Dana

I feel like I have been on the go for so long that I can’t remember where one day begins and another ends. The last three days I have been working 10-14 hour days, and I’m also getting over a cold. When I come home my body is aching and I’m asleep before my head hits the pillow. It’s summertime now, and I can tell that these next months I will be working myself hard.

Two days ago I was friends with Alice all day, and yesterday I had the privilege to be friends with Wendy. I hadn’t been friends with Wendy since my training, so I was so thrilled to spend some time with her yesterday. Wendy spent the day with Snow White outside Toontown, greeting the guests. They had so much fun skipping and laughing together!

Today I worked at the Crystal Palace dining with my friend Winnie the Pooh. It was my first time meeting Pooh, and I was surprised how loved he is by all the guests. All day Pooh heard comments like “Oh Pooh, you are my favorite!” or “Pooh, our child has been waiting her whole life to meet you!” It felt really great to bring joy to all those families.

I leave on Thursday to fly back for graduation. I’m looking forward to seeing all of my Evergreen friends. I’ve missed a lot of them since I’ve been gone. All of my family is coming into town for graduation as well, so this will be really neat. I have 2 aunts and 2 uncles that also graduated from Evergreen, so it will be great to share this experience with them!

Posted by Dana at 01:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’ve been scheduled a lot more shifts with my friend Alice lately, and I’m not complaining! Alice is so much fun! Yesterday I worked at the Grand Floridian with Alice. She and the Mad Hatter went from table to table greeting guests, signing autograph books, and posing for photographs. It was so much fun! The Grand Floridian is a beautiful hotel with a wonderful garden outside.

Talking to the flowers

Yesterday Alice was out at the Epcot UK Pavilion. She had a wonderful time playing in the mazes at the UK, and spending some time with her favorite nanny, Mary Poppins. I have a few pictures from her day, and you can see how much fun she was having.

Lost in a maze garden

I personally am having a blast here at Disney. I don’t think I’ve had a bad day yet. This has been an amazing experience for me, and I appreciate every day I go to work. I love being able to make magic for families from every part in the world. I feel like a celebrity when I’m at work, in the costumes, and then at the end of the day I get to take it all off and be my regular self again. That’s a pretty good life.

My family is coming to visit tomorrow! My parents and my aunt and uncle will be visiting me for a week, and I’m so excited! They haven’t met Alice or any of my friends yet, so this will be wonderful.

Posted by Dana at 06:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some of my Disney friends are leaving the program this weekend, and I’m very sad that I’m going to lose them. There are several start and end dates for the college program, and one of them is ending on Friday. So as one last “hooray” with my friend Holly, a bunch of my other entertainment friends and I went and had breakfast at Play N’ Dine. This is a restaurant that we all work at a lot; mostly being friends with Playhouse Disney’s characters The Little Einstein’s. If you have a sibling younger than 6, they’ll know who I’m talking about. Breakfast was awesome, and it was great seeing the restaurant with my own eyes. We were total dorks, dancing silly dances with toddlers, but we didn’t care. We also spend the day together at Hollywood Studios riding the rides and watching some of the shows.

We danced with June

I normally can’t stand clowns, but Jo Jo is very sweet

Today I worked at the Magic Kingdom with my friend Alice in the morning, and my friend Dale in the afternoon. I love the chipmunks so much! And today after my sets in Town Square (the front of the park) I discovered that Disney planned out a catered BBQ for all the Town Square cast members. It was awesome! Free pulled-pork and ice cream; who could say no? It was a very easy day, although I had trouble pulling myself out of bed at 4:30 in the morning! Yep, I had to be at work by 6:30am, and in order to do that I had to hop on a shuttle at 5:20 that took me to a bus at 6:00, which then took me backstage to the Magic Kingdom. I’m pretty tired now. In fact, I think I might go try and take a quick nap.

Tomorrow: another fun day with my pal Alice!

Posted by Dana at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Home sweet home. I just walked back into my apartment and it feels nice to kick my feet up and relax after a long day of work. Today I worked at Hollywood Studios Play N’ Dine restaurant. I love the character dining experiences, they are fun for the guests and for the characters. Plus today it was 94 degrees and I was very fortunate to be inside all day. I was not so lucky yesterday when I worked at Animal Kingdom. I will include a picture of my “friend” from yesterday and maybe you’ll understand why I was less than thrilled to work outside in hot humid weather.

Other than the hot weather everything is going well here. My roommate is coming down with the flu so I’m avoiding her like the plague. My family is coming to visit next week and I do not want to get sick while they’re here! In fact, I’m about to leave my apartment in a few minutes and go shopping with my friend Alina. She is also an Evergreen student and joined me down here for the College Program.

What I love so much about working here is that I can play in the parks any time I want. A few days ago my boyfriend Ryan and I were at the Magic Kingdom backstage talking to a manager about our contracts, and after our meeting we went onstage to ride the Tea Cups. Working at a theme park definitely has its perks!

Riding the Tea Cups! Alice’s favorite ride!

Posted by Dana at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I unfortunately suffered from an intense migraine yesterday, which took up a good chunk of my day off. It was lame, I was mad that I lost a day of hanging with friends just to sit in the dark. I absolutely hate migraines, but there’s not much I can do about them. I’ve already received two while I’ve been here, and each time I’ve gotten a migraine it’s raining outside. Coincidence?

The rain is very different down here in Florida than in Washington. In Washington the rain comes down constantly, but it’s never too heavy of a downpour. Florida gets much more sporadic rain showers, where the rain will be hot and beat down on the dirt so hard the dirt will bounce. But I have yet to see a downpour last more than a half an hour here.

I did have the opportunity to ride the newest ride at Hollywood Studios yesterday! The ride is called “Toy Story Mania” and it is based on the hit Toy Story movies. I don’t want to give anything away in case some of you might come visit the parks and ride it, but it’s an awesome 3-D ride with some very cute graphics. My favorite part about the ride was the queue line. It’s designed to look like the inside of a toy box with all these games and toys spilling out everywhere. Giant crayons line the area, and the ceiling is a scrabble board! My friend Alina is working at the ride, so it’s even more fun to go there and see her. She really enjoys working at “Toy Story Mania” and loves being a part of something brand new and special at the theme parks. She really lucked out with her job; working at that ride is a big deal!

This spring quarter is literally flying by! I cannot believe there is 5 weeks left to the quarter. I still have a paper I need to write about my experience working in entertainment at Disney for my internship contract, and talk to my manager here at Disney about my evaluation at the end of the quarter. So much to do!

I met the Fairy God Mother on Sunday! She was lovely.

Posted by Dana at 08:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last few days I have been working as a spare at Hollywood Studios Entertainment. This means that I sit around a breakroom and read or do something to keep me busy until either someone in a character costume gets sick or hurt and I take their spot, or my duty manager tells me I can have an early release from work because there is nothing more for me to do. Usually I get pulled to a character, but yesterday I have my first ER (early release). It was glorious! I left work around noon and went to the Magic Kingdom with my friend Josh. We watched the Disney Dreams Come True parade. Now that I’ve been working here for a month I know a lot more character performers, which makes watching a parade a lot more entertaining for me and them.

I’m enjoying this experience more and more each day. Although I feel a little bit like a small fish in a massive pond of entertainment, I feel like each day there is another opportunity opening up to me. This has been such a wonderful internship so far, and I can only expect it’s going to get better and better.

Last night some of my girlfriends came over to watch “27 Dresses” together. Evan and I finally got TV! We have a friend who has a computer flat screen monitor and he is letting us borrow that to get television through. It’s wonderful. I’m surprised how much I was disconnected to the news without the television. I never thought I would miss a TV, but I'm sure glad I have one now!

Posted by Dana at 07:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello everyone!

Guess what? Today I had the pleasure of meeting Wendy Moira Angela Darling, one of Peter Pan’s closest friends. She had a lovely time roaming the park with Peter and meeting all of the guests this afternoon in Epcot. Her and Peter went on an adventure looking for Tinkerbell, who was playing a rousing game of "hide and seek". 

I wish you all could have been at Epcot and had a chance to meet my good friend. She looked lovely! But now she is off to Neverland with Peter Pan.



See, my friends, all you need is faith and trust, and a little bit of pixie dust and I know you can do great things!

What a wonderful day! 


Posted by Dana at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello!

It’s been so long! I can’t believe how fast time has flown by! I am now down in Orlando, FL working at Walt Disney World. I am so excited to participate in this college internship Disney has to offer. And I am so thankful that Evergreen has a contract system so that I can take part in internships in college to help build my resume and work experience.

I am working in Entertainment here at Disney World, and I have just finished my five days of training. So far I have really enjoyed the experience. But I have to say, this has been an overwhelming week for me. There is so much to learn, it’s crazy. I have to remember a lot of things, and since Disney World has four theme parks I have to memorize everything in each park. It’s insane! But it still has been a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of one of my favorite pals here at Disney World. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few days ago at EPCOT. He was wonderful.

I will be posting more about all the unique events and opportunities I will encounter on my Disney Adventure over the next quarter, so stay in touch!

Posted by Dana at 03:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah.

This is really my first official day off. I have been on the go from the minute I stepped off that airplane almost 2 weeks ago. It felt so great to be able to sleep in today and not have to get up early in the morning to race off to training/work. So now that I have a little more time on my hands I will catch you all up on what I have been doing.

Last week I had 5 days of training to be a character performer. This was a lot of fun, but I found that there was a lot of information to remember in a short amount of time. I also had to learn all the different backstage areas of the parks because I will be working at multiples ones a week. Then of course, there is the training with the costumes, which was fun and a bit of a challenge. I wish I could go into detail about the costumes and my work in that aspect but I must keep it a secret to maintain the character integrity.

I love the fact that I can get into the Disney World parks for free! Trust me, I've been using that to my advantage lately. Just today I went to Disney's Hollywood Studios with a couple of friends just to watch the new parade "Block Party" and ride a few rides.

In case anyone is wondering, Disney owns four theme parks in Orlando:
Magic Kingdom: This one I'm sure you are all familiar with. It is similar to Disneyland, and has the castle and all those favorite rides as Disneyland does.

Hollywood Studios: This is a theme park designed to look like the back lot of a major movie set. Most everything is themed for the 20s-40s time period, when movies began to make a big impression on society. This park has a lot of fun thrill rides like the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster.

EPCOT: EPCOT stands for "Experimental Protoype Community of Tomorrow", and it was a design Walt had before he passed away. He wanted to create a land where people could live in the future with new innovations. Well, it didn't quite turn out to that, but it did become a pretty amazing theme park. Half of the park is dedicated to the future and technology, and the other half is know as World Showcase, which ahs several mini pavilions for various countries.

Animal Kingdom: This theme park is pretty self-explanatory. It's based on animals! Don't call it a zoo though, there is much more to it. They just built a new thrill roller coaster called "Expedition Everest" and it's a very popular one.

My friend Josh and I found Wendy and Peter Pan! Alright, that's all from me right now.

Posted by Dana at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I talk to prospective students it’s kind of fun to hear what sort of rumors they might have head about Evergreen. I know our school has some odd rumors, some amusing and some just horrifying. But about 99% of the rumors I hear from prospies (prospective students) are just that; only rumors. A few years ago I took a program called “Looking Backward” and my seminar teacher decided it was about time he laid some of these rumors to sleep. My faculty teacher had been at Evergreen since the very first year of the college. In fact, he remembers watching the library building being built on his first day of work.

This one particular day he sat my class of 20 students down and we had the opportunity to ask him about rumors we heard and he told us whether they were true or not. Most were not even close to the truth. He explained that a since Evergreen is such a unique college people on the outside have a hard time understanding how Evergreen works exactly. So when something happens on campus it can be blown out of proportion a great deal.

For example, I guess back in the 70s a woman had a seeing eye dog with her in the library building and the dog ended up pooping somewhere in there. No big deal, dogs sometimes can’t hold it. But I guess 5 years after this incident Evergreen faculty and students were being asked from friends and family if it was true that the library was actually a zoo and pets could roam free and they could pee and poop on the carpets.

One true rumor that my teacher told us about is one of my favorite stories I have ever heard about Evergreen, and so I want to share it with you. Apparently back in the 80s there was someone known as the Phantom Sponge. He had a phone number, and if you were throwing a party on campus and there was a still of some sort, a man dressed in all black with a giant sponge attached to his front would come in and clean up the party foul. It happened for four years, until this mystery cleaner graduated.

I would love to see someone start that back up, and come dressed as a giant sponge to help clean up parties. What a clever idea!

So there you have it, folks. Not very many Evergreen rumors you hear are not true, but that one most definitely happened.

Posted by Dana at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I only have one more month left in Washington. I can’t believe this. I’ve been waiting and waiting for my Disney internship to begin for months, and finally it’s almost here! Now I have a million things to get done before I go. Here is a list of all that I have on my plate for my final month:

1. Work on erosion presentation for my biology class. I am in a 6-person group that is doing a presentation in two weeks on Erosion. Some of us are talking about the types of erosion (wind, water, glacial, etc…) and some of us are talking about geographic locations of erosion (The Grand Canyon, Iceland, The Olympic Peninsula, etc…). My presentation is on the erosion of Yellowstone National Park, which will be nice since I just visited the place last summer. But I still have so much work ahead of me and I need to sit down and just do it. I’m putting together a power point and it’s only 1/3 of the way finished.

2. Find a storage unit. I need to find a storage unit to hold some of my stuff while I’m away. So far I’ve only visited one on the west side of Olympia, and it’s a bit pricy. My dad is coming over in three weeks to help me move all my stuff to one unit, but before he can come over I need to find a place. This has become something much harder than I thought it would be. I want to find a storage unit that isn’t going to be too expensive, but one that is also close to my current house so I don’t have to drive my stuff all the way to Lacey.

3. Third draft is due. I still have one more final draft I need to write for my Writer’s Workshop class, and I have a feeling this one will be my hardest yet. I don’t really have much of a plan for this one, and it’s due in about 10 days. With that I plan to meet with the writing staff in the Writing Tutor Center on campus and maybe they can make some suggestions.

4. Pack. I’ve done a lot of packing, but I’m still a ways to go. You know you have too much stuff when you have already taken home a carload of stuff and it doesn’t look any different in your room. Packing can be fun, but I’m starting to realize that I’m running out of time to pack leisurely and I need to step it up.

Those are the four biggest things weighing on me at the moment, but there still are a dozen other smaller assignments and engagements I have. Plus I hope to get in some quality time with my friends here before I go. Moving is exciting, but it can also be quite a stress.

Posted by Dana at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

50 days!

That’s how long I have until I leave for Florida to work at the self-proclaimed Happiest Place on Earth. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I’ve been accepted to the Walt Disney World College Program for the spring/summer of 2008. This is an internship through the Disney Company where I work in the parks and get paid, as well as take courses on entertainment, management, and leadership.

I went and auditioned a while back to be a character performer and I was accepted for that role a couple of months back. So while I am working at the theme parks I will be performing as those beloved Disney characters, which is awesome! I am really looking forward to this experience, and I know I will gain so much knowledge and information about entertainment from the Disney Company.

Now I’m at the point where I can almost taste that sweet Florida sun and with each rainfall in Washington I am wishing more and more that I could be over on the east cost soaking up the rays and playing in the theme parks. But there are still many things I need to get done in the next 50 days. There are presentations that need to be done, writing exercises that need to be completed, and furniture that needs to be stored.

But oh man, I wish I were at Disney World right about now.

Posted by Dana at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night my class attended the Focus the Nation forum at the Washington Center in downtown Olympia. The forum was about how to prevent climate change in Washington State and around the nation. There were several speakers, including mayor of Seattle, Greg Nickels, and Senator Dan Swecker.

To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to going to Focus the Nation, mainly because I wanted to work more on my writing and I didn’t understand why a Writer’s Workshop should attend a forum on the environment. But after listening to all of the speakers I began to get excited about helping the environment, and I even went home and explained some things we could change in our house to my roommates. It was an interesting night, and for the most part I was glad that I went. Plus, at the end of the night I got to walk away with a free grocery bag and an energy saver light bulb!

My favorite speaker of the evening was Patty Glick, a global warming specialist. She talked for eight minutes about the rapid loss of salmon in the Pacific Northwest. It worries me about how fast these species are falling off the planet. To think that salmon are a type of species that dates back further than most species and now they are being wiped out is quite mind blowing.

If anyone would like to learn more about Focus the Nation feel free to check out the attached link.

http://focusthenation.evergreen.edu/

Posted by Dana at 03:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)