MePipe

It's been over three weeks since my last update on the program and quite a few things have happened. I'm back at uni with 2 weeks left and snowed under with all the work that is left to do, but as far as Disney World is concerned it's now just 35 days to go, or 5 weeks! In 5 weeks time I'll be at Gatwick Airport's Premier Inn probably unable to sleep with all the excitement! Over the past few weeks it's no longer just Yummy Jobs that have been emailing us, Disney has too. Insurance: The first email we got was to pay for our medical insurance, this is done through a company called HTH Worldwide, which Disney have partnered with. The price is a shocking $70 per month and you have to pay for a whole month even if you are only there for a portion of it. That set me back $210! And that was for the cheapest package. From what I understand, this also only covers you if you have no medical problems, which is fine for myself but as this insurance is mandator

It's time for the latest instalment in the weird, wonderful and interesting things I found online this week. From computers grading essays, to iPhone dominos, to waterless washing machines and even batteries that charge 1000 times faster than before. 1. Amazon continues its foray into content product with 14 new TV show pilots released this week . 2.  What Happens When You Wring Out a Washcloth in Space - Something I had never wondered, but I'm glad I watched the video! 3. Battery Breakthrough Offers 30 Times More Power, Charges 1,000 Times Faster - Although the technology is still a few years away from being in our hands, this could truly revolutionise our world. Imagine electric cars which could charge in seconds, mobile phone with batteries that last weeks or any other possibility. This is the most exciting story I read this week. Incredible! 4.  Surprise! Kids don't know what the save icon stands for - Cue me feeling old... 5.  Choose Your Next Pair of Glass

I'll skip all the waking up and having breakfast portion of this post. An empty Disneyland Park during Extra Magic Hours We got to Disneyland at 8:20am today - super early and the park was almost empty. It was incredible. We went straight to Discoveryland and rode Space Mountain twice in a row which was lots of fun. There was no one in the queue when we arrived but they still said we had to go round: I don't understand why? Not very magical is it? Once we were done with that, we moved onto Orbitron: Machines Volantes which is a bit like dumbo except you go much higher and it feels much faster, especially at the top. I really enjoyed myself on this ride, even if it was very simple. Then we moved onto Buzz Lightyear: Laser Blast which I lost as usual. Then it was over to Fantasyland for a ride on Dumbo, followed by Peter Pan's Flight. It was incredible that we'd managed to do six rides in about forty minutes! And if we had wanted we could have gone on the Carou

This is almost like Deja Vu. Last year during April I decided to visit Disneyland Paris, this year I decided to do the same. Last time, it was with my friend Francesca and me, this time it was me and my brother (S). The weather report: rain every day. Trip duration: 4 days. Pre-trip: Knowing that the Ratatouille ride was under construction and not set to open next year I knew I'd want to visit again next year, with the possibility of visiting again this year I decided that it'd be a great time to get an annual pass. There are three main tiers, with the unlimited annual pass with discounts coming in at the price of 199 euros. I found an offer online where I could buy the annual pass in advance for 159euros. Considering that a 3 day ticket costs that price, the annual pass would pay for itself. Sorted.  As a lot of money was being spent on two annual passes, I wanted to make the rest of the experience as budget as possible. I go two indirect Eurostar returns for £66 ea

As part of my job as a tour guide I occasionally get invited to grand openings of attractions. If companies want me to recommend their attraction it helps if I've been to it. This time we were invited to the grand re-opening of the London Dungeon. In case you hadn't heard the Dungeon was relocated from near London Bridge to near the London Eye and it just reopened this March, having been closed for two months. We were led in in groups of about thirty and moved from scene to scene. There was a general tense atmosphere around but surprisingly there weren't very many jumpy moments at all, if any. The cheap scares that were achieved were done by loud noises activated by sensors and the group scaring each other. In the dungeon you are moved from room to room, learning a bit (a very  little bit) about history in a humorous way. In each scene you meet Londoners who will tell you, and show you, the past. The Great Fire of London scene has been removed (something

Web of Links is my weekly round-up of the most entertaining, curious and interesting things I've come across this week. 1.  Report: To Settle With EU Regulators, Google Proposes To Link To 3 Competitors Every Time It Links To Itself   - A very odd decision meaning that Google will now more prominently link to alternative services. 2.  Jomi's Smart Water Bottle Sleeve-Plus-App Wants To Track and Chart Your Liquid Intake To Make You Drink More - Another example of people measuring everything they do.How about you just remember how many glasses you've drunk? 3. Schmidt predicts entire world online by 2020. Is he right?  4.  Stunning Shadow Act on 'Britain's Got Talent' Will Move You to Tears  - Chances are if you watch TV you probably saw this, but incredible none-the-less. 5.  Listen to Every Song From 'Grand Theft Auto' on Spotify - This is just cool. End of. 6.  Where Do Millionaires Invest Their Cash to Keep It Safe?   - A question I

Ever found yourself wanting to read quick snippets out of magazines? Readr could be your answer. Readr is a bit like a Spotify for magazines. The app, which is available on the iPad, allows you to browse magazines much in the same way that any newsagents works: you can pick up any magazine you want, look at its cover, and flick through it for a bit without paying anything. Readr let's you do exactly this, you select a magazine (or magazines) and read any articles you want. You get 20 free minutes a month to do this, if you want to keep reading then you pay. The app itself is free and allows you 20 minutes of reading time every month, after that you can buy individual issues at a cost of around £1.49-£3.99 an issue or you can subscribe to the anytime plan which gets you all issues of every magazine for £6.99 a month. This can work out to be better value if you subscribe to multiple magazines every month. The app includes some big name titles such as: men's fitness, natio

Time for my weekly round-up of the random things I've found on the Internet this week. Expect everything from burgers to barbies to beyonce. 1. Arrested Development Season 4 announced - Another Netflix exclusive was announced this week. I think soon there'll be no new TV series on actual TVs if we keep up this pace.  2. Create your own in-flight meal - Everyone know in-flight meals are generally pretty rubbish, but what if you could create your own? Now you can on one Latvian airline.  3. Stereotypical US tourists - Photos of US tourists from the 80s and 90s...my only observation on this is that they flaunted their bodies a lot more back then, seems they're now very unconfident in their bodies in the US. (The fact they aren't wearing tiny clothes like back then is definitely not necessarily a bad thing!) 4. Overly Attachment Boyfriend - Well, this is hilarious. Apart from maybe the ending. 5. The Science of Cats - Cats are a lot more comple

The day started with me getting a tube to Bond Street station. From there it was a 5 minute walk to the embassy. I knew I couldn't take my phone in (as of December 2016 you can now take a phone in which would have made a huge difference in helping the time pass)  but I wanted to know if bags would be fine. They are: mine is a messenger bag that looks like this . In order to store my belongings, I walked to Gould Pharmacy which is just a two minutes away from the embassy and I asked to store my phone, and have US-sized passport photos taken. You go into the shop and there are tables with staff sitting at them at the entrance. They get a grey bag and put your phone and headphones in and seal it (or car keys and other electronic devices). They you sign a declaration confirming what’s inside. You take this to the counter at the back of the shop and pay £3. They were great at doing the passport photos; it was instant. They took a photo, printed it and cut it into the 2"x2&

So the Disney packs arrived last week. Inside them there was a SIM card for the US, my DS2019 (very important), some Disney instructions, my Disney recruitment letter with  my applicant ID (which you need when paying your housing fee before you leave for Orlando), and a landing card which is pre-filled. Unfortunately this year we didn't get a Disney-branded folder, it was a Yummy Jobs folder. There also wasn’t a nice Disney look book either. Make sure you have a computer connected with a working printer for these next steps as you will have a lot to print out which you do have to do there and then, you won't be able to print it out later. The first thing to do is pay your SEVIS fee; it’s something all exchange visitors need to complete and costs $35. You can also do this later provided you have paid this AT LEAST 3 days before your embassy appointment. Print out the confirmation page as you need this for your embassy appointment. You then need to call the operator