Popcorn and Polyester

Hola mis amigos!

So, I definitely owe an update. I left off on Sunday night, so be prepared for a long one.

Monday morning began with a successful birthday bamboozlement for Katie, my Texas Longhorns lovin' roommate. Kayleigh, Liz and I made pancakes that spelled out "Happy Bday Katie" in them, and it was wonderful. After our morning Quiet Time (we have this book called Four Sevens that has four weeks worth of daily devotionals- individual bible studies that have you read a passage and answer questions and apply it to your life. This particular one goes through Luke), we began reading this amazing book called God Space. It is about how to talk about and share your faith in every day conversation. It is pretty freaking awesome.

After lunch, we all piled into the car and headed to Lake Hart, Campus Crusade for Christ's international headquarters. It was an incredible privilege and so amazing to see where it all goes on. They have a HUGE amount of property with many enormous buildings. We got to see offices of the top leadership, including the offices of founder Bill Bright and his wife Vonette. Dr. Bright's office has been left the way it was when he died, and it was really cool to see it. We toured the international and national office buildings and took a pit stop in the prayer tower, which was my favorite part of the day. They had different rooms set up dedicated to different parts of the world, complete with large map tapestries and prayer requests from missionaries in those parts of the world.

When we were done at headquarters, we headed to the house of one of the national campus director and his family. They invite the project over every year after HQ tour and invite them swimming and grill us dinner. It was so splendid. I got to talk to their daughter who just graduated high school (she is going to UCF, Go Knights!). It was so sweet, I have met so many amazing people already.

So Tuesday was Traditions, which is Disney orientation. I felt like I was back at UF preview. We went to "Disney University" and learned cast member basics and other park information, some history, etc. We also got to walk around the Magic Kingdom wearing closed circuit FM radio headsets so that our leader could give us a tour but still be heard by 75 people. I felt like a secret agent with my little earpiece. haha. 8 long hours after we started, we graduated by getting our nametags! I was quite thrilled, it felt like a childhood dream coming true. After Traditions was over our whole project went to EPCOT to walk around and then watched the fireworks. It was total confirmation that all my hard work and prayer was paying off- God is so cool. He deserves all the glory for this. Watching the fireworks with people who already feel like family a week after meeting, knowing what we were there for- it was truly magical. Before we went in the park, there was a group of 11 of us who stood outside in a circle and prayed for the project and also for the world, since EPCOT is the perfect place for that.

Wednesday morning was my first training day, and I showed up and was immediately fitted for my ridiculous costume, which includes a waist high, ankle length plaid polyester skirt and a poofy sleeved, ruffly blouse, and little necktie. Not too terrible, and highly entertaining. Comfort is clearly not Disney's priority as far as costumes go, but it is very very doable. I loved it in all honesty. They also gave us a lanyard and let us pick out pins so that we can trade with guests. Pin Trading is a big deal here. I am sure I will talk more about it later. But so yeah, after taking some computer tests on safety, I was walked up and basically turned loose in the Emporium, Magic Kingdom's largest store. It runs the entire length of Main Street USA on the West side. My trainer, Pam, was wonderful. She was training Jaime, Erica, Tim and I, the four people on project who work in the Emporium. She was so sweet and kept insisting on how much of a family everyone is and how we will all cry when we leave because everyone is so close. I cannot wait. We also got to meet our first international buddy on our job site, his name is Emelien and he is from France and is here on the International College Program. He is new too, so he stuck with us on our breaks and it was great to start getting to know him. We got to learn about customer service and such, not much actual store training. We got to do a lot of "merchentaining" (merchandise+entertaining=merchantaining) which will undoubtedly be my favorite part of the job- interacting with guests and their kids. I had a swordfight with a 6 year old pirate and knew immediately that I have the best job in the world.

When we got back yesterday we had a movie night and watched Princess and the Frog and about 20 other people from project came, including some of the boys. We made home made popcorn (like in a pot with oil) and it was wonderful. I have not had popcorn in SO long- one time I went to a circus and ate popcorn (my mom had given it to me to take with me, dairy-free) and cotton candy and afterwards I got the stomach flu and was horribly sick. Consequently, I have not liked popcorn, cotton candy, or circuses for a very very long time. But I got over my fear and tried it again and loved it.

Today I had theme park orientation called Once Upon A Time Is Now! It was an introduction to the Magic Kingdom basically, and it was slightly pointless since I worked all day yesterday. It was sorta backtracking. Anyways, we had to be there at 715 which meant that my feet hit the floor at 5:45 this morning, a full 16 hours ago. I got marched around Magic Kingdom in dress shoes, hosiery, a skirt and a nice top, which is hopefully a once in a lifetime experience. It was really cool to see some of the stuff I won't normally get to see, such as the back of the Haunted Mansion. They even let us ride Haunted Mansion and Buzz Lightyear, two of my favorites. It was all in all a fun morning, but it was quite exhausting. I came home, totally prepared to nap, and somehow found myself at Animal Kingdom an hour and a half later. Ten of us spent the evening there and had a blast. Pictures will come. Then I just spent some time with a few girls relaxing my aching feet in the jacuzzi here at the hotel. When I got home from that, I Skyped with Jessie, who was joined by Betsy and Cait. No matter how much I love it here, it was so wonderful to see some familiar loving faces. It was another awesome day, but I am so incredibly exhausted. I also got my first piece of mail today! A card from Amanda :-) I did the happy dance in our living room and then I put it on my nightstand.

Okay, I love you all but my body aches in places that should never ache. I will update more later! Tomorrow a bunch of us have the day off, which I believe will be spent in group bible study and a trip to Blizzard Beach. So I will update on that later.

Mucho amor,
One tired, aching, ecstatic cast member :-)