That's right, I finally booked my flight to Orlando!!!
Yes, I am currently in Orlando, and that may be why it took me so long to book my flight back down, because I sort of forgot I needed to until yesterday. I wanted to arrive midday on the 16th, so I leave Vancouver around 11pm on the 15th, have a lay over in Houston, and then arrive in Orlando around 11am! Perfecto! Last time I flew down for the program I got to fly down with Heather, who I had met at the interviews! This time it's all me by myself. Tamara, who is actually from Courtenay as well (well Comox, and we've never met!) is flying out a few hours earlier and arrives earlier in the morning I think, so we're perhaps going to try and do our Walmart shop together! Yes I know people on the program already, but I'm excited to meet my arrival group and do all the fun things at the beginning with them!!
It feels good to have my flights booked! Now just insurance, the visa arrival and the assessment fee! ....for the Program anyways!
7 Random Facts I learned from Ron Logan this Week:
Ron Logan enjoys driving up beside those kinda sketchy cars with blasting hip hop beats, roll down his windows, and blast jazz. He said usually the guys laugh and give him a thumbs up
Hitler as well as Mao's wife, use to put musicians in jail for not writing heroic music which is very brassy and strong sounding
The baritone singer in the Voices of Liberty group in The American Adventure does many on the operations announcements on rides (ie: Please stay seated)
Tokyo Rose was a broadcaster in Japan during World War II who tried to get American soldiers to pack up and go home by telling them it's what they wanted. She was later tried for treason.
So much precision was put into Illuminations:Reflections of Earth that all Don Dorsey would go through the music and find one beat in one bar and change it from 3/4s to 4/4s so that it coincided perfectly with the fireworks
The Globe in Illuminations was originally going to be 3 cranes (a mum, dad and child crane) but even after spending $3 million on them, they decided they didn't work well and trashed the idea
It costs $15,000 per day to put on Illuminations, however it has been credited with $80 million in profit for Epcot!
Bonus: Toni Braxton sings 'We Go On' in Illuminations, and the Show won "Most Spectacular Show in the World 5 years straight! (Including 2010!!)
Double Bonus: The reason there is a countdown at the beginning of Illuminations is because Don Dorsey liked the countdown at Hockey Games! (when everyone slow claps, then it gets faster!)
Clearly our last class was about Illuminations ;) If you haven't seen this show it is absolutely breath taking. It's in three acts: The Creation of the Earth, Modern Day, and the Future. Professor Logan absolutely loves Illuminations (I'm pretty sure he said he was the most proud of it...but that could have been the Wild West Show in Paris), and I absolutely love it as well! We use to walk out of work at Le Cellier and be able to conduct it. I couldn't believe when I first started on the popcorn cart that we got to watch Illuminations! Incredible! It's no where near the same as seeing it in person, but here is a link in you want to check it out!
The Canucks won last night (2 MORE!! - as if everyone didn't already know that!) and I got to skype both my sisters and brother in law, and my Parents and Grandparents!! If you don't have skype and are far away from your family/friends, or going to be, GET SKYPE! It's free and you can video which is so, so nice! It was a pretty fabulous evening, especially because I had been feeling a bit homesick/overwhelmed earlier in the day with decisions. I was missing my family a lot and then had about an hour long chat with my Grandma and she put me in the best mood ever! She has such an incredible knack for that! What a lady! I love her to bits!
I have a 615 workout and then 8am class tomorrow morning so I'm going to hopefully make it a pretty early Sunday night!! Hope all is well in your worlds as well, I almost start to feel selfish being so darn happy :)
First of all...yay only 110 Days! Crazyness...the more crazy part is that I'm actually going down in 12 days for school! But we'll get to that after this...
Yay Buddy!
This was a huge moment. I was the first one in our house to have it actually sink in that we won and everyone went insane!! Chicago has kicked the Canucks out of the playoffs the past two years in a row, and then we had a really hard go having this series extend to 7 games against last year's Stanley Cup winners. You could feel all of British Columbia exhaling after the goal...and cheering and screaming and being sooo freaking happy!!
Another incredible part of Canucks hockey is this...
You may notice that Canuck's fans never want to miss the start of a home game, and this guy is definitely a part of that. Mark Donnelly has been singing the Canadian Anthem at Canucks games for quite a few years now and it gives me chills every time. Especially when lucky enough to be in the building. The sound on this clip is a little scratchy..but I think you get the idea ;)
So as you can tell I've been watching a lot of hockey since returned from my road trip! And intense doesn't start to describe it. I'm so glad we're onto the second round! Go Canucks Go!
Besides watching hockey (and I will admit too many other tv shows) I have been running, hanging out with friends, hanging out with family and trying to unpack, sort out, and repack my room and belongings. I have too much stuff. It actually drives me crazy how many possessions I have and if I could I would go back and unbuy the majority of them. I think this is a good sign because hopefully it will remind me not to buy stupid things when I'm in Florida! I've been trying to sort out all my school paperwork and packing and everything and it's been pretty stressful and I will be so happy when I can just be there and work and be good.
I am running the BMO Half Marathon on Sunday (in two days!! ahh!!) and am going over to Vancouver today with my Mum to stay at my sister Kimmy's! I'm excited to see how my little niece has changed in the last almost two weeks! I get back home Sunday night and then work the federal election as a poll clerk on Monday! (It's like 12 hours of crossing out peoples names on a list and telepathic-ly trying to tell them who to vote for. I'm going to bring a book :P
Then Wednesday is my birthday!! Yay! I'm going to have a little celebration with some girlfriends as most of my friends are out of town right now, and then a family dinner as well. Then Kim, Gar and Clodagh are visiting for the weekend and then I'm off Tuesday to Florida! 11 days! Crazyness! Right now however, I just have to focus on my 21.1km run on Sunday and pray it goes well! I'm super nervous. I hope I can do it and it's all okay....
I went and watched the Canucks beat the Predators last night with my dear friend Holly at a restaurant in town. It was really nice catching up on some of our ridiculous antics from when we were younger and when
Younger versions of us!
we lived in Grande Prairie, Alberta together! Holly and I have come to the realization that we are amazing friends, but just can't live together! haha. We laughed so hard Holly shed some tears - it was awesome! Somehow through all this I convinced Holly to come over and watch the Royal Wedding with me...LIVE! Yup, I'll admit it here first...we watched wedding coverage from 930pm until (are you ready for this?!) 6am! In this time we also played a short lived drinking game (take a sip every time they said Kate or Harry (because he's the cuter brother), we baked fantastic chocolate chip oatmeal peanut butter cookies, spent long periods of time only speaking in ridiculous perfect British accents and we laughed and joked and somehow kept each other awake for that kiss on the balcony!
She is gorgeous!
It was a really gorgeous ceremony and Kate looked amazing. We also discovered that Kate Middleton's name is Catherine Elizabeth...and mine is Kathryn Elizabeth too!!! So it's almost as if I'm married to the Prince of England. Almost.
Fun Fact: Holly's middle name is also Elizabeth!
I couldn't believe how long the aisle was! That's a hike and a half to get to the alter. It was cute seeing Kate and Wills share some looks and smiles and apparently Will said to Kate's dad "I thought this was suppose to be a small affair" or something like that. Hehehe. All in all I thought it was lovely. People ask what is the big deal with the Royal Wedding. I can only answer for myself, but I enjoy the monarch. They don't really have any power in Canada, however they are great figureheads and the Queen is such a strong woman. I think William is a great humanitarian and a lot of people who love Diana and have watched William and Harry grow up were happy to see him have such a great, happy moment. I also love weddings in general, and this one was huge, grand and beautiful! It's also a historical moment, we watched the future King of England get married!
I watched in 1997 as Will and Harry stood as their Mother's casket went past, and it was the first time I ever saw my own Mum cry. Watching some of the wedding pre-show with her meant a lot, it felt very connected to that moment when I was younger and sort of tied it up into a much happier conclusion.
Wills and Kate drove around The Mall so fans who lined the street and waited forever could have a wave.
I also remember singing 'God Save the Queen' in elementary school all the time. I can't kid anybody...I'm a royal lover. There, I admitted it. Sorry Gareth. Weddings are a vision of hope, love and optimism, and in an ever changing and uncertain world, the Royal Family is a sign of traditions and stability. Love it.
It was my dear soon-to-be-brother-in-law Gareth's birthday today! After much super obvious sly question asking about Gar's favourite dessert I asked him Mum to send over his favourite childhood cheesecake recipe and ended up with this:
It was a no bake cheesecake, and my bro is Irish, which explains that beauty shamrock!
We went out for a lovely dinner/hockey game watching with my sister and Gar's good friends Damien and Angie! It was great fun and not only did the Canucks win, they clinched the President's Trophy...aka top in the whole league! What's up NHL! Good thing I...
now for the...
DISNEY CHALLENGE DAY 5: FAVOURITE DISNEY HERO
Since Mulan is the greatest Disney Heroine, I have to chose a guy. And clearly this guy is my favourite. He may not be the best looking, but that's not what being a hero is about. He is completely unassuming, kind of awkward, totally self-concious but with a heart of gold. He would do anything to help others and even though he's been brainwashed, deep down he knows what is true and good. When he saves Esmeralda from burning at the stake he truly kicks butt! You got it, my favourite Disney Hero is...
Sorry for the short post! Tomorrow is my last day of work at Hollyburn, I also have to finish packing my room!!!! (ahhhh!), finish packing my bags for my trip, finish my Canadian taxes, finish my school budget, visit the phone store, and figure out the bus/skytrain to the airport for Saturday morning early early! I can't believe it's actually time for all of this to start happening! I'm going to do my best to update while on the road, but it may be a huge one/two parter upon my return.
