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.