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!!!!!!