Find A Passion

So as I'm lying here in bed staring at the ceiling, I notice a present that I got from my aunt and uncle for Christmas.  It is a decorative piece that has a bunch of inspirational sayings on it.  The first one is find a passion.  As I, for lack of a better word, ponder that saying, my eyes keep wandering around my room. I realize that when I unpacked my room from being in Florida, I created a reflection of the person I have become.  My passions clearly surround me.

When I went to Florida, I went with a broken heart, a craving for adventure, and the desire to meet new people and experience new things.  I went with a feeling of excitement that this was going to be an adventure. That is exactly what I got.  That broken heart healed itself almost immediately.  My adventure was living in a completely different place from where I grew up, having to get around with public transportation. I met many, many knew people.  Most of those people I will probably never see again.  But that doesn't bother me.  Not all the people you meet in life are supposed to stay there forever.  Some are meant to be in your life for a short time to teach you something.  I met one person who I hope will stay in my life forever.  I also experienced new things.  I went to Disney World for the first time ever!!!!  That in itself was a dream come true.  And while I was there I got to experience almost everything that Disney World had to offer.  One of the greatest things I got to experience was making "magical moments" for people there on vacation.  I could spread the joy of Disney, call little girls 'princess', and little boys 'pirate', get paid for it and not seem like a weirdo while doing it.  Although my time there was amazing, I couldn't live there doing the same thing.  That was an experience to have and to be learned from.  I'm glad it's over.  But not because I didn't enjoy it, but because now I can live the life I now want to have.  While I was there I became a different person.  I came home with a heart full of love and hope, a desire to follow my dreams and go to culinary school.  I now have the piece of mind of knowing that I am who I am, I'm crazy and passionate and loving.  And I'm proud of that.  I have an amazing family who will support me in anything I decide to do.  Even if it's something as crazy as moving across the country to go to culinary school.

But I digress, my passions....

When you look around my room you will see a bookcase filled with books from harry potter, to dean koontz, to john grisham, to cookbooks of every shape and size.  I love books.  Always have, always will.  I love the feel of a book, the connection you can have to a character, the inspiration you can pull from almost any book, the possibilities a new book holds to transport you to another time, place, or dimension.  Most of all, I love the awe I get after reading a fantastic book.  And those that I have to sit and think about for hours after reading them? Those are my favorites. I recently found a used bookstore in Monterey that had floor to ceiling shallow bookcases.  I could have just stared at all of those books for hours.  Never pulling any of them off the shelf, just staring.

Another thing you will find are tons of mugs and teacups lining shelves and covering the top of my bookcase.  This passion came from my mother who also collects mugs.  They are mostly disney mugs but some are not.  There's the square one with superman on it from Magic Kingdom where I faced my fears and went on the superman.  Straight up and back down haha.  I have an old-fashioned McDonald's mug from when I worked there.  I have 2 from Hawaii, one with a luau dancer on it and the other that proudly claims it's from Kimo's a restaurant I ate at while vacationing there with my family.   I have one that says supercalifragilisticexpealidocious on it from when I went to go see Mary Poppins on stage with my mom.  I have lots more but there is no need to bore you with all of them, haha.

There are so many other things to see in my room that will give you some insight in to who I am.  The pictures I have up (one of me and my mom when I was little and one of me, my mom and my grandma at disneyland), my many cookbooks displayed for all to see (I collect them), and most important, all of my disney stuff.  I know what my passions are and I couldn't be happier with them.  Most importantly, I think, this is just one room.  Think of how much more I can experience in my life, how many more restaurants I can eat at, how many countries I can visit, and, one day, I'll fill a house with them.  But don't expect me to go running after all those experiences.  If there's one thing I learned, life just happens.  Memories are created on their own.  So for now, I'm going to enjoy the sweetness of doing nothing.

Il dolce far niente.

My holiday dinner

Well its been forever but im back. I realuzed that there just isnt much time to post about the college program while your on it so probably the next time you'll hear about it, i will be on a plane back to california.

On another note, just in case you dont kniw already, i will be starting culianry school at johnson wales in the spring!!! Woo!! Haha very fun :)

But now to the actual subject of this blog :). My Holiday dinner :). I didnt have time to cook at thanksgiving dinner so i have decided to make a holiday dinner two week later. I have fully planned the meal complete with a schedule of what needs to be cooked the day of.  The menu? Cream and Cranberry Spread with crackers, homemade house rolls, roast turkey with citrus-rosemary glaze, citrus sweet potato rounds, and chic macaroni and cheese. I am super excited to grocery shop for it and cook it!! Im just having a couple of friends over and i only bought a small 10lb turkey but i plan on having lots of fun!! Stay tuned for a recap :)

Apartment Tour

Sorry it took so long!!! and the editing is pretty bad cuz i just threw it together real quick but after 3 months i finally have an apartment tour!! haha thanks for watching guys :)

Art Of Animation

Lers start at the begining of this awesome day. Slept in late at my friends and woke up to him calling our other friend telling him to get up. Got up, gathered me stuff and went back to my place to put on a bathing suit and eat some lunch. We drove back to his place to get our friend and after we did we made our way to the bus stop where we got on the B bus at precisely 2:34pm. We rode that to the Polynesian Resort where we got off and walked to the beach there. That resort is truly amazing but also very expensive. Its supposed to be like your in Hawaii :) we spent the next like 4 hours drinking and swiming and laying out in the pool. Which was awesome :) we even got layed!!! then we decided, hey, we havent seen fantasmic yet, why not catch a bus to hollywood studios and stand in line to see it? So around 8 we got on the monorail and went to the Grand Floridian where we sat in the spa and pool for like twenty minutes. From there we got on a resort bus. Once at Hollywood Studios we decides we had enough time to ride Tower of Terror, which is always amazing. Then we stood in line for fantasmic and had brownie sundaes from my work. They opened the doors to the Hollywood Hills at ten and we started walking in. We were lucky enough to get not only the front row but the middle of the stadium!! The show exceeded my expectations. One thing however is if you sit in the front row you will get soaked. We left the ampitheatre after it was over and went towards the buses where we decided it would be fun to board the first resort bus we saw and grab a cp bus from there. We got on the art of animation bus.  That is disneys newest resort. It has four sections, two of which arent open yet. They have little mermaid, lion king, finding nemo, and cars. We walked around finding nemo and cars. The cars area is truly amazing. I felt like i was p through the movie. Everything was lifesized!! The pool in that section is based off the cozy cone motel so they have huge traffic cones that act as cabanas!!!! Anyways it was amazing and i want my family to stay there:) i ended the day talking to my mom and my brother who sounded so happy to talk to me. I work tomorrow at 3:30 so i should probably go to sleep!! Night!!!

Wow!!! What a ride!!!

Well im on the bus home right now and got inspiration to finally write about my time here!! Haha my inspiration came from the fact that here i am about to get on the bus at Hollywood Studios, and off the bus comes my roommate. I was on my way home from work and she was on her way in. Thats the silly stuff that happens here in the Disney College Program. Another thing like that happened just this morning. I got on the bus at Chatham Square (another apartment complex) because i slept over at a friends, when the bus got to Vista Way one of my roommates got on!! Now this doesnt happen often for most cps, im just lucky to have two other roommates who work in the same park as me :) but let me pause to start from the begining:
I arrived in Florida may 14. It was extremely humid and it rained. The next day me and my dad went to magic kingdom and i was pleased to see that my dad could enjoy disney. He loved magic kingdom and said he couldnt wait to take his family there. My greatest memory of that day was when we walked out of Mickeys Philharmonic show and my dad was just like that was amazing!!! I dont know how they did that!! Disney can even amaze adults :)
On wednesday i woke up early and went to checkin where i met my roommates. We got the best apartment. Its not in the front but its super close to the front, the bus stop, both pools, clubhouse, mailroom, and its on the third floor so our living room has vaulted ceilings and a beautiful bay window. Already two of my roommates are gone. The first one left because she went to security to try and get me and another roommate termed. They sent us to a housing meeting and there they decided she would be better off in a different apartment.  Two days later we got a roommate from england, Carolyn. Shes great and is my actual roommate. Not long ago, another roommate of mine got termed for work-related issues. The next day we got another roommate who was already on the program she was just moving apartments. Somehow none of this bothers me that much. I still feel settled in and at home.
Five days a week i don a sunflower apron and straw hat and jump on the E bus to Hollywood Studios where i work on Sunset Blvd. I work in six different locations and could be doing anything from scooping ice cream to selling frankfurters and sausages from inside a boat.  Sunset blvd is supposed to be a Farmers Market that thrived in L.A. during the fortys. It has some wartime touches since its hayday was during the world war.  We are the biggest quickservice area in all of Walt Disney World. Sometimes my job can be trying, but i have made great friends there and the days i get to wear the mickey hand and stand outside to greet the guests are the best. Ive even had people take my picture waving to them!!!!
My name has been a constamt topic of conversation. When your always meeting new people it tends to be. The first couple weeks here i kept hearing from people at work "oh so yoooouuuurrrr Canada." Haha makes you wonder.....sometimes, however i wear a nametag i picked up from costuming that says my name is "Sam". Its fun to wear that one :)
Playing in the parks is definetly the best part about this program. I love going into the parks and feeling like i have all the time in the world.  Hollywood Studios is definetly my favorite.
Well i cant think of anything else but if you want to know anything about my time here just comment below!!!!!

Packing Vlog

Just a silly (can be boring) blog about my packing process.  Sorry it took me so long to post.

Well I arrived in Orlando yesterday and after getting the rental car and heading to the hotel, my dad and I ate dinner at Sizzler's, went to Walmart to go shopping for household items (towels, laundry detergent, etc.), and drove by Vista Way (my new home :)).  I then crashed when we got to the hotel room haha.  Woke up this morning around 8:30am, got ready, ate breakfast at the Ponderosa buffet, and made our way to Magic Kingdom.  Amazing!!!  You have to drive through what I call the "Disney Freeway" to get to the big huge sign that says "Magic Kingdom".  Then there are tons of Transportation cast members that tell you exactly where to park.  Then you board a tram (you don't want to walk, its a mile and a half) that takes you to the ticket and transportation center.  There we picked up our tickets at will call and boarded a ferry boat that took us across a huge lake to the park (yes it's on the other side of a lake and yes that is uber cool.  there is a lot of water in florida....) The day was amazing.  No long lines and we did everything we wanted to.  Even rode space mountain 3 times!!!  It was weird though.  The only way I can explain this park was that it was a mixture of being completely different from disneyland and being exactly the same to a fine detail.  Like pirates was exactly the same just the scenes in the beginning were kinda mixed up. Same with Jungle Cruise.  Tiki Room was shortened somehow.  Splash Mountain had more mini drops.  However, I felt like Peter Pan's Flight was an EXACT replica of that in Disneyland.  It's a Small World was like a mini it's a small world haha.  I went on the Peoplemover and the Carousel of Progress was pretty cool.  It was funny when I went on Space Mountain because since I've been on the one in Disneyland so many times its like my body knows exactly where all the turns and stuff are so when I went on this one, I could feel my body bracing for it to go one way and then it would do something completely different.  There are also a lot more drops on that one.  I also noticed that like EVERY ride has a fast pass.  weird.....

Anyways, great day and I'm really tired and I'm gonna get like no sleep.  It's 1:15am and I have to wake up at 5am to be at Vista at 6am, sucks..... oh well.  Ill post another blog when I have my next vlog about my first few days here!!! (by the way, the whether here is weird.....)

2 weeks to go!!!

well as some of you may know, I leave for florida in 2 weeks!!! I have a feeling this time will go by super fast!!!  I am starting a bucket list for the disney college program so when I finish it I will post it :)

for now, here is a trailer I made while messing around with the mac on my computer :)

I have also started packing and plan on going through my clothes tomorrow :) I'll keep you guys posted.