PI Check-In

I'm back in Orlando! I checked in bright and early on Tuesday for my new PI. We checked in at Patterson, but they wouldn't let us through the security gate until 8:00 on the dot. So all the cars waiting to check in just lined up down the street and parked, creating a pretty involved traffic issue. I was the third car in line. ... Overachiever? Or just really excited? I'll let you decide. :)

While we were waiting, a few of us in the front part of the line got out of our cars to do a little meeting and greeting. Almost half of the interns in our little group were there for engineering internships. The others were doing finance, the Youth Education Series (YES), and IT, and then there was me in Animal Programs. It was kind of neat to realize that we all would be working in such different areas of the Company. 

They finally opened the gates for us, and we all ran back to our cars and filed in, in surprisingly orderly fashion. We parked and walked into the classrooms at Patterson to do our checking in. Our paperwork had numbers at the top; my paperwork said #4. We signed some papers there and then moved into the next room, where our numbers came into play - starting with #1, we got to choose which building/room/roommate/etc. we wanted for Cumberland Park. So it really did pay to get there early!

I had heard in the past you got no choice about roommates or room size or anything. They were just assigned. This time, there were charts up on the wall with all the empty rooms and we got to sign ourselves up one by one wherever we wanted to be. Jenn, the girl next to me in line who is a YES intern and is from the same town I am, asked if I wanted to be roommates. I said absolutely! So we chose a 2 bedroom apartment (4 people total) in a building by the pool. Win all around. :)

We went over the housing rules and then we were sent off to either Casting or to unpack for a bit, depending on everyone's assigned time to go to Casting. Some of the housing rules at Cumberland are the same as for CP housing (for example, there are still rules about visitors, noise, lost keys, cleaning/inspections, etc.) but there are some things that have changed. There is a gate at Cumberland with an access code, but there are no security guards checking your housing ID every time you come on property. Trash is actually collected from a bin outside our apartments - no more walks to the dumpster! And best of all, bikes are allowed!!! That makes this amateur biking enthusiast very happy indeed. :)

Jenn and I had later Casting times, so we went over to Cumberland to start unpacking. And we discovered that Cumberland is GORGEOUS. There are marble countertops in the kitchen, dark wood cabinets, a big TV in the living room, DirecTV and a wireless router (all set up and ready to use!), spacious bedrooms (compared to Patterson), a screened-in  balcony with a connecting closet... It was love at first sight for me. 

I took the bedroom with the bigger closet and Jenn took the bedroom with the bigger shower. Later our other two roommates arrived - Kristin in an Events PI, and Jessica in an Industrial Engineering PI. 

A few things we found out over the course of the day that might be helpful to future Cumberland Park residents... 
- The cable outlets have been shut off because of the DirecTV that has been provided, so TVs won't work in the bedrooms. 
- The only mirrors are in the bathrooms, so we bought some full-length mirrors to hang over the back of the bedroom doors.
- Lamps are provided in the bedrooms and living room. 
- There is only one nightstand with 2 drawers to be shared in the bedroom.
- The drawers in the dresser are smaller than at Patterson. Pack accordingly!

Later in the day, I headed over to Casting for a meeting with the other Animal Programs interns. I didn't have to go earlier because I was just a Cast Member last semester, so I didn't have to do all the paperwork, fingerprinting, etc. that the new hires did. There were about 30 or 40 of us there for the AP meeting, and 19 of those were Conservation Education Presenter interns. It's kind of exciting to have such a big group - I'm making some friends already. :)  The meeting went pretty fast - we did a little "introduce yourself" ice breaker, and then we got our training packets and went over our schedule for the first 2 weeks of training. 

My next two days were pretty easy - me and all my roommates had Wednesday off, so we went and saw "Tangled" together. (It was my third time seeing it... I love that movie!!) There was a meet & greet for all the PIs that night in the clubhouse at Cumberland Park. It was "Chicken Little" themed - Chick-fil-a catered, we had an egg hunt, we did some egg relay races... it was fun. :)  We met some new people too. We're starting to form a little group of friends already!

Thursday everyone had Traditions, but I didn't have to go since I had already done it. I just had to go pick up my new ID and get my costume. A few of us met up at Magic Kingdom after to play. We made it a "classics" day - Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, etc. 

Today all the other AP interns working at Animal Kingdom have park orientation, but I don't have to do that either since I just worked at DAK. I'll join them later in the day for some computer training. Tomorrow I'm back on schedule with everyone else - we all have Animal Programs orientation. The day after that, training for our role as Conservation Education Presenters begins. 

It's really exciting but there's a lot going on... and I didn't even have to do half of what everyone else did! I can't wait to start learning more about what I'm going to be doing for the next five months!