So as you may have read in my last post I saw Les Miserables on Tuesday night. That was in Ft. Lauderdale. Which is 3.5 hours away from Orlando. So by the time I got to Orlando got checked into my hotel and into bed it was 3:15am. For those of you who don't know. Check in is at 9am at Vista Way. After reading past blogs and talking to a friend who checked in earlier in the semester we decided to arrive at 6:30am. That might sound crazy but apartments are first come first serve. So if you want a 3 bedroom at Chatham (which we did) the earlier you are there the more likely you are to get the apartment you want. Also waiting in line earlier means that you have less waiting to do later and in general your day wraps up sooner. When we got in line at 6:45 there were a fair number of people in front of us. By 7:30 we couldn't see the end of the line. So I had less than 3 hours of sleep on check in day. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which is right across the street from Vista.
At 8am they actually let us through the gates and into Vista (where you check in). They lead you back to the registration and welcome pavilion. Overall the whole thing is handled amazingly well. My favorite thing about check in is that they split in into different sections. So you wait in line and then fill out some paperwork. Then you wait in line again and they check your IDs. Then you wait in line and get an apartment. The fact that everything is broken down like this really helps keep things moving and you never feel like your waiting forever. This is when they will hand out parking permits. Make sure to have your REGISTRATION and INSURANCE IN YOUR NAME. My insurance company sent out a letter confirming that I am insured to drive my car. If for some reason you don't have any of this stuff you can go to the Clubhouse and get your permit there. At the Welcome Center you will be given a program book that will have all your information on it. Consider this book your new bible and carry it with you all the time in the first few days.
Once you get all your information at the Welcome Center you are sent over to Casting. Make sure when you go to Casting to look around and enjoy all the fun stuff there is to see. My favorite is the doorknobs on the front door. They look like the doorknob from Alice in Wonderland. As soon as you walk through the door into Casting you find out where you will be working. They put a sticker on the back of your program book with your location on it. The woman who was doing it was hilarious. She made a big deal about each and every person. For instance she asked one girl if she was fond of honey because she was going to be eating a lot of it as a new friend of Pooh.
From that point on it's pretty much all a blur. They send you all over the Casting building in a crazy circle maze of rooms. In one I saw Randy who was a recruiter at my college. At Casting you can also sign up to get direct deposit.
In the background check area they take your fingerprints. Well apparently prolonged computer use among other things can wear down your fingerprints or in my case cause cracks in my prints. Which meant I was in the security area for like 15 minutes. First they tried to get my fingerprints to work and when they couldn't I had to fill out paperwork about my last 7 years.
After you done at casting you head back to Vista. We had a 2:45 mandatory housing meeting. So we ran upstairs dropped stuff in the room we wanted then had lunch. I totally recommend having lunch before the housing meeting. The meeting is 2 hours or more and it is SO boring! Everyone says it's really boring but I didn't realize how boring it was until I was there. After the meeting is done your check in day is officially over! YAY! You can use the rest of the night to unpack and get to know your roommates. The next day is a free day to get yourself ready for Traditions and training.
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