I have officially "earned my ears!" My first solo day as a driver is tomorrow and I couldn't be more nervous/excited! Wish me luck!

I also forgot to mention where I'm living! I'm in Chatham with five other girls and they're all very nice! Hopefully with the new CP's coming through in the upcoming weeks there will be more going on because it's pretty quiet here!

Today was my first day of driving. Needless to say, it was AWESOME! Kind of scary sometimes because there are narrow parts on the ride path, and we also have to make super wide turns all the time, but overall it's so much fun. Done with day two of training, only five more to go!

Jambo everybody! My name is Alexis and I will be your game driver for your 2-week photo safari here in the Harambe Wildlife Reserve!

Yep, you guessed it... I'll be driving the trucks at the Kilimanjaro Safaris in the Animal Kingdom! Could there be a more perfect job for me? Nah, I doubt it. So that was a very exciting thing to discover on check-in day.

Check-in day was... long. Oh man was it long. Check-in starts at 9, but in order to get your preferred apartment, you need to arrive early, and I mean EARLY. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and it was still dark out. I figured nobody would be standing outside in the dark. Boy was I wrong! I ended up heading over to Vista Way around 6:15 and there were already about 100 people there! It was crazy. But I met some nice people and we talked until we could check in. Then we chose our complex, got our housing ID, and then went over to Casting. That's where it got very long. We had to give them our I9 forms, and that took a while. We also had to do fingerprinting for background checks. Then we discussed the Disney Look. Fortunately, we didn't have to dress up super nice because they knew we'd need to dress comfortably since we were moving in that day. We still had to adhere to the Disney Look, but they weren't too strict. Then we had a housing meeting for about two hours. I was all moved in that night!

The next day we had off, so I went to the parks with my mom before her flight that night. It was sad to say goodbye, but I know I'm going to have a blast this semester and she'll most likely be back here again soon.

On Friday we had Traditions, which is basically a sort of orientation. It was about four hours, and we learned about the Disney mission statement, as well as their rules and such. We even had a tour through the utilidors (underground tunnels for cast members) under the Magic Kingdom so that was pretty sweet. I ended the day by going to Hollywood Studios with some friends.

Yesterday was orientation for the Animal Kingdom, which is called DAKlimation (DAK = Disney's Animal Kingdom). So we talked a lot about the park, and we got a tour through it. And finally, today was my very first day of training. I'll begin driving the trucks tomorrow! Wish me luck!

See how it says "1 Day" on the little countdown nametag? Yes, that means I check in and start the program TOMORROW! Hooray! I've been spending a lot of time in theme parks so it's been a super fun few days. Yesterday was Islands of Adventure (I'm not going back to Northeastern due to the fact that I received my Hogwarts letter... oh wait, just kidding) and today was Hollywood Studios. I was able to get my roller coaster fix and that was awesome!

Since I check in tomorrow, I have a very busy few days ahead of me. Therefore, I most likely won't post again for a while. But when I do post again, I'll talk all about the check-in process, where I'll be working (hmm, I wonder where...), where I'm living, etc etc etc. Until then...

see ya real soon!

I am FINALLY in Walt Disney World! My mom and I left at 5AM yesterday morning and drove 8 hours through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. Our GPS even gave us a scenic route through D.C. so we saw the White House which was pretty awesome. We then ended in Lorton, Virginia where we boarded the Amtrak auto train. It left at about 4:30PM yesterday and we arrived in Sanford, Florida at about 8:45 this morning. And now we have officially checked in to our room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge! I can't believe it's finally here. I'll update again once I'm checked into the program and I've started training and such.

TOMORROW!

That is all.

So this is cheating because it's not Disney, but this music is from Islands of Adventure. It's my favorite music from the whole park (besides Harry Potter, but that doesn't count because I love the music from the movies).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baAT-1pRp48

This is from the Lost Continent area, where Poseidon's Fury is. It's so great.

I leave on Saturday. I leave on Saturday. I LEAVE ON SATURDAY! Is this real life??

Okay, so this isn't technically park music per say, but it was featured in the Year of A Million Dreams commercials a few years ago and it's just so beautiful and jubilant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8O0tIJRu28

It's called "Flying" and it's from the most recent live-action version of Peter Pan.

We're in the teens now! I leave a week from Friday! Huzzah!