First few days of Summer Project at Walt Disney World!

After arriving in Orlando late on May 28th (early May 29th), the Bickerstaffs were amazing and clutch allowing me to crash on their couch that night. They were a little worried that it might not be comfortable, but compared to some of the beds I had in Italy, it was amazing. Also I was extremely tired after traveling that day, so I would not have had trouble sleeping anywhere basically; May 28, 2012 was literally the longest day of my life, I think that it was about 30 hours long since I was traveling back time zones.
Anyway, I woke up the next morning with more sleep than any night I was over in Italy, so I was feeling pretty good for the day. I worked on some of the wrap-up stuff from my study abroad trip and prepared myself for the day. Then I packed up my little amount of luggage that I brought with me to Italy and went over to the main lobby for the resort. I was greeted by a bunch of smiling faces and hellos from the lovely staff and interns for this summer project.

 I got all of my registration stuff figured out and since I was one of the first people to check in, Lee helped me take my stuff over to my room. Here are some pictures of our condo we will be staying in this summer...
(bathroom, living room, bedroom, and kitchen)

We figured out that some of the guys rooms had been mixed around so the staff were calling each other figuring out what happened, but everything was straightened out before most of the guys came to check in, so it was all good. As Lee likes to say, "In grace, we have freedom to fail." Failure to have everything perfect for where people are staying is not a huge deal, and we all make mistakes. I'm glad that we can all come together with all our junk and serve the Lord this summer...

Then I just chilled and hung around the registration area for quite a while, since I did not really have any stuff to move into my room. My parents shipped me a box of clothes and other things that I packed up before I left for Italy, so it should be here on Friday.

Then I went back to my room and met my roommates for the summer: Chris, Rob, and Johann. We talked for a while and had some of the other guys visit us, we all started to get to know one another. I decided to do a little laundry from the small amount of clothing that I do have, so that I would have clothes for the next few days while I wait for the rest of them to get here. We then had a group meal where we got to see how big our group was and realize that this is really happening right now.
After supper we had one of the interns take us to Wal-Mart to go buy food supplies and other things to start us off for the summer. We split up in the store to go get group items that we would be sharing and individual items. We did pretty well picking up things that we knew we would need and we ended up with a pretty good sized receipt. It was good that we all figured out fairly well what we are going to be doing for meals and other necessities so that we can buy in bigger amounts and save money that way.

That night, I finally received my email so that I could begin filling out my paperwork for beginning employment at Disney. There are an unbelievable amount of forms that you have to fill out and I spent a good chunk of my evening reading huge PDFs and filling in information, but I was able to get it all done.
Then on Wednesday, we had our first big day of training and preparation for the rest of the project. We drove over to a local church where we were informed of a few of the details of what it is exactly that we will be doing in our time not spent working. There is still plenty that we don't know yet, but at least we now have a glimpse at it. It seems as thought "Going Surfing Every Day" is kind of our motto for the summer. The staff members did a good job of comparing how what we are going to be doing this summer to surfing. Our walk with God, sharing the gospel with people, and our whole summer can relate to surfing and the ocean. God is powerful like an ocean, untameable and majestic. Living for God and sharing our faith is like surfing in that while you know that it has the possibility to be phenomenal and amazing, there are elements of risk involved, but in the end it is worth the risk. This is just the beginning of the growth, and I'm sure there will be plenty of things that I will learn throughout the summer as we continue to spur each other on to live for Christ each day.
Later that evening, we had a group activity where we went and did a photo scavenger hunt in Downtown Disney. It was quite a bit of fun, and later on I may add some pics of it to this blog.
Thursday we will go and get all of our paperwork straightened out and find out what section of the park we will be working in. I can't wait!