I'm back from London!
I'm so exhausted I can barely see but I still want to blog about the experience while it's still fresh in my mind. I'll try not to waffle on too much!
OK so Gary and I arrived in Kings Cross and made our way over to Waterloo station and then the Travelodge- which is really close by to the station so it was great. After a slight wait to check in we then met Craig and the three of us headed to the London Dungeons which was just as much fun as I remembered it! We got an amazing picture on the ride at the end which I'll scan and upload at some point. After that, slightly frantic dash to get ready, met Megan and Meerah at the hotel and attempted to find Hammersmith to meet the others for the meal. Not so easy and it was peeing it down. We got there, but an hour late :S Sorry Vikki!! The meal was great because we all got a chance to sit and chat with some other applicants, and a couple of us also got talking to Tori, who is heading out to Florida in a couple of weeks= jealousy!! Tori was a star though and was really great, giving us lots of tips and getting us simultaneously excited and nervous!
Once we got back to the hotel I tried to sleep but failed, so ended up sticking on a couple of episodes of AbFab which helped me drift off eventually. The next morning I woke up really easily about 15 minutes before my alarm, which meant I could have a really long, hot shower and try to wake myself up while calming my nerves! The hotel's probably about a 20 minuts walk from Chez Gerrard, and the weather decided to be much kinder to us and hold off on the rain for a while.
Once in the restaurant we sat around excitedly just chatting to each other, filling in the form we were given by Yummy (just to tick which roles we wanted to do- it didn't say to order them but I and a few others did anyway, just in case). Then we got lead into the back room to watch the presentation by Jill and Hollis, helped by some VT from Valerie! I regret watching it again recently now because I knew exactly what she was going to say so it was harder to look interested! The actual presentation was just going through the finer details of the program and was followed by a quiz (I put my hand up for loads of questions but didn't get picked- gutted!!) and then we got given our interview times! I was at 12.50 which was brilliant because I only had about an hour and a half to wait, so a few of us walked up to Starbucks. I regretted that, because my feet are now covered in blisters so I had to limp all afternoon :(
Before the interview, I met the person I was getting interviewed with, filled in some forms and got REALLY nervous. To be honest, I'd thought there were people there who were more nervous than me but then Nick asked me specifically if I was nervous, which panicked me a bit because I didn't want to show it! Then Jill came to collect us and we went back into the room for the interview itself.
The interview went by so quickly it was insane. I think we were in there around 15-20 minutes and the last 5 was taken up with us asking questions, so when you consider there was two of us being interviewed it was no time at all. The questions I got asked were: why have you applied for the Cultural Representative Program? What would you tell people about the UK? What role would you prefer to do? How would you feel about living with other people? and I think that was pretty much it. I answered the first question first, but went second the second time round so when it came to me actually answering I didn't feel I had much to say that wasn't repeating what the other girl said. So I'm a bit bummed about that, and I really feel like after all the preparation I did (pages and pages of notes, reading countless blogs, researching all kinds of interview tips and reading three different Disney Institute books) I didn't get to say half as much as I wanted to. I don't feel like I got the opportunity to shine in that interview like I did in the phone interview because it was so quick. There was a weird fire alarm type thing which went off about 5 times during the interview, which was a pain but actually helped to break the ice a little, which was good. I may also be being paranoid, but I felt Jill seemed much more pleased with the other girl's answers and was more chatty towards her. So I'm left feeling a bit deflated to be honest- not because it was bad, because I don't think it was, but because I know that I have so much more Disney knowledge and passion that I wanted to show them, and it was so hard to do it in that brief time. Plus, all that work and worry for 15 minutes was such an anti-climax.
Now, having just gone through the experience I can see just how much conjecture and rumour there is about what to expect. The forums are great for meeting people, and everyone really is so nice, but I see now that we tend to wind each other up and make guesses about what we think we should or shouldn't expect/do/say/wear. My advice now for anyone going through F2Fs in the future would be to not stress about it too much. Think of some basic questions like the ones I got, plan a couple of answers to those and then just relax. It's really not worth all the stress for such a short amount of time!
They said we should hear by the 21st October, although I'm hoping that it will be sooner than then since in the last round people had heard. back by the end of the week. After the presentation, I wanted it more than ever but now I have to wait and see because honestly I wouldn't like to be the person choosing between all those people, given the teeny tiny amount of time they have to actually meet you. Back to the waiting gaaame!!
Annnnnd that's it... it's all out of my head so now it's time for me to zzzzzzzzzz
No comments:
Post a Comment