FROM: Amber Earns Her Ears Published Mondays

Amber Spends Easter at Disney World

Everyone knows about the Easter Bunny, right? Not May, a Chinese girl and Amber's newest Disney roommate. Together with her other roommates, Amber decides to teach May about one of America's most cherished traditions: Easter eggs. Disney style!

- Amber Sewell, April 25 2011

"You mean, the Easter Bunny is going to come tonight?"

Leah looked at me. "Uh, yes! Definitely!"

Exit Roommate Jenni

In honor of the Easter holiday, I'd like to recount one of the happier events from my CareerStart Program. Around Easter of last year, Jenni (one of my roommates) had left. She hated her job, working an egg roll cart in Animal Kingdom, and was a little homesick.

It was a depressing event for our apartment; one of the original Fab Five had left us. The apartment was a little quieter than usual, and laughter a little sparser. It was made even sadder by the knowledge that before Jenni and her mother had even hit the Florida state line, she had been ready to come back.

Shortly after Jenni left, we were told to expect a new roommate. We found a little paper on our kitchen counter instructing us to make sure the apartment looked acceptable, and that we should do our best to make the incomer feel more welcome.

We weren't sure what to expect. The three of us were just hoping that it would be someone compatible with our personalities - not someone to replace Jenni, but someone who fit in well with the rest of us.

Enter Roommate May!

May, a sweet girl from China, had lived on the bottom floor of our building with some other Chinese girls. But May had wanted to work on her English, and decided the best way to improve it was to actually live among those who speak English as their first language.

So May moved into the bedroom with Leah, and we were four once again. May and I got along rather well, especially as she was studying literature at school. She loved the theatre and liberal arts, and was entranced by my habit of wearing two different socks.

I remember one night, soon after she had moved in, I came home from a long day at work, showered, and grabbed my tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream and a spoon. As I reclaimed my seat on the sofa, May looked up at me, eyes wide.

"All for you?"

I looked down at my half-empty carton of ice cream. "Yup. All for me."

"Wow."

It was fun having May around. A lot of things were new to her, and it was entertaining sometimes to see how other cultures view America, or how some aspects of our culture are confusing.

There was, of course, some friction accompanying her move into the apartment: her habit of leaving her rice cooker in the sink to soak annoyed some, and her poor chopsticks were always in danger of going down the food processor. But more often than not, we had fun.

Amber Goes Shopping at Downtown Disney

Leah and I had planned another outing for the two of us. I believe this was our Brown Derby night; we put on our pretty dresses and got ready to leave. Somehow, as we stood in the kitchen before leaving, the subject of Easter came up while we were talking to May. She didn't know what it was, so Leah explained the basics to her: why it's celebrated, the Easter bunny, coloring Easter eggs... the whole thing.

May was incredibly excited by the entire concept.

"Easter tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"So, Easter bunny come tonight?"

Leah looked at me, a question in her eyes. "Yes. He'll come tonight. Actually, when Amber and I come back, we'll color eggs for him!"

Paige had an egg coloring kit that she wasn't able to use (she had to be at work early in the morning), so we decided to borrow it. Then, after our dinner, Leah and I decided to assume the mantle of Easter bunny.

We formulated our plan as we drove to Downtown Disney. We would buy little gifts for everyone - Leah would get Paige's and mine, and I would get hers and May's - and then some candy to decorate with. A palpable air of excitement filled the car as we worked out what we would get. The bright lights of Downtown Disney drew us like moths, and soon we were out of the car and in the World of Disney.

Together we picked out an Alice in Wonderland tea set for Paige - who had a love of both breakfast and Alice - and some more typical Easter presents for May: a stuffed Thumper from Bambi, a large coffee mug with Thumper on it that we could set the stuffed animal in, and a large bag of jelly beans. Then we separated, agreeing on a rendezvous point after we had bought each other's presents; they were to be a surprise until the morning.

We had given each other only about thirty minutes to find the perfect gift, so - a little scatterbrained - I wandered the World of Disney for a little bit before I remembered a shirt (picturing an old cartoon with Mickey and Minnie Mouse in medieval attire) that I had seen a few weeks ago at TrenD which reminded me of Leah, a huge Minnie fan. After I'd bought the shirt, I wandered into the crystal store, and found some little figurines of Snow White and Dopey - some more favorites of Leah's. They quickly joined the t-shirt.

We met at the agreed-upon spot and, plastic bags rustling, rushed back to the car. We couldn't keep dopey grins off of our faces as we envisioned everyone waking up and seeing our 'Nook of Celebration' (the useless extension of the living room that was supposed to be a balcony, but changed its mind) decorated and full of presents.

A Disney World Easter Party!

When we arrived back at the apartment, May was awake and ready to color some eggs. We stashed our purchases behind the chair and Leah set up the color and eggs while I showed May how, if you used a white crayon, you could write little messages on the eggs that would show up after you colored them. We made a special one for May's first Easter.

We colored our eggs - goodness, it must have been somewhere around one in the morning - and I have to say, it's one of my favorite memories associated with Easter. May was so excited about the entire event that it was infectious. After we set the eggs up to dry, some glittering in the kitchen light, we moved to the floor in the living room. All four of us associated in some way with a Disney princess, and we had decided to color pictures for each other to hang above our presents.

I colored Leah's poster-sized picture - she was undoubtedly Snow White - and colored my picture of Belle in her reading costume, book in hand. May took charge of Paige's picture of Jasmine, and Leah and I both teamed up to color May's favorite picture of Ariel. The poster-sized coloring pages took ages to color, but we had some great conversation.

At one point, after we had been coloring in silence for a while, two sets of at least 96-count Crayola Crayons spilled out on the table so we could find our colors easier, May, dismayed by the desert landscape of Agrabah, cried out "So much brown!" which quickly became an inside joke for our little Easter escapade.

Eventually, everything was done.

We sent May to bed with the promise of the Easter Bunny's gift in the morning, and Leah and I hung pictures and arranged presents, jelly beans, and chocolate eggs in neat piles, shielding our presents from each other. Finally, around three in the morning, we bade each other good night after taking some pictures, and we headed to our respective beds, excitement about the coming morning tempered by exhaustion.

We all woke up at the same time (except Paige, who had had to leave much earlier), and it was wonderful to see May rush in, fall to her knees in front of her corner, and grab onto her Thumper. She looked at the stuffed rabbit, enraptured, and kissed it repeatedly.

"Oh, the Easter bunny came! So cute!"

Leah and I beamed at each other, then turned to inspect our own presents. She had gotten me a peace, love, and Mickey antenna topper; a Donald Duck keychain; and a notepad with Belle's yellow ball gown. And, the massive part, a gift basket from Basin, containing some of my favorite bath bombs, bath salt, and more.

After talking about our presents for a few minutes, we all crawled back in our beds to wait for our alarms to go off once more, this time waking us for work.

When Leah met me in the kitchen later, she told me, another large smile on her face, "May fell asleep curled up with the little Thumper. It was fun being the Easter bunny!"

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