There's No Place Like Knowing Where Home Is

18 Days

Well, I've been in Chehalis for a few days now. Left Pullman on Friday. Things have definitely been busy, and are about to get a lot busier. I now have access to a new website relating to this Disney Internship. This website allows me to get in contact with other people who will be participating in the program during the same dates. It also gives me more information regarding housing, or rather, housing events. Right now, the only things on the calendar are the various check-in dates, and getting to know each other parties the day after check-in.

I'm sure as time gets closer, there will be more information available on that site. For now, there's just a lot of people introducing themselves and this really cool video, that I also found on YouTube:

For now, the days are just filled with spending time with friends and family, going through the things I have here, and anything on the schedule between now and then. I always forget just how busy Christmas season is. Between getting ready for church services, making Christmas cards, planning family get-togethers, and vacations, there's just never enough time.

Hope everyone is enjoying their pre-holiday time!

~Amber

TO DO:

• Figure out renters insurance
• Pack
• DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

31 days, and counting

31 days

Exactly 1 month before I "start" working at Disneyland. 2 days more than a week before I leave Pullman. My schedule seems a lot more open and yet even busier. My apartment looks like every natural disaster hit at once.

A couple weeks ago, I got an email from Disney: Fill out and fax the new hire documentation before December 4th, or you'll risk starting late. I had hoped that I could turn in all 14 pages of paperwork at the check-in. Guess not. Fax is expensive!!! The first page was $2.00, every page after that was $1.25... $18.25!!!! At least I'll be getting paid once I get down there. The only worthwhile email I've received since then is an email confirming that they've received all my paperwork, and that everything looks good. The other emails were just reminders: remember to sign up for classes, remember you need renter's insurance.

My classes ended on Monday. I had a test and 3 papers to turn in that day. My lowest grade is in English, at an 83%. This can only go up, since not everything is graded. I have from now until next Friday to finish packing my entire apartment. The bookshelf and dresser look nice, everything else.... let's just say I'm not going to have anyone over until I can see the floor again.

According to an email I had received quite a while ago, I should be learning information about one of my roommates today or tomorrow. I was told anywhere from 30-45 days before checking in, which is January 8th. Housing is definitely the thing that worries me the most.

As far as moving goes, I'm actually surprised at how much I've found to get rid of. I've currently over-filled 3 boxes of things to go to goodwill, and have filled all the garbage's in my apartment each day. I thought that the majority of things I was taking home would be kitchen supplies, but it appears to be books instead.

Now that my To Do list is much shorter, there isn't much to write about. Until I leave Pullman, this is probably my last post. I'll try to do a post or two in Chehalis, just because it's a different location and closer to leaving.


~Amber

TO DO:

• Figure out renters insurance
• Contact roommate
• Move out
• Pack
• DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland (for only 4 more weeks)

51 days

It's roughly halfway between when I found out that I got accepted into the Disney Internship program and when I will leave. This is definitely becoming more and more real as the time gets closer. Today is the last day before WSU goes on Thanksgiving break, I still have 3 more days of classes, and 6 papers. As excited as I am to finish classes, I'm just as unexcited about leaving Pullman. How can I leave this?

I guess I should be thankful that I got to see this view at least once more before leaving. Hopefully the roads are clear when I leave next month.

It seems like a lot has happened since last post, but it could just be major things that had been stressing me out. As far as classes go, I have only one more test in French. I've turned in my big 15 page paper for English, so the next 3 weeks are just editing and about 9 small 150 word essays, plus a reading review. Depending on the teacher counting, I have 3-4 weeks left before everything ends. Marching band is almost done as well. Tomorrow is the last home game, where the seniors, including me, will be recognized. The final game will be Apple Cup in Seattle. Because the season is almost over, work has been very busy. Everyone seems to wait until the last minute to turn in their information to get paid, making more work for me. Also got to enter survey information for the Apple Cup game into the computer. Have I ever mentioned how much I like entering things into a database like that? I definitely like my job, just wish it had more hours.

I haven't finished much in the way of getting ready for Disney, but what I have finished has me feeling really accomplished. Although I wanted to at least participate in the plane ticket purchasing, my parents purchased my plane ticket. I was probably too busy anyway. I'm just glad it's taken care of. I'll figure out the "best way" to purchase plane tickets another time. My dad and I will be arriving on Friday, which hopefully gives plenty of time (yeah right, for a place that big?) to get used to the area. For some reason I didn't quite understand, my dad and I will not be taking the same flights down to California. Fortunately, I'm a big girl and can navigate airports on my own :P I'm just glad that my dad will be joining me so that I don't have to worry about navigating Anaheim by myself. Considering how much I don't like big cities (despite what Brian keeps telling me, Anaheim is still a big city in my mind. It's bigger than any I've ever lived in), I'm not sure I can handle everything on my own. Last time I spent the afternoon in downtown Seattle, I started having a panic attack. I couldn't even figure out the direction to the car. I didn't want to be alone in California if that happened again.

I still waiting for information on one or more roommates. I'm not supposed to get that information until 45-30 days until arrival though, so anywhere from 6 to 21 days from now. If I remember right, I won't get the actual apartment number until I check in. Hopefully this doesn't cause a problem when I get renters insurance late December, Early January.

Packing is going well, I guess. I've "gotten rid" of half of my books. Okay, so they're mostly all still in the apartment. I've been putting my books up on Amazon to sell them. I thought I'd be able to make some money doing this. However, the total amount I've spent on shipping has been about equal to the amount I'm receiving for the books. I've decided I hate media mail. Thanksgiving break is going to be spent doing more cleaning. I have 4 buckets full already. Not sure how much will fit in the car though. Of course, whatever I do manage to get to Chehalis, that's just the first step. I'll have to get rid of most of my stuff just to move to Chehalis, I'll have to get rid of even more before California. Christmas break is being spent getting rid of even more stuff. Excluding kitchen equipment, I'm hoping to get all of my belongings to fit into 2 or 3 buckets by the time I finish everything. Don't remember how much stuff I have in the attic in Chehalis though, so it might not work. All I know at this point is that I have to many books.

I guess there really isn't anything I can do now to get ready for Disneyland until I hear about the roommate. The only thing I can focus on right now is finishing classes. After that, packing. Renter's insurance needs to wait until a few days before, the hire documentation I'll print off in Chehalis just before leaving so that I don't lose it. I'd wait until California if I knew there'd be a printer.

~Amber

TO DO:

• Print off Hire Documentation
• Fill out Hire Documentation
• Figure out renters insurance
• Contact roommate
• Finish classes for this quarter
• Graduate
• Move out
• Pack
• DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

S.S.D.D. (Same Stuff, Different Day)

66 days to go

Not much has happened since my last post, but I still decided to write something. Things are definitely getting more stressful here.

This is week 6/7 of my classes, depending on the class. I have 2 more weeks before a 15 page technical paper is due, about 3 more weeks after that before I'm done with classes.

I'm a little concerned about my English grade. Catching up on assignments I missed from being dropped from classes is a lot slower than I expected it to be. Fortunately, by the time I catch up, I'll be almost completely done with my paper, since the paper that's taking the longest is the annotated bibliography. Cookbooks are really hard to write annotated bibliographies for. Of all the papers that I have turned in, only one has been graded. I think this is because the teacher has fallen behind on grading everyone else's papers. It doesn't help that the teacher seems to be a touch grader. I got an 88% on my first large paper, surprisingly a 90% on my second. At least my grades seem to be improving on my papers. Getting 600 words has also gotten easier :)

French? Well, I'm passing. Sorry Tasha, I don't think I'll be able to carry on conversations. It is definitely easier to read a foreign language than to understand it from listening, or even speaking. I hate having to do voice recording assignments. I'm not sure which I dislike more: those or the ones where I have to listen to a super fast conversation and write what I hear, which I usually hear wrong. Surprisingly, despite how much I feel I'm struggling, I still have an A in the class. My last test last week was a 93%, the average being 50% at the highest. I have another test within the next week or two, can't remember offhand.

Health is really easy: read the chapters, read the lectures, answer a question regarding stress in a paragraph or two on a discussion post, respond in 3 sentences to two students posts, take assessments, write a couple paragraphs on my opinion, take a quiz over the readings. Not sure what my overall grade is, but out of 5, 15 point quizzes, I've missed 5 points at most. Everything else has been 100% so far.

On top of all the homework I've been dealing with, I've also been cleaning my apartment, trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible. I have too much stuff. If possible, I'm going to get rid of basically everything that I can't fit into the buckets I have. Whatever doesn't fit in my parents' car, I probably will never see again. Whatever I can bring back to Chehalis, I probably won't see again for a couple years. Ideally, around half of what I bring home will be books, which means most of Christmas break will be spent reading. The other half would be kitchen stuff that I really want to keep, such as a spice rack and really nice set of cooking utensils (all presents).

As far as getting ready for Disneyland, my biggest accomplishments since my last post has been figuring out insurances.

What I wrote last about the renter's insurance was completely off. Apparently some homeowner's insurances provide some form of renter's insurance for college students. The insurance my parents have was not enough to cover me in California. I also figured out that it's just a matter of days to obtain renter's insurance, and that it will be a lot cheaper than I anticipated. I guess I'll be figuring this out during Christmas break (so much for no homework).

Fortunately, I won't have to get new medical insurance. The insurance I currently have thanks to my mom will be enough to cover me in California, assuming I don't get seriously injured or sick. Because it's primarily a Washington State insurance, I had to go through a few more hoops to find places that will accept it. I had to call each office to figure out if they were contracted with either of the two companies that my insurance is with. Most of the offices didn't seem to want to cooperate, and instead kept asking me what insurance I had, policy number, and that I needed to call my insurance to figure out who they'd accept, which I had done before calling them. I then explained that to them, along with mentioning the specific insurance is for Washington State. Without fail, all of them interrupted me at this point to tell me I was calling the wrong number, that they were located in Anaheim which is in California, not Washington. Apparently none of them caught the sentence I started with "I'm moving down to the area in a couple months and am trying to figure out if my insurance will cover me. Are you contracted with...." Talk about aggravating. Fortunately, I found a couple of places that sound like they'll take my insurance. Last step is to visit them when I finally go down to California.

I haven't heard anything from Disney for a few weeks, although that's not too surprising. They gave me the time and location I need to check in at, a checklist to complete before arriving. The only thing I can think of that I'd need from them still is a way to contact one of my roommates, and possibly the room assignment, although I may not get that until I arrive. When I filled out the housing information, I checked the box saying that I would like to be able to contact one of my roommates before arriving. I'm supposed to receive this information 30-45 days before arriving, so sometime within the next month. I'm a little nervous about the housing thing. Nothing is definite. I may not even receive information about a roommate. There's also the chance I won't get anything that I requested. They have two types of apartments: wellness and non-wellness. Wellness apartment means that there is absolutely no alcohol of any kind allowed at any time. Anyone under 21 is automatically placed in these. I requested to be put in a non-wellness apartment for a couple reasons: 1) I'll be with other people around the same age as me, and 2) I don't have to worry if a recipe I want to make calls for small amounts of alcohol (I've already made three of those types of recipes in the last year alone) and 3) so if I want to, and I have the money, I can have a nice glass of wine after dinner on occasion (my favorite part about being 21) :)

The biggest thing that I'm still waiting on information for is the plane tickets. I know I don't have any experience with purchasing tickets, but I'm still really concerned. I thought it was best to buy tickets sooner rather than later. I thought that as dates got closer, tickets became more expensive. There's a little over 2 months left, and I still don't have any word about how even starting to look at plane tickets. Maybe if I knew more about traveling, I wouldn't be so concerned.

At this point, I think the next thing that I'll get from Disney will be either more information about my classes or information about housing. Depending on what happens between now and then, I'll probably wait until then to post anymore information.

~Amber



TO DO:

• Purchase plane ticket
• Print off Hire Documentation
• Fill out Hire Documentation
• Figure out renters insurance
• Contact roommate
• Finish classes for this quarter
• Graduate
• Move out
• Pack
• DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

Busy Busy Busy

Well, I haven't made very much, if any, obvious progress towards getting ready to leave, but I have made several small dents. That and I decided it was time to put something up again so people don't get bored reading the same two posts :)

So after the last post, I figured out that even though I thought I changed the settings to allow anyone to post comments, people still need an account. Not sure if this means an account on here or just a google account. I've thought of two ways to fix this problem. 1) make everyone get a google account (great time for people to switch over to google plus :P) or 2) just post a link on facebook and have people post their comments on that link each time. I guess I'll just let each person decide what they want to do, even if that means ignoring me.

I registered for classes last week. Registered on the afternon of the 17th. I guess classes would be the wrong word. It was one class, meets one day a week for 3 hours. The cost of registering was very surprising: FREE!!!! The most expensive class I could've taken was $30. Of course, this doesn't count any textbooks I may need, which range from $10-$30 a piece. If there are any textbooks, I haven't found out yet. The class I've signed up for is the "Blended Learning Series". Based on the information provided, it blends both in-class learning and out-of-class experiences that allow the students to see various operations across the resort. Definitely sounded like the perfect class for me. My second choice was a class that brought in key people to give lectures. Maybe that'll be my second class if I have to take another class. The only thing I didn't like about the classes is that each met at 8:30 AM. If I remember right, my class is 8:30-11:30 Tuesdays. No, this will not interfere with my work schedule. My class schedule is given to the managers of my work location(s), where my weekly schedule is planned around the class(es) I'm taking.

As far as I know, I don't have plane tickets yet to go down to California, but thanks to my parents, there is a place to stay Saturday night, and Friday if need be. I am also very happy that my dad will be coming down with me. Everything is going to be changing so quickly, and it'll be a completely different environment than I'm used to, I'm definitely scared. It'll be a little easier with him coming down to help me :) Thanks dad!

I still haven't had a chance to contact any roommates, probably won't get that chance until late November. I've somewhat started packing though. I have one box of books ready to go back to Chehalis. I'm hoping that once I finish with classes, I'll have a chance to find more of these to get rid of, but if not, then I hope there'll be space in the attic to put them? Next, I need to go through the rest of the apartment, get rid of most of my stuff, and fill as little buckets as possible. That's just the easy part unfortunately. I'll probably do most of this during Thanksgiving break. The hard part will be packing for California.

I still haven't figured out anything regarding insurance yet. Maybe I should remember to call my mom to ask about medical insurance (ummm... mom? If I forget, can you call me when you have time? :) ). Not sure if I'll be covered in California or if I'll need to find my own. Not sure how to go about doing that. I haven't figured out much about renters insurance except that it'll be a lot cheaper than I thought. Apparently some homeowners plans also allow dependents to somehow use it as renter's insurance (Brian, did I get that at least somewhat right? Can't remember very well anymore :( ). Oh well, either way, I thought that would be at least $100 a month and would take forever to get. Apparently it's less than half of that cost, and may even take just a few days to get. Still would like to figure that one out sooner rather than later, but I have time.

As part of the pre-arrival checklist they provided, there was an optional play Disney Mission Timekeeper. This game provides background history on Walt Disney, the company, and various lines of work, such as cruise lines, international parks, even information on various types of characters. It was fun to play, even though the game concept seemed made for a younger age group, the information wasn't. I learned A LOT of information from it.

So I guess now it's back to finishing up this reality before moving on to the next. Can't believe it's already week 5/6 of classes, depending on the class. The classes that I'm currently taking are mixed right now. Health I'm ahead in, French right on track, English still catching up. I had hoped to be caught up with everything by this last Monday, but I didn't take into consideration how hard writing papers is. Even a one paragraph paper has taken me several hours to write. Assuming everything goes well, I'll be caught up by the beginning of this next week. I just have 9 more papers to write. Yep, that even looks ugly to write... Better than the 15 I had 2 days ago :)

~Amber



TO DO:

• Purchase plane ticket
• Print off Hire Documentation
• Fill out Hire Documentation
• Figure out medical insurance
• Figure out renters insurance
• Contact roommate
• Finish classes for this quarter
• Graduate
• Move out
• Pack
• DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

So Much to Do, To Much Time, Not Enough Patience

So much information, I can't even figure out where to start reading/writing information. I guess the easiest thing to work off of is the checklist they give. I thought after I finished the acceptance process, including forking over a lot of money, I'd be ready to go until it came to packing. Apparently not, there's lots of documents that I still have to fill out, more money to find, traveling to figure out, and did I mention money?

Since the last post, I have figured out that, not only do I need to arrive on January 8th, but I am supposed to arrive by 9:00 AM, and I check in at the place that I will be staying, which makes things easier.

According to the pre-arrival checklist, the first thing I should be doing is making travel plans. Of course, I've never purchased plane tickets before, so I know nothing about doing this. I know there's times and places that give better deals, but what or where, I don't know. If I was doing this alone, I'd probably go to the website for whatever airline I decided to go with as soon as possible to purchase a ticket. Of course, part of that may be because of paranoia, the rest is because as far as my experience goes, sooner means cheaper. Guess I'm going to have to rely on some "experts" ("experts" in this case being people who have more experience than I do). Hopefully I have more information on that soon.

Step 2: documentation. Okay, very easy, just fill out 14 pages of forms. Boring, but easy. They even give step-by-step instructions for filling them out, although I've already had plenty of experience.

Apparently Disney has a dress code. When I check in, I can be wearing casual clothing, but I still have to follow the rest of the "Disney look": clean fingernails, neutral colored fingernail polish, if any (so no fingernail polish, that's easy enough). "Fingernails should not exceed one-fourth of an inch (approximately 6 mm) beyond the fingertip." hmmm...... maybe I need a ruler with me. Hairstyle needs to be neatly combed and kept in an easy to maintain style. Well, guess my typical ponytail will work, but now I need to figure out how to keep the knots from appearing after 10 minutes, especially with the California heat. Heat + my hair = nothing good. Unless specified as casual, and unless I'm wearing a uniform, this Disney look also means a professional attire. Good thing I bought a skirt last year, I may have need of it :(

Medical and Religious accommodations I don't have to worry about, fortunately. Two less items on the checklist to deal with.

"Secure medical insurance." Ummm.... mom, will the current plan cover me? I really don't want to figure out medical insurance.

The next few steps involve housing. Yay! They provide A LOT. The apartments have 1-2 bedrooms and each bedroom has up to three people. So I could potentially have FIVE roommates. Eek!!! That'll definitely take some getting used to. Fortunately, from what I saw of the apartments before they changed the website, they are NICE!! Each apartment is fully furnished, including a kitchen fully stocked with appliances and table settings. At least that means I don't have to worry about packing and flying my kitchen stuff down. Each apartment even has a washer and dryer! NO MORE QUARTERS!!!

When I filled out the apartment request information, I had to choose between a wellness apartment or a non-wellness apartment (assuming availability). A wellness apartment means that no alcohol is allowed in the apartment under any circumstances. Anyone under 21 is automatically placed in one of these apartments. There was also a choice to be given the contact information of ONE person I'd be living with in advance, which I selected. Not sure when I'll get that information, but then I'll at least be able to get to know one of the possible five other people.

The last step for housing that I have to do (skipping steps that don't pertain to me) is renters insurance. Something that is required to have and I need to have this before going down there. I'm definitely not looking forward to this step, especially since it means more money :(

I also have to register for classes before arriving. Just when I thought I was done with classes. Oh well, I'm going to assume that Disney classes will be a lot more entertaining than non-Disney classes.

Definitely a lot of I have to take care of still, most which has to wait a bit longer. Part of me just wishes I could take care of everything right now and head down there tomorrow. Then again, that's probably because I've never been good at the waiting game.


TO DO:

• Purchase plane ticket
• Print off Hire Documentation
• Fill out Hire Documentation
• Find copies of Employment Eligibility Documentation
• Figure out medical insurance
• Figure out renters insurance
• Register for classes
• Contact roommate, if given information
• Finish classes for this quarter
• Graduate
• Move out
• Pack
• DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

The Beginning of the Beginning

So much has happened in the last month. Last week I got accepted into the Disney College Internship program. I decided to create a blog to document everything happening both so other people can see, and I can look back on it later.

The end of August started like a normal day. I was spending time in the CUB where I ran into my friend Alex. Somehow we got on the topic of the Disney Internship, and she pointed out how I could still apply. I then went home and looked at the website and information posted there. The steps to get into this program include filling out an application, a web interview, and a phone interview.

Within the first week of September, I filled out the application. A few days later, I recieved an email inviting me to complete the web interview. As soon as I finished the web interview, I was notified that I had been selected for the telephone interview and that I would receive an email in the next 24 hours to sign up for a time. This was Wednesday, September 14th. I scheduled the telephone interview for Friday the 23rd. This meant over a week of worrying. To add to the worrying, I woke up that day with a really, really bad cold.

With the telephone interview out of the way, I just had to wait 2 weeks to hear the results. Fortunately for me though, this 2 weeks turned into 5 days. I received an email congratulating me on getting accepted on the 28th. The only requirements to actually being able to go were that I had to finish every step of the acceptance process within 10 days, and I had to meet all of my school's requirements.

The acceptence steps weren't too bad: read 12 pages of information - including where I'd be working, what job I'd be doing, and what my pay would be - click "yes, I accept", pay a lot of money for housing (I'll pay that back soon, mom, I promise), and then accept the dates of attendence. Now that I've finished all of those steps, it's just a matter of waiting. And finishing up my quarter at Spokane Falls.

The program dates are January 8 - August 18, 2012. I will be working in Disneyland at a Food and Beverage Quick Service Restaurant. As I receive new information, or make more progress towards leaving, I will try and make new posts. Until I actually leave for Disneyland, these posts, if any, will be sporadic. I will try to post weekly, if not daily, when I leave.

~Amber