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!