Week 1 of the Disney College Program!

Hello all!
Its been over a week since I've moved into my apartment in California and we're all pretty much settled in.
We drove to SoCal all the way from East Texas and it took three long days to get here but it was a beautiful trip.

East of El Paso
Call me stupid, but I didn't realize there were mountains in Texas! haha

You could see Juarez from El Paso
I've never seen another country before! 

Tucson Valley, Arizona

 We got to California a couple days before check-in so we could sight see a bit. We got to see alot of famous beaches and we walked down Hollywood Boulevard and had a great time.

Santa Monica Beach

Santa Monica Beach

The famous sign

Momma and Daddy at Santa Monica

Paradise Cove in Malibu

Anyway, my check-in was at 9 AM on the 13th. We got the two hours early because we were hoping to get the front of the line. In order to get the bedroom with two twin beds (instead of the room with bunk beds) you have to get there before anyone else in your room. This is where I finally got to meet Cierra, my roomate that I first met online on a DCP blog.

Cierra, me, and a girl named Megan

We got there an hour and a half early and this is how long the line was when we got there. SOOO many people!

Anyway, eventually we got to the front of the line and our parents waited below as we went up to the roof patio to finish our paperwork. Once we finished signing our souls to Mickey Mouse our paperwork and got our house keys we rushed to our room on the 5th floor to see if we were able to score the two bed room.

Going in for the first time!

We checked the house anddddddddd.....

SWEET JUBILATION

The room we wanted was free! We got our parents and moved all of our stuff to our room.

Cierra was happy to make it up the stairs to the 5th  floor

I was just glad we had elevators

Anyway, I then met my other roomates, Danni, Yvonne, and Kaity. We all hung out together at the welcome party that night.

Me, Yvonne, Cierra, and Kaity

Room 502- minus1 lol

 After a few days of settling in, we started our first of a series of orientations. Very repetitive but interesting stuff. But sometimes they ask trivia and if you answer correctly you get some DCP swag. Guess who won a DCP towel, deck of playing cards, and cellphone screen cleaner for knowing her Disney trivia? Oh yeah, this kid. 

Around midnight one night when my roomates and I were just playing on our laptops Cierra stated that she wanted a cupcake and said we should go get some. We all agreed and I assumed we would go to Walmart or somewhere like that to pick some up but we ended up going to this magical land called Beverly Hills where they have a cupcake ATM. Yes, you heard me right. An ATM for cupcakes. You walk up to the ATM, select the cupcake flavor you want (I got a red velvet and a cinnamon and sugar), swipe your debit card, and your cupcake is sent like to a little revolving door for your sugary satisfaction. Did we get lost for an hour trying to get there? Yes. Did we have to get up early the next morning? Yes. Did we have a blast having a little L.A. adventure? Yes we sure did.

So gooooood! I'm ready to go back now!

 Anyway, more and more orientations. I finally got my ID and name badge that would finally let me into Disneyland for free. I embarrassingly sobbed a little bit when I went into Disneyland for the first time, but hey, I've been waiting for that moment forever so give me a break! lol

Cierra and I with our new badges

That night all five of us went to the parks together and I had a blast. We rode Jungle Cruise (Cierra's favorite and one of my new favorites) The Indiana Jones ride, Pirates of the Carribbean (100x's better than the one in Florida!) and they even got my on my first roller coaster ever! Thats right! I rode Space Mountain!

Me and Danni at Rainforest Cafe

Yvonne, Kaity, and Cierra and Rainforest Cafe

Disneyland with our Dole Whip!

Met my first character, Goofy!

My first Disneyland churro!

I also made a little video tour of my apartment if you're willing to put up with me being annoying...lol

Click here for the apartment tour

Well, now you're pretty much caught up! Tomorrow there is a college program only screening of Wreck-It-Ralph that we all are going to go see and then Wednesday I get my costume and actually start working at Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney. I love it here in the big city but even I'm starting to miss all the trees and and peace and quiet of home. Well, message me if you have any questions!

-Kayla

Just to let you all know!

I'm safe in Anaheim!  We checked in last night and went to Downtown Disney so I could clutch at the gates of Disneyland and just wish I could be inside. Only two more days! We're about to leave for breakfast so I'll post a longer post about our long trip to California from East Texas.
I'll write more soon!
Kayla

Long Time, No Write!

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I made a post! As usual life has been insanely busy, leaving me no time to blog! Christmas has come and gone and its going away party time! I'm having a going away party tonight at my house at 7 pm. With a nacho bar, rockband, a Disney movie marathon and a spur of the moment costume contest (lol) its going to be so much fun! Friends and family are more than welcome to come visit with me before I make my big trip to California in 15 days! (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 15 DAYYYYYYSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!) I'm so close I can almost taste the churros and dolewhip!
Contact me or my parents if you need directions to my house!
Hope to see you there!
Kayla

Sweet Potato Festival=Success!

My sign

It has been one HECK of a weekend! My brain is still reeling from all the stress and activities! For three straight days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) I had very little sleep from constant baking, chocolate dipping, sewing, cleaning, designing, and selling! The morning before the festival I got two hours of sleep (more like a power nap while my cake cooled) and we loaded up in our unseasonable cool weather (39 degrees when we set up!)
As we got all set up we realized our tent was much smaller than we expected and it felt crowded all day, but it all turned out fine. I sold a lot of different types of snacks, like marshmallow pops, rice crispy treats, cookies, brownies, candy corn almond bark, caramel cream cheese apple dip, cream cheese apple bundt cake (YUM!!!!) and more.

My favorite apron

We also had our homemade aprons that my mom, Meme, and Grandma slaved over for three days to make for me and they turned out so cute and sold very easily!

My little shop :)

We also had a raffle where if you guessed the correct number of candy corn in the jar (or you came the closest without going over) you would win a fun little prize package that contained a thermos  blanket, hot chocolate, snacks, and a car pass to Santa Land (a drive through Christmas light park in Lindale) It was a close call but Cindy Boffy (mother of a girl I graduated with) who came the closest to guessing the right number.

After a long day of constantly being on my feet, eating nothing but half of a cold corn dog, and spending the day talking to...ugh...people (something I HATE doing...lol) I think we did pretty good. I made a good amount of money that can definitely put a dent in my living expenses and I sold just about everything in the stand. I really had a great time and say alot of friends and people I hadn't seen in a while. After sleeping for a full 12 hours I scrambled to get my homework all done Sunday and turned it in just before it was due. Pshew....I need a vacation! Get me to California already!!!
75 more days and i'll be there!!!!

-Kayla

Lets Get Down To Business!

The Festival starts Friday! AHHH! Tomorrow we start making sure we have everything we need and planning how we want to decorate and making our grocery list. Plus we're trying to make these cute little aprons with frills but we've already been though three sewing machines trying to get one to work for us! I'm just bad luck with them! On top of the festival, I've also been asked to help make the Tinman costume for my old high school's production of The Wizard of Oz! I'm very excited and I love doing this stuff, but of all the times to ask! Oh well, we bought a pre-made costume but it's very plain and ugly so I'm going to be sprucing it up and making it look awesome :)
Oh, and I also signed up for my class I'm going to take while I'm at Disneyland! I'm going to be taking Corporate Analysis on Fridays from 8:30 to 11:30. This class is all about Disney as a business and how it is run and what Disney values in it's employees (Something I HAVE to learn!)
Here's a video about it(not very exciting, but it will do lol)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TilN6VIRd54&feature=youtu.be

Well, that's all for now!
Kayla

87 Days!!!

Good news! I've found a roommate! Her name is Cierra and she sounds like a perfect fit for me! We're both very laid back, obsessed with Disney and love to cook. How can we go wrong??? haha. I moved my check-in time to 9 AM to match hers. Hopefully this will let us get there before our other three roommates and we can get the two twin bed room instead of the bunk bed room...lol But she's from a city not far from Anaheim and she knows all about the area so I won't be totally lost in the big city alone :) 

The Sweet Potato Festival is in a 10 days! AAAHH!! So much work left to do! I might have to solicit my Grandma to come down for a couple days and help me get everything ready! Momma and I have decided to take some old aprons we have a make cute ruffles to put on them! Hopefully those sell well because it's going to take alooooot of work and when it comes to sewing machines, they ALWAYS tend to break on me...lol School is really starting to pick up now so I've been super busy, plus I'm thinking of signing up for the sub list at AG, I could make some fairly easy money that way. Oh well, life goes on. I'm just ready to be in California!

Kayla

Can I go to Disneyland now?

93 days until check in day!
Things are really starting to get hectic around here! This semester is going to be a very busy one! I've got three term papers to write, two major tests Monday, plus a play analysis to write over Of Mice and Men. Yuck. I'll probably procrastinate as always and put it off until Sunday. Today I'm practicing make treats that I want to sell at the Sweet Potato festival the 27th. I made some fairly cute marshmallow pops and I tried to make "zombie booger" popcorn (Popcorn covered in the stuff you put on popcorn balls but with green food coloring) but there was too much popcorn and not enough sweet gooey stuff to coat everything, plus the stuff solidified once it cooled off so I didn't even get to use it all, so I made some crappy popcorn balls...I think I'll call them zombie brains ;) lol I guess I'll just have to keep experimenting!