Let the magic begin...

Here is a little background on Disney World that may help you understand my ridiculous emotion in this post more clearly. Walt Disney World started out as "The Florida Project" introduced by Walt in 1963 after the success of Disneyland. Walt died of lung cancer in 1966 and the park wasn't that far into development. His brother, Roy, took over the company and re-named the park "Walt Disney World" in memory of his brother. The park opened on October 1st, 1971 (I know, the 40th anniversary is coming up in a couple weeks and I'm going to be here for the celebration!). Today, Walt Disney World covers 47 square miles! That is the size of the city of San Francisco! It has four different parks: -Magic Kingdom: home to Cinderella's Castle and comparable to Disneyland with Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Main Street, Adventureland, and Liberty Square. -Disney's Animal Kingdom: themed around animal conservation, largest Disney theme park in the world. -Epcot: stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, celebrates human achievements of the past, present, and future. -Disney's Hollywood Studios: comparable to California Adventure, it has been said to be "a Hollywood that never was—and always will be." Walt Disney World employs 66,000 cast members at one time and each month, sees over one million guests.

Well, well, well. I got to sleep in today! And it was very much needed. Yesterday was draining... it all started at 5:45 am when I woke up. I got ready and met the bus at 6:45 to go to my first day of training, called "Traditions". It was basically a five hour introduction to the Walt Disney Company and how we, as cast members, need to keep the integrity and legacy of the Disney name intact not only here, but forever as we now represent the company. So... Disney rocks! Haha but really. I absolutely loved all five hours. Those darn emotional genes that my Grandpa Hamilton passed down to all of his posterity kicked in as soon as I walked into the Disney University Building and got to walk the halls reading Walt Disney quotes and being reminded of the incredible amount of happiness that one man has brought into the world. We were able to watch several different videos of testimonials and words of advice from cast members, Bob Iger (Disney CEO), Walt Disney, and several other prominent people. I literally had to blow on my eyes to try to dry the tears before they could drop as I could see that no one else in the room was quite as joyous as I was. About halfway through the meeting, one of our instructors was teaching us about the four keys that Walt focused on when creating his parks (safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency... in that order) and he and our other instructor had this little scripted argument. I kind of started to freak out in my seat because I figured they had something up their sleeve. The instructor up front finally said, "Why don't we go look for examples of the four keys... in the Magic Kingdom?" Now that doesn't sound excited. You guys, I had to stop myself from jumping up or screaming Hallelujah. I have never been to Walt Disney World before and the Magic Kingdom had always had this amazing appeal to it. I. was. so. excited. So we all put in these little ear buds that our instructors could speak to us through and we caught a bus (of course) to some backstage area. From there we entered the underground tunnels. Yes, it is true. Walt designed underground tunnels that allow cast members to travel quickly and without being seen underneath all of Magic Kingdom. While down there I saw Belle running to her next meet and greet, a costuming center where they stored and fixed all costumes (It looked like Tigger was taking a nap while his fur was hung out), and the underground garbage system used throughout the whole park. We finally ended up behind two very large doors. I wish you all could see me fidgeting like no other. Our instructor had this huge smile on his face and said, "You know where we are?... Main Street USA," And opened the doors. Magic. That's all. One of the girls in my group and I were beaming so brightly. That' feeling was incredible. It was like I stepped into another world. I forgot that I was a cast member, and an adult, and might have been squealing about everything. On a professional note, it was so interesting to finally see everything in action. The next time you are at a Disney location, take note of all of the small details, the cleanliness (that's me), the happiness or most everyone's face and especially the cast members, and the intimacy you feel because of the eye contact everyone gives. It's amazing! Anyways, we spent about an hour there and then returned to our classroom. Needless to say, the entire morning was inspiration, I am so excited to create happiness!
Yesterday afternoon, I went with a friend of mine to Magic Kingdom to play! On the bus ride there, a thunderstorm touched down. So, ten seconds after we got off the Monorail at the entrance to the park, we were soaked. And it stayed like that all night. But it was so warm outside and we had so much fun! We spent a few hours there and the went over to Epcot for an hour or so. Loved it! Free admission to all four Walt Disney World Parks might just be the best job perk ever.

Oh yeah...

BINGO!

Day two? Check. Today was rather mild, actually. After waking up from the longest nights sleep I've had since I was four, I dyed my hair! Why? Because I was notified that it isn't natural to have a random blonde streak in your black hair if you look to be Mexican/African-American/Greek/Middle-Eastern/Polynesian/whatever-the-heck-people-guess-I-am. But I agree, so it's all good! After dying my hair to make it look more natural (ironically) I got ready for the day and caught a bus to a housing welcome meeting. Here in Orlando, they have four different apartment complexes for the cast members. About half of one of those complexes is full of BYU students from all three schools, which is so fun! That meeting lasted about two hours, during which I sat front and center. Being my father's daughter, as soon as I counted the people in line and the open seats and realized I would be in prime "volunteer" territory, I looked for a way out of it but nothing came quick enough. So I sat through the whole meeting keeping a very friendly, but not too comfortable smile on my face and making a polite, but not exciting amount of eye contact with our presenters. I escaped with only being the subject of three different situations during which I was massacred with a fake axe, accused of smoking marijuana, and accused of stealing my roommates fancy party skirt. Not too bad... I did learn that there are exactly 7,226 students in the college program right now and at least 500 of them are expected to be terminated for various violations. Some of these may include drug possession, smuggling people into the apartment complex in the trunk of my car, stealing my roommates food, or carrying more than 2 ounces of pepper spray. Cross your fingers that I won't get caught ;)
I then came home, ate a snack, and caught a bus for Grocery Bingo at the next complex over! Don't judge me yet... I haven't aged 50 years already. Grocery Bingo is... well, kind of what it sounds like. So go ahead and judge me. I heard it's very popular so I arrived about half an hour early and was in line behind about 100 people. When they finally opened the doors at seven (and about 300 more people were in line behind me) I was shocked. They had a live DJ, strobe and colored lights and lasers, fog machines, and projectors. Seriously? Coolest thing ever. The fit 300 or so people in the room for the first round where 20 people won two huge bags of groceries! It's a college student's dream! If there was a tie, we had a dance-off and we had random sing-along songs too. After an hour, they emptied the room and allowed the remaining hundreds of students cram in to press their luck. It was sweet to say the least. I went grocery shopping last night but all I got was oatmeal, a jumbo box of spaghetti noodles, two cans of tomato sauce, frozen vegetables, three boxes of macaroni and cheese, ritz crackers, and three boxes of rice-a-roni (I know, I forgot milk, butter, salt, and pepper. So I can't even make the mac and cheese, rice-a-roni, or have any flavor in my food. Don't remind me). And the total comes to... $20. Mom, you taught me well. So here I am, new-grocery-less and eating my late dinner of spaghetti and tomato sauce with frozen vegetables. But don't worry, there's always next time for Grocery Bingo.

Ex.Haust.Ed.

Before the actual post... funny story. So I wrote all of this out last night and planned on connecting to the internet (we don't have wi-fi in my apartment. I know, I checked to see if I was still in the 90's too) to post it for ya'll. So I laid down to rest my eyes because I have never been so tired in my life. And I woke up twelve and a half hours later.

I’m here! I would like to thank Walt Disney for making all of this possible.

San Francisco with the family was great! We had a wonderful dinner, dessert, and city visit before hitting the airport. I narrowed my whole 4-month life into two checked bags, a purse, and a pillow. You know how the weight limit on checked bags is usually 50 pounds? Well, bag number one was 50 and bag number two was 49 (thank you, thank you). Walking past security and to my terminal in the San Francisco airport was quite a strange feeling. I had never felt so independent before in my life and it was invigorating! But all I could do was sit and wait with the other independent people to board the plane. Once in the air, I found myself seriously deliberating between whether I should get some sleep or stay awake so I could have cranberry juice and pretzels when the flight attendants came down the aisle. Hunger won and I waited patiently along with the rest of the anxious passengers who would sneak glances at the ever-closer metal cart until the attendant gestures to them and they unassumingly pretend like they haven’t decided exactly what they want. I also read this amazing devotional address given by Elder Holland to BYU in 2009. It’s a great reminder for people of all ages to live life looking forward and backward appropriately. Then I slept for about two hours before landing in Georgia. I made my connecting flight and, once in Orlando, found my shuttle that brought me to my Vista Way apartment complex.

(Before I continue, I must make a statement. It whomps to travel alone. Short road trips aside, I have always had someone with me and this was the first time I realized I have taken that for granted. The journey is always so much better with someone to people-watch with, someone to hold your stuff when you don’t want to take it into the bathroom, someone to laugh at the corny safety video with, someone to argue with the baggage claim lady with when you know she’s wrong, and someone to laugh at all of my jokes that I had to laugh at myself for instead.)

I made my first three friends on the shuttle! We went through about an hour of registration lines together where we met some more people then had to take our luggage to our apartments. A couple things I’ve noticed so far: the people are SO nice! Whether their job is to give the same speech 17 times in one morning, check tax forms, move luggage so the college interns don’t have to drag it through winding lines, driving bus-loads of kids in muggy heat, take fingerprints, or answering endless amounts of repetitive questions, they never get annoyed! They always seem happier than we are and so grateful to be serving us. What a testament for working in a job that you love! Another thing: buses. At least eight different ones every day and at least 45 minutes on them each time. Buses are how they transport all of us CP’s (college programmers) from our apartment complexes to the Wild Animal Kingdom, to the Florida Mall, to Walmart, to Downtown Disney, to WalGreens, to Epcot, to the Magic Kingdom. Moral of the story? There are eleven buses constantly running different routes for us. And once we study the route times for 20 minutes, all we have to do is flash our housing pass to the driver for a free ride.

So today I spent two hours in the Walt Disney World Casting Center! The place where the princesses had to go to audition, the place where the perfect Mickey Mouse personality was chosen! It was so neat! It was definitely my first magical moment and it lasted for the whole two hours. I went through the entire process of becoming a Disney Cast Member and received my assignment for my time here. I am part of the custodial team in Epcot! You may be laughing or rolling your eyes but I am beyond excited!

Over and out.

Maddi Hamilton.

Keeping EPCOT spotless.

I'll get out of California, I'm tired of the weather

Today's the day! The sun is shining! The tank is clean!... The tank is clean?! (Name that movie... Finding Nemo) Alrighty so I'm sitting in my living room with two fifty-pound suitcases, a carry-on bag, and my purse. I'm half watching The Children of 9/11 while writing this. My family and I are leaving about 2:30 to drive down to San Francisco to beat the rush hour traffic. We're going to dinner somewhere in the city and then they're dropping me off at the airport! My flight leaves at 10:40 pm Pacific time and I hope to be able to fall asleep! I have a layover in Georgia at 6:00 am Eastern time and I finally land in Florida at 9:30 am Eastern time. Once I land, I'm on my own and my adventure officially begins. The plan is to catch a shuttle to the Vista Way Apartments next to Walt Disney World and stand in lines all day long in true Disney fashion. Once I'm all settled in tomorrow night, I'll make a new post even if it's a couple sentences long. Because I really have no idea what to expect and once I am there I predict I won't be able to hold in my excitement for very long. So, I'm shutting my computer down to pack it away and I'll talk to all of you tomorrow!

Here are a couple pictures from the Taylor Swift concert. Yeah, she was incredible.

i've got to move like Jagger...

Okay, so I'm about to post the link to this blog on facebook... Get ready, world! :) It's late Friday night and I've been packing and filling out tax forms and signing contracts and buying business-style clothes for my Disney classes for the last couple days. I can't wait! And starting tomorrow morning, I think I'm going to be super busy so I might just have one more post before my flight on Tuesday night! I'm working my last shift at Old Navy tomorrow and immediately after that is the Taylor Swift concert. Ohhhh boy. Then Sunday is church and my official "catch-up day." Monday will be spent packing and working out one last time. Tuesday I will probably be running around town because everything important will somehow wait to come to my mind until the final hours before I have to leave. So now what you're here for... I will be keeping this blog because nearly everyone I talk to about this new adventure wants to know the inside scoop on my trials and triumphs down in Orlando. What's the easiest way to let everyone know how I'm doing? I think it's this blog! I hope so at least... :) I'll share as much as I can with you! But I did actually read the contracts I had to sign today and there may be some things I have to withhold. But you'll never know what you don't know...

p.s. Wondering about the title of this post? Well, my father has this bad habit of mis-interpreting song lyrics. The thing is, he doesn't have the best hearing so he doesn't know he's wrong until he is singing it out loud and we all look at him with that "seriously... you think that is what they say?" face. Tonight at the grocery store he was supposed to say "I've got the moves like Jagger." Not so much...

Since I never posted Hawaii pictures from out trip earlier this year... Here are just a few of the many.

This is me, Tori, and Isaac at the most unique and beautiful LDS church I've ever been to in Honolulu.
This is one of the only family pictures we took the whole time... :( at the Polynesian Cultural Center... another :(
I love the contrast in our hair... and she even had to work for those waves.
Isaac :) during the best sunset of the two weeks!
And Tori doing what she did best... collecting shells. This is the same night as the last one.

live a little

Disney Update:
One week from today, my flight leaves! It is just now hitting me... this very moment. Next Tuesday, I'm taking one suitcase and a bag or two onto a plane to fly 2,840 miles to the opposite side of the country. From sea to shining sea. Coast to coast. Alone. I mean, I know I officially "left home" last September when I moved to Rexburg, ID for my first semester at BYU-Idaho. But even then my whole family drove with me out there, I knew about 30 other students including two of my roommates, I had family less than 30 minutes away and a lot more family just 3 hours away. This time I'm flying alone and when I land at Orlando International Airport, I will officially have met one other person within a 2,000 mile radius of where I'll be living for the next four months. I guess it's a good thing I can make friends fast and am really trusting... :) Anyways, the moral of the story is: I can't wait. I am so excited for this new adventure in my life and I know that I am one of a very small percentage of people in the world who get an opportunity like this. So I am going to live it up!

Real Life:
So the countdown is down to only 7 days! In those 7 days I plan on working for 4 of them, spending 1 with my mom and sister at a Taylor Swift Concert, spending 1 at church and doing other lovely Sunday activities, spending 1 purely with my family, and spending 1 packing. And all of the time in between will be spent with my family. I think that pretty much covers it... Also, Garrett visited last week!! Woohoo!! We had so much fun and if I began to talk about everything we did, I would never be able to stop. Basically the week consisted of the beach, Josh Groban, a pool party, lots of driving, San Francisco, pictures, getting to teach the Sunbeam class for two whole hours, inner-tubes and wake surfing, arcade games, gummies, garbage bagging, Zombies, glow in the dark mini golf, Giants games, and meeting lots and lots of people. Needless to say, we had an absolute blast with him and I love the kid. He is leaving in 15 days (one week after I get to Florida) to report to the MTC in Provo and I am so proud of him! I can't wait to hear about all of the adventures he has over the next two years and all of the lives he is changing. What a stud :)


Here are some pictures from his visit!

Garrett and Adam found a crab on the beach...
At the Giants game... most exciting loss I've seen in a while!
Oh HEYYYY! Look who it is...
Isaac, Garrett, and Tori at Twin Peaks in San Fran.
Saying goodbye to his older brother :(

here I come...

In less than a month I'll be living in Florida and working at the happiest place on earth! I get more and more excited every day! I know it has been a while so I apologize but I feel like I have been so busy! I'm dating an amazing guy who is leaving on a mission to Columbia a week after I move to Florida, I finished off the incredible semester well with my best friend roommates, I'm back home and working at Old Navy, and I'm trying to figure out the balance in my ever-changing life. It's harder than I thought!

Impress me, Rexburg.

Another great week up at BYU-Idaho! It has been very busy and feels more like 3 weeks squished into one but I'm loving it. I'm just finishing up my homework that's due for the next four days because at 3:30 I'm leaving to go camping! Woohoo! One of my good friends, Garrett, invited me to come camping with his family on some land they own in southern Idaho. Apparently, there is going to be a lot to do and I'm quite stoked. So I don't have time for a super long post because I haven't even begun packing yet and have a few hours of studying left.
One thing that really stands out to me is how gorgeous the weather has been this last week! Every day it gets to between 70 and 80 degrees, the sun never ceases to shine, and the wind cools you off just enough. And the nights are even more perfect. I can walk around in short sleeves and shorts and am totally comfortable! I never thought that was possible here but I'm SO glad it has happened.

Happy July everyone!! :)

Friday, Friday, gettin' down on Friday...

Oh the happiness that a weekend can bring... oh wait. Not yet. First I have to take two grade-altering tests. Then I'll be ready for anything :) So, Wyoming was great! The whole point of the trip was to get some fireworks that aren't exactly available here in Idaho. But come to find out, they don't sell fireworks in Jackson Hole, WY. So we made the beautiful two hour drive there, walked around the quaint little town for an hour or so and drove back home!
I have learned a great lesson these last couple of days. Wanna hear? Oh goodie. I was able to pinpoint what my major personal trial is at this time in my life and I was so relieved! It might seem strange... and it is. It was a really depressing moment to hear myself say out loud that I know what my problem is (because I really did say it to myself out loud... it was that monumental). But since then, the depression has worn off and I have been so relieved. I am so happy that my trial is what it is and I don't think I would trade it for any other trial of anyone else that I know. It is unique to me and I have grown up learning how to deal with it. It has made me a better person and I know it will continue to do so!
Now, back to the history of Ancient Rome... bleh.

I had the best day. with you. today.

Life is good, everyone! I don't even know where to start! I have about a month left this semester at BYU-Idaho and I really don't want it to end. If it weren't for my family back in California, I'm pretty sure I would find a way to stay all year long. I feel like this really is my home. I have grown so much this semester because I started out completely alone. Luckily, I was blessed with the better roommates than anyone within a five-mile radius. Not even joking. I have gotten to know who I am so well and I'm growing so much, meeting countless amounts of great people, and having so many great experiences! I wouldn't spend these last six months with anyone else, in any other places. Being able to grow so much closer to my family for the first three and a half months of the year, and then growing more within myself than at any other point in my entire eighteen years. Best year ever so far!
And it's just going to keep going!! I'm moving to Orlando Shmorlando all by myself - cue Celine - in less than three months! Expect updates regularly and lots and lots of stories! I've never been so excited to moved a few thousand miles away from everyone I know!
Finally... today. It started with me waking up at 9 to a 75 degree sun shining down through my window, walking a mile to the temple, getting home at 12:30 to get ready for the day, attending one of the best devotionals I've ever been to (link to come shortly), getting a ridiculous amount of compliments, doing some homework that actually taught me a lot, coming home to my lovely roommates, getting a surprise taco bell dinner delivered by some wonderful people right to my door, going to a cold but fun but intense but always entertaining flag football game, and now continuing my horrible late night ritual of wasting time. Honestly, I couldn't ask for anything better and I hope tomorrow is just as great... I'm going on a trip to Wyoming after my classes end so it's bound to be great, right?? :)