Pink Vanilla Frosting: A Different World

May 16, 2012

Everything down here is so different than anything I've ever experienced. Which is kind of weird to think about. I have traveled to lots of places and done exciting things, but it's one thing to just visit and another to live there. I can't help but compare living here with living in Idaho.

Apartment complexes at school are divided so each one houses either boys or girls. Down here, not so much. I have 8 boys as neighbors just across the hall.
At BYUI our curfew is midnight every night except Friday when it's extended to one, meaning we need to be in our own apartments by curfew and no going out after it hits. At Disney the only rule is that if you have guests over, they have to be signed in at the front gate and then vacate your apartment by 1am. Not that hard to follow after living under the other one for two years. It's actually quite nice to have the option to stay out all night if I wanted.
At school if people wanted to go out it meant maybe going to a movie and ice cream or bowling and pizza; something along those lines. Here when people go out, it's mostly to clubs and dance halls with lots of drinking involved.
Going to church is so easy at school. I could walk there in 5 minutes and be early. Here it's more an expedition to make it to church. First you have to call 24 hours in advance to make sure that there is as ride at the bus stop for you. Then you have to carefully calculate your whole morning routine based on when the bus leaves. Get on the 40 minute bus ride to what they call Disney University, which is almost always 10 minutes late, where you then hopefully have a ride waiting for you, because you called in advance, to take you the last 10 minutes to the church building. Quite the expedition.
I miss having a car. At school if I needed a quick run to the grocery store, I let whomever was home know I was leaving in 5 minutes and off we went. Here it's so much more complicated. One of my roommates has a car, but because no one ever has the same day off, the only choice left is to take the bus. Funny thing about the bus to Walmart, it doesn't start running until 1pm. Most of my shifts for work start at 3:30 which means I have to catch the 2:10 bus to get there on time. The Walmart bus takes an hour to get there and an hour back. Already you can see that I have now run out of time, and I haven't even added in shopping yet. Much more complicated to make a "quick run" for groceries.
Going to classes is nice because I could always count on having a break for Saturday and Sunday. Here I have no weekends. I work pretty much every day and most of the time my day of is in the middle of the week.
I have become a professional at meeting new people. Because my school does a funky trimester system, most people I meet I only get to know for about 3 months. They move out and the process starts all over again. I think because of this, I am able to plunge right in to a new location and situation and make friends quickly. (So I guess that's not a difference)

Speaking of a new location, I don't think I have mentioned where I'm working at Disney World. I work at the pool of the sister resorts, the Yacht Club and Beach Club. Take a look!