Today I did a lot of sitting and listening...

It was my first day of face character training, so at 9:15 I went to the training room with Christi and Helen where we were met by our trainer, Donna. We then introduced ourselves and told her a bit about ourselves, why we auditioned for Disney and what we've been doing before we came here. Afterwards Donna told us about the whole process of being park approved: we have a two day training period (today and tomorrow) where we get taught theory (today) then do a theory test and practice being the character in costume (both tomorrow).

For the training period this week I'm only training as The Queen from Snow White and will do training for Maleficent another time but that will only be one day because I've already done the theory for face characters.

We were given paper to write info down on, and there was a lot of it! All about what we do on a day when we're a character (Go the the character 1 desk, go to costuming to get our basics, go get make-up done - I don't do my own - get the rest of the costume on and go to Parade/Sets etc) and what we can and can't do, questions we might get asked and we had to improvise an answer, and also some short phrases in french on a sheet eg. "Tu veux une photo?", "Passe une journée magique!" etc.

We also watched parts of the film our various characters are in to observe how they are and mannerisms etc. Whilst each person watched their film, the other two read about their character in an information pack and practiced our signatures. As The Queen I have to sign "Blanche-Neige, La Reine" or "Snow White's Stepmother, The Queen" which is a bit of an essay but the font is fairly easy to copy and I practiced it lots while I waited.

Before I can be approved, I have to get coloured contact lenses for BOTH characters. Disney arrange an appointment with an associated Optician on Disney time (so I'll get paid to go) and I have to get Brown contacts for Maleficent, and Green ones for The Queen. Also, because I wear lenses normally, they have to make them for my prescription as well as desired eye colour. Donna said she tried to book an appointment asap but planning wouldn't let her for me because they need me lots over the next 2 weeks so I'm interested to see what I'll be doing if I'm in such "high demand" as Donna put it. So my Opticians appointment isn't until the 7th October in over two weeks time. After that, I give my forms to the Character Department who give them to Cosmetology who order them in. Apparently this can take up to 4 weeks depending on when they order them, meaning I might not get approved until November time, but I hope I am before Mum, Dad and Tom come to visit!

When we were in training we got told about "Face Character Syndrome" with which some people who play face characters let it go to their heads and think they are better than others because they are a "face". Helen told us that in her first formation there was a girl who had FCS and refused to play headed characters and cried one day because she didn't want to. Apparently she didn't stay 'til the end of her contract. Donna said people get like that because they misunderstand and think they have a "Face Contract" which doesn't exist, so they get confused.

After training, we clocked out and went home. When I got back I had a few emails from George and a text from George's mum Be, which was very nice :) I'm so glad I can use the internet often and update and speak to people. It's made the transition harder and easier at the same time. Easier because family and friends can reassure me and ask about my time so I enjoy telling people, but also harder because there's lots of reminders of home.

I'm getting really excited about coming back for Sarah's wedding and seeing lots of people and spending time with family on what will be an amazing day - I just hope my dress still fits. I don't know if anyone has weighing scales so I can't tell if I've put on or lost any weight (hopefully neither!) so it'll be interesting to see on the day when I put my bridesmaid dress on. I booked my trains home yesterday and am getting back to Swindon at 23:20 on the Friday before!! I'll have to train and sleep so I don't have bags under my eyes, but hopefully that can be covered with make-up. I haven't worn any (normal) make-up for days and I've slowly become used to seeing myself without it. I'll probably relish the days not wearing make-up if I end up doing face characters a lot. I think when I get approved I might be doing them quite a bit because other people playing them are being used for the Halloween parades and shows methinks. We shall see...

It's 7pm here and I'm feeling quite tired already, but after doing nothing much physically all day but having to listen intently and remember things it's made me sleepy. And sitting on my laptop doesn't help! But I'm going go onto youtube research The Queen and Maleficent a bit more and see if there are any videos of them in the Disney parks to get some tips.

Bye for now, update you tomorrow!

xxxxx