okay cabo. first host fam!!! yeah! cause in denver i had the stonesmiths - who aren't really a host family cause i already knew them. and then in breckinridge we had a staff condo. and then la paz i was in the staff hotel. SO . . . cabo was the first real host fam of the semester. YAY! i had my host dad pedro, and host mom lupeta, and host sister rosario (who was 15). and i had host brother pedro and his girlfriend paulina, who didn't live with us but visited often cause pedro spoke english and paulina was trying to learn. and three little host weiner dogs. hahaaha AWESOME!
so cabo was awesome and not awesome at the same time. it was weird in that we were in two different cities - san jose del cabo and cabo san lucas - both combined make up cabo, however the cities are 45mins and we had people hosted in both cities! so on our community impact days we stayed in our respective cities and had seperate morning meetings and CI sites. crazy! and we had two shows this week. one in each of the cities! so on friday we set up the equiptment (in a baseball stadium - let me offically say i hate outdoor facilities), did rehearsal in the 45 degree heat (UGH!), did a show, and then took down the set. and then did it all again the next day! INSANE!!!! and it was so rediculously hot. like whoa. and just the whole two days in a row. usually after a show day you have a free day. not another show day. they usually run from 8am until 1.30am. and so two in a row was rediculous. and outdoor facilities are crazy. we've had so much trouble with overheating, and getting sufficent power, and rain (therefore having to cover everything) and all kinds of crazy. AGHHH!! hahahah definitley kept us on our toes.
regional learning day was also awesome and crazy. we started off by going to a really poor area of san jose del cabo. for a lot of the people in the cast it was the fisrt time they've ever seen poverty like that. i talked to a man there who had seven children, all under the age of eight or nine. they had this tiny little house and he was just so proud of it. he kept boasting to me about the beautiful view of the mountains they have. makes you realize how great you really have it, when people like that are just so greatful for what little they do have. we kinda stuck out here and so after awhile there was a lot of little kids following us around - so we started playing games with them. and it was really fun and cute. and then i found this little baby and she was just four months old and her mom let me hold her and she was just the cutest.
then after that we drove out to the middle of no where. like a two hour drive. and the guy in charge hadn't told us where we were going so there was a whole bunch of us staff in a 12 passenger van and we were all going nuts wondering where we were going. so we made it to our destination - a mango farm. with a waterfall. but we had to walk like a kilometer to get there. but it was awesome. and the students loved it.
so then we drove back to cabo san lucas and we got on a cruise! like a mini one - but it was still awesome. and we watched the sunset on the water and they had a live band playing, and i had my fish caviar ever (like this thing was swanky, it was sushi with caviar). and we all just got to hang out and it was great. took a lot of jumping shots on the deck!
one of the ci's was crazy. it was grandparnets day there and we were going to help out serving them food and such. and i was told that we were going to perform two songs accapella. so i was all ready for that. had my singers ready and such. and then when we got there the director guy asked where our costumes where! he was expecting a full BTS with costumes and the whole shebang! and we started yelling at mitch (education coordinator) and so we started getting on the phone and trying to figure everything out and it was really nuts. in the end we just did what we were told we would be doing. one to one and viva le gente (up with people in spanish). and then we helped make up the plates of food in the kitchen. it was SOOOOOOO hot. like rediculously. like sweat dripping down my face. i had to get someon to take over for me a couple times so that i could go wipe my face off so that the grandparents didn't get a side of sweat with their meal. gross.
on the host fam day we drove out to this secluded beach that was gorgeous! we couldn't go swimming cause the waves were too crazy but it was really nice. hahahahah and they had asked me at the first of the week if i drank tequila, and i said no but i like beer, so they totally bought some beer and we just sat on the beach and listened to music and i took a nap and it was awesome.
the travel day this week was a little nuts. so la paz and cabo are in the baja penninsula (i know, i know, i can't spell for crap), so we had to bus back to la paz (3 hrs) and then take a ferry to the mainland (6 hrs) and then bus to Tepic (11hrs). GOOD DAY! hahaha ugh. but the ferry was awesome. had some good best friend time with molly, just sitting out on the deck and talking, ended up getting sunburnt. once it got dark me, mols, dave and matt all went up to the top deck and looked at the stars. it was awesome! and we saw the best shooting star any of us have ever seen. like it was incredible.
i had such a long bus ride cause there wasn't enough room on these buses for everyone. martin and anthony had flown to arizona to pick up one of the vans and were supposed to meet us down there, and me, gabe and dave had voulenteered to stay where the ferry dropped us overnight to meet them in the morning to drive to tepic, but they got stuck at the border. SO dave, gabe and i ended up on a 11 hour bus ride. like one that stops at every town, turns on the lights and lets people off. we got off the ferry at around 10. we go to bus stop and there was one leaving at 11.30pm. but we decided to compared prices with the bus station down the road. it was sketchy. but when we got back they had sold out of tickets for the 11.30 bus! UGH! so we had to wait until 12.30. GROSS. but we met this guy from BC who is just backpacking around. actually trying to make his way up to montreal, cause his girlfriend is going to school there. random eh? he was pretty cool. so we finally get on this bus. and it's FREEZING! like dave and i are shivering in our seats. and we're all curled up into balls, trying to make ourselves are comfortable as you can in a bus. and so at one of the stops the lady next to me gave me her polarfleece sweater. cause she had a blanket too and saw that i was obviously freezing. hahahaha cause who thinks to pack a sweater for an overnight in mexico??? anyways i loved her. a lot. so being a little bit warmer i got more sleep. oh and we made a stop at some random town in mexico and the bus driver told us to get out cause he had to get gas. so he dropped off everyone at this busstop, and it's 5.30am, and says that he'll be back in 20mins. totally took like like 40mins. and gabe and i were freaking out that he came back and we had somehow missed it and now we were stuck in Godknowswhere, mexico. but he finally showed up and we headed off again. i slept the majority of the bus ride. dave shared his music, listened to the Once soundtrack. good stuff.
October 14, 2008
September 4, 2008
mucho hot.
la paz. oh la paz.
first of all mexico is hot. like whoa hot. like 28degress and 7.30am without the humidity.
who's idea was it to tour mexico in augest?!?!?
anyways after that crazy travel day we flew into cabo and bussed to la paz. we stopped along the way and got our first mexican meal - at this little food shop run by this family, we probably gave them the most business they'll get in months! aoife and i didn't want to wait in the line, so we checked out some pastry things that we assumed had meat in them. wrong! they were filled with caramel!!! SOOO GOOD!
so every week some staff members stay in a hotel - we have a vehicle and can go get anyone in an emergency. and back in staging we could request where we'd like to stay in the hotel - i said that i would like to stay in the hotel in mexico twice. so i was in la paz. and man did i luck out.
it was soooo nice!!! and we ended up getting the week with two free days! two sundays! YAY! the first day - the sunday - i woke up to molly walking around the room. so i asked her what time it was. and it was 12.45pm. holy crap! hahaah that travel day had taken a bit out of us! we basically lounged around the pool all day. God sometimes i hate my job . . . . . ;)
so it was me and molly, martin and kory riggs (mexican tour director or some title like that), ken and nathan, and michael and gaby. pretty sweet. and it was so nice to be able to go home at night to a sweet air conditioned hotel room. only downside was that there was no laundry. and there wasn't the week before either. is resulted in me washing stuff in the sink with shampoo and hanging around the room. and that doesn't quite cut it. i did laundry here in cabo for the first time in 2 and a half weeks. i don't think i've ever appreciated clean clothes more!!!!! they smelled soooo good! i was starting to feel like such a dirt!!!
so on monday i had a mic group workshop. mexican medley. basically a medley of popular songs from mexico. medleys are just so tough for mic groups. cause it's just all over the place with key changes and tempo changes. but they picked it up really fast! we also do three of our regular songs in spanish - sound of peace, we'll be there, and up with people. and well we added 'de que color' ('what color is god's skin' in english) and a mariachi moment. agh! learn it all in one week! man.
tuesday we had regional learning. did a bus tour. stopped at a church - was awesome! the cast left to get ice cream but i got to stay in the church and catch up with the big man for a bit. sweet. and then everyone headed out to the beach. i've never felt water so warm!! it was so great - although i'm sure the other beach goers didn't agress - invaded by 100 uppies. best thing was that we had a great game of football in the water!
the next two days were also dedicated to mexican show stuff. i had soloist and mic groups signed out both days. but they're rockstars and learned it so fast! yes!
one of the nights the hotel staff went to eat downtown - along the beach. so we're eating outside and there are these two guys playing a little live entertainment. guitar and bass. and the guitarist was singing. and he wasn't very good. so he's attempting to do hotel californina or something like that and doesn't know the words. so he asks our (me, molly, martin, kory, and nathan) table if any of us know the words. kory tells him i sing. but i tell him i don't know the words to that song. so he's all well what can you sing and i'll play it for you. and i told him that i'm pretty sure he wouldn't know anything that i know, but if he gives me his guitar i can play for myself. hahahah i think he was a little suprised at that! so i get up and sing umbrella. obviously. and i got an otra (encore!). so i did realize by colbie caillat. but i wish that matt was there for that. me and matt kill that song. like whoa harmony central! but it was still pretty awesome. hahahaha just a cool moment that afterwards made realize how much i love my life. just doing a little gig in la paz, mexico. oh and after i was done kory got up and in spanish was like 'if you want to hear her sing more come to the show . . .blahblah blah'! hahahaha sweet. there was quite a few people that had stopped along the melicon (boardwalk and i probably didn't spell it right) - but probably just cause they we thinking 'who the heck is this random white girl singing crazy music?'
anyways. hmmm something else cool. oh we were sponsored partically by coca cola! lots of free powerade! we did an awesome BTS on the melicon with the sun setting over tha water behind us! and the stage was way unstable and during 'keep the beat' i thought it was going to collapse! had a culture presentation from arnab - learned some about bangledesh! sweet!
so this time in mexico we have a lot of outdoor shows.
i offically hate outdoor shows.
yeah they sounds cool - but technically they are a pain in the arse. like getting the stages built. and getting power. so far they've all been in baseball stadiums - and in la paz, where it apparently just 'three times a year', it rained on our show day. so our set up that was already behind due to lack of stage and power, also got put on hold and we had tarps over all the equiptment and man it was just crazy. he had to put rehearsal on hold for awhile cause we didn't want the dancers to slip on the wet stage. and when it rains here - it doesn't cool it off. it just makes it more humid. and it wasn't pouring or anything - just a light rain - so we didn't know whether we were going to cancel or not.
but the show must go on. we did it. and it worked. kinda. there was a lot of mishaps. show wise and tech wise. sad day. but we got through the show. and the mexican medley - was way better then i expected! i was so proud of all my little non-spanish speakers up rocking the spanish songs!! oh and ps. we have jess.
yes. jessica rojas. the most incredible singers i've ever heard in my life. she travelled in cast B07 at the same time as me last summer, and then again this last time in A08. and she's travelling with us for our mexican tour as vocal support. cause this girl is incredible. like wow. you haven't heard someone sing until you've heard her. i get goosebumps every time i hear her. she does this mariachi moment in the show and she starts off with this note that she holds for forever. like she was timed once and it was 41seconds. i can't hold my breath that long - let alone belt a note! jeez louise!
so the show was alright. and michael - aka my boss - was there for the week and so he gave me all kinds of suggestions and advice and stuff to work on. sweet!
and that's about it. i was an extreme amount of lazy the whole next day. and it was good.
peace out.
first of all mexico is hot. like whoa hot. like 28degress and 7.30am without the humidity.
who's idea was it to tour mexico in augest?!?!?
anyways after that crazy travel day we flew into cabo and bussed to la paz. we stopped along the way and got our first mexican meal - at this little food shop run by this family, we probably gave them the most business they'll get in months! aoife and i didn't want to wait in the line, so we checked out some pastry things that we assumed had meat in them. wrong! they were filled with caramel!!! SOOO GOOD!
so every week some staff members stay in a hotel - we have a vehicle and can go get anyone in an emergency. and back in staging we could request where we'd like to stay in the hotel - i said that i would like to stay in the hotel in mexico twice. so i was in la paz. and man did i luck out.
it was soooo nice!!! and we ended up getting the week with two free days! two sundays! YAY! the first day - the sunday - i woke up to molly walking around the room. so i asked her what time it was. and it was 12.45pm. holy crap! hahaah that travel day had taken a bit out of us! we basically lounged around the pool all day. God sometimes i hate my job . . . . . ;)
so it was me and molly, martin and kory riggs (mexican tour director or some title like that), ken and nathan, and michael and gaby. pretty sweet. and it was so nice to be able to go home at night to a sweet air conditioned hotel room. only downside was that there was no laundry. and there wasn't the week before either. is resulted in me washing stuff in the sink with shampoo and hanging around the room. and that doesn't quite cut it. i did laundry here in cabo for the first time in 2 and a half weeks. i don't think i've ever appreciated clean clothes more!!!!! they smelled soooo good! i was starting to feel like such a dirt!!!
so on monday i had a mic group workshop. mexican medley. basically a medley of popular songs from mexico. medleys are just so tough for mic groups. cause it's just all over the place with key changes and tempo changes. but they picked it up really fast! we also do three of our regular songs in spanish - sound of peace, we'll be there, and up with people. and well we added 'de que color' ('what color is god's skin' in english) and a mariachi moment. agh! learn it all in one week! man.
tuesday we had regional learning. did a bus tour. stopped at a church - was awesome! the cast left to get ice cream but i got to stay in the church and catch up with the big man for a bit. sweet. and then everyone headed out to the beach. i've never felt water so warm!! it was so great - although i'm sure the other beach goers didn't agress - invaded by 100 uppies. best thing was that we had a great game of football in the water!
the next two days were also dedicated to mexican show stuff. i had soloist and mic groups signed out both days. but they're rockstars and learned it so fast! yes!
one of the nights the hotel staff went to eat downtown - along the beach. so we're eating outside and there are these two guys playing a little live entertainment. guitar and bass. and the guitarist was singing. and he wasn't very good. so he's attempting to do hotel californina or something like that and doesn't know the words. so he asks our (me, molly, martin, kory, and nathan) table if any of us know the words. kory tells him i sing. but i tell him i don't know the words to that song. so he's all well what can you sing and i'll play it for you. and i told him that i'm pretty sure he wouldn't know anything that i know, but if he gives me his guitar i can play for myself. hahahah i think he was a little suprised at that! so i get up and sing umbrella. obviously. and i got an otra (encore!). so i did realize by colbie caillat. but i wish that matt was there for that. me and matt kill that song. like whoa harmony central! but it was still pretty awesome. hahahaha just a cool moment that afterwards made realize how much i love my life. just doing a little gig in la paz, mexico. oh and after i was done kory got up and in spanish was like 'if you want to hear her sing more come to the show . . .blahblah blah'! hahahaha sweet. there was quite a few people that had stopped along the melicon (boardwalk and i probably didn't spell it right) - but probably just cause they we thinking 'who the heck is this random white girl singing crazy music?'
anyways. hmmm something else cool. oh we were sponsored partically by coca cola! lots of free powerade! we did an awesome BTS on the melicon with the sun setting over tha water behind us! and the stage was way unstable and during 'keep the beat' i thought it was going to collapse! had a culture presentation from arnab - learned some about bangledesh! sweet!
so this time in mexico we have a lot of outdoor shows.
i offically hate outdoor shows.
yeah they sounds cool - but technically they are a pain in the arse. like getting the stages built. and getting power. so far they've all been in baseball stadiums - and in la paz, where it apparently just 'three times a year', it rained on our show day. so our set up that was already behind due to lack of stage and power, also got put on hold and we had tarps over all the equiptment and man it was just crazy. he had to put rehearsal on hold for awhile cause we didn't want the dancers to slip on the wet stage. and when it rains here - it doesn't cool it off. it just makes it more humid. and it wasn't pouring or anything - just a light rain - so we didn't know whether we were going to cancel or not.
but the show must go on. we did it. and it worked. kinda. there was a lot of mishaps. show wise and tech wise. sad day. but we got through the show. and the mexican medley - was way better then i expected! i was so proud of all my little non-spanish speakers up rocking the spanish songs!! oh and ps. we have jess.
yes. jessica rojas. the most incredible singers i've ever heard in my life. she travelled in cast B07 at the same time as me last summer, and then again this last time in A08. and she's travelling with us for our mexican tour as vocal support. cause this girl is incredible. like wow. you haven't heard someone sing until you've heard her. i get goosebumps every time i hear her. she does this mariachi moment in the show and she starts off with this note that she holds for forever. like she was timed once and it was 41seconds. i can't hold my breath that long - let alone belt a note! jeez louise!
so the show was alright. and michael - aka my boss - was there for the week and so he gave me all kinds of suggestions and advice and stuff to work on. sweet!
and that's about it. i was an extreme amount of lazy the whole next day. and it was good.
peace out.
cut +paste = catch up
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!!
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!!
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!
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