Pssssst...

... it's 1 month till Christmas.

Sue called. Wants to know why you didn't write.

I like a woman who's got her patter down.

Despite setting numerous reminders I forgot all about this interview until about 5 minutes before the phone rang. Mentally straightening my clothes, I answered. Luckily, I was basically required to sit there slackjawed saying "ok", "yes" and "great" over and over again. It was over in about 4 minutes, despite the advertised 10.

We discussed (or rather, SHE discussed and I agreed in a polite sort of way):

* My flight (I'm paying for my own flight so I can pick up a few hundred extra dollars care of Mickey),
* My police clearance (Sue has more confidence in me getting it from our police service in time. I'm going to hedge my bets and apply early),
* My visa appointment (I can go to the local consulate as opposed to trekking up to the capital. Score),
* Most excellently, my welcome package, which is arriving some time in January by courier.

And with that, I'm off to watch a bunch of downloaded TV shows. News when I have it.

Passing the time

One of the most frustrating things about going to work at Disney is the wait. I've got close to 300 days to kill before I get out there. Here's some of the things I've been doing to pass the time:

* Planning my post-Disney trip. I've got a list of must-dos: LA, Vegas, Grand Canyon, NYC and Washington DC. Then I've got a much longer list of "try and get around tos".

* Buying books. Not just relevant ones either. Sure, I got a travel guide on America, and one on Florida, and a Hidden Mickey guide for Disney World, but I also went on a 2nd-hand hardcover mission and spent a lot more than is healthy.

* Working. I answer questions (ANY questions) online for a living, so I've been throwing myself into that so I can save as much as possible so I don't actually have to rely on Disney's wages to get by.

* Vaguely watching flight costs. Whenever I remember, I gaze at flights to see if anything ridiculously cheap is available.It is. But I'm going to hold out for a combination of cheap and convenient.

Heaven.

* Drooling at American foodstuff. So many flavours of Pringles. Ben and Jerry's. A thousand breakfast cereals. I intend to try as many as possible and then cry myself to sleep when I get back to South Africa because I'll never get to try them again.

* Killing time on forums. WDWIP is a font of knowledge for all things CRP.

* Writing this. I'm going to try and get it to it weekly at least, maybe a bit less in the run up to Disney and bit more when I get there.

* Figuring out burning questions to ask Sue when she calls in November. All I've got is "Does Santa really exist?" but I don't think she's qualified to answer that.

And yes, of course I know Santa does exist. Duh.

This is where I'll be working

Those guys with the horns are my co-workers. I've heard they're a real friendly bunch, as long as you don't go anywhere near their side of town.

In other news, I'm going to use my elephant dung notebook that I won at the Disney Interview to scribble down all my plans for next year. It's a good thing there's no elephants at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, or they might get offended that I'm writing on their poo. Better than writing with their poo, I guess.

Arrival buddies...

The UK CRPs got their results back today, and I've already got a couple of arrival date buddies.We'll have to come up with a secret handshake or something.

I'm also going to get a call from Sue on November 10 at 9.15pm to discuss the details. Sue's the head of international recruiting. We're tight. She's already invited me over for a Sunday barbecue with her family.

She hasn't really done that. That would be weird.

I'm off to practise my professional phone voice, and plan a lot.

Mickey Mouse has requested my presence...

I got an email headed "Congratulations!" from Disney, so there wasn't any suspense, but for some reason, I'm okay with that. I'll be a Savanna Guide at Animal Kingdom Lodge from 15 August 2011 - 10 August 2012.

I'm getting an appointment for a telephone call in November to go over the fine details.

Good times.

Inspiration and the Interview

So I thought a bit of background was in order. Just a quick recap.

The Pepper's Ghost Effect. Creepy, etc.

I was researching illusions for a play, when I stumbled on a website dedicated to the Haunted Mansion. After gleefully jotting down some of the tricks used in there (Pepper's Ghost being particularly cool), I followed a few links to other Disney-related sites. I began idly daydreaming of an American roadtrip with Disney World as a centrepiece. And then I stumbled on a link to information about the international program, and I was hooked.

I applied to be an African Cultural Representative via email. Unlike other countries, we skip straight from the initial email to the face-to-face interviews, so very soon I got my invitation to a presentation in my home town on September 15th.

Interview Day
I got dropped off early - my folks needed the car, so I couldn't drive myself - and wandered around, swotting up and calming nerves. Our presentation was by Sue, who heads the entire Disney International Program. She and her cohorts get to visit African and Asian countries in their quest for cast members, so it's a pretty neat job.

Our presentation consisted of a few clips mixed with Sue doing a slideshow presentation. Mostly stuff I already knew, but cool to see it for real. There were some trivia questions, and for answering 2 of them I won these:

A Disney International Programs bag and an elephant poo notebook. Score! Only one or two people raised their hands to answer questions. On the 2nd question I actually waited for a minute or 2 because I felt a bit guilty answering more than one. But hey, at the end of the day, I nabbed some Disney swag, so the guilt passed.

After the successful presentation, we were signed up for interview times. Mine was pretty early on, so I didn't go far. We had 2 interviewers set up in opposite corners of the room. We filled in our preferred work location (F&B, Savannah Guide, or Park Greeter), answered a few questions about tattoos and availability, then got down to business.

Except, of course, it wasn't much like business. My interviewer was only a couple years older than me, and we just had a bit of a chat. She asked me what I hoped to accomplish at Disney, how I'd cope with living away from home for a year, why I chose my job preference, what I'd tell somebody about my home town, how I'd deal with tricky customers, and a few questions about my CV. We even chatted a bit about her brother who lived in L.A. It was tres relaxed.

It lasted about 15 minutes. Still not sure how it went. Usually I can say I feel good about something or not, but I'm sort of on the fence about this one. Sue said the results should come sometime mid to end October, so I've been waiting for quite a while, hence this blog entry.