Reflecting Back On My Year: 2016

Hello There! 

Can you believe 2016 has come to an end! What a year it has been for the world and i think for a lot of people it has been a year of ups and downs!And this has been the exact same for me, 2016 has defiantly been a year that has challenged me in many ways, it has been a year of changes for me ! But like all negative situations i try my best to reflect from them and learn to move forward. 

So what did i get up to in 2016?

 Well i finished my 2nd year of university and started my final year! I'm not going to lie it has been very challenging but somehow i am getting through it and only have a couple more months to go. I was also very lucky to secure a place on a PDGE course next year so i am that step forward to becoming a professional dance teacher. I think i may actually do some more post about university and my dissertation subject. My dancing had taken quite a few knocks in 2016 due to me injuring my back which meant for a good few proportion of the year i was unable to dance to my full potential, i am currently having physio and am feeling a lot better, so fingers crossed things keep getting better. 

If you have read my blog before you will know that one of my biggest achievements of the year was achieving a place on the Disney International Exchange Programme, this was honestly the most amazing experience of my life!. I was giving the opportunity to meet some amazing people and make some lifelong friendships with people from all around the world. This had to be the absolute highlight  of my year and it is an experience i will never forget. 

Another highlight of the year has to be the traveling i did after the programme, every year i tell myself i want to do more traveling and see the world and this was the year i actually did that! During the programme myself and my friend Lauren decided we were going to book our own little adventure after the programme! We knew we had two weeks and we had a list of places we wanted to visit and it all started from there. 

We started off in LA , of course visiting Disney Land! Then we went to San Franisco then moving onto New York City! I absolutely loved seeing all these new and wonderful places and it defiantly gave me the 'Travel-Bug'.

I would definitely say that my confidence has definitely taken a few knows this year and there has been a few times were i have just wanted to shut myself away from the world and take some time for myself. If anything this has done me some good, i realised that i needed to start doing more of what makes me happy and taking the time to look after myself. I found that this year a lot of the time i was feeling very stressed and anxious about different situations and found that i wasn't really looking after my health and was focusing more on others. 

Honestly i cant thank my friends and family enough for being there for me this year when i needed them! One of my favourite moments of the year has to be when i surprised them by coming home from America earlier than i told them! Seeing their reaction was priceless and i wish i could relive that moment, i was very surprised i managed to keep it from my family and my friends. 

This year i was also involved in a music video that will actually be on tv in two weeks! I Would really love to do more music videos in the future and I'm very excited to see what the final video!.

Everything that i learnt in 2016 i will be taking forward into 2017 and any mistakes i made or arguments i had will be erased and I will try and have a more positive outlook on life.

So thats my round up of 2016! 

What was your highlight of last year?

Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading! 

Lots Of Love 

Holly 

Xx

'Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.'

- Victor Kiam

Disney Vlogs!

Hello There!

Hope you are all having a magical day! So today i just wanted to share something that iv been working on and still am working on. As you know i have spend my summer in the USA and whilst i was there i recorded little clips of my adventures so i could turn them into little Vlog style videos, I'm not going to lie they are not the best as I'm still getting used to using IMovie properly but i cant wait to look back on these in a few years and reminisce my Disney Days! So far i have created two videos so far from the start of my trip and i am currently working on the hundreds of other videos i have!. 

So if you are interested click on the images which will take you over to my channel where you can find my videos, i will keep my Twitter when i upload a new video so keep your eyes peeled.

Thank you for reading and let me know 

what you think of my videos!

Thank You 

Lots Of Love 

Holly 

Xx

'A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.'

-Tim Cahill

Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Apply For The Disney ICP

Hello Lovlies! 

So today i thought id share with you some of my reasons why i think you should apply for the Disney International College Programme (ICP) and why it is a once in a lifetime opportunity not to be missed. 

So just incase you don't know what the Disney ICP it is basically a summer internship with the  Disney Company in Orlando,Florida. My programme ran through the 6th June to the 11th August (there is also a year long option called the Cultural Representative Programme), whilst on your programme there a number of different job roles that you may be given, during your final interview you will discuss what you top 3 roles are and then Disney will decide your final role if you are give the job. 

Personally i was given Merchandise which i loved but other options maybe Character Performer, Character Attendant, Custodial, Full & Quick Food & Beverage, Life Guiding, Attractions ETC. So if you are passionate about one area try and show this in the interview stages but trust me when i say be as flexible as you can because that what Disney are looking for. For example of course being a dancer i wanted to be in Entertainment but that is a really hard role to get so i told them about my Lush experience as well as a working behind a bar, you want to give yourself as many options as possible to insure you get the job.

This programme is for university students who are either graduating or are applying already completed one year in university, so i could only once i had started 2nd year .For more information and to apply for the programme next year click here which will take you to the Yummy Jobs sight. 

So here are my top 5 reasons (even though i could go on all day!) why i think you should apply for the programme:

1-Summer Of A Lifetime

Yes i know its a cheesy one to start off with but this sums it up in one for me! This was truly the best summer iv ever had which is why i stress to anyone that is thinking of applying to do so. I'm not going to lie the whole application process is the most stressful part, there were many tears shed because i didn't believe that i could get through but look at me now! Honestly there isn't one thing that i would of changed about this summer and are memories that i will have for a lifetime. 

2-Days Off!

Now imagine a day off work in the UK....what do you do? have a lie in? do some shopping? Now imagine waking up on your day off and thinking ooo i may just nip to The Magic kingdom today or i may just take a trip down to the beach or like i know a couple people did ooo i may just go to California for a couple days! There was nothing better then getting some friends together (or even on my own) and going to the parks and enjoying are days off in our favourite parks. This is something i really miss (as i am sitting on my bed on my day off!).

3-Seeing 'A whole new world'

Now i had to get a cheeky Disney reference in there didn't i! but its true! The great thing about this programme is you get to learn so much about other peoples cultures and of course get to live in states and for me it really gave me a chance to grow up and learn a lot of new skills especially independence! Personally i didn't move out for university so didn't get that side of the uni experience but doing this programme gave me a sense of that and i really loved it. 

Another great benefit of the programme is the fact that you have around 30 days after your programme to travel around the United States! which is an amazing opportunity which is why i decided to travel to California, San Fransisco and New York. If you are able to travel afterwards i would highly recommend it! You can always do what i did and decided what i wanted to do when i was out there.

4-Make New Friends

Once again this going to sound like a cliche but it is very true whilst on your programme you will meet some amazing people from all over the world and hopefully they will be lifelong friendships. I was very lucky to be living with 5 other lovely girls all from different parts of the UK & Ireland! and through interviews and meet ups i made friends with a lot of other folks from all around the UK which is great because i know they are never too far away from home!. The thing i wasn't expecting was to make as many international work friends as i did! The lovely girls & guys that i worked with in Typhoon were the most amazing people and i was able to make friends from all around the world including all different parts of America, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico and many more and I'm very lucky that I'm still in touch with them now even though i have left Disney! and i love them all!.

5- Future Prospects

Now for more of a grown up reason to do the programme! Doing this programme will set you aside from any other interviewee when applying for a job because not many people can say that they have worked for the Walt Disney Company which is one of the biggest companies in the world! No matter what field of work that you are going into having the 'Disney' name of you CV can work wonders, companies know how high Disney's standards are and how there customer service is world class! so why wouldn't they want to hire someone with Disney training. Like iv said you will also learn a lot of different skills on the programme that will stay with you for life like communication, organisation, the ability to communicate and converse with different ages, cultures and cater to every persons individual  needs and i could go on and on. 

So i hope that this post has encouraged you to apply for the programme and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have! For some advice on the initial online application i have previous made a post with my some tips and advice, so click here to view that post.

Thanks for reading 

Lots Of Love

Holly 

Xx

'Venture outside your comfort zone. 

The rewards are worth it.'

-Rapunzel 

Life Update: Where have i been?

Hello Lovlies!!

So firstly I want to apologise for not updating this blog in a longggg time! As you know this summer i was working in Disney Land Florida, and i have to say this was easily the best summer of my life!

As you can imagine it was a very busy girl and was constantly on the go between working in the parks and playing in them! I thought i would wait until i got home to update this blog so none of the posts were rushed and it just gives me a reason to reminisce (already want to go back).

So i am planning to post as many posts as i can about my adventures this summer, i also want to put together some tips and tricks that i picked up along the way that some of you may find useful someday. 

Whilst i was away myself and my roommate Lauren actually decided that we didn't want too go home at the end of our programme and wanted to make the most of this opportunity and do some traveling. So we decided that we would go to Los Angeles, San Fransisco and then New York!. So i will also be putting some posts about my travels and once again share any tips that we learnt during our adventures. 

I cant wait to write up some new posts and really get back into making content for this blog now that i am back home and settled! If you have any questions about my travels or the Disney College Programme please let me know and ill be sure to reply or write up a post regarding the topic.

Thank you for reading this quick post

and i hope you come back to find out more about my 

USA adventures!

Lots Of Love 

Holly 

Xx

'Life isn't about finding yourself.Life is about creating yourself.'

-George Bernard Shaw

Ohana Means Family...!

Hello Lovlies! 

So I'm back with another Orlando post, so today i thought if let you know what i got up to on my first proper day in Florida! Prior to arriving in Orlando we decided we wanted to book a character breakfast experience for our first morning and we decided to go for Ohana. 

Ohana is a restaurant within Disney's Polynesian Resort, it is such a beautiful resort and really has that beachy, south pacific vibe.  

So the five of us were kindly welcomed into the restaurant by one of the very friendly cast members and were shown to our table. The restaurant had a very family friendly feel and was playing Hawaiian music to get you in the vacation mood. 

Instead of the usual buffet style breakfast a massive plate of food was brought to the table which meant there was no need for us to move out of our chairs and as soon as we wanted a new plate or more of a certain item you could just let a server know and they would bring it out too you. The food was so good and included fresh fruit and then some tradition breakfast items including scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and of course the ever so famous Mickey Waffles.

To top off this amazing breakfast experiences a range of characters in their Hawaiian beach gear visited our table to sign autographs and take photos with us, character breakfasts are a great idea if you don't want to stand in long queues to meet your favourite characters, this way you get you talk and interact with them at you table and have some one on one time with them. 

During the breakfast we got to meet Stitch, Lilo, Pluto and our brand new boss Mickey Mouse!

So to conclude, i would defiantly recommend trying this beautiful restaurant if you are planning your Disney vacation as it is a lot of fun and great value for money. Thank you for visiting and keep a eye open for more Disney Related posts! If you have any post requests or questions just let me know in the comments and i shall be sure to get back to you.

Thanks for reading

See You Real Soon!

Lots Of Love 

Holly

Xx

'Ohana' means 'family'. 'Family' means 'No one gets left behind.'

-Lilo & Stitch