First Days

Hi everybody!

If any of you are still checking this, I'm actually going to write an update!! yay! I'm going to go back and tell you about the first couple of days here.

Wednesday, August 22 was my check-in date. Daddy, Keaton and I got up early that morning, grabbed some breakfast at BK, then headed to the Vista Way apartments to check in. Daddy and Keaton hung out at the friends and family tent while I went through the check-in process. I believe they toured one of the apartments and got some parent information.

Meanwhile, I was walking all across the apartment complex to various stations. First I got my nametag and filled out some paperwork. I also set up for payroll (and the housing deduction!), got my apartment assignment and picked up the key, and got my parking sticker. I met up with Keaton and Daddy and we headed over to check out my apartment.

Disney has contracted with a company to provide housing for all of the college interns. There are three main apartment complexes: Vista Way, Chatham Square, and The Commons. There is also "The Treehouse", a small complex, but they didn't really tell us much about what the apartments there are used for.

Anyway, as I said last time, I asked for Chatham Square. There are about 25 buildings at Chatham. We headed up to check it out. Right as we were leaving, my roommate and her mom came in! Her name is Elise and, like I said, she is AWESOME!! But I'll save more about her for another post.

I had a housing meeting from 12:00-2:00, so Daddy and Keaton hung out while I was in that. Afterwards, we moved my stuff up into the apartment. Then Keaton headed out for Tally and Daddy and I had about an hour together before I took him to the airport for his flight, which was nice!

After that, I had the rest of the evening to get setteld in and unpacked. The next morning, Thursday, I had another Orientation meeting at 8:30. This was the day I would find out my work assignment!! I had applied for the Hospitality part of the College Program. Since I am studying Hotel Management, I thought that would be most beneficial to me. I wasn't sure exactly what my job would be, but I was hoping for a front desk position at one of the resorts. Technically, though, hospitality can be anything from front desk to answering phones to greeting people as they come into the resorts or the park.

Well, as it turns out, I was assigned to the Port Orleans Resort, at the front desk! Click this link if you want more info about the resort: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/resorts/resortLanding?id=PortOrleansFrenchQuarterResortLandingPage&bhcp=1

The resort has two sides, Riverside and French Quarter. I will be working both sides, just wherever needed. Anyway, for the rest of that day, I continued filling out more paperwork, including tax forms, made a shopping list, and finished organizing all my stuff.

The third day, Friday, was "Traditions". This is the Orientation to the company, including history and background, and what is in store for Disney. It was kind of interesting, but mostly just boring! Elise and I had the 4-hour meeting at the same time, so at least we got to go together. That was our first official day of work!

Saturday was my first day at my resort. I was really glad to jump right in, a lot of people I talked to didn't even go to any training until this week!! So Saturday I had a four-hour Orientation to my work loation, called "All Jazzed Up". We toured the property, learned access codes to get into the office, and learned the history and stories of the resort. Then I spend the afternoon beginning my computer training (E-Learning). These are just basic programs that every intern completes online as part of the Oreintation process. I actually finished that a little early, so another front desk girl and I picked up our costumes and were able to "shadow" or observe the desk a little bit.

Sunday through Wednesday I had my "First Impressions" training. This class was from 8:30-5:00 for four days. It is the front desk training program, so it was mostly on a computer, learning the system Disney uses to check people in. It is actually quite similar to the system Hampton uses, so I feel pretty good about it. Whereas my "All Jazzed Up" class was only people who would be working at the Port Orleans resort, my "First Impressions" class was for people who will be working the front desk at various resorts across the Disney property. So I have been able to meet a LOT of people already!!

Yesterday and today are my days off. Then I begin my "On the Job" training. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (my bday!!) I will be training during the afternoon/evening shift at French Quarter. Then I have two more days off on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday I do afternoon/evening training at Riverside!

I know this was a LOT of info this time!! Sorry, I wanted to get all caught up! Next time I do an update, I'll talk about my roommate and some of the Disney "lingo". Some of it is quite strange. People here really do call it another language!!

I miss you all! Keep in touch and I'll see you soon!

Love,
Kara

An Update - Finally!

Hi everybody!

I apologize for taking so long to get you an update. Things have been great here, but BUSY! Plus my computer has decided not to turn on, so I am borrowing a computer to do this!

Wow, there is so much to tell you, so I will have to write several posts to get everything on here. I will try to take one aspect of the internship during each update, and will try to have all the updates completed within a week or so.

For tonight, I will tell you about my apartment! When I checked in that first day, I got my apartment assignment. I was able to choose the complex and the number of rooms that I wanted, which was nice. I chose Chatham Square (which my campus rep had recommended because it is newer) and chose a one bedroom (which means two people total). Every apartment here has two people in each bedroom. I thought the fewer people, the less hassle!! I absolutely LOVE my roommate, but I'll write more about her later!

The apartment has a living room, fully-stocked kitchen, nice bedroom, closet, vanity, and bathroom! I love everything about it. It is cozy, but perfect for two people. We decided to decorate our apartment and make it as "homey" as possible! We rearranged the furniture in the living room and put up curtains. We have pillows on the furniture and decorations out on the coffee table and bar area, too. The kitchen is probably our favorite room, because it surprisingly well-stocked with good food! It did come with just about everything we need, including dishes, utensils, full-size fridge, stove, microwave, even a dishwasher!! We decided we are going to learn how to cook this semester, so we are always trying new things out!!

The bedroom has two beds, two nightstands and a dresser. The closet is actually really large, which is great with two girls!! I also brought some portable shelves which come in handy. The vanity is the only thing I was disappointed in storage-wise, there is not very much room for us to store all of our things, but we are making it work. Our bathroom is nice because we added a rug, towel hooks, and shower shelves to make it work for us. It has been really exciting (and fun!) to see how everything has come together from a nice and roomy but bland, plain, WHITE apartment into something we can call "home" for the next few months!! I am hoping to get some pictures up as soon as I get my laptop fixed, if I can figure out how, so check back for photos to go along with the description.

I know this is not very much info (based on what my mom has told me, people have been asking her when I'm going to get this thing updated!) but I am EXTREMELY tired!! I am supposed to have Thursday and Friday off, so if that stays on my schedule, I am planning on using those as "catch-up" days. Then I guarentee I will start from the beginning and give you more information on what I have actually been doing here!!

Well, thanks for reading, everybody! Enjoy the rest of your week!


Good night,
Kara

Hello from Tally!

Hello everybody!

Well, as I write this, I am sitting in a hotel in Tallahassee! Actually, I need to be heading to bed, because we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow!! But I wanted to write a quick update on our trip so far.

We left at 7 o'clock on Saturday morning with a FULL U-Haul trailer, F-150 (mine) and Civic (Keaton's). We got a lot of miles under our belt that first day and stayed overnight in Hammond, Louisiana. We got up early on Sunday and left for Tallahasee, where Keaton got his keys and we moved him in to his apartment!! It's really nice, and very roomy!! Of course, Janet wanted to scrub things clean for her boy, so we finished that up today and he got everything arranged to his liking! I think he's really excited to have a place of his own, and he gets to put things just as he likes them. (Which means, of course, there is a HUGE shelf of DVD's, an INSANE TV system, and movie posters ALL over the walls!!). We made several trips to Wal-Mart for supplies, but I think he finally has everything he could possibly need! It was funny to see so many students in Wal-Mart with their parents, purchasing everything from floor lamps and bed sheets to groceries, batteries, and decorations!

With the trip more than halfway over, we only have about another 4 hour drive awaiting us. We will get up tomorrow morning and head out around 9 am. We'll head to the Orlando airport and drop off Janet for her ride home tomorrow afternoon. Then Keaton, Daddy and I head to the hotel in Orlando for the evening. Wednesday moring will be early, I want to check in by 9! Then it will probably be kind of crazy for a couple of hours while getting all the paperwork taken care of, then we'll unload the truck. I'll have some meetings in the afternoon, so Keaton will take Daddy to the Orlando airport for his flight home, then then head back to Tallahassee.

I have NO idea what to expect on Wednesday, except a lot of meeting people, craziness, confusion, laughter, and hopefully FUN!! I am really excited about this opportunity!

It has worked out great having Janet and Daddy with us (Daddy decided to come along instead of my mom, as I had written in the last post, because my mom teaches at a co-op that started today and she wanted to be home for it). Janet has been in charge of all the cleaning and organizing and Daddy was a HUGE help in moving Keaton's furniture in!!!

I am so excited about everything still to come and will make sure to keep you posted!!

Hugs to my family (Mom, Amber, and David). I miss and love you!!

Good night, all!

Kara