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08/15/2016

I woke up at about 8:00am EST and got ready and checked out at about 9:10am and called an Uber, but my wifi wasn’t working properly and the Uber driver’s GPS sent him to a neighboring building, so I didn’t leave the hotel until about 9:32am, with a check-in time of 9:45am (I got there about 10 minutes late, but they didn’t mention it, and there seemed to be a constant flow of new incoming people headed to check in, so I don’t think it was the end of the world, which was good).

It was my first time ever taking an Uber, which was stressful, but the driver was an older man that reminded me a lot of my great-uncle Vern. He was super friendly and ended up being a custodian at EPCOT, so he told me a lot of helpful things about working at Disney and about the surrounding Orlando area. He said that it’s important to ask everywhere if there’s a cast member discount, because oftentimes, in the nearby area, there is. He got me to Chatham and they let him drive into the complex and drop me off at the check-in building, rather than at the gates, which made his day because the security around the CP complexes is very strict and specific and they don’t let anyone who isn’t a CP or checked in by a CP through the gates, so he’d never gotten to see the inside of any of the housing complexes before. He made using uber for the first time a lot less scary, and I’m grateful for that.

Check in was super fast and they gave me my apartment key and housing ID (and the picture on the ID is the best ID picture I have taken in my life, but I don’t get to keep it. I have to give it back when I check out). My apartment is a two-bedroom six-person, so there’s a bunk bed and a single bed in each room and a bathroom attached to each room. It’s a lot bigger and a lot nicer of an apartment than I was expecting. I honestly had very little idea coming in what I would end up with, and, aside from the super uncomfortable mattresses, I don’t really have any complaints so far about my housing placement.

Two of my roommates were in the apartment when I got there, and they opened the door for me because I was hard core struggling with the lock (and have not yet managed to open without a struggle yet), and I learned later that I’d passed my third roommate on my way up the stairs as she was heading to work.

The three already living there were Fall Advantage CP’s and they’d been in the apartment since June, and the original other three roommates had left due to either termination or self-termination over the past few months. I got the bottom bunk in the bedroom that just had one other girl in it already, and our fifth roommate, who arrived shortly after I did took the top bunk in the other room.

My room roommate headed to work and I unpacked. I ate the poptarts I’d bought the night before, but realized I had absolutely no other food and my roommates didn’t suggest drinking the tap water (because it smells odd). So I took a bus to walmart. (But I got to the stop 15 minutes early, and the H bus never showed at its designated time, so I waited 30 more minutes, and then it showed up :/ ). I bought a ton of stuff, like hangers, a pillow, a filtered water bottle, basic food, and a lunch box. I was there for a couple hours, and it took me an eternity to find the pharmacy section of the store, and the two employees I asked were just like ‘huh?’ and had no idea what I was talking about, so that was cool. I’m fairly certain they spoke mostly Spanish. But I found it, and I went home (which was tough, considering how much stuff I had to lug from the store to the bus and from the bus home, and the cashier originally put about two things in each bag, so I consolidated and still ended up carrying five full bags and a pillow, which I do not suggest.

I got home, tried to open a can of tuna, and discovered there was no can opener. And I hadn’t bought any snack-like food and looking at my roommate’s food shelves full of snack food made me sad, so I went right back to walmart. I bought more hangers, another pillow, and a crate to put and transport laundry in, since the walmart employees said they were out of all kinds of laundry hampers (and there wasn’t even a section for them in the laundry department, so...not really sure what’s up with that), goldfish, more fruit, ritz crackers, bottled water, veggie straws, etc.

When I finally got home, the third roommate, who I’d passed on the stairs, was home from work and she and another roommate who’d had the day off took me to Disney Springs. To sum up Disney Springs, I will say this: it’s like the Mall of America but outdoors and with less amazing lego statues in the Lego Store.

We went to Splitsville, a bowling alley/restaurant, and ate dinner there. I got a turkey club sandwich, and it was wonderful. Then we went bowling (and since we ate first, it was after 10 by the time we went bowling and we got a cast member discount and paid $7 each for an hour instead of $20). I thought that I was awful at bowling, but I ended up actually winning the first round (by 2 points) and I got two strikes, so I may actually be up for trying bowling again sometime.

It was an exhausting but amazing start to my DCP.

#081516 #betsys dcp adventure