Philippines and End of Tour

Holy cow! I can't believe I've been home in Nebraska for over a week now. It's hardly been enough time to even process the amazing experience that I had in the Philippines. We arrived in Manila after a very very long travel day out of my home town in North Platte, Nebraska. It was really hard to leave my family again, but I knew that I was going to love Manila. Anyway, I ended up being hosted at Ateneo de Manila University in the dorms. That was an experience! The girls whose room I shared had completely different hours than me so they were asleep when I woke up to leave and asleep when I came home after our full days. I felt horrible that I never really got to connect with them, but at the same time it was kind of nice having that freedom to roam around the city with the 6 other Up with People students who were hosted there. I had complete and utter culture shock my first morning when I arrived at the breakfast hall expecting cold cereal and milk but receiving fried rice and a whole fish (complete with head and eyes). The food was the biggest difference I noticed. I've never had rice for every meal, or served instead of fries at fast food restaurants. By the end of my time in the Philippines I just stopped asking what kind of meat I was eating because I really knew I didn't want to know. It all tasted fine, so why bother with formalities? I had an unique experience in Manila because I was on what we called the Flex Crew. I didn't have the same Community Impact site for the entire 10 days. I got to move around to different sites and then do several mini shows at the famous malls in Manila. It was awesome because the Flex Crew had to work so hard to make our impact because we only had a few hours with the students we worked with. We got to spend two days with some high school age students at ERDA Tech. They were some of the brightest kids I've worked with so far! They were totally willing to participate in everything, even discussions, and to top it off English wasn't even their first language. On our second day there, they did a show for us to let us know how much they appreciated our being there. That weekend we did 9 mini shows at three different malls in Manila. It was awesome! We probably performed for well over 100,000 people! Our show manager told us that on any given day over 2 million people go to the Mall of Asia where we performed and marched in a Festival of Lights Parade. It was such an honor to be selected to be part of that crew. We did two shows in Manila both of which had great audiences. The first show was a bit more special for me because it was a free show for the people we worked with all week. We had students from ERDA Tech there and families from the sites the rest of the cast worked with. It was inspiring because we knew that many of these families would probably never have the chance to see a show like this because of the cost. They were so excited and really sent us great energy.

After Manila we went to our last city of the tour, Subic Bay. I was so excited to be with an actual family this week. I totally lucked out as families went too, because I swear I had the best one. I stayed in Olongopo City with a woman and her three children. Her brother and his son also lived there. They were such an incredible family. Every day she took me to a new house to meet another member of her family and every night her kids came up with something fun for us to do. I loved staying with families with kids because it made me feel like I had brothers and sisters. My Community Impact in Subic was the best by far! I got to start the day with a 30 minute bus ride, then an hour long hike that, I kid you not, was uphill both ways through the jungle until we reached a mountain top village where our task was to paint their kindergarden and elementary schools. One group focused on the elementary school as it was three large buildings and five of us stayed at the kindergarden and focused on painting a mural on each wall. My friend Javier was the designer and he realized he'd only designed enough mural for three walls so he put me in charge of painting the fourth. This was a total challenge for me because I've never considered myself a very artistic person, but Javier put his faith in me so I decided to give it a shot. In the end I think we had an awesome building! This Community Impact left me feeling totally proud of what we'd accomplished. The children kept coming around while we were painting and telling us how beautiful their school was and how excited they were to go there once we were done. On the last day we ended early and decided that we'd do something kind of crazy to end our Community Impact program. We climbed down a different hill and found a nice bank by a river and all jumped in with our clothes on. It was a nice refreshing swim, but none of us brought other clothes so we had to spend the rest of the day sopping wet. It was totally worth it. Our final show was emotional for most people because it was a definite reminder that we would all be going home very soon. We took our time to cry before the show and made it through the whole show without shedding a tear. I have never been so proud of our cast. It really was a meaningful and awesome show. We all got together for our final banquet where we shed more tears and said goodbye to the Europeans. It was really hard to say goodbye to the people I'd been so close to for the past six months, but in the end I knew that it wasn't forever. The people who are meant to stay in my life, will. On January 4th I start my new job with Up with People as a Field Marketing and Operations Manager. I'm really excited to see where this adventure takes me. Thanks everyone who has been reading my blog. I hope it gave you an inside view into life with Up with People! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

End of America

I'm currently sitting in LAX airport in Los Angeles on a 12 hour layover waiting for my flight to Manila, Philippines. Our American tour ended last night leaving three of our cast members behind as they move on to other adventures, and leaving many of the remaining in tears. It was a very emotional few days as the American tour came to a close. We all have grown so close to each other that it's hard to think there is only one month left. So, I left off in Colorado Springs. After the Springs we headed to Salt Lake City, Utah. I spent the week living with Daniella from Mexico with a totally amazing Mormon family. We toured the Temple Square and I was overloaded with so much information about the Mormon religion that I couldn't wait to have discussions with fellow castmates. It's amazing how different their culture is compared to my own, but I never felt out of place. We spent most of our Community service working with the Boys and Girls club, but unfortunately I could only participate one day because I was sick on the second day. The show went really well. We've started to switch out parts so it's becoming new and exciting again. After Salt Lake City we headed to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

When we reached Cheyenne we were greeted with our first taste of cold. It was so cute to see the cast members who aren't used to it huddle together. I couldn't wait until they saw snow for the first time. We got off the bus and saw the advance team totally decked out in cowboy gear. It reminded me a bit of home so that was a nice surprise. I lucked out with a great host dad who had traveled the world and loved to cook. We had many great stories to share over delicious dinners. Our education for the week was based on gender roles and the presenting group did a great job. We spent one morning dressed like the opposite gender and it was so interesting to see the way we all changed our demeanors based on our appearance. The community service was our Stand for Peace program in the schools. Each time we do it I feel like the cast is getting better and better at it. We got to hang out with the students of the school of rodeo on our regional learning day and I ended up riding a hand powered mechanical bull. That was a fun experience being from Nebraska and totally not being able to do anything rodeo-ish. My family came up for the show and it was great to see them! I got to spend the whole host family day with both my host dad and my parents. After they left I had to prepare to head to Aberdeen, South Dakota. On our bus ride to Aberdeen we took a pit stop at Mt. Rushmore and were able to spend some time there. It was interesting, but a lot smaller than I thought it was. After seeing Mt. Rushmore we headed to a campground where we were to spend the night. It was awesome! We had a campfire and roasted marshmallows and froze our butts off in the cold. I sat by the campfire talking with Miguel until about three in the morning. It's moments like that that totally make my days here on tour. We then had to get up the next morning and head to Aberdeen.

Aberdeen is a place I will not soon forget. On our regional learning day we went to a place called Storybook Land and it was basically a lower scale amusement park filled with statues depicting fairy tales and stories. While we couldn't ride the rides we were able to spend time taking some awesome pictures. I spent the majority of the day taking fun admissions picures with my friends Miguel and Shawna. I was hosted with six other girls in a convent with a bunch of nuns and I couldn't have asked for a better allocation. The seven of us were living in college style dorms and able to walk two blocks every night to a townhouse full of seven of the boys in the cast. We had a great time talking and playing board games and preparing for Halloween. During the week we had an educational workshop called Up with People Land that was supposed to help us understand immigration. We were each given a passport that told us all of the basic information as to our immigration status, whether we were employed, and if we owned a house. I was a citizen with no job, but a house with two roooms to rent. Others were immigrants, migrant workers and refugees attempting to gain citizenship. It was a fun role play, but sometimes the fun got out of hand and I think it hazed over the real meaning of the workshop. We had another Stand for Peace city in Aberdeen and again the kids were receptive and seemed to really enjoy the workshops. We had a real treat because Halloween fell on the Thursday of this week. Our Field Managers set up a private party for us at the Zoo bar complete with food, dancing and a costume contest. The "convent girls" decided to dress up as the 7 Deadly Sins and we ended up winning the group contest. At 9:00 the underage people had to leave, but those of us who were 21 and over were able to stay and dance longer. I had a great time! Miguel, Javier, Elizabeth, Shawna and I danced and talked all night. The next night all of us who were hosted at the convent gathered with the nuns and played board games for hours. I couldn't believe the sense of humor some of the nuns had. It was a riot. I was so sad to have to leave to go to Souix Falls.

In Souix Falls we did Stand for Peace again, but also I was able to work in an adult day care center. It was so fun. We did exercises with them, fed them lunch and even participated in a worship service with them. It was nice to have a Community Impact day that was a bit different from Stand for Peace. We had a scavenger hunt in downtown Souix Falls for regional learning day and then finished our day at the falls themselves. They were so beautiful! It was another day filled with fun pictures! I was totally pumped on show day in Souix Falls because not only was a huge chunk of my family coming to see me, but I got my first opportunity to dance in the front line in the show. I rehearsed and got to dance the stomp moment. It was a total rush to do something different that I'd never done before. I also got chosen to sing the National Anthem in a small group at a hockey game. It was so cool to be in a group of many countries singing my own anthem. After that I was told that I was also selected to go to North Platte a day early to sing at a luncheon. I was so excited but it make the week a bit hard for me because I knew that I was so close to getting to spend a week in my hometown. But as with most weeks it ended up flying by and before I knew it I was leaving for North Platte.

This past week in North Platte was amazing. I was in my hometown surrounded by some of my favorite people and I was doing work in a city that means so much to me. I spent the first Community Impact day working with the homeless shelter and playing cherades with the people who were there. It was awesome to know that although we didn't do any physical labor we were able to brighten someone's day by acting like a "rabid teletubby". My second day was spent doing promotions and attending a Rotary luncheon. It was exciting because I haven't gotten to do promotions yet. I was constantly being stopped and interviewed and I felt like a real celebrity. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it was an expereience. We had two shows in North Platte so our week felt really rushed. I was so excited to be performing in front of my friends and family from home. I almost cried when they posted the show list and Gabe the show manager was having me dance Power With. It's a hip hop dance that I've been working on since staging and I was finally getting my chance to perform it. I think I almost passed out backstage I was so excited. It was so strange to mix my new Up with People family with my North Platte family, but I was so proud to share with the cast the culture of my hometown. The last show day was very emotional. We all knew it was our last show in the USA and also it was our last show with three of our castmates. We cried alot in green room, but made it through the show. Saying goodbye to my family again was really tough this morning. I know that I will see them again in four weeks, but only for a short while. I have very exciting news. I will be returning to Denver on January 4th as an employee of Up with People. I will be continuing on as a Field Manager for Up with People. I'm so excited to have a job! Especially because I will be working with Julie Jeffers one of my friends from this cast! But for now, I'm going to continue to wait for my flight and get even more excited for the next four weeks in the Philippines!!!! I can't promise internet, so this will probably be my last post for awhile. I will be sure to fill you all in with the details as soon as I return!

New Blog!!!

First of all sorry it's taken so long to blog. I've been without internet for the past two weeks. Life on the road sure keeps me on my toes. I just finished my two week internship as a member of the advance team. Let me tell you after all of the work our team did I will never complain about meals, the schedule or lodging again! It was a tough job, but totally worth the experience just to see how a city is organized from the staff's point of view. A great part of being an advance team intern was that I finally got to see the show first hand. I was able to sit in the audience and enjoy the show without having to worry about the performing part. It was a fantastic show! We had so many special guests including the founder of Up with People, the brothers who wrote most of the music and even the crowned Prince of the Netherlands. I felt honored to be sitting in the same row as those distinguised gentlemen. The show was amazing that night. The cast had so much energy and spirit. I could tell that our time in Mexico really improved the show. I cried when Julie from Norway sang I Can Believe with Jessica from Tuscon. It was simply amazing!

After that hectic week we spent a week in Albuquerque New Mexico. We visited the Acoma Pueblo and saw life on an Indian Reservation. It was so beautiful and our tour guide Gary was awesome! I had two full days of Community Impact. The first day I went to another reservation and I spent time weeeding the yards of the elders of the tribe. It was hard work, but the elders were so appreciative. It was awesome to see the amount of respect the younger generation has for the elders. I feel as though that is something my cultures lacks. How many times do I offer to help my elders? It's definitely a personal goal of mine to improve on that. My other Community Impact day was spent at the Roadrunner Food Bank packing sugar for boxes to be given to the elderly during the winter. THere are some great pictures from that day as we were all in hair nets, gloves and long white jackets. While we may have looked silly we packed over 1500 bags of sugar! It was robotic work but we all sang and joked together which made the time fly by. Plus, who couldn't have fun in a room full of sugar? Friday was show day! It was my first show fully back in the cast. We performed at a zoo which made it an interesting evening. We had noisy animals, a lake between the audience and us, and a generator that just didn't want to give us lights. However as with all live theatre the show must go on. For me, the energy of the show was awesome! It was great to be back with this talented group of people singing and dancing and bringing our message of hope to the people of New Mexico! After striking the set the cast was told we were going to get about 2 hours of sleep and go to a city landfill to help pick up trash. The Advance Team surprised us and took us to the Hot Air Balloon Festival instead. It was an early morning but totally worth not sleeping! Ilka from Germany and I got to ride in the balloon we crewed. It was an amazing and beautiful experience. We spent the last week in Colorado Springs. I'm finally enjoying the fall weather! We got to visit the Olympic Training Center and the Garden of the Gods on Tuesday. Both places were really cool. I can now say I've seen wehre Michael Phelps trained. The rock formations at Garden of the Gods were beautiful! Our Community Impact Days were spent in the elementary schools on Fort Carsen Army Post. We spent 3 days in the classrooms doing our Stand for Peace program. We taught the kids about peace and how power with someone is stronger than power over them. I think both the kids and the cast really enjoyed themselves. This week's show was especially impactful. We gave a free show to honor the military who are serving to protect our country. THe energy was high and everyone felt what an impact we made. It was so cool to be performing a show with 107 people from 22 countries and spreading a message of peace and understanding to a group of people who deal with war and conflict on a daily basis. I know it gave everyone hope for future generations. I honestly think it was the best show yet! Until next time!

Best Morning Ever...sarcasm

So before I get to this amazing morning I just had let's recap how the past week has been.

Advance Work is awesome! We had a team swimming party and then spent the evening allocating students to host families. After we were finished we "celebrated our successes" by going to dinner at Olive Garden. Later that week we worked more trying to get meals donated and I ended up getting a dinner fully donated for our show day. So to celebrate that success I went out on Saturday and got my hair cut. It's shorter than it's been in awhile. The team and I went to a kickoff breakfast for the United Way's Days of Caring. While we were there we took a team photo with the Gieko Gecko.

Ok..time for the morning. I woke up this morning and after making my morning trip to the bathroom I headed back to my room. However as I opened the bathroom door I noticed a little something under the bench outside of the bathroom. At first I thought it was a plastic toy but then the little thing moved and stuck it's creepy forked tongue out at me. Yes my friends, it was a snake, in the house. I ran to my room, hyperventilated a bit and cried. I ended up calling everywhere to try and find my host family. My host dad ended up being outside so he came to my rescue and got rid of the snake. This is a story that would only happen to me. Worst morning ever! But I guess it makes for a good story. I'd better hop in the shower so I can get to the office.

End of Mexico!

So surprise! I'm done with Mexico two weeks early, but I'll get in to that later.

Let's see, Cabo ended up being a pretty interesting city. I was the City Runner in that city, (meaning I ran the morning and closing meetings) with Eriko from Japan. However, the cast was split up between Cabo San Lucas and Cabo San Jose so we were split up too.

I already mentioned our Regional Learning day and how I felt about that, so I'll move on to our Community Impact Days. I did 3 CI days in Cabo. The first two were painting the baseball stadium for our concert with a group of youth from Cabo San Jose. The first day though the paint was so late that we ended up not really painting at all. The second day we painted all day with little interaction with the youth because we were so behind from the day before, so that was a bit frustrating but it's all part of the differences in culture and learning to be flexible. My last CI day was spent working with the founders of Mobilize Mankind, a group that provides wheelchairs to those that need them free of cost. We spent the afternoon unloading crates of wheelchair parts, putting the chairs together and touring the facility. It was especially fun because Stewart, a student with Cerebral Palsy, was there helping out too. During lunch a bunch of us challenged Stewart to power chair races and that was a blast.

The next city we went to was Tepic, Mexico. My roommate Fenna from Germany and I didn't get picked up by our host father, so we got to go home and stay the week with the host family of Angela from the US and Neele from Germany. It was amazing! They were a wonderful family with a beautiful home. Fenna's friends from Germany came to visit so we ended up with 6 of us staying there. We did a really interesting Community Impact/Regional Learning at a Sea Turtle habitat. We got to play with the baby turtles while cleaning up the beach to allow the baby turtles to reach the sea easily. I didn't get to do alot of Community Impact in Tepic because...here's the surprise...I got chosen to go on Advance Work! I spent this week in training because I got sent to Sahuarita, Arizona to help the Field Managers prepare the city. The rest of Tepic was all kind of a blur because I was gone so much for training. The concert was amazing! We finally got the encore we were hoping for. On host family day my host family took us to some old ruins and unfortunately a ditch was not marked properly so of course I fell into it and landed on my camera. So my camera is caput. But no worries, I bought a new one today so there will no lack of pictures from my time on Advance Work.

I arrived in Sahuarita two days ago with my partner Cindi from Singapore. We spent yesterday going out to lunch with one of the sponsors and an alumni and then met at one of the Field Manager Renee's house to be debriefed. Today we attended two faculty meetings to talk to the teachers and I worked with Renee on the Host Family database. So far it's alot of meetings and office work, but tomorrow Sarah, the other FM, and I are visiting one of the Community Impact sites. Everything is going so well and I'm really excited to continue with the rest of the two weeks.

La Paz/Cabo pictures

This is my BFF Kirk. The cast was so lucky to get to go on a evening boat cruise in Cabo. There was a band and open bar so we spent the evening dancing, socializing and enjoying the beauty of the ocean.
My friend Gis from the Netherlands and I.
My other good friend Javier from Texas.
Seungbom from South Korea.
The famous Cabo Arch.
These are from La Paz. This is Grace from China and her host sister Carolina.
One of our staff made a mistake in his Spanish and ended up saying "La Papa" instead of "El Papa" inadvertently calling the Pope a potato, so Paulina made a potato Pope and Cheryssa and I joined Paulina in reverence. Haha.
This is Annaka, Candace, Julie Holmes (hereafter referred to as Sherlock) and Anika at the elderly home in La Paz.
Jimena, Kelly and I working with power wheelchairs on CI day in La Paz.
I thought this mural was so cool. It was really inspiring to see the hope of a truly connected world where disabilities really didn't matter.


This is a video of the elderly woman I sang for at the home in La Paz. Isn't she beautiful?!

Tepic

We just arrived in Tepic, Mexico after a eventful Cabo. I was informed at the Cabo concert that I will be leaving the cast for two weeks on September 8th to do Advance Work in Sauorita, Arizona. I'm so excited! I'm sad to be leaving the cast and to be missing Cuilican and Hermosillo, but I'm ver excited to have the opportunity to set up a city for the cast and to work with the Field Managers Renee and Sarah.

My roommate Fenna from Germany and I were not picked up by our host father on the first day in Tepic so we have been placed with Angela from the US and Neele from Germany. Our new host family is awesome, so warm and welcoming and we might be staying in the biggest house I have ever seen. It's truly huge. Today we went to the beach and prepared a safe harbor for sea turtles. They were releasing some baby turtles into the wild tonight and they needed the area to be clear and safe for them. My friend Miguel and I adopted a turtle. We named it Miguelynn. Then we were given the rest of the day to swim and enjoy the resort. It was a very nice relaxing day. Tomorrow the cast starts the CI projects and I begin my first day of Advance Work training. This should be a pretty intense city. I can't wait to write more about it. For now enjoy some more pictures from Cabo!!!

Cabo

Hey everyone! I'm currently in Cabo San Jose, Mexico preparing for the show tomorrow night. The show in La Paz was awesome! We had to have security to keep people from coming backstage. I'm not sure if it was really necessary, but it was still cool to have.

I'm having a bit of culture shock here in Cabo. I'm with my first host family that doesn't speak a word of English and I don't speak much Spanish so communications have been difficult. Also, there are quite a few people coming in and out of the house due to my host mom's open door policy and I'm not realy sure who actually lives in my house. Haha. It's kind of awkward, but a total learning and growth experience. I'm learning how to communicate without words. I took an hour and showed my host mom Rajean's book about Nebraska and I showed her some pictures of home and friends so I feel she knows a bit more about me.

Now that I'm on my own computer I can put up some pictures from La Paz. So I haven't figured out how to put pictures in my blog in a pretty way. Oh well.

Ok, so I had a bit of difficulty earlier this week during our Regional Learning Day. We went to a poorer region of Los Cabos so visit the people who lived there and I was really uncomfortable with the whole endeavor. We showed up in two huge air conditioned buses handing out candy to the kids and taking pictures with them while the people who lived there had nothing. I felt like we were in Kindergarden going to the petting zoo and feeding the animals and taking pictures with them. I tried to see it as a positive thing because the little kids were really enjoying themselves, but I had a woman come up to me and ask me why we were there and why her home was suddenly of interest to the tourists. I felt horrible knowing that we were visiting these people and yet we were doing nothing to improve their situation. None of our show profits go to those people and yet we took time to take pictures of their houses and with their kids. I just felt awful. Then to end the day we took a boat ride and were given free drinks and dinner. I couldn't help but feel guilty knowing that the people I'd just left probably wouldn't eat tonight and here I was having a Pina Colada and eating Sushi on a cruise ship. It really showed me how good my life has been and how little I've done to help those who need it. It's been the most difficult day on tour so far.

I will write more later. I'd love to hear what some of you think of this experience. I need to head out because it's about time for dinner with my host family. Love you all! I've got some videos and more pictures to post later.

Hola Everyone!

Hola friends! Im currently in La Paz, Mexico one night before the show!!! I apologize for the lack of updates lately. Internet is hard to come by here in Mexico. Alright time to wrap up Breckenridge and the first week in Mexico!

My host family in Brek was amazing! Benedicte and David were so interesting. Benedicte was born in France and lived in the Netherlands and went to University in Africa. Talk about a woman with life experience. I started to get a bit homesick in Brek because I realized I wouldnt be seeing the USA for 5 weeks. Its a daunting thought. We pulled an all nighter the day after the show so we could leave for the airport at 3:30 AM. We finally arrived and passed through customs in Mexico at 5:00PM. The weather is La Paz is hot with a side of humidity and sweat. It is beautiful though. I am rooming with my "language buddy" Eriko from Japan. It is awesome because we are also the City Runners for our next city. City Runners are the people who run the morning meetings and the wrap up. We have spent this week figuring out fun things to do with the cast. Our host family is incredible. We have Beatriz and Guille as parents and Guillermo (12), Ana Beatriz (9) and Diego (7) as host siblings. I have had so much fun with this family because even though there are some language boundaries I feel like Im very much a part of the family. I know it will be very difficult to leave them on Monday. Our first night with them they took us to have Mexican Sushi. I had no idea what I was ordering, but it ended up being very good. Then on our first Host Family Day we spent the entire day at the beach. We took a 30 minute boat ride to the beach and then met about 6 other Up With People families there. The beaches are the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The sand is white and the water is so blue and clear you can see straight to the bottom. You have to be careful of Sting Rays as they tend to infest the ocean floor. I almost stepped on one and that was the end of my water adventures.

My first Community Impact day was spent working at a home for the elderly. What an incredible experience. We were supposed to paint, but the supplies never arrived so we ended up just spending time with the elderly. I met a woman who I couldnt actually speak with because of the language barrier, but we ended up just singing to each other. She would sing me a Mariache song and I sang her some songs from church. It was so incredible to see how music truly is a universal language. I guess I ended up on the primetime news in La Paz for singing to the elderly. I didnt really realize they were there filming the whole interaction until Martin our cast manager told me he saw me on the news. So far that has been the most moving experience on the whole tour.

My second CI day was spent with our benefactors for this show at Mobalize Mankind. We unloaded and built some wheelchairs so they will be prepared for their next clinic. They provide wheelchairs and assistance to those that need it in Mexico for no cost. It is an awesome program! It was great to see the impact that they have on making Mexico more accessible to the disabled. I even raced Stewart in power chairs. Stewart is a fellow cast member who has CP and uses a power chair. It was really fun buzzing around with him and seeing what life is like from his point of view. Ive got some videos and I will post them once Im on my own computer.

The show is tomorrow and so far it seems that the community is very excited to have us. We have the potential of having over 1000 spectators. It should be an amazing time! Im looking forward to Cabo. I hope to hear from some of you! Please leave comments. I like knowing that you are all enjoying my blogs haha. I miss you and love you all very much!!

More Mexico to come!!! Get excited...

Culture Jam try 2.

This time we should have Culture Jam without the elevator music. Haha.

Oh my...

First of all, I apologize for the elevator music in all of the videos. I was completely unaware that my program put that in automatically. I'll fix it and try to get the videos up again without the music this time. Secondly, we had our first show last night! It was a blast. I sang the opening solo, the opening of act two duet and the finale solo. I had so so so much fun. We did have some technical problems, but what's live theatre without them? haha. I was terribly proud of the cast as we just kept going and recovered very well. We leave tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. for Breckenridge, CO. We spend a week there and then we move on to La Paz, Mexico. I'm very excited as I have an assistantship in Mexico as a City Runner. I will be in charge of running the morning meetings and the evening wrap ups in Cabo San Lucas and Tepic, Mexico. I had a great day today. My parents came to visit so I got to spend the day with them. I'm sad staging is over and I won't see many of the staff members I'd gotten close to again. But, I'm also very excited for our tour to begin. Here are some pictures of friends before the show and my faves from our first Community Impact day. Gotta love the hard hats.

Day off

We have a day off today so my host family, Lovisa and I all went to Estes Park. It was a great trip. We're taking all the time we can with Lovisa as she was chosen to go on advance work and leaves on Thursday. I'm sad to lose my host sister, but I will be gaining another one soon. Things are still going well. We had regional learning day yesterday so we got to spend the whole day walking around Denver and just exploring. My group went to the Capitol, the Library, Coors Field and 16th Street Mall. I had a great time. My group was so fun. I was lucky and got to spend the day with my new friend Zach. Then a bunch of us went downtown and had sushi and listened to live Jazz music. All in all a great night. Let's try again and see if the Culture Jam video works. It will work eventually! Haha.

So many days!

That's my host family Tim and Cheryl and my sister Lovisa from Sweden on our trip to Estes Park today.

Zach, Katie, Lovisa and I at the capitol building.

This is my UWP best friend Zach! And Anika's nose.

Culture Jam photo. First day with host fam and a few uppies.

My buddy Ryan!



It's been awhile, but staging continues to go well. I had a long post planned, but my computer got disconnected and now I'm too sleepy to write it all out again. I'll just post some pictures and a video to appease you.

Day...I've forgotten.

Today we began as usual with a morning meeting. (This was of course after Louvisa and I survived our crazy bus ride with a driver who had to ask us for directions.) Then we had a session called People's Barcodes. It was all about stereotypes. We walked around the room and wrote on each country's piece of paper a stereotype we've heard of the country. We then split into countries and read the stereotypes. It was very interesting to see what the other countries thought of the US. It was said many times that we are a fat country. That wasn't surprising. The one that surprised me was that the US was generous. I'm surprised that other countries saw that in us. I know that we as a country give to disaster stricken countries, but I'm not sure if that's out of generosity or because of some ulterior motive. It's an interesting thing to think about. I think I will have to reflect on this. It was also said that the US is ill educated. While I think we have a good educational system I would agree that we are ill educated as a country about the rest of the world. As Americans we tend to have a very independent view. I think we tend to overlook things that are happening in other countries. Or at least I know I have. This experience is already in the first few days forcing me to open my eyes and see that there is so much more out there that I've overlooked. I hope that during these next six months I will be able to hear first hand from others what is happening in their countries and what needs to be done to improve it.

Anyway, continuing on. Next we talked about documenting the semester and because of this talk I ended up talking to Joel Mauney and am going to be the UWP official blogger for Planet Gap Year. Check it out on www.planetgapyear.com I'm not going to lie, I'm not really sure what it is yet, but I'll learn along with you! I'm just excited to be able to share my UWP experience with even more people!

Next we had vocals and we learned 3 of our show songs in our 2 hour time block. I was pulled out at the very end to do some second round solo audition stuff. Again, I was incredibly nervous but I feel like it went well. Then we moved on to dancing. We learned 3 more dances today and of course that was fun. I ended up getting a bit frustrated just because the staging style was so different to what I'm used to. It was hard to make levels and I felt like we were just standing in clumps and of course coming from NWU and Jack pounding "Picture!!" into our heads I knew it was coming. Now that it's happened I can let it go and just relax and not worry about it, I mean that's what my education prepared me for right. Also, I got pulled out of dancing to go down for 3rd round of solo auditions. This time it was for a specialized solo, so we'll see how that goes later. It's a very rock and roll improv type solo, just the kind of thing I really like. I'm very excited to see what the rest of the week holds.

My host family remains well. Tim and Cherryl are awesome! They are taking Louvisa and I hot air ballooning on Sunday and to a Martina McBride concert on August 2nd. I got to move into my real room tonight as their son Ryan left for school. It's nice to have drawers to put my clothes in. And a way to separate the clean from the dirty. Well, it's time for me to shower and put my new room together. I hope you are all having a wonderful July! I miss you!

Culture

Today we talked about Culture. I was so glad we had that discussion today because I've been contemplating what the culture of the United States actually is. Yesterday I signed up to participate in the Culture Jam and I was told that I probably wouldn't be able to perform because what I had prepared wasn't cultural enough. Just being told that I didn't have a culture made me wonder what an American culture is. I think the idea of the importance of the individual is totally American. I feel also that the work ethic and the desire to work to gain happiness is an American ideal. Also, I think that popular culture is something that America has shared with other cultures. You hear of other countries becoming "Americanized" but what does that really mean? For a country that some people seem to think has no culture it sure is a country that others seem to emulate. These were just some thoughts I had during the beginning of the week.

I was eventually allowed to sing in the Culture Jam and it was an amazing experience. The song I sang really rang true with everything I had been feeling and it was great to be involved with all the other cultures surrounding me. I felt an incredible energy from the entire room. It's such a positive group of people!

We've been having our auditions all week for featured soloists, dancers and speakers. It was a completely different style than I'm used to, but it was great for experience. I was actually incredibly nervous during all of them. My face was probably bright red in each room. I think I did my best though. We should know more in the next few days. Until then, I hope you enjoy the video from our conversation on culture. Culture Jam to come!

It's Begun!

The Up With People experience has officially begun! I finally arrived after Abby's wedding (which was beautiful!) My flight got pushed up 2 hours so luckily I was there in time to board. I was picked up by Gabe our show manager. He's totally awesome! Then I was taken to my host family's house. Their house is beautiful and they're wonderful people! We've played pool and are currently making Wii fit profiles. I'm going to get in shape!

We had our first meeting with UWP today. The alumni prepared a show for us and it was amazing. It really got us all excited to see what we would be doing very very soon. I got to finally meet some of the friends I'd met online. Here's a video of my roommate Lousia and my host brother Ryan and I playing pool. Lousia and I had lost the first round so we thought costumes would help us out.

Summer Lovin' had me a blast!

Hello my crazy friends!

Summer is quickly coming to a close as UWP draws nearer and nearer! I just took my family vacation with mom and dad. We went to Denver to see two shows. 3 Mo' Divas and Sweeney Todd. Both good. Sweeney was very different than I thought it would be. Just some interesting choices in staging. It was awesome to spend some time with mom and dad! I made the mistake of packing only one set of shoes and they were heels so my feet hurt and I have some major blisters. I'll remember that when packing shoes for UWP! I unfortunately left my video camera in Omaha so I have no video for this blog, but soon it shall be back in my tiny little hands and then you will not escape my pretty face speaking to you! Haha. Hope everyone's summer is going well.

Laura Lynn

Blog #1

Howdy folks! This is my first attempt at blogging. My cousin Quinn is helping me out. We're creating a totally sweet experience for you all! We're going to try to attempt to add a video of our lunchtime festivities. I'm sure once I figure this out it will be updated as often as possible! Enjoy lunch with Quinn and Laura Lynn. I'm sorry I look like I'm on drugs. I was sick all day today! Bad news bears. :(