October!

Well, I'm slowly but surely getting around to updating my blog. Here's what happened at the beginning of October.

Right after my birthday I worked. A lot. 11am-10pm on the 3rd, 11am-9:15pm on the 4th, and 10:30am-4:30pm on the 5th. I came home on the 5th to relax, and found out that my 3rd time off request had been denied. I'd been trying to find a weekend, any weekend, I could come home to visit my friends and family. This was my 3rd attempt and all requests for a back to back were denied. It frustrated me to no end. We're supposed to get a back-to-back (4 days off in a row over 2 work weeks) every 3 months, and I wanted to come home, visit my family, friends, boyfriend, and meet his parents but Disney just wasn't giving me the time off! I became pretty homesick. This was the first year I'd really missed Pumpkinfest, I didn't get to see my family around my birthday, and the fact that I couldn't go home, even if i wanted to, and had the money to, made it worse.

We started to plan Rob's visit at Christmas, but I still ended up booking a flight on Southwest airlines for the 31st to the 3rd, hoping that I'd be able to switch to get the time off. It wasn't a refundable ticket, but if you don't use your ticket on Southwest they allow you to use those funds on another Southwest flight, so I figured it was a solid investment... I just needed to get home.

Monday (the 6th) I had the day off. I was bored so I drove Tracey into work, since I hadn't talked to her in awhile. I tried to check out my schedule for next the week, but it wasn't going to be posted until midnight, even though it's usually posted at 12am on Sunday. This was kind of annoying because I wanted to plan my mom's visit, and make sure I had the time off, but they warned us that Food and Wine schedules could be posted late sometimes, just because they are so complicated. Afterwards, I went and used some of my free tasting cupons at the Food and Wine Festival. For working, we were given four. I used two, one for the perogies and keibasa in Poland, and one for the grilled beef and chimichurri sauce in Argentina. The perogies were delicious, but they didn't hold a candle to the chimichurri sauce. I definitely love that dish! Finally, I went to the learning centre and picked up some dvds to watch later, went home, and relaxed! Overall, a good day, but I started to get bogged down because I felt so disconnected from a lot of the other people here. A lot of the girls, it seems, really like to party, and while I'm definitely up for a good night on the town once in awhile, I don't like to make it a weekly (or almost daily) event. It's sometimes hard to find the other people who aren't here to party and so I started to feel a little lonely. Still, I decided to make the best of it by trying to get involved in as much as possible.

Tuesday (the 7th) I had the day off again, so I decided to make a Walmart trip (to get some groceries) and then watched some of the Anne of Green Gables movies. I LOVE those movies. They're awesome. Tracey and I had planned to do something in the evening, and so we went to TGI Friday's for a late dinner. It was really nice and we got the opportunity to chat a lot! I really like her!

Wednesday (the 8th) I worked from 9am to 4pm then went around the Food and Wine Festival a little before heading to my Candlelight Rehearsal at 5:30. I tried the durban spiced chicken from South Africa and it was delicious! I went to get a beef empinada from Chile, but unfortunately they were temporarily out of them, so I opted for the grilled beef with chimichurri sauce again... did I mention how delicious it is?! Rehearsal was amazing, and I ended up staying for both the 5:30pm and 7:30pm rehearsals. You don't get extra credit for doing that, but I have so much fun, and practice makes perfect! Since this is my first year in the choir, I could definitely use as many rehearsals as possible!

Thursday (the 9th) I worked 11am-9:15pm, and then went to Bennigan's. I figured most of the Canadians go there every week, so I didn't call anyone and just took a cab with my roommate, Tina, from Norway. When we got there Bennigan's was pretty much empty, which was odd because it's usually packed on Thursdays. So I hung out with the Norwegians for awhile until some of the people I know from the UK arrived. I was still waiting for the Canadians, but no other Canadians ever showed up! Definitely weird! Still, I got to meet all the new UK arrivals, and walk home with them, they are all really nice!

Friday (the 10th) I worked 10:30am-9pm, which is a really long shift, especially on a Friday night since all of the locals come to the park and there tends to be a lot of people "drinking around the world" which means there are a lot of intoxicated people around our kiosk. When I got home, the apartment felt kind of empty, which was sad. My roommate, Ambar, from Indonesia had left that morning since it was the end of her (extended) contract. I ended up just relaxing

Saturday (the 11th) I worked 10:30am-4:30pm, then got ready for mom's visit! I had laundry to do, and a suitcase to pack since I was going to be living with her for the week!

More on that week, and the weeks since then to come!