Another Internship Opportunity

If you just got a little worried from the title, have no fear! I'm still at Disney, but I'm starting a second internship, too! But you'll hear more about that later...

Saturday, Aug 13th: After work, the roomies and I went shopping for Florida's weekend of tax-free clothing. (I miss PA for not having to pay clothing tax there!!) It was absolute CHAOS. There were people parked in the grass and on curbs! Unfortunately, I didn't end up finding much, but I did buy a new sweater at GAP and a McFlurry at McDonald's (yummm).

Sunday, Aug 14th: Sonia and I went to Forever XXI today, and I bought a few shirts and a new purse! Yay! I could have probably shopped in that store for hours; it was fabulous!! Afterward, we drove to EPCOT, where we eventually met up with Cassie and Alyssa. We explored The Seas, rode a few rides, and then worked on a Kim Possible mission in Norway. Yeah, we're THAT cool. Then we got some delicious ice cream, went on Soarin', and headed home. Another great night!

Monday, Aug 15th: Tonight, the roomies and I went to Vista Way because there was a welcoming party for the CP (College Program) kids. We got free pizza plus met Mickey, Chip, and Dale! WIN. Later that night, I received an email from Back To Nature Wildlife Refuge. I had applied a few days ago to volunteer there, and they said I should go in on Thursday to check out the facility and sign some papers!

Tuesday, Aug 16th: Work was pretty boring, but I found out that Bethany, Andy, and Aaron are coming to visit me in October, yay!!

Wednesday, Aug 17th:  At work, I had a few really good conversations with families in Spanish. Slowly, I'm starting to speak more and more fluently...ish. Later on, Sonia, Cassie, Alyssa, Steph, Melissa, and I went to Johnny Rocket's for dinner--my milkshake was delicious! Then we went to Fort Wilderness to watch "Lilo and Stitch." I never used to like that movie, but now I love it!!

Thursday, Aug 18th: Today I drove to Back To Nature (BTN)! Kelly, one of three full-time employees, asked if I wanted to be an intern instead of volunteer because I would be able to log more hours. Ummmm yes, of course! So she told me a little bit about the facility and had me read the intern manual and sign papers. I'll be working every Thursday and I'll get to clean cages (can I add "professional shit cleaner" to my resume?), feed the animals, and sometimes even take care of the babies that people bring in! They have about 43 permanent residentsthat include squirrels, opossums, goats, deer, raccoons, tortoises, doves, mockingbirds, owls, vultures, bald eagle, sandhill crane, emu, cougar, bobcat, and an arctic fox! Also, a ton of animals are brought in every day to be rehabilitated--sometimes up to 20! I can't wait to work with all of them!! Also, I'm excited to get some rehabilitation experience to put on my resume. The only bad thing is that I have to pay $7 in tolls each week. EW.

Friday, Aug 19th: Boring day at work!

Saturday, Aug 20th: I decided to look for some internships online, but I didn't find any legit possibilities. However, I did find some volunteer opportunities in Tanzania, South Africa, Costa Rica, Guam, and TIPUTINI (the biodiversity station I stayed at for a week in Ecuador)!!! I wish I could get paid to work in such exotic places!

Sunday, Aug 21st: I was at the Africa KDC, and after going through all the clues with a little girl, I said, "This animal lives in Africa, has 3 toes, eats plants, and has a horn on his head. Do you know what it is?" Her guesses were: "A UNICORN!!...A PONY!!...A RHINO!!" Third time's a charm, I guess. Not gonna lie, it was pretty hilarious.

Also, I realized that today marked exactly two years since I arrived in Ecuador to study abroad. This made me so sad! Sometimes I wish I were back there with my host family, trying to tell the maid in broken Spanish that I needed toilet paper (ask me about that story--it's a classic), or listening to my host grandmother explain a Spanish "novela" (soap opera) to me when I didn't understand a single word she was saying.

Monday, Aug 22nd: Today I literally melted at work because I had the 3 hottest stations--Dinoland, Cotton-Top Tamarins, and Asia--all in a row.

Tuesday, Aug 23rd: I had fun with Megan while we were at Conservation Station! The whole time, we people-watched, and she pointed out all her fellow Canadians. Well, we had to entertain ourselves for two hours somehow! Later, at Dino, a kid knew EVERYTHING about the dinosaurs just by looking at the lower jaws!! At the end of the day, I closed Tree of Life with Megan, and it POURED the entire time. Luckily, it stopped just in time for us to leave at 5:00!

Alright, time to go. Next time, I'll tell you all about the awesome EPCOT scavenger hunt and my first day at BTN!

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rafiki Ya Wanyama

Hi all! As promised, I have an update on my last few days of training. Also, if you want to know what the heck the title of this entry means, it's Swahili for "Friend of the animals." The kids who complete all 6 of our KDCs earn a "Rafiki ya wanyama" stamp in addition to an activity book. I love this phrase, especially because it reminds me of The Lion King.

So Thursday the 30th was a day off for the presenters. A computer repair man came to my apartment to fix the right click button on my laptop touchpad and replace the framing around my screen, but Dell hadn't sent the palm rest that was necessary to fix the button. (They later called to say that they don't have any in stock and may not for a while) Thanks, Dell. I appreciate your help. I'm glad you realize how hard it is to function without a right click button. 

Anyway, after he left, Sonia and I went to Magic Kingdom for the first time since we've been here. Unfortunately, the second we boarded the monorail, the clouds opened up and a torrential downpour started. While we waited for the rain to stop, we talked to a CP (college program) student from Harrisburg that goes to Penn State. I love meeting fellow Pennsylvanians! Unfortunately, within 2 minutes of getting off the monorail, we had been walking in water up to our ankles. We ran for cover inside Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, and it was so COOL! It was an impromptu comedy show with the monsters from the movie, and it was hilarious!!! After riding a bunch of rides, we saw the "Move it! Shake it! Celebrate it!" parade, and then headed out. Our GPS got us super lost while on a quest for food, so I was very happy when we finally got home.

Friday, July 1st was a relatively uneventful day. We had more classroom training, and learned about some of the mammals and birds in our collection. Then we went through a presentation about biodiversity and the different kingdoms (basically a review from every college class I've ever taken). On an unrelated note, when I got home, I found out that Jagr and Talbot had chosen to sign with the Flyers over the Penguins. Let's just say I was not a happy camper. Of all the teams, did they have to pick Philly? Oh well, at least they got the money they wanted.

On Saturday the 2nd, we took a more thorough tour of DAK in small groups. That day, a light bulb went off in my head, and I finally started to remember a good bit of info about the KDCs and animal exhibits. After a fun day at work, a bunch of my friends and I went to the pool at Cumberland. It was definitely good to cool down and just relax.

Sunday the 3rd was another day off, so Sonia and I went back to the costuming building to get a few different sizes of costumes (my shorts could have fit another person in them). Then we went to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to explore. It is a really neat resort with savannah animals right outside the rooms! We went to Chipotle for lunch (I haven't had so much rice and beans since the Galap!) and then went home so I could nap. We, along with Cassie, decided to go see the Independence Day fireworks at Magic Kingdom. The sun was just setting as we arrived to the park on the ferry, and it was soo pretty! It was an absolute mad house when we got there. I felt like we were all sardines, stationed in front of Cinderella's Castle. The show was awesome, and I'm glad we went that night instead of the actual 4th of July when it would be even more chaotic.

Our last day of classroom training was on Monday! In the morning, we completed a sort of scavenger hunt slash way-finding activity. My group didn't finish everything, but it kind of helped us get more oriented within DAK. The highlight of my day was definitely the Flights of Wonder bird show in Asia. IT WAS EPIC. They had an Abyssinian Groud Hornbill, Bald Eagle, Eurasian Eagle Owl, Red Legged Seriema, Gray Crowned Crane, Harris Hawk, Toucans, and Macaws, among others. When I go to the show as a Guest, I'm going to try and volunteer so I can sit onstage and take a video of the hornbill flying right at me. I was so jealous of the Guests that got to do that!

After lunch, we did a role-playing activity and then took our assessment to make sure we knew the information from our training manual. I'm hoping this is the last test I ever have to take, because it made me feel like I was back in college again! Next came a tour of Conservation Station. We saw a Tawny Owl presentation, looked into research windows, heard rainforest sounds, and saw Rafiki, Jiminy Cricket, and a very pale Pocahontas. We then reviewed our test (I did better that I'd expected), and left work early!

That night, Sonia, Cassie, Alyssa, and I went to Epcot for the real 4th fireworks. They were probably some of the best ones I've ever seen. Half of my pictures look like the sky is on fire because they were so bright and filled the air with a lot of smoke. Probably one of the cooler parts was when we saw fireworks from Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios in the distance. So we saw them from three different parks in one night! Pretty neat, I'd say.

One more thing that I've been thinking about...Every time I go on an attraction at Disney, I look at all the details in the artwork and architecture, and see the themes that they create to help the Guests immerse themselves in their own imagination. I've decided that one of my dreams is to be an Imagineer. I'd get to help make Walt's visions come true by designing exhibits, rides, and shows to keep the Disney magic alive. I think that would seriously be the coolest job ever.

"They say if you dream a thing more than once, it's sure to come true."--Briar Rose, Sleeping Beauty

Officially a Disney Cast Member!

Hi everyone!! I'm finally in Orlando! Well, I've been here for several days but I owe y'all an update.

At 7:30am on Sunday, my parents and I started our long drive, and made it as far as Columbia, South Carolina. That evening, we ate dinner at "Lizard's Thicket" which was a cute little southern restaurant. I had fried chicken, cinnamon apples, and cornbread. Yummm. Welcome to the South! The next morning, we drove off again and made it to our hotel in Orlando around 4:30. We stayed at a very nice Marriot (there were a group of 3 all clustered together), and there was a pool (that was both indoors and outdoors!), fitness room, restaurant, food court, etc. We were pretty tired from the long day and heat, so we explored a little and then chilled out.

On Tuesday, we went to Gatorland! My parents took my siblings there 27 years ago, so they thought I should experience it, too. It was a huge place with gators and crocs swimming in swamps, and birds (herons, egrets, cormorants, storks, and woodhens) flying everywhere. First, we saw an employee wrestle a gator, which was awesome. Then we saw the "Gator Jumparoo" show where two guys put skinned chickens on a pulley and hung them over the water so the gators would jump up to eat them. Unfortunately, this is mating season so they were pretty lazy and not too excited about the food. After that, we went around to see the macaws and cockatoos. Among others, they had a blue and gold macaw (my favorite!) and a military macaw (...hah). Then I went into the room with hundreds of budgies so I could feed them a stick of food. We had to shuffle our feet because there were SO MANY birds on the floor. Immediately, 6 or 7 flew to me. It was so cool, especially when the gorgeous sun conure came to me! We then wandered around the park's trails and suffered through the outrageous heat until we finally came to the exit. Before we left, I got my picture in front of the huge gator mouth.

 Gatorland!!!!!

Wednesday consisted of lounging at the pool (it's a hard life!) and meeting up with my sister-in-law's parents and my niece, Abbie, for dinner. They were taking Abbie to their house in Florida and wanted to catch up. I'm glad I got to see Abbie. She loved the Disney princess shirt we got her at Wal-Mart (which has A TON of Disney merch).

Thursday was the big day! I went to Cumberland Park at 9am to go through housing meetings and fill out paperwork. They gave us a big spiel about apartment policies and other stuff, only half of which I heard because they talked so fast. I was a little overwhelmed after that. Then, my parents and I moved everything into my apartment! I met my roommate Sonia, and one of my other housemates, Alyssa. We rushed to get everything inside and slightly organized so I could drop the rents off at their hotel and then get over to the Casting building. Once I was there, I waited in a ton of lines and talked to some new PI's (one girl was from Meadville, PA who almost went to Juniata). Then I had to fill out more paperwork and wait in more lines, until I was done at 1ish. Then I ran across 6 lanes of traffic to get lunch at Downtown Disney. Wow, I'm glad the pedestrian signs weren't working.

At 2, I had a meeting with everyone from Animal Programs where I met my managers and fellow Conservation Education Presenter (CEP) PI's. There are 22 of us! We were given a binder with our schedule for the next few days, and reminded about The Disney Look. On Saturday at 7:45am, we have "Traditions" at Disney University, where we learn Company history and policies. Later, we'll have some meetings, and then get our costumes!! Safari vest, here I come!! We are going to look CLASSY.

After a stressful day, I hung out at the apartment for a bit, and then went to dinner with my parents. I had shrimp gumbo and fried alligator. WIN. No, it didn't taste like chicken. More like very bland calamari. But hey, have YOU eaten alligator? I didn't think so. :-)

That evening, I went with some fellow CEP's to Miller's Ale House for a PI meet-and-greet. It was insane. There were probably 40 or 50 of us. We literally took up half the restaurant. It was funny when people came up to us and asked us our names and PI titles. "Oh hi, I'm a Conservation Education Presenter, and so are these other 3 girls next to me." I guess it was easier to remember us, at least. Although I'm probably going to forget the names of half of the people I met. Oh well, at least we'll all have name tags soon!

Today, I did some shopping with my parents, because I was worried some of my clothes wouldn't work for the Disney Look. After relaxing for a bit at the apartment, I went to dinner with the 'rents and then went to Wal-Mart for the second time today. It was absolutely POURING rain, so my dad dropped us off. There were literally 50 people under the roof just outside of the entrance, waiting for cars to pick them up. It was like a natural disaster had just happened. Sheesh! Well, I better get used to this crazy Florida rain. After taking Mom and Dad back to the hotel, I said goodbye to them, as they're leaving tomorrow morning.

Alright, I have a very early morning tomorrow, so I'm heading to bed. See y'all later!


"Don't wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect."--Alan Cohen