In which I ask myself a question and then answer it

Man I miss my blackberry...

Halloweeen

Things that I liked about Halloween this year:

1. Disneyland went crazy and throughout the week there were giant magical scary mythical creatures parading/leaping around in the dark on stilts with magic atmospheric lighting and drumming. I kept trying to talk about that part in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe when the White Witch summons her minotaurs and spectres and boggles to be in her army, but no one here has read that so never mind. Still pretty amazing.
2. There were pumpkins everywhere and everyone in the kitchen was given one and told to carve it. My friend Papa-D (whose real name I can't spell or pronounce so Papa-D will have to do for now) said "Sara - do mine for me?" SO I GOT TO CARVE A PUMPKIN! Which was partly gross but mostly AWESOME! I made mine with the silhouette of a ghost. THEN, it turned out it was a competition, and I won second place! Hooray!
3. Riikka, Rachael and I decorated our apartment in proper Halloween style. This was one of my favourite parts - especially my Halloween mobile that I made by tying household items to bits of string and hanging them from the ceiling. I found the forks and spoons the most frightening.
4. People came to our apartment for drinksandlols after work on the 30th which was funny.. as no one dressed up except for Riikka, Rachael and I.. But that's fine. I was a cat. It was lovely and relaxed and we drank, but not too much, and laughed and laughed and that was fun.
5. At work on the 31st, Disney had brought in these professional make up artists who were there specifically to paint the faces of Disney employees. HOW GREAT. So that was sick. I was a cat (again) and prowled around the restaurant. Throughout the entire evening customers would miaow and purr at me and I loved it. I lost count of the number of tables. And sometimes I'd forget about my feline face and be really confused... That was really fun I have to admit. There was this table of little Spanish kids who shrieked and wooped every single time I walked past "Gato Gato Gato". Purrrrfect.
6. That evening we heard talk of this soiree that someone from the Boiserie was putting on. Riikka, Danielle and I decided to give it a go. It was in this sort of Party Hall place with a DJ and lights and cobwebs everywhere. Slightly weird evening though - Very frightening considering the number of skeletons and zombies who were creeping around.. (not to mention the European boys - who in my opinion can be just as creepy) But it was fab and I had a lot of fun dancing and 'pretending' to be a cat. (I was a cat)

I was a cat.

BEST DAY

James and I met Mickey and it was too cool

James and mum came to visit me! It was so lovely. SO lovely. Unfortunately Dad couldn't be there too, but it's so great that I've been able to show all three of them my life here.

Living away from my family for the first time has really made me realise how munch they mean to me and how much I enjoy spending time with them. Literally, I would say that the day I spent exploring Paris with Dad and my day at Disney Land with Mum and James were two of the best days of my life.

Mum and I with a height difference and a coffee

Wednesday - I went to the station to pick them up (and I wore my parisian beret-style-hat so that I looked the part.. it was great) and then after dropping things off at my apartment and chatting on the bus we went straight to Annette's so I could show them where I've been working. It was so fantastic how normal it felt to be on the bus at Disney Land chatting about Poppy's eating habits and exam revision techniques. Really lovely. And it was great at work too, James and Mum really enjoyed the restaurant (even at lunch time) and everyone came over to shake hands and say "enchanté" and it was just perfect.

Merch

Thursday - We decided to go and see how much it would cost for the three of us to go into the park with my cast member discount.. The answer - NOTHING. The three of us stumbled into the park in a kind of giddy "omg.. we just got into Disney Land Paris for FREE" haze and it was absolutely brilliant. Highlight of my time here I think. PLUS, Everything that we bought there, or in Disney Village, we got a 25% discount. Another great thing was that at the entrances to the rides I managed to blag us a fast entry through the back or fast track entrance by pleading in French and showing my I.D. It was amazing. I felt like a celebrity. James and I went on all of the rides (Including Space Mountain - which we LOVED, and also the horrible horrible Tower of Terror.. Which I hated once again) AND THEN we persuaded Mum to come on some of the "not scary" rides... WHICH WERE DEFINITELY SCARY! And it was absolutely hilarious. Mum screamed in a really really high-pitched way throughout, while James and I spent the duration laughing and laughing. My favourite was Big Thunder Mountain. It was the perfect day and I was SO pleased that James and Mum were able to appreciate why people love places like Disney Land. Mum kept remarking that the park looks just like it does in the adverts - especially in the evening when the castle was lit up and the lights went on - "it really is just a DREAM isn't it". We finished off the day with another trip to Annette's - this time with Show Time included.. And I got pulled up to dance along with mum. It was fantastic!

Disney Castle Disney Castle (twice because it's magical)

Friday - To Paris! James and Mum had to leave at 5 that afternoon, so the three of us got up early and got the train into the city. After a coffee in a particularly French cafe, we went to take a look at the Pompidou Centre. It was amazing. I'll probably write a whole post about that (if I get round to it) because it is somewhere that everyone should visit if they get the chance. The building itself is a work of art for goodness sake. But yes we had a look at the modern/contemporary kooky art pieces on the 4th floor and also some more by people like Picasso and Matisse (who I liked a lot) and also Dado (whose paintings were scary cool).

Dado - Struwwelpeter and Reminiscence, after Luca Signorelli, 1956 at the Centre Pompidou

(His paintings remind me of scary mythical creatures. It's like he can see the things in the world that we've all forgotten how to see)

Henri Matisse - Portrait of Auguste Pellerin (II), 1917

I like this one.

Then they went home which was sad, but also happy because the three days that they were here were SO good.

Annette's

So I've now been working at Disneyland for a whole month (and 5 days to be exact) and I've suddenly realised that I have written very little about the work itself. Soz about that.

I work in "restauration" in an oldschool 1950's American Diner - with jukeboxes, neon lights, boothed tables and Elvis Presley music. It is totally awesome. I mean, the work is hard.. and it's a definite definite change to Grills and Greens back home, but of all of the places that there are to work at Disneyland, I've struck lucky.

The costumes are pretty cool too (I think). Cropped pink trousers with a white blouse and pinny plus little pink hats. I think we look pretty on trend right now. The guys also look pretty cool in their Pink shirts. Also, some of the more experienced and less disaster-prone waiters zoom around on roller-skates.

Another AWESOME thing is that at about 8pm, everybody has to s

top what they're doing and do a sort of rock-and-roll show time! The managers say that it's obligatoire and encourage us to stand on the bar or on the tables. The other day after dancing to Greace Lightning this French guy gave me 5 euros.. which was cool.. But also a little weird. I felt a little bit like a stripper. But hey-ho. 'Show TIme' is probably the highlight of my night, even though I still don't properly know the choreography and end up freestyling to my heart's content to Aretha Franklin's Think. SO much fun.

The work itself is a little less fun. The thing I really liked about Grills and Greens back home was that we were literally in charge of ourselves.. We took the orders.. got the drinks.. brought the food.. cleared the tables.. made sure everything was done well. It was really satisfying and also, I felt like I was a little bit good at it. At Annette's there's a different person for each job.. Each section of the restaurant has a different waiter (not us newbies - People who have been working there for aggeess), and then other people (us) bringing the food, the drinks or the desserts, others sorting cutlery and others who seat/welcome guests. It's tiring work, and pretty thankless to be honest. My favourite is to be on the Accueil as the Hostess, because then you get to chat to people.. and practice languages and they do thank you a little. With carrying drinks the stress is far too much and doing cutlery has given me nightmares. Not fun. Plus, its different here because it is OH so much bigger.. 150 tables on two floors rather than 30. It makes me laugh now to think how much the prospect of a table of say, 8 freaked me out at Grills and Greens when it's very very normal here.

Everyone is very friendly, and young & they all chat and help you out if you need them. I will do another post shortly about some of them, because there are some pretty funny characters here.

Today, I had just cleared a table and was balancing the biggest tray you will ever have seen (bigger than.. two pillows) and I thought I was doing SO well, but then one of the glass bottles of coke FELL to the ground and shattered in an explosion of glass. I was utterly shocked and sort of stood there in the middle of the restaurant dumbfounded about how to react. In that moment, Natascha rolled past on her skates, but a shard of glass got caught in one of her wheels so she stumbled and dropped one of her plates - WHICH luckily, I caught, but it caused an even bigger fuss as she screamed out loud and I sort of half laughed half wailed. That was over, and I swept up all of the mess and scuttled back to the waiter's station to exclaim to David and Riikka and my supervisor about what a clumsy idiot I am, but one of my more vigorous handmovements caught a glass that was on the side sending it also crashing to the floor… OH MY GODDDDD. Luckily.. no one was cross.. In fact it amused most of the customers - which is a plus - and this french couple actually gave ME tips (which is pretty unheard of) and said that I was doing a good job and to keep courage" - which was amazing. Now I'm going to sleep.

I feel better now that I feel like you have a vague idea of what I'm actually doing here..

(P.s. - Extra note written a day later - I DROPPED ANOTHER GLASS TODAY AND EVERYONE JUST CLAPPED ME. I feel like Calamity Jane.. except not a Cowboy.)

Updates on plates

Hello internet. It's Sarah. Sorry for not really writing anything interesting of late. I didn't want to.. So I didn't.

1. It was my Birthday last Sunday! (Hoorayyyy.) and I am now 19 years old (wooooo). It was a little weird to have a birthday not at home. Instead of running downstairs and open presents with mum, dad, james and poppy I was running to catch a bus to go to work. But it was great. Presents and cards came sporadically in the post, which was cool because it means I get to feel loved over lots of days rather than just on one.. It was also weird not to be with my friends from home for my birthday. For instance, I think this was the first birthday in about 15 years that I have spent without seeing Jess Gall. Oddd. But I did have a really lovely time anyway. We went to Billy Bob's on the Saturday night and consumed lots of alcohol (I didn't have to buy ANY drinks which was super fun) and danced and laughed and wore lots of lipstick. Then we went back to our apartment and drank and danced and laughed some more. Also someone broke our loo seat.. Awkward. I then had work really early the next day, exhausted and hungover, which was the source of much amusement for my co-workers. So that was great. Then, that evening, Jade, Rosie and Chiara came over to re-watch Tangled with me and eat cake and drink wine, which was also lovely. AND then on Monday Riikka and I went for Sushi and got given a complimentary glass of wine and some nibbles and things. So yes. I had a really nice time.

2. My Dad came to visit last week! It was great! We spent the first evening exploring Disney Village, because I was keen to show him where I work. We had starters and cocktails at the Rainforest Cafe, a pint in the Sports Bar, hotdogs and icecreams at Annett'es (where I work) and then more drinks later at Billy Bob's - although Dad was a bit perturbed by the Line Dancing Lesson that was going on there that evening. The next day, we had an early start and headed into Paris, which I absolutely loved. I had been to Paris once before, but I was young, it was pouring with rain and I don't remember much. This time however, I was absolutely struck by how FRICKIN AMAZING this city is. Oh my god. Seriously internet people, it's beautiful. The roads.. The squares. The buildings - their roofs. I have never been so enchanted by a city before. I felt like I was walking along the Seine in a daze. I doubt there is very much I can describe about Paris that hasn't been described before, but, I'll just say that all the time that I was there, I couldn't stop picturing myself living there - in some arty studio, on the 5th floor, with no lift, with flowers and washing lines outside the window and Paris on my doorstep. And I'll admit, when Dad and I got a coffee in the window of a cafe by the Tour St Jacques, I definitely felt the part. The whole time, as I sat looking out, I kept thinking to myself "I'm DOING IT!!!" - haha as though I was in a film or something. But it was lovely. Mostly we just pottered around, walked down the rues and alleys and popped into the Musee de Cluny (which I got into for feee) for a "quick look" - which ended up being a 2 hour browse. It was a tiring but wonderful day, and I can't wait to get back out there! It was also lovely to see Dad. I miss my family a lot. <3

3. I feel like my French is improving a lot. Well.. quite a lot. It's difficult, because I only really speak English with my friends outside of work.. But in work I'm kind of forced to give it ago. It's difficult because I'm able to mostly understand everything that people say, it's just I get nervous when it comes to replying because I am so aware that I must sound like a three year old. It's also tiring feeling like an idiot the whole time. At home I love playing around with words and abbreviating and punning to my heart's content. Here, it's definitely not possible.. Actually now I say that, I did make a joke yesterday.

quelqu'un: Sara, quel est ton âge?

moi: Ohhh… Cinquante-huit ans.

quelqu'un: Quoi?

moi: Ouii… je mange très bien.

It was hilarious.

Trust me.

Disneyland Paris 3

I'm a little bit tired and grumpy tonight.. so here are some Disneyland pictures for the time being and I'm sure I'll get back in the mood to write in a little bit. I've run out of tea bags.

Disneyland Paris 2

Adjusting to being in such a new place, for me, has actually been a pretty tricky business. Moving out and moving on is a challenge that everyone must face, and I guess, until about now, I've been finding it a lot harder than I expected. I'm not sure why it was so difficult, but it was. Don't worry, I'm not going to be all mopey and self-pitying, but I will say that I'm glad that I stuck it out.

True, it was hard to be so far from my family, especially when told stories of family meal times and bickering (that I still miss more than anything). It was hard to see so many facebook updates about crazy freshers evenings my friends were having and all the fab new friends they'd made and been in photos with, especially when I was sitting alone in my shared bedroom with dodgy internet, feeling that my pitiful linguistic skills were stopping me from having ANY of those moments. It was hard to start working at a new restaurant, especially when nobody else there really spoke any English and everything was so different to back home at little old Grills and Greens with the regulars and the 30 or so tables.

But actually, I'm now thinking how lucky I am to be in the position I am in. Thank you so much to all of the virtual shoulders I have been given to cry on (specifically you C, J & A) and the real ones from my friends here who have supported me in excepting what seemed like such a massive change. An extra special mention goes to C - whose blog post about a pretty similar thing really inspired me yesterday. It's here if you want to read it.

"Of course ‘work hard, play hard’ is the cliché I could drop in here, but I think the experience you have depends heavily on what you, and only you input into the huge life style change. If you sit in your room and lock yourself away, then you probably will feel homesick and isolated. It’s amazing what just propping your door open can do."

This part sort of brought things into focus for me. Being miserable and mopey won't make me any more cheerful. Grumbling about what I was missing at home would only make me miss out on what there is on offer here. I know it sounds obvious.. But having sorted that out in my head, things are looking much brighter. I have some lovely new friends, some who I know I will keep in contact with regardless of which country we're in. The flat is looking really nice - I bought a colourful clock and Riikka moved in and brought with her wine and beer. Work is actually really cool - I love the outfit, the dancing, the rollerskates and the people. PLUS my Birthday is in 3 days, my family have sent me packages and I'm seeing them all soon. Yes. Life is good.

Today I got a cup of coffee and just sat at the gare. Just sat. And looked. And lived.

Life is good.

chillin wit ma homies

Disneyland Paris 1

Dear internet,

I promised myself before I left that I would be a good, consistent blogger.. but actually things have been so overwhelming here that I felt it would be best to wait a little before even attempting to write something readable. I should pre-warn you before I start that my English might be a little bit bizarre.. I find speaking a lot of French changes the way that sentences come out in English. But we'll see.

SO I've moved to France and I'm alive and so far thing's have been fairly good. I've moved into my Disney Residence, 'La Boiserie' - which is actually pretty okay - we're slowly making it a home. There are so many people also living here (and so many late and stupidly noisy parties in the flats next door.. GREAT news for this daytime girlie.) and I'm sharing a flat with 2 of my friends Riikka and Riina, which is cool because we're pretty similar. Except for they're both coincidentally from Finland - which I find hilarious because it's just as I predicted - but they speak almost perfect English and are the same age as me which is good.. I share my room with Riina who is really sweet and says the funniest Finish things.. e.g. The other day she asked me about my sauna back home. I explained that, actually, we don't have a sauna.. and she looked really confused and said "but... what about in the winter when you want to jump in the lake?!"

The first week or so we spent doing training, training and more training, which was exhausting as most of it was in French. A lot of it was pretty unnecessary too - but on the bright side there were lots of other new people doing the same thing, so we became a little group of friends which is really reassuring. Two of my favourites are Danielle (from Dublin) and Rachael (from Manchester - She speaks JUST like my cousin Nina does. Seriously. It's so weird.) and they both enjoy making fun of my Surrey accent a little bit too much. The other night a whole group of us went out to 'Billy Bob's Country Western Saloon' and enjoyed our 25% Cast Member discount on cocktails. It was a really nice evening. Riikka and I were singing along to our heart's content to the live country band's rendition of No Woman No Cry... Not sure what the band made of that.. but hey-ho.

I am truly impressed by this whole place though.. I like the way that they stress that every 'cast member' is essential to the 'Disney Experience'. The introductory talk actually really inspired me and I really can't wait to get a chance to make a moment of magic for someone. I walked through the Disney Castle on my day off and it was AMAZING. I actually gasped out loud. From the candles to the cobblestones everything was just so perfect. It made me so excited to be a part of it. So excited! We went on loads of rides and stuff which was lovely! My favourite was Space Mountain - which was hilariously scary - and my absolute not favourite was this horrible horrible one in a lift in a hotel that just DROPS and it was SO frightening that I wept. But yeah, that was a great day.

Another slightly humorous moment that I want to share is earlier when I was chatting to some other really friendly newbies and I discovered that the people I was drinking Cafe-au-lait with were Cinderella, Snow White and Cruella Deville....CRAZY!? Another good friend I've made is PRINCE PHILIP - from Sleeping Beauty!! Very exciting. He is beauuutiful.

I'll do a post later about work, because that's getting going and stuff, but is a bit too much to fit in this one. I'm excited because it's my Birthday on Sunday and my Dad is coming to see me on Thursday and Friday (my days off) so we might pop into Paris - and I can't wait to show him around. My friends here are planning a night out on Saturday to celebrate with me... so that's exciting toooo. I miss home a lot.. But I'm trying to stay positive, because all new things are a bit difficult to adjust to at first, and things are bound to get easier after time.

Love love love from Sarah.

La Boiserie

Hello. I will do a proper updating update.. But at the moment there is something new every day so it is kind of hard to write a post summing up everything. SO as an apology, I give you this video.. Featuring me, the sitting room and Riikka.

I'm going

I'm going!

I'm bloody terrified.

It's really bizarre to think about the years to come - the years when my "real life" seems to start. It feels as though the past 18 years have been building up to THIS. Working for exams in order to take more exams in order to get into uni. Always working. Always exams. - I don't mean to suggest that the working is going to stop now. Ha. No. I'm pretty sure that's going to step up a notch once I go to Bristol. But it's just really odd to think that all of the learning that I have done, was really just to prove that I was good enough to do more learning.. And, the weirdest part is, I'm not even going to have to think about any of that past learning anymore.

And it's odd that until now I've always had such a clear idea of what came next. GCSEs then college then A levels and applying to uni and then - Well.. here we are.. with everything so undecided. Things could go in any direction. I admit, it is exciting. But, right now, it's more scary than anything else. Literally jumping out of comfort zones into whatever life hands you - and I'm learning how much chance has to do with things and how important it is to grab opportunities when they appear. And although everything is new and things are going to be frightening and uncomfortable - I'm trying to embrace the change, and think of the 'new-ness' as refreshing and rousing rather than something to be afraid of… Trying is the key word there.

.. You can probably tell that I'm a little bit exhausted - I thought it was worth getting one more bit of writing on here before I went away because I can't guarantee wifi.. On the bright side, I can guarantee a choice of boots because I've packed three pairs as well as some fairy lights because I NEED THEM ALL.

Also, James and I went to London on Tuesday so we could spend the day together before I disappear to Chez Mickey. It was really really lovely. We spent hours exploring Brick Lane and Covent Garden and I hope there will be more adventures with him to come. I actually just cried saying goodnight to him because it is going to be SO so weird not having him around. I'm very lucky that I have such an awesome younger brother. He's a goodun. Here are some of his pictures (he's REALLY good) -

And now I'm going to go to sleep because I have to get the train very very early tomorrow. Good night.

I'm supposed to be packing

BUT instead I am going to recommend ALL of you AVID readers (Yes. ALL OF YOU) to go and do this online activity because it is SO fun.

CLICK HERE

Or here

OR HERE

or HERE

It's funny because they all go to the same place.. but I think that people like to feel like they are in control of their own destiny, so I'm trying to make it seem like you have a choice... When actually the only real decision here is

a) Have an amazing day because you clicked here

b) Feel average but mostly pretty rubbish due to the fact that you didn't click here.

The end.

P.s. You know when you type the same word lots of times it starts to stop looking like a word? I actually just double checked that I spelt the word "here" correctly because it started to look REALLY REALLY WRONG. ...

The real end.

Bestival 2011

I'm back from a super amazing weekend on the Isleof Wight for the best end of summer celebration that I could ask for. Despite adverse weather conditions (our tent literally collapsed around us on the last night.. I got hit in the head by a broken tent pole and before I could say "emergency poncho" the outside part had blown away, leaving us with nothing more than the inner lining to pose as a roof over our heads..) it was a literally fantastic and utterly beautiful weekend.

Here are some photos which were taken either by Jackle on his iphone or by the beautiful Chloe on her SLR.

In the rain with all my gear at the entrance to the festival.

WHY IS THIS WRITING UNDERLINED and how do I make it stop?!

With Jack, Chris and Tom in the crowd at the main stage on the Sunday. All looking a little worse for wear (look at Tom's eyebrow!! IT'S BLUE!) but still feeling greeatt.

Shoe circle. Chloe's photog is so nice.

Chloe and myself under a tree of magic. There was so much magic at Bestival. I can't even explain. During one adventure through the Ambient Forest there I am so certain that I saw at least one fairy and a fawn and a couple of naked people (the last bit wasn't so magical.. just a bit surprising if I'm honest).

This is me and Jack. It's a little bit sad because Bestival kind of marked the end of the most wonderful era for us. On the bright side, I couldn't have asked for better company, and also check out my wig.

The theme was Rock Stars, Pop Stars and Divas (hence the wig) and I dressed up as Kate Bush... but was often mistook for Florence Welsh.. But that's okay too, because she was blatantly inspired by Kate. This is my Wuthering Heights impression. I actually found myself becoming strangely attached to the wig, and might wear it more often. Many random strangers even asked me if it was real. Seriously.

This is a random piano in the middle of the festival. Things like this are WHY I adored Bestival so much. Another awesome thing was this secret hidden party room - you like walked through a hidden door in a photobooth and found a secret canopy-passageway to this amazing clubtype chillax room with sofas and hammocks and music and converses. Crazy.

Me and Jackle again. I like him so I'm showing his photo again.

This is a picture of JUNIP's set (which was in a tent called the Psychadelic Worm Tent) which was absolutely amazing. I didn't know that many of their songs before we went.. but literally, I was blown away by how good they were. I felt like my heart had turned to gold.. and I literally was overwhelmed by MUSIC. Wow.

This is a picture of us in the crowd of Dry the River (who are SO great) - Jon the drummer took this during their set WHICH was amazing. Can you see me? I'm bottom left near the front with a wig. OH and later, Jack and I went and had a chat with them (see below) and it was so awesome and they were so friendly and cool. I love them.

And that, my friends, is that.