First professional semester-FINISHED!

It has been awhile!  I don't even know if anybody will be checking this, but my first profession semester as an early education college student is complete!! It has been a long and hard road.  Probably one of my most difficult semesters yet..and I didn't even have a science course!
To sum up my semester, I took 5 classes and one 8 week clinical.  My classes were all 3 hours long different days of the week, and my clinical was working in a preschool classroom with amazing little 3-5 year olds and 2 teachers.  I am so excited I choose this degree..the 8 weeks I was in the classroom was super crazy but I have never had so much fun learning and being able to interact with the kids.  Don't get me wrong they were crazy to control most of the time, but in the end when you saw them finally be able to write their name all by themselves after practicing every day for weeks is really an awesome feeling.
It has been super cool going to my classes this semester because it is the same group of 16 girls in all my classes so we became pretty close and worked on all of our homework and projects together.  I have never had such a big study group! So it was nice being able to bounce ideas off each other! Also they will be with me til I graduate in May 2014 so it will be nice knowing the people in your classes like I did before college.
I have also been working on average 20 hours a week at Target, lately its been more like 25 hours but gotta make that dough for Christmas!  Target is crazy busy with the holidays but it makes the days go by fast.  I also was guest service trained so that was really exciting for me since I have been only Starbucks for so long.
At the end of the month I will be heading back to Florida, to Miami because my NIU football team is playing in the Orange Bowl! So there was a student package to go to Miami-all inclusive deal for 160! which I thought was too good to pass up! Plus I will get to see one of my old Disney friends when I am there, she lives in Ft Lauderdale which is right next to Miami! I cannot wait! I am going with one of my best friends here at NIU and then we are staying in a room with my coworker and her friend so I think its gonna be a blast!

Well thats about it for my update,  I haven't really taken any pictures in the last couple months so I will just leave you guys with an update for now :)

Hope everyone else had a great couple of months too!

Back to Dekalb

I know I'm no longer in the college program with Disney but I thought I'd keep this blog going.. I probably won't post as often because I'm going to start getting really busy with school but everyone in awhile I'll update you on my life-post Disney.
Yesterday I moved back to Dekalb. I have been commuting for the last week back an forth from work and home but now I'm in my little 411 sq ft studio. It's kind of cute though! I just finished un packing and putting up my decorations- well I still have a little more to do but I'm not sure when I will get around to do it. So I decided to out pictures of my apartment almost all the way cleaned, with exceptions to a few boxes and papers on my desk.

Good-bye Disney :(

Today was my offical last day with the Disney Internship College Program.  We had to be moved out before we left our apartment because our keys had to be turned in.  We also had our "graduation" today as well.  So if you know me at all, I did wait until today to pack all my stuff and I went to the graduation.  It was a very busy 10 hours :)  But it was a lot of fun and my roommate and I packed our stuff together so it was great last roommate bonding time :)  I am definitely going to miss Amanda, She was a wonderful roommate.

I got my Ears! 

Amanda and I with our Ears :)

Mikaila and I in our ears :)

Us again looking spiffy in our dresses and not in costume :P

We are all from Chicago and met on the bus to go to the hotel the very first night.  

Oh hello Pluto! You're looking good in the graduation hat!

I can't end the day without a picture with Mickey and Minnie!

I had taken many more pictures with my roommates nice camera but she hasn't sent them to me.  So if I ever get them there may be an edit to this post.  

Good-Bye Grand Floridian!

Today was my last day working at the Grand Floridian.  Right before work it started Florida raining.  What I mean by Florida raining is that its almost clear skies but its pouring and it pours for about 5 minutes and stops.  Then it will start again 10 minutes later.  And the roads flood in seconds.  But as soon as the rain stops the water disappears. Its actually kind of crazy.

Right out my apartment window.  

Ready to go to work! haha :)

This is on the bus.  The puddles were so deep that when the bus was driving this is all we saw out our windows. Our waves were soaking every car we passed.

Mikaila and I.  The only original college program kids left.

Mikaila, Lauren, and I.  Lauren is our culinary on the cold side of Gasparilla's.  Gonna miss her!

Me, Mikaila, and Yvette.  She is such a lovely lady!  She is a wonderful person to talk to.

This is Pamela.  She is an international college program.  She is from China! She is such a silly girl!

There are so many more co-workers that meant so much to me and I didn't get a photo of.  But as cheesy as it sounds, the people I worked with side by side for 8 hours every day became my Disney family.  I am going to miss them.

Miami

For Francisco's birthday we decided to check out a new city and drove 4 hours to Miami.  We stayed for two nights and had a lot of fun but it was definitely more expensive than I planned.

At this point in the drive we still had 270 miles to go..oh geez it was a long ride without the AC :(

(don't mind my thumb) It isn't a roadtrip unless you stop halfway at Crackle Barrel!  Man I haven't been here in years! And it was so yummy!

Still not over seeing Palm trees and I have been here almost 7 whole months! This is a pine tree grove 

AH after 4 hours I see Miami!!!

The cool tree art on some of the buildings!

More palm trees :) we are now in Miami Beach. Which is right off the main land of Florida.  You have to drive over a bridge to get to this part of town.

Finally after a day of driving we make it to the actual beach.  It was so aqua blue and pretty!

Smile! 

The next day, we spent the whole afternoon on the beach.  This was pre-burned Erin.

This is the same day but a bit later in the afternoon..I started to feel my burn so I put a shirt on..but it wasn't soon enough.

Next day at the beach...let's just say the Miami sun is a bit sunnier than I am used to...this is me trying to keep away from the sun's rays..I was hurting bad from this burn...

Good-bye Miami! 

Ahh..the drive home...it was much better than the drive there.  And we didn't get lost so it only took us 3.5 hours to get home.

Back in Orlando.  And these trees are so weird and everywhere but I don't think I have yet to put a picture of what they look like..Oh Orlando...I am going to miss you!

Universal Studios!

Hey ya'll,

I was able to switch a day and go to Universal Studios with 2 of my roommates.  We had a lot of fun.  It was the last day all three of us had off and was able to spend a whole day together.  We walked through both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios (the original park).  It was super hot and muggy out and its now peak season for Florida tourists so there were lines for just about every ride.  I really wanted to go on the new despicable me ride but the line for that ride was over 2 hours...so we passed on that one. We definitely didn't take that many pictures but we did have fun and it was nice to have some roomie time since we all have such different work schedules...we rarely see each other for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Here is a picture my roommate, Amanda took on her phone, while we were stopped on the Cat in the Hat ride.

Me, Amanda, and Diamond :)

I am going to miss these two lovely ladies!

A Magical Fourth of July

For all that don't know, 4th of July easily beats out any other holiday for me as my favorite.  Its all about having a great time and seeing amazing fireworks in the sky.  Sometimes even a good BBQ and icecream is involved.  (not the bbq for me this year but thats a-okay with me since I am in the happiest place on earth.  I was suppose to have this day completely off, but then my manager asked if I could come in for 5 hours (I said "of course, but as long as I am out in time to see the fireworks!).  The day started out very gloomy.  & by this week it had FINALLY stopped raining but then it poured and poured and poured some more in the afternoon.  I was on the bus and the highway was literally flooded over within minutes of the downpour.  Cars were pulled to the side of the road and our bus just kept on trucking (he had a schedule to keep).  It was kind of cool for us, not so much for the cars but the waves we were making were splashing up over all the cars..it was just a wall of water the bus was giving off.   But anyways after I got to work it finally stopped raining and I got to go see my fireworks with my roommate, Amanda, and Francisco.

The rain on the drive to work.  I should of took a picture of the wall of water the bus was splashing but I didn't think of it.

Finally, Francisco and I made it to Magic Kingdom to find my roommate and we had to navigate through all these people to find her.  Let's just say it wasn't the most happiest of walks I've had.  

And there are even more people in front of us.  The park was completely packed with sidewalks about the only things that were cleared.

Here is a nice pixelly picture of Francisco and I....Oh and above my head is Amanda's crazy face :P

Oh and here is a lovely picture of Amanda and I...with Francisco's hand in the back..

Fireworks have begun!

Niceee!!

My roommate is into photography (she is actually photopass for her program role) and has an awesome camera and she got some great shots,  So I stole one to show you guys.

And back to my iphone camera.  This was the end! and such a beautiful show.  I forgot to take pictures but behind us there were fireworks and if you were at any of the resorts around Magic Kindgom they also had the same fireworks going off at the same time so it was an amazing experience for the firework lover like me :)

Happy Fourth!