a trip to the future

Emporium Update

Working at the Emporium has been SO MUCH FUN! Laura, Scott, Marty and I lucked out to be working at such a fun place. To give an overview of what we do- here are some of the jobs CDS (the Cast computer program that tells us our assignments) might give us:

Stocking- going into the store rooms, depending on which room of the emporium we are 'stocking' that day. ie. 2008 souvenirs, children's clothing, princess dresses, adult clothing, stationary, scrapbooks and photo albums, cash wraps (candy around the registers and lollipop duty), mugs and breakables. My favorite room to stock is the princess room. I usually just go upstairs and get the dresses, hang them if they're not already, and put them in order on stage. Since I'm right there, moms usually ask me if I can help them find different sizes for their daughters and I get to wait for the girls to come out of the dressing rooms and tell them how beautiful they look! Sometimes, if I have any pixie dust in my pockets, I'll sprinkle it over them and teach them how to curtsy like a princess. Getting completely covered in glitter is inevitable.


Merchentaining- a mixture of Merchandise and Entertaining. Theatre and retail. It goes along one of the Disney Basics: "I stay in character and play the part"- meaning that when we are "on stage" we are from the early 1900s and know nothing of the new millennium or it's new-fangled ideas. We walk around holding Minnie and Mickey dolls, sometimes I like to carry the baby Dumbo dolls because I can tell the little girls that I am babysitting. We pet invisible dogs on leashes and sprinkle pixie dust on guests. But my ALL TIME favorite merchentaining thing to do is to find kids that are asleep in strollers and cover them in Mickey stickers. I ask their parents, of course: "May I decorate your child?" and they always say yes. Moms and dads love it and when the kid wakes up, he has no idea how 20 stickers landed on his shirt!

Registers- pretty much just that. lines before and after the parades are VERY long and sometimes it will be 45 minutes until there is even a short break in the line. It is very hectic and nerve wracking sometimes- I'm always scared my math will be wrong and I will give back too much or too little money- even though the registers tell us how much change.. the first time I had to break a 100$ bill my hands were shaking as I counted the money back to them. now it's not really even a big deal at all!

Door Greeting- we wear very large white Mickey gloves and wave at passerby. Depending on what time you get there, you have the opportunity to see the 3:00, 9:00 or 11:00 parades. Once at work, I saw ALL THREE parades in the same shift. Some of the Emporium kids are tired of the parades, but they never get old to me. I could watch Spectra-Magic until my face turns blue and my hair lights up in all the colors of the rainbow. Apparently, that has actually happened before.

Put-Backs- go to each register and gather what guests have put in the wrong place or decided that they didn't want. This is probably my least favorite job, except for the fact that you get to cover the whole store and not be stuck in one area- and also because at every group of registers, I get to say hey to my co-workers and ask how they're doing. Everyone at the Emporium is such like a family that we talk ALL the time. And since we're there for so long, we always know when there's someone new and we immediately go introduce ourselves and try to help them feel welcomed. We have a very warm community.



More on the Emporium later- this one is long enough. I do need to tell you about breaks and my new friends though. That is probably the most exciting part yet.

Surf Instructors Training

Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common.

an afternoon in Hollywood Studios (previously MGM)

Great night after work.

Toy Story Maquettes

lookie what I found today!

No more teasing.

So, finally- I have time and access to internet simultaneously!!



I didn't have to go to work today- HUGE news for me because I've been having all of my shifts from 6:00-2:30 in the morning at the Emporium. That means that in the morning, I do project stuff for about two hours and then go straight back to sleep so I can be conscious during my laaaate/early shift at WDW.



I woke up around 12noon this morning and called Mama and made reservations for her and Daddy and Travis to stay at Disney's Boardwalk Inn at the end of July. I don't think I've been this excited for anyone's birthday except mine .... which I am grateful for because I may finally be losing some of my selfishness...? hope so..



Well, anyways.. My friend on Project- Gina- needed to go to work at 5:00 and I was planning on going anyways, so we rode together to the Magic Kingdom. Many secret things happened next, so I will fast forward to the part where I was on Main Street. I wandered around for a while and stopped by City Hall. I wanted to visit the Emporium to say hey to some co-workers and possibly buy a watch. Cell phones don't exsist during the time period in which I work, plus they're not allowed "on stage." Time telling is a necessity.



None of them recognized me at first because my hair was down and I was out of the Emporium costume dress. I got to talk with Gabriella for like 20 minutes and we had an awesome conversation. I told her about the plans I had been making all day for Travis's birthday and how I wanted it to be soooooooooo cool. I said something about how I used to pick on him and how he just would relentlessly forgive me every time and that he always just had a lot of grace in his personality. And she said, "Yeah, isn't it awesome how Jesus forgives us for everything we've done, and that we're able to forgive other people?" And I was (in my head) like: AHHHHHH!



So realized that each other was a Christian and hugged and I told her that our group does Bible studies a few times a week and she said she definitely wants to be there!



Later, I found Romeo and we started figuring out a time to hang out and talk about stories. He's a film student in NYC and we've decided to collaborate this summer. We don't know what direction we want to go in yet, but we're aiming for storytelling+ truth and beauty.



I went drawing in the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the evening. It was wonderful. I was sitting on a park bench in front of the Dreams Come True show waiting for people to stand in front of me. I think I fell asleep once or twice in about a 4 hour period of time. (Who has the chane to do that in Disney?)

As soon as I can get access to a scanner or have time to take pictures, I'll post some sketchbook stuff. They're getting better, I think.

Surfing at Cocoa Beach

Today we spent the day at Cocoa beach, learning how to surf. We have adopted the metaphor of 'surfing' the waves to mean walking with Christ and taking risks- not sitting and watching from the shore.

We spent some time with people on the beach using the Soularium Image photographs, and then took to the waves. I got a pretty bad burn, which I suspect will be tender for a while, but all in all it was a good day. 

To Infinity....And Beyond!

The trail of smoke above the blue-clad, knowledge-seeking field trippers was left behind today from NASA's Shuttle, Discovery. Aboard was Buzz Lightyear -of Star Command-!

I was drawing out behind Casey's again, (Now, I can draw decent life sketches in the time it takes to eat a hot dog!) and that's when I remembered the news had been talking about the partnership between Disney and NASA for the Space Ranger Educational Program.

more info: click the pic.

my view from the Emporium

I get to see this every day!

Disney Traditions

Before anyone can work at Walt Disney World, they go through an orientation class called Disney Traditions. We had a class on the life and history of Walt E. Disney, and learned The Basics:

1. I project a positive image and energy.
2. I am courteous and respectful to all Guests, including children
3. I stay in character and play the part.
4. I go above and beyond.


Then we got our ID's, assignments, and found out what costumes we got. I'm very happy with my assignment. Main Street, USA is going to be awesome.

The Crusade Experience

Today we visited the Campus Crusade for Christ Headquarters in Orlando. We went on a tour and heard about the how the Jesus Film is traveling around the world- changing people groups, communities, and cumulatively the nations. It was an neat experience to see the organized center of what makes Cru and Summer Projects work. (and by organized, I mean very organized. They process thousands of support checks every day for missions all around the world. That's the place where my support checks were sent for this summer and last (NY) - I was impressed to see how meticulous and careful they are about processing our support dollars)

We had the opportunity to go to the Jesus Film Master Studio to see how the Jesus Film has been changing the world. We saw clips of tribes and communities' reactions to the film and how the powerful message transformed their hearts. Then, they took us to see an example of how they carefully translate and time the dubbing over for each language. Joe (from our Walt Disney World group) got to test out the equipment and try to make his syllables match with a scene from the film.

"No one should have to learn another language to hear about Jesus."
-		Paul Eshleman, Founding Director The JESUS Film Project

Here are some of the Soularium Image Surveys being put together and counted individually.

Later, we went to Mark Gauthier's house to have dinner and swim. It was a fun day.

Disney: Day 1

After driving 8 very long hours from SC, I am now in ORLANDO! I had two suitcases: one for dresses and other clothes and the other for art stuff :). Also some bags of clothes, but pencils, books and sketchbooks took first priority in my luggage this year.

Tonight, we had a scavenger hunt through Walt Disney World. As soon as our project director said "GO" we started running off in different directions and the theme song to The Incredibles came on the speakers. It was amazing. I ran faster.

Please continue to be praying for me this summer- for me to be teachable, for my coworkers to have open hearts, and that we all fall more deeply in love with God this summer.

I'm extremely tired, soooo goodnight!

Counting Down the Days

The final countdown has begun. A week from tomorrow, I will be heading down to beautiful Orlando, Florida! I will be working at Walt Disney World for the next 10 weeks with a group of students from around the country! I've been getting excited about meeting my coworkers and spending time with them.. along with discipleship and Bible studies we will be going through.

Support has really been coming in the past few days. Two days ago, I had about $300 out of $2,800. Now, thanks to generous letters of support, loving grandparents, people who like handbound sketchbooks, lots of praying and surrendering, and the goodness of God, I have a total of $1,790.


I will be updating more very soon, especially once things start rolling with the project. At the moment, I am trying to unload my jeep of the clutter that my room at Winthrop had collected- without making a mess in my parent's house. I am planning to keep up with my sketchbook while I'm at Walt Disney World so keep checking back!

more bookbinding