"Happy Holidays"

Just say Merry Christmas already! Silly yanks.

Christmas in America was weird. It was strange not going to Meadowhall on Christmas Eve for last minute pressies and to see the lights and decorations, worse still was missing The Snowman on TV for the first year ever! The Snowman can kick every Disney cartoon's bum.

Christmas has been around since Thanksgiving here and that stupid Mariah Carey song has been played over and over and over! I hate it so much, it never leaves your head.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party wasn't all it was cracked up to be, nowhere near as good as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party anyway. I had lots of fun but it was the people I was with that made it, not the actual event. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone any way.

Over at Hollywood Studios there were the Osbourne family's spectacle of dancing lights (and no, they're not those Osbournes.) That was really cool. It only lasts about ten minutes to see the streets of America lit up in thousands and thousands of fairy lights which twinkle in time to the music but it's so pretty and best of all, it starts to snow...or should I say snoap? It's all bubbles but it looks so pretty you forget that it isn't actually snow. As an added bonus, the day I went to see them Hara was working over there and gave me a free Mickey Mouse ice cream!

At Epcot the candlelight processional has been going on. It's a choir singing hymns whilst a celebrity reads out the story of the nativity. When Jonathan and I saw it Abigail Breslin was the narrator, I was so gutted that I had missed Neil Patrick Harris but at least I knew who this one was. Most people I've spoken to found it a little boring or said they didn't know the songs, but I loved it. Maybe it's because I can't resist a good sing-a-long? It's practically impossible to get seats in the stage area though. JJ and I stood at the back for ages to get a good spot because there was no way I was queueing for two hours to get in there.

I haven't been over to Animal Kingdom to see their festivities (in fact I've only been there twice in the past three months!) but from what I gather they have a Christmasy parade and that's about it. Nothing too different.

I am now concierge trained so I've been spending most of my time at work explaining to guests why there's no dining reservations available in the Magic Kingdom at Christmas and why it has been booked up for the past six months (who leaves it until the 24th to book? Seriously!). Hopefully Raglan Road, the Irish pub over at Downtown Disney is good because that was the only place I could get people in at last minute so I was pushing it like Hell!

I was working from 4.30 Christmas afternoon so I had the whole morning off. It was a dreary day compared to the sunshine we've been having lately so I spent most of it inside. I called home in the morning and I spoke to my brothers for the first time in three months...I think my Mum made them talk to me! I didn't cry so that was good, the last time I spoke to them I was in tears over Frosty the Snowman and the Christmoose teddies we have. (I know, I'm sad!). Then some of my friends came round for breakfast and present giving. I got lots of Donald and Daisy Duck things, Jonathan even got me autographed photos of them! I'm going to look obsessed when I get home, but if you'd seen me when I met Daisy you'd already assume that about me anyway! I was going to make myself Yorkshire puddings and stuffing for dinner but I had a nap instead and then had the most tedious work shift ever. It was only six hours but it dragged so bad. All the guests were complainers, wondering why Magic Kingdom was at capacity, why Santa had only visited the lobby on Christmas Eve not Christmas Day, why we were open (I wondered that one myself) and I felt like I was talking to my FSA every two seconds to deal with guests demanding managers.

Boxing day was goooood. I had it off and the weather was glorious so I went to the pool to read my new book and go for a swim. It kinda made me feel like I was on holiday so I walked over to Walgreens and bought some Ruffles (not Jamon Jamon unfortunately) and Milka. I was scared about buying Milka because when I bought the Dairy Milk over there it tasted all weird and Hershey's-esque. I discovered afterwards that it was made under license from Cadbury's by Hershey's so it was a milky Hershey's bar in a Cadbury's logo. I was not a happy bunny. So, I was understandably cautious when buying my Milka, but lucily, it was the real thing. Then after dechlorining myself I joined Laura, Lucy and Karina at the outlets for some sale shopping before going to Bennigans, the pub next to Vista Way, for tea. It was pretty good. I was too full for dessert but their cake looked tasty! Afterwards we called into the other Walgreens for sweeties for Laura and I found Dr Pepper lip balm. I had to buy it. I'm going to have to buy up a stock to bring home with me as well. I love it!

So all in all it's been a pretty good boxing day, in fact it's been a pretty good Christmas season in general. Maybe it's the weather or working through it but it never really felt like December 25th so it was never really too difficult to get through it. I guess if I can get through this time of year I should be able to get through the rest of my programme pretty easily right? Let's hope so anyway.

"As long as there's Christmas I truly believe that hope is the greatest of the gifts we receive" - Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

Dancing through life

A guest posted this on youTube (it's kinda impossible to not spot me)

This is what I get paid to do! It's my favourite part of the day (in spite of the horrendous costumes). I wish I could do this all day long.

After a long and painful training process, I've just started on the concierge desk, it's so scary! Check-ins are easy, a monkey could do them, I want to go back to being that monkey!

Speaking of monkeys, I met Abu last night! It was amazing. It was right after the parade so Adventure Land in the Magic Kingdom was dead so I met Peter Pan and Wendy near Pirates (Peter had the hots for me and Wendy had the worst British accent EVER!) and then wondered over to the free hot cocoa place where we bumped into Abu and the Genie, tying each other to posts with their scarves! We were the only guests around so they spent about ten minutes playing with us (it ended with Abu and I going on a date while other people were queueing to see them! The character attendant had to drag the monkey back by his tail!) It was amazing. Possibly the best character meet yet.

The ones that might trump it are Belle and the Beast (which was also yesterday) because, well, they're the best! and Belle was telling me how jealous the Beast is of the yeti because he has his own ride, or Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. After standing in line for a little while listening to Jonathan making Pooh/poo jokes, bouncing up to a character and yelling WOOHOOHOOHOOO didn't seem that crazy, so we did! Tigger got excited and joined in...Pooh backed up all scared and started crying! Jonathan consoled him while I cuddled Tigger, which eventually lead to Pooh breaking into the robot Susanne-stylee! It was awesome. I was actually crying with laughter. The people behind us must have thought we were crazies, but oh well.

"Most everyone's mad around here" - Alice in Wonderland

Americana

Well as my sister-in-law pointed out, it has been about two weeks since my last update (sorry) which means this one is going to uber long again. 

Well in the past two weeks I've passed a few American rites of passage. I'll start with most yankee-fied symbolic one; I celebrated my first ever Thanksgiving in the States. As most CPs get lumbered with working the holidays whilst the full timers get it off to spend with their families, Disney put on a free Thanksgiving dinner for us over in Patterson Court on the Wednesday. Patterson is the newest of the housing complexes (the only one newer than my beloved Chatham Square). It's pretty nice, especially the pool area but I think it's a bit too nice, like a hotel. It's not where I'd want to live, it doesn't have it's own personality like Chatham and Vista Way do.  it's just too new and shiny for the likes of me, plus when I walk through Chatham I sort of feel like I'm in Capeside! I love it!

Back to Thanksgiving, I only went over as a last minute thing with some people from work but I'm glad I did. It wasn't because of the food! I don't like turkey anyway but this was absolutely rank. The only reason people ate it was because it was free! I picked at a bread roll but it wasn't worth the effort. Apart from the food, I had a great time. I got to hang with new people, not just my fellow Brits for a change and I tried to figure out what the whole Thanksgiving thing was about (the most I got out of the Americans was turkey and football - the American kind, not the good kind). Best of all, we danced a giant Cupid's Shuffle around the pool! I love that dance. Please tell me it's as popular in the UK? If not, I'm going to make it popular when I get home. It better at least be out by the time I return!

On actual Thanksgiving I was the only person not working (and that was only because of a glitch in my scheduling) so I went on a wander to McDonald's for my Thanksgiving dinner. It was the first time I'd been to the one near where I live (I normally go to Downtown Disney) but it is now my favourite in the world because they serve Dr Pepper! AWESOME!

The day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) is when the huge pre-Christmas sales start in the US. Crazy shoppers queue up at midnight to be the first person in the big department stores and malls. I was asked by loads of different people to go queue at this store or the other but I turned them all down. I wasn't waiting in the cold for five hours for a store to open unless it was selling boots for a penny, even then I'd probably think twice. But when I couldn't sleep after my huge Thanksgiving Happy Meal and Oreo McFlurry I started to reconsider. At 1am I was watching House with Lily and Gaby (I had the remote control!) and, as entertaining as Hugh Laurie is, I was feeling dreadfully bored. I was intrigued to find out the shops near The Commons were already open (no waiting in the cold). At 2am I knew one of my fellow Pop Century cashiers would've just got home from work so I dragged him out to the Premium Outlets with me. They're about a fifteen minute walk away from Chatham, a walk I've done many a time at ridiculous times in the morning to go to McDonald's or Taco Bell or Walgreens but this is the first time I've ever actually seen other people out there at silly o'clock. There were so many CPs walking home burdened with huge shopping bags and when Matt and I finally got to the outlets I couldn't believe the carnage. Whenever I've been there before it's always been swarming with bargain hunters and tourists but that morning it was ridonculous! But at east for once people had some pace about them. Normally people here, in Disney at least, are so stupidly slow. I guess they're in vacation mode but if i was spending that sort of money I'd be power walking around the parks, maybe even rent a segway! I kinda sulked because they didn't have the boots I wanted but Matt bought some Christmas presents for his family. This of course didn't stop me from going back to Skechers the next day with Jonathan and buying two pairs with my Christmas fund; one of which Matthew has since dubbed my hooker boots! Clearly that boy has never seen Pretty Woman. Now they were hooker boots!

I guess I've been immersing myself in more and more of the American culture if only to de-Disney myself from time time. I've been to the Florida Mall, (which was only really worth it for the cheap bookstore and the novelty of the M&Ms store, not even a good place to be a mallrat), the House of Blues (reminded me of the club from Save the Last Dance, i so do not fit in there but I loved it almost immediately!) and the cinema is like my second home. It's so cheap over here so I've been almost once a week in total, I even went to the HSM3 midnight showing in my Wildcats T-shirt. On the Disney front, I spent last Saturday at DisneyQuest. It's full of virtual reality and interactive games. It was fun but totally not worth the $40 guests pay to get in, especially considering my personal favourite part was playing air hockey! I can probably do that from the comfort of Pop Century's arcade.

The best part of American culture is that I got to go to my first ever American "high school" dance. It was the winter formal for all housing residents (but it was mainly CPs because the CRPs were working right next door to the party). It was held in a secret function hall between Canada and the UK in Epcot. It was a last minute decision to go but I am so glad I did. When I stepped into the hall it just took my breath away. The theming was executed perfectly, as only Disney can.  It was "A Night on Mount Olympus" complete with dry ice clouds, giant Hercules statues and photos with the characters. It was absolutely beautiful in there and even the food was wonderful. It was the first half decent bread I've tasted in eight weeks! Of course there was a giant Cupid's Shuffle which made me happy, plus the HSM songs and some cheese. It was mainly catering for the hip-hop/r&b crowd but I loved it. It was like being in Grease or OTH. The only thing that was missing was someone spiking the punch (the Brits were all wishing they'd snuck some alcohol in after about ten seconds of soulja boy).

So I guess in spite of my devotion to all things British (Wetherspoons, we salute you) my slight Americanisation has helped me feel more at home. I was about ready to get on a plane to England this week due to loads of things going wrong all at the same time but I've been feeling more settled for the past two days. I guess things are starting to feel more like I expected America to.

Maybe that's why today I had the bizarre sensation that I was in Stoke. I guess it was the cooler weather and it was damp from the sprinklers...and I made friends with a guy who works in Publix (He recommended some damn good ice cream to his fellow gupper). Delightful Sarah is back, making friends with random locals just like at Staffs!

"I will go most any where to feel like I belong" - Hercules