I got on the BBC

[punisher82]

I contacted BBC to see if I could contribute to their "Leeds Blogs" area, as I have spent some time abroad.

Here is my entry! It tells the reader where I'm from and what I've been upto (minus the SA stuff which lagely affected my year) and it was nice of BBC to let me have the chance to write.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/a..._feature.shtml

As I'm a new member, it provides a little bit of background info if anyone's interested!

Dan

Awesome article!! Ive been to Epcot a few times, and I wondered when I was there about the foreign kids that come over to work there in their countries little area in Epcot. Last time I was there I especially liked the little Norway section (maybe just cuz I'm half Norwegian lol I duno). It was fun to hear their accents cuz I never heard a Norwegian accent before. And I loved their buffet food lol.

What's the deal with the "traditional UK" costume you had to wear? You said you would be exiled from Leeds if you wore that? Is it just traditional UK clothes as in historically speaking? Or is it not really accurate to what tradition UK clothes are?

Also, are you still involved with the program or was it just meant for just a short bit of time? I wasn't sure from reading the article.

[punisher82]

kp85 -

I was involved with the program from March '04 to March '05, and sice then I have stayed here with my family, who funnily enough, immigrated just before I did, buying a business. I now work with them, and live in Florida. It's weird how it turned out!
We were all recruited by Disney from our homelands for a special program - in conjunction with the government to work as "Cultural Representatives". If you check the nametags, you can see the city where the Cast Member is from, usually where they live or where they were born. They missed out Leeds on my first one, just putting Yorkshire; I wasn't having any of that!

Yeah, listening to all the accents is cool. I couldn't understand my roomamtes, but I felt even more sorry for them as they'd never met a Yorkshireman like me before! (Seriously, it took us like a month before we could communicate )

And the buffet at Norway is amazing! We agree on that.

As for the costume, it's supposed to be 1800's fare. I guess the sterotype of the UK is of an old one, as we wear nothing like that anymore. Leeds people are funny; they wouldn't have said much, they'd just kick me out. I'm more concerned at the dignity I lost wearing giant white socks...

Phew, hope that answers your questions!

Dan

Originally Posted by punisher82

As for the costume, it's supposed to be 1800's fare. I guess the sterotype of the UK is of an old one, as we wear nothing like that anymore.

I'd guess that they simply chose that as the outfit for you country cuz you dont have any traditional clothes like they do in Germany, Norway, Japan, etc. that people still wear in certain celebrations and things like that....so they just took the historical route with the UK. I'm sure you know what I mean since you've also seen the outfits employees of the other countries wear at Epcot. Though perhaps I'm wrong.....does the UK have "traditional" fare?
I have a bit of a confused understanding of the UK. Should probably get a book or something lol.

By the way, out of curiosity, what business did you family buy over here?

[punisher82]

It is kind of traditional, they did wear that loads of years ago. Just look at the bad guy from Shrek? It's kinda like that!

As for the UK, (Traditional Clothing) it differs slightly depending on which part you go to. For example, in Scotland they wear Kilts! (Well, at weddings and stuff, so my scottish friend once told me). We wear regular clothes nowadays, but in certain places, some still wear the old stuff on occasion.

As for my family, we bought a Property Management/Vacation Home rental company. We renamed it, gave it a facelift, been here for about 16 months now... I live in the town of Celebration, which is 10 minutes from Disneyworld.

Dan

the town of celebration? lol...no doubt disneyworld owns that

[punisher82]

Actually, they did own it! LOL

It's now privately owned, but was sold by Disney only if the new owners would keep it in the same state as it was when they built it, and adhere to the rules etc!

Dan