I'm here!

Well ladies and gentlemen, I am HERE! I'm in my room in The Commons (apparently in the part known as the 'ghetto' because it's so far from the clubhouse and bus stop!), with my lovely new roommate Grace. We've only just unpacked because we kept getting sidetracked by the internet, haha.

My journey here was relatively smooth. I met Bryony and Bradley at the airport and our flight to Atlanta was good. I'd never flown Delta before but I was actually quite impressed. Comfy seats, decent choice of films, all right meal, can't really complain.
Our flight arrived early so we didn't have as much of a rush as we were expecting to have when we got to Atlanta, which was good. We all went through immigration with little trouble (Bradley's immigration officer had never done a Q1 visa before so that took a while, but besides that no problems!), but then our plane to Orlando had mechanical difficulties so we had to get off it and get on another one! This meant we were 2 hours late getting into Orlando, but the rest of our arrival group had still waited for us, which was so nice of them!

We all piled into a Mears shuttle and got to Vista Way where we assigned our housing, which turned out really well. The 2 boys were put as roommates, and Grace, Emma, Laura and I were put into an apartment altogether, with Bryony in an apartment just across from us.

We went on a late night shop to Wal-Mart, which basically consisted of us sleepily wandering around as quickly as we could and trying to remember all the necessities. We all wayyy overbought and trying to carry it all was quite tricky! Luckily Ben somehow managed to carry both his and Bradley's stuff so Bradley helped Emma and me with ours.
Back in our rooms, we made our beds then just passed out!

Today we didn't have to be anywhere til 12.50 so we spent most of the morning trying to fix our wifi. Laura and I unplugged every single wire in the vicinity of the modem and the router and somehow this made it work! Success!
Then we went to Vista Way to do loads of paperwork stuff, came back to the Commons for a video presentation on stuff not to do (apparently we can't have toy guns. 5 year olds in the parks can have them, we can't. That's cool), then got the bus to Downtown Disney for some FOOD.

The 7 of us, plus another UK guy called Simon that we'd found, ate in Planet Hollywood. Good times. Honestly felt like SO LONG since we'd have a proper meal! Afterwards we walked through Marketplace (with detours into Ghiradelli and World of Disney, obviously!) to the bus, and went to the Polynesian to watch Wishes on the beach. We couldn't hear the music as well as I'd thought you could, and the Electrical Water Pageant kiiiinda got in the way, but it was a lovely way to end the day so I'm definitely not complaining!

We got a bit lost trying to find the cast member bus stop to get back, and were on the bus for an hour because a road was closed, but eventually made it back here!

This is actually the longest entry I've done, pretty sure. Let's see if I can keep this up ... (don't hold your breath kids!)

Last night at home.

Tomorrow my parents and I will be spending my last night in this country in a hotel by the airport, so tonight is my last night at home for a year. Such a strange feeling.

I'm almost all packed, but there's still some things to sort out. It's been coming for so long it still hasn't quite clicked that I don't have ages to pack any more and tomorrow is actually my deadline!

I've had a busy weekend, which has helpfully taken my mind off the impending move, but now it's really hitting me and I'm struggling to get any kind of motivation to do that last bit of packing. I'm trying to pump myself up by thinking about the weather and free entry to Disney parks and Lucky Charms but honestly? None of it is working.

This will probably be my last post from Britain so the next time I blog I will be in Florida and hopefully having an amazing time that will have kicked this aching feeling miles away!

One week tomorrow!

I'm back home in Cardiff and I'm happy to report that now the sadness of leaving my job behind has passed, I'm actually starting to get excited! I have a massive list of things to pack, which I should really get started on buuuut ... na. Well, I have already started packing but in a more 'I can't be bothered putting this dress away, might take it with me, into the suitcase it goes!' way than with any actual strategy to it.

I've got a list of things to do and I'm managing to tick them off quite successfully. I've printed out everything I need (still need to photocopy my passport and birth certificate, though), got myself some dollars, cancelled my phone's contract type bolt on thingy, asked for my phone to be unlocked (whether that'll actually happen, though, we shall wait and see!) ... etc.

The 7 of us Brits in our arrival date are going to all meet at Orlando airport to get the shuttle to Vista Way together, and I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone! We've been chatting on Facebook for months, in this GIANT thread, so it'll be lovely to finally meet these people face to face!

2 weeks.

This time in 2 weeks I'll be ... either on a plane or in Florida. Time zones make it a bit confusing to work out! But yeah, it's coming FAST.

I had my last day at work on Sunday, and I'm moving back home tomorrow. I'm hoping that once I'm back home and have started packing and sorted out the last bits of paperwork things will feel more real because at the moment I'm STILL in denial. This can't be healthy. I want to be excited, I really do. I'm struggling. That's why I haven't updated this blog much - I don't want this to be a negative space, but I can't muster the enthusiasm to make it not. Soo ... slightly abandoned. Soz.
Don't worry, I'll get into the swing of it when I'm actually there because it'll be all 'OH MY GOD I LIVE IN FLORIDA WHAT IS MY LIFE' and everything will be okay.