Friday 30 April 2010

Episode 5: The "Boring" Vlog

Sunday 25 April 2010

Heigh Ho...Heigh Ho...

So no sooner do I make a vlog about going to the embassy to get my visa but it arrives on my doorstep. Well it would have done if I had a doorstep. it actually arrived at the security desk but that doesn’t sound nearly as cool. Only one major thing left to do and I can’t do that until I get an email from Disney - yay!
In the meantime I’ve got a week of work ahead...well now it is only 3 days of work ahead but it was a week. I’m now 1 essay down with 2 to go. By Thursday morning I’ll be able to relax...at least until my exam on the 11th. Could be worse :P
Once again I managed to sneak a Disney reference into my essay and if that wasn’t enough I also managed to write a massive chunk of it on King’s Cross station and the Hogwart’s Express. I don’t know what’s got into me right now. It must have been Jasmine asking for a tour of Hogwarts!
Thursday is going to be a day of coolness by which i mean I’ll be hanging out with my friend Vix all day. Quite literally. If everything goes to plan we’ll be hanging out for a full 15 hours. Who knows maybe I’ll film some stuff too!

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Plymouth, Visas, vlogs

I don't post anything for a few days and I feel bad. So here's a multitude of things to keep everyone entertained until i get my act together.

Last weekend I went with the family down to Plymouth to drop my sister back at uni. It's way bigger than I thought. Saw various places and things including a hotel my dog stayed at called the Crooked Inn (sounds like some spooky location from Jonathan Creek).

Tuesday I had my visa interview at the US embassy in London. You're not allowed any cuts or blisters on your fingers because of the scans so I was completely paranoid about getting a paper cut at work on Monday. Everything seemed to go fine though and I met a bunch of cool girls who are all doing the Disney International College Program as well. All in all a good day.

There was also a Disney-related surprise during my trip to the Embassy. For more details WATCH THE VLOG!!!!

WDW is getting ever closer. Only 40 days left until my plane takes off.

Thursday 15 April 2010

EPCOT

Today’s blog is not about the Epcot park in Walt Disney World. Why the title then? Because many things that were created by both Walt and the Disney company were designed with edutainment in mind. So I thought I’d reflect on the ways Disney has helped benefit my education.

Firstly, Disney taught me how to draw. Quite literally. They sat me down with paper and pen and taught me how to draw. Perhaps I will one day use my vlog to demonstrate my amazing ability to draw Donald and Goofy without much thought. (The other characters usually require a little more work on my part).

Next up - customer service. It drives me up the wall seeing customers treated badly. Especially when I’ve seen the level to which customers can be treated.

Films - Disney helped instil me with the love of films that eventually led me to studying film at university (admitted via a rather long winded route).

Essays - I am now the proud author of, at last count, 4 essays directly related to Disney. On what? you may ask. Well....there was the one about Mathematics and Donald in MathMagic Land, one about a photo of Walt, one on architecture, city planning and park design, and finally one on the early Alice shorts and Oswald the Lucky rabbit cartoons. Don’t even get me started on the number of times I’ve used the term “Mickey-mousing”.

Learning - I love learning stuff. It is one of those amazing things about human beings - their capacity to learn. There are so many educational tools around us. I still remember my Dad buying our first PC at a time when no-one had access to the internet. It’s just incredible to see how far things have come in the last century.

I’ve recorded another vlog and have one in the pipeline as well. Don’t forget to let me know if there’s anything you want me to do/talk about in one!

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Se7en

I love the number 7. Yes it’s a little predictable but hey, even Snow White knew there was something special about it.
There is now exactly 7 weeks until I’m on my way to Orlando. Excited much? Well...maybe a little! ;P
I hope the vlogs are providing everyone with a little entertainment as they wait for their arrival date to come by. I have been asked to provide a tour of Hogwarts which would seem to be a little difficult (at least until I’m in Orlando and the new Harry Potter themed area of Islands of Adventure opens) but hey, I’ll see what I can come up with!
In the meantime if you have any other (hopefully slightly easier) suggestions as to things you’d like to see in the vlogs (particular sights in London, different topics, etc) then let me know.

And now it’s back to the blog.....

So in keeping with the theme of the number 7 I thought I’d do 7 lists of 7 things that are related to the program.

7 things I’m looking forward to doing this summer
        -Meeting new people
        -Living in WDW for nearly 3 months
        -Making the magic happen
        -Eating Dole Whip
        -Eating decent Buffalo Wings
        -CP specific activities
        -Meeting relatives I didn’t know about until 7 months ago

7 favourite Disney films
        -The Little Mermaid
        -Beauty and the Beast
        -The Reluctant Dragon
        -Mary Poppins
        -The Happiest Millionaire
        -Cinderella
        -The Princess and the Frog

7 favourite restaurants at WDW
        -Teppan Edo
        -Chef Mickey’s
        -The Brown Derby
        -Coral Reef
        -Ghiradelli’s
        -Sanaa
        -Sci-Fi Dine-In

7 things I’ll miss
        -Friends
        -Family
        -Driving
        -Squash
        -The Apprentice UK
        -The theatre
        -Commercial free television

7 things I won’t miss
        -Lectures
        -Essays
        -Marmite
        -Britain’s Got Talent
        -Everything being expensive
        -The 8 hour time difference with LA
        -No airconditioning

7 things I have to do before leaving
        -Get my visa
        -Pack
        -Write 3 3000 word essays
        -Sit my exam
        -Move out of halls
        -Freeze my bills
        -Make more vlogs

7 things I need/want to do on arrival day
        
-Get to the Disney Apartment complex
        -Move in
        -Meet people
        -Have dinner (preferably in a large group)
        -Unpack
        -Get groceries
        -Sleep

Ta da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday 12 April 2010

Friday 9 April 2010

In space no-one can hear you scream

At the moment no-one can hear me anywhere.
It’s now day two of having no voice. I’m hoping it will come back before the weekend is over because I have an interview on Monday and a day of answering the phone on Tuesday.
Despite the lack of voice I have now finished all my visa paperwork. All that’s left is the interview in just over a week’s time. From what people have been saying it sounds as though the whole process has been sped up since I last applied for a visa. No-one wants to be stuck in the US embassy for 7 hours on the hottest day of the year. Can’t believe that was nearly 4 years ago.
I’m “locked-in” this weekend. If I start my essays I think it’ll be a new record.

Vlog 2: Part 2

Vlog 2: Part 1

Thursday 8 April 2010

Now I know how Ariel felt

So over the weekend I had a cold which was generally not a big deal - just any old regular cold. Yesterday it developed into more of a chesty cough and I so I sat through the whole of Oliver, coughing, and probably annoying the rest of the audience. Today was much of the same thing except I was at work answering the phone all day. When I returned home I felt exhausted for no apparent reason so had a nap before I did block checks as part of my job as a Senior Student/RA* in the halls/dorms* (* = delete as appropriate). When I woke up I had lost my voice, although on the upside the cough is slightly better in a less frequent sort of way. My friend Mathini, a 4th year medical student, has banned me from talking which is kind of annoying because I had planned to record my tour of London tomorrow so they may be a slight delay with that one. Cue sad faces everywhere...

...Luckily (or perhaps unluckily depending on how much you enjoyed my first vlog) I had some footage that I’d recorded at home (in a typical Blue Peteresque “here’s one I made earlier” fashion) so I’ve created a somewhat epic 2-part vlog #2 (mostly because my computer and I are a bit tired and we don’t feel like cutting the footage down).

Everyone’s comments about the vlog have been really great so far. One of the highlights was my mum saying it was nice to see my face. Sweet...if I hadn’t seen her about 12 hours earlier - bless! Keep the comments coming, keep subscribing and keep asking questions. A couple have already emerged so as soon as I get my voice back I shall try to answer them.

Tuesday 6 April 2010

First Vlog

So today my visa paperwork arrived. Yay! So I’ve got my visa appointment all booked so in celebration I created my first vlog.

Monday 5 April 2010

The Adventure Begins....

Well, actually the adventure began back in August last year when I submitted my application for Disney’s International College Program, Summer 2010 via Yummy Jobs, a UK-based company that handles the application process on behalf of Disney.

So a quick summary of the journey from then to now....

In about September/October time I got invited for a phone interview with one of the members of the Yummy Jobs team where they ask you a bunch of questions ranging from “Why do you want to work for Disney?” to “How do you think you’ll cope with the Florida heat?”.

Then I got invited to an actual interview at the end of November that involved the International version of the standard College Program presentation, along with a quiz, and then interviews in pairs.

In December I heard that I got accepted for a Merchandise role, although there was been a slight mix up with the start date. Initially I was given a start date in May which would have clashed with my summer exam but they quickly changed it to the end of June.

I knew that I would only have one exam in the summer and that it would likely happen in May so, unlike most ICPers I didn’t book any flights and instead waited for my exam timetable to be published ....at the end of March :(

Fast forward to March and sure enough my exam is scheduled for May so I make a quick call to Yummy Jobs and they push my departure date forward to June 1st. Cue screams down the phone as I make another ICPer very happy by freeing up a spot on the later start date, enabling her to go.

Of course, Disney had been super organised, sending me my Visa documents and stuff early, so it all had to be shipped back to the US and now I’m waiting for them to arrive so that i can sort all of that stuff out.

In the meantime, my flights are now booked -YAY! So I’m now allowing myself to get excited for what could well be the best summer EVER. I shall be blogging and vlogging over the course of the next 6 months so keep following!