Host Family Day: DISNEYWORLD!!!

I have such awesome host parents! They are Disney buffs, and they vowed they would take my roomie and me to Disney while we are staying with them! My roommate, Jolien, is a PR for UWP, so she is leaving Lakeland before I am to go set up future cities on our tour! So...given our time crunch, we headed to the "The Mouse House" this weekend before she leaves! We kidnapped Ambrea, too, so she could celebrate her 19th birthday in style! =)

Edward and Jessica hooked us up with passes, a FastPass for Every. Single. Ride! And VIP seating for dinner and the night shows right on the water with a perfect view of the castle. Sheer perfection! I was smiling from ear to ear!
 

We got to the park and rode Thunder Mountain first. Then Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Small World, and the new ride in Fantasyland, Ariel’s Grotto. We grabbed some ice cream treats, which for me is a MUST. Every trip to Disney that I can remember, I've always enjoyed a Mickey Ice Cream bar! After our rest, we hit up Space Mountain (MY FAVORITE!), and Buzz Lightyear. We had dinner at the VIP section with corndog bites and fries and shopped a bit. We enjoyed the light show on the castle and the fireworks! Afterwards, Ambrea, Jessica, and I rode Space Mountain one more time (while Jolien and Edward went to the Monster’s Inc. laugh show), then ended the night with Pirates of the Caribbean. Edward and Jessica spoiled us by buying us little trinkets of Disney, which meant a lot to all of us. Then we tried Thunder Mountain one more time, but it was closed. So we headed home. Awesome day!

Here is our day in picture review (with more to come later!):

 Ambrea's birthday cake that I got for her since I couldn't bake her one...yay hideous colors!

 YAY!!!

Family photo!

 Snow White

 One of my favorite rides was unfortunately closed for maintenance! =(

 Here we go on our first ride...Thundermountain Railroad!

 Small World

 The Beast's Castle...new to Fantasyland

Prince Eric's Palace...new to Fantasyland

We also saw that they're building Rapunzel's tower! It's still under construction, though

Tradition!

 LOVE

 Ready for Buzz Lightyear!

 With my host mom, Jessica! We're awesome.

Jack baseball!

 Light show on the castle

Firework photos:

I'll have TONS more photos when Ambrea (aka..Miss Photographer) posts her pictures! Stay tuned!

Sponsor A Day: Sara Blake

Today, January 13^th, my travels are sponsored by Sara Blake in memory of her sweet husband’s birthday. Maynard is watching over my journey, I have no doubt! =) Thank you, Sara, for all of your support! I hope your year is off to a great start and that your musical endeavors treat you well this year! Tell the GShep choir a big hello for me please! =)

Week 1 in Review!

I know I tend to be wordy, so I'm going to try my best and do weekly wrap-ups with day-by-day to keep things short, sweet, and to the point! ((So I wrote this the first day of the week. Now that I'm done writing everything, I'm afraid I'm still wordy. Sorry!))

Saturday, January 5^th – Went to FSC for our "1^st day" - aka, a half day to meet one of our professors. We played a name game (go figure). I went to the local Goodwill with my host mom…it was HUGE, but super expensive! After lunch, I napped - I was sleepy! Then I had my first experience Geocaching and found the First Finger! (Don't worry, I'll do a whole post about goecaching to explain this). I helped make spaghetti dinner that night - it was tasty!

 My first goecache find

Sunday, January 6^th – Slept in! YAY! That afternoon we picked up my staff roommate, Jolien from Belgium. Once she was unpacked, we went on a quick geocache (in the pouring down rain haha), then home to have taco bar dinner with my host parent's best friends Crystal, Jason, and their daughter Izzy, and one of the UWP staff members they are hosting, Katie (from Georgia) - who my parents hosted while she was a cast member in Denver back in July 2011 - small world 

 See? There's proof...Katie with my parents back in 2011.

Monday, January 7^th – That morning at school, we met UWP staff members and played a game where you introduce the person next to you whether you know them or not. After technical difficulties, we finally did some work with our communications professor, Theresa. We're so fortunate to be on a college campus for staging because we get to eat lunch at Wynee’s Bistro - the options are fantastic! We'll be fed well! Then the FSC group walked around campus. We met our other professor, Pete, and WE GOT OUR UWP NAMETAGS! At home, we had dinner and then I Skyped with mom and dad. The whole group went night geocaching and we found frogs!

 On campus...note the FSC railing

 With our new nametags!

 

 Happy lil froggy in a pipe

Tuesday, January 8^th- I learned how to play Mao cards with the FSC students in the morning. We had communcations class, lunch, then leadership class. Then we had a BUNCH of free time, so Tara, Mallory, Abby, Amilee, Misa, McKenzie, and I changed clothes and went for a walk around Lake Hollingsworth (which happens to be a 5K). We saw an ALLIGATOR! That night my roomie had a late pick-up, but I didn't, so to save my host mom an extra two trips, I went home with Amilee, Misa, and McKenzie. I met their host parents, Maureen and Kevin, and they spoiled us by taking us to their Country Club for dinner! We rode in Kevin’s awesome Audi convertible - so fun! I ordered Caesar salad, Chicken Piccata, asparagus, and French silk pie! Lord have mercy. Then when I was picked up by Jessica and Edward, I found out we’re FOR SURE going to DISNEY WORLD on Saturday! WAHOOO!!!! 

 My new gator friend!

Wednesday, January 9^th- Leadership class in the morning with Pete, and then we set up our future internet classroom through Adobe Connect with the FSC Dean of Technology. After lunch, we discussed Study Abroad on the road with our education team. We had more communication class with Theresa, then free time. Home, dinner, then homework while I snuggled with Mortisha (who willingly sat on my lap!) We eventually went out to get dessert at Bruster’s Real Ice Cream with Crystal, Jason, Izzy, Katie, and Janelle. I got Peanut Butter Crunch with Butterfinger in a waffle cone. Jolien got a HUGE brownie bowl with chocolate chip ice cream. Hilarious!

Jolien and her MASSIVE ice cream!

Thursday, January 10^th – We had Intercultural class, ate lunch, and then briefed for our first community impact project at Lighthouse Ministries with the education team. We played a game where we had to find another person while blindfolded in the circle. I was a SUPER NINJA! After talking about expectations for our leadership class, Pete treated us to something from the snack shop! Yum smoothies! We enjoyed the sunshine while hanging out. We also took pictures with our profs! That night, I went out to dinner at Sonny’s BBQ with Jessica and Edward– I got pulled pork and French fries. Yummy!

  With our valiant leader and professor, Peder Victorious...aka Pete.

 With our professor, Theresa!

Friday, January 11^th- CI (Community Impact) DAY! We traveled to Lighthouse Ministries in Lakeland to do some work around their facilities. We split up and I worked with McKenzie and Claudia in the library sorting some of their old Christmas decorations, cleaning things out, and reorganizing them. We were served lunch and later heard from a resident who’s life has been changed by all that Lighthouse does and enjoyed an awesome tour of the facility. We went to their Thrift store to sort and clean somethings before being picked up. We changed to nicer clothes, went through formal registration, and eagerly awaited the arrival of the first UWP bus! New cast members arrived and we were so excited to meet everyone! We eventually ate dinner with all the new folks and then heard another bus was arriving! We met those new folks and repeated the process! Then we had a cast meeting, took a cast photo, and then were released to meet host families! What a great day!

waiting to meet our cast mates!

 Silly Jolien! She pretended to look for me as her home stay even though we already knew who our host family was. I laughed so hard when she held up a sign saying, "Amy"

Tomorrow we have a host family day. What are we doing, you ask? DISNEYWORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Piscias: My First Host Family

I was so excited/nervous/anxious to meet my first host family! I knew that meeting them would make my whole UWP experience more real! Even landing in FL and meeting other girls in the cast didn't quite make UWP feel real, but going home with someone else besides my parents set the wheels in motion for this journey to begin!

For those who don't know, host families are our homes away from home while we travel for 6 months, and some of the best moments and greatest learning happens with our host families! To meet our host families, UWP assigns us "host codes" that change theme every city! Since we're in Lakeland, FL, our host codes were Florida themed! My code was "Bottle-nosed Dolphin," and I recognized my host parents rather quickly! You never know what you're going to walk out and see...sometimes people dress up as the code. Sometimes they hold posters. Sometimes they could act things out! I didn't know what to expect. But there were Jessica and Edward Piscia (Pee-sha) holding pictures of themselves swimming with dolphins from a recent cruising excursion! Perfect! 

We're famous! They posted this on the UWP Facebook page!

 They made me a cute welcome package with fun things! I was especially happy about the balloon!

I was giddy with delight when I read that my host family would have a kitty cat at home! And a cuddly kitty, too! Mortisha is a very gorgeous girl who loves to cuddle and talk to me...just like my weirdo cat, Clawed (well, he talks. He doesn't cuddle!)

She's staring me down, but I'm pretty sure she was sick of me taking her picture at this point.

 We put up a cot for the second girl that the Piscia's will be hosting, and Mortisha has already claimed it as her own. She won't be happy when Jolien shows up tomorrow and needs a place to sleep!

Now...my host family house. I am proud to say this has potential to take the cake for my most unique host house...and it's my first one! We'll have to see how the rest of tour pans out, but I think my first experience may be my most unique!

While we were driving home, Jessica and Edward mentioned they don't live in a "traditional" house. I thought, "Cool...wonder what it could be!" Then they said, "Well...we live on commercial property..."  I was slightly more confused. Then they said they lived at a storage unit facility. HUH?!? 

We pulled up and...here's where I live...

Come to any crazy conclusions yet? That's right! My host parents opened up a climate controlled storage unit and there was my bed! All ready to go! How nice! =)

JUST KIDDING! Don't worry, Mom. I don't live in a storage shed! =P Edward is the manager of the storage facility and one of the perks is that they live on the property in a private residence. It's attached to the office, but it's a seperate, two-bedroom home! It's great! So...yes. I'm living in a storage unit, but I'm still in a house! =)

Jessica works a few different part-time jobs and both Jessica and Edward LOVE Geocaching (for those of you who don't know, geocaching is like treasure hunting with the technology of GPS! Look it up here!) I'll have another blog concerning our geocaching adventures!

We've already been talking about the various host family day adventures we can have, and I'm happy to report we'll get to geocache (I've already had my first taste today!), hit up the drive-in movie theatre, maybe go to Daytona Beach (and visit Jessica's awesome rocket-scientist grandma!) AND GO TO DISNEY WORLD! AHHHHHH! So excited! I can't wait, and I'm only 1.5 days in! =)

Leaving for Up With People! DAY 1!

Finally! I can post about traveling on this...my UWP travel blog! =) I laid in bed last night thinking, "Is this really happening?" I mean, I've NEVER planned for a trip a year and a half in advance...have you? At most, I've anticipated a trip 6 months out or so...but a year and a half! Phew! After such a long time of planning and preparation, I was finally going to jet off to begin my UWP adventure!

After much struggle, debate, and reshuffling of items in my suitcase, this is what I ended up with. Here is my life for the next 6 months. Think you could handle it?

 

Today, January 4th, my alarm went off at 3:30am...weeee! Our goal was to be out the door by 4:30am, but due to a few mishaps, we left around 4:45am (Leave it to me. I can never leave on time!). I had to say goodbye to my dear puppies and (psycho) kitty. I'm going to miss them tons. Before I could get weepy over my pups, however, we were off to the airport to meet up with Tara and Mallory, two of the Colorado girls who would also be doing the FSC program. We finally got to the airport (a little late, whoops!) and met up with everyone. Mom and I got my bag checked in...49 POUNDS! YES! I still feel like I have a ton of stuff, which compared to others so far, I do, but I was so relieved and thankful that I was under the "oversized bag" limit. We took some pictures and then had to say our goodbyes. I know Mom was already missing me...our goodbye was just like saying goodbye my freshmen year of college...a teary one. But I'll be back! I promise!

 {me, mallory, tara}

  Not bad for 5:30am, huh? haha

 

With mom and dad one last time

Then we were off! Everything was easy-peasy, and Tara was even able to arrange it so she was in the same row as Mallory and me. It was so comforting and fun traveling with girls I already knew! =)

The flight was easy and without any problems. I did some work on UWP sponsorship stuff for my blog, watched a bit of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" on my computer, and dozed quite a bit! Then we were landing in Orlando! We met up with UWP staff members, and another cast member, Misa from Wisconsin. We collected our bags (hooray, no lost luggage!) and waited around for a bit. Then Tara volunteered to stay behind (due to lack of space in the first carload...there would be a second carload taking off behind us once more folks arrived), and we took off to the car with Abby and Ellen. We were the official first students to arrive, so here's our celebratory picture!

We drove about an hour west to Lakeland, passing Disney on the way (I was drooling. I want to go so badly!) We nibbled on some lunch stuff the staff prepared for us (I got "gourmet" and made a peanut butter and banana sandwich), and now we're just hanging out at Florida Southern College waiting for others to arrive! Tonight, we'll meet our host families (YAY!!!) and go home with them for dinner. The plan, so we've been told, is that we'll have half a day of classes tomorrow, and then have the weekend free with our host families! I am so excited! Our class schedule is still up in the air, but we'll have classes Monday-Thursday, and then I think a CI (Community Impact) day the morning of the 11th while others arrive to Lakeland. Then we'll join everyone in the afternoon for proper UWP registration and getting to know everyone! I'm already so excited to meet the rest of the cast! =)

We met our very first host families tonight around 6:30...and I have such an awesome couple to tell you about! But that will be deserving of another post...or a few! I'll be with them for the duration of our time in Lakeland, FL, and I can already tell you we're going to have some awesome adventures (which, YES, include DISNEY WORLD!!!!) Come Sunday I'll have a staff member roommate (from Belgium, so I'm told). Many adventures to come...and I am so ready for this adventure to begin! =)