80% English and 20% French

I was at work yesterday when this group of French-Canadians came up to me and started speaking french.  I politely told them I don't speak the language.  They looked at me and said I am not Canadian because I don't speak french.  It not only happened once, but it happened again that same night!!! Some people are really silly. 

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Harry Potter & Butterbeer

I finally went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and it was amazing! One of the best experiences here so far!  It really felt like you were taken out of Disney and placed at Hogwarts.  The butterbeer was delicious! It reminded me of cremsicles and other tasty treats.  I had three, which was probably three to many because they were really sweet and therefore gave me a slight headache and I'm pretty sure I now have six cavities from drinking them.  It wasn't crowded at Island of Adventure so it made it easy to get onto rides.  We did alot of rides such as Doctor Doom's Fearfall, The Amazing Adventure of Spider Man, the Jurassic Park River Adventure, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Flight of the Hippogriff, Frog Choir and that's about all we did.  On Monday we are going to go back but this time we are going to do Universal Studios Florida.  Other than that, this week has been filled with Canadian throw outs, work and going to wal mart.  It's been a pretty awesome week!!  Tonight I work extra magic hours which should be pretty quiet considering the park has been tame all this week.  Hope all is well in Canada!

from Florida with love,
Jilly

BOOM! There goes Toon Town!!

As of February 1st, Toon Town will be no more.  They're knocking it down and puttin something else in.  Kinda sad considering it's relatively small for Disney size and it's really cute.  My friends and I spent some time there on saturday, got to see Minnie and Mickey's house for one last tiime. It was sad :(  We also went and ate at the German Beer gardens.  It was so so so good! It was buffet style so I ate a lot, and by a lot I mean I had three plates full of food and then two plates of dessert.  I was stuffed afterwards.  Luckily we walked off some of our calories by taking a quick trip through 3 countries before we decided it was time to hit the road and head home.  This Tuesday I'll be heading to Universal, hopefully getting to go to Hogwarts now that the big christmas rush is over.  Finally I'll be able to taste the beautiful butterbeer as well as get me some school scarves, except Slytherin (I would probably burn those scarves if I ever got one).  Canada has been pretty decent lately.  Not much traffic coming in which is fine by me.  I have another opening shift tomorrow which should be a good time, another trip to China.  Anyways, that's it for now.  I can proudly say I took some more pictures ... which I'll be posting ... later on (maybe tomorrow ... or the day after, I'm not really sure).  I hope yall haven't lost your fingers and toes to frostbite yet! Stay warm Canada!!!

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Oops

So this past week I've been starting work at 1:00 pm.  Except for yesterday.  I found that out the hard way when  I showed up for work and tried to clock in for my 1:00 pm shift and this note comes up on the screen saying it was to early to clock in for my 3:15 pm shift.  I was over 2 hours early!!!!  Since I had my costume on I couldn't even go out and kill time and walk around world showcase.  When I got home last night I checked online and wrote down my schedule for next week in my day planner so now I can double check what time I start and hopefully not make that mistake again.  I met a couple from Medicine Hat yesterday and it turns out the man worked for the company that put in the big pipeline near Outlook.  It's crazy how small the world really is when you get talking to people.  Tonight I work extra magic hours so I don't have to be in for work until much later (don't worry I checked)  and then I'll work till midnight.  There was another thunderstorm last night and it's been raining on and off today.  Well I can't put it off any longer, time to head out for a run and then make a quick trip to Starbucks for some coffee and then start gettin ready for work.

from Florida with love,
Jilly

We're getting new roommates!  They were supposed to arrive yesterday, but I haven't seen any of them yet.  Mind you I have been working everyday this week and hanging out with friends in the evening.  I finally got the package that my family sent a couple weeks ago.   It was so nice to get it!  It was full of photos, socks and Canadian things.  I hung up my Canadian flag right away and now I just need a roughrider flag to make it complete!! It's been rather quiet at work besides the Brazil tour groups that we keep getting.  And when  I say tour groups I don't mean like 10 people in a group, I mean 20-30 people in a group and they always have like 5 passports each for us to write in.  Apparently it's the wrost at the last two weeks of June and the first two weeks of July.  This Saturday I might be going to Universal Studios which should be fun!! Maybe go visit Hogwarts too.  Anyways, that's about it for today.  Gotta go and create some magic for the day!

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Day off!

I finally had a chance to get to wal mart today.  Good thing I did otherwise I wouldn't have any toothpaste to brush my teeth with and I would probably end up smelling bad because I was also out of deoderant.  Anyways, onwards with my day ... I went to wal mart which was nice. Ran into bus driver Lloyd and we chatted for a bit.  Then I came home and started to clean the house because it was messy.  But not gross messy ... just dishes in the sink and I had to take out the garbage.  Afterwards I rented a vaccum and went around the house with it and made a slight improvement on our floors.  I also ate some almonds and had some soy milk.  It was a very productive afternoon.  So it's back to the daily grind tomorrow until friday.  I like working so I'm glad to get back to it once I've had a day off.  Funny story, I was at work on Saturday and this boy comes up to me after I finished my pre opening speil and said "Is Vancouver the capital of Canada?"  I had to hold in my laughter and told him that it sadly wasn't and our capital of Canada is actually Ottawa.  That question just about killed me haha best one yet!  Hopefully the snow hasn't buried yall to much!! 

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Morning meetings in China

This morning I was the only only opening for Canada.  That means that whenever you are opening you have to go to morning meetings and all the pavillions that have attractions go to China.  While there you get the paperwork for the day as well as the illuminations radio.  It's pretty laidback and they just want to make sure that you are briefed for the day and ready to roll.  After the meeting is done you go back to your respective pavillions and start to open up.  We have a pretty easy checklist because we are a theatre which doesn't require a lot of prep work.  It just involves checking things out and then calling maintenanceif we find anything out of sorts.  Afterwards the 10:45 people show up and help you out with anything that you haven't done yet, which usually ends up being kidcot.  One of the good things about starting so early is you get to leave at 6:45 which means there is less of a rush to get to the bus and you'll most likely end up getting a seat.  You also get your break first which is awesome!!!  Today we only saw roughly 900 people in our attraction.  Definitely down from our previous record of 4000 during the christmas break.  Tonight I plan on studying and just chilling at the house.  I've been so busy hanging out with friends that I kind of forgot what it was like just to do nothing and not have any where to go.  Hope you are all staying warm in Canada!! Oh I also met a guy who used to be a cop in Outlook!  Small world eh?!

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Don't worry, I'm still alive

Sorry for not posting in a really long time but I have been pretty busy ... visiting parks ... and eating ... and going to see movies ... visiting friends ... and of course working.  Epcot has slowed down so much, I swear we only had about 20 people in a couple of the last showings tonight.  It's been really nice though, going to the other parks because they are pretty much empty.  I went to Animal Kingdom on Monday.  Didn't get to see to many animals, except for ducks and this animal that looked like a pig yet somehow resembled a hippo ... it was weird.  I managed to get on the roller coaster Everest which was awesome! Definitely a must do!!! It goes super fast, at times it was moving backwards and then you have this massive drop that literally goes like straight down ... I loved it and wanted to go on it more but we were going to be late for Finding Nemo (the musical) which was sooo cute!!  Tomorrow will be my first opening of Canada.  I'm not really nervous because there isn't much to do except for go to China for the morning meeting and get kidcot ready and that's pretty much it.  You also have to do a little bit of paper work but it shouldn't be to stressful.  I found out that Florida is the only state that doesn't have snow right now and I'm hoping that it stays that way for a little while longer.  It's been really cold here the past few days and even people who live in Orlando say that this is the coldest they have seen it in a long time.  I had a guest tell me today that this was the beginning of the ice age ... I coudn't tell if he was serious or not but I laughed anyways.  Another guest came up to me and asked if I knew who Boyd Derdall was after I said my opening speech.  It was a great bonding moment haha.  Anyways, that's about it for now.  I'll try to get back into the swing of posting more regularly.  

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Happy one month anniversary!

I cannot believe that exactly one month ago I arrived here in Florida.  I arrived not knowing anyone, having no idea what my job was, not even sure why I was even here and just doubting myself.  But look at me now, just one month later.  I have a good group of friends, I love going to work, I got the bus system down and I actually feel like I belong here.  It's amazing how much can happen in a month.  I've done so many things already and the plans that I have for the rest of the year are going to be amazing.  This is truly the good life right now.  I feel so blessed to be here and to have this opportunity.  There isn't much to compain about.  I'm just soakin up life in Orlando. 

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Chinese food at Midnight

Yesterday I finally went on Soarin!  It was a blast and definite must do if you are in Epcot!  The wait time was 100 minutes but we had fast passes so we got to go right in, maybe waited 15 minutes and that was it.  It really felt like you were flying over California.  I've had these past couple of days off so it was nice to just relax and catch up with some friends.  Last night we all met up at my friends house and ordered chinese food and watched tv.  It's not often we get to do that just because the work schedules are so different.  We're thinking of going to Tampa later in the year. We can catch the train and it is only like $30 round trip which is awesome, probably hit up some beaches and relax.  Work is going really well. Finally getting into the swing of things more and more.  My speils are getting better, just got to keep practicing!!!  Anyways, that's all that's new here. The weather is nice although it rained yesterday but not much you can do about that.

Hope everyone is well back home!

from Florida with love,
Jilly

2011

Wow, these past three weeks in Orlando have just flown right by.  I can't believe that this Friday I will have offically been here a month!  My friend that I met during my first few weeks here actually left to go back home because her program ended, she was here 7 months and she said the time just goes quick.  I have the day of today so I'm just taking it easy.  I'm going to have to head to the outlet mall this afternoon and buy a dress.  A couple of us from work are going to the California Grill this Thursday and we're getting dressed up for it.  I'm pretty excited to go!  Last night 6 of us went to the cinema to go watch Tangled 3D.  It was a good movie, had some nice laugh out loud moments.  Work has been rather slow lately.  Considering the park was at capcity on New Years Eve (close to 78,000 people) it has seemed rather quiet with only roughly 27,000 people walking through our gates. The weather has been warming up here which is much appreciated by everyone here although some people from South America still think it's cold and come to our attraction wearing parkas and mitts which is funny.  Now I got to go and get ready to do some serious shopping! 

from Florida with love,
Jilly