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