Fun times at work and play!

It's been a busy few weeks since my last post!

A few weeks ago I went to a really interesting networking event. There were 7 Disney employees there, from all different areas within the company here. It is amazing how many opportunities there are here! John Stephenson is a recruiter for the Disney College Program and the Professional Internships program here and it was really interesting to learn about his career path within Disney and how he became the head of recruiting. The DCP was established first here at Disney World, and he actually was the person to launch the DCP at Disneyland in California! Another interesting employee is an associate industrial engineer here and he works in planning and industrial engineering - his job description was so unique. In his area they figure out things like how to get more people on a certain attraction and how to make things more efficient. I'd never heard of that area of engineering before!
 This networking event was part of a series of networking events that are available for everyone here doing an internship. I plan on going to a resume writing workshop and another networking event with tips and do's/dont's of networking. They're all free events so I figured I'd take advantage of them while I'm here!

Two of my roommates and I went to Blizzard Beach water park the other week on a day off! It was their first time at a water park. The waterslides and wave pool were a blast! Afterwards, we got ice cream on our way out. We saw someone else with the dessert and we had to have it - it was a small plastic sandpail FILLED with ice cream/hot fudge/toppings and topped with a mountain of whipped cream and Mickey sprinkles. IT WAS THE BEST and we couldn't even finish it.
Afterwards we went to the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. There are different kiosks set up all around the World Showcase with food and wine from different countries. The portions are smaller so you can go to a bunch of different places and sample lots of different foods and drinks! It was so delicious. I had this really good cheese bread from Brazil and it was gluten free! Also I tried a raspberry wine from South Korea, and the pork and mangu dish from the Dominican Republic that my roommates had mentioned before that they wanted to try. The festival lasts until mid November so I definitely want to again.

I was so excited that I spelled 'ice cream' wrong...

France at the World Showcase

sombreros in Mexico

 Last week I went mini golfing with 14 of my coworkers who are also doing the DCP. It was fun to get to know them and hangout outside of work! Afterwards we went to Friday's for drinks and appetizers. They're a fun group to hang with!

I've been seeing more characters around my work area lately. I saw Mulan one day on my way into work. When I was working outside another day, I saw Ariel and Jasmine skip by to do meet-and-greets with guests in another area of the park. Just the other day I saw Cinderella and the Prince. They were the cutest!! After meeting a line of people, they walked off, the Prince escorting Cinderella by the hand, and she was holding up her skirt slightly with her other hand (typical princess move). It's always fun to see the characters at work!

Also last week I met a few people from Oregon! This lady came into one of the attractions I was working at, and I was chatting with her when her husband showed up wearing an Oregon Ducks hat! I got excited and we began chatting about Oregon and how I just graduated from there. They were from Gresham and they had a few nieces that graduated from U of O recently. It's awesome to run into fellow Oregonians:)

Had a fun day off at Hollywood Studios last weekend with my friends Brittany and Joe (not pictured below.. he was not the happiest camper at first because we made him go on the roller coaster :)

Rockin' Roller Coaster

Just at work last night we had a private event in half of Epcot. A company (Gartner..not sure what they do, I'll have to look it up) rented out all of Future World (West is the area that I work in, and there is also Future World East) for their employees. Funny to think that you can rent out part of Disney World - but definitely not at a low price. They had a DJ in one area, and a live band set up in our area. There was also tons of catered food, desserts, and several bars set up around Future World West and East. We had to close our areas early though, which made for some unhappy guests.. It wasn't fun to break the bad news to them:/ It was cool to see the event get set up and take place though! Apparently there were over 3,000 guests at the event! They also had their own fireworks show at the end of the night.

Next post will include a grad school update! Been busy every day spending a few hours researching grad schools and beginning to apply here in the next week!

I'd love to hear from friends and family from home - please send me an email or text or give me a call :)
rachelmb324@gmail.com