Sadly nothing new or exciting has been going on in my life recently. Work is the same: busy but sometimes slow and boring with crabby and unappreciative guests. However, I had a sort of "magical moment" the other day while at work.

I was checking in a woman who came down to surprise family members. She had requested a room next to her family but knew requests weren't guaranteed. When she asked me if her room was close to her family, I just gave her a look with a small smile and she started tearing up at the front desk and thanking me over and over. She was so appreciative that we were able to honor her request and while experiences like this are far and few between, it made me feel really happy for her because we had "made her vacation".

Halloween was really quiet here. My roommate Denise and I went to the Old Key West resort to watch The Haunted Mansion and then we trapped a cockroach under a plastic cup in our apartment shortly after getting home. Gross. The cockroach has since been killed and we're supposed to have people coming to spray our apartment later today.

We're having a quiet afternoon here and heading to the Magic Kingdom later today. :)

My sister's wedding has come and gone and it was absolutely amazing! She looked gorgeous and everyone had an amazing time! My parents surprised my sister with a carriage ride to the church so me, my sister, her best friend and our mom were the 4 who rode down while the rest of the bridesmaids had the limo. I've been to 2 other weddings over the past year and my sister's was by far the most fun (and not just because she's my sister). So many people said at the reception that sometimes receptions feel forced or people don't dance or have a lot of fun but from the second the reception started to the very last song, people never stepped off the dance floor. The day after the wedding, the 3 of us flew to Orlando. My sister and Josh had a 3 night "mini-moon" at the Dolphin Resort on Disney property and spent most of their time laying by the pool but also went to the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot. I'm super happy for them :)

Other than that, I've decided to lay by every pool on Disney property while I'm here. There are quite a few resorts for me to tackle but I'm going to track my progess on here:

All Stars: CHECK
Pop Century:
Caribbean Beach:
Coronado Springs:
Port Orleans: Sadly I can't since I work there.
Animal Kingdom Lodge:
Yacht&Beach Club:
BoardWalk Inn:
Contemporary: CHECK
Grand Floridian: CHECK
Polynesian: CHECK
Wilderness Lodge: CHECK

I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to some of the Disney Vacation Club Resorts such as Saratoga Springs and Old Key West...I *may* need a room key to get on property or near the pool so I'll have to hold off on those. But I'm heading off to lay by the pool at Caribbean Beach so that's one more resort I can check off my list :)

FINALLY!

It's been forever since I've blogged, even though I've made several attempts to write an entry over the past month. So much to say so I'll dive right in!

I'm currently living in Chatham Square in Orlando, which is 1 of 3 apartment complexes for everyone doing the program. I live with 3 other girls; 2 are from Pennsylvania (Denise and Kharl) and 1 is from Maine (Ally). We all get along really well which was a huge relief and our apartment is nice and big even though it isn't well decorated because none of us felt like spending a lot of money to decorate for a few short months.

My first taste of being a cast member was 8.25.10 when I attended a class called Traditions which is an orientation of sorts welcoming everyone to Disney. We watched some video clips, learned about the Disney company and even took a walk around the Magic Kingdom. After that I had 4 days at Disney University for a class called First Impressions. There were only 8 people and we were chosen as either Hospitality or Concierge. Either way, we had to learn the system, the banking in and out process and even got to practice before we were sent on our way.

I'm currently working at Port Orleans as a front desk cashier. I had 6 days of training and then I "earned my ears" and was allowed to be on my own. My trainer is from MA so we had quite a bit to talk about and we get along really well.

In between working all sorts of crazy hours I've been taking full advantage of everything Disney has to offer. My sister and 2 of her friends came to visit for a sort of bachelorette party so we made sure we took a lot of pictures in our rhinestoned shirts. She even got me to ride Splash Mountain 3 times while she was down there...a new record for sure. (Don't worry Jack, our friendship in no way resembles the ride) I got to *slightly* impress her with some of my new found knowledge and secrets about Disney but since I don't want to ruin any of the magic, I'm not going to post anything...some stuff is better left as is.

I also went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party last night with my roommate Denise and we had a blast! I've never been to Disney during any of the holidays and vowed to take advantage of all the special events they have going on.

Denise was dressed as Aphrodite and I went as Mother Nature (even though I was consistently called Tinker Bell) There were 12 spots to go Trick-or-Treating, 2 dance parties with characters like Woody, Jesse and Stitch, who danced to Lady Gaga and was quite possibly the most amusing thing I've ever seen, and there was an amazing themed parade and fireworks show.


I'm incredibly happy and so lucky to be living here right now. I don't miss the fall yet but I am looking forward to being in CT next weekend for my sister's wedding and to have some apple cider :)

Spring Ball was absolutely lovely! Meg and Delia came over beforehand and we all got ready together. Delia was a huge help in curling my hair and luckily Adam was around to be our photographer. Spring Ball was on the Spirit of Boston cruise and it was amazing. We had a casino theme so 1 level had a ton of casino games set up like blackjack and poker with fake money of course.
Most of the Ambassadors were there with the exception of Haley, Jack, Julie and Mikey. I'm not sure there has ever been an event, besides Open House or Showcase, where we have all gotten together. I should have forced Jack to come, I know he would have had a good time!
Naturally we all got together and took a couple of pictures...John was incredibly excited about making it into the Ambassador picture as you can see... The food was delicious, the music was great and the weather was perfect for our cruise; it was an amazing way to end my Senior year. Thanks Program Council :)

I'm thinking I'll do my final sappy Senior post tomorrow after I've picked up my cap and gown. Crazy!

I only have 1 more day of classes left and it's crazy how fast the time has flown. (I'll keep all my sappy stuff for my last blog post, I promise!) I'm busier than ever with all the papers I have to finish. I have 2 papers due Thursday and I could hand in a third if I have it done on time which I'm planning on.

Saturday night Haley and Rachel held a Rubix Cube Themed party which was a lot of fun. Sadly I didn't dress up in all the colors of the rubix cube because it was a last minute decision to go; I don't have crazy colored clothes but I was able to drag Jack out for the festivities!
Haley stole most of the pictures I took that night for her blog but this one is one of the best!

Last night was the end of the year dinner and it was a pretty sad night. Jack gave a wonderful speech about me, Chris talked about Nicole and Julie talked about Beckee. Nick and Meg both said incredibly sweet things about us and we all almost cried but we held it together!

The 3 seniors were also given Alumni shirts which was incredibly weird. I can't handle it!

Adam is coming to visit Thursday so I'll try to persuade him to buy me dinner...it'll be a perfect ending to my Senior year. Friday night is Spring Ball; Meg and Delia are coming over to get ready and we're going to go together! Plenty of pictures to come :)

I just found out yesterday my British Empire class will be ending a week early. I'm thrilled. Our professor also extended the deadline of our paper from the 22nd to the 27th so I have an extra weekend to work on it. Amazing.

Tomorrow my Pirates class is having a Pirate Food day and I'm a little terrified to see what kind of food my professor brings in.

Then next Thursday we're taking a walking tour of Boston focusing on pirate locations and then the final week (27th & 29th) we'll be watching Treasure Island and Pirates of the Caribbean. So stoked.

My other two classes aren't nearly as exciting for the next two weeks. One frustrating thing about my Small Business Management class is there are 8 teams, 7 of which have given presentations 2-3 times. Only 1 team has given a presentation once. It's completely unfair as my group has to do a paper, powerpoint and present 3 times and this one group only has to do a paper. No one has any idea why this team is getting preferential treatment; maybe they aren't and my professor keeps forgetting about them. Ugh.

I have to remember to stop at CVS on my way home today. I'm basically out of toothpaste, I have no tissues or paper towels. I've been forgetting to go for days. Anddd I need to do laundry. Just another thing to add to my list. Blah.

It's crazy to be able to say I only have 7 days of classes left in my Undergraduate time here at Suffolk. Since I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, my days left are shorter than most other students who have classes all week.

I realized today I'm kind of running behind with some work I have to do. I have to come up with a new product for my Strategic Management class by April 15th and I have a 10 page paper due April 22nd; both of those days literally are just right around the corner.

I'll be done on April 29th with 1 final on May 4th which is such a tease! I get almost a full week off and then I have to go back at night on the 4th for a final. Boo.

My Easter weekend was lovely with the exception of Amtrak trains being shut down due to the flooding in RI. I was unable to travel home Thursday night as planned, so my dad had to come get me Friday morning.

Luckily I was able to come back to Boston Monday morning on the first train Amtrak was running since all the flooding. My sister celebrated the 2nd anniversary of her 25th birthday on Friday (she refuses to admit she's 27). Her fiance planned a surprise dinner party for her at Azu restaurant in Mystic, CT which is one of her favorite places to eat.

Easter was a pretty low key affair with my family. I don't get big Easter baskets or anything anymore but my mom still gives me some chocolate and most of my family came over to eat. Other than that nothing too exciting has been going on. My Disney trip has officially been charged to my dad's credit card so I need to start working on paying that off asap. I'll be spending 5 glorious nights at the incredibly gorgeous Polynesian Resort at the end of May. So excited!

6 weeks left

Spring Break flew by and I want that time back! I had to be at work at 8 am which means when I had 2 days off, I couldn't sleep in past 730. Quite the break if you ask me.

One of my best guy friends, Mike, visited Foxwoods and stayed at the hotel where I work so we we able to get together towards the end of break which was awesome. We don't get together a lot outside of school so being able to see him near my hometown was wonderful!

With 6 weeks left, I'm going to be incredibly busy with group work, presentations, papers, reading and exams. Thank goodness I have Lost to keep me sane every Tuesday. Last night's episode was the best so far this season and one of the top episodes of the series. It was all about Richard Alpert who has been kind of a mystery character for the past couple seasons.



For once they actually explained quite a bit; Lost is notorious for leaving viewers hanging and incredibly confused but I finally feel that I'm getting some answers! On another note, I have to buy a new phone charger for my phone because the one I had snapped off inside my phone last night. I'm going to have to switch phones for a couple days before the charger comes in and I hate the other phone I have. Hopefully the shipping will be quick!

80 days until graduation! :)

Yay!

Thought it was time for a pretty, new layout!

Usually I'm all for Suffolk but I have to say, yesterday was the most boring day of classes EVER. Literally. I sat through 6 presentations between 3 classes and thought I would never make it home. I really wish professors chatted with each other (like teachers used to in high school) to make sure something like 6 presentations don't happen in 1 day; wishful thinking. While it was boring, it also meant that I didn't have to do any homework in preparation for that day.

I've also just planned an East-Over dinner for all the Ambassadors. Our Not Your Average Thanksgiving Dinner was such a success that Jack suggested I host an Easter/Passover Dinner, so I am! I love when all of us get together.

Short and sweet post today!

Oh boy!

With my recent acceptance to Disney in August, I'm facing issues with my apartment and naturally since it's me, these issues are never simple. Basically, my lease runs until August 31st but I have to be out by July 31st since August is so busy I just can't come back to Boston to move out.

I have a couch I bought 2 years ago for the apartment and I feel bad telling my roommate "hey I need to move out so I'm taking the couch." I feel as though it isn't fair to make her, theoretically, sit on the floor to watch tv for the month of August. *sigh* What should I do? I'm open to suggestions. I really don't care about taking the couch with me and I'm not sure if my landlord will let us leave it in the apartment for the next tenants. Personally I like bringing my own furniture to an apartment, not have someone else's.

Other than that battle I need to fight, I've been super busy doing homework for all my classes. Between reading hundreds of pages a week for my Pirates and British Empire classes and preparing cases each week for Small Business Management and Strategic Management, my schedule is pretty full, not to mention I still have to travel to CT to work in the hotel there.

90 days to graduation! Not like I'm counting or anything...

Late but worth the wait!

It's been a while since I've blogged, but I've been so busy in the office I haven't had time! I'm 4 weeks into my last semester at Suffolk and I can hardly believe how fast the past 3.5 years have flown by!

I only have classes on Tuesday's and Thursday's this semester so it opens up my Monday's and Wednesday's to sleep in a bit and then head to the Admissions office to work and give tours. My semester so far has been pretty busy since I've already had 1 exam and 2 presentations! It's a pretty hectic semester but it helps the time go by.

I've also been pretty busy working on what I'll be doing after graduation. It's a pretty big decision and I decided to not go to grad school right away. Instead, I applied for a paid internship in Disney World and was accepted last night. I move down in August and I'm super excited about working in one of their fabulous hotels down there. The program runs until January, so prior to the program ending, I'll apply for a full time job there and then in September of 2011 I'll work on getting my Master's in Hospitality and Tourism. yay!

Not much else has really been going on which makes me feel like a super uncool college Senior but I have had some lovely dinner dates with Beckee and Meg and I'm sure there are plenty more events to come!

5 more days

With 3 presentations out of the way, I am almost done with the semester. I have two papers due tomorrow, 1 final exam and 1 more short presentation and I will officially be done on Tuesday the 15th.

My really big presentation was interesting. The health center was completely unprepared for us because they didn't have a computer or projector ready so the first group had to present off their printed slides then had to stop and continue again once the projector was all set up. The CEO of the health center sat in on all the presentations and was not happy with what he was hearing. One of the managers filled out a survey incorrectly; a survey the health center came up with and as a result one group's presentation numbers were completely distorted.

After that I was busy writing a 2,000 word paper which I'm short by about 20 words so when I proof read it tonight I'll try to squeeze in those 20 words somewhere.

Enough talking about school though, I'm so tired of it! I'm completely ready to be done. Tomorrow is the Winter Ball! I'm heading over to Delia's apartment around 630 to get ready and then Meg will be joining us around 7 and we'll head off together for food, drinks, dancing and a wonderful time!

Friday I fully intend to stay in bed all day. Not even joking. I want to curl up in my pillows and blankets, sleep in late, watch movies and surf the web. No worries about eating though...my boyfriend will be in Boston to get me food for when I get hungry :) I do have to get out of bed around 330 though because there's an end of the semester Ambassador dinner from 4-6 which is always a good time!

Saturday I have to go back to CT for my grandfather's birthday dinner which I'm upset that I'm missing Haley and Rachel's Ugly Sweater Party and then I'll be back to Boston on Sunday for an exam Monday morning, Tuesday night and then I'll be in CT again on Thursday for winter break.

Amazing Weekend!

This past weekend was a lot of fun! I've been a little sad lately because my boyfriend is in Texas for Thanksgiving with his family so communication with him has been lacking but Saturday night I invited all the Ambassadors to my apartment for a dressy dinner party.

Everyone was required to dress nice (no ratty jeans or t-shirts) and to bring something to eat. Naturally we took a ton of pictures so I'll share some:


All of the Ambassador girls (minus Allison, Beckee, Jaclyn who wasn't there yet and Julie who couldn't make it)


The dashing Ambassador boys (minus TJ who was in California)


All of the amazing people I work with :)

We had tons of good food: baked ziti, eggplant parm, garlic bread, sushi, salad, 2 types of cheesecake, a funfetti cake and assorted bakery items. It was an amazing time and we'll definitely all do it again soon! :)

Clean up the next day was not fun though! Luckily my friend Jack helped me wash 98% of the dishes that night so I didn't have much to wash but cleaning my floor literally took 2 hours...it was pretty gross!

Now I'm just getting ready to enjoy Thanksgiving break. With 1 more hectic day tomorrow from 10 am - 7 pm and 1 class on Wednesday I will be on my way back to CT to relax on Thanksgiving, work the rest of the weekend, then head back to Boston to work on group projects and papers. Is it December 15th yet? :)

Almost Done!

The past couple weeks have been pretty busy for me. After my uneventful Halloween I've been busy with coming up with my schedule for my last semester at Suffolk. It's still so crazy to me every time I say or type that. My schedule looks pretty good with 4 classes on Tuesdays & Thursdays so that frees up Monday and Wednesday to work in the Admission Office to give tours!

I had a dry run presentation today for my Senior Capstone class. My Senior Capstone class is the one where it's a semester long group project about a community health center in South Boston. The dry run went okay but 2 of my group members were in charge of making pie graphs which didn't add up to 100% so that was not good but I probably should have caught that during our group meeting yesterday.

Other than that I am more than ready for Thanksgiving break. I'll be back in CT (and working) in less than a week and then it's back to school with presentations and papers. The first two week of December are going to be very busy for me with 3 presentations and a final paper. Yay senior year?

At least I have a month off from school so I can relax and earn some money to pay off my car (and trip to Disney!) and then it'll be back to school for my last semester!

Enjoy the new layout :)

Scary!

I just signed up for Advising for my last semester here! Ahhhhh. Can't handle it.

Food and tour time with Delia :)

End of October

I can't believe it's the end of October already; Friday is Halloween! How crazy is that?

I decided to change my blog so it's more festive :) The only problem is when I change the layout, I have to re-add all the extra stuff on my page (twitter link, ambassador blogs, what I'm excited about; it's kind of a pain but changing my layout is totally worth it).

Most of my friends and other Ambassadors have been running around and talking about how busy they are with papers, exams and projects but for some reason I am incredibly calm. My midterms weren't piled up into 1 week but instead they were spread out over 3 weeks so I had 1 per week. Granted I have my fair share of homework but I can't help feeling pleased with how calm my October has been.

I'm being a pretty lame college kid for Halloween this year because I don't have anything planned. My mom and stepdad are coming up for the day on Friday to visit and Adam will be spending the weekend so we'll probably watch some Halloween movies in my fall decorated apartment. I guess I'm just not that big into Halloween (a huge disappointment to my mother); it was great when I was a kid to dress up and go trick or treating and I went out Freshman and Sophomore years. Last year my mom had just gotten a puppy so I spent Halloween at home puppy sitting and handing out candy to trick or treaters so this year I feel like being lazy...I'm much more of a Christmas person.

I'll be heading off to my night class in about 20 minutes...here's hoping we get out a little early so I can get all my homework done...I would like it to be Friday please, thanks! :)

Oww

So this has absolutely nothing to do with school but, as with any other kid my age, we usually all experience the lovely growth of wisdom teeth. I've had mine for a couple years and my bottom two have been half covered by my gums which has launched my dentist telling me I should have them removed despite having enough room for them and that they're coming in perfectly straight.

I woke up yesterday to my bottom left wisdom tooth pushing its way past my gums and it hurts. So I'm just complaining about it. Hopefully it will be all grown in tomorrow because I don't really appreciate this constant throbbing. Boo for wisdom teeth.

On the other hand, with my wisdom tooth pushing through, my dentist can lay off me about getting them out.

Craziness!

The month of October has been incredibly crazy for me. The first weekend I went to a wedding for my boyfriend's sister so it was filled with sight-seeing in Boston since some of his immediate family flew up from Texas. The wedding and reception was held at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton. If you ever get the chance to go out there, I suggest you check out the museum; there were some really interesting exhibits (including one about shoes which, being female, I loved and a really neat structured space exhibit that hung from the ceiling that I have below) and admission is free on Wednesday nights from 5-9 pm.


Here's a picture of The Great Room where the reception was; they constantly change the art in the room so you never know what you're going to see and a picture of me and Adam on the patio where the wedding was...it's completely surrounded by water. We clean up pretty well huh? :)





The following weekend was my roommate's birthday so we hit the town (or city I should say) and celebrated her turning 22! The night successfully ended with ordering Domino's delivery at 1 am; I really love being a college student sometimes. I had Office Hours and an Information Session where I gave tours for a couple hours and my dad came up to visit for two nights, so you know he treated me really well and fed me tons of amazing Italian food!

This past weekend I went home to CT, worked in the hotel and hung out with my family and Adam. My mom made a mini Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and sent some food back up to Boston with me which I have already consumed for lunch! Thanks momma.

On a really exciting note, my boyfriend is pitching for a scout for the New York Mets on Thursday. I've gone to a couple of his pitching practices and as a female I couldn't tell you the difference between half the pitches but I was impressed. If I have the money, I'm going to watch him pitch Thursday because it's a big day for him and his family is in Texas so no one is there to see him.

Here's hoping for no rain or snow on Thursday!

Zipcar Anyone?

Two fellow Ambassadors, Jack and Chris are both members of the Zipcar community and since Jack just spent the past 10 minutes explaining it to me, I just might have to join!

It's only $25 to join since I'm a college student versus a $50 fee and a $25 application fee (ick). Chris usually drives the BMW but there are tons of other cars to choose from like Mini Coopers, Scions, Toyotas etc.

I'm not too sure where I would drive a car to, but it could come in handy for shopping trips! It's certainly easier to throw stuff in a car than try to drag everything back on the T!

My mom and dad should watch out! You never know when I might randomly show up at home and say "what's for dinner?" :-) I could take a quick T ride as far down as Quincy Adams, pick up a car there and then drive to CT and back and I'd be within the 180 free miles included with the car! Hmmm...