And So It Begins...

What is this?

In September of 2012, I was offered an internship in Ride & Show Engineering for Disney Parks and Resorts, based in Orlando, Florida.

I know what you're thinking: "Wow! How did Jeremiah procure an engineering internship at one of the world's most beloved and reputable companies?"

Well those are my very same thoughts, word for word. At the time of the offer, I was 18 years old, midway through just my third semester as a mechanical engineering student at Arizona State University. I had never held any sort of job even remotely related to engineering. My knowledge of the corporate world was so limited that when Disney called me for my phone interview, I didn't realize our discussion was the interview until they ended the conversation with, "Great! You should hear from an HR rep in the next three weeks about if you're selected."

Shockingly, HR did call me back just two weeks after my interview. Picture the gaping face of a largemouth bass and you'll have an accurate image of my reaction to their call.

In short, I'm still in disbelief that I am now in Orlando, about to begin my job as an engineering intern for my dream company. I don't feel experienced enough with engineering to begin applying it in real life! But that's what I'm about to do. I'm gonna spend 40 hours a week engineering the magic of Disney. And I'll spend the other 128 hours in the parks!

This is easily the largest change I've gone through thus far in my life, but that also means it's the greatest opportunity so far for me to grow. My goal is to post to this blog at least once each week in order to keep all my friends and family back in Arizona updated on my experiences... Because I can't keep track of all the people who told me, "Keep me posted!" or, "I can't wait to hear all about it!" This blog is you. Hearing all about it.

The Drive

Did I mention this internship is in Orlando, Florida? And that I'm from Mesa, Arizona? There's 2100 miles of interstate between my house and Walt Disney World. Probably sounds like hell.

Which is why I dragged my girlfriend down into the inferno with me! (If I'm gonna burn, she's coming with me.) But actually, we turned it into a really fun road trip.

Austin

Technically, our first stop on this four-day drive was Fort Stockton, Texas. But that city's about as interesting as The Norton Anthology of English Literature (sorry, Mom, but you're in the overwhelming minority here), so I'm cutting it short; this paragraph alone is an inappropriately superfluous amount of space to devote to it. But hey, give it props. It has a hotel or two without roaches.

Austin, however, is beautiful! Hannah and I stayed with my Aunt Molly and Uncle Richard in their renovated, sophisticated home, along with a couple of their British friends who were also in town. We had a delicious steak dinner cooked by my aunt and uncle, framed with Pink Floyd and Pet Shop Boys played over the Blutooth speakers we got working. During the day, Hannah and I visited the original Whole Foods Market, as well as an authentic BBQ food truck by the name of Brown's. We also drove through the University of Texas campus, saw the capitol building, drove down Sixth Street, and visited the city's largest lake. Certainly an enjoyable stop!

New Orleans

Who dat? We rolled into New Orleans on a Saturday evening, the same Saturday evening that kicked off the NFL playoffs with the Saints visiting the Eagles in Philly. When we got there in the afternoon, Bourbon Street, Decatur Street, and the other iconic roads in French Quarter were packed! But sure enough, by 7:10 pm, the streets settled down as all the Saints fans - that is to say, every single person in the city - retreated to little bars and cafes to watch the game.

We ate at a place called Huck Finn's Cafe, where our sandwiches/wraps came speared by Saints-themed sandwich picks. We had no choice but to conform and cheer for the Saints, who successfully beat the Eagles despite the tragic depletion of their secondary. Then we finished up with some sinfully sweet beignets at Cafe Dumonde!

The city itself felt very authentic, in the sense that it shamelessly exposed the essence of its culture. Which is a fancy way of saying the city - and the people in it - scared us a bit. Neither one of us had ever been in a city like New Orleans, and we felt very vulnerable, especially on some of the side streets.

One man came up and shook my hand and wanted me to play a game with him: if he could tell me "where I got my shoes," he'd give my Sperry's a sole-cleaning. I was naively intrigued, so I played along; he told me, "Well it obvious, ain't it? You got yo' shoes on yo' feet!" Next thing I know he's squirting this jelly on the soles of my shoes and rubbing them with a rag. Thirty seconds of small talk later, he stood up from my clean Sperry soles and told me "Ten dollas fo da cleanin', ten dollas fo da tip." I was baffled. I pulled out my wallet and handed him two bucks for his trouble, but refused to act startled enough to fork over a twenty. Granted, I shouldn't have fallen into the trap in the first place, but nevertheless, I was proud to have walked away only two dollars poorer.

And that, my friends, is New Orleans. It has a very nice Hyatt across from the Conference Center; I recommend you stay there, if you're tentative about the safety of more... "authentic"... hotels.

Orlando

Hannah and I arrived in Orlando two nights early to give us some time to spend in the city. And since 98% of the city consists of theme parks, we spent our first full day park-hopping between Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and the Magic Kingdom. From Expedition Everest to Tower of Terror to Space Mountain, we hit up all the best thrill rides. It was, well, thrilling! And Hannah and I had always dreamed of visiting the Disney parks on our own together, so it was a great way to spend the day. It's pretty cool to think I'll be helping with the engineering behind some of these amazing rides over the next few months!

On our second day in the city, we went to Downtown Disney and drooled over the awesome Disney products that were too overpriced to purchase. But I'll have the last laugh about the prices, because working for Disney comes with significant discounts on already reduced prices for items sold at the cast member store!

Then we went to the Premium Outlet Malls and drooled over all the awesome non-Disney products that were too expensive to purchase, despite their already discounted prices. Unfortunately I won't have the last laugh on this one.

Introduced to Disney

Well I suppose I've already been introduced to Disney; I mean most of us probably saw our first Disney movie before we could say the name of the film! But yesterday was something different. I was introduced to the corporate side of Disney, the people who create the magical front most of us imagine when we hear "Disney."

And it wasn't exactly a magical introduction.

My day began at 6:15 am, when I woke up and threw on some brand new business casual clothes I received on the happiest day of the year just two weeks earlier. Saying goodbye to Hannah, acknowledging that we wouldn't see each other for several weeks, was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It was sickly ironic that Disney, one of the greatest sources of happiness and carefreeness in my life, was now forcing me to turn away from the single greatest source of those feelings: my girlfriend.

With that wonderful thought in my mind, I drove twenty minutes to the check-in location for Disney Professional Interns (PIs). After waiting around in line for about an hour and a half there, I turned in my check-in paperwork and drove another sixty minutes to the Disney Casting Center (though it should have taken me just fifteen minutes, if my phone's GPS had been functioning properly) for more paperwork and the like. Three and a half hours later, I left the lines at the Casting Center and drove to my apartment twenty minutes away, where I lugged my luggage (I guess that's why they call it luggage) up to the third floor of my apartment. Then I drove another twenty minutes to get my photo ID card, which was, by one of Murphy's laws, located just five minutes from the first place. I finally ate "lunch" at 4 in the afternoon.

If you found the previous paragraph a bit monotonous, good. You feel a fraction of the frustration I felt from all the driving and waiting and driving I did that day.

But there's a silver lining! I met my roommates, whose names I will keep confidential by means of pseudonyms, since I don't know whether they want to be mentioned in this blog. My roommate's name is Francisco, and the other bedroom houses Jongui and Rug. Eclectic names, I know. And they all seem great! Jongui and I plan to hit the gym together frequently; Francisco has already done an engineering PI and has been answering all my questions about the job; and Rug bought LOTS of groceries for us today so he's made a great first impression.

The stress and monotony of the first day was only for that day. My roommates, on the other hand, are gonna last me the next four months, so I'm particularly thankful that we're all getting along. As a matter of fact, tonight we ate our first dinner all together: spaghetti and meatballs, my treat. The meatballs were in a frozen package, the sauce from a jar, and spaghetti noodles practically cook themselves - but it was a meal. And, quite frankly, it was delicious.

Oh! So I knew going into this I would likely be on the younger end of the PIs... But I didn't understand the extent to which this was true. Rug and Jongui are both 22 years old, and Francisco is 25! They scoffed when I told them I was 18, but I'm the tallest of us four so they can't tease me too much. It's gonna be interesting living with people so much older than me, but I'm looking forward to it. Life experience, ya know?

What's more, the apartment itself is pretty nice. The complex is part of a neighborhood, so we're right near full-on houses and the like. There's a gym and pool at the clubhouse, grass-lined sidewalks, and lots of pretty trees. Our two-bed, two-bath apartment has a nice roomy kitchen with all the usual appliances, including a dishwasher! There's also washer/drier and a twenty-inch television with HD cable, for which I'm especially thankful after the limited range of channels I got at ASU. We can even watch Magic Kingdom fireworks shows from the stairs outside!

So although my introduction to the corporate side of Disney wasn't very fun, I'm confident that the rest of this semester will be. From what Francisco told us during dinner, our jobs will be very interesting, and what we can do off the clock as cast members will be even more fun!

Well, here we go! On Saturday I have a "Traditions" class at Disney University. Then, on Monday, I begin working. Be looking for another blog post in about a week!