Wrap Up!

Whoa! It's the end of December, and my Walt Disney World College Program is officially over! I'm in the middle of packing up my room right now and will be heading to the airport in just a few hours. Pretty crazy! It's been a busy last couple of weeks. Here's some of the highlights!

First off, Morgan, Emily, and Kenzie came to visit! It was a ton of fun and I was able to get work off and hangout with them the whole time.

Christmas came and went! Christmas was definitely strange not being at home and it was weird having to work. Fortunately I didn't have to work until 4:30 that day, so I was able to go to church in the morning. After church my roommates and I had a brunch over at our apartment and we had about 20 people or so over, including the missionaries again. It was a lot of fun and we had some great food! It was strange because it really didn't feel like Christmas, but I guess that was a good thing since that also meant I wasn't too homesick! And work wasn't too bad either, most of the guests were really nice and kept thanking us for being there and working.

I went to an Orlando Magic basketball game! I had been hoping to be able to go to one before I even got out here, but then it looked doubtful with the lockout. But fortunately for me they ended up having 3 home games before it was time for me to leave, so me and a friend from work went to the home opener this past Monday night! It was a lot of fun and we got free t-shirts! And the Magic won! Sorry, no pictures from that. Haha

I made it to the beach!!!!! Going to the beach was on my list of things I hoped to do as well, and it was also looking doubtful. Buuuut some friends from the ward decided to go to Cocoa Beach yesterday morning at 5am to see the sun rise, and since this looked like my one and only opportunity to go I took it! So yeah, it was a little hard waking up and it was freeeeezing cold outside - but it was definitely worth it.

So that's about it. No more working at Port Orleans Riverside! I can't believe I'm going home. In some ways I feel like I've been here forever, but at the same time it seems like I just got here. Even though it hasn't always been a lot of fun and at times I've wanted to just go back to school, I'm definitely glad I came. I've made some great friends and learned a lot. I know I was supposed to come out here. I've been counting down the weeks to go home ever since I first got here, but as this day has been approaching closer and closer I've realized how much I'm going to miss it. But I've had a lot of fun and I look forward to coming back again....but only to visit. Not to work. Haha so now the journey home begins! I'm so excited to spend a few days at home before driving up to Utah! And I'm soooo excited to go back to school! Well maybe not the school part, but at least back to Provo!

Peace out Orlando! 

I can't believe how fast the time is going! It's crazy to think I only have 3 weeks left here. In some ways I feel like I just barely got here. I still have a lot I want to do so I'm going to be keeping busy! So the past 2 weeks I've spent a lot of my time off resort hopping. Before I came to Disney World I had no idea how big it was. I mean I had heard it was way bigger than Disneyland, but you can't really understand it until you've been here. At Disneyland there's pretty much just the 2 Disney hotels - the one you can take the monorail to and then the one by California Adventure. I guess there's a good chance I'm wrong since I haven't been to Disneyland for a couple years, but that's how I remember it. So when my family goes to Disneyland we stay at some other hotel down the street, but everything is basically always in walking distance.

Well here at Disney World it's way different. There are close to 20 Disney resorts and all the resorts and parks are way spread out, so there are buses that will take you everywhere you need to go. I've made it a point to visit every resort, and I accomplished my goal today!! It's been a lot of fun going to all of the resorts and walking around the lobbies and grounds, and it's especially fun to see the Christmas decorations that are up in a lot of them. Some of my favorites were the Polynesian, Wilderness Lodge, BoardWalk, and Pop Century. And obviously Port Orleans because I work there! Overall I think I liked the BoardWalk the best. I would love to stay there someday! It was a really fun atmosphere, and plus it's walking distance to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios which would be super nice.

Giant Gingerbread House at the Grand Floridian - yeah, that's real gingerbread!

Other than resort hopping I've just been working a lot. I made it to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios last week with a friend from work, and today one of my roommates and I went to Animal Kingdom. The main reason we went was because one of our other roommates was working there today. She's a character performer and is 'friends with' Winnie the Pooh. And by 'friends with' I mean she is. Haha so yeah that was a lot of fun! She was so excited to see us and we got some good pictures! And her sign she does when she sees people she knows is to touch her nose.....it's her way of saying "I 'nose' you." Haha so that's why we're all doing the nose point - because we know each other!

Kamrie! I mean Pooh!

Eeyore!

Tigger!

Animal Kingdom Lodge - I was getting tired. Haha

So everything is going good for me here. I fly home 3 weeks from today! And Morgan and Emily come in 6 days!! I can't wait! I'm just not looking forward to the crazy Christmas working hours!