i'm not even going to apologize.
i have a crazy job.
so some good memories of the final weeks of denver.
- i went to see batman twice - once with gabe, phil, joris, cody, and cody's friend ryan. and then once with the stonesmiths. good movie.
- the dress rehearsal. it was rough to say the least. during the first song one of the students tripped over the power cord. cutting all sound halfway through the song. but i was really proud of them cause they kept running on stage smiling - singing loud and proud! yay!
- the rest of staging is a blur. everyday was so busy with walk throughs and run throughs. i was leading vocals and working with the band. add in numerous staff meetings and workshops. then when we started putting the show together - dance, vocals, band - it equalled crazy. by the time i got home at night i was beat.
- i got to hear steve farber talk again. he's awesome. inspirational. i love him. stevefarber.com.
- some people came to visit and i got to see all kinds of friends at the dress rehearsal. jeremy farber (yeah steve's son) who was the video tech for my student cast came and visited for a week or something. it was aweasome seeing him. and then callie, abby, vanessa, and jordan were all at the dress rehearsal. good times.
- i have my first intern!!! my 'awesome' intern! cause her name is laura assums (yeah - pronounced awesomes!). hahahah it's awesome. she's from belgium and an absolute sweetheart! She was almost called my mucus intern though, cause on the description sheet Scotty spelled it ‘mucis intern’. Kinda hilarious.
so the next week we got out on the road. holy shit. i was really nervous and excited. we were in breckinridge colorado, this beautiful little mountain town. it was GORGEOUS!!! like driving to the school in the morning we'd drive my this lake with the mist coming off it, with a mountain on one side and on the other side a whole bunch more of them, some with snow on the top! it was cold up here too. like it hailed twice and snowed once. in augest!!! but i love it so much. definitely going back there someday!
the best thing about the week was that there was a staff allocation (which means living arrangment???). we had two condo's!!! i was in one with molly, dave, matt, rafa, anthony, and nathan. molly and i ran in the minute we got there and called the master bedroom - had our own bathroom! hell yeah! it was an awesome place. big screen tv and a hot tub! alright! i wish that we could've been there longer - it was awesome to be able to go home at night and just hang out with everyone. we watched A LOT of olympics! and one night we worked on picking the 'call song', which is the song that they play 15mins after the show to let all the students know that they have to go to their respective 'job's - either interviews or strike. and so you hear the call song, run up on stage and dance your butt off and then get to work. so this song is kinda a big deal. like you hear a lot of it. and it has to be something really fun and danceable. so the pressure was on. we spent about 2 hours in the living room, all with out laptops, sharing our ideas. it took forever. and so towards the end, when it looked like we weren't going to find one we'd all agree on, i jokingly suggested mambo #5.
and now that's our call song. true story. started off as a joke but we totally wen't for it. hahahaha i love it.
as a departing gift, the stonesmiths had crazy generously given me a starbucks gift card as i left - and i'm embarassed to admit i used in all in that 5 days in breckinridge. i needed a lot of caffeine.
our first show went AWESOME! sooooo much better the the dress rehearsal. like whoa better. like tommy spauding (our ceo and president) came up to the show team afterwards and congratulated us on how much we had accomplished in the 5 days since the dress rehearsal! YAY!
most of my week was focused on the mexican medley. so yeah. mexico was our second stop on the road and we had a 7 minute medley to teach the students. hahaha as if they hadn't just learned a two hour show eh??? so the last two weeks that had consumed a lot of my time. i was teaching the cast spanish vocals (umm ps i'm terrible at spanish), mic groups how to sing them in four part harmonies, and finding soloists that could learn spanish in two weeks and also had good voices for the parts. EEEEEKKKKK! but although i'm kinda jumping ahead of myself here, i'm proud to say we did it for the first time last night and it went awesomely! like there's still some cleaning up to do - but WAYYYYY better then i thought it would be!
so yeah. that friday (in breck), we got in at 9. after being at the show facility the night before until 1ish. i had to go back to the condo during the day cause we had a family donate it to us and so we wanted to leave it nice and clean, but as it was so late the night before we had to do it during the day. so dave, matt and i headed back and vaccuumed and mopped, did all the laundry and dishes and stuff like that. we were in for a real long day here. we - the whole group - were in a meeting room at a resort there. until 4 in the morning. eeeeewwwwww. cause our flight was early saturday. and that's just inconvient for host families so we did the first overnight. what an adventure. i was hoping to get some sleep but no such luck. but i did sleep a little on the bus from breck to denver. it was a long day though. to say the least.
and so although i'm still not caught up i'm going to leave here. i'm going to save and then go out and use the internet (which only works near the pool - yeah that's right! wait till you hear about this week's allocation!). i haven't checked facebook in days - i'm dying here!!! hahahaha.
love to all!!
September 4, 2008
July 20, 2008
parking lots and singing parts.
i don't remember thursday.
this is the thing about up with people. you do so much in one day that it's nearly impossible to ever remember. wait . . . maybe i wrote about thursday already. i don't know. jeez louise.
so friday we had a road staff meeting the whole morning. talked about all kinds of stuff. and in the afternoon we had drivers training!!! whoot.
so basically we drove out to broomfield . . . like 30 mins away . . . to this high school's empty parking lot. i was told that i would be able to drive the truck (that holds our equiptment), but gaby crushed my dreams and told me i wasn't allowed to. cause you have to have an american drivers liscence. dumb.
so gaby and jared has set up a course for us to drive through . . . the truckers went first and then the van drivers. the whole thing took like 4 hours . . . with the 15 road staff and 10 field managers. so we got to sit in a parking lot (in like 95* heat) just to complete an 8 minute test. man it was hot. matt and i went to his house at one point . . . to get drink for everyone so that we wouldn't pass out . . . and we got his guitar. so that wasn't too bad.
i don't think i failed - but after three attempts at paralele parking i still couldn't do it. but they had this thing with two rows of tennis balls . . . and you had to drive your passenger side wheel through (threw? thru?) and i only knocked down 3 of 20. usually when you hit one they all go flying. so that was kinda cool.
once i got home that night we watched a movie. the illusionist. can't say i love it. BUT my host grandmas dog was down in the den watching it with us and i found out that she has an extreme fear of feet. like this dog HATES feet. whoa. hahahaha kinda awesome.
saturday was probably the first whole day that i spent doing 'my job'. we had a discussion with the cast explaining internships, i helped teach cast vocals (we'll be there and oye el boom), and lunch i talked to all those interested in being my music intern and answered their questions about it, i hung out with the band (help teach some electric guitar . . . who knew i could?!?!), listened to some singers, and then had our first hometeam meeting.
hometeams are like small groups that we break into to talk and such. cause sometimes people feel more comfortable sharing with a small group then one of 110 people.
so me and martin and yui got hometeam 5! alright! we've got an awesome group and we just spent the time hanging out and getting to know each other better.
matt picked me up right from the bus stop and we headed out to boulder to see their community theater group perform Urinetown. it was hilarious!! highly reccomend!
and then home, ice cream, card games, and sleep.
now i don't know really what's the deal for today . . . we'll just have to wait and see.
<3
this is the thing about up with people. you do so much in one day that it's nearly impossible to ever remember. wait . . . maybe i wrote about thursday already. i don't know. jeez louise.
so friday we had a road staff meeting the whole morning. talked about all kinds of stuff. and in the afternoon we had drivers training!!! whoot.
so basically we drove out to broomfield . . . like 30 mins away . . . to this high school's empty parking lot. i was told that i would be able to drive the truck (that holds our equiptment), but gaby crushed my dreams and told me i wasn't allowed to. cause you have to have an american drivers liscence. dumb.
so gaby and jared has set up a course for us to drive through . . . the truckers went first and then the van drivers. the whole thing took like 4 hours . . . with the 15 road staff and 10 field managers. so we got to sit in a parking lot (in like 95* heat) just to complete an 8 minute test. man it was hot. matt and i went to his house at one point . . . to get drink for everyone so that we wouldn't pass out . . . and we got his guitar. so that wasn't too bad.
i don't think i failed - but after three attempts at paralele parking i still couldn't do it. but they had this thing with two rows of tennis balls . . . and you had to drive your passenger side wheel through (threw? thru?) and i only knocked down 3 of 20. usually when you hit one they all go flying. so that was kinda cool.
once i got home that night we watched a movie. the illusionist. can't say i love it. BUT my host grandmas dog was down in the den watching it with us and i found out that she has an extreme fear of feet. like this dog HATES feet. whoa. hahahaha kinda awesome.
saturday was probably the first whole day that i spent doing 'my job'. we had a discussion with the cast explaining internships, i helped teach cast vocals (we'll be there and oye el boom), and lunch i talked to all those interested in being my music intern and answered their questions about it, i hung out with the band (help teach some electric guitar . . . who knew i could?!?!), listened to some singers, and then had our first hometeam meeting.
hometeams are like small groups that we break into to talk and such. cause sometimes people feel more comfortable sharing with a small group then one of 110 people.
so me and martin and yui got hometeam 5! alright! we've got an awesome group and we just spent the time hanging out and getting to know each other better.
matt picked me up right from the bus stop and we headed out to boulder to see their community theater group perform Urinetown. it was hilarious!! highly reccomend!
and then home, ice cream, card games, and sleep.
now i don't know really what's the deal for today . . . we'll just have to wait and see.
<3
July 15, 2008
sweat, tears, but no blood yet.
okay so i won't lie to you. i really do want to be writing this right now. but i know i'll be kicking myself in the pants next week if i don't . . . cause i'll probably have like 3987 million to catch up on.
so i only have two days to catch up on. wow. this is like a record.
yesterday was the first offical day for the students. like we met after the airport. and at opening session. but this was the first full up with people day. alright . . . bring it on!!
sweet. so. we had the first morning meeting (where we give any announcments, share if there's any guests, sick calls, or birthdays). we had two birthdays right off the bat - yay danielle and veronika!
wow. yesterday is already fuzzy. hahahaha the days are so full it's so hard to remember what happened. OH! so the road staff went over the rules in regards to host families. like cerfew and how to handle offers of alcohal and yada yada yada (when was the last time you heard someone say that?? yada? it's been years for me). oh and we did ice breakers. like fun games in the ballroom. like . . . ultimate being (make me teach that someday).
i missed lunch cause we had to practice for another little introducion to the show. but i eventually got to eat.
we performed the gypsy dance and the song 'shine the light' for the students. the dance is AWESOME! crazy fun. and the song is unreal. me and eric lentz (one of the producers of the up with people show, and the writer of the song) played guitars and then there was like 6 of us singing with me and jen on the solo's. pretty sweet.
and tuesday . . . . hmmmm. i actually lied when i said i was going to write monday and tuesday. cause now it's thursday. gross. so here's some of the highlights:
i don't remember tuesday. this is why i can't leave this too long. cause it all blends together. i'm trying to remember one thing. OH!!! modules. basically auditions. so the students have like 5 modules - dance, vocal, speaking, tech, and costumes. and i was in the vocal ones. taking notes. judging who might get a solo and such. that was pretty cool. and then went over into wednesday too.
the culture jam was on wednesday. basically all the students can showcase something from their country or culture. like we have a salsa, ethiopian, japanese, native american and thai dance. singing in all kinds of different languages. and all kinds of cool stuff. pretty sweet. except it meant a late night. like i didn't get home till 10. 7-10. gross. hahahaha but not really.
today we did a stereotype activity. people wrote down their stereotypes of each others countries. pretty interesting! and then the road staff did some team building stuff - like the human knot and such. and the speaker (and almuna) had just had a baby. like two weeks ago! WOW!! so i got to hold little baby joey (a girl) for a good little while and that made me so happy. soooo cute.
and then at the end of the day matt and i ran down to the basement and sang a little bit to close off the day. we're working on the song 'realize' by colbie caliate. or however you spell her name. i feel like i've already attempted this in a blog. hmmmm. anyways. i love it. and i love singing with matt. he's going to be my brodie this semester.
i take the bus home with three other student. milou from the netherlands, josh from the usa, and seung-boem from south korea. so we're waiting in line to load the bus and i came to realize tha seung-boem is HILARIOUS! holy crap this kid! hahaha nearly had me in tears! cause his english isn't too great yet, it's good but . . . you know . . . still a lot of confusing moments. so he had asked what i did today. so i said that the staff did some team building. and he says (in his cute little korean accent) 'oh like body building?!?!'. hahaaha. and then it just went uphill from there. but i can't even explain what happened. it was good though. and it ended with seung-boem teaching us how to say sweet potatoe in korean. WHAT?!?!?! hahaha i wish i remembered what it was! anyways i love this kid now. i'm going to look forward to this everyday.
and so now i'm at home. my host grandpa (matt's dad) and host grandma (cindy's mom - ps with her dog allie) are both visiting tonight so it's a little crazier then usual around here. exciting though.
okay. caught up. alright. until tomorrow. hopefully.
peace out!
so i only have two days to catch up on. wow. this is like a record.
yesterday was the first offical day for the students. like we met after the airport. and at opening session. but this was the first full up with people day. alright . . . bring it on!!
sweet. so. we had the first morning meeting (where we give any announcments, share if there's any guests, sick calls, or birthdays). we had two birthdays right off the bat - yay danielle and veronika!
wow. yesterday is already fuzzy. hahahaha the days are so full it's so hard to remember what happened. OH! so the road staff went over the rules in regards to host families. like cerfew and how to handle offers of alcohal and yada yada yada (when was the last time you heard someone say that?? yada? it's been years for me). oh and we did ice breakers. like fun games in the ballroom. like . . . ultimate being (make me teach that someday).
i missed lunch cause we had to practice for another little introducion to the show. but i eventually got to eat.
we performed the gypsy dance and the song 'shine the light' for the students. the dance is AWESOME! crazy fun. and the song is unreal. me and eric lentz (one of the producers of the up with people show, and the writer of the song) played guitars and then there was like 6 of us singing with me and jen on the solo's. pretty sweet.
and tuesday . . . . hmmmm. i actually lied when i said i was going to write monday and tuesday. cause now it's thursday. gross. so here's some of the highlights:
i don't remember tuesday. this is why i can't leave this too long. cause it all blends together. i'm trying to remember one thing. OH!!! modules. basically auditions. so the students have like 5 modules - dance, vocal, speaking, tech, and costumes. and i was in the vocal ones. taking notes. judging who might get a solo and such. that was pretty cool. and then went over into wednesday too.
the culture jam was on wednesday. basically all the students can showcase something from their country or culture. like we have a salsa, ethiopian, japanese, native american and thai dance. singing in all kinds of different languages. and all kinds of cool stuff. pretty sweet. except it meant a late night. like i didn't get home till 10. 7-10. gross. hahahaha but not really.
today we did a stereotype activity. people wrote down their stereotypes of each others countries. pretty interesting! and then the road staff did some team building stuff - like the human knot and such. and the speaker (and almuna) had just had a baby. like two weeks ago! WOW!! so i got to hold little baby joey (a girl) for a good little while and that made me so happy. soooo cute.
and then at the end of the day matt and i ran down to the basement and sang a little bit to close off the day. we're working on the song 'realize' by colbie caliate. or however you spell her name. i feel like i've already attempted this in a blog. hmmmm. anyways. i love it. and i love singing with matt. he's going to be my brodie this semester.
i take the bus home with three other student. milou from the netherlands, josh from the usa, and seung-boem from south korea. so we're waiting in line to load the bus and i came to realize tha seung-boem is HILARIOUS! holy crap this kid! hahaha nearly had me in tears! cause his english isn't too great yet, it's good but . . . you know . . . still a lot of confusing moments. so he had asked what i did today. so i said that the staff did some team building. and he says (in his cute little korean accent) 'oh like body building?!?!'. hahaaha. and then it just went uphill from there. but i can't even explain what happened. it was good though. and it ended with seung-boem teaching us how to say sweet potatoe in korean. WHAT?!?!?! hahaha i wish i remembered what it was! anyways i love this kid now. i'm going to look forward to this everyday.
and so now i'm at home. my host grandpa (matt's dad) and host grandma (cindy's mom - ps with her dog allie) are both visiting tonight so it's a little crazier then usual around here. exciting though.
okay. caught up. alright. until tomorrow. hopefully.
peace out!
July 14, 2008
dress codes and a new cast.
so monday was my first offical day. pretty exciting. like we had to wear a number two.
hmmmm . . . that means nothing to a non-uppie. so here's the deal - we have a dress code number system. it is as follows:
number one - best thing you own. dress and heels or suit and tie. usually worn on days we're meeting REALLY important people. like presidents of countries.
number two - business. dress pants and top/dress/skirt/tie's are encouraged. absolutely no jeans and only closed toe shoes (with the exception of some nice sandals for girls)
number three - everyday. jeans and tee basically.
number four - work out/rehearsal clothes.
number five - anything that can get paint or dirt on it. and obtain h0les. worn on some community service sites (ie. habitat for humanity)
so yeah i made my way to downtown denver and headed to the Up with People office, met up with cody and katie outside, and stopped at the fifth floor. inside the conferance room was basically everyone who works for UwP. office staff, road staff, FM's (field managers - go to the cities ahead of the cast and set up facilities and host families and such), regional staff (like paul whittiker who sets up all the places we go in asia basically), and of course Tommy Spaulding. our ceo and president. so tommy got up and spoke to us for awhile and it was just incredible. like he rocks my socks off. i've never met anyone so completely passionate about what they do. and he told us that we were the best team that the new uwp (since 2006) has put together yet. wow. i almost cried a couple times. i'm SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to be doing this. holy moly.
and so we basically had meetings all day. financial stuff and where the company is heading (which is really exciting stuff - i'm so pumped to be a part of this awesome transition!)
and then at night we had an staff awards ceremony. i guess it used to be an annual thing . . . but it hasn't happened since '99. so it was really nice. had a nice dinner. applauded for people that really deserved the recognition that they got.
the rest of the week was fairly standard. we were at the sherman center - which is the building where i had my staging. it's like this 100 year old building that has like 6 floors and it's just crazy and is really cool. i love it.
basically the whole week i was back in the basement (remember with the band last summer?!?!) with michael bowerman (the music director), bill (cast vocals and as a side-note his son is in The Fray.), and dekker (works with soloist and is a fellow canadian). we talked about what to expect and what we're going to do as the music team. and then one day they sat me down and asically had a three hour advice for kady session. which was long but also really cool cause all three of them have done my job. and they're still working for up with people so they're pretty much pro. so i'm trying to learn as much from them as possible in the next four weeks.
and yeah that's about all i remember about last week. oh wait. up until friday.
cause friday the cast got in. YAY!!!! the PA team (performing arts - music, dance, and tech) had rehearsal and meetings all day but after our day was done i got to go to the airport for a bit and then back to the montebello center where everyone gathers. i met some awesome students, however i remember few names. it was awesome so see their reactions to the whole beginning though . . . made me remember my first day.
and so saturday was a host family day. i slept in a bit and then headed out to sienna's swim meet. and she's like pro. and she's like 11. i only stayed around for one events . . . but she won all five of the events she was in and set like two record times. rediculous. and so i walked home from that and it was nice . . like a 40min walk. but i wish i had of brought water. it can get so hot here. and since we're at a really high elevation it's really dry. i'm always thirsty.
sooooo . . . did some laundry. talked to home. took a nap. and then matt (host dad) and i headed out to boulder to meet up with some of his friends an we had a little picnic-ish thing outside. and then cindy (host mom) joined us. she ran a 50km run that day. and got 3rd. i'm telling you . . . this family is crazy!!!!
and then we sat outside and listen to a band . . . the cowboy junkies . . . who are apparently canadain. who knew?!?!
sunday i made it to church which was great. and i found out that it's close enough that i can totally walk or bike. alright! then sunday afternoon we had opening session. a little preview of the show for the students and their host families. our cast manager martin spoke to them and so did tommy spaulding. and we did a couple numbers. like the song 'room for everyone' and at the end of the song all the staff members come out . . . each carrying the flag of one of the countries represented within the cast. we've got 22 this semester.
and then we kept going with a couple more songs. i got to sing the solo for 'keep the beat' which i had never sang before. pretty exciting. and then afterwards we had a little social for all the students and their host families. but i was really hot (150+ people) and really loud (150+ uppie people).
so cody drove me home and i had a nice supper at home. and then we watched this REALLY weird movie called 'the seeker'. don't watch it. it was one of the weirdest movies i've ever seen. like afterwards i just had this really erie feeling stuck with me. eww.
and now i'm caught up and i'm going to write today seperately because it's a new week. alright.
brb.
gross. i should never say that ever.
hmmmm . . . that means nothing to a non-uppie. so here's the deal - we have a dress code number system. it is as follows:
number one - best thing you own. dress and heels or suit and tie. usually worn on days we're meeting REALLY important people. like presidents of countries.
number two - business. dress pants and top/dress/skirt/tie's are encouraged. absolutely no jeans and only closed toe shoes (with the exception of some nice sandals for girls)
number three - everyday. jeans and tee basically.
number four - work out/rehearsal clothes.
number five - anything that can get paint or dirt on it. and obtain h0les. worn on some community service sites (ie. habitat for humanity)
so yeah i made my way to downtown denver and headed to the Up with People office, met up with cody and katie outside, and stopped at the fifth floor. inside the conferance room was basically everyone who works for UwP. office staff, road staff, FM's (field managers - go to the cities ahead of the cast and set up facilities and host families and such), regional staff (like paul whittiker who sets up all the places we go in asia basically), and of course Tommy Spaulding. our ceo and president. so tommy got up and spoke to us for awhile and it was just incredible. like he rocks my socks off. i've never met anyone so completely passionate about what they do. and he told us that we were the best team that the new uwp (since 2006) has put together yet. wow. i almost cried a couple times. i'm SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to be doing this. holy moly.
and so we basically had meetings all day. financial stuff and where the company is heading (which is really exciting stuff - i'm so pumped to be a part of this awesome transition!)
and then at night we had an staff awards ceremony. i guess it used to be an annual thing . . . but it hasn't happened since '99. so it was really nice. had a nice dinner. applauded for people that really deserved the recognition that they got.
the rest of the week was fairly standard. we were at the sherman center - which is the building where i had my staging. it's like this 100 year old building that has like 6 floors and it's just crazy and is really cool. i love it.
basically the whole week i was back in the basement (remember with the band last summer?!?!) with michael bowerman (the music director), bill (cast vocals and as a side-note his son is in The Fray.), and dekker (works with soloist and is a fellow canadian). we talked about what to expect and what we're going to do as the music team. and then one day they sat me down and asically had a three hour advice for kady session. which was long but also really cool cause all three of them have done my job. and they're still working for up with people so they're pretty much pro. so i'm trying to learn as much from them as possible in the next four weeks.
and yeah that's about all i remember about last week. oh wait. up until friday.
cause friday the cast got in. YAY!!!! the PA team (performing arts - music, dance, and tech) had rehearsal and meetings all day but after our day was done i got to go to the airport for a bit and then back to the montebello center where everyone gathers. i met some awesome students, however i remember few names. it was awesome so see their reactions to the whole beginning though . . . made me remember my first day.
and so saturday was a host family day. i slept in a bit and then headed out to sienna's swim meet. and she's like pro. and she's like 11. i only stayed around for one events . . . but she won all five of the events she was in and set like two record times. rediculous. and so i walked home from that and it was nice . . like a 40min walk. but i wish i had of brought water. it can get so hot here. and since we're at a really high elevation it's really dry. i'm always thirsty.
sooooo . . . did some laundry. talked to home. took a nap. and then matt (host dad) and i headed out to boulder to meet up with some of his friends an we had a little picnic-ish thing outside. and then cindy (host mom) joined us. she ran a 50km run that day. and got 3rd. i'm telling you . . . this family is crazy!!!!
and then we sat outside and listen to a band . . . the cowboy junkies . . . who are apparently canadain. who knew?!?!
sunday i made it to church which was great. and i found out that it's close enough that i can totally walk or bike. alright! then sunday afternoon we had opening session. a little preview of the show for the students and their host families. our cast manager martin spoke to them and so did tommy spaulding. and we did a couple numbers. like the song 'room for everyone' and at the end of the song all the staff members come out . . . each carrying the flag of one of the countries represented within the cast. we've got 22 this semester.
and then we kept going with a couple more songs. i got to sing the solo for 'keep the beat' which i had never sang before. pretty exciting. and then afterwards we had a little social for all the students and their host families. but i was really hot (150+ people) and really loud (150+ uppie people).
so cody drove me home and i had a nice supper at home. and then we watched this REALLY weird movie called 'the seeker'. don't watch it. it was one of the weirdest movies i've ever seen. like afterwards i just had this really erie feeling stuck with me. eww.
and now i'm caught up and i'm going to write today seperately because it's a new week. alright.
brb.
gross. i should never say that ever.
July 12, 2008
and so it begins
okay. catch up time. and i thought i was bad at this last year - now i'm even busier. agh. i'll do my best though.
so i left off at wednesday. i think. we did the showcase show, and then party at the erleys. good times (not in the maritimes though - cait i always want to say this now but i can't cause i'm not in the maritimes. sad day)
my host family went camping for the long weekend, so i celebrated independance day on my own. i did get to see some fireworks though . . . and let me tell you, they are hardcore here. lasted like three hours. whoa. i also drove to the flatirons mall to buy sneakers . . . and didn't crash and die on these crazy colorado highways. our highways back home are a joke. i was a little nervous here. but i made it there and back in one piece with no damage to the stonesmiths car so all it well.
saturday i headed out early in the morning cause we had our staff retreat!! yay!!! so i met matt and we drove into denver to meet up with everyone else and head up to the mountain town, Evergreen.
so i'm going to stop here for a sec and let you know who the staff is. cause i'm sure i'll be talking about them a lot. so here's a little mini bio on all of them:
martin - cast manager (traveled as CM for my cast)
scott - assistant cast manager (married to ellen)
ellen - education manager (married to scott)
aoife - education coordinator (traveled as staff with my cast, we call each other sister cause we were roommates three times last year)
mitch - education coordinator (also traveled as staff with my cast)
celiana - business manager and marketing coordinator (traveled as staff with my cast)
dave - admissions coordinator (traveled as student with me)
matt - business administrator (traveled with cast B last summer, so we were in denver at the same time last year) NEW STAFF!
molly - logistic coordinator (just got off the road with cast a) NEW STAFF!
nathan - technical manager and sound tech (from canada! yay! is new) NEW STAFF!
anthony - lights tech (just got off the road) NEW STAFF!
rafa - video tech (traveled with cast b last summer) NEW STAFF!
gabe - show manager (traveled as staff with cast b last year)
yui - dance captain (traveled with my cast)
me - music coordinator! NEW STAFF!
so as you can see there's an awesome mix of oldies and newbies. and so over the weekend we hung out and got to know each other and stuff. talked about our goals and what we want to been seen as as staff. we were sadly missing nathan and celi - both stuck in the respective countries or canada and venezuela. nathan got here last monday though and celi's getting here this week! yay!!!
we ate lots and talked even more. at one point matt and i sat down at the piano and started singing and playing around - singing realize by colbie calait (sp?!?!) and hallelujah by leanord cohen. good times (not in the maritimes though.) we bbqed over a fire and roasted marshmellows, played a crazy game (jesus gnomes against the flamingos) and then headed off to bed.
sunday morning we all woke up and made breakfast together. i was in charge of pancakes . . . and it was just like home! hahhaah making over 20 pancakes for a full house. it was just a lot of fun . . . some of us have known each other for a year or more . . . some for no more then a week . . . but we all seem to mesh really well and i know we've got a kick ass team going on here. yeah!
so then matt drove me home and i was super lazy and then the stonesmiths came home and i caught up with them and then off to bed again.
so there's the first week. i'm going to try and write this last week tonight but right now i promise sienna a games a cards so i'm going to peace out.
<3
so i left off at wednesday. i think. we did the showcase show, and then party at the erleys. good times (not in the maritimes though - cait i always want to say this now but i can't cause i'm not in the maritimes. sad day)
my host family went camping for the long weekend, so i celebrated independance day on my own. i did get to see some fireworks though . . . and let me tell you, they are hardcore here. lasted like three hours. whoa. i also drove to the flatirons mall to buy sneakers . . . and didn't crash and die on these crazy colorado highways. our highways back home are a joke. i was a little nervous here. but i made it there and back in one piece with no damage to the stonesmiths car so all it well.
saturday i headed out early in the morning cause we had our staff retreat!! yay!!! so i met matt and we drove into denver to meet up with everyone else and head up to the mountain town, Evergreen.
so i'm going to stop here for a sec and let you know who the staff is. cause i'm sure i'll be talking about them a lot. so here's a little mini bio on all of them:
martin - cast manager (traveled as CM for my cast)
scott - assistant cast manager (married to ellen)
ellen - education manager (married to scott)
aoife - education coordinator (traveled as staff with my cast, we call each other sister cause we were roommates three times last year)
mitch - education coordinator (also traveled as staff with my cast)
celiana - business manager and marketing coordinator (traveled as staff with my cast)
dave - admissions coordinator (traveled as student with me)
matt - business administrator (traveled with cast B last summer, so we were in denver at the same time last year) NEW STAFF!
molly - logistic coordinator (just got off the road with cast a) NEW STAFF!
nathan - technical manager and sound tech (from canada! yay! is new) NEW STAFF!
anthony - lights tech (just got off the road) NEW STAFF!
rafa - video tech (traveled with cast b last summer) NEW STAFF!
gabe - show manager (traveled as staff with cast b last year)
yui - dance captain (traveled with my cast)
me - music coordinator! NEW STAFF!
so as you can see there's an awesome mix of oldies and newbies. and so over the weekend we hung out and got to know each other and stuff. talked about our goals and what we want to been seen as as staff. we were sadly missing nathan and celi - both stuck in the respective countries or canada and venezuela. nathan got here last monday though and celi's getting here this week! yay!!!
we ate lots and talked even more. at one point matt and i sat down at the piano and started singing and playing around - singing realize by colbie calait (sp?!?!) and hallelujah by leanord cohen. good times (not in the maritimes though.) we bbqed over a fire and roasted marshmellows, played a crazy game (jesus gnomes against the flamingos) and then headed off to bed.
sunday morning we all woke up and made breakfast together. i was in charge of pancakes . . . and it was just like home! hahhaah making over 20 pancakes for a full house. it was just a lot of fun . . . some of us have known each other for a year or more . . . some for no more then a week . . . but we all seem to mesh really well and i know we've got a kick ass team going on here. yeah!
so then matt drove me home and i was super lazy and then the stonesmiths came home and i caught up with them and then off to bed again.
so there's the first week. i'm going to try and write this last week tonight but right now i promise sienna a games a cards so i'm going to peace out.
<3
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