So if you don't know, and by this point I'm pretty sure about 99% of the population do, I'm going to be doing the Walt Disney World cultural exchange program this summer. If you don't know what that is, basically I will spending 2 and a half months working in one of the restaurants at Disney World in Florida! Because I'm going to be working in America, I needed to go and get a visa, so I thought I would tell you about my experience of applying for and going to get my visa.

Before I could book my appointment, I needed to apply for my visa online. This was possibly the most stressful part of the whole process as I had to answer so many questions and fill in all of my details... I was so worried I would put something in wrong and mess it all up! You don't have to do the application all in one go, as long as you remember your application ID you can save it and finish it another time, so I completed mine over about 3 days. Once I'd finished filling in everything, the last step was to take a visa photo; this is basically the same rules as a passport photo except it has to be square. For this I just took a selfie in front of my white bedroom wall and used that! 

After I'd completed my application I could book my appointment at the US embassy. When you go to get your visa, you have to give them your passport as part of the process and it then gets sent back to you with your visa. Because i'm going away in April, I wanted to book my appointment as soon as possible to make sure I had my passport back in time so I actually booked it for just 2 days later. This was really simple to do and only took about 10 minutes. I then had to pay my SEVIS fee (I'm not entirely sure what this is, I just know I had to do it!) and I was all ready to go!

So the day of my visa appointment arrived and after an incredibly stressful morning in which my alarm didn't go off and my phone didn't charge, I got the 6:15 train into London in order to make my 8:30am time slot. I had so many documents with me and I was sure that I had left something incredibly important at home but it all went absolutely fine. When I got to Euston I met the girl who is hopefully going to be my roommate when we are in America and we got the tube over to the embassy together. She was so lovely and I cannot wait to spend my summer with her! 

We actually got to the embassy at about 8am but we had to queue outside for half an hour anyway, in which time they checked we had all the necessary documents with us and we went through security. Once we got inside we were given a little ticket and were told to wait until our number was called. This actually took way less time than we thought it would, and whilst we were waiting we realised the Warwick Davis was there getting a visa as well! After about 15 minutes my number was called and I went up to one of the booths. After giving them all of my documents and taking my fingerprints, I went through to another part of the building to have my 'interview'. This was a lot more informal than I thought it would be and only lasted about 5 minutes. I was asked what I would be doing in America and what my plans were for when I come back and that was it... I had a visa! They tell you at the end of your interview if you have been accepted or not and I had, so now I just need to wait for it to be sent back to me. We had heard loads of horror stories of people waiting in the embassy for hours so we were pretty surprised that within an hour and a half of arriving in London we had already finished!

I can't believe that tomorrow is only 100 days until I leave and now I have my visa everything seems so official and real! Before I went to get my visa I had no clue what it involved so I hope this was helpful to anyone currently getting a visa too!

Thanks for reading!

Amy xxx

I can't believe February is already over, it seems like only a few days ago that I was writing my January favourites post! This year is just going so quickly and it's crazy that it's only 108 days until I fly to Orlando for the whole summer! (Read all about that here) Last month I said I really wanted to do a favourites post every month and so far I'm sticking to it, so here are my favourites for February 2017:

Before the new year, I went on a mission to find a practical but pretty new planner to use in 2017. As a student, I wanted something that allowed me to write down all of my assignments, readings and due dates, whilst still giving me space for jotting down any notes, to-do lists or appointment times. After searching everywhere, from Paperchase to Kikki K, I had pretty much given up hope of finding anything that fitted that description whilst still looking cute. Either there was only space to write down assignments and work, or there was only space for writing out a schedule, there didn't seem to be an in between. However, I was lucky enough to be given a Happiness Planner from my parents for Christmas and so far, it's fitted my needs perfectly!

Having been to Disneyland Paris multiple times in my life, I can safely say I've done around 95% of everything there is to do in the parks (not including the scary roller-coasters that I wouldn't go on even if you paid me). Because of this, there are a lot of things that I don't do anymore, or at least I don't do them every time I go. However, a lot of these things are things that you should definitely do on your first visit to the parks, in order to make your holiday as magical as possible (and none of them involve going on rides).

A lot of people don't realise that you can actually go up into the castle at Disneyland Paris. As you're walking underneath the castle into Fantasyland, there is a staircase on the left hand side that goes up into the castle itself. Up there is a little walk through that tells you the story of Sleeping Beauty through stained glass windows and tapestries. You can also go out onto the balcony and get a great view of Fantasyland for photos. It's really beautiful and is a great break from standing in long queues. As well as going up though, you can also go down into the dungeons of the castle, where the dragon from Sleeping Beauty is chained up. It might be slightly scary for little kids but it's really impressive and is one of the largest animatronics at a Disney park!

Even if you are far more interested in the rides than anything else, meeting characters at Disney parks is so much fun! If you've never met any characters before, meeting Mickey Mouse or a character from your favourite film is a great place to start. If you decide it's not for you, then at least you can say you met your favourite character, and if you love it you can continue to meet loads more! Also, if you don't want to queue for ages for characters, there are always a lot of unscheduled meets near the Casey Jr ride so if you're lucky you might be able to meet loads without having to queue!

You'll have to be organised and find a spot at least half an hour before the parade starts, but it is so worth it. Even having seen the current parade too many times to count, I still have to be at the front for the parade! Doing this allows you to properly see how amazing it is and you can see a lot more of the dancers and floats than you can with three people standing in front of you. Also, you can get some amazing photos and character interaction as well. My favourite place to watch the parade is by the entrance to Fantasyland, to the right of the castle. At this section you can only watch the parade from one side, meaning all of the characters on the floats are facing you and all of the characters on the floor come over to your side. As well as this, it's near where the parade starts, meaning you can get on your next ride whilst half of the guests are still watching the parade!

Dreams is the nightly fireworks show that is projected onto the castle and it is absolutely amazing. I was lucky enough to see it on its very first night and we waited probably over 2 hours to stand right at the very front which was absolutely worth it. You definitely don't need to see it from the front every time, but doing it once or twice is incredible. Being so close to the castle gets you really immersed into the story and you can take some great pictures without anyone's head getting in your way! (Next month a new show called Illuminations will be taking its place for the 25th anniversary, but i'm sure it will be just as good!)

One of the most magical things about any Disney park is the attention to detail that goes into every little thing. Even though it's easy to just rush through everything when you're at Disney, especially if it's your first time and want to do everything, take some time to just wander round the different lands and appreciate the design and imagination that went into it all. One really fun thing to do is to go hunting for 'hidden mickeys'. These are where little Mickey Mouse heads have been incorporated into the design of something so that it's not completely obvious that it's there unless you're looking for them. 

Whilst the rides are a huge and fun element of going to Disneyland, there is so much more to do there that will make your holiday unforgettable and different to any other!

I've never done a proper monthly favourites post because I don't feel like I try enough new things every month to warrant a whole post for them. However, this month I've been trying quite a few new things that I got for Christmas or in the sales so I thought I would give it a try. I am going to aim to do one every month of 2017, even if there are only 2 things in it sometimes, but we'll see how that goes! So without further ado, here are my January favourites:

I asked my parents to get me a Happiness Planner for Christmas and I'm so glad I did! Not only is it great for planning out my day and writing a quick to do list, it really makes you focus on the good things in your life. I think I'm going to write a whole post about it so I won't go into too much detail, but it has definitely helped me be a more positive person. Mine is in the colour 'rose quartz and serenity' and I think it's absolutely beautiful!

Recently I've been completely obsessed with Makeup Revolution. I had a couple of their products before but I got their Redemption palette in the shade 'Iconic 2' in the January sales and I instantly fell in love! Not only are the colours absolutely gorgeous, with both matte and shimmery shades, it is incredibly pigmented and lasts all day. This is an amazing dupe for the Naked 2 palette and to top it all off, it was only £4!!

This month I've been loving Apple Music. I actually got it last month but I started using it so much more after coming back to uni. I don't have Spotify so I often used to listen to music on YouTube which would drain my phone battery so much so I love having so much music at my fingertips without having to keep my phone unlocked. At the moment i'm loving the Moana soundtrack (yes i'm still obsessed) and Ed Sheeran's new singles. A subscription is £10 a month but if you're a student you can get 50% off with a Unidays account.

One of the other things I bought in the January sales was a Johanna Basford 'Enchanted Forest' colouring calendar. I had one of these last year, and am a big lover of adult colouring books (check out my post about them here) so I knew I would love it. But I can never decide which picture I want to colour next, so I love having a specific picture that I know I need to do that month. Johanna Basford colouring books are my absolute favourite, I love her designs and I like that some of the pictures in the calendar are the same as the Enchanted Forest book, meaning I can colour it in in a completely different way to last time.