Earning My Ears

Jambo, all!  I know it's been a while since I've updated, /but in fairness/, I've been pretty busy.  I had a day off to recuperate after the Dole Whip Challenge, which was very fortunate - I did laundry and cleaned and then relaxed and it was lovely!

And then on Sunday I had my last day of training, and before I knew it, that was over, too…and then it was assessment day.  I know it sounds scary - and I'll admit that I was a little worried - but it was actually quite easy.  I had the most lovely woman assessing me!  She was kind and answered my questions and - most importantly - she passed me!  And halfway through the day, after I'd already removed the infamous red ribbon from my name tag, I ran into my trainer and her new trainee, and they were both really excited for me!  Actually, basically everyone is really nice and really excited basically all the time.  I've been so, so fortunate to be placed on such an awesome attraction with such amazing cast members!

LOOK they even gave me magnets that's how awesome they are

And then, I had my first day - the eleven-hour shift.  Yeesh.

actually it wasn't that bad

I naturally had to open a truck, but my trainer wanted her new trainee to have some practice and so they opened it for me. YAY!  And then I got to take an empty round, which means NO GUESTS!  And then I took one round with guests before I got my break, and then I got to park strollers! 

During training, I thought I liked parking strollers.  This was a misconception.  I liked being the person to announce the stroller parking and to get the strollers from the line.  Not the person to actually run around the stroller parking lot trying to find space for another double-wide.  I ended up being so bad at the stroller parking that they called in a coordinator to help…

awkward

It wasn't actually that bad, though - the coordinator was super nice and gave me a lot of really helpful pointers!  Although, he happened to be hanging around later that day when I mis-docked - and he had to back me up so that I could try again.  With guests on the car.

I SWEAR THAT IS THE ONLY TIME I'VE EVER DOCKED WRONG LIKE LITERALLY I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.

Sorry.  Rant over.  The rest of the day went pretty well, minus a minor mix-up with Aileen (they called her name in the break room but I thought they called me so we both went to the same location - which is JUST AS EXCITING AS IT IS CONFUSING BECAUSE HEY I'VE NEVER WORKED WITH ANOTHER EILEEN/AILEEN BEFORE).  And then, ten rounds and several breaks later, I was assigned to the Info Guide position, which is basically standing outside of the ride and greeting people.  This is normally a really easy position - but I was closing.  Which means that I had to stand there for forty-five minutes and tell guests that all of the rides with live animals were closed.  But I met several lovely people and when I got back to base, the very same coordinator who had witnessed all of my mistakes clocked me out, so I was free to go instead of having to wait in line!

Further testament to my earlier statement that everyone at Safaris is lovely and wonderful <3

Anywho, that's been my life.  Earning my ears?  Eleven-hour shift?  Not half as bad as I thought they would be!  I hope you've all had a beautiful, magical day!!!