and so the goodbyes have begun :(

I've known since November 25th that I will be going and obviously knew that when the time came to leave, goodbyes would be said. But no one can prepare you for this. Even with all the time I have had when it has come to saying bye to the people I love, most of whom I won't see again for a whole year, it's been tough. 

The goodbyes began about a month before I was due to get on the plane. It was a dual celebration for myself leaving for America and for my Auntie who has now retired. It was a lovely day, we went to this quaint little pub in the middle of nowhere, had wonderful food and my Dad had even gone out of his way to surprise both my Auntie and I with cakes for our celebrations! Also the waiter serving us told us that back in his youth he used to be a taxi person in the Tampa area of Florida and would drop people off at places such as Universal Studios and Walt Disney World. Small world hey! All in all we had a lovely time but surreal to think that will be the last time in a whole year where I'll be sat with the whole family...emosh!

My Family Leaving do :)
(I have blurred out my family's faces because I haven't asked their permission to be featured on my public blog).

Then it was time for the mini Canterbury/Trampolining reunion on the last weekend of June!! I say mini, because not everyone could make it unfortunately :(. So for those of you who don't know me, I went to the University of Kent, of course the best University there is ;) and whilst I was there I was part of the trampolining club. Go UKC Trampoline Team! We became quite a close knit group of friends at Trampolining and due to this we all make sure to keep in touch with one another on a fairly regular basis. We got to stay on campus as the students have all moved home for the summer, and we stayed at the brand new accommodation which was quite special. 

We had a fab time having cocktails and eating chocolate, a lotta lot of chocolate. If anyone has yet to visit Canterbury, be sure to check out the Chocolate Cafe! It's a firm favourite of ours!

Soooo good!

Also the lovely Tara and Sam bought me the best leaving present, six books of the Happily-ever after Stories of the Disney Princesses, haha I loved it! Also Tara has recently got back from a year studying in the U.S.A., so in my card she provided some useful hints and tips for my travels. Thank you Tara :D

Thank you Tara and Sam for this amazing gift!

Then came my last day at work. I have had the delight of meeting some lovely people whilst working there and most importantly I met the wonderful Jade. Jade has literally been my rock whilst I've been there. I don't care how cheesy that sounds because it is true. Whenever there was a tough day at work or a stressful situation arose, Jade would come to the rescue and always know the right things to say. Not only is she also the loveliest and hardworking person you could ever meet she is a fantastic friend and I am going to miss her a crazy amount. She's been with me throughout this whole application process for Disney and her confidence and belief in me that I could do this has certainly been a major help and support to me. 

   So because she is so lovely, she made sure I had a lovely last day at work. She organised for my pod/the admin team to provide some treats for us to munch on and I was not expecting there to be so much food, not that I was complaining ;P. Also thanks to all my lovely colleagues for contributing towards my leaving gifts and writing such lovely things in my card, it means alot, so thank you everyone, you know who you are ;)! We finished the day with a few drinks at the local and Jade and I had dinner there too.

Last but not least my best University friend Laura surprised me with what will be one of my most treasured memories ever, Afternoon Tea at The Ritz. There are no words to explain how grateful I am to have Laura as my friend and for her providing me with the best send off anybody could ever ask for. Laura has been there since I first applied for this once in a lifetime opportunity back in 2013 and I got rejected for it. She has now seen me go through the whole process this time and get accepted and she has been one of my biggest supporters for me doing this program. So big shout out to my friend Laura! We had a marvellous day and I welled up so much when the piano player who suddenly played a different tune and out came the waiter who presented me with a cake which said 'Good Luck in America' and he then proceeded to ask me whereabouts I was off to in the US. It quite literally was the icing on the cake on what had already been an amazing (and very British) experience to take away with me on my travels.

But really the goodbye I am most dreading is the Airport one with my parents and sister. I know that what will get me through that goodbye is knowing in 6 months time they'll be coming out to see me.

There is no better Disney quote that sums this up than from Winnie The Pooh: