Adapting to Disney Culture

Our first assignment in our Intercultural Communications class was to write an essay about how we have been adapting to Disney life/work since our arrival. For your reading pleasure I have posted it here, although I've made some alterations due to confidentiality of my other cast members :)

 

Dear Diary... How are my first weeks at Disney going? What am I enjoying the most? What have been the challenges?

My first few weeks at Disney have been a whirlwind of emotions and new experiences. I was suffering from separation anxiety during our first night after we all departed for our complexes. For some reason American # text messages don’t come through to my phone so I couldn’t get in touch with anyone to help them move, or unpack, or hangout after we all got settled.

My roommates are all American; which I was highly disappointed at even though I have grown to love them. The first comments they made was that I didn’t have an accent for being Canadian. We’re starting to get along better now; we even went out for lunch together for the first time and took pictures in the Italy pavilion at EPCOT.

I have even finally managed to gain 1/3 of a shelf in our fridge so now I can buy some groceries. Having 5 women share one small fridge isn't easy... They are pretty understanding of my allergy but for my own personal safety I still keep a lot of my non-perishable food in the pantry shelve in my closet, and I cook a lot at other friend's houses so that I can also visit them too.

I bought a rice cooker and am also leaving it at a friend's house; we are all taking turns buying bags of rice and cooking at their house. I’ve become friends with their 2 other French roommates. I recently learned the proper way to cook rice and found out that 'Minute Rice' is a blasphemy among Asian culture. We even had our first sleepover/pizza party with some of the Macau and Canadian girls since coming to Disney.  I'm very excited to meet the July group of Brazilian, Macau and Mexican students.

 

I have fallen head over heels in love with my job costuming at Hollywood Studios. Working at ‘The Show Must Go On’ Character building has been my favourite location so far. Almost all of my fellow cast members are so nice and helpful and welcoming. I’ve made some Hispanic friends, and a fellow Canadian, and a become friends with someone from South Korea and Haiti and some American friends too.

A lot of the character performers I’ve met are nice to me too and I’ve even danced backstage with some of them. I enjoy helping Mickey and all of his friends get dressed everyday (except Wreck-it Ralph could stand to lose a bit of weight and Sully sheds his fur a bit too often.) I’ve always been a creative person and I would give anything in the world to work professionally backstage building props, costumes and set-pieces.

I’ve just started working at the Fantasmic! Show; helping dancers & stunt performers with quick-changes, helping Mickey and his friends get dressed and pre-setting for each show. The performers are very nice and tell me jokes when they’re not on stage. I’m very happy here so far because I used to volunteer at a theatre back home but had to take a hiatus due to school – I’ve missed it very much.

The biggest challenge has been the culture shock in America. It is hard living in Canada as a ‘White kid’ when you have an African-American appearance. Most of the close friends I have still make jokes or comments about it (even if they don’t intend to hurt my feelings.) But coming to Florida has brought a whole new outlook on African-American people for me. Most women in Canada are not as large or thin and don’t ‘dress’ like the general population here. Men don’t try to grab you on the street for your attention and we don’t listen to the same kind of music. Many of the Haitian people I work with expected me to fully understand them when we’re talking and it’s hard to explain to them that I don’t. It’s hard to deal with people passing by glaring at me wondering why I’m walking around with Caucasian or other people not of my Ethnicity (I guess African-American people travel in packs here?) I feel almost compelled by peer pressure to braid my hair because a lot of girls around me have braids or dreadlocks (or they don’t know how to straighten their hair properly and it’s poofy and short.)

I spend a lot of time visiting the Macau girls living at the Commons complex. I've grown to love my big FSU family and I like to always be there for them when they need someone to listen to them or to laugh at.

Doing this has piqued my interest in potentially finding a job in intercultural communications at Disney or any other company where it’s hard to break language, culture and lifestyle barriers within homes and workplaces. Overall I can honestly say that this trip has been well worth the money so far and I’m having the time of my life.