bookstore

6 September 20, 2007The CurrentMY DISNEY DIAFive monthsin Florida, alifetime oflasting memoriesby AMANDA ROSEWhile completing my first semesterat Longview, I overheard someone in myEnglish class bragging about how he wasgoing to Florida next semester to work atDisney World as an intern. He made itsound so easy to get accepted.“All you have to do is apply and completeone semester at Longview,” he said.I didn’t understand his excitement at beingaccepted. Who would want to go toFlorida and have to work?Another semester at Longview wentby. Missouri grew older by the day, especiallythe weather. It was cold and thebrutal winds kept swaying me off my pathto class. This was all I had ever known:freezing cold winters and unbearably hotsummers. Why can’t it warm up? Therehad to be a way out, an escape to somewherenew. Then, remembering that guyin my English class from the semester before,about how all he did was apply, hopesurrounded me.Posters announced a Campus Repmeeting and meet with a counselor, whogave more information about this internshipand told me the only cost is tuition.She also informed me that Longview offerssix hours of college credit electivesjust for completing the internship, andit was optional to take online classes orclasses at Disney University. It soundedtoo good to be true. Not wanting to goalone, I convinced my boyfriend to apply,too. After waiting a week, a letter came inthe mail from Disney. They wanted me towork for them. Nick was accepted, too.January 6, 2007. Finally, after twomonths of waiting, it was time to kissthe snow goodbye. Looking back, thiswas the only year when Christmas andNew Year’s could not end soon enough.When I awoke, it was still dark out. Wecaravanned with Nick’s parents for 18hours, all the way to Florida. Sleepingmade the trip go by faster. I woke up andthought we were getting gas, but no, wewere there. Looking out my window, all Icould see were palm trees and a blue sky.I opened the door. My sweatpants werestuck to me. It was sunny and warm. Justhours ago, there had been snow on theground in Missouri, but this was homefor the next five months.Being an intern, housing and shuttletransportation were provided. Shuttlestake interns to and from work, to the mall,and to Wal-Mart for those who don’tbring a car along. Housing was on threeproperty complexes: Vista Way, ChathamSquare and The Commons. The Commonswere only open to internationalstudents, and of course they were the nicest.Chatham Squarewas the nicer of thetwo available to choosefrom. Chatham was forthe mellow, quiet, nonadventurousstudents,while Vista Way, whichis an older building,was for the partying,loud students. (Whereelse do you see peoplehaving sex in the hottubs publicly?) Nickand I stayed at VistaWay. We got settledin and said goodbye toour parents. We wereon our own now.We quickly gainedfriendships with ourroommates. We hadfive roommates andthree bedrooms, yes,we had to share a room.My actual roommateAlyssa, worked at Disney’sPop Century Resort.She worked in thedining hall of the resortand had to be at workat six in the morningmost of the time forthose guests that likedan early breakfast. Iwas usually scheduledto work until midnight.Alyssa was from Kentucky and attendsMurray State University. Some of myother roommates worked in merchandise,food, and operated rides. We each workedat a different park. Sharing an apartmentwith five other girls taught me to be considerateof other people. I couldn’t justRose with Buzz Lightyearcurrent@mcckc.eduleave my dirty dishes in the sink anymore,or my half of the room messy. This waschallenging butit taught me a lotabout myself.Florida reallyhas a lot to offer.Every chance Igot, the beach wasmine. There werethree malls very close by our apartmentsbut the food doesn’t come close to whatwe were used to in Missouri.The next day we went to our work locationsfor the first time. I was assignedto work at a restaurant in Epcot, the ElectricUmbrella. I must say, the clothes wereelectrifying. Every color imagined wasput into this costume. I stuck my nose upbut put it on. After about a week it didn’tbother me anymore.My job, working in quick service foodand beverage was just like a big McDonalds’.It was devastating at first! I wasright, who would want to come to Florida“It was not the job that gotme through my internship.It was the people.”and work? There is a McDonalds’ twominutes from my house at home.It got easier as time went by and thegrossness of the job grew on me. My jobwas to clean tables, run meat throughthe Nico (our grill), and work the fryersmaking chicken andfries. After working therefor a week I stopped eatingmeat. Watching all the extrafat lard dripping off theburgers at the other endwas not appetizing. Theroast beef we served wasraw and we put it in somehot saucy water for a coupleminutes and call it cooked.It was gross beyond all belief.When the macaroniand cheese grew old, wejust added milk to make it“fresh” again.Nick got to do the funjobs ranging from BuzzLight-year from Toy Story,Pluto, Flick from a BugsLife, Rafiki from Lion King,Luis, from Meet the Robinsonsand a couple of othercharacters. I was jealous.He always talked abouthow cute the kids were andhow much off set time hegot. He worked hard, too,though. I got used to myjob but I never really likedit. It wasn’t the job that gotme through my internship,it was the people I workedwith. I was fortunate towork with some of the nicestmanagers and co-workersI had ever met. That was what it wasall about. Disney is famous for diversity.They hire college interns from all over theworld, China, France, Russia, anywhere.On my days off, believe it or not, allof my roommates, and all of Nick’s roommateswould get together and go to some