This Work is HARD!

I do realize it has been a while since my last post... but to be honest I have not had too much time to post anything new. I have been going to bed around 9pm... and for those of you who know my sleep schedule this is at least 5 hours earlier then I went to sleep back home. So the only time I have found I can post anything is during my day off... which I have today off! :-) (and yes I did sleep in this morning...which was heaven).

So... I am not sure where I left off, so I will just ramble about a few things:

I am almost finished with training. The classroom training was finished on Monday, and then we had two days of group shadowing with a core team leader. We now have two days of pair work days, and then on Sunday I will be set off on my own. The training program was pretty daunting, but I think it did prepare me well. I am learning the ins and outs of the park, but I am still a little unsure of where the smoking sections are, so that is something I need to work on (among other things).

One day this past week (I think Monday) we had our group team builder. We all rode Everest together, went to dinner at McDonnald's, and then played some mini-golf. And speaking of McDonnald's... none of the McDonnalds on Disney property have a dollar menu... not cool. The guy who worked there just looked at me like I had two heads when I tried to order a McChicken. But overall it was a fun night. I am starting to make some friends with the people in my program.

Now that I am in the park I am having a lot more fun. Having the guest interactions is really a rewarding experience. The hard part is trying to communicate with the guests who don't speak any English, which seems like half the people in the park. We were told that the average presenter will talk to about 250,000 people during the course of a six month period. I can't fathom talking to that many people, but I have already talked to 1,000 people or close to it. Not all of them are in depth conversations, but some are. I met a lot of people from Maryland, and some from Frederick. It is cool to talk to those people and share stories. One of them was an older couple who grew up in Mount Airy, and we were talking about how Mount Airy has changes so much since they were kids.

I am also getting my walk on. In a two day period I have walked 10.2 miles... which is about the average. DAK is so huge, and we have to walk from one end of the park to another several times a day, which is very tiring. When I get home I just want to sleep, and it is very hard to get out of bed in the morning (harder that it normally is for me). We have been told that we will adjust to it, which I am hoping will be soon.

To answer last weeks trivia question there are about 103,000 leaves on the Tree of Life (minus a few from the hurricanes).

This weeks Trivia Question... How many plant species are at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and how many individual plants are at the park?

Hope all is going well up north. I do get homesick on my days off. I miss most of the people at the firehouse, and of course my parents and family. Hope to see everyone in March!

Have a Magical Week!