*ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN AND NOT OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY OR YUMMY JOBS*
Hey there, pals!
Soooo, I'm super relieved to have finally completed all my schoolwork for the Fall semester. This has been a huge weight off my shoulders, and I have been blessed with more time dedicated to writing blog posts for my readers.
More recently, I have been a complete villain inside my own head. I moved into my new permanent apartment a few weeks ago, but I was still caught up in the whirlwind of negative thoughts. In turn, these negative thoughts had a significant effect on my performance in fairy school. I have had a total drop in confidence period. Looking back, I wish I did not dwell so much on the thought of feeling like I am hopeless because I was at the happiest place on Earth.
My advice: if you find yourself on a setback because you have lost confidence, take some time just to be you! Self-care is the number one important thing – I still have to say the same thing to myself every single day.
Here is an important note for anyone who is completing work experience on a J-1 visa. Because you are under a student visa with an on-campus job, your work hours each week are going to be restricted with the exception of American public holidays, e.g. Thanksgiving. For Disney International College Programs, my visa limited me to 36.5 hours per week. So, I found this out the hard way at fairy school. My fairy school timetable was filled with sewing classes until I was told that I was being released early because of this matter of fact. Following this discovery, I was extra careful when checking my fairy school hours for the week.
At the end of November, Frozen 2 premiered in UK and US cinemas. This meant that we had some very exciting frozen fractal-themed fairy classes at fairy school! I was one of those Fairy Godmothers in Training (FGIT) who went out to watch the film before starting fairy school for the day. It turns out this was a smart decision to do my homework because the movie was not spoiled for me and I could get everyone excited about seeing the movie. If I had not done my homework watching Frozen 2, the chances are the movie would have been spoiled for me…
Now, I got to experience something that many people can say they have done
You're probably thinking, why on earth was Hannah walking around what looks like part of an attraction ride circuit? Well, there is a lot of explaining... I was evacuated from Test Track! My ride vehicle did not even complete the entire circuit because I was stuck on the launch just before you had out the doors for the 'Power' test! An unexpected accomplishment during my Disney Academic Exchange Program?
Another pretty cool thing that I got to do was visit Cast Connections for the very first time - better late than never! For those of you who do not know, Cast Connections at the Walt Disney World Resort is the place to get a range of Disney parks merchandise at a discounted price. Initially, I went intending to go Christmas shopping for my family, but I ended up coming out of Cast Connections with more stuff for myself than my family - oops! Nevertheless, I still managed to find Holiday gifts for my entire family, which was actually really hard considering I haven't been in communication with them that much since I left for my program.
Last, but not least, I went to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!
Everyone had been telling me how pretty the Magic Kingdom was during the Holidays and how much fun the Christmas party was, so I had really high expectations for this! And, it did not disappoint! Unlike the Halloween party, this one was a solo trip. This did not stop me from getting pixie dusted from one of my fairy friends at the boutique in the Magic Kingdom!
Of course, I managed to ride a couple of rides and watched the Christmas parade and fireworks display, in which can I just say that these fireworks were a HUGE step-up from the Halloween fireworks!
However, my favourite part of the Christmas party was collecting a ton of Christmas cookies from a Cast Member who knew one of my friends on my program. We began chatting about our programs and instantly became friends! I had adopted the same advice that was given to me during the Halloween party (pack a pillowcase) because I had loads of chocolate chip and peppermint cookies thrown into my bag/pillowcase! Hahaha it’s an understatement to say that I had plenty of snacks for fairy school over the upcoming weeks...
Thank you so much for reading this week's blog post! Things are looking on the bright side with my new permanent apartment and building up my confidence again. I know I will reach out and find my happily ever after from all of this.
As the Holidays are fast approaching, and with my family me visiting very very soon, I'm going to be taking a break from publishing blog posts for a couple of weeks, so I can enjoy the festive period with my family and the people who I surround myself with everyday. I do hope that you have enjoyed reading my blog posts from 2019, and I look forward to sharing my remaining stories from 2019 and my stories to come from the second half of my program in 2020.
That just leaves me to say that I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Have a magical festive season!
-Hannah
DISCLAIMER: this blog is my personal experience on the Disney Academic Exchange Program (DAEP) 2019-2020 and may not reflect everyone’s experience. Other programs and future participants on the DAEP may have slight adjustments to their programs that may not be featured in any of my blog posts. That being said, if you do leave any questions, I will try to answer them as best as I possibly can 😊
Comments