interaction, food temperatures, etc.) I decided it was time to wake me up a bit and walked downstairs to a vending machine to get a snack (we were free to dictate our own breaks here). I can't remember what time I actually finished, but the longest we could have was until 11:30 and I was back in my room at that time.

I used my small window of freedom to begin catching up on my pictures (which to note are currently up to date. I will have more tomorrow and probably Saturday as well since they're both days off). After a little bit of work there I headed off to Wal Mart to get my work shoes. I did want to save this for another day but I needed them on Monday and the busses don't run on Sundays. When I got home I continued working on my pictures and got everything up to Thursday online and up to Friday ready to go. It was about this time Jei came over and me Jei, Christine and Mara went to the Disney/MGM studios again.

When we arrived at the Studios we went to try to ride the 'Rock-N-Rollercoaster but it had a huge line, and all the fastpasses were gone so we turned around and headed across the park to the backlot tour (which me and Christine has missed the last time we were at the park). It was kinda cool to see a lot of the props from a few different movies, yet at the same time I remember from my previous trip down here that it was a much longer experience then what we got on Saturday. When we left the tram we were all feeling a bit hungry but I was feeling sick (had a sore throat all day nothing too serious). We tried to go to the Sci Fi Cafe but it was basically reservation only so we then moved on to try a 50's diner (whos actual name escapes me). We still had a 20-30 minute wait for our table but that was fine.

The restaurant was pretty cool, it was designed to look like a steriotypical house in the 1950's. The servers had the house rules such as no elbows on the table, and it was a pretty cool atmosphere. Anway due to my throat I settled for a milkshake and a bowl of chicken noodle soup. We tried to rush out of the restaurant a bit because we wanted to catch the Rock-N-Rollercoaster while Fantasmic was on, we unfortunatly missed that window and had to fight our way through the crowds (that were heading out), but still didn't have too long of a wait at the ride. After the ride we all went back home, but Jei was feeling quite homesick so she came over to our place for a bit before she went back to her complex.

Sunday June 25 2006

Since I didn't have my real Epcot orientation and tour for a full week after I started work, I got John (who works in the World Showcase in Canada) to show me around Epcot today. We started off by going on the quite boring Spaceship Earth. To the uninformed this ride takes place inside of the Epcot "Ball" (or golf ball as I refer to it), and is really nothing more than one of those moving sidewalks that you have a chair for. After that we went to Test Track and grabbing a Fast Pass. Once we had those we headed over to Mission Space which is a ride a few people (with undiagnosed health problems) have died on reciently. Since I wasn't sure if I had any undiagnosed problems (and thought there was a history of heart problems in my family) I chose the new tamer version while John, Christine, and Mara went on the original version. The ride was pretty cool, the tame version is nothing more than a simulator ride, while the original version spins you around constantly to produce G forces on you. When the ride was over I realised I probably could have handled it since I used to ride the Gravatron so much and that didn't bug me. Oh well next time I'll know better.

At this point we headed across to "The Land" pavilion to ride Sorin' (Sorin' Over California for those of you who are familiar with the Anaheim attraction). It allready had an hour wait so again we grabbed Fast Passes. It was then off to the nearby Living Seas pavilion which is home to Turtle Talk with Crush (from Finding Nemo). The line for Turtle Talk was huge so we started to look at the aquariems a bit while we waited for Le Cellier (In the Canada pavilion) to open so we could go for lunch. We saw quite a few fishes, a dolphin, some rays, sharks, and a turtle. I also found out certified divers can dive in that tank.

After our walkthrough of the Living Seas we began the treck to Canada our first stop on the World Showcase. Of couse Le Cellier opens at 11:30 for lunch and it was about 11:10 at this point. We went in to see if we could put our name down (Since John works there it wouldn't have been much of a problem), however no one was around yet. John figured we'd have about 10 minutes so we began to explore Canada. Right outside of Le Cellier is the Victoria Gardens which were inspired by the Buchart Gardens in Victoria. We exited them and saw possible futre work locatiosn for me (if I get my call for the year program). There was an out door merchendice cart, and the outdoor popcorn/beer cart. We headed up some stairs to a set of totem poles an into the main merchendice shop.

This shop had a wide varity of typical Canadain things. There was some NHL merch but apparently we only have the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadains, and Vancouver Canucks up here... there was also come Chocolate bars brought in from Canada (I could tell because of the English and French packaging), some Roots gear, maple syrup, etc. Sterotypical Canadain things. We headed out the back entrance and found ourselfs outside the Hotel de Canada (I think thats it's name) which is inspired by a hotel in Quebec. Behind the Hotel (which I don't believe Guests could enter) was the Rockey Mountains. Here you would head down a set of stairs to a small creek running through the rocky walls. This area also proved as an entrace to the O Canada movie which has a 360 degree screen. We did not go to the movie. We walked through the ravine which brought us back out by the entrance of Le Cellier. At this point we could put our names down for a table and hugn out in the restaurant.

The food here was quite good, and appently is expensive if you go for supper since it is a steakhouse. According to John they use Alberta beef but I dunno for sure. I ended up ordering a Calgary Chicken Sandwhich which was a chicken breast with BBQ sauce and Canadian bacon (might've had some cheese as well I can't remember as I didn't taste it if it did) which I though was pretty worthy of the Calgary Stampede (just needed the Bullseye BBQ sauce). We then began to walk through the showcase. We didn't spend much time in the UK, but stopped in France to watch the movie there. John had a nap if that tells you anything about it, and continued on our journey. I can't remember the order of the next 5 countries, I think next was Morocco where we explored the shops a bit but didn't do much else, and then Japan which had a really cool shop with a lot of weird Japanese things I recognised (back scratchers with golf ball shaped massages on the end for example). I picked up a little Japanese candy and we continued on past the American Adventure into Germany and Italy where it started to rain in one of the countrys and we spend a lot of time exploring the shops.

When the rain stopped (or at least slowed down quite a bit) we continued on past the African Outpost, and China to Norway where there was an attraction to ride. At this point I began talking to Jei about plans for the evening since she was finishing her basic F&B training. After the Norway ride we went on the Mexican ride, and then used our fast pass for Sorin. Our final stop in Epcot was Test Track to use our fast pass and it was beginning to rain again. Apperantly Test Track dosn't opperate in the rain so we were a little anxious hoping to get the ride in. We got on the ride and breathed a sigh of relief but it was short lived... part way through the initial interior section of the ride the brakes slammed on and we came to a stop. We then proceded slowly through the ride spoiling any and all surprises for me until we got outside where the ride resumed normal speed until the finish. It was unfortunate but I'll have to ride it again in sunny weather now.

Anyway my phone was almost out of minutes so I told Jei we were leaving Epcot and to come over so we could figure out the night. When we arrived she was allready here so we hung out for a bit and figured we'd go to Downtown Disney so I could get a new phone card, before we headed back to Epcot to ride Test Track and view the preview of the 4th of July Fireworks. She then got upset at one of my roomates, told me she was sick, and was going to go home and have a nap. I figured out how to get a little money on my phone until I can make another trip and finished working on my pictures. While I was doing that Mattieu decided he was going to invite Jei and my roomate she was upset with to a movie (along with Jeis roomate who he likes). I felt a little dejected she jumped at the chance after cancelling with me to have a nap but what can you do. That left 3 of us in the apartment and we were going a little stir crazy so me and Wattkins called a cab and headed off to Wal Mart to get our TV and a Wireless router. Turned into a long and boring trip but wow what a difference those two pieces of technology make in the room! ANyway we sat around and watched a few shows such as Family Guy and Robot Chicken (I'd never seen this before but it had the same randomness I like from Family Guy). I ended up going to bed before Mattieu and Jared got home from the movie, but I was still awake when they got home. Apparently they went out for supper and then to Pleasure Island to the clubs. So I was a bit upset because Jei was too sick to watch the fireworks (which she wanted to) but wasn't too sick to go out dancing. Ah well no big deal...

Monday June 26 2006

Monday was set to be my first day of work, with me getting off early enough to go to the Magic Kingdom for fireworks. Anyway I got to work a little early and just sat and waitied. We started off by getting our costumes (only one pair of shorts there to fit me which wasn't cool). Then heading to some classrooms to do a few more training classes (Hazardous Materials, and Alcohol serving). We then headed off to Out Door Foods base (which was the next part of our training/tours). While we were there the skys opened up and didn't let up for hours. After an hour and a half they decided to cut our training off for the day and we all headed back to our residences. Jei was having her discovery day that day (the tour I don't get until the following monday), so she came over in her costume to show it off. Dosn't look bad, and my future in the Canada pavilions looking bright.

I was looking forward to the fireworks but it was raining pretty hard and it was calling for rain until 1 AM, so we came up with a backup plan of goign to see Cars or Click (both of which Jei wanted to see). She pulled out pictures from the previous night at Pleasure Island which was again frustrating for me, before Jared invited her to join him at the Studios with a bus leaving in 5 minuts. She jumped (literly) at the chance inviting me along. I was slightly frustrated since in less than a week she'd changed her plans with me 4 times for Jared and this would also be the 3rd time in the week that I was going to the Studios (it's fun but it isn't that exciting of a park...) and my body language showed it on the bus. Jei asked me what was wrong, I told her and she wasn't up for a park at all anymore that night. At this point the skys had cleared up and I decided I was going to the MK to see the fireworks like I wanted and Jei decided she was going home. We left Jared and Chrstine in the park and went back to the bus. I texted Matt Chan who was going to join us and told him I'd meet him at Vista Way (his apartment complex). We then went to the Magic Kingdom where I saw the Fireworks, a 3d movie called Mickey's Philharmagic and went on the Buzz Lightyear ride. We then left the parks where I came home and crashed.

Tuesday June 27 2006

Today was a long day but was short eventwise. First I got up early to head to the Vista credit union branch to set up my bank account. This didn't take long and apparently it'll be 2-3 weeks before I actually get my account, I do have the paperwork needed to cash paycheques until then though. I then came back to Chatham for a bit then turned around and left again because I wanted to go to Epcot early enough to buy a Pirates of the Caribbian pin set and check costuming for new shorts. I manged to get my pins, and unfortunatly there was no new shorts. I then got changed and proceded to ODF base for my shift on a popcorn cart just off the World Showcase lagoon. We had to wheel out our cart full of pop and a few other supplies and then we began setting up.

This wasn't as bad as I thought it wasn't overly busy yet at the same time, time flew by. It was an 8.5 hour shift and we ended up getting a 60 minute break in the middle. We also had a pretty decient view of the fireworks. We sold popcorn in boxes or souvineer buckets, coke, diet coke, sprite, small or large bottles of water, Budweiser, or Bud Light and a neck strap for the pop bottles. Pretty uneventful and rain kept a lot of our business away so we had a lot of stock to count at night. There was two of us training here so we were able to do it pretty easily, yet we still ended up leaving about 45 minutes late at 11:15... I came home to see my Quebecois roomates having a small party which was fine I went on my laptop for a bit before crashing in bed.

Wednesday June 28 2006

Today was similar to Monday only I worked earlier but with a longer shift. 10.5 hours long! I still got up early and left early to get a special 2006 Canada Day pin as well as check costuming for shorts. Today I was in luck there was maybe 6 or 7 shorts my size so I grabbed 3 pairs of random lengths, so long as the waist fits I don't care so much as to how long they are. They're all pretty close in length though so it's not a huge deal. Todays shift was on a roatsed nut cart near the world showcase lagoon, just past where my popcorn cart was. This cart didn't reqire us to wheel out any sections of it, we just had to wheel out a few supplies, unlock everything and begin making nuts. These nuts are roasted with cinimin and sugar, for about 20 minutes so they have a small glaze to them, and you have a choice of Pecans or Almonds. We sold all the same stock as the previous carts (except for the popcorn). We also had six varities of ice cream and two different types of frozed lemonaid. Today there was 3 of us training on the cart though so that made it a bit easier. I didn't like it as much as popcorn but it was very similar. It started raining and due to close lightning someone made a (rare) decision to close all of the carts in the park. They were suddenely quite busy in the back as all that stock started to appear. We still had to close down and clean like we did the previous night and the three of us training were happy to be leaving early, but not just yet we had some paperwork to fill out and somehow were rangeled into filling bags of ice for tomorrow (today's now) carts. It wasn't all that bad but it was still nice to get home.

It seems pretty much everyone I know seems to hate their jobs which is part of the reason for the party tonight and for my other roomates moping around a bit tonight. I guess in that since I don't have it too bad. Anyway I sat up for a bit with them on my lap top watching TV before I was too tired and headed off to bed.

It's currently about 11:30 in the morning and I have another 2-10:30 shift today on The Land cart which is apparently hotter inside than the surronding environment. However it is an indoor cart (I think) so that means little to no sun will be on me and from what I understand the only food item we sell is pretzals so it should be too bad of a day. We do have Slurpies, pop, cappichino and beer so it'll be beverage central, which I'd prefer to a varity of foods. Tomorrow me and Shannan from the haunted mansion) are going to spend most of the day at the Animal Kingdom park, and Canada day I also have off work but I'm still not 100% sure what my plans will be for that day.

See told you I'd try to be better....

Woo I'm actually updating my blog today about... TODAY! It was a long day and tomorrows an early morning so again I may skimp a few unimportant details (if you want more info contact me I think my contact info is around somewhere here).

Today started early because I had a few things to do before the 11:45 am bus to Traditions. I decided last night while typing my blog I was going to get up at 8 and head for a quick swim in the Chatham pool. Just as nice as it was when I arrived but no one was in it. I didn't stay long before coming home to get showered for my next morning adventure (and the main reason I had to get up before traditions).

When I got my Chatham ID, apparently someone forgot to laminate it and for the past two days everytime I touched it (ie to board a bus or enter a housing property) I basically erased something. I found out yesterday I had to travel to Vista (probably a 20 min or less bus ride) just to get a new one. Since I wanted this before traditions that left this morning for me to make the trip. It was pretty uneventful, like going to get your drivers liscence, and thankfully I got home and had some time to relax before heading off to Traditions. I did some tinkering with my pictures to attempt to make them work better but am still not ready to try (I'm actually thinking tomorrow my picture site SHOULD work).

Anyway about 11:15ish I got in my suit to go to Traditions (needed formal wear). Thankfully it didn't seem that hot out when I went off to the bus. All of us new people had a special charter bus to the Disney University for this class and it was interesting to see the what some people considered professional attire, yet none were turned away (as you would be if you aren't dressed appropriate), at least none that I saw...

Anyway our traditions was a 4 hour course, and apparently it's usually an 8 hour course so I feel privlidaged (I'm sure that's spelt wrong...)! Traditions was basically our first work day, meaning I am going to get paid for it! In a nut shell traditions is a course that EVERY employee at Disney has to take before starting work. It's a basic training course (Safety, policies, etc.) combined with a history of the company. It started off interesting but got a little dry when we entered the topic of the policies. One cool thing is that some people got little figurienes when the answered a question correctly. My whole table got one each, and not to toot my own horn it was mostly because of me.

What we had to do was we had 90 seconds to list as many animated Disney characters as possilbe, and my group actually won by 3 with 38 different characters. My group elected me to be "captain" so I got to write down the names... good choice because I just flew without a lot of input for the team (but not to take all their credit they did each help out while I was going). It wasn't the neatest writing but spelling didn't count. The list we came up with was Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Chip (chipmunk), Dale, Belle, Beast, Chip (cup from Beauty and the Beast), Mrs. potts, Auroa, Snow White, Sleepy, Grumpy, Dopy, Doc, Sneezy (yes only 5/7), Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, Timon, Pumba, Jafar, Aladdin, Jafar (yes I listed him twice but he only counted once), Iago, Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Duey, Louie, Alice, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, Mike (Monsters Inc), Sulley, Boo, Nemo, Lightning McQueen.

My strategy involved picking one movie and writing every character I could think of as fast as I could and the second I got stuck I'd pick a new movie. My teamates helped by calling naming characters that I didn't have and that helped me pick a new movie. So we got our little figurines and I dunno what I was looking at when they arrived but when I looked down two people had grabbed the Goofy's, and one had grabbed Simba leaving me with Minnie Mouse. Now this isn't bad at all but out of the 3 types to choose from she is my least favorite. Oh well I got something out if it and it still is cool in that sense.

Also while at traditions in one of the two breaks they gave us I went to Company D (a Disney Castmember only store) to buy a lanyard for both my Chatham ID and my Disney ID. Along with getting our Disney ID at Traditions we also got our name tags, which a picutre of will appear in my pictues when I get the time to figure out whats going on with them).

Once traditions was over I was in a big hurry to get back to Chatham because a large group of us was going to the Magic Kingdom. It turned out that we were going to have about 45 minutes at chatham before we left so I called Jei (who got a Florida cell today) and both her and her roomate Amanda came over to join us since the bus to Magic Kingdom dosn;t leave from their housing complex. Seven of us made the trip, Me, Jei, Amanda, Jared, Matt, Wilkins and Christine. When we arrived we met up with John and began heading over to The Jungle Cruise to see if Louisa was working (someone that they know better than me who's on a program.)

Whe we arrived it turned out she was working and running a boat today which would have been cool but we decided to pass on waiting in line, with the potential to wait another 10-15 minutes for her boat... Maybe next time. We then moved on to Splash Mountain where we decided to get Fast Passes and end our night with, and went to Big Thunder Mountain.

Now this was Amanda's first time at any Disney park so I think this was a good ride for her to experience as a first ride. It wasn't a very long wait and is longer than the one in Anaheim for sure. When it was finished we met Matt Chan and his roomate Matt (yes that makes 3 matts in the group.......) and headed off to The Haunted Mansion to see Shanan and ride the ride. She was working up front in a position I believe is called greeter (too bad I wanted to ride in her stretching room ah well). After a quick chat we headed into the ride which is slightly different (I think maybe a bit longer) than the one in Anaheim... the outside of the building is definatly different!

Anyway after this we figured Space Mountain would be a good bet, since there was a parade starting so we headed off across the park to experience it. We got seperated and Me, Amanda, Matheiu, and Willkins were on our own. In my rocket Jei was in front, with me in the middle and Wilkins in the back... Jei was almost more entertaining than the ride itself! We were then offered (by matts roomate who was unloading) another ride so back we went and were on before we knew it. This time I got the front of my rocked and I rather enjoyed that seat.

After our two space mountain times we decided to head to Splash Mountain to use our fastpasses, and this is where Matt Chan and his roomate bid us goodbye. It was about this time our fast passes became active however the parade was just ending by splash mountain thus there was still a mad mob... we got in pretty quickly though, and luckily there was 8 of us, perfect for the 8 person log.

THe Wishes fireworks started while we were on the ride so that was quite cool to see, well from what little we could see of it, but I'm sure you can all guess what that ment for our park exit plans..... Anyway John and me were thinking about buying the picture and it was cool looking so we did. We got two prints for about 8 bucks each which was a pretty good deal (smaller than normal but a normal sice one is currently 17 bucksish!), and everyone started their treck to the exit of the park.

Of course it was about this time the fireworks ended and when we reached mainstreet we hit a major traffic jam. John was going to stay with Christine and Jared, so the rest of us headed off to move slowly through the crowd. When we reached the main enterance somehow we noticed Christine and Jared ahead of us so we met up with them again, apparently John lost his cellphone today somewhere in the MK (although it would have had to have been, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain or while walking).

Once outside we had to wait a bit for a monorail (due to the crowds) and when we arrived where we needed to go no one knew where to go for our bus, it pulled up as we were arriving to the correct spot so we all headed back to Chatham where Amanda and Jei headed back off to the commons.

Tomorrow morning I have basic Food and Beverage training at 7, but I need to catch a bus at 6 which means aprox a 5 am wake up time (4 hours away) so I should be off. After work I plan on going and setting up my bank accout and getting work shoes. Jei wants to go to Animal Kingdom just to ride everest but I don't think we're going to have time when her Traditions is over. If not I plan on relaxing around chatham, I need a bit of a break!

Finally I can update!

Finally I get a chance to update! I would've like to do more detail and maybe I can in future posts but here is pretty much everything that I can remember about the last 3 days.

Ok the red eye flight from Calgary, I was a little tired but decided I'd try to watch the Pink Panther as my plane had little touch screen tvs in the seats where you could choose movies or music or TV shows to watch. I got about 5 minutes into the movie and decided I was going to try to sleep. I pulled out my iPod, set it to shuffle and unsuccessfully attempted to get some sleep. A few hours later I noticed it was light out and gave up on the sleep, and played some video games until I landed in Montreal.

When I arrived I followed the signs to the USA transfer baggage claim where I met Christine. Jei was also suppsoted to be there but apparently hadn't arrived yet. Christine had all of her bags and within minutes I had mine as well. While we were waiting for Jei and Brodie to show up (we had all planned the same flight to Orlando), we happened to notice some bright pink luggage on the luggage belt. Knowing Jei had bought pink luggage, we checked the tags and realising it was hers, pulled if off the belt for her. Eventually she arrived and Brodie's luggage showed up. We grabbed his luggage and waitied, and waited, and waited... eventually Christine decided to go look for him so we could go through customs, and literly no less than 30 secconds after she left Brodie walked in so we ended up having to wait for Christine.

She didn't take long to show up so we went through customs which was another adventure. Since me and Christine were replacing people on our program we had to go off into a seperate room. Christine had forgotten a bag a few minutes ago by where we had to fill out forms and the customs agent didn't seem too impressed but nothing happend which was fortunate. After a few stressful minutes we were called up (individually) and were asked questions like where we were going and why we were going there. Simple questions and we had our Visa and were off to the gate.

When we arrived in Orlando after a 3 hour flight that seemed much longer, we met our Disney person by our baggage claim, told us where we were staying (Chatham Square which is what I wanted) and he took us off to a waiting area for our bus. There was only 4 people on the bus to Chatham, me, Christine, Matt from Montreal and a guy from Brazil that I didn't meet. WHen we arrived he even requsted to be moved to Vista Way (not sure if it happened). Anyway we found out that me and Matt were in the same apartment, and Christine was in our building just under us! So that was awsome.

Now our bus driver had to drop us out on the sidewalk outside the complex, and our building was in the back corner. This wasn't much of a problem for me and Matt with our rolling suitcases, but Christine had a backpack, laptop case, duffelbag, and a hockey bag... in other words NO WHEELS. Matt took her laptop case on top of his rolling suitcase and I helped her put her hockey bag on as a backpack after she put her backpack on her front. About halfway to our apartment though she couldn't breathe so I swaped her one of my rolling suitcases for her hockey bag for the rest of the trip. At this point I desperatly needed a shower but me and Christine decided to take a quick swim in the pool first.

The Chatham pool was much nicer than I expected! I was expecting it to be cold but it was nice and warm and I plan on visiting it often! Matt came down with me and Christine but tried to take a nap in the sun on one of the lounging chairs. We didn't stay long because we didn't have suntan lotion and started getting hungry. While we were there Christine showed me her shoulder and she definatly broke some blood vessals or something with that hockey bag. We decided to check out the outlet mall for lunch so we headed back for our showers.

When I was done having my shower I checked my e-mail to find out Jei was alone in her apartment and wanted to hang out so I invited her along for food as well. Matt decided to join us and we went to get Christine. When we arrived we found out her roomate Mara had arrived. Mara was interviewed the same time as me and all of us had talked online for abit so she joined us as well and off we went on our short walk (10-15 minutes) to Jei's.

We decided to head to the outlet mall across the road for lunch but that turned into an interesting adventure as well. There was a wall up in teh way so we headed left along to wall to try to find the end, and we eventually did but then we had to walk back towards the outlet mall. After a few minutes of searching (the outdoor mall) we found the foodcourt and headed for subway.

After we ate I had the BRILLANT idea to try going around the other side of the outlet mall since we were going back to Chatham. It made sence in principal since chatham is about half a block farther down then the Commons (where Jei lives and we originally started our trek to the outlet mall). Anyway to make a long story short we had to walk way far out of the way and would up a block further... not sure if anyone was impressed with the suggestion but noone let me know if they were upset.

We then got to show Jei Chatham, and she seemed to enjoy it much more than the Commons. We all headed off to Wal Mart to grab some nessicities like towels and sheets and things like that. I didn't get much food since we decided we'd go Wednesday again so I grabbed a few small things for breakfast.

When we got back I started to finish unpacking (still not done now though) and put away my wal mart items before calling it a night.

Wednesday
Today wound up to be a long day but our elaborate plans didn't work out. Originally we all thought we'd be done early and would be going to Downtown Disney to see Cars, have supper, and I'd get my cell phone as well as our Wal Mart Trip... Turns out that Me, Matt, Christine and Mara had a full day of paper work to do and didn't manage to get home until around 4ish. While we were spending our 3 hours on the bus outside of the Social Security we realised one of my roomates was a good friend of Jeis that she was trying to locate the day before so I suggested instead of taking the bus back to Chatham we'd instead go to the commons and surprise her... well it turns out we were so late she went off to Wal Mart without us so we got to go back to the commons... shortly after we got back she got home and I let Jared (her friend) use my computer to talk to her and she came over. We basically tried to keep up the illusion we didn't know each other until she got here but I'm sure she knew when his room was the same as my room.

Also while this was going on John finally surfaced out of no where and needed to make a trip to Wal Mart as well, since he had teh night off I invited him to join us and he was in Chatham before Jei was.

Anyway since Jei didn't have to go to Wal Mart but a bunch of us still needed food, we left her in the apartment with Jared and made our quick trip to Wal Mart. In an hour I got about 90 dollars worth of food and a few other things I had missed the night before... man it was heavy! Me and Matt both filled our own carts and thats a lot to haul across Chatham. They do have cool food down here though I got Reese's brand peanut butter for example! By this time it was too late to see Cars, and when we got back I noticed we only had about 5 minutes to get to downtown disney if we wanted to eat and get me my cell phone. Me, John, Chritine and Mara all made that bus, and Jei and Jared said they'd come by on the next bus meeting us at Planet Holleywood.

So we all ran to the bus and made it with time to spare and were off to Downtown Disney! When we arrived we went straight to Virgin Records to get me my Virgin mobile phone. It didn't take me long to find the $50 flip phone I was told about so I grabbed it and a $20 phone card paid and we were off to Planet Hollywood. When we arrived we found out they wouldn't seat us until everyone arrived so we had about 30 minutes to kill.

Me and John began to try to open my phone so I could set it up... it took most of our half hour which was good but then I found out I had to basically set it up online so it was pretty worthless. Christine had a hunch that Jei and Jared wern't coming so John phoned Jei's place and we were told she had left for Downtown Disney so that was great news... at about midnight (10 minutes after they should have arrived) I phoned my place and got ahold of Jared, because Jei started training today at 6 something they decided not to come and since they didn't have Johns cell they couldn't get ahold of us... so we just went and got our table.

We all had a pretty good meal, Mara and Christine shared a appatiser, while me and John each got a burger. When we were done we did some exploring of the movie memorebilia around the restaurant before we caught the 1:30 am bus back to the residences... it was a LONG ride with me and Christine not getting home until 2:20... I felt bad and tried not to wake up any of my roomates, fortunatly I only work up one but thankfully he had just gotten to bed so he wasn't really sleeping yet.

Thursday
Today seemed innocent enough from our itinnary. We had to board a bus at 9. Get our training schedules at 9:30, board another bus at 10:30 and sign in with international recruting at 11. So it was pretty natural we planned on going to Cars tonight since last night didn't pan out... well we still haven't seen it!

Matt's alarm went off early enough that after I showerd I managed to activate my cell phone so it was officially good to go at this point (came in handy today!)

One of my roomates had managed to get himself into the magic kingdom Wednesday night without his Disney ID (which we get on Friday). So we decided that when we were done we'd hit up Property Control (massive discoutns on merch... kinda like Winners) and then try to get into MGM. When we got to where we picked up our trainingh scheduels I was one of the first people through and got a picture of my uniform which thankfully isn't TOOOO bad. The worst part has to be the white shoes I get to wear. Other than that I wear either Khakies or khakie shorts with a black belt, and what is essentially a red polo shirt. I also have the option of a white visor or straw hat.

The weirdest thing on my schedule was my Discovery Day (orientation basically) is a whole WEEK after I start work. I wasn't too thrilled with that. Very fortunatly for me I have Sunday off and John (who has been working in Epcot since March) also has Sunday off. I have since cashed in on a promised tour so I will know where everything is come Monday morning.

Anyway our bus left early for The Commons so we got to sit around for a half hour while we waited. Thankfully after maybe 10 or 15 minutes they let us into an air conditioned room, but they didn't start until everyone else arrived almost 30 minutes later. Signing in turned out to be paper work... we had to sign a bunch of stuff and that took about an hour... we finished around noon.

At this point we had set up with John that I'd call him and we'd go to property control before heading off to MGM. First I called Jei to see if she was free and wanted to join us. She did want to join us but unfortunatly had some training stuff at 2. We figured a few hours would be nice so we agreed to go at 4 instead so she could join us. While John started getting ready I went and met Jeis roomate who seemed quite nice. While I was there Jei got a phone call and made other plans for the night so at about a quater to two I left for Johns, and we got everyone together and went to property control early. Before we left I finally got a chance to talk to Matt Chan (from Alberta) and he met us on the bus when it arrived at Vista Way.

I was a little dissapointed because all of the 75% off stuff was visably damamged in some way, but I got a cool Pirates of the Caribian plastic gun for 50 cents and an epcot passport (with just a damaged box) for 2.50. We then went to a location that was basically discontinued merch at 20% off so I got a WDW International Programs day planner, a notebook, and two books which totaled around $25. Since the bus only went to Vista and Chatham, Matt took his stuff home and me, John, Matt (my roomate) and Christine all brought our stuff back to Chatham.

we had about 45 minutes before the bus to MGM Studios, so we checked out our swag for a bit and then went out to the bus. Just like for Property control Matt joined us as well. When we got to MGM, my roomate who got in the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday was there as well ready to attempt MGM admission. We let him do the talking for us and within 5 minutes we were all in MGM.

First stop was the Rockin Rollercoaster which shockingly had maybe a 20 minute wait. Our first ride has some kind of malfunction and we didn't have the Aerosmith music playing so we were alloud thorugh a hallway to ride it again. It was a great ride. A dark rollercoaster with a boosted/quick start. After our two rides of that we set off across the park to dake the backlot tour. Unfortunatly when we arrived it was closed so we went back and rode Star Tours instead. After a snack stop, John, Matt C, and Christine all then went on the tower of terror while me and Matt waitied outside. When that was done we all went on the Rockin Rollercoaster a 3rd time, since Fantasmic was on neither ride had a long line and everyone else went on the Tower of Terror again leaving me and Matt to wander arround so we checked a few shops before meeting up with the ToT Trio again. We then headed off to watch the 10:30 Fantasmic show.

Fantasmic at MGM is in my opinion better than the Disneyland version. It's longer, has bleachers, and has it's own set (thus not taking over a good chunk of the park). I plan on seeing it again a few more times as it's just that good!

After that we took our busses back to our residences and I've spent almost 2 hours chatting on MSN and trying to get these 3 days updated. I'll hopefully be a little more regular and detailed with future entries so we shall see.