A Spoonful of Sugar

Hello Again!

Yes, it finally came! I took the whole day off uni yesterday (Thursday) – I’m usually there from 9am to 6pm (if I stay for lectures…) but I wasn’t taking any chances since no one would be home all day today (Friday). I attempted to continue and adjust my university assignments – my last two ever – but my brain could not focus. I was getting very impatient and would run to the window next to the front door each time I heard something, which was usually nothing. After working out that I could have gone to uni for my tutorials and be back by now I got a knock at the door! I jumped up from my desk and ran to the door, only to be partly disappointed – my Amazon eBook Kindle thing arrived. At least now I had something to occupy myself with.

Then Jen rang and we decided to book our Visa appointments. My Kindle was charging so there wasn’t much to do with it, plus the 3G network thing wasn’t working so I gave up on it. Anyway I started the whole process of getting a PIN access thing and…. Knock knock knock. Again I jumped up and this time it was Fedex! It was as if I really had a spoonful of sugar (see what I did there?), I was boncing around the place.

BUT, I couldn’t open it. Jen wanted to get the Visa appointment sorted and I was halfway doing my pin thing, so it sat on my lap for another hour unopened – the things I do for friends! Haha! Eventually we got it sorted and have an appointment at 10:15am on November 3^rd. I then figured it’d probably be best to book flights now just in case. So I booked for both of us, we leave the Gold Coast Airport at 6am. Bleh. But it gives us enough time to arrive and get to the embassy before our appointment.

After sorting all that out I ditched Jen to go open my Disney Pack! And this wonderful folder greeted me:

It came with many important documents that I CANNOT ‘misplace’. So they’ve gone straight into my important drawer. What came in the pack exactly? Why don’t I tell you using my favourite dot points:

      The Disney Look Book

      Welcome/Congratulations Letter

      DS-2019 Form and instructions to pay SEVIS fee

      Arrival and Departure Record Form

      Instructions for the Arrival and Departure Record Form

The welcome letter gave us our applicant number, welcome speech and a description of our responsibilities involved with our particular roles – so in my case Character Performer/Operations. I made a blog post a few posts back of when Jen and I got to buzz Jeni with our questions, one of mine being what do the auditions contain and when do I find out when they are, in which she responded there were none. I did find this odd at the time, so maybe I misheard since in the welcome letter the first sentence for my Character Performer role starts with “pending the results of your audition”, so there are auditions, which does make sense since how would they know we can actually portray characters without an audition? Luckily I bought Wii Just Dance! Try and help me with my lack of talent for dancing. I’m a little worried about the animation part, since I don’t know exactly what they’re after – just smile if all else fails! Anyway, my pay rate for Character Performer is $8.25 an hour, which is the highest I’ve seen for International College Program members. My other position for the last six months – Operations – would have me placed in either Attractions or Main Entrance Operations, which I obviously find out when we switch roles. My pay rate for this one is $7.31. I’m taking over a reasonable amount of dollars for back up and for my holiday after the program so it’s all manageable.

Oh and it also says when the commencement of actually work – first paying day – is which is January 11, 2012 according to this letter. So I’m assuming we have a few days where we can settle in, and maybe traditions will be combined with the Americans that arrive on the 9^th? Who really knows… I’m thinking of purchasing my insurance this weekend, I’ve been putting it off since it’s a big chunk of money (at least it is for me), but I’d like to have it by the time of the Visa interview, just in case, because I’m paranoid like that. I’m probably going with itrek insurance, I’ve heard/seen a lot of good reviews from this insurance company plus it’s the only one I’ve found that can do up to 18 months coverage, which is great (I’ll be needing 13 months since I’ll be travelling afterwards).

This has been a very long post, congrats if you’ve made it all the way through. I have work at 12pm. It’s always the downer of my day; I cannot stand my current job, nine weeks until I leave that place! Not that I’m counting… I’m taking three weeks off before I leave where I won’t be working so I have some form of relaxation period. Plus I can afford it, haha. To be honest if it weren’t for me going to America and trying to save, I wouldn’t even be at this current job still. Anyway, enough of the boring stuff that always manages to make me feel all angry inside. Countdown is at 9 weeks until I finish at my current job, 89 days until I depart Australia and 92 days until the program start date!

Try and have a magical day for me, since I won’t be having one!~