Harry Potter-iffic day

This is only my fifth post in June?!?! Wow I can see why you guys are getting restless for more posts... The truth is June has been even busier than May and my journal is almost as behind as my blog, so I guess there are some days that will exist only in my memory and never on paper...or computer... because the more I try to catch up, the more new stuff I begin to forget.

Let's talk about yesterday. I got to experience the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!! Other than being in 30 degree Florida weather and surrounded by muggle tourists, it was like I was actually there in Hogsmeade! Ok, maybe not. But it was really cool nonetheless.

I won't say too much because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. But butterbeer is really good, especially frozen. Chocolate frogs are expensive. And the new ride? Well I was so excited that I cried when it started. No joke. I can't wait to share it with fellow Potter fans...ahem, Arielle...
Me being an evil hatless Slytherin... I have photos of my being a not-so-evil hatful Slytherin, as well...
Me playing Quidditch! Ok, maybe not, but I am mounting a broom...
Me chillin' outside HOGWARTS!!!!! I know I have bad hair. I blame Popeye.

So that's all I will give away right now. Also I have to go to Downtown Disney soon, I'm going to see Toy Story 3 again! Love you all and I'll try to post again soon. <3

Ketchup

First of all, I'm sorry if my last blog came off a little harsh. I was only kidding, mom. I know you all want to hear about what happens down here and I do want to tell you, but just yesterday I missed work because I overslept from getting to bed too late the night before. That's how bad my sleep deprivation is getting on some days. So I'm on my way to Walmart to buy a new alarm clock that will hopefully get me out of bed on time, and I might stop at the Starbucks at the Premium Outlets to get a my way frappe...just saying...

I'm going to try to upload my pictures soon and give everyone a proper update. Until then, here's a photo from facebook of my birthday dinner! John surprised us with a buffet dinner at Fort Wilderness and embroidered birthday hats and buttons. So cute! I nearly cried. I also have a photo of how happy I was when I got my birthday package from home. So happy!!! I'll post it later.Also yesterday was halfway day. So although I'm happy for all that's happened and I'm happy to see all you folks again, I'm a little sad that there are less than 44 days left of my program, and that the fun is half over. But, on the other hand, the fun is half...full? I'm trying to say that there's still half of my trip left, so there's lots more fun to be had.

For now I'm off for a lovely day of shopping (not too bad since I don't need many groceries, mostly just soy milk, vegetables, and ice cream for tonight :D). I hope to talk to you all soon and I hope summer vacation is going well!

A very brief update...

I realize I haven't written a blog in quite some time. And I also realize I have promised--or rather, had certain people make one way promises about me--that I would update my blog on more than one occasion (by this I mean, mom has been bugging me to write every day). Well, I've meant to! Heck I've even gotten so far as to pull open this page. But when so much happens every day, it takes a very long time to even write about that day, let alone play catchup for a week's worth (or more) of eventful days.

Well, time is something I don't have a lot of down here. Especially this week, my birthday week, I simply have not had access to time and a computer at the same time for long enough to write a blog. And energy, well, that's something I never have access to these days.

Today is no exception. It's already past 10:30 and I'll be getting up for work in 7 hours. On top of that I haven't been getting nearly enough sleep lately, so really this is just a quick update to let you know that I'm still here, I'm doing fine, I'm having lots of fun and lots of work and lots of busy. I miss you all and I miss home more and more every day as the temperature climbs into the hundreds, farenheit. I haven't even had the time to write in my journal but don't worry, I've been keeping track of the events that happen on my phone because I can do that while I'm out. As soon as I get the time I'll sit down and write about those events, elaborating on the details.

For now, it's bed time. But not to worry, once I catch up on my sleep, I'll catch up on my blog. Until then, so long, farewell, {something german} and goodnight! <3

Rest, Relaxation, and Grocery Shopping

Hi everyone! Not much to report today, I'm just checking in and saying hi. Well I'm here I might as well talk about yesterday and today.

Today/last night I was up until 4am after a strange chain of events and then some internet and chat time, so I was figuring I would sleep the day away. Not so. around 10 my roommates were out in the living room talking quite loudly and woke me up. I didn't mind but I was pretty tired. I came out to join them and we talked for a while. Around 11 Megan and I headed over to get the H bus to Publix for some grocery shopping fun. Or rather some grocery shopping torture. I don't really mind the shopping part, it's the spending money, the hour bus ride home, the carting groceries around and the putting things away that I'm not too fond of.

Well, let a hungry, tired teenage girl loose in a grocery store and you know what you'll end up with. Junk food. I bought such items as non-dairy fudgsicles and ice cream sandwiches, cinnamon bun flavoured toaster strudels, chocolate covered raisins, two bite brownies, and white chocolate caramel flavoured instant cappuccino mix. Ooh, and vanilla coke zero. I was excited! I've felt like drinking coke more since I've been down here and they no longer sell vanilla or cherry coke in Canada. Well I wanted to buy coke zero but then I saw VANILLA coke zero and I had to buy it. So I did. Don't worry mom, I also bought dried and fresh fruit and vegetables, lunch size packs of hummus and fruit juice, and bread, so I'm not going to be living completely on junk food. Just mostly. Want to know how much I spent on groceries? Well I'm not going to say because it's embarrassing.

I bought so much that I could hardly carry it all. A taxi driver came up to me and asked me if I wanted a taxi home because I looked so ridiculous. How could I refuse? The bus ride home from Publix is over an hour. The taxi ride was less than 5 minutes. It cost me $6 but I got home before Megan, who got on the bus nearly an hour before I left. If only she'd known, then we could've split the cost and been home in minutes for only $3! Of course that would require her following me around Publix for an hour. Although that could've been good, because I wouldn't have bought as much. ANYway, you can tell I'm tired from all the rambling I'm doing.

So here's me after eating some baguette and hummus, blueberries, vanilla coke zero and a mini non-dairy banana split ice cream sandwich, while watching an episode of Star Wars: the Clone Wars. Also a bit embarrasing. But I wanted to see what it was all about because that's what this year's Star Wars Weekends seems to be focused on.
Yes, I took it on photobooth on my mac while sitting in the dining room drinking my pop, in case you were wondering.

So here's my plan for the rest of the day: go swimming, come back and take a nap or at least rest while watching tv or reading, then eat dinner (morningstar farms chick'n nuggets, rice--which I made during lunch, so prepared heehe-- and salad, with brownies or a fudgesicle for dessert), then go to Magic Kingdom for the Electric Light Parade Cast Preview. I would go even if I didn't have two friends in it, but I do, so it will be even better. I'm hoping that by eating dinner beforehand I won't be tempted to spend money in the parks. It's a nice thought but I don't know how well it will work out. It's just that it's only been 3 days of June and I've already spent nearly $200. Yikes. On the bright side, the groceries I bought will probably last me for weeks to come. That's good, right?

Ok so before I go and follow my genius day plan, I'll talk a little about yesterday and post some pictures (which I had to drag onto my desktop before loading. For some reason the last few imports into iphoto have not been showing up in the photo menu for blogger. Weird.)

So after horseback riding I went to Magic Kingdom with Meagan, Megan, and Amy. Meagan and I wore birthday buttons (it's less than a week until our birthdays, I think we're entitled). It was really fun. I felt special because almost every cast member I saw wished me a happy birthday. Some even said my name! For dinner I ordered a kid's meal (cheese pizza with grapes and fries, plus a diet coke, all for a bargain price! I love kid's meal deals) and I got a cookie for free! Yay for birthdays at Disney. Next week is going to be super happy fun time when it actually IS my birthday :)

So anyway, here's us on the carousel. I laughed because we'd spent the afternoon riding real horses, and here we were riding fake ones around in a circle. Good times. That's Megan in the back and Meagan in the front. :D
My first mickey bar ever! These things are world famous and I've never ever eaten one before yesterday. It was good. Well, except that I had to force it down because I eat slow and everyone else eats fast and they wanted to go on the carousel. After that we rode the teacups twice in a row. I thought I was going to puke the first time and I really should've sat the second one out. I was ok after a few minutes though, and we went on Pooh next so it was pretty tame.
We also went to Tomorrowland to ride TTA and Space Mountain. Of course the daily thunderstorm hit while we were in Fantasyland so the ground was soaking wet. It was good the storm came late, otherwise it would've interrupted our horseback riding session and might've dampened the experience. HAHAHAHA I'm so witty.

Ok so we left at park closing, which was 10pm, just as wishes was going on. This was taken while we were walking up to the monorail. That's the finale of wishes taking place right over the train station. It was so beautiful!

Well the 3pm thunderstorm has hit right on schedule today, so maybe swimming is not the best idea right now. I guess I'll head into my room for some TV and rest, and try to go swimming a little later. There's been a thunderstorm everyday for the past week or more, usually in the afternoon or early evening. Right now the trees outside my window are blowing so hard they look like they'll fall over. If the wind is strong enough to move trees like that, outside is not a good place to be right now. I feel bad for my roommate Christina, she just went out to play mini golf about an hour ago! That should be interesting in this weather. Although the storm is necessarily raging where she is, since they tend to be pretty concentrated.

Well that's all for now folks. I'm going to decide what show to watch online and cuddle up in my bed. Or maybe I'll just go to the couch, it's probably more comfortable. TTFN!

One Month-iversary in Florida

Ok so I was just about to go to bed when I remembered I promised Mom I'd write a new blog tonight. So, here it is.

I've been in Florida one month today, from May 2nd to June 2nd. That's pretty significant considering I'm only going to be here for 3 months! In fact I only have 59 days left including departure day, when I have to check out at 11am. Throughout May it felt like I was counting up the time I've been here, but now that I've hit June I find myself counting down the time I have left. I'm actually starting to worry that I won't be able to fit everything in! There's not much longer until I'll have spent more time here than time remaining: the halfway mark is in less than 2 weeks.

So let's talk about last month (that still sounds weird. I really can't believe it's June!). I've realized a few changes since I've been here. My hair's a bit longer (I'm getting it cut into an angled bob next week! Sooo excited!), I'm a bit more independent, I'm able to survive and thrive on fewer hours of sleep, my eating habits are horrendous, my spending habits are terrifying, and I think I've gained a little weight, mostly because of the latter two changes. I'll have to go to the gym to confirm this because I think they have a scale. I wouldn't know since I haven't set foot in there once, probably another contributing factor to that last item. My grocery list for tomorrow is a little scary, but my excuse is that I can't keep fresh food around because I never eat dinner at home, so it goes bad. Of course if I ate food at home once in awhile, that problem would go away. Yet usually my chances to go to the parks come in the evening, by which time I want dinner and dessert, so you see the predicament I'm in.

Since it's the dawn of a new month, I decided to look over my receipts for May and estimate how much money I've spent so far, sort of as an assessment to see where I stand. The amount of money I've spent is appalling, but at least it doesn't overshoot how much I've been paid by too much. I would say I'll try to conserve money in June, but it would be a lie. It's my birthday month and I've already got more than one probably expensive celebration planned. I'm also getting bored of my clothing and want to go to the outlet. And thirdly, I've hardly bought any souvenirs yet, so that will probably come out of June's paychecks too. Needless to say I won't be coming out of debt any time soon. But money troubles aren't what I'm here to talk about. I'm just throwing it in there because it fits in with my whole 'month-iversary' theme.

In the past month I've worked at all four Walt Disney World theme parks at least twice, and I'm starting to get the hang of it. New recruits are arriving and I'm beginning to feel like I'm not the newbie anymore. When I'd been here 2 weeks and 3 weeks, people treated me as new, but when I can say I've been here a month, it somehow makes me seem more seasoned. Now if I said I'd been here 4 weeks, it might be a different story. The word month vs. week has a different impact on the human perception I guess. I don't even know if I'm making sense right now because it's after 2am and I'm really tired. No, I'm not setting my alarm tomorrow! Heehee I'll probably sleep in till noon. Ugh.

I don't have the brainpower to think about the week and what I have and haven't said already. So let's talk about today!

Today I woke up and did laundry. Then at around 1:45 Dave came and picked us up (us being me, my roommates, Amy [a different Amy], and Meagan. We were a party of 2 Megans, 2 Amys, and the rest. It was fun.) to go horseback riding. We went to Wilderness Lodge for a 45 minute trail ride in the woods. It was amazing! My horse's name was Sylvester and he was a very good boy. He only tried to eat a few times and I had to pull back on his reins. He mostly just followed behind the horse in front and I hardly had to steer. Other than making my knees and legs sore, riding was a very peaceful experience. I haven't ridden in a long time and I'm so glad I did it. Especially since I got a 50% cast member discount! So worth it.Pictured is Sylvester and I. He's leaning down to eat the grass right here. It's the last ride of the day and he's hungry! I don't blame him. Ok, truthfully, we're all friends here--aren't I looking a little chubbier? Honest opinions please?

After riding we came home for a spot of lunch then went to Magic Kingdom. We of course had dinner there (you don't go to the parks and not eat. You just don't. It doesn't happen). I had a kids cheese pizza at Pinnochio's Village Haus. (Yes, it's supposed to be like that. I'm not so tired I can't spell, don't worry.) We stayed until closing at 10pm and got quite a lot done in that time. Meagan and I wore birthday buttons because it's our birthdays in 6/5 days respectively, so I'm going to wear mine all week. Almost all the cast members said Happy Birthday to me or her or both. It was fun. And my meal came with a free cookie because of my button! Bonus!

Tomorrow I have the day off and I don't have a whole lot planned so hopefully I can post more then. Hopefully I can also post more pictures since blogger is being annoying and forcing me to drag pictures onto the desktop before I can upload them. ANYway, have a good night everyone and I'll talk to you soon!