Happy Holidays!

Yes I waited a little long to wish everyone a Happy Holidays, however it's been a busy, crazy, emotional, fantastic season and well, I dropped the ball! BUT I'm hoping everyone has a beautiful New Years, however they wish to celebrate it, and a 2011 full of love, laughter, imagination and Adventures!!!

So the update on Disney....I've been added to an email chain of applicants all introducing themselves, which is exciting! I remember it last year and then meeting all the people...getting accepted, and how good of friends I am with so many of them now. It's quite bizarre actually. I couldn't believe how many names I knew on the list! There are SOOO MANY REPEATS! It's completely freaking me out! It's super stressful having so many people know you're reapplying...and if I don't get it, I'm going to be super sad..and everything will know! Also it feels like there is no way they could take everyone who is reapplying, so either me, or someone I know who was great there may not get accepted again. Gah! I don't even like thinking about it because it just stresses me out a lot. It keeps making me think of everything I didn't do, everything I missed out on seeing, and everything I did that I absolutely loved!

I did get everything sent in for university so that is exciting!!! I am waiting to hear in the New Year whether I'll be accepted or not, and if I do it's to start in MAY! Ahh! So crazy. I also have a Disney Cruise Line interview in February. Soo many things! I want school to accept me the most of course, and then the CRP so I can postpone school a year and save save save :)

So that's the update. No word from Kristen yet on the actual dates of the interviews...but trust me, you'll be the first to know!

GOT THE FACE TO FACE

Greetings Kathryn (Kate),

Thanks so much for taking the time in the recent telephone interviews for Disney’s Cultural Representative Program.

It was an absolute pleasure speaking with you and getting to learn a bit more about yourself and your reasons for wishing to work at Walt Disney World. I was impressed by the enthusiasm and personality that you had for this program and would be delighted to invite you to the final interviews for the Cultural Representative Program!

Currently we are still working with Walt Disney World to verify the exact locations and the time frames of when we will be holding the final interviews, however they will be held in early 2011. I will be contacting you in January with more information about the interview locations as well as cities we anticipate to interview in.

Along with the interview city information, I will also be inviting you to submit your email address to share with others interviewing, so please do keep an eye on your emails throughout this fall and if your contact information changes please do inform me.

Once again, congratulations on reaching this stage of the recruitment process and I very much look forward to contacting you with more information in January 2011!


Have a Magical Day,


Kristen Thornton
Yummy Jobs


YAY!!!! I'm soooooo excited!! I can have a lovely Christmas holiday now not stressing whether I got the interview or not! This waiting period is annoying, but so much less stressful because I know I'm onto the next step. One step closer to FLORIDA! Loveeeee it. Life is Good Today!

Starting All Over Again...

So I checked my email this morning and this is what I found:


Greetings!

I hope your October is start great, and that you are getting excited about the possibility of spending a year at Walt Disney World on the Cultural Representative Program! We would like to schedule a telephone interview with you to get to know you a bit more. We will be inviting you select an interview time on Thursday, October 14th. Please do note that the interviews times are in Eastern Standard Time. You will be receiving a second email to confirm how to select your specific interview time. Please do note that you will need to have confirmed your interview time slot by Wednesday, October 13th at 4pm Eastern Standard Time.

I hope you are as excited as we are for your telephone call, and I look forward to chatting to you soon!

Have a Magical Day,


Kristen Thornton
Yummy Jobs


Super exciting, and SO fast! So my phone interview is October 14th at 8:15 AM my time. I'm sooo excited and sooo nervous! haha. I hope I do alright. We'll see, I could be starting this whole thing all over again :)

6 Months Later...

It's hard to believe it's been six months since I left Disneyworld. At this time I was stressing about leaving, packing, boys, friends, flights, UPS, everything. I definitely went though a hard time when I left Florida. It was wierd being about my friends and family from home because they couldn't know what it was like and I started every sentence with 'at Disney we,' which is never nice for the other person. I was also going through my first heart break, which as most people know isn't so easy. I also was moving to a new place in another new province with a new job. It sounds like the depression should have kicked in pretty hard, but I was okay. And now I'm even better. When I read that last message I wrote on March 19th, while I was staying at the Cabins, I can feel all the emotions seeping out of it. No wonder my Mum was concerned! However now looking back, a lot of those things that seemed like the end of the world have been reset to their actual size and things go on. I left the job I first had after Disney, and now I'm in Vancouver, where I really truly feel at home. I have incredible roommates (my sister Kimmy, her fiance Gareth and their pug Lily), and a job that even though I'm not fond of it, the people are so kind and I'm looking for something better. I have mended the friendships that I could with the people from Florida that I did wrong, and have forgiven those who hurt me. My heart is fully healed and doing well, I learned a lot of lessons about myself, love, trust, and guys from my relationship with Barry, and even though we were awful for each other, my only hope for him is that he finds someone who is right and works hard to make his life goals come true. A lot of the growing I thought I did in Florida, I actually did reflecting on it. I can honestly say that I am truly happy right now. Yes I have incredible stress about money for school, I'm boyfriendless, and have a somewhat crappy job, but I have a peace and calm inside me telling me that right now, as it is, life is good, and I'm happy. I am planning on reapplying to work at Disney, not to relive the experience but to further my career and love in the hospitality business. As I go through the process again I'll do my best to track it here, and I may eventually tell you about my Aunts visit (which was a lot of fun, we stayed at Animal Kingdom, ate breakfast with princesses and rode Dumbo soo many times!) or Klassy and mine's trip to New Orleans (it was absolutely mind blowing! The culture and history of the French Quarters gives you this feeling that there is so much to be thankful for and so much to celebrate and love) and I may even tell you about my last day of work (on St. Patrick's Day! We drank around the world).
If you are thinking of doing the Cultural Representative Program, all I have to say is don't think twice, don't hesitate, grab this opportunity by the horn and throw your entire self into heart first. It will make you cry, laugh, want to quit, never want to leave and if you're lucky it'll change your life.
Thanks for reading my blog and wanting to follow along on this journey that was the product of a lifetime of loving Disney, from the moment I first walked through the gates of Disneyland when I was 4 years old, to discovering the program when I was 12 years old, to the 5am drive home from Victoria to Courtenay when I decided not to wait and to apply right away, to the interviews, the waiting, getting accepting and to finally stepping off the airplane in Orlando and driving under the sign into the Happiest Place on Earth. I'm sorry I didn't always write as much as I should haveThank you all, and ttfn, because this isn't the last Disney has seen of me :)

The End

Well, I had my last day of work. I'll fill you all in one the trip with the aunts, Mardi Gras and my last month and my last day. It's a bizzare experience the whole thing and it's weird looking back at the posts from before I came. I never thought this year is what this year would be. To call it a roller coaster is an understatement, to call it the best year of my life is close to accurate and to say I learned a lot about myself while down here is definately true. I'm not as old as I thought I was, though I've grown up a lot. I did things I thought I never would and met people I didn't have a clue could exist - at both ends of the spectrum. I cried, I laughed, I fell in love. I got hurt, I hurt people and I met friends I hope to keep forever. I realized all over again why Disney is so important to me and the genius that is Walt. I saw managers who are destroying his image and managers who exemplify the people he strived to build his company around. I love this place. I would stay forever.

Yah, yah, i know...it's only been 5 months...

So I can barely remember what I did last Sunday let alone 5 months ago, but I'm going to try and break things down a bit since my return from Canada sooo long ago. Some key points and things that have happened....We'll go by month:)
August: Amy and her mum Lisa came and visited florida. They stayed at disney for a couple days then i went up to Daytona Beach with them for a couple days. It was sunny and we tanned and Lisa made some unbelieveably delicious food! I rarely cook, so having real food was fantastic. We went to go shopping after we dropped off the rental car and got crazy lost hiking around in the heat. It was quite the journey but we finally found a bus stop that took us back to where we needed to be...the hotel! We had this incredible view of the ocean.. the only thing between our room and the ocean was the pool!
In August I also started dating Barry. I wasn't going to write anything about him but 4 1/2 months later we're still together, and he's one of the main people I've done things with the last couple months. He's also Canadian from Ontario.
In the beginning of September Barry and I stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge in a savannah room. It was sooo much fun! We sat on the balcony and watched a giraffe lay down to sleep 25 feet from us! There were tons of zebras as well and this big ox/cow like things haha. They also had really good breads and dips from room service! get it! it's yummy :)
At the end of September Barry and I went to Miami for 4 days. We left after work and drove at night and were so tired we slept on the side of the road for a bit. yikes! We were trying to maximize time there by leaving as soon as we could, but we ended up being too sleepy from work. We had so much fun though, our hotel was on a boardwalk along south beach and we slept on the beach, played in the waves, rented a skidoo! ate on ocean drive, went shopping (yay) and just hung out. We had a really high room on the ocean side so it had a great view! Probably one of the best trips i`ve been on.
I don`t really remember October...I`m sure we did something. I think we stayed at the boardwalk (resort). It was gorgeous as well. We watched the first Hockey night in canada of the year at ESPN zone on the boardwalk. We waited forever to get a booth, and when we changed the channel to hockey on our tables personal tv we got booed by the college football fans! They`re nuts!!
November we went on a Disney Cruise!!!! It was a 4 night cruise and went to the bahamas (nassau) and castaway cay - disney`s private island! The food was yummy, the cast were friendly, the sun was fantastic and we had a room with a little deck so that was cool! We met some other really nice cast members that dined at our table as well as this family from tennesse (i think) that were so funny and nice. The people from the south always seem so friendly. By south i mean georgia and tennesse and even some texans..i know, i thought i`d never say it. That doesn`t mean they all are, but i`ve never been called ma`am and thanked so many times then when i have a southern table. Although they do have their opposites who demand plenty of A1 sauce and drink unsweet tea is if it`s going to disappear off the earth any second.
December was a rough month. Some of my favourite people left the program and it was really really hard to go back to work without them. Then christmas away from the family was really tough as well. We rarely are all together, so it was tough missing a time when we could have been. I love my family so so much. I worked december 24th, 25th, and 26th so it wasn`t much of a holiday. Then i also worked dec. 31st and jan. 1st. We sat until 10:50pm on new years eve so it was a late night but luckily my last table left right as the fireworks were starting so Barry, Aliiyah, Sam, Melanie and I went out and watched them. It was crazy spectacular! They set fireowrks off from behind the different countries in the order in which they celebrated new years and then had this countdown and went crazy from when new years hit america! The amount of ppl was crazyyyy but they were all pretty happy. Guests were a lot nicer and happier New Years eve then they were Christmas day. I know i focused mainly on trips, but i've been working all this time as well, and missed lots of other things I've done too. I went to Tampa with Jadrian and Jessica for a weekend to see So You think you can dance in october (i think) and we got our fortunes told! I went to a hockey game that Kim's Dad (Brad Lazarowich) was lineman in and we went downstairs afterwards and stayed over in the presidental suite at the marriot! It was crazy huge and soooo nice! I do have pictures of most of these things, but they are all in random places. I'll put them all together when i get home.
Home. sooooo freaky of a concept. This has become home to me and going back to Canada is a scary concept. I love it here and can't believe i have only 2 1/2 short months left.
This weekend coming up i'm going to Boston with my friend Melissa, and perhaps Washington, DC the weekend after and Chicago the weekend after that! Auntie Mary and Co. are coming down the first week of February and then i'm going to Mardi Gras (New Orleans) February 15th. Then just a month until this dream is complete. Time has gone so fast, but I've done some incredible things, met people that have changed my life and still have a lot left to do! I'll attempt to write something else before i leave, haha, but knowing me you'll just have to wait and see:)