Day 1

Doesn't this look SUPER Disney-ish? I think so. It's definitely not what I would choose for my own random ramblings, but I figured it'd be perfect for the topic of this blog--my summer here at DisneyWorld.

Today is Day 1, and I'm all moved in. My driver came to pick me up right on time (thank goodness) and took me over to Vista Way--one of the four Disney housing properties. I started my check in process, and started to learn a little bit about where I was going to be living for the next four months--party central. My driver apparently was quite experienced with the Disney interns and has dropped off many (he also had driven Tiger Woods around quite a few times. He said he was a jerk and never tipped. Just a fun fact :P), and so he was the first to give me the low-down on Vista Way. Just a little bit ago, we had the self-proclaimed "party crew" come and introduce themselves to us--four guys who have been here since January, and who run a shuttle service to a bunch of the nightclubs around here. They also told us all about the parties in Vista Way, and how everyone from the other housing units sneak into ours. So this is what I've learned so far about where I'm living:

Vista Way, apparently, never sleeps. There's a party every night until 1 AM (work potentially starts at 6... so little sleep for those who partake in the fun), and you can pretty much go to any apartment for a party. Vista Way also has strict guards outside the front of the complex, and it's hard to even bring in an approved guest. But, as I've learned, there are no guards on the back side of the complex, and all that separates it from the freeway is a fairly short chain-link fence. You know what that means. People from other complexes, and, as I've come to find out, random people looking for a party, hop over the fence and easily sneak into the complex. We're also the only complex with two pools and two hot tubs--the only complex with any hot tubs at all, apparently. So, of course, everyone wants to get in.

Sounds fun, eh? I'm not looking forward to the noise I know I'll hear outside every night till 1 AM, cause I'm sure I'll be exhausted after work each day. However, I HAVE been placed in BYU housing. My entire building is all BYU students. According to a girl I was checking in with, she said that normally they place the BYU students in Chatham housing, not Vista Way, purely because Vista Way IS the party complex, and Chatham tends to be a little more straight-laced. So it's surprising to find out that they've placed us in Vista Way, knowing what they do about BYU students.

The conversation with the so-called "party crew" was pretty funny, in all honesty. They gave us their shpeal, and then asked what schools we went to. We all replied as one "BYU." The look they gave us was priceless. You could tell they were surprised that BYU kids had been placed here, and then one of the guys says, "Oh, so you're BYUUU girls." You know. In that, "Oh, so you're a Moooormon," voice that people use. That also goes along with that look. You know which one I'm talking about. So of course, they start saying, "Oh, right, BYU girls, they're BYU girls," and prattling on and on, until one of the guys finally says, "Well, you guys are in the wrong place." Voicing what everyone else is thinking, of course. But they were nice enough, and said that if we came here to have fun rather than just work all the time, that we should feel free to join the block parties. Apparently there's a block party every week in Vista Way, and this one is actually RUN by Disney, so it's a bit more regulated. It's a big party for all of the college interns where everyone can get to meet each other and whatnot, so I think we're all planning to go to that tomorrow night.

As for today, I've done most of my check in work. I've unpacked what I can, and now I just need to go to the mall or the grocery store so that I can get myself some hangars, food, and tape. I'm about half-starved at this point because I woke up later than I planned to and didn't have time to get breakfast before checking out. And since then I've been running around moving in. Hopefully they have some food at this meeting we're having at 2. If not, I'm going to be a hungry girl for most of the day. At our meeting we're going to have our FBI clearance done (finger printing and all that jazz) and then we find out where specifically we're going to be working. I think we may meet our trainers today too, but I'm not sure. That might happen tomorrow. So today I will find out if I'm located in Cinderella's castle or in Downtown Disney. All the other girls I've talked to so far have less specific jobs, working merchandise or attractions, so they've got a lot more staked on this than I do. They could be working any of the rides or any of the stores in any of the parks. That's quite a lot of options. They're all, of course, hoping for the Haunted House or Tower of Terror. I've been hoping that I'll get Cinderella's Castle in Magic Kingdom, but upon talking to some of the workers helping us check in, that is exactly what I DON'T want. They said I should hope for Downtown Disney, because apparently transportation to the castle is a nightmare. They said that I'd have to take two separate buses, and compete with the mass of people at the end of the day who just want to get home. So... it's looking like now I should be praying for Downtown Disney, which has a far shorter and much easier commute. :)

As for my apartment itself, it's a lot nicer than I was expecting. It's a three bedroom apartment, so six girls total. And the bedrooms are a LOT bigger than I was expecting. We have a walk in closet, and since I was the first one in the apartment, I chose the only bedroom with it's own bathroom. Hoorah. We're also totally hidden. Our door is right next to the front door... so if you open the front door, you can't see us. You could also potentially hit us with the door, if we were to come out at the same time. I foresee this being quite amusing. The other two rooms have to share a bathroom, while we don't. I totally win for being the first one here, and I didn't even come that early. The living room is pretty large as well, but the kitchen is fairly small. Then again, I think the amount of use this kitchen will get is fairly small as well, so it balances out. :)

The only thing I definitely did NOT like about this apartment was the fact that there was a dead bee on the living room floor when I came in. Thankfully, my actual roommate isn't afraid/disgusted of bugs like I am, and so she quickly flushed it down the toilet first thing when she came in. I think she and I will get along great. :)

My roommates all seem pretty nice. One of them I already know, because she was in my CRV class this semester, in the same lab nonetheless. We don't really know each other well, but we at least knew each other's names and whatnot. There's another girl I recognize (I can't remember her name though) that I'm fairly certain was either in one of my classes (it would have been a large lecture, otherwise I'd remember her name) or she took the same route to classes that I did, so we passed each other frequently. I'm thinking it's probably the second one. There are quite a few people I recognize just from walking the same way every day.

My actual roommate is named Brooke, and she just graduated last week. She's 22, and she seems pretty nice. I think she's from Georgia... but I'm not entirely certain. She drove here, so she has a CAR! Hallelujah. That will make my life so much easier. We've discovered that we're both a happy medium between messy and neat freak. So that's great. We won't bother each other when we feel too lazy to hang up our clothes, but the floor will still be clean enough that there's walking space. :)

The one thing I wish our bedroom had is a bookshelf and a desk. That would have made organizing my stuff a lot easier. But we each just have a small sidetable and a large dresser that the both of us share. Our closet is really big though, so that's good. I could have brought WAY more than I did. Oh well. Five bags was hard enough to handle, just walking down the street to my apartment. I don't know what I'd have done if I had more. Thankfully, because this is a BYU building, I ran into two guys who live downstairs, and, because BYU guys tend to be chivalrous, they took all my bags for me. Hallelujah. I don't know how I'd have made it up the stairs on my own with all those bags. They just grabbed everything and hauled it all right up like it was a piece of cake. It probably was for them. I'm pretty weak. Anyways, one of them goes to BYU Hawaii. He had the tan to prove it. I'm not sure where the other one went, because by the time we'd finished establishing that I went to Provo, everything was already moved in. Oh well. I'm sure I'll see them around again, since I'm guessing that the BYU building tends to be quite friendly with one another.

Well, it's about time for our FBI clearance and assignments, so I'm off! I'll try to update this whenever I have the time, and I'll recount all my adventures here at DisneyWorld. :)