Saturday, 9 February 2013

The Big Day (Made Complete by Crazy Squirrels)




My check in day with Disney was Tuesday January 29, 2013. As the complexes would not be ready for us early in the morning, we were asked to check in after noon on that day. As a result, my parents and I went to Epcot for the morning.

We went and got fast passes for Soarin’ and were planning on going on Test Track, but it was shut down that morning. Instead, we started off at Spaceship Earth. After we went over to The Seas with Nemo and Friends pavilion and rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We went to see Turtle Talk with Crush, where the audience has the opportunity to interact with Crush. This show proves that the phrase “kids say the darndest things” is actually true! At least, it was true for our group at that show!

After finishing off The Seas pavilion, our fast passes for Soarin’ were ready. We ended getting the first row, which is the best because you can’t see anyone flying above you. The park started to get very busy at this point, so we decided to head back to the hotel and make sure that I had fully packed everything up for my move. We packed up whatever remained in the hotel that was mine and it was then time for lunch. We headed to the Olive Garden for lunch and then headed over to Vista Way to check in.

I was so nervous heading up to Vista. Once we had reached the housing complex, and after a few mistaken directions, I found the check-in for the international program participants. I checked in and was placed in Vista. This was really strange for me to hear because the international participants had almost always been placed in The Commons. It turns out that they are trying to spread everyone out now and a fair number of us from the same arrival date were placed in Vista.

I was shown up to my room and my parents helped me unpack all of my stuff. I am in a two bedroom, so each room has a private bathroom to share between two roommates. When I moved in I met the two girls that were sharing the other room. Both of them are from Mexico. My roommate hadn’t arrived at this point. My parents and I completely set up my room and did a Walmart run. Since I was still roommate-less at this point, I went back to Epcot with my parents for the night.

We decided to eat at the Fish and Chips shop in the United Kingdom pavilion. On the way, we decided to stop in the Canadian pavilion and I met a couple of the people that I am now working with. It was nice to get to know some people beforehand, as I had not been able to meet up with any of the Canadians that had the same start date as me at this point.

We got our Fish and Chips and sat at one of the tables right outside the Chippy. There were several other people at the surrounding tables and we were all enjoying our Fish and Chips when the squirrels came out. Most squirrels would be afraid of people, but these squirrels were jumping up on the tables and were trying to get food. They were not afraid of anything! While it made our meal a little difficult to eat, it did make for an absurd story to tell people!

After our eventful dinner, we got some caffeinated drinks and went to watch the rock band in the United Kingdom pavilion, British Revolution. They put on an awesome show and played all classic rock songs by various British bands (The Beatles, The Stones, The Clash, etc.) While the show was on, I had a cute Disney moment. There was a little girl watching the show with her dad and the two of them were dancing together. When the little girl started jumping, her dad would jump along with her. It was a very cute “only at Disney would you see this” moment.

We went over to France and got some dessert (I got a strawberry tart and it was absolutely amazing!) We walked all around the World Showcase and rode both Maelstrom (the boat ride in Norway) and The Grand Fiesta Tour (the boat ride in Mexico). After this, we found a spot to watch Illuminations in Mexico. Once the fireworks were over, my parents brought me back to Vista for the night. When I got back, I got to meet my roommate! She is from the UK and is absolutely lovely! Her flight had just gotten in a few hours before and the few of them had done a quick Walmart run for essentials that night. We spent the next few hours getting to know each other while she unpacked her stuff.

That was the end of my very exciting check in day. I had received a schedule for the next few days when I checked in and had a couple of days of orientation meetings and paperwork ahead!

Currently listening to: “Fit to be Tied” by Jet Lag Gemini from the album Fire The Cannons

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