Day 237: Fireworks...on a River!

So today was the final day of our college orientation kind of thing, and it all ended with a bang...literally. You see, at the beginning of each school year here at SNC, they have convocation for the new class, in my case the class of 2017, and then shoot fireworks off from the River. It's all honestly pretty awesome. It really is.

Now, I was trying to get a video up of it, but it just wasn't working, so I guess I'm just going to have to wait on that one for the moment. Maybe I'll be able to get it up tomorrow, and if I am, I'll add it to this post.

Either way, I'd like to say that it was pretty awesome to see some of these giant fireworks right here at home. That's something I really don't get to see very often. I'm kind of spoiled in the fireworks department though. I mean, Disney is the top consumer of fireworks in the world, after all, and there shows are also some of the best in the world. Like there's always the fourth of July fireworks and stuff, but they only happen once a year. Disney does their stuff EVERY NIGHT. That's crazy.

The one thing I will say about the fireworks tonight though...there wasn't any music. That was kind of sad. They had barges out on the river to shoot the fireworks from and I had to laugh at the end because they were basically a "Fire barge." Both were on fire at the end of the thing, and that certainly made a connection to Illuminations right there.

So here's the Instagram picture I posted of the fireworks because obviously when I'm writing this the video is being stupid. The only thing I found sad about the fireworks was the lack of music. Because Disney ALWAYS has music to go with their fireworks. Then again, you can't say that I wasn't running Illuminations in my head...because if you did say that you might just be lying.

Here's today's Disney History: 1989: The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular attraction is dedicated at the Disney-MGM Studios in Florida. It is the fire theme park attraction to use a computer based show control system in conjunction with a programmable logic controller system to trigger, control and sequence complex live events in real time...in many cases controlled by the actors! The 30-minute stunt show recreates some of the most thrilling and heart-pounding moments from the Indiana Jones films.

Have a magical day!

Day 236: Trust is a Must

College so far has been pretty great. And I mean it! I've really been enjoying my time here so far, and as much as I don't want to spend my entire life working again, I can't wait for classes to start either. Today though, we continued our "orientation" kind of thing. These first like four days all we do is meet with groups and see things and so on and so forth. That's just how it works I guess.

Anyway, the way we do all these activities is in a program called First Year Experience, or FYE. It's a group of about 12 of us that goes around to all the different activities. We meet until like the end of October to just basically get used to being on campus, and we each have a mentor for our group. Mine is Quincy, and she's pretty darn awesome, I have to say. =)

This morning though, we spend three hours on what we call a "ropes course," even though we didn't actually go on the actual ropes course. Basically it was like six different team building activities. The first one we did was a trust fall exercise, and we did it two ways, once with just one person, and then another time with people standing all around us and they move us in a circle. It's kind of scary. That's also where the title for the post comes from, since I feel like that's worth mentioning.

Then there were other activities, such as a "Web" we had to crawl through without touching any of it, but each time we went through one of the areas, that one closed off. So basically a bunch of us had to be lifted up through the upper webs, and I was one of those people. Although it was kind of fun. Then we had to cross the "Delaware River" because we were American Soldiers in the Revolutionary War and the British were coming. That was my favorite of the activities. We had like four boards, and we always had to be on one and had to get all the way across without falling in. I was in the front, so that was pretty entertaining.

Then there was a battle where we were blindfolded and had to throw easter eggs at the other team while relying solely on the voice of our partner. And finally we had to all get through a jump rope while half of us were blindfolded. Now that one was scary.

What does this have to do with Disney? Honestly, it's another one of those times where I'm not really sure, but I felt like it was something worth blogging about anyway. Like there are just some days where I have to blog about something because it was interesting. It doesn't happen often though, because obviously I have over 200 other posts about Disney in my everyday life.

Here's a picture of my FYE group, the Blue Unicorns!

Here's today's Disney History: 1989: In Florida, the Ewok Village opens at the entrance to the Star Tours attraction at the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park. 

Have a magical day!

Day 170: The Right Orientation

As it may already be obvious, I just graduated High School, and that means that I'm going to be headed off to college this fall. So today and tomorrow I have college orientation, and honestly I had no want to come to it. I mean, I want college to start, I just don't want to think about it yet. I have so much going on between now and then that college still seems so far off and I don't want a reminder that says it isn't.

Either way, I went to orientation, which started this morning, and the first thing we did was have a meeting in the church. Now, less than a fourth of my class was at this orientation, but there were still plenty of us. But it was what happened at the opening prayer and meeting that really got me excited and interested. I knew instantly that I was at the right college and at the right time. While it went on for a while previous to the video below, it still gives you a pretty good idea of the awesomeness:

So yeah, all of the mentors were dressed as Disney characters, and it was just plain awesome. I don't remember them all, but there were a bunch of Princesses, and then Woody and Buzz and Timon and Pumba and Tinker Bell (That was my mentor!). Yeah, it totally made my day, since my day hadn't been going very well previously, and I knew I just had to get this last part so I should share it here. 

Here's today's Disney History: 1964: After 5 seasons on television, The Twilight Zone airs its last episode, "The Bewitchin' Pool." Rod Serling's popular series will later be the inspiration for Disney's The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction. 

Have a magical day!