Tales of a Disney Student : October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Midway

Hello friends,
Happy Halloween!
I can hardly believe that this week marks the half way point of my adventure here in Florida!
The past two and a half months have been a great learning experience. I am very thankful to those of you who have been praying for me and keeping up on my life while I have been here.
Being a Disney Cast Member has been great and I am already dreading the day when I must say farewell to my fellow Cast Members. Ever since I got past my one month slump, my eyes have been opened to the possibility of building a life here in Florida. -Every place I travel, if it is for a long enough time, I always end up becoming attached to the location.- I see this as a blessing, though it may be difficult to say goodbye, because it means that I have truly lived life to its fullest where I have been.
As I continue to go throughout my day to day life, learning is always happening. At work I am learning to respect and appreciate each and every one of my leaders/managers and co-workers for their unique characteristics. The longer I am here, the more I feel as if Discovery Island Merchandise is my family. Relationship building is an interesting thing to experience as is progresses in time. When I first began working, I felt as though I was being inspected and thus, kept at a distance from others conversations. Now, since I have been here a good while, people know my work ethic and personality so their is so much more familiarity amongst everyone, and I love it! At home I am learning about patience. Living with 5 other girls is not always the simplest of tasks. However, with the strength of my heavenly Father and encouragement from my dear friends and family, I have been succeeding (: Personally I have learned lots about myself. I have become a pretty big perfectionist and cleanliness freak. Not sure when or how I became so obsessed with these two things, but I have. Though neither one of these are negative, it is important not to let them get out of control. God has been working with me and has humbled me a couple times to remind me that I am still human, and make mistakes.
Something that I have recently re-visited, is my human nature to want to conform to this world. For pretty much my entire life I have struggled with being stereo typed before people even get to know me. At times I thought about being completely different, "rebellious", so that this would not happen any more. Up until a few days ago, this had not bothered me, but then I began noticing I was not being invited to hang out with others. Living a life that represents Christ is difficult. Not that my life must be boring, it definitely is not, but I make decisions that do not follow the "social norm". Continued prayer for strength in this area is much appreciated (:

Changing the mood a little... I want to share with you all, in pictures, some things I have been able to see the past couple weeks.

Princess Aurora


Cinderella

Below are pictures from the restaurant "Be Our Guest" at Magic Kingdom

I got to eat "The Gray Stuff" and it was delicious!

Got to meet Gaston! He is probably one of my favorite characters to speak with (:

The following pictures are of more food from the Food and Wine Festival

Spinach & Paneer Cheese Pocket

Chicken Gyro with Tzatziki Sauce

Chili Colorado with House-made Chips & Cashew Cheese


Tuna Poke with Seaweed Salad & Lotus Root Chips

Beautiful evening!!!

Talk to you all soon! Have a magical and safe weekend =D

Saturday, October 19, 2013

An Assortment of Adventures

Hi!
Finally getting around to updating all you lovely people on my life.
For starters, it has been a very full two weeks. The classes that I am taking while at Disney have begun. They are great! One of the classes is Exploring Guest Services. During the two hour class time we learn about the Disney side of Guest Service. The other class is Exploring Marketing. Same thing as the first class, I am learning about Marketing from a Disney perspective. I am really enjoying both classes! The men who teach each class have worked at Disney for over 10 years & have worn many hats during their time as cast members. Aside from the classes that I attend weekly, I have also had the opportunity to attend a few seminars. This far I have attended Networking 101, Presentation Skills, Meet the Professional Interns, and Leaders Across Property. All the seminars have been extremely informative and I am learning how to properly Network (:
Networking, I am realizing, is something that takes skill, knowledge, and confidence. In a company as large as Disney the more people you know, the better. One important thing that I have learned while being here is how important it is to be proactive in your relationships. Not only are relationships a healthy thing to have, they can being very helpful in the work force as well. As my time at Disney is slipping away, I am beginning to be more purposeful with my time. - It's a learning experience, definitely - I would have never guessed that talking to strangers, in a professional environment, would be as intimidating as I am finding it to be.
Living in Florida has offered a continual reminder that I am growing up. I am enjoying the "real life", but I have to admit that sometimes the idea of being a child again sounds really appealing. There are so many people who have helped nurture me in my walk throughout life. Being on my own, and putting into practice what I have learned has been really cool. Some of these things include cooking, being considerate, how to clean, how to communicate professionally, how to cook, and how to be true to myself. This last point brings up something that I have recently re-visited in my life; being a young woman of God. Leaving some details out, this past week I came to the realization that I am SO very glad I have something higher to live for than myself. Without God in my life, I don't think I would like me. The joy that I have for life comes from Him. Even if my emotional side is urging me to have a lousy attitude, the holy spirit counteracts that voice and lovingly reminds me that the choices I make don't just represent me. Once again, always learning.

Alright, I think I have talked enough (: I think its time to post some pictures of the things that I have done the past couple weeks.
The first few pictures of of The Tree of Life. This is the focal point in Animal Kingdom. There are a total of 325 different species of animals carved onto the tree. I don't know how many animals total are on the tree though, because there are duplicates of some.

The next picture is at Epcot. They have a special area set up for the Craisin's company. The workers are standing in a huge pool of cranberries. It's just like what we see in commercials!