Once Upon A Time...is NOW!

So now to fill in the gaps...
Tuesday 4th

We had paperwork at 7.50 today and had to get a bus to the commons. It was ok as we were still on UK time, but it wasn't fun living out of our suitcases for the few days we were at Vista.  The first 2 hours were immigration talks, we are going to jail, getting arrested for everything and we will get 'termed' (fired) was basically the theme of the scary talk! A 'special agent' came in and told us how if we get arrested and make bail then go home and dont up to court, then 10 years down the line bring our family to WDW we'll get arrested then..bla bla bla and did you know, the drinking age is 21?!?!? LOL. So glad we are all over age, they can't tell us enough times!
We also had some fun synchronized form-filling sessions.

 (A pic of buzz light year getting deported....)

For lunch we popped over the road and had Taco Bell nachos, (average) at the Premium Outlets and had a wonder around.
Then after was the Housing Session which was like a disco and they played the Wreck it ralph song among others and got some mexican waves going. We had a crazily happy girl called Sarah Smiles. I won this for answering the Q about no. of bricks in the castle...

Then we went to the Vista pool (6 of us girls) and got to know eachother a bit, hit the hottub and then it started getting windy so we went to the clubhouse to request a move to an over 21st apartment. We had to leave Alice and Katy behind as theyre underage but Jen Jules and I got given a new flat at Chatham....

but couldnt move til the next day as there was one girl there who'd been there since March and had to give her notice.
So we hit Walmart for bits and pieces, towels, mega-size toiletries etc but didnt get a router incase there was one there. (Disney dont provide them...or let people leave them behind....why? I dont know.)
So still no internet. That evening we went to Applebees across the scary road and got soaked in the rain, desperate to dry ourselves we ran to the loo, no dryers only paper towels lol looked like drowned rats. It wasnt anything special food wise. So tired and wet we went to sleep. Our apartment was ok but Vista is older and ours was right by the buses (think running all night, people talking and screaming right next to us in diff languages and bright lights on 24/7) and also it was too hot, dodgy A/C. So, excited to move the next day!

Wednesday 5th

We had 'paperwork' stuff at 10am so we got up early and got the bus to Chatham at 9am to move half our stuff in but Jen's pass had run out and she coudlnt go on the bus, so Katy took her stuff for her bless her! We are in building 13 (my lucky number, plus i was in Constable Flat 13 at uni, woop woop)
and we got so excited around...."omg its cold-air con!" "omg balcony" and even better "OMG NO ROOMMATE!!" as it was just us 3 in a 6 bed seems there was no other roommates and we had a bedroom and bathroom each to ourselves, better than some hotels, lovely!
It was sad to leave Vista because we felt (as Jules said) "we have our roots there" LOL crazy how long 48 hours can feel!
Also at chatham as we got our temp passes we got free mickey rice crispy treats! and they always have cookies!!

We dumped our cases and all the stuff out and took the empty ones back to Vista for our session. It turned out we were finding out where we were working so a borign paper work session suddenly became very exciting. Jim was lining us up outside (he was at our interviews!).
So anyway I got Main Street which i was upset about as the WHOLE time ive been talking about rides and at interviews i never once mentioned parades as i couldnt care less about them so i was pretty gutted and they said 'we try to place you accordign to where u want' but not with me! Jules and Jen got where they wanted, sucks. The upside is its the same position as Jules, and Jen is Merch at Emporium (the store that runs along main st) so even though we have different hours, we are all very close!!

We then moved in the rest of our stuff , and settled in to our new house, and actually UNPACKED! 

Who can say no to the dream puff! 

(house pics to follow). We then went to Walmart (again) on the bus for the all-important router AKA our links to the world and people back in england. We got caught in the rain again at Walmart so grabbed some food shopping there too.

Eating at Walmart in the rain like hobos.

So on the bus (2 didnt come...) finally, we read the instructions for the router, and Jules said "oh good, '3 easy steps. Step 1: put in disc....'" and hahahha my god all we could do was laugh so much we cried at the ridiculousness of it all! We have 2 ipads and a laptop between us but no disc drive as jules' one doesnt work! Oh dear. so close yet so far. So when we got back we knocked on nearby flats and found 6 lovely American girls downstairs who helped us set up, legends!! turns out we needed an extra ethernet cable to set up too so we didnt stand a chance. They were nearly all in QSFB and has just moved in. (Dad you'll enjoy this....)None of them had been to ANY disney parks before, and the 2 i asked hadnt seen the Grand Canyon!!

Anyway internet up and running we all ran to skype people, and then that evening we had a welcome party, literally round the corner to us on a field. "wheres perry welcome party". They had a marquee with free pizza and cans of drink and a DJ set up with people dancing and i have to say, it was the most fun i've ever had at a non alcoholic party! we all got up and danced- there was a lot of dances we need to learn!It rained a bit but was nice as we got so sweaty dancing! Great first night in the new flat. Thursday was our first day off...

Disney Days are like dog years....

Monday
Or something to that effect. I've been here a week! But it feels like months already!! Crazy! I started writing this yesterday... This morning I had to pack up my room (again!) and moved into Jules' room as we are getting new roommates (last night). Its lovely and sunny here and I've finally got my Chatham resident card i.e. the all powerful bus pass! Rather than a stupid bit of wet scraggy paper. Took me ages as the Clubhouse is a bit rubbish and open at useless times. And also the card machine broke. But oh well sorted now! So much has happened in the last 8 days. I've eaten loads and spent too much, but had the BEST time and met loads of awesome people, and crossed off a few things on my bucket list already.
I've eaten SO MUCH rubbish considering it's only been a week. 3 lots of nachos....2 or 3 pizzas, burgers.. you get the idea. Unhealthy US food. There was an aisle at Walmart that said on one side "Entrees" on the other, "healthy Entrees". and nearly every ready meal is in a box. I think theres only 3 food groups, burgers fries and pizza! and of course Coca Cola.
I don't know where to start really, so I'll talk about the last few days first and then fill in the gaps. I'm meant to be going to Epcot with the boys and Katy today woo!!
So..Epcot, Monday. After I moved rooms, Katy came round and we got the bus to Epcot, and met the boys. We went straight to new Test Track and though it was 11, the queue was already 2 hours. Got FP's but they werent til 8pm which was when we were having dinner with the girls, so the four of us did single rider and it took about 30 mins but Katy and I got to sit together anyway :) We didnt get to design a car though! Tbh I prefer the old test track as the new one is all 'Tron' and isn't as well explained as it used to be but it was still fun.
Katy was cheeky and got pics of our ride:

Then we grabbed quick service (QS) lunch at Mexico...nachos... not very nice really. Soarin' had super long queues too so we headed out and on the way looked for someone to give our fast passes to. We gave them to the CM (cast member) heading the queue at TT and she let Katy and I on through the fast pass queue (woop!) so we got on again in 10 mins and designed our funky car...

We got the monorail (monoraillll- always reminds me of that really old Simpsons episode!) to MK (Magic Kingdom)...it wasnt that fun, too hot!

(Dan, Gio, Katy and me)
and as it was so humid we headed for Splash Mountain only to find a 2 hour queue. We also got "celebrating  " badges (pic to follow!). 

So after a cheeky word with a cm...we got FP (fastpass) and walked straight on! Perfect timing as as soon as we got off a storm hit! LOVE splash mountain though!
It was too wet to go anywhere so Katy and I headed off to get sexy work shoes (pic to follow) from 

Costuming, and then popped to Cast Connections, a cast member shop. On the walk over we saw some crazy lightning!! It sells stuff that isnt sold in the parks anymore like 2012 stuff for cheap, and a second building sells actual stuff from the parks like there were old plates etc and a huge painting that was up at Epcot italy, and a 52" tele, and a giant oscar statue! Then the last building sold broken stuff. I didn't but anything but Katy got an autograph book for $3!
We got the bus home and headed out to Bahama Breeze (finally! very excited!) and it was even nicer than I thought it'd be, just my kind of food. Lovely atmosphere too, a live singer on steel drums, he sang stuff like Shaggy, Angel etc and there was a fire too! (although it was a bit hot next to it). I got a lush pineapple-coconut martini to drink:

and then coconut shrimp with brocolli, pic to follow... (Matt you'd approve), and swapped the rice from pinepple and grape fruit salad with sorbet, YUM! So I got pineapple and coconut in my drink and meal! Mum I think you'd like it there too! Mine came to $25, not bad.

Jen, Jules and I then watched TOWIE in our duvets and awaited the new roommates but they never came.

Tuesday

So this is my second day off. Jen has work so Jules and I met our roommates this morning and then hit the pool (lots of suncream Mum!) and now its 1pm and I am at the clubhouse typing this and eating a free cookie that the clubhouse always has

and we are hoping to go to AK (animal kingdom) later. Chilling today as we have 5 days work and then one day off then 4 days work coming up!! Also our roommates are a girl from France who is Turkish but speaks German.....confusing!! and two UK but they'll move I think as one girl is under 21 and ours is an ALCOHOL apartment, Disney botched up DORMS once again!

Arrival!

Before the trek through London to gatwick I got some nice photos with the family :)

So... We (Juliette and I-we've done everything together) have arrived safely. We stayed at the gatwick premier inn so we could get the shuttle across which our friend booked us in advance so it was a great price, handy! We checked in quickly and our bags were only a tiny bit overweight phew! We found Yummy Jobs Louise and James and they filmed us and took a photo! So if we get to see that in the future it'll be a nice momento of our excitement. Also we got some magic stars yum.

We found our friend Alice and grabbed some breakfast -smoked salmon and scrambled egg (no champagne Dad!) then it was time to board our VS027 flight. 27 is my fav number :) Our plane was super busy cos we picked up lots of the 1 pm flight as their plane was delayed by 4 hours! 

Flight was nice, and following initial panic by Juliette that we were going to all have to watch the same thing cos there were no controls we discovered it was touch screen! But what isn't these days... I watched Futurama and then Stolen (LOVE nicholas cage -who Juliette has met, jealous! but it was rubbish. Then I watched the first 2 Carrie Diaries which i must get into when ii'm home! Food was good as usual with Virgin but we were disappointed as no one got the pen socks eye mask etc. As we flew we kept our eyes on the flight map which has info like speed height etc, height was the same as Everest Base Camp- puts things into perspective!! we landed at 3.30 (8.30 uk time). It took half hour to get off the plane and 2 hours to get through immigration, not cos of checks, just the line! We spotted lots of Disney hoodies as we queued, from Manchester and the BA flight. We joined with 3 guys and got a taxi for $50 rather than Mears which took about half an hour and then we were at Vista! 

At the welcome centre we had to do some paperwork then got given water fruit and cookies. We got our housing ID (my head is tiny in the pic!) and keys and a disneyfied video to watch. We got roomed in totally the wrong flat, wanted Chatham, 2 room, alcohol allowed and we got vista 3 bed no alcohol! So we are staying one night then hoping to move today. 

Our flat has 2 other English girls and one from Hong Kong who seem lovely but we want to be able to drink! And it is right next to the entrance and street lamps so too bright and noisy. Plus AC doesn't seem to work n we are boiling! 

We explored vista and ended up grabbing food at Chick Fil A, welcome to America! Juliette got told her name was lovely! And we came across the crossroads of death... Green man means nothing in America as they can still turn right on red, and there are flowers right on the crossroads at the entrance to vista as I believe someone was recently hit and killed, so we decided we are too scared to cross yet, hence the chick Fil a as Applebee's was on the other side, damn! 

We got to bed around 10 pm I.e 3am and woke up before 6 today. We have paperwork things scheduled from 7.50 so it works out well. Going to have the pastries we bought with us for brekky (thanks juliettes mum!) and try to move today, and hit Walmart. Will try and post this when I get some wifi....

Xx

Countdown....

Eek!! 

Disney nails!

Bits and bobs

 

In the last few days I've had my last lot of injections for Everest (and been left with a massive bruise ouch!) and got my malaria tablets and had my cholera drink (ew!) and I've had my hair dyed a 'natural colour' bye blonde :( for the Disney Look....

I had to go to London two days in a row to get my Nepal visa sorted and let me tell you it was as opposite to the American Embassy as you can imagine!! It was in a basement room that looked like a toilet and you could take whatever you wanted in with you and just had to hand over a form and some cash (for which they had no change...so take the right change!) then I had to return to collect it in 24 hours. There were definitely no men with guns. Compare my visa with the American one in my previous post...

Slightly more low-budget! But anyway that's another thing sorted. Also, the universe thought it'd be fun to add to my massive stress levels by letting the ATM at Liverpool street eat my card the minute I got into London, NOT fun! Luckily I cancelled it and HSBC has already sent me out a new one, thank god for fast service!

While I was in London I also picked up a few new coke bottles for my collection :p one for Father's day too!

 

While I was in London I thought it'd be fun to see a show so I took the boyfriend to see We Will Rock You, I think its my fourth or fifth time although the last time was probably 6 years ago... and I still think its awesome! Love Queen!

I have now got some funky climbing boots for Everest but I am yet to wear them in.... and I bought a keyboard for my ipad mini but the buttons are so small I cant type, and that's saying something as my fingers are really thin! So that's gonna be sent back! Also I got a camera for Disney, a nice looking Samsung one, a slightly smaller Galaxy-type one, but I haven't worked out how to use it yet!

 

I have picked up my dollars now at the Post office and I've opted for their travel money Plus card to take with me, the rates sound good and it can be topped up by the parents from home (always a bonus!)

 I also may have accidently found out where the Hub says I am working in Disney...as a certain somebody I've been talking to sneakily looked it up and told me it was good! So although I didn't want to know, knowing she knew was killing me so I had to ask! However people say this changes so i'll let you know whether the Hub was right when I find out for sure!!

 

Only a few days now...must get packing!!

 

xx

 

 

Fundraising/Life Update

Bake Sales at Uni... Check out my cool cakes!
http://emmajosephine27.tumblr.com/post/44953173318/my-amazing-bake-sales
Handmade cards and Onesie day fundraising
http://emmajosephine27.tumblr.com/post/44951753897/fundraising

Thanks to some amazing people I not only managed to reach my target before anyone else in my group, I also got a lil bit over! Over Easter I even got a letter from Childreach congratulating me on being one of the TOP 30 fundraisers in the country! Which is pretty cool.

 

So with the fundraising done, I have the fun part of getting all the jabs I need, I've had two outta 3 now, rabies and Hep B, and when I go for my final jabs I also have to pick up malaria tablets...scary!

Finally, I managed to get one last UEA hoody before I leave (having already gotten ones for Snow, Cheer, Maths and Pole) Everest 2013 Baby!!

 

In April, I finally handed in my maths version of a dissertation, my MMATH project; Quantum Fluids, woop!

aaaaand as of Tuesday, 14th May, I had my last exam and COMPLETED MY MASTERS DEGREE :D It happened that my lil sis was in the same room as me for her final exam and she left early so she finished her degree before me...damn!

 

So I have a few weeks left until D-Day (Disney day!!!!) and I just need to buy a few more bits and pieces and pack....and hit the gym!