Sunday, July 31, 2011

Week 10

Sunday, July 31.

Asia - Anandapur
10:30-19:30

Steve wouldn't get off my back. As I started my trash run at 16:00 the perfectly blue sky suddenly filled with big stormy clouds and we could hear thunder rumble in the distance. I still started my run, I figured if it started raining I would go grab my rain gear in the break room and if there was lightning there were a couple places for me to hide and wait. About twenty minutes in my run Steve (another Custodial, no one "special") started telling me I was working too slow, that the rain would start before I finished and that I should concentrate on getting the trash out of the Kali River Rapids queue line. I answered that I would be fine, I could easily get my rain gear and it wasn't raining yet. So he walked away and stood there staring at me while I emptied a few more cans. In a desperate moment he emptied one of the cans for me trying to make it more efficient and told me he would go grab the trash in the Maharajah Jungle Trek while I grabbed Kali so I would be done before the rain, at that point I told him that I would be fine (yay me for being firm), that the rain wasn't there yet and that if I couldn't get it done now I would finish later. I think he understood that I was being serious, plus it was time for him to leave for the day so he gave up/in, wished me luck and left for the main office. Ten minutes later, as I continued my run the clouds mysteriously disappeared and the sky was once again blue with an incredibly burning sun. That taught me to stay firm, and amongst other things, not to fear the rain. As soon as you tell yourself it doesn't matter if it falls or not it doesn't, just like carrying rain gear on you during Parade Pre-Lining keeps the sun out and the rain away (most of the time).

Monday, August 1.

Off - Rain, Applebee's, and Walmart. Leaky buses and room cleaning.

I believe Ricky worked at 18:00 or so. We were planning to go to Walmart on Tuesday, but since we had time I had the brilliant idea of going on Monday. At 11:00 or so we decided to go back to Golden Corral, the incredible buffet down the road. By the time we walked to Applebee's (about half way to Golden Corral) the rain started pouring so we ducked into Applebee's instead. Ricky had the riblet basket and I had the provolone stuffed meatballs. Delicious. It also appears I am getting converted to mango, the mango lemonade tastes wonderful.

By the time we finished eating it had stopped raining so we made our way back to Vista and had a few minutes to catch the 14:00 bus to Walmart. I checked the schedule and realized that the buses to Walmart ran every half hour for once, not every hour as we had thought. It turned out for the best since we didn't make our Walmart trip an hour long but an hour and a half. Ricky wouldn't believe me that it ran every half hour but he was proven wrong. Just throwing that out there =D
The buses we are provided are fine, you know - free stuff and all, but as soon as it pours out it pours in as well. Half of the seats have to be checked before sitting. A car would be nice, more groceries, healthier food, etc etc etc *hint hint*.

After our trip Ricky got ready for work and I went into cleaning mode and straightened up my room and closet.

Tuesday, August 2.

Off - Epcot with Ricky.

When we went to Animal Kingdom last week Ricky was not happy with leaving "late", so I figured for once I could pull myself out of bed early and we would be able to make it to Epcot by 8:53 and be there when the park opened. On Monday Ricky worked late and at 7:30 I was not ready to get up so I texted Ricky to ask him if he wanted to sleep in more or if he wanted to leave. SLEEP was the basic answer. So we pushed our day back to 10:00, with no need to go to Walmart that afternoon/evening we were in no rush. At 10:00 Ricky texted me all bright and shiny, I didn't hear it, I finally pushed sleep away at 10:30 and rushed to get ready. So we made it to Epcot by 11:30, not that bad.
We skipped the rides in the front half of the park and opted for a walk through the eleven countries surrounding Epcot's lake in the hope of finding food. We rode the Three Caballeros ride in Mexico, it's a boat ride with songs and amazing decors, and the boat ride in Norway called Maelstrom.

Mexico.

Norway.

I also took photos of a few characters, like Snow White, Alice, and Aurora. We went through most of the stores but refrained from purchasing anything, go us!

Mulan waiting to hug a little girl.

They actually walked through our restaurant at lunch time.

Aladdin waving at the crowd.

Snow White seeing her crowd for the first time.

Aurora walking back to her Castle.

Alice and mini-Alice.

For lunch we decided to eat in Morocco, at Restaurant Marrakesh, where we had couscous and beef and chicken kebabs. There was a belly dancer and baklavah for desert. If I can say anything, it was definitely worth the price. I also got to keep the souvenir glass from my drink, I had a Moroccan Sunrise, it had pineapple and strawberry juice with orange water in it, yummy yummy yummy.
Our goal is to eat in the fancy restaurants of each of the eleven countries. Apparently the French food we had at the Boulangerie the first time we ate there doesn't count. So far we have eaten in Morocco and Japan. Looking forward to the other nine.

Morocco was halfway through the countries so we kept walking and made it back to the front of the park, by that time we had digested a bit so we had the chance to ride Test Track (I love that ride), and Nemo. The aquariums we can see after the ride are great, with all the little fish from Nemo. We tried to ride Soarin' but we definitely need a FastPass for that one. Instead we went to watch the 3D Captain EO and then went to learn about the five senses and imagination with Figment - it took me all the way back to philosophy and how our senses lie to us... I miss the good old days and 9am philosophy.

We reached the 19:00 mark and decided it was time for ice cream. The food vendor we went to was out of Mickey bars so we wandered over to another one but were interrupted by Edy's ice cream shop. So we ate delicious (and huge) scoops of ice cream. Which amongst other things leads me to ask why I bother to get two scoops when I know I can't eat more than one; Ricky ended up eating three scoops hehehe.
We then made our way out of the park, over to the buses and transited to Hollywood Studios in the hope of seeing Fantasmic.

Oh my, is that a skirt? Florida, what have you done?!

We were a bit early so we walked around and managed to make it to the Star Tours, that thing is fun; the fact that there are multiple plots/endings will force me to go over and over. Disney, how could you!?
Before Fantasmic I grabbed a Turkey leg, I can't resist them. We went over to the Fantasmic stage but there was lightning in the distance so we left, figuring it would probably rain soon or the show would be canceled. We walked around a bit, munching on delicious turkey and ended up in the Pixar area where we went to Toy Story Mania. The wait for this is usually quite long but with the rain that had just started pouring people were starting to leave the area. Toy Story Mania is a shooting game, you sit in a moving vehicle like any other ride, but then each big screen has a setting and you shoot arrows or rings at balloons, plates, chickens, etc. Like any computer game you just try to rack up as many points as you can to beat the person sitting next to you while also keeping a good accuracy level. I'll have to go back there as well. These things are addicting.
The second show of Fantasmic seemed to have been on so we left before the public trampled us and ended up waiting for a late bus. Oh bus system, why are you so terrible?

After making it back to Vista we went our separate way to shower, and by the time Ricky came back over to my place I discovered that I had ants in my keyboard. Small freakout moment for me, Ricky tried to calm me while telling me that the ant problem was not new and I should have done something about it (I had a Payday candy-bar the other day and ants appeared on my window sill. That situation was taken care off by washing the ledge with dishsoap). We went to Walgreens to buy a little toolkit and Ricky proceeded to try and take apart the bottom of my computer to see if the ants had gone beyond the keyboard.

Scary sight. I never want Gilgamesh taken apart again.

The computer wouldn't come apart easily but we know that the hard drive and other small parts haven't been touched so I calmed down a bit. Since then I've been killing one ant at a time as they come out of the keyboard or run across the screen. I have not seen any for the past two days (as of the 9th).

More photos will be added when I add them to Picasa.

Wednesday, August 3.

Asia - Anandapur.
13:30-20:00

I don't recall anything going wrong that day, to be fair I had to think about it a minute to recall if I was placed in Anandapur or Caravan. My closing trash run went smoothly, as always. Once you get used to the cans it really goes by fast.

Thursday, August 4.

Main Entrance - Restrooms.
9:30-19:30 (extended to 20:30)

I was supposed to be Main Entrance streets, but once I reached the office Mary told me I was being switched to the Restrooms in that area because Betty called in. To be honest, when it comes to Main Entrance I'd rather be in the restrooms than outside in the heat. A few guests thanked me for keeping the area clean so that made my day. I also remembered to sign in and out of the restrooms every single time, that's a first hehehe.
Mary had me extend my shift until 20:30 so I would be closing. She seemed relieved when I said yes. Who am I to say no to more overtime?

Friday, August 5.

Africa - Harambe.
13:00-19:30

I love Harambe, the International Cast members are great. I keep going to "Harambe School" to learn about the different areas they are from. I don't remember much but I'm sure by January I will have a few facts put together. For instance, to go from one South African country to another you need a passport, it makes it difficult when living at the border. Thuso (African International) asked me a few sentences in Spanish so he can wish guests Happy Birthdays and how they are. I think the international aspect of Disney is the best part. The people we interact with are wonderful and from all over the world, even within Custodial we get Spanish, French and Vietnamese.
I had my trash run at 16:00, way too warm outside but a cloud cover started to build so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I also took the time to clean the lips and lids of each can, any manager would have been proud of me. I figured Justin, who did the closing trash, probably wouldn't. At 18:30 it started pouring and Barb called us to remind us to cover the drums, so I ran out of the break-room and the cooling feeling of the rain kept me from putting my rain gear on. I was drenched within the half hour, but it felt amazing. Until I go to the bus, at which point I froze until I got back home and in the shower. Totally worth it.
Facebook tells me this was the night the Custodial CPs met up at Applebees to say goodbye to Edna and Luna who were going back to Mexico and Cancun. It was the first time I hung out with them outside of work since I missed out on Aida's half-birthday party. It was fun, and Ricky (who I forced to come along) was nice enough to take a photo for us.

Photo from Dan's phone.

You can see on the left: Amanda, me, Edna, Luna, and hiding behind her Aida.
On the right: Marcie, Nick, Brian, Huan, Dan, and Van.

Saturday, August 6.

Training - The Magic Unfolds
7:15-10:00
Main Entrance - Bus Side
10:00-19:30

Yeah, between Applebees until 2:00 in the morning and having to get up at 6:00 I obviously didn't get much sleep. I function pretty well on little sleep, I think it's the nerves, they're high strung and I don't crash until a good number of hours later (here until 18:30).
Aida did give me a ride to work since we had our training at 7:30. We met up with Dan and Huan at the Main Office and started on our way to the Cast Services building across the park at 7:15. When we got there the building was empty and dark. We walked around for a little while, something in the back of my mind was telling me that I already new this until Huan told us that when Van and Justin had their early training it was a Pizzafari. And that's when I realized that the schedule had said to go to the Upside Down room in Pizzafari. So we rushed over to Pizzafari and realized that our training group only had one more Custodial (Alvin) so we started on our way only a few minutes late. "The Story Unfolds" is a walk around the park where our trainer tells us stories behind the theming of the park. It's incredibly interesting. He explained the names of the different rooms in Pizzafari, for instance the Upside Down room is filled with murals of ostriches, bats, and possums. The Nighttime room has animals that roam at night, I don't remember all the names but it's fun to see that there is some sense to the madness.
So we started at Pizzafari in Discovery Island and made our way to the First Aid with the ladybug lanterns. He actually couldn't tell us why the ladybugs represented First Aid, I told Dan that ladybugs eat the parasitic little bugs on flowers, maybe that was why and he laughed at me so that was that.
We made our way to Africa where we learned that the village was actually built based on a real African village and that workers from there actually worked on it, building the roofs made of twig that keep the rain out. It reminded them of their home so much that special accommodations were made for them to stay in the park instead of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We walked through Pangani, we didn't learn much from our trainer, to be fair we work these areas all the time. Dan showed us a rock that looked like a Turtle and when you walk through the tunnel it forms it looks like a Gorilla on the other side. He obviously spent too much time in Pangani. We didn't have time to go to Rafiki's. The train wasn't running yet. We walked over to Asia where we learned that the Yak and Yeti restaurant was only four years old or so, before there were two carts, one with fried chicken, the other with french fries from McDonald's. That explains why people still ask us where McDonald's is in the park. We were told that Everest and its surrounding is all themed as a preparation to climb the mountain, the restrooms are themed as a hotel where supplies can be bought.
Dinoland is a camping ground of sorts, two travelers Hester and Chester settled there and set up camp. Orlando (our trainer) told us that the park owns two trees, of which there are only 300 in the world. One of them is planted in the smoking area of Dinoland. The other one is in the park's greenhouse.
That's about all we learned, the greater part of our morning was spent walking around. We finished our training at 9:00 so we had an hour to kill before our shifts. We made our way to Pride Rock and had a delicious breakfast. I had an egg-sausage-cheese sandwish, hashbrowns, and a biscuit.
At 10:00 we bumped out of training and clocked in to go to work and were told to hurry up and go to the Track Talk. The morning Manager-talk takes place in the outside eating area of Flametree so we got there late but the meeting took up about forty minutes of our morning. Aida and Huan were not happy with having to attend, I was glad to be away from the Main Entrance.
I had the 14:30 trash run on Bus Side which went well but is still a killer. While doing the trash at the actual bus stops everything goes well but the space between the stops and the actual park entrance is incredibly warm. I can understand Ricky not feeling good while on a black road for hours.
It was Greg's last day as a DAK Custodial, he received a full-time job in House Keeping at the Old Key West Resort. Since we clocked out at the same time he offered me a ride home, which only took fifteen minutes compared to the half hour on a bus. Aaaa the advantages of having a car...
By 18:30 I had a splitting head ache but I was so close to the end of my day that I refused to go to the Office, instead I waited until I got home to crash on my bed and slept for about three hours and felt alive again.

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