Song of the South

For once I’ve kept myself somewhat busy this past week, which was fun. Monday after work I stayed at the Magic Kingdom to meet a friend for the afternoon. We wandered around, rode a few rides – I got to finally ride Big Thunder Railroad. I cannot remember the one in Disneyland Paris well, but for some reason I felt the Paris one was better, no idea why though. It was still fun and a long ride so it’s worth the wait if you don’t fastpass it. Tuesday Alex, one of my roommates, and I went to Blizzard Beach since our free entry to the water parks expired yesterday, and neither one of us had been to that one yet. It was a fun day, but nowhere near as fun as our water parks back home – we have a lot more rides and more worth the money in my opinion.

Wednesday brought along my first Spare shift at Animal Kingdom, which turned out to be very eventful. I got to make a new friend – Brer Fox – who appeared on set with Brer Bear. The first two sets was nice and sunny, the third they were only out for about 10 minutes when it started raining. Since they were not under cover, they had to make a run for it offstage for shelter. The rain continued, sideways might I add, and Animal Kingdom doesn’t follow the same rules as the rest of the parks, so the characters were out in that, which in my opinion was ridiculous. The Brer’s were moved to the Kiosks where normally there’s one character in each kiosk, but since no one expected spares the characters had to be moved around, and in the end the Brer’s shared a kiosk with Pocahontas – slightly odd pairing. So the characters still had to go out in the storm, which again: why? Every time they came back from onstage they were soaked, I’m sure the fury character such as the Brer’s, Baloo and King Louis didn’t enjoy it too much.

The follow two days was Crystal Palace, where a guest pulled on Eeyore’s big nose, hurting him. Saturday was my Magic Kingdom Spare shift, where I got pulled for Contemporary Breakfast. Now that brings me to yesterday: Brave Event – Highland Games. Very different from what I’ve been doing for the past 5 months. It was the first day the Games have been open the whole day since there was no rain until later last night. My goodness it was hot. My usual job is hot, but it’s different. A little hard to explain, but where I’ve been for the past 5 months you sweat like there’s no tomorrow for 45 minutes – running down your face, the works. But then you can change into new clothes. This is a different type of heat. You’re in the sun the whole day. Slightly sweating, but not crazy like my usual job, I got sunburnt – I now have a lovely mark where my watch was. You faint. You get sick. Thank you heatstroke, two people ended up going home because of that, I had less than two hours left so I stayed. After being in aircon to cool down I felt a lot better. What I’m worried about is: that was day one. What will the other days be like? Oh. And guess what. I’m stuck there all next week too. Not too pleased about that, plus the fact I was talking to some fellow Cast Members who said that we’re all most likely stuck there until July 8 (the end date of the Games). In that case: LAME, because then the next day my brother comes, by the time he leaves I’ll have 2.5 weeks left of being a performer. I feel like I’ve been cheated, since I expected I’d have a bit more time to say goodbye to my ‘friends’. Oh well, let’s just hope these weeks fly by, and that I don’t get too burnt.

With A Smile And A Song

Hello,

Again, since my last entry not a lot has happened. Work continues on as usual, majority of my time is with my good friend Pluto and at least once a week lately I’m with the depressed donkey: Eeyore. Honestly I haven’t been minding my last few shifts at Crystal Palace, and oddly enough they’ve been the 11.5 hour shifts rather than the 7 hours. I’ve finally made it to June, and with June brought the departure of many Americans and Australians, so our apartment complexes are a little empty at the moment. I’m sure that’ll change very quickly.

Wednesday the 23^rd I went to see Fantasmic with Brittany, who I hadn’t seen for a while, so it was nice to catch up again. That’s probably the most exciting thing that’s happened for the past two weeks. I’ve been working at Chef Mickey’s a lot this past week, which was both nice and repetitive, next week however I get a bit more of a variety. Monday June 4 I’m at Chef Mickey’s, okay besides that day, Wednesday I had a spare shift at DAK, I’m hoping I’ll get to befriend someone new – fingers crossed. 7^th and the 8^th is Crystal Palace, short shifts so it shouldn’t be too bad. It also gives me the opportunity to visit Cast Connections. Saturday June 9 I’m a spare at MK, hopefully that shift I might get to see my friends TweedleDee and TweedleDum. And the other day before I left for work I got a phone call to let me know in the new schedule I’d be working at the Brave Event that’s currently happening at EPCOT. I’m excited to be out and about in the park, to be able to converse with guests by actually using words and not getting fired for it. I saw the costume for it, nothing too exciting: black shorts, white shirt and a green ‘Scottish’ sash.

I hit the 9 week mark yesterday, it’s going by very quickly now, but I’m still looking forward to going home. It’s kind of scary having my life put on hold back home, whilst everyone else’s is moving forward. It’s getting very close to my brother visiting, I cannot wait to vacation with him and Hannah – and to stay at the Beach Club Resort AND finally get to drink a Butterbeer from Harry Potter World at Universal. Let’s hope my new schedule will be interesting and fun, those types of weeks go by quickly.

That’s all for now, nothing too eventful, I’m trying to save to send my Mary Poppins umbrellas home, and for when Ben and Hannah come, oh and for the shopping spree Alex and I have planned. Sometime this month we’re also going to see Cirque du Soleil before the 50% runs out, so I have that to also look forward to.