Dear Future CPs: Some Advice

With my CP coming to a seriously quick close, I've been thinking about how I would do things differently, or perhaps the same, for my next college program. While falling asleep last night, I had all these ideas running in my head and I thought to myself "What a great idea it would be to write all of this down", but of course now I've forgotten most of it so this might be a multiple part post.

Financial:
The very first thing I want to touch on is how expensive living in Disney World actually is. If you're able to save up money before coming down to the CP, I highly highly recommend it. Of course, hundreds of CPs go without starving while living on just their CP paychecks, but it makes it difficult to do very much outside of the Disney parks. I never had enough money to make it to Universal or Sea World or the beach or Cirque Du Soliel... see a pattern here? All of these things aren't that expensive, its just the matter of having an extra $100 lying around for when your roommates want to go on a holiday to Miami. If you have it, it makes life here so much easier.

If youre a procrastinator like me and don't happen to save any money, there are a few places I can recommend.

Steak N' Shake: down the street from the housing complexes past the Crossroads shopping center lies Steak N' Shake. Not only does it have slammin' milkshakes, real burgers and fries for $4, and a cheesy 1950s diner feel, but its 24 hours which comes in super handy for CPs as our hours are crazy. Well, not mine, but people I know. haha. And the food is consistently better than that of Denny's or IHOP, so its always where I choose to eat for late night/early morning dinners.

Orlando Ale House: Always hoppin' but still manages an intimate feel among the dozens of tv screens playing any sport you can think of. Its always clean and always has good service. The best specials: Any time, $5 pitchers and $6.50 buckets. Once a week: Ladies night, where ladies drink free beer or well drinks until midnight, and they don't skimp on the alcohol just because its free.

Buffalo Wild Wings: or B-dubs as most people refer to it. A ton of CPs and ICPs head to B-dubs on Wednesday nights for karaoke unlike any I've seen before. They move half the tables out of the restaurant and the floor fills with standing and eventually dancing college kids, turning a wing bar into a club. The karaoke is performed on a low platform mixing the singers in with the dancers making it super personal. Its so much fun. On not crowded nights, my friends and I like to go to B-dubs and get what they call the College Keg.

For $25, you get 200 fl oz of Budwiser, Bud Light, or Bud Select. Yeah, look at that monster. haha.

On the Up and Up

I haven't been updating on here at all and I'm so very sorry. I am feeling MUCH better though. I'm done with all the drama and emotional mess here and I've moved on. Now I'm just trying to have fun. My application to extend my program was denied. Apparently over a thousand people applied to extend and there were only a couple hundred spots. A lot of people were denied who, according to the guidelines and what we've been told all semester, should have been able to extend. I was upset about it but now I'm okay. I'm ready to go home, back to the real world, and continue on with my life.

I'm pretty fond of the idea of doing another college program in the future. There is just so much this place and this experience have to offer that I didn't take advantage of. This entire experience was definitely one to learn from. Its unfortunate that it took me three-fourths of my time here to figure out what I really wanted from this program but at least I figured it out at all. For the time being, I'm thinking about applying for Fall 2011. That gives me a year at home to save money (very important), get further in school and settle into what has become my new life, complete with a new outlook on it.

This whole program has taught me so much about myself and I'm so very thankful for it. While at times it was trying and even crushing, it was all worth it in the end because it got me to where I am now. I have 25 days left and I'm going to try to make the absolute most of it.