Things Change, but So Much Stays The Same

WOW.

* I got promoted and moved to the Water Park
* I met a FANTASTIC boy
* I moved to a new place
* I'm learning how to be a grown up (it's easier, yet harder, than one thinks)
* I've made enemies
* I've made AMAZING friends that I KNOW will last for a long time
* I gained a brother
* I found a WonderFam
* I changed my life plan
* I can operate a pressure washer
* I go home in TWO WEEKS


This summer has been a whirlwind, but I have loved every second of it. DAYS go by without thinking about the past, and it took me years to get to this level of happiness before. I am truly happy, loving my life here. I can't wait for what the future brings.

How Can I Count The Ways?

This summer is changing me. For the better. I'm growing up. I'm getting stronger. I'm a better person.

The independence is almost exactly what I needed to separate myself from him. And now that I have, I can be happy with who I'm with and who I am and where I am. I am happy, and I'm not lying anymore.

I recount most of my Wonderland exploits on Facebook. I forgot about this blog! I'll switch back. I promise.

Pennies and Popcorn

I had my second full shift at work. By full, I mean six hours, but I do expect to be working at least 8 hour shifts once the season gets going. The other manager was there, and he's just as fun as the first. I'm really enjoying the people I work with, which is a huge change from Florida. It took me awhile to find decent people at Disney to be friends with. My only problem now is that I can't find any of them on Facebook, so we haven't connected outside of work.
Went in, covered two areas, because one girl was MIA. Why do people keep not showing up on my shifts? The park opened at 6, so I started at 5 to get things sparkling beforehand. The rush of people to Behemoth at 6:01 was hilarious to watch and I just followed along behind the crowd sweeping up stray litter. The shift wasn't bad at all, until about 9ish, when these two small children were left apparently unattended in the plaza, with their bag of popcorn.

I extremely dislike popcorn.

And small children with bags of popcorn.

Combine these elements with a slight breeze, and I spent the last hour and a half of my shift following these two kids around sweeping up after them. It gave me something legitimate to clean, but popcorn is very aggravating and hard to sweep up.

Earlier in the shift, there had been a very creepy old man, bushy gray hair, raggedy clothes, sitting on a ledge in my area. Had he not been in Wonderland, I would have said he was homeless on the streets of Toronto. Instead, he just sat and glared at people for two hours, tried to stand on top of a garbage can once, with his bottle of *water*. People gave him a wide berth, that's for sure. Someone must have finally called security, because they came and sat with this man for a good hour and a half before he shoved off in the direction of the exit. Rather amusing, but I'm glad I'm not security.

I also must have picked up like a hundred pennies. Why do people drop pennies? I kept picking them up and giving them to the popcorn guy, because I'm not allowed to keep them. He wasn't amused, nor did he really seem to care. It's like an extra dollar in his till, he should care!

First Real Shift

I'm writing this a week late, and my second shift is tonight, so I figured I should post before shift #2 (which starts at 5pm tonight!).

So I head in for my first shift, take a different bus than normal to get there, kill some time at Wendy's. I trot myself across the parking lot and head for work. The parking lot is half full of cars, which is astounding. I didn't know the park was open! I headed to my area, "Action Zone," past the lovely ladies wishing me a "Happy First Day!" They were so cute. I pick up my schedule for the day and discover that Wonderland does things a bit weird.

Each hour, you rotate to a new area. For a 2-9 shift, I had a 45 minute break and would have worked 6 different areas. Instead, I was put on RTC duty all day, which is pushing the trash cart around. At Wonderland, they literally wanted me to push that cart for 7 hours straight. Completely unnecessary, but someone was missing so I took over their sections AND my trash run.

The park closed at 8pm, so around 7 we started the final trash run, only to discover that basically none of the other cast members were in their areas, and one had even left. We ended our night with three employees, which meant we were way behind and it was extremely frustrating.

This week, I went to Ottawa with my Grandma and sister, as we were driving her up to her place in Ottawa. She made us pasta, and we hung out with her, and then Grandma and I took the scenic Highway 7 back to Toronto. It was fun.

Work tonight! And a complicated bus/walk home. Stupid 11pm ending.

Love!

Moving In & First Shift

We packed the van on Friday, and I slept very uncomfortably in my sister's bed my last night at home. All five of us will be home again this Friday night, and I'm not sure where we're going to sleep!

Saturday morning I got up very early and went to write my last exam. It was easy - 16 minutes it took me, and then I hung around and waited for Jackie because I missed her. We got to chat, and she gave me a ride home. I tidied some things in my room, then settled in on the couch to wait for Grandma to pick me up and take me to the train station.

I read a whole book on the way here, plus had time to play on the Internet. Traveling sucks.

I got here, got on the subway and then a bus, and made it to my apartment. Mom and Dad had left around the same time I did and managed to get some time in the hot tub in at their hotel before coming to unpack the van. Frankie also had a good trip up, settled nicely on the cooler between Mom and Dad's seats.

We dragged everything down the six steps to my lovely basement, unpacked the majority of my belongings, and then went grocery shopping. 150 dollars later, I will hopefully not have to purchase food for a very long time! I'm already broke, and I have expenses and it sucks. BUT, I should break even around July, it will just be tight until then. I'm currently sitting on my bed, all alone in the big city. I need to make some friends!

Mom drove me to my first shift yesterday morning. I was expecting to hate all of the 15 year olds I was going to be working with, but I found myself a little pocket of 19/20 year olds and we chatted all day. The managers are my age, ish, and they love me. I'm an expert, apparently.

I'm one of four girls in my area, Expo. The rest of the team, almost 30 people, is male. Who knows why that happened. The area is rather large, but it's separated into six smaller areas. It's a very crowded area, there's an awful popcorn cart, and hills where people apparently have sex a lot. It's curious.

I'm excited. I like my apartment. I like the people I'm working with. Even Wonderland, for all that it's not, isn't too bad.

Home on Thursday afternoon/Friday for celebrations and Spark Day Camp. Then I work 2-9 on Saturday, and then I work 530-11 on the 30th. Long stretches in between.

C'est la vie.

More Specific Orientation

On March 27th, last Thursday, I went back up to Toronto for another three-hour orientation. Mom drove me up that day and we drove home that night, so props to her for that exhaustion. I had to "work" at 6, but we didn't start until 6:30. Apparently on time in Toronto means little.
We watched some WHIMIS videos, and some videos about guest service and cleanliness. It was rather short. We did some role plays, because Wonderland LOVES role plays. It was pretty lame, and I was tired and having a hard time paying attention so I started making lists of stuff I needed to bring to Toronto with me.

Yesterday, Monday, I went to the Dollarama and got dishes, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, cleaning stuff - all kinds of stuff! My bathroom is bright colours, and my kitchen is blue themed. My broom and dustpan are the best broom and dustpan ever. They're bright orange and green with fun flowers all over them!

I'm getting really excited to move. I bought my work shoes. I started putting things in boxes. It's exciting. Eleven days!

Orientation and Apartment Hunting

Last Thursday, Mom and I got on a train and travelled to Toronto. We arrived in the evening, and headed to my Aunt's, where we were going to stay for a few days. We ate dinner, and then went to bed. It wasn't too exciting. The next morning, I went to the grade school where my Aunt runs the lunch program and helped out for a bit, before heading back to get ready to go apartment hunting with Mom.
We figured our way through the transportation systems, and ended up at York University, where we walked over to "The Village" to look at some places. The first place on my list, I couldn't understand the landlord. We checked out two of the houses he rents out, and they were both awful awful places. I could never live in housing like this - people live behind closed/locked bedroom doors, they don't speak to their roommates, it's really weird and anti-social and I didn't like it. Plus, the bathroom we looked at was FILTHY.
Basically, we bailed on the rest of those apartments and went to some little old lady's house to look at her basement. I LOVED it on first sight. Had its own separate entrance, own bathroom, there's a pool in the backyard i can use. It's right on the line of the TTC and YRT systems, which is super convenient, and its only a 40 minute bus ride to work. I told her I wanted it and she said she had to call some guy who had said HE wanted it but then she had never heard from him. I heard from her the next morning while waiting for orientation to start and she said it was mine if I wanted it!
So after the stressful night at my aunt's, waiting to hear about the apartment, I got up and on a Subway at 6:15am, to travel the two hour ride to Wonderland. I got there about 7:30, so hung out in the Tim Horton's across the street before heading into Wonderland for work!
Having been through theme park orientation before, I expected something a BIT more than what I got. I went in, waited some more, got my ID badge, name tag and uniform, and then sat in a locker room as they packed twenty people in, waiting for orientation to start. We walked from Human Resources to a medical centre in the park, and sat at one of three tables. We were showed clips on Workplace Safety (lots of people with no arms in that one), and on the park's "cornerstones" or values. It was pretty standard, and I was a little put off by how unsocial the rest of the "team" was. I'd ask if people were from Toronto and they'd say "yes" and then that was the end of the conversation.
Basically, the whole theme of being a Wonderland employee is to be "engaging" because we're helpful, polite, something else, and because it's "our pleasure" to assist you as a guest. It's an interesting way to motivate employees, but it seems to work - Wonderland is the busiest seasonal amusement park in North America, (yes, higher than Cedar Point).
Mom met me at the little old lady's place, and we explored the area a bit, and then gave her my first month's rent. We travelled back to my aunt's, and shortly after that I got on a train to come home, where I slept most of the way. The Boyfriend picked me up at the train station to drive me home, where I promptly passed out from sheer exhaustion.