Um... Wow.

So I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those Disney bloggers who finally gets to Florida and stops posting...

Totally working out well...

I have been so much busier than I anticipated I would be. Whether it be with training for work, or playing in the parks, I have had no time or energy to sit down and write anything. Until right now.

So catch up, where to begin? I left of after our housing meetings, and our trips to Walmart. I'm far too behind to write everything down in order. So I think I will write a few posts themed around certain aspects of my time here.

First up we have fun... Because that's what it's all about...

My lovely flatmates getting our Princess on.

I hung out with my flatmates at Downtown Disney, Disney's free boardwalk type area. We browsed the stores, looked around in awe, and ate dinner at Raglan Road, a great Irish restaurant where a fantastic Irish band was playing. It was a fabulous bonding evening.

I have played in the parks. Oh how I've played!!

I had my first Magic Kingdom experience during Traditions (which I will talk about later) and it was magical. Such a strange feeling to be walking around in front on Cinderella's castle knowing I will be able to pop in whenever I want for a whole year! I've been back many times since!

We hung out with Pooh and Tigger at Animal Kingdom. They are too adorable! But its strange knowing you may know the person who is "friends" with them that day.

We partied at Hollywood Studios, which is now my favourite park!! The film buff in me gets excited around every corner! Plus the rides here are awesome! Rock 'n' Roller Coaster being my favourite so far!

I did also make it to Epcot, Disney World's fourth park, but was only there for dinner and the fireworks, so have no photos. I have plans to explore there next!

All in all I have having a fabulous time. I'm making great friends...

And I'm attempting to see and do as much as I possibly can!! 

It's so hard to put everything I have been up to down in words, but I am loving life.

Work on the other hand... Thats a story for another time.

Disney Check-In...

Monday morning brought our first actual encounter with the Disney program. We met at one of the complexes called The Commons, we went in, handed some of our forms and our passports over, and received our welcome packets which let us know where we would be living for the next year!

I found out I would be living in Vista Way, the oldest complex and the one with the party reputation, and that Rachel would be living in Chatham Square. So all of a sudden we were swept off to different areas, and that was that. We were alone to discover our new homes.

Lucky for me I found one of my roommates as I was exiting the first meeting and it was one of the girls I had met on the flight over from Auckland. Without really discussing it we decided to share a room, and we aimed to get there quickly and claim the one with the en suite. We are in a 3 bedroom, so there are 6 of us. And so far we all get along so that's a bonus!

After arriving at our apartments we were free to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day, so we made a trip down the road to Applebee's for lunch where I got something called "Potato Twisters" thinking it would be like curly fries. It wasn't. It was potato crisps twisted up. The sauce was good though. We then continued on to Dollar Tree which may quickly become my new favourite place. Unlike in NZ dollar stores, everything there is actually $1. Winning!

After this we hopped on a bus to every new Disney Programmers must-do. Walmart. It was MASSIVE! Think two Warehouses and a supermarket shoved together. We had no idea what was going on, but managed to pick up some bedding and a few necessities. 

As we were leaving Walmart we heard the tell-tale thunder that meant a Florida rainstorm was on its way, we hopped on the bus and managed to get our stuff upstairs into our apartment before it started pouring down, ruining our plans to go out for dinner. But we were all pretty tired so we accepted it and just hung out instead. At about 11:30pm we had a knock on the door, and a somewhat tipsy american guy came in to introduce himself, he ended up staying for a couple of hours. He knew nothing about New Zealand and was then bombarded with facts and questions about America. Poor guy.

Tuesday we had an afternoon welcome meeting so we took it easy in the morning, going out a couple of times to buy a few more things. I can't quite get over the heat here. Every time you go outside its like walking into a wall of thick hot air. It's insane. 

We ended up having an early night as we were all exhausted. Only Claire and I were woken at what seemed like 4am by some loud drunken people next door. We were all ready to be pissed off and report them... until I looked at my phone and it was only midnight. Oops.

Whirlwind...

Phew.

So when I last posted I was sitting in LAX airport having a cry on the phone to my mum. Let's re-cap a little bit shall we.

We left Auckland at 9:30pm on Saturday 3rd. I got a little emotional saying goodbye to everyone, but I did better than I thought I would. Nothing too dramatic, it still hadn't quite hit me that I was really leaving.

The flight was pretty horrible. We were surrounded by about 6 screaming children which was totally fun. We left at night as well, so I was too tired to watch a movie, I watched some episodes of The Carrie Diaries, but not tired enough to sleep. So I was awake for the whole 12 hour flight.

Obviously from my last, somewhat emotionally fueled post, I did not enjoy LAX, mainly because I was tired and somewhat terrified. I couldn't really enjoy the fact that I was in America for the first time as I was a walking zombie. 

But never-the-less we made it through security and found our way to our next terminal, with the help of about ten people along the way. Then was the remainder of our 7 hour wait at the airport, before boarding a smaller plane to Orlando!

I once again did not manage to sleep on the flight (anyone else see a pattern forming?) so instead entertained myself by watching the in flight movie Epic. Because it was smaller plane this time we were able to see out the window, even from the aisle seat and we could see all of the lights of the cities we were flying over which was really cool. Except we had no way of telling where we were flying over.

We arrived in Orlando at about 5:30am on Sunday morning, we then spent about two hours sitting in the transport lobby with two other Disney programmers, an Aussie guy called Josh and another kiwi girl who had been on our flight, trying to figure out how we were going to get to our hotels, when none of the shuttle stands were open. In the end Rachel and I shared a taxi with Josh, whose hotel was near ours. It was pretty expensive, and we had to figure out tipping for the first time which was scary! 

We got to our hotel and met up with Ainslie who we were sharing a room with. She had been there the night before so she had to check out of that room at 11am, and we weren't able to check into our next one till 2pm. So after a quick shower and a walk across the road to McDonalds we checked our of the first room, and proceeded to sit in the lobby of the hotel until our next room was ready. Needless to say, they sped up the cleaning process for us (mainly I think to get the sleeping randoms to get off their couches) and we were sleeping by about 1:30pm. I slept for a coupld of hours which was the first sleep I had had since leaving New Zealand, then we spent the night relaxing, catchin up on internet life, and watching True Blood on HBO (which is a novelty for us).

I was up at 5am on Monday morning thanks to jet lag and crazy time zones, but it didn't really matter as we had Disney check-in to look forward to!! We helped ourselves to the hotels free breakfast, where I munched down some bagels, and called a taxi to take us to The Commons for check-in. It was late, which made for a stressful trip, but after a while we made it to check-in!

But I think I will save that for my next post.

This is so strange, but this is my life now!

16 Hours and a Meltdown Later...

I am currently sitting in LAX completely exhausted and more freaked out than I have ever been in my life. 

You guys, LAX is confusing. 

Auckland airport is tiny and easy to navigate, clearly signposted, and everything you could want. 

LAX is huge, hard to navigate and we had no idea where to go or what to do. After asking about 50 different people, and having a minor breakdown on the phone with our mums, we are sitting by the gate for our next flight and waiting to head to Orlando.

Up until now it hadn't hit me how real it was. Even getting off the plane, it felt like we were just going to be back in Auckland with our families. But after trying to figure out this airport. It's real. I'm not going home for a year. I know I should be excited, but I'm too tired for that yet. I think that will hit when we check in at Disney with everyone around us, and are no longer doing it on our own

But the adventure has begun. Here we go...

In Real Life...

So here we are.

My very first Vlog ever. I'm very apprehensive about posting this, I feel like I come across weirdly on video haha, and my accent seems bizzare when I'm used to watching Americans Vlog.

But never-the-less here it is. Be nice x

(Obviously I filmed this yesterday then didn't post it. I LEAVE TOMORROW!!)

Let me know what you think :)