How quickly 3 years flies by.
Someday soon I will come back to this blog and write out the stories of the places I've been since the end of my student semester. For now, I move on to the time at hand.
I left Up with People in December and have since moved home to North Platte. I'm currently working as a substitute teacher and saving money for the big move in July. I have accepted a graduate assistantship at Cornish College of the Arts in the Residence Life and Housing Department in Seattle, Washington. I'll be working and living there during the day and attending classes at Seattle University in Student Development Administration in the evenings. It's going to be a completely new experience going back to school after 3 years away.
Now for some thoughts on substitute teaching.
1. I wonder if students would act the same way if I was there regular teacher? I doubt it. I think if I were a face they saw daily they would have a higher respect for me. It just seems that no matter how hard I try, I never truly feel like a real teacher. I never feel like I command the classroom. Perhaps the reason why I didn't go to school for education.
2. I would rather treat the students like people than like robots. I think each student has a different way of learning and needs different attention. I want the students to know that I can help them when they have questions and that I've been there and done the same kind of worksheets and homework. What I can't figure out is how to tell them to come to me for help without broadcasting to the class "by the way, I'm really smart. I got all "A's" in high school so I can do this homework with you."
3. Cell phones drive me nuts. I realize they are part of life now, and it's much easier to text than talk to each other, but is it really so important to do it in the middle of my class?
The final bell has rung. Home sweet home is calling my name.
About Me
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Friday, March 13, 2009
I put some various other Florida Field Manager pics in as well, so enjoy!!
Dade City and Skydiving
Yes I did say skydiving, but we'll get to that.
The cast arrived in Dade City as scheduled and we were ready and prepared for them. The week went by incredibly smoothly with very few problems. The only one was on Thursday when I got lost with the lunches and was late delivering them. Of course it was no problem with the staff and students, but I hate being late so I was really stressed. The two shows went really well. I'm so impressed with this cast! They are just awesome. We didn't have the numbers that we were hoping for but the people that did come really enjoyed themselves. It was so great to be with the cast and staff again. I enjoy hanging out with my partner Phil, but after a few weeks it's nice to see other faces too. I also got the opportunity to room with some of the cast members and really bond with them as well.
My host family was interesting to say the least. They were a wonderful family, we just had very different views.
Sunday was host family day but for me, the rest of the staff and some lucky students it was the adventure of a lifetime. Matt Erley our business manager had host parents in Orlando who had connections at a skydiving resort. They got us a huge discount so we all decided to go. I was petrified thinking about jumping out of a plane. I pretty much thought I was going to puke all day. Of course I was placed in the next to last group for jumpers so I had to sit around all day watching everyone else go and just get more nervous as the day went on. It was good though because I got to spend some quality time with other staff members that I didn't know as well. When it was my turn I went to suit up with the others in my group Brodie, Sofie, Manuel and Nicole. We had some great photo ops because we were the group who wanted to pretend to be from NASA. Anyway, we all got hooked up to our instructors and boarded this plane that looked more like a flying ambulance. It had no seats or seatbelts and we just sat in little rows with our legs around each other. When we reached 14,000 feet they opened the back panel and we started the progression of jumping. I ended up being the last person to jump. My instructor was awesome. He guided me to the edge and gave me a little countdown and before I knew it I was doing backflips out of a plane at 14,000 feet. The free fall was the best part. It didn't even feel like falling, I felt like I was flying. My instructor pointed out all the other jumpers which looked like little white specs, but it was cool to see them and watch their parachutes open. After the shortest 30 seconds of my life he pulled the parachute. The rest of the landing wasn't the best because my harness was so tight around my legs I had bruises. It was just uncomfortable. But it was awesome none the less. We did spins and tricks with the parachute and I was on the ground before I knew it. I'd jump again in a heartbeat.
On the ride home I had a great conversation/music listening time with Phil Woods. We talked about how doing something reckless and dangerous makes us think about our life and what we want to accomplish. We talked alot about bucket lists and whether or not we even wanted to make one. To me, jumping out of a plane makes anything else I could be afraid of seem so minimal. I literally put my life in someone else's hands and jumped. (not even metaphorically speaking) It's a new goal of mine to go for the metaphorical.
Now I'm in Tyler, Texas where it's cold and rainy. We only have 3 weeks to set up this city and because of Spring Break I feel like the first week wasn't that successful. I couldn't contact anyone about host families or church bulletins or school presentations because everyone is gone for Spring Break. It's really difficult and stressful. I know we'll get it done because Phil and I are a good team, but it's stressful right now. I'm hoping maybe nicer weather puts me in a better mood about it. I really hate being cold and wet. Well, I should probably figure out something to do with the next hour. Maybe I'll put up my skydiving pictures that I have.
The cast arrived in Dade City as scheduled and we were ready and prepared for them. The week went by incredibly smoothly with very few problems. The only one was on Thursday when I got lost with the lunches and was late delivering them. Of course it was no problem with the staff and students, but I hate being late so I was really stressed. The two shows went really well. I'm so impressed with this cast! They are just awesome. We didn't have the numbers that we were hoping for but the people that did come really enjoyed themselves. It was so great to be with the cast and staff again. I enjoy hanging out with my partner Phil, but after a few weeks it's nice to see other faces too. I also got the opportunity to room with some of the cast members and really bond with them as well.
My host family was interesting to say the least. They were a wonderful family, we just had very different views.
Sunday was host family day but for me, the rest of the staff and some lucky students it was the adventure of a lifetime. Matt Erley our business manager had host parents in Orlando who had connections at a skydiving resort. They got us a huge discount so we all decided to go. I was petrified thinking about jumping out of a plane. I pretty much thought I was going to puke all day. Of course I was placed in the next to last group for jumpers so I had to sit around all day watching everyone else go and just get more nervous as the day went on. It was good though because I got to spend some quality time with other staff members that I didn't know as well. When it was my turn I went to suit up with the others in my group Brodie, Sofie, Manuel and Nicole. We had some great photo ops because we were the group who wanted to pretend to be from NASA. Anyway, we all got hooked up to our instructors and boarded this plane that looked more like a flying ambulance. It had no seats or seatbelts and we just sat in little rows with our legs around each other. When we reached 14,000 feet they opened the back panel and we started the progression of jumping. I ended up being the last person to jump. My instructor was awesome. He guided me to the edge and gave me a little countdown and before I knew it I was doing backflips out of a plane at 14,000 feet. The free fall was the best part. It didn't even feel like falling, I felt like I was flying. My instructor pointed out all the other jumpers which looked like little white specs, but it was cool to see them and watch their parachutes open. After the shortest 30 seconds of my life he pulled the parachute. The rest of the landing wasn't the best because my harness was so tight around my legs I had bruises. It was just uncomfortable. But it was awesome none the less. We did spins and tricks with the parachute and I was on the ground before I knew it. I'd jump again in a heartbeat.
On the ride home I had a great conversation/music listening time with Phil Woods. We talked about how doing something reckless and dangerous makes us think about our life and what we want to accomplish. We talked alot about bucket lists and whether or not we even wanted to make one. To me, jumping out of a plane makes anything else I could be afraid of seem so minimal. I literally put my life in someone else's hands and jumped. (not even metaphorically speaking) It's a new goal of mine to go for the metaphorical.
Now I'm in Tyler, Texas where it's cold and rainy. We only have 3 weeks to set up this city and because of Spring Break I feel like the first week wasn't that successful. I couldn't contact anyone about host families or church bulletins or school presentations because everyone is gone for Spring Break. It's really difficult and stressful. I know we'll get it done because Phil and I are a good team, but it's stressful right now. I'm hoping maybe nicer weather puts me in a better mood about it. I really hate being cold and wet. Well, I should probably figure out something to do with the next hour. Maybe I'll put up my skydiving pictures that I have.
Friday, February 27, 2009
New job
Hello friends. So I'm one week away from being finished with my very first set up of a city. For those of you who don't know I've joined the staff of Up with People and am not a Field Marketing and Operations Manger. Basically what I do is go ahead of the cast to a city and do all of the organizing that it takes to bring a cast to a city. I find host families, meals, community projects, a venue, media outlets, sell tickets, write lots of memos. Basically anything you can think of I probably do that. It's a fun and sometimes frustrating job. My coworker in this city is Phil W. It's really been a pleasure to work with him. I'm so glad he was my first partner because we have a very similar working style and we've gotten along great! We got our interns two weeks ago, Karoline from Norway and Yohannes from Ethiopia. They've been great and so fun to work with. I think we're pretty much ready for the cast to arrive on Monday. I feel like there should be so much more I need to be doing, but everything I'm in charge of is pretty set. We have all our host families. (provided no one else drops out before Monday) and although no one would donate meals to us, I think I've got the budget all sorted out so I can buy them. It's been tough, but we've had a lot of fun too. My first week in Dade City, Phil and I went up to Tampa to a parade called Gasparillia. It's basically a pirate themed Mardi Gras. There were pirates, booze and tons of beads. We had a great time just watching the people go crazy. Then the next week there was the big Kumkwat Festival in Dade City. It reminded me of Arts in the Park in North Platte or Imperial. Lots of booths and food and music and some booths with useless crap that no one would ever need but you just feel like you should buy it because it's there. Haha. Then the week our interns came my boss Christy called us up and asked if we were free that weekend to come down to Orlando and hang out at Universal Studios for free. Umm....duh. So we took our interns there and rode some rides and ended up getting to ride on THE Universal Studios float for their Mardi Gras parade. We got to dress up and throw beads into a screaming crowd of thousands. It was super fun!!!! Plus the Jurrasic Park ride may have been the coolest ride I've ever been on. I got soaked and it totally ruined my hair for the rest of the day, but it was worth it. I can't wait to go back and also go to Disney World. I love rollercoasters!! Anyway, the cast gets here Monday and I'm super excited to see everyone. I've really missed the staff. We got pretty close during staging and I think the hardest part of this job is being secluded and away from people for months at a time. It's been great having Phil. I can't imagine doing the job alone. I think I'd go crazy. Anyway, I should know where I'm headed to next in about a week. It will either be Deridder, Louisiana or Tyler, Texas. I'm pretty sure I'll be sent to Texas which would totally make my day because it's not that far from my friend Javier. I have no clue if anyone still reads this blog, but I'm going to try and keep it up because it's a great way to let everyone know what's happening in my life.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, November 17, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, October 13, 2008
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!
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!
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