time's flying

it's been a whole week since my last post, but time has been flying. seriously, i can't believe how fast time is passing by. it's unreal. everything is still incredible. ya know, it's funny - i have less than eight weeks left of my program, and it still hasn't even fully hit me yet that i'm here. i honestly feel like i'm living in a dream; it just doesn't feel like real life. nothing extraordinary has happened in the past week that makes me feel so over the moon, but i guess just life in general has been extraordinary since my arrival on january 15th. i feel like i have a different outlook on life has changed so much; like, the little things that i used to worry about just don't matter anymore. material things don't matter anymore. it's the little things that matter. it's the intangible things that matter, and most importantly, the people in my life that matter. i've learned more about who i am as a person and what i want out of life. i've learned that i don't care what other people think about me, and i will stand my ground on decisions i've made and what i know is right (even though i was always like that,) and my morals are now stronger than ever before. i've learned to appreciate a lot more and i've been so happy since i've been here. i couldn't imagine how my life would be now if i hadn't come.

work has been really good. i'm becomig friendly with so many people and peco's bill, being the second busiest restaurant at disney, and the third biggest hamburger seller in the entire world (outnumbered by mcdonalds in japan, and cosmic rays also in disney world,) i'm always busy, which i love, because time goes by super fast, even when i get scheduled those lovely thirteen hour shifts, which i complain about before work, but when i actually get to work i really don't mind.

my three days off this week have been very relaxing. on monday, i just lay by the pool with majo, trying to get some colour! i was so proud of my 'tan' until i looked around and realized i'm still not very tanned. i'm probably the whitest person here. (not really, i'm exaggerating.. but still.) after that, we just chilled at home and then went to the movies at downtown disney. i automatically feel so happy whenever i go to downtown disney. it is just the cutest place ever. every single light, and all the sounds (especially the bands that play throughout the whole area) just make it the perfect setting for any occasion. on tuesday, niza and i went to animal kingdom to do some stuff that we'd never done before. the first thing we did was go to the festival of the lion king, which i hadn't seen since i was six. i sat down with my mouth open the whole time, in awe at everything. the show was absolutely beautiful and it really took my breath away. definitely kept me happy while we endured the blistering heat. orlando is baking us. the sun is so hot, and being outside for too long at a time gets highly uncomfortable. (this makes me very nervous for when my family comes IN LESS THAN THREE WEEKS BY THE WAY, because if you know my family at all, you will know that heat and harvey-reads do not go hand in hand at all.) it's not even a nice heat, like "oh wow, the sun feels so nice," (which i only say afor the first three minutes of being outside fter being in air conditioning for long periods of time,) it's like a sticky, humid heat, that makes you sweat without even moving. it's basically like being in a sauna. so we'll see how that goes when dad, mum and ben come (in less than three weeks!) after that, we watched the parade. the parade was very nice, and the floats were beautiful, but i got very restless because i felt like it was really long, and i don't know if it was me or the heat. after that we watched the bugs life 3d show and then headed home. when we got home we got dressed and then went to walmart. we were like children there and were just having so much fun. niza put me to the test and everything she pointed out, i found a reason why we "needed" it, and she found this very amusing. i literally went to walmart with her to accompany her, and to buy face wash, and ended up buying definitely more than just facewash. we missed the bus that we had orginally planned on taking, so we continued to enjoy ourselves while we killed time, and after a little while we decied to get in line. after being in line for about twenty minutes, i looked up and realized that we were in the 'express' checkout. while we were really cutting it close, we weren't even mad. we just laughed and laughed. and then we laughed even more when we got to the next checkout and saw the cart that belonged to the guy in front of us. it literally was full of nutella. i'm not even exaggerating this time. there was a mountain of the nutella& crackers snack set things. i asked him if i could take a picture, because i knew no one would believe me. on wednesday, niza and i woke up kind of late, and we were just lazy around the house for a couple hours, then took our time getting ready to go resort hopping.

we started at wilderness lodge, which was absolutely gorgeous. it was breathtaking. being there actually made us feel like we were up in the mountains somewhere. every pathway, every hallway, just everything was warm and romantic and perfect. we explored there for a little bit, then headed off to fort wilderness by boat. fort wilderness was huge, and it actually was impossible to walk around the resort, we couldn't even find the lobby. so with that, and the heat, we went back on the boat, where the wind felt amazingly refreshing. we got off at the contemporary, where we took the monorail to magic kingdom, so we could take a bus to coronado springs. coronado springs was also beautiful. its theme is old spain and mexico. everything from the architecture to the background music that played (inside and outside) was perfect, and it felt like if you were right there. disney is so particular about their theming and every resort i've been to so far has been so individual. even all the garbage cans and stop signs at all the resorts are different, to keep within the theme of each resort. we ate lunch there and then headed back home, where we relaxed for a little while and then got ready for the welcome party for all the new program participants.

today i had work, and it was in tortuga tavern. it was the second time i've worked there since training, and the one time before today i was bussing tables all day, so i felt a little out of my comfort zone today, but after a little while i got back into the hang of it and had it covered. the work day flew by, and when i clocked out at quarter to five, i almost felt guilty, like if i should be staying there until all hours into the night. i'm thinking tonight i should probably get a slightly early night since i work almost twelve hours tomorrow. crazy. hope everyone's well! missing everyone, as usual. xoxo