Pictures!

Here are some pictures that I've taken from my new camera!

DeVine

I love these monkeys

Little Max! He's my favorite!

Mt. Everest

Aziz our newest Gorilla

Gino, our family troop male

I love the Okapi! Soooo beautiful!

Momma Kashata and baby Lilly

The bats freak me out

One of our bachelor males (I can't tell them apart)

Safari Giraffe

Love this Safari picture

Teveta Golden Weaver

DAK After Dark, GKTW, and Extensions

Omg…it’s almost been a month since my last entry. Sorry! That just means LOTS to talk about.

On the top of my list…mom and Stephen will be here in three days!!! I am in definite need to some home so I absolutely cannot wait. I spend my whole shifts daydreaming about what were going to do. I went to the resort the other day to finish paying off the room. We’re staying at All Star Movies. Not my top choice, but cheap. Today I actually thought I could get Autumn down here too, but that didn’t happen and I ended up crying in the middle of Magic Kingdom. I finally got to talk to her for the first time in two weeks and said she could of came this weekend because her exam got cancelled so of course I immediately looked up plane tickets. But long story short she can’t come because she’s being academically responsible L STUPID COLLEGE!

But anyway…extension applications came out last week. So about a week before the email came I was 100% sure I was coming home in January. Even the morning I got the email and read it I was sure I wasn’t going to apply and come home. Well…the same day the email showed up Maria (my awesome roomie from my last program) text me at work to let me know I needed to extend because she got accepted in the spring program. UGH…so now I don’t know what I’m going to do. I went ahead and applied for an extension, but I honestly don’t know if I’m going to accept it. It depends on what the offer me and how I feel that day. Lol. My choices were photopass photographer, bibbidy bobbity boutique, recreation, and same job same location. So I don’t know…..

So one of the reasons why I wanted to do another program was so I could volunteer at Give Kids the World again. Well I did! Twice. I tried to get Fridays off so I could go every week, but that didn’t happen. So a couple weeks ago I gave away my Sunday shift and my Friday shift so I could go. I LOVE THE VILLAGE! Sunday was the Candy Land party. (Every night at the village is something different, but it’s the same every week. Monday is Halloween, Tuesday is Mayor Clayton’s birthday, Wednesday is Village Idol, Thursdays is Pirate and Princess Party, Friday is Winter Wonderland, and Saturday is something lol.) The Candy Land party was super fun. The playground is a life size Candy Land board and the families get to play on it. So my job was to take the families around the board. So many precious children!!! Then Friday was Winter Wonderland so it was Christmas in the village. I went with a co-worker Friday and we had an awesome time! We got to be ballerinas in the Christmas parade. Then we got to dance in the snow with the kids. I’m really hoping I get to go back before I leave.

 

So it’s Halloween. And of course us here in Disney have been celebrating since the beginning of September. I’m kind of happy it’ll all be over next week. So every year Animal Kingdom throws a Halloween party just for DAK cast members. It’s called DAK After Dark. After the park closes we get to hang out. Dinoland stays open and we get to play the carnival games, Asia becomes like a haunted house, there’s a costume contest, pumpkin carving contest, a DJ, and free food! It was last week and it was pretty fun. Cast parties are always the best. It did kind of suck that I had to close the village that night so I was an hour late and it was the cold! I have officially turned in all my shorts and traded them for pants and I’m wearing my long sleeve shirt every day. It’s actually beautiful outside (lower 80s), but I’m really cold nature.

Soooo….I bought another camera….I couldn’t take it anymore! Standing there every day watching people with their cameras taking pictures was torture. Lol. So I convinced my roommate to drive me to Best Buy and I just did it. And I’m a much happier person now J

So funny stories about work…yesterday I was at Safi with the hippo and I was talking to a family about a fish that is broken. He hangs out by the same window and he’s pretty much bent in half. When I first saw him I thought he was dying, but he’s been there for about a week now. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but of course everyone who sees him asks me what’s wrong or if he’s dying. So I was talking to this family and we were talking about the fish and then we switched the conversation to the hippo and how it’s the most dangerous animal in Africa and how it’s tusks were huge and could do some damage. Well the little girl of the family who was about 9 thought we were still talking about the broken fish. The look on her face was priceless! Omg…I laughed so hard. She pointed to the fish and said, “That thing is the most dangerous animal in Africa”?! LOL. So funny….

My other story is from a couple days ago. I was in research and I was standing where I always stand by the bullfrog tank. On the wall behind me is the Madagascar hissing cockroaches, the scorpion, and our tarantula. So I’m standing there talking about the bullfrogs (which kept being referred to as the Harry Potter frogs because they’re so big. I’ve been here for three months and have never heard anyone reference HP, but I heard it from FIVE different guest this day!) and I had a guest ask me if the tarantula was dead. I said, “No, it’s alive” without thinking twice about it. I mean I have people ask if the Hippo is a robot all the time. So later in the day I’m in research again and another guest ask if it’s dead again. So now I’m wondering what the heck is going on. I actually go over to look and sure enough the humungo spider is on it’s back! I was like, “yeah, it’s alive…..”. LOL. So I had to try to get a hold of an animal keeper which was a lot harder than it should have been. They don’t really know how to communicate. Rotation came through before someone came to see what was going one, but later on the whole cage was missing. I asked someone what happen and they said that they thought the spider was molting. I was like uh…it looked pretty dead to me! But sure enough the next day the animal keeper came up to me and showed me that it did molt. She showed me a cup with a tarantula in it, but it was just its skin. It was so weird! So no dead tarantula. Lol.

Crowds are getting larger and it’s awful. I am not looking forward to real holiday crowds. People become stupid when they come to Disney. I HATE when people just stop in the middle of the walkway or walk like a turtle!

Grocery bingo was last night. It was at the Chatham field so we had to sit in the grass, but it was better than last time. I had a WAY better card and actually almost won this time. Lol. And we got candy and there was a costume contest.

So there’s an update! Sorry it took so long. I would say I’ll be better, but I’d just be lying. Lol.

Penny Smashing

So I’ve become lazy. Big shocker I know. Lol. I’ve now become the old me where I come home, eat, and watch netflix until I fall asleep. Lol. But don’t give up on me yet. I told myself when I got accepted that I would keep this blog up no matter what.

So work was interesting this past week to say the least. Let’s see…one day I almost stepped on a snake on the way to the bus stop. I’m surprised I didn’t freak out more than I did. I just kind of stood there and watched is wiggled itself across the sidewalk. But I am hoping I never come across another one. It was descent size too. Stretched out I’m sure it would have reached all the way across the sidewalk. And then on the same day that happened one of the Disney buses ran right into the concrete barrier driving into Animal Kingdom. So cast members and Disney buses take this back road into the park instead of going through the main entrance. And this back road is divided (by a concrete barrier) into two lanes and somehow a bus driver just drove right into it. With guest on board of course. It was a huge mess and took FOREVER to clear. So getting to work was super fun that day. Good thing I always take a bus that’s going to get me there an hour early.

So I witnessed something very rare while at Gorilla Outpost the other day. So when you’re in Gorilla Valley it’s not a big surprise when the males on the bachelor side fight. And when I say fight I mean chase each other for two seconds. It’s very rare they ever get physical. I’ve seen one physical fight on the male side. But it’s SUPER rare to ever see the females on the family side fight. So I was standing at outpost and I had a pretty big crowd because Gino, the one male on the family side was visible, and Azizi and Lilly (the baby) were next to the glass. Now Azizi and Lilly (three years old) are like best friends and play all the time together. And that’s what they were doing. But today Lilly was being a little more ornery than usual. Usually she just hits Azizi until she grabs her or chases her. Well today I watched her throw dirt at Azizi and then run up and hit her and throw a ball at her and then she started biting her. Now the biting is normal but Lilly was obviously not getting the attention she wanted and was seriously biting her harder than normal. Well I guess Azizi got fed up with her and bit Lilly back. And I guess she was taking it a little too far because out of no where Kashata (Lilly’s mom) came running over the hill and just attacked Azizi. They were both standing on their feet with teeth showing and everything. Well after about two second of that Gino (who has been sitting watching everything) stepped in. All he had to do was get on all fours and take a few steps forward for them to completely stop. So after that mom sat right where she could see Lilly and Azizi tried to walk off, but Lilly is a little brat and kept trying to play. But I think she finally got the hint and just sat by herself. It was the craziest thing I’d ever seen. And of course I then had to try to explain what happened about 50 times to everyone who was watching. But it was pretty exciting.

I did have a pretty bad day Monday which is my Friday. I pack my lunch and get to work early so I can eat in the break room. Well right before I walked in the break room I realized I forgot my water bottle at home. Now my water bottle is crucial part of my day! I drink about 3 or 4 bottles a day. So I was super upset mainly because I had brought lunch and had nothing to wash it down with. But I remembered there being a soda machine down at the outside break room. So I went down there and swiped my card and it accepted it, but when I pushed a button nothing happened. So I tried that about three more times and nothing. So I tried cash…yeah that didn’t work either and it just ate my money. That really ticked me off. So I was just in a pissed off mood the rest of the day and you could totally tell. Pretty much everyone who talked to me that day just annoyed me. And then on top of that I had to close and it poured and I had to wait 45 minutes for the bus and then it took almost two hours to get home because tourist don’t know how to drive and someone flipped their car over so traffic was at a standstill FOREVER. So needless to say I’ve really enjoyed my two days off.

I got up early (9:00 lol) to go to Breakfast in Bed grocery bingo. Yeah that was a total fail. None of my roommates went but I ran into a co-worker so we sat together. Now I love grocery bingo because it’s fun and if you win you get a TON of FREE groceries. I’ve missed the last two because I’ve been working so I was super excited to go to this one. Well that excitement did not last long. We all did get free luggage tags just for showing up, but that all I got :/ My co-worker won about three rounds in. She also won last time she went!! So not fair. I swear I had the worst card ever. They barely called any numbers I had. And if you were one or two away from winning you were suppose to stand up…yeah I never got to stand up that’s how bad my card was. We did play this one round called stinko bingo where everyone stood up and if they called a number you had on your card you had to sit down and the last person standing with no numbers called won. I ALMOST had it. I was literally only one number away…it was awful. Lol. So I went home empty handed. There’s one more in October. If I’m not working I might go. Lol.

So after bingo I decided to go to the Magic Kingdom and do some penny smashing. I went alone because no one else had the day off. But that was ok because I like to have some me time every now and then. So before I moved down here I saw something super awesome on Pinterest. It was a bracelet made out of smashed pennies. (You know those pennies you get out of the machines at amusement parks). Well once I saw that I knew that was something I was going to do. So I had a bunch of pennies and quarters in a baggie and was ready to go. But when I got to the park I couldn’t find a single machine! Lol. Now I know Disney has them because I’ve seen them. So I asked someone and they said that Guest Relations actually had MAPS of where all the penny press machines are. I was like NO WAY! So not only did I get a map of Magic Kingdom, I got a map of all four parks, Downtown Disney, and the resorts! I got really excited really fast. It quickly became my new favorite hobby! I felt like I was on a scavenger hunt. The map only give you a general idea of where the machines are, but then you have to actually find them. For example…there are three machines in the Emporium shop. Well the Emporium stretches all the way down Main Street and has multiple rooms. So it was super fun. And there are sooo many machines. I ended up doing Magic Kingdom and some of Epcot before I ran out of quarters. And I was exhausted from doing so much walking. But definitely something I will continue to do and my bracelet is going to be awesome.

Today was my last day off and always like having a day where I do pretty much nothing. That was today. Lol. Well I did run to Walmart and cleaned. But other than that I’ve been watching netflix with the roomies all day. They were watching the Walking Dead when I woke up. So everyone has been raving about this show and I’ve never watched it just because I don’t really care for zombies. But now that I’ve seen it I really don’t understand why anyone would watch it! It’s soooooo gory…..like disgustingly gory. I mean I kind of liked the suspense, but I just couldn’t get past the blood and guts. Eehhhh. Lol. But I have now completed the second season of Baby Daddy. So funny. I told Autumn about it and she sent me a very mean snap chat about how she missed her nap because she was watching it. Lol. I miss her so much….

But on a happier note…I get to go volunteEAR at Give Kids the World next week!! YAY! I’m always working on the days they go so I gave away a couple shifts next week so I can go J I’m so freaking excited.

So I had the room to myself for most of last week. Karie’s mom came into town. That was more fantastic than you’ll ever know. One of the only reasons why I wouldn’t extend would because I hate living with people…lol. Just finished cleaning the kitchen again. We have inspections starting this week. I’ve just accepted that I’m the only one who’s going to clean.

Well that’s about it. Oh I sent out post cards last week and everyone is starting to get them! That made me super happy J

I don’t have to be at work until 2:30 tomorrow so I’m going to eat candy corn and watch netflix for a while.

Auditions

Well auditions sucked. I didn’t make it past the first round. There were sooo many people. I was number 401. I think there were over 600 CPs who showed up. Auditions started at 9:00, but check in started at 8:00. I got there around 8:10 and the line was already wrapped all the way around the building. So I waited in line forever. Then I had to wait for them to call my group back. Then we had to wait in another room. Then we had to wait in the hall. Then they took us to the auditions room. It was ridiculous. They took us back in groups of about 50 and we learned this super simple dance that is difficult if you’re not coordinated. Lol. Four steps of marching, a jazz square while waving your hands in the air, four steps of skipping, and two pivot steps while throwing your hands in the air. We had to do it three times across the floor in groups of four. I was able to do it pretty well (while smiling lol), but some people were just a hot mess. Lol. I think they called five people out of our group to move on. One person was really tall, one girl was shorter than me, and one girl did her dance WAY over the top! Lol. So I don’t know what they were looking for. But I guess I can say I’ve been there done that. I’ve done both types of auditions now, face and character. I like face way better. You just stand there and look pretty. Lol. One of my co-workers made it pass the first round, but not sure how far she went. But she’s a music and theater major so I wasn’t surprised.

So I was pretty bummed after auditions. I tried not to get my hopes up, but it would have been nice to make it past the first round. Plus I wasted my whole morning. Lol. I got done at 11:00, but just missed the bus so I had to wait for the 11:45 bus =/ So I went home and took a nap. Lol.

The day before Michelle and I went to Hollywood to pin trade. Always one of my favorite things to do in Disney. Then ended the day watching Wishes at MK.

So the next time a person asks me how they keep the animals from hunting or keep them separate on the Safari (because I get asked this at least once a day) I’m just going to say that they’re trained not to kill each other. I hate stupid people…

Well it’s Grey’sday!! I’m off to watch Grey’s Anatomy J

 

Oh here's the picture of the group that went to Food and Wine