DCP Day 1 and 2

I got up at 4:45am January 7, 2009 to start my journey. I said some tearful goodbyes and made my way through security and then to my gate. On my way to the gate I encountered a UMBC advertisement which I thought was kind of like a "see ya later" sign. The flight was nice, not too long as compared to my previous flights of 14 and 12 hours =P

I landed in Orlando at 9:40am, found a man named Victor holding a sign with my name. We got my bags, which were a little damp from the rain back in Baltimore (which was 33 degrees by the way, while Orlando was 70!). I met a couple of college programmers waiting for their bags too, but I've yet to run into them again. Victor and I chatted on the way to Vista Way. I learned he's a fellow Lithuanian! He wished me good luck in Lithuanian when he dropped me off.

I got to Vista Way around 10:30 and was there until 2 doing check in stuff. A lot of lines but it wasn't so bad until I realized that I had a meeting at 3 and really needed to get food at some point. I got to my apartment (in Chatham Square) around 2:15 and luckily had two people notice me with 5 bags staring at the stairs wondering how this was going to work. Disney people are nice people =)

First roommate I met was Janet, who showed me the way to my room where Ashly was unpacking. We chatted a bit until it was time for our housing meeting where we were told all the dos and donts of living here. It was a long program, yet it was entertaining. We made our way back to Chatham and did some more unpacking during which I met my other 3 roomies Alexa, Steph and Cait. We all agreed to go out to Bahama Breeze for some dinner since most of us sort of skipped eating all day. Dinner was fabulous - the food and conversation was great. We realized we would get along really well.

We came back to more unpacking and decorating. A long day meant it was time for bed, since we had more check in stuff to take care of the next day - like learning our work location! I slept fairly well considering it was a new place. Ashly and I both woke up a half hour before the alarm haha. We made our way back over to Vista Way.

Ashly got her Animal Kingdom! I was placed in Downtown Disney in Mickey's Pantry. Apparently it's a store attached to a restuarant thats quite popular so I'll see a lot of action. I guess I have to get up on my kitchen utensil knowledge haha. I think it might be a sign that I need to learn to cook....I hope I get a cute costume!

After filling out employment eligibility and getting my training schedule I headed over to sign up for classes. They allowed me to participate in the Professional Development Study in Finance which is nice. I think I can take a lot away from that - learning the Disney way of finance. It sounds like it could be pretty interesting. That starts February 25!

I headed back to the apartment all of us minus Janet, who sadly had her check in, headed over to the Polynesian resort to soak up some sun. It's pretty awesome to have your feet in the sand in early January. We took the free ferry over to the Grand Floridian to see if we could work our way into the sauna, but sadly no go. We took the monorail to cathch the bus back so we could get some free food at our first DCP event. On the way back we met a few guys that live in our complex who have rock band. I can't find the one on facebook, but one of them fot a couple of my roomies numbers. I wanna play some rock band....I'm going through withdrawl.

It was a pool/block party where there was tons of free pizza (we got 3 free whole ones at the end), chips, drinks and cookies. Lilo & Stitch were there too! There was music and dancing and some contests. My roomies elected me to participate in the air guitar contest so that we could get a free blow up guitar for our living room haha. I was a little embaressed at first but had fun. It was a blast - I danced my little tail off. I picked up some new line dances! I learned the cupid shuffle, muddled my way through soulja boy, and picked up cotton eye joe.

After eating and dancing we headed back to the apartment to soon leave again to finally get some groceries. Yay food!!!! Most of us then checked in at home, giving tours of the apartment via webcam, and now it's time for an early bedtime since we have Traditions training bright and early tomorrow (we have to catch the bus at 6:55).