Eventful Week

Last Saturday, I used my Silver Pass for the first time to go to Disneyland and California Adventure. (I'd never been to the latter park before.) Cousins J, C, and I got to the parks a bit after 11 and didn't depart till 12 hours later. Suffice it to say, we had a lot of fun but were also exhausted by the time we got home! Here's a run-down of what we accomplished during our sojourn at "the Happiest Place on Earth":

• Hit Adventureland first to grab Fast Passes for the Indiana Jones ride.
• Visited the Haunted Mansion (only a 5-minute wait!), which was back to its usual campy spookiness.
• Went on Pirates of the Caribbean (spotted the one instance of Johnny Depp I missed last time).
• Lunched at the Carnation Cafe on Main Street USA.
  
• Went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (so much fun!) and then shared a churro.
• Returned to Indiana Jones, but the ride was broken, so headed over to Tomorrow Land. Got FPs for Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster.
• Went on Star Tours (surprisingly, only a 15-minute line). Upon exiting, heard a young girl say, "That was tight!"
• Still had time to kill before FP window for Buzz Lightyear, so we went to Fantasy Land & got in line for It's a Small World. While waiting, saw the parade of world dolls to mark the quarter hour. Spent the entire ride spotting the newly integrated dolls from Disney films: Peter Pan & Tinker Bell, Aladdin & Jasmine, Cinderella & mice, Alice in Wonderland, Ariel & Flounder, Mulan & Mushu, Simba & Pumba, Lilo & Stitch (only saw the back of these last two, but they were on a surfboard & seemed cute).
• Went back to Buzz Lightyear. Doubled my score from last time, but still suck at it! It was J's first time on the ride & she got over 200,000. I earned an embarrassing score in the 8000s!
• Checked on Indiana Jones & the ride was operational. FPs are a wonderful invention. Instead of waiting 85 minutes, we got on the ride after only 20 minutes. (I later read the in-depth ride description on wikipedia, and even though I've gone on the ride several times, I think I always miss more than half the details described!)
• Went over to California Adventure. While wandering, kept running into the parade path of Toy Story characters!
• Tried to get on the Toy Story Mania ride, but it too broke down. Shared a ginormous turkey leg for a snack. It was pretty good, but made me feel rather barbaric.
• Went to Soarin' Over California (learned about it on a Samantha Brown special on the Travel Channel). Very long line, so we tried the single riders line. It was like having an FP! Very cool ride (and, as luck would have it, I got to sit in the front row).
• Returned to Disneyland for dinner at the French Market. While eating, could hear (and catch little glimpses of) the Fantasmic show on the Rivers of America. Really must catch the show next time. I remember loving it when I saw it years ago. Hearing the sounds made me very nostalgic.
• A fireworks show followed shortly after. It was a bit of a trial trying to make our way through the crush to Tomorrow Land. (Should've tried going the other way, into Critter Country!)
• Went on Autopia. Very bumpy, and not as fun as I remembered. 'Course, the ride is more fun if you can't drive a real car...
  
• Went back to Fantasy Land, looking for rides with short lines: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Scary Adventure, and Pinocchio's Daring Journey. It was kind of anticlimactic, but hey, the wait was 5 minutes or less! (Unlike Peter Pan, which still had a 40 minute wait when we left!)

With all the late hours I'd been working, it took me longer to recover from the Disneyland outing than I expected. Then, on Wednesday, I went to see the Pairs Long Program at the World Figure Skating Championships. Luckily, I worked from home that day, but it was still quite a scramble to get all my work done and get to my friend Ebs's house to carpool to Staples Center. We got there toward the end of the first group's skate. Our seats, purchased through Goldstar, were pretty good: Loge, above the Media Tables. I'm sure I've never been to this level at Staples Center!

It's been ages since I'd seen figure skating live. The triple twists, throw jumps, and lifts are definitely more breathtaking when seen live. It's amazing what these athletes are able to accomplish... the truly brilliant skaters seem to defy physics with artistry and elegance. I'm glad I went, but I had hoped for more clean performances. Even the champions, Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy, had a minor hiccup (a freak fall on a non-element) in an otherwise beautiful skate. Still, they were so good that there was no doubt in anyone's mind that they deserved to win. And the judges concurred; Savchenko & Szolkowy beat the silver medalists (Zhang & Zhang) by almost 17 points! The scariest fall was taken by Yuko Kawaguchi on an attempted throw quad. She hit the ice so hard, she actually bounced. I thought she deserved a medal just for getting up and skating the rest of the program. Kawaguchi and Smirnov ended up with the bronze.

Even though it was after 11, we stayed for the medal ceremony. I mean, how often does one get to go to a World Championship, right? Because of the location of our seats, we were facing the back of the makeshift medal podium. Thank goodness for Jumbotrons! The funniest part of the night was when the medalists were receiving their awards, and the media photographers half crouched, half slinked across the black carpet to take their pictures. It was really a bizarre sight, and I wish I had used my camera to take a video!

Immersion

After nearly 10 months of freelancing for the Mouse, I was finally brought on as permanent staff last week. Becoming "official" meant I had to participate in a day and a half of orientation (or, as some have dubbed it, "indoctrination"). I actually found the experience very interesting, and it was quite a nice morale booster. The highlight of the orientation was a tour of the studio lot, during which we got to walk into the sound stage for Eli Stone. Though I don't follow the show (and it is yet another ABC show slated for cancellation), it was still pretty cool. And I loved that the statue of Dopey (part of the facade of the executives' building) was adorned with a large Santa's hat in celebration of the holiday season.

We also visited the Archive Library, where we marveled over historical Disney artifacts. Did you know that decades ago, Donald Duck lime cola and Donald Duck frozen flounder fillets could be found in stores? Of course, the Archive Library also displayed props from recent films; these included Prince Edward's sword from Enchanted, the cursed medallion from Pirates of the Caribbean, and Julie Andrews' Genovian driver's license from The Princess Diaries. The best part was when the librarian brought out an Academy Award, and we actually got to hold it. The Oscar felt very heavy and substantial. No wonder so many winners remark on its heftiness!

To cap off the day of immersion, we were given tickets to attend the company holiday party at Disneyland that night. (We were brought on just in time for it!) The park was open only to employees and family members from 8 to midnight. It's been years since I've been to Disneyland, so I had a blast (despite the long day). We hit the Indiana Jones ride, Pirates of the Caribbean (the repeated references to the film trilogy felt a bit forced), the Haunted Mansion (brilliantly redone in a Nightmare Before Christmas theme, just for the holidays), Star Tours (probably my favorite ride), Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (no line, but I apparently suck at it!), and Space Mountain. It felt very much like grad night. ;) Even though I didn't get home till around 2 AM (and I still had another half day of orientation the next morning), I am so glad I went. To top it off, the holiday decorations were absolutely beautiful.
It certainly puts one in a festive mood. Only 9 more days till Christmas! Yay!