"Ch-Ch-Changes" and To Study or Not To Study?

After a week of exploring, testing, modifying, and just plain playing around, I've decided to switch The Happiest Internship blog over to WordPress. You can find the new blog at http://www.happiestinternship.wordpress.com. WordPress had a few options that Blogger didn't, and I felt like this was a good time to make the transition. So I hope that you will all follow me over when WordPress becomes my official new home on Wednesday!

For the next two days (Monday and Tuesday) I will continue to post here on Blogger and on WordPress. All posts, going back to the beginning, will be available on WordPress, along with some new sections of the site with more information about me and the CP. Starting on Wednesday, July 22nd, my Blogger account will still be functional, but no new posts will appear: it will be all WordPress, all the time.

Got it? Good! Now on to your regularly scheduled post.

One of the last major decisions I have to make about the CP is whether or not to take a class/classes while I'm in the program. I only have limited time in Florida, and I can't get credit anyway, so I don't want to waste all of my valuable adventure time in a classroom. I can do that at home! But at the same time, I genuinely enjoy school (sometimes), and a Disney class would definitely be a unique experience. Ugh! When can I stop having to decide things?!

Above: An actual photo taken in a Disney class lecture. (Okay, maybe not.)

There are three types of classes at Disney: Collegiate Courses, Professional Development Studies, and the Exploration Series. The Collegiate Courses are designed for college credit and are a lot of work: homework, quizzes, lots of class sessions, etc. As far as I'm concerned, these are out. I don't want to take a class that could potentially stress me out while I'm at Disney, especially if I can't even get credit for it!

Professional Development classes are available for students involved in one of four areas of study--engineering, entertainment, finance, and security--and only for those students. So since I'm not enrolled in any of these majors, these are out for me, as well.

The Exploration Series, however, is kind of intriguing. They have no tests or homework, and are, according to the official website, "highly interactive and [encourage] each participant to fully experience all aspects of the 47 square miles of the Walt Disney World Resort as a learning laboratory." Sounds fun! These classes only meet once a week for 8 weeks, which means that I would still have plenty of time to get all of this done.

There are 5 classes in this series, exploring Communication Processes, Guest Service, Leadership, Marketing, and People Management at the Walt Disney World Resort. The Guest Service class sounds the most interesting to me, and seems to have the most potential for tours and all of that fun stuff. The Communication Processes one is also intriguing, as it seems to look more at behind the scenes stuff like Public Relations.

I hope that, whatever I decide, I don't regret it. (I've still got one more month to think about it: I will have to sign up for any classes within the first few days of arriving, though I'm not sure whether I do it at check-in or not.) I originally hadn't planned on taking a class, but as the summer's wearing on, I can almost feel my brain beginning to atrophy and I think I may need to challenge it just a little bit. Plus, there seems to be a common theme of regret among the blogs of former CPs who chose not to take any classes.

Most importantly, if I don't take a class, I won't get my Mousters degree! I bet you think I'm kidding, don't you? But I'm not: Exploration and Professional classes earn you a "Mousters", while taking a Collegiate course gets you your "Ducktorate." I love it, but I have to admit that this is definitely the cheesiest thing I've come across yet in the Disney CP, and that's really saying something.

Problem Found, Problem Solved

I went to the school library a couple of nights ago to get some books. I spent half an hour finding what I wanted in our huge collection, only to get to the checkout desk and hear that my library account was inactive, because I was not yet registered for the fall. Sigh.

At least they didn't sic the library cop on me.

I was supposed to be enrolled by the Career Center in a GEN 099 class, a class that signifies that I have full time status, even though I'm not earning any credits. They told me at the end of the Spring semester that they would get a list from Disney of the participating students, and then sign them up for the class. I just assumed that this had been done by now, because registration was back in May. So I went to their office yesterday to see what the hold up was. She said that they usually don't get the final list until the beginning of August, which, to me, seems like that's cutting it a bit fine.

So, because of the library thing, I asked if they could go ahead and sign me up. It took a little work--the school's switched over to a new record-keeping system, and the GEN 099 class hadn't even been created yet--but they got it done for me. Thanks, MSU!

I now have the paperwork in hand, saying that I'm a full-time, off-campus student. Yay! One less thing to worry about. I'm going to go back to the library tonight, and hopefully this time I'll leave with books!

My Life Lately, in 696 Words or Less

Updates on a few of my summer goals:

• Work Full Time--Check! At least one thing on my list is being done. But, boy, is it being done slowly! Since I work on campus, a large part of my job depends on the demands of students, faculty, and administrators thrown into the full-fledged tizzies that are the fall and spring semesters. But during the summer, things are oh-so-quiet.
  They make working in an office seem so glamorous on TV...
  
  Last summer, working part-time, I felt like things were slow. But they were sort of pleasantly slow. In the "take your time with what little work you have to do and pace yourself so you don't get too bored" sort of way. But working full-time, there's just not nearly enough to do here. I've gone home early several days the last few weeks. My supervisor encouraged me to stay, because she knew I wanted the hours, but I just feel bad sitting around being paid to do nothing. In the three weeks since school got out, I have dusted every surface of the office, organized my work space, and even ventured into the dreaded "back room" to organize the mess we call our storage space. It's all stream-lined, cleaned, and de-clutterfied now. Which makes me wonder...what am I going to do for the next 2 months?!
  
  
• Volunteer--It's not my fault! I applied at the Make-A-Wish foundation, but they said they didn't need any help right now. So, basically I'm blaming this wonderful charity for my lack of volunteerism. It's all their fault! Just kidding. I know I really should try to find somewhere else. Someone out there needs help! But I just haven't yet. I'll get to it.
  
  
• Learn Spanish--This is going...okay, I guess. To be honest, I haven't been practicing much, lately. I need to get back on that! But before I got lazy, I was really doing pretty well. I can now give basic directions. However, they translate to something like this: "Left. Go straight and right at next to bank." As you might have figured out, I haven't really gotten to grammer yet. Hopefully I'll get motivated to do that very soon so I can stop sounding like I learned Spanish from a broken See 'n Say.
  
  
• Get Crafty!--Check! I dove back into crafts with a passion after my DIY binge at the ever-wonderful DesignSponge.com. And the one that really ended up catching my fancy was an old friend--knitting! In the last couple of weeks, I've bought knitting needles of all types and sizes, deliciously candy-colored yarns for hats, gloves, and scarves to come, and almost completed a bag. Seriously! The first project of my Craft Revival is almost finished! I started sewing the lining in yesterday, but here's a picture from a couple of days ago when I was blocking the sides:
  Instead of being completed and sewn at the top, this bag is actually designed to be finished on the needles--making this a very cute bag to carry my future knitting projects in! I'm very, very proud of my baby, so expect to see more pictures in a few days! I've already started my next project, even. No pictures of this work-in-progress, but don't worry...you'll get to see them (I know you were worried! Oh, come on. Can't you at least pretend that you're really excited to see these pictures?)

Other than these things, I've spent the rest of my time lately being robbed by homeless people, (He was drunk, my car was unlocked, and they arrested him. The only thing he got was some worthless text books. Seriously. I couldn't even sell them back. Worked out real well for him, didn't it?), unintentionally providing shelter for baby mice in the air filter of my car (This didn't work out so well for the mice...or for me! Smelled horrible!), and seeing Shakespeare in the Park (Unlike the other things mentioned here, this was a very pleasant experience.)

It's been a little crazy lately, but in a fun, interesting kind of way. And, yes, I just described being robbed by a drunk guy as sort of fun and interesting. Makes for a good story, anyway!

Remind Me: Why Am I Doing This, Again?

For the most part, it’s been a good week—I finished up the semester, working book buyback is going well. But today has been a little discouraging.

I was giving my degree audit a second look today to see if I was admitted to the program. Good news: I was. The paperwork went through. So then I started figuring how many hours I have left of required classes for my major. Since the semester is over, I have 60 hours under my belt, and have another 51, including my degree-required internship and Gen Eds, to go. So far, so good, right?

Both my current and former academic advisor told me that they thought I would be able to graduate early. So I was hoping that I would still be able to graduate on time even after my CP. To do that, I would have to finish up in 3 semesters after I got back from Florida. 6 of the 51 hours are a summer internship, so that means I have to take 15 hours per semester for the next 3 semesters. I should easily be able to accomplish that!

But then there’s that one stupid little requirement: I have to have a total of 125 credit hours to graduate. Even after I’ve completed all of my required Gen Eds, the requirements for my major, and a couple of electives that I’ve already taken, I will only have 111 hours down. That means that I will still need to take an entire 14 credit semester of just electives.

On top of that, I discovered today that I may have problems with my Honors College Membership. To remain a member of the Honors College at my school, you have to meet the General Honors Curriculum requirement, which basically boils down to this: during your first five semesters, you have to take five honors classes. Which I have done. But, even though I’ve read the requirements many, many times, I never caught this little jewel until today: “…in addition to the Freshman Honors Seminar.” This entire time, I thought that the Seminar counted as one of my five classes. So this means that next semester—my fifth semester—I am technically required to take another Honors course. But I won’t even be here!

I don’t really think this will be a problem. I haven’t talked to them yet, but I’m sure they will make an exception for a situation like this. And regarding my graduation date, I have been skeptical since the beginning when they were telling me they thought I could finish in 3 ½ years. So graduating a semester later now doesn’t really surprise me that much. But the stress is just starting to build, and with the problems I had with Student Employment last week (even though that’s all been resolved; I can work this summer), I’m starting to get a little discouraged.

So, today, for the first time, Disney isn’t looking so hot. I am having a few doubts, and today it even crossed my mind how much easier it would be to just stay here and finish up school as originally planned. I know that I still want to do Disney, but it just isn’t sounding as exciting as it did a few weeks ago. The reality of the situation is starting to set in and I’m not loving every aspect of it. I know I just need to work though it, though, and things will look brighter when all of this is settled. After all, none of these are major problems. But I guess I was hoping for no problems at all!

It’s a little cheesy, I know, but I’m just going to make this my mantra for the rest of the discouraging days (weeks? months?) to come: “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Know who said that? A pretty smart fella named Walt Disney. :)

Trying To Find My Laughing Place!

Well, I've run into the first (but I'm sure not the last!) problem with the school regarding my CP. I am a student worker, and to be eligible to work in the summer, we are required to be pre-enrolled for the upcoming fall semester. Even though I'm not going to be getting any credit from Disney, I will still have full-time student status through my school. But that status won't show up until right before the fall semester. So right now, one week before the semester ends, I am not eligible to work during the summer.

Originally, I talked to someone there who said that all I would need to be eligible to work this summer was documentation from the Career Center that I would have full-time student status this fall. But the Career Center said there's nothing that they can give me until I actually have the status!

So I called back over to Student Employment, and the new woman I talked to told me about an exception form that I have to fill out. So I have now filled out the form, and am getting ready to take it over to Student Employment. I will let you all know how it goes! *Fingers Crossed!*