Dad's Trip Days 1 & 2

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. My dad got here to bring me my jeep last Thursday and we have been running around ever since. I had a blast with him here and have lots of pics to share. Starting with my JEEP!!!! Isn't it lovely. I love it, for sure. Richard (my GPS that I got for christmas) is having some problems...but hopefully we can get him straightened out. Richard brought dad into orlando using a few dirt roads and a way that was not the most direct route. But after a few, "You just passed what road? Mapquest doesn't show that road on 441 anywhere!" we steered dad here.

Downtown Disney: The parks close at 8, but there is always something to Disney to do here in Orlando. Downtown Disney is like a huge out-door mall with specialty shops, a show every once and a while, disney stores, and cool places to eat. We went there on thursday night to eat and hang out. I think we look pretty good in these pics, especially dad. I told him that with the leather jacket and the gotee...he maybe should think about taking up biking. I'm not sure what mom would have to say about that, but I have a theory that every girl wants her boy to be able to at least look like a bad boy from time to time...so I think it'd be okay.

This is a lego dragon!!! How cool is that? The head comes out of the water probably about 10 feet. Right behind where I took this picture, there is a lego family (life size) taking pictures of the dragon. Yeah for imagination. Then dad and I stumbled upon the hundred acre wood and asked a couple of our friends if they would mind taking a picture with us. They were, of course, very happy to. Pooh even let us sit on his thoughful spot. What a nice guy.

Dinner happened at T-Rex, which is a prehistoric Rainforest Cafe. It was really neat. We got to eat in the ice cave, which turned red like it was on fire during the meteor shower that happened every 30 mins. The animatronics we pretty cool in this place. =)

The next day we were off to the animal kingdom. We did every major thing there. The rollar coaster Mt. Everest. The 4D show "It's Tough to be a Bug" where you get stung by hornets, sprayed with acid from a termite, and then before you leave beetles and roaches crawl all over you. =) So cool. And also several shows.

The Safari was pretty cool too, we got pretty close to several of the animals. These two that we were at least 1o feet from. The wildabeast walked in front of our vehicle and we had to wait on him to get out of the way!

Also we watched the parade. It was a fun mix of brightly colored costumes and all the traditional characters in their safari outfits. Parades are always fun. :-)

Since Animal Kingdom closes at 6:00 we headed over to the Magic Kingdom to catch the fireworks. We got there a little early and got a private ride of Pirates of the Caribbean. No one in line and no one showed up before it was time for our boat to leave. That was fun. The fire works were amazing. I love how they match up the colors, timing and even the castle lighting to the music they play. I know it's all done to create an emotional experiance...but when you're walking out of the park after that, you really do believe in magic and that dreams can come true. Mine did...I work at Disney!!!!

I passed.

My training is over!!! Yeah! Let there be much rejoicing. Since Sunday I have been training all my 8 hours at Toy Story. It has been a lot of new information to cram into my head but today was the big test and enough of it stuck that I was asked to remove my "earning my ears" badge and am now a full operations cast member. I was "assessed" all day today. Starting with a 150 question test over just about everything I'll be doing. It would have questions like: If you are working at the Load 1* position and there is Signal 25** what is your FIRST responsibility? Or it would show me a picture of one of the buttons on the main console and ask what the functions of that button are/what goes on in the track when it is pushed. All kinds of things.

I can say with full confidence that you are SAFE at Disney. I actually am impressed by how much emphasis is put on safety and in the training and throughout the job. I know that there have probably been accidents, but if you consider how many people go through each of the rides...it's impressive. To make my day even a little more stressful...the entire ride was being inspected while I was taking my tests. So my assessor was being assessed on how well he assessed me! I spent about 20 mins at each position running it by myself, then my assessor would ask me more questions about the console I was operating or the emergency evac procedures.

I don't remember if I explained this or not, but everything at Disney develops from a story. All the rides (and even the stores/most eating places) have stories that you experience as you go through them, some of them are more obvious than others, but they all have one. It is how the designers organize the theme. Instead of just putting a ton of toy story stuff into a ride, they tell a story as you experience it. Our Story is this: Andy, (You'll remember from the movies is the kid that owns buzz and woody and the gang) has just gotten a new game, Midway Mania, and while he is gone all the toys are trying it out. The guests are "transformed" into a toy when they enter the building. The que line is a maze through Andy's toy box, complete with 5 foot crayons, 7 foot card houses and a life size, talking Mr. Potato Head. When they make it up the stairs and out of the toy box they get a turn to try Andy's new game. You board the vehicles and then ride into the box that the game is kept in and that is where you play.

It is very fun for me. I really enjoy it. The way my ride is set up everyone is trained on everything and we work our shifts in continual rotations, this way we can trade shift with each other easily and if if management needs to move us around quickly they don't have to explain our new job to us. It's cool I think because I'll be doing the same things as the people who have worked on Toy Story since it opened last June. Rotation includes a lot of things. Here is a short list of a few of them.

Preparing the 3D glasses for cleaning. Yes, at Disney they are cleaned and disinfected EVERY time they are used, so don't be grossed out.

Work the load/unload consoles. Put guests into cars and secure the doors and lap bars on the vehicle.

Greet guests as they enter the Pixar Studios. This includes everything from helping with the fast pass machines, parking/watching strollers, and just being around to help with questions and getting people into the correct lines.

Create a Magical Moment. Seriously, sometimes our rotation will give us 30 mins to share some pixie dust.

Operate Mr. Potato Head. He is a "life size" interactive animatronic that entertains guests while they wait in the que lines. We control him from another room using touch screens, cameras, and microphones. It is all preprogrammed, but it is also interactive, I had the cutest little girl talking with him yesterday. They traded jokes and danced together and she even picked Mr. Potato Head as her favorite toy (over Buzz and Woody). I really enjoy operating him.

So, there are a lot of words and no pictures...sorry my computer is still down, but there is at least an idea of what I'm up to. Like I've said over and over again, i love it here. Last night my room mates and I were talking and all the sudden one of them started giggling. When we asked what was so funny she just said, "I can't believe it guys...we work for DISNEY!!!" It's true, occasionally we just get giggles (sometimes pixie dust does that) because we are loving it so much. Sorry again for so many words and no pictures, but hopefully it won't last too long.

Comment and tell me what you wanna hear about. Later.
Karen


*The main passenger loading console. (No one can get out of the station unless the Load 1 says they can)

**Signal 25 is a fire, which you should not confuse with a Signal 22 (a guest altercation) or an Operations 101 (Ride is not working) or Operations 102 (Ride is back to functionality). You also shouldn't confuse it with about 12 other terms that I was specifically told I could not talk about with anyone but cast members.

No Computer

Hey everyone! I've got more things to post, but my laptop is being fixed so for the moment I'm barrowing my room mate's computer. Just wanted to let anyone who is checking know that it'll be pretty sparce until I get my laptop back. I'm haveing a blast...I still can't believe I work here. :-)

Wow!

This is gonna be a long post so I've split it into pictures and stories for easy tracking. :-)

On Tuesday night all 6 of my apartment mates and I went to Downtown Disney and watch Bride Wars then had dinner at Planet Hollywood. It was good times. My apartment buddies are all pretty cool. I don't have any major complaints about any of them. ;-) We all seem to be getting along pretty well. I have been really concious (more than I normally am) of trying to be a good witness to them. The books dad had the staff read before I left (Unchristian and Just a Walk Across the Room) have been replaying in my mind a lot. From left to right thier names are (top) Tracy, Olivia, Me and (bottom) Tiffany, April, Dariana (we just call he Dee). We've been having fun together. :-)

Wednesday morning we went through the first of our many days of training and at the end of it we were awarded our Cast Member IDs. So, that night I went to the Magic Kingdom. My first time in Walt Disney World! I thought the fireworks were at 7 so I got there about 6:30. When i found out that they were actually at 8 I went to ride the Pirate ride. :-) It was cool, I haven't seen it since they redid it to add Jack Sparrow and Davey Jones. It was pretty neat at the beginning of the ride they have some sort of mist that they project Davey Jones and a waterfall on. So it looks like you're going to get doused but then you just pass through Davey Jones's face. It's pretty cool. Then I watched the fireworks (which were stinking sweet) and rode the mono rail all the way around and came home. It was a pretty good day.

I know I've told you that my park is Disney's Hollywood Studios, but I found out my actual attraction today...Toy Story Midway Mania. Its currently the Park's newest attraction. When American Idol opens in April it will still be the park's newest ride. I haven't been on it yet, but they tell me it's like a giant 4D videogame, where you are the character as you ride through it. It keeps your score and they say that lots of guests will wait the hours to ride it again just to try and beat thier score. I'm really excited.

We toured the entire park today (It looks pretty cool with no one in it.) and I absolutely love it! It's chalked full of little movie things, plus really really BIG movie things. :-) Fun stuff like the Sci-Fi Dine-in theater. Each table at the restuarant is a car, faceing a movie screen. Some of the waiters use rollar skates and they do fun stuff along with the movies being shown. For instance during a horror flick from the 50s there is a shot where a woman screams at whatever the villian is that is coming after her. So all the waiters turn to the screen and scream with her whenever it plays, then go right on with thier conversations. Another is a diner where everying is "homestyle". "Mom" is the cook. "Aunt_____" and "Uncle_______" are your servers, and they do fun stuff like...if you put your elbows on the table you have to stand in the corner. Or, if you go to the bathroom and don't remember what color the soap is when you come out...you have to go back to wash your hands. Ha!

Nametags...apparently there is a lot of words on this tag. Other than "KAREN" and "OK STATE UNIV STILLWATER" and "Walt Disney World" and "Where Dreams Come True". It also says "I know everything about everything, please just ask me!" It becomes invisible the moment you touch it, so I can't see it anymore. ;-) We got our "Earning My Ears" badge today too. We have it all through our training as well as for one week after we've completed training. It's supposed to let other people know that we're new and might not know everything about everything right at first.

Some things I've learned at Disney, that I think apply to life:

1. Every guest (or you might just say everyone) has incredible value and deserves all of my attention and respect.

2. When all is said and done, there is no substitue for truth, integrity and ethical conduct." -Bob Iger (current CEO of the entire Walt Disney company)

3. Sucess come from a combination of Faith, Trust and a little bit of Pixie Dust. (Hmm, this sounds familiar except change those last to words. :-)

Hollywood Studios

I just found out where I'm working... :-) . Disney's Hollywood Studios. :-) That was my 2nd choice, so not too bad. I'm not sure which attraction yet, I'm not sure if they're sure which attraction yet. I drew the early training :-( So I start tomorrow morning in Disney University at 6:55 (apparently the morning has one of those too, who knew?). Then there is a big party at my apartment complex later that night which should be cool for meeting some people and stuff. It's the new intern welcome party and Goofy and Pluto are coming! How cool is that?!?

I'm ready to get started and get into a regular schedule. This whole, meet for 2 hours here, go stand in that line, hang-out at your apartment for 3 hours, come back and stand in this line, sign here, and here, and here, and here, and then date it please! Is getting really old. We can't have our park IDs until we've completed our training so I haven't even been able to get in yet, but I know it'll come soon. :-) When I get more info that is interesting*, I'll fill you in.

Karen

*As in not the stuff we learned this morning like, "You get two holes, use them wisely." (Speaking about our apartment walls.)

I'm Here!!

"Let me bring you up to speed...we know nothing. There you are now up to speed." (10 points if you can name the trailer that came off of.) I was expecting to get a little more information dumped on me today, but I guess they've learned that if you give a bunch of college kids too much info...they don't retain any of it.

It's an okay little apartment. 3 bedrooms, 2 girls in each room, 2 bathrooms, a large living room, and a tiny kitchen/dinning room. It's a little more space than I expected from the pictures...but not tons.This is my bedroom and my side of everything. Note the lovely bed spread made for me by my best friend. :-)

My room looking the other direction. Thats the closet on the right and the bathroom on the left. Since I got to the apartment first I choose the room with an attatched bathroom to share with one person. :-) The other two bedrooms share a bathroom. Next to the blue bed you can see 2 of my roommate's 5 suitcases. (No joke the others are in the closet.)

Living room.

Tiny kitchen/dinning room.

Story from today: Most people have heard my "Scared of Ketchup" story, so if you have please skip this paragraph. When I went to my interview I was told that she would be interviewing two of us at once. I didn't really like the idea because I was afraid that would make it really competitive, but I didn't complain. It ended up working in my favor. My interview buddy was late, didn't have her interview sheets, and had some pretty crazy answers. The best one was when she told the interviewer that she couldn't work in the resturants because she had a fear of ketchup. And she said it with a straight face, because apparently she was serious. It was so hard not to laugh at her right then and there.

So today while I was going from line to line I happened to see my interviewer. She came over and said hi and "Welcome to Disney" to which I responded "Well, thanks for letting me in!" And I kid you not, she smiled back real big and said, "Well, at least you're not afraid of ketchup." We laughed and my line moved on, but I'm guessing that ketchup girl didn't make it. HeHeHe.

If you wanna know anythign about what all going on just ask in the comments, I may not know yet, but if I do I'll tell ya.

I miss you guy, Karen.

Stories From Rome

I got home from the mission trip to Rome at midnight on Sat. night (or Sun. Morn) and I had an amazing time. As far as missions go the trip was great, no major problems and we found many, many refugees to feed and get to know. My guess is that over our entire trip we probably came in contact with and were able to give at least one meal to about 130-150 different men (and 2 wemon). Many of these may have been one-timers but probably 80-90 of them we saw more than once.

It's so easy to have an "us and them" mentality when we are preparing for the trip. But once we get there I cannot help but be moved by thier stories and the fact that they are human beings, not too much unlike me and my friends. They have pride in their homeland and they miss thier families. They have inncredibly hard lives, but they have hope that there is something better. They are real people who have needs and wants, likes and dislikes.

The first night we took hot soup to the train station we found a few guys who went to get some of thier friends. All of the sudden about 20 guys come running around the corner. At first i think many of us were a little alarmed. The tensions between the people groups combined with the frantic nature of life on the streets could cause riots which would be very dangerous. So the guys running around the corner scared me a little bit. But then they stoped and began laughing as one made a sort of "yes" and "I win" gesture with his hands. After a couple of slaps on the back we realized they had been racing.

How often have I seen guys on campus racing to something just for fun, or have Les and I both took off running to "race" somewhere for really no reason. These guys have really difficult lives but they are still humans being just like me. I can't help but want to help them just because I would hope someone would do the same for me. It's amazing how going half way around the world opens my eyes to people in my normal circles who also deserve the same compasion and grace from me that I want to offer to the men in Rome.

Karen