Fall Time!

Well hello! I'm so glad that it is now the fall, goodbye super hot weather, goodbye to thousands of tourists and hello back to back events in Disney Housing! It sure has been busy lately, and the coming weeks will be even more crazy woo-hoo!

I guess I'll pick up where I left off. Because of the lack of crowds, I've finally gotten to play in the parks more often. I've had some great time with Casey and roomie bonding time with Leah, even with my old roomie from Texas, Kathleen! :)





This is one of the new restaurants in the Italy Pavilion in Epcot called Via Napoli! It was REALLY good (Mom & Nana...we're going to have to take you there!!!)





Game Day :)



So there were two more Welcome Events at housing to welcome the new CPs! One was a High School Musical themed party....yea, not my favorite movie, but hey, the decorations I got to do were fun! I designed all the signage for it, along with all the decorations for the Welcome, Inc. Party.













For our first sporting event of the semester, we headed to Tampa to see the Tampa Bay Rays vs The New York Yankees at the amazing Tropicana Field! Our seats were great & the evening was fun! Wish I could say the same for the game...no scores until the bottom of the 11th, bleh!





Leah and I took a day-cation out to St. Augustine, Florida! We visited her grandma, and then explored St. George's Street. At the end of the day, we headed out to the Atlantic Ocean! My first time seeing it :) It was a great day!









Very late one night, I dragged myself to the Magic Kingdom...and I'm glad I did, because I got to see a cast preview of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Parade!







A friend of mine got free tickets to see Disney on Ice - Toy Story 3 in downtown Orlando. Very cool show, looking forward to seeing other things on ice too.











I've been all over Walt Disney World...yet last week, I went to a place I didn't even know existed! For our Cast Appreciation, our leaders took us first on a tour of the refurbished Tree Houses at Saratoga Springs (okay, these I'd heard of...and yes, they literally are tree houses) but then, we went to Osprey Ridge Golf Club where we were treated to dinner at The Sand Trap!





Some friends from Texas came to visit me too!!! It was great to see them, even if it was only for a few hours :) (Lovely crane, eh? They're already putting up Christmas lights!!)



Soooo one very exciting thing I got to do lately was finally check out Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and The Wizarding World of HARRY POTTER!!! The ride was awesome...kind of scary at times, but very impressive. We walked through Diagon Alley, went into Honeydukes, drank butter beer at the Hog's Head, browsed through Olivanders, went into the Three Broomsticks...we even heard Moaning Myrtle as we went to the bathroom!

It. Was. Amazing.














Butterbeer! Which was sooooo delicious :)



Times have been scootin' along here, and I'm glad that the fall has come. I know there are some great events going on in October...Food & Wine Festival included! YAY! So farewell for now!

Oh yes, one more thing!

After all of that, I cannot believe I forgot this!!! There's something called the Communicator at Disney Housing. It goes out to all 7,000 plus program participants...it's like a newspaper, but better! Here's a screen shot:



Well since we are the new Disney Housing Interns, we got to grace the front of the August Issue! What's even cooler than that, is that Communicators go into the Disney archives! So our faces will forever remain in a file somewhere :) Pretty cool, eh?

Time Flies...

...when you're having fun :) And fun is what I've been having! Seriously though, I cannot believe how quickly July went by, and that it is almost September. Arrivals have begun and already we've welcomed close to 2,000 new Cast Members, and there are still thousands more to come!

Well I have gotten to do some interesting things as of late. First of which, those of us on the environmentality team at Housing got together and headed to the Waste Management facility to learn some more about recycling. Apparently, Disney Imagineers came to the facility in order to do research for WALL-E! Here are some interesting photos!









Yay! Don't they look just like the blocks WALL-E makes? It made me happy! So here's a few things I learned about recycling that I didn't know before. First, you can't recycle all plastic, only bottle-neck-shaped things. Example, you cannot recycle the plastic cups you get at Starbucks, but regular water bottles you can. Second...you know the caps on water bottles? Or on milk cartons and juice cartons? You're supposed to take those off and trash them, because when plastic items are brought to the facilities, they are smashed by these giant rollers and those plastic caps will shoot off in all directions and are a safety hazard! (haha, my inner Cast Member is coming through!)

Let's see, another cool thing I got to do was have dinner at California Grill at Disney's Contemporary Resort! It is a fine-dining restaurant on the very top floor with a breathtaking view of the Magic Kingdom :) We had Casey's birthday dinner, and got to see the fireworks! Unfortunately, most of the pictures didn't show up because of the glare on the window...plus pictures cannot really do the view justice.







The food was so good! We shared gourmet cheese flatbread, each got some sushi, then had an oak fired fillet with broccolini! We ended the meal with Valrhona chocolate cake, and Mascarpone and Meyer Lemon Cheesecake! It was sooooo delicious :)

Recently when I was at Downtown Disney, I watched this awesome artist making glass sculptures. I would LOVE to learn how to do this one day!



Also, if I were super rich, I would totally buy this for my house :)



You see the price tag? $37,500?! AHHH! BEA-utiful. Anyway, let's see what else have I been up to...here's some work I've been doing! The first is a painting I did for my Mom. I used gouache on loose leaf canvas.



I also have been doing a lot of event posters for the event interns. It's funny that the poster I've enjoyed making the most is the High School Musical one when I really can barely stand that movie.....haha



And speaking of the High School Musical Event, we got to film a promo for the Disney Housing TV channel HTM (Housing The Magic) where the event interns got cheerleader/basketball player costumes from Entertainment for the party. Here's some fun photos from the shoot!









Our latest Welcome Event was yesterday, and although it was pooring down rain, everyone had a good time! We even got some pictures with Belle and Chef Mickey!







Here's a pic of the gang at the Program Completion Celebration for Cultural Representatives in a gorgeous ballroom at Disney's Yacht & Beach Club! From left to right, it's Corey, Chris, Me, Bryan, Rachel & Marielle!



I had the pleasure of running into an old friend during arrivals! This is Libby. When I first became a Campus Rep back in 2009, she was my first recruiter! It was great to catch up with her, as she now works with DVC (Disney's Vacation Club).



....and now, speaking of DVC, my latest PI Spotlight was of a new Cast Member named Sarah. She works at the DVC Preview Center at Saratoga Springs. After I interviewed her, she took me on a tour of her area. Here's some DVC model rooms from Bay Lake Tower and Kidani Village! Then at the end, I passed by a model for Aulani, the new Resort in Hawaii! I hope I get to go visit one day!!!









Alright! Last but not least...MY TRIP HOME! I got to go back to Dallas, Texas for my best friend's wedding :) I got to stay with my Nana who lives in Garland, I got to see my Mom, and my sister! And even my little brother and my Daddy drove all the way from Austin to see me!!!! Pretty much, they drove in to have lunch HAHA but they surprised me at the airport. It was great to see family again :) I hadn't realized how much I've missed them all until I saw them!









I flew in Thursday so I'd have time to go to Kelly's Bachelorette Party! And then the following morning, we had a tea party!







The wedding, of course, was beautiful :) It was so great to finally see Kelly and Marcelo become Mr. & Mrs. Somers!!!!!









Well if there's one thing that this post has taught me...I have GOT to update more often! This was way too long hehe! But I'm glad I've now gotten to share what I've been up to here in Florida! :) And now, TGIF! I'm off to relax after a long few weeks! Bye!