Window Shopping

So I had fully intended my next update to be about my history with Disney, but I'm a free spirit and I paint with all the colours of the wind and ... ok, honestly, I have discovered the joys of the Wal-Mart online store and wanted to share some of my finds!  You may or may not be aware that part of the Disney Program Experience is the inaugural, check-in day trip to the local Wal-Mart to buy essential items for your apartment.  And the awesome thing is that you can check out Wal-Mart's range of products online to get an idea of things you may like.  This was all nice and fun and normal until I typed 'Disney' into the Wal-Mart website search bar, and I found Disney merchandise paradise!

Now I've never been hugely into having my home plastered in Disney characters.  That doesn't mean I don't love Disney (because I do - very much), but I've just always preferred things to be a bit more subtle.  However, in my recent cyber-journey to Wal-Mart, I found a few items that are just too cute not to share with someone. 

How cute would it be to wake up every morning with this bedding?

You can make yourself some Mickey Mouse toast

Or Mouse-Head waffle on a stick?

You can deck your bathroom out Disney-style (Yes that is a Mickey-Head bath mat!)

Sport some classic Minnie style out at the parks!

And at the end of the day you can cosy up in your Mickey or Minnie Snuggie!

All of the photos are from WalMart

My DICP Guide

So, I'm still in the process of waiting for interviews to be announced, but I thought I'd share a little project I'm working on.  I decided that after a lot of searching and not being able to find a lot of information on the Australia/New Zealand J1 Cultural Exchange Program, that I would start making my own little unofficial guide, using my experience as a starting point and hopefully providing some useful information for others.  If you look at the tabs at the top of the page you will see one there for the guide so you can check out what I've done so far.  It's very much a work in progress, but please have a look around and keep coming back to check for updates because I plan to keep adding to it.

Start Your Engines!

Ladies and Gentlemen, after months of obsessively checking the Disney International Programs website for updates, the applications for the January 2015, J1 Australia & New Zealand Cultural Exchange Program are finally open!!!!!

(Wow...the program has a very long name, doesn't it?)

So a couple of days ago I checked the Disney Programs site and much to my excitement the Jan 2015 applications were finally open so yesterday I sat down to write my application!  It was very exciting, I can tell you.  I'm not going to write much here, because I'm going to do a more information focussed post soon outlining each step of the process.  I'll try to keep it concise and easy to follow so that future applicants can use it as a bit of a guide since I've had to do a fair bit of searching to find relevant information for Aussie applicants.

So keep checking back and feel free to leave a comment or ask a question if you would like.  I'll get back to you asap.

The power of Disney.

A friend of mine shared the following article on Facebook this morning and I sat down with my morning cup of coffee to enjoy what I assumed would be a lovely, feel-good Disney anecdote; however what I got was so much more.  I am going to say very little about the story, rather I will link it here for you to read yourself, and if you read nothing else that I post on this blog, I recommend you take the time to read this.  It's a little long and you will no doubt need a box of tissues, but it is more than worth it.

New York Times - Reaching My Autistic Son Through Disney

Grumpy to Snow White in 0.22 Seconds

So the worlds second largest Fringe Festival is happening at the moment and amongst the business of my final year of studies, I'm excited to be a performing artist this year!  The gospel choir I sing in has a one-nite-only concert next weekend at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.  If you're ever in the area, the Adelaide Festival season is incredible, featuring several festivals around late summer/early autumn (Aussie seasons here so February - April).  Arguably the feather in my little city's artistic cap is the Adelaide Fringe Festival, an amazing Fringe Festival second only to the Edinborough Fringe Festival.  I won't ramble on about it but if you get the chance I'd seriously recommend coming to Adelaide one year to check it out.

Anyway, the point of this post is to talk about a Fringe show I went and saw on Thursday night.  How I found out about this show is kind of a cute story (in my opinion anyway).  I was doing a sort of pop-up promo performance with my choir at the 'Fringe Caravan', a temporary performance space set up in the city where Fringe Artists can do little 10-minute sets to promote their shows for free.  I was tired from the busy-ness of being back at school and just not having a great day and I'll be honest, I was pretty darn grumpy.  I was standing with my group waiting for our turn to perform, feeling sorry for myself and just wanting to go home and be an anti-social hermit when I hear this gorgeous male voice singing along to an acoustic guitar.  Considering where I was, this wasn't that much of a surprise or anything out of the ordinary - until the lyrics broke through my grumpy-pants-aura.  

"I wanna be where the people are, I wanna see, wanna see them dancing..."

Oh yes my friends.  This guy was standing there, bold as brass, singing Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid!!!  I swear I went from Grumpy to Snow White in 0.22 seconds!

Anywho...this guy finishes the song and then starts talking about how that was from his previous Fringe show  called 'The Disney Project'.  Obviously at this point I am completely enthralled and when he starts talking about his new show called 'The 90's Project' I've already decided to buy tickets (Have I mentioned my deep rooted love of 90's pop music?).  So I convinced/bullied a friend into coming with me and bought tickets for Thursday night's performance.  Mr. Ariel, which I have at this point dubbed him, performed as part of a 4-piece pub band and the 90 minute show was fantastic.  I mean I'm happy with a mixed tape of 90's songs but to listen to 4 very talented musicians performing some of my favourites live was just spectacular.   A bit of searching and a tip from my friend led me to Mr. Ariel's YouTube channel (His name is actually Max but I think Mr. Ariel suits him), where he has a whole bunch of videos of him singing covers of various songs and lo and behold! There is a playlist called...The Disney Project!!!!!

As a Disney nerd, this has made my week...well my festival really (well ok, performing has made my festival but this is a close second!) and I wanted to share the love with everyone (plus it is shameful that his vids don't have more hits) so go and check him out HERE!  

Amazing voice, great musician and Disney tunes - what are you waiting for? He's a rather handsome young chap too (Bit too young for me sadly! Hehehehe!), so really, it's a win-win-win situation.  Enjoy!