The past four days have been the first days of my participation in the Disney College Program. The Disney College Program is an internship that college students from all over the country, and all over the world, can apply for after their first term of college. Students can apply to work at either Disneyland or Disney World, and there are plenty of "roles" to choose from. I'm working in attractions (meaning I work with the rides and sometimes do intro spiels for shows, things like that) in the Animal Kingdom, in the Asia operations. My first day of attractions training is tomorrow. I won't know exactly what rides/shows I'll be working until then. And that's when I get my costume too.
I'm sure anyone who's been to one of the Disney parks can remember seeing a cast member working and wearing an elaborate costume matching the theme of whatever park they were in. Most of the people in the program hate their costumes. They tend to say that they're really ugly. And yes, some are kinda crazy, like the ones with bright blue pants and orange shirts and such. But some are really cool too. I like most of the dresses I've seen. And some guy cast members who work in the Magic Kingdom have costumes with nice vests and sleeves that look a lot like what some of the Disney princes wear.
Every time I see a cast member in their costume I wonder what mine's going to look like. From what I've seen, not all attractions cast members have costumes like that. But even if no one really likes their costumes, I think it's way more fun to go to work in a costume than a boring, unimaginative uniform that anyone else could wear.
And besides, I've had to wear my fair share of costumes I didn't like. I can think of two right off the bat that I absolutely hated. My costume for 101 Dalmatians Playtime Poppy. The costumes tend to be kind of weird in Playtime Poppy. But I especially hated mine. I was a Boxer Dog. I was dressed up as a brown dog (so a big, brown sweater). But since I was a boxer dog, I was also dressed to look "tough." I had spiked gloves, striped tights and a spiked choker that served as my collar. Those things weren't too bad. But then I had these bright yellow boxing shorts I had to wear. I hated those things so much. And all the "dogs" had to put their hoods up and tighten them around their faces so our hair wouldn't show. I hated that too. Although the boxer dogs had the cutest ears of all the dogs, so that made it a little better. :3 But I definitely didn't keep my hood on backstage. We also had to paint our faces to look like dogs. So my face was all brown with a black nose. I had to go to class with that makeup on after our show previews. My choir teacher looked at me and said, "I think you have something on your face." Yeah, I know I do.
The other costume I hated was my costume for Mrs. Whitewood in the musical, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. I had heels (which I hate wearing in general), a business suit/dress thing, and oddly shaped, bright red glasses. Then during rehearsals before we had our dresses for the next scene (a wedding scene) I had to do the next scene in that costume. It had a small dance too, which I could not do in that costume. That made me dislike it even more.
None of the costumes I've seen for the Disney College Program are worse than the boxer dog one I had to wear though, so I'm not worried. :3
It's interesting taking in all the new experiences I've been going through since I started the program. Like living away from home for the first time.
I live in an apartment in Chatham Square, the "middle class" apartment complex. The other complexes are Vista Way, which has sometimes been called the "ghetto complex," (it's not bad though. It just happens to be slightly older than the other complexes and it's the cheapest to live in), and Patterson Court, which is the newest complex and therefore the "upper class" apartments are there.
Each room in the apartments have room for two people. My apartment has three bedrooms, so we have six people in it. Three of them are Puerto Rican, and spend a lot of time talking to each other in Spanish. It's cool to listen to, and they do speak English too, but sometimes I wish I knew more of what they were saying. I feel pretty out of the loop at times.
I've also had to try to use the program's buses. I've never used bus transportation before (not counting middle school), so it's pretty confusing at times.
I can't think of anything else to say, so I guess I'll talk more about the program later.
Have a magical day!
