she's BACKKKKKK!

well i made it.

it took a little longer then expected but here i am. writing in this at 7am cause i woke up at 5.30 and couldn't get back to sleep. gross.

anyways . . . as many of you know i flew out on monday. from moncton and then i had a connecting flight in toronto. and for any of you who've ever travelled to the states . . . you know that you have to go through customs. i had 45mins to catch my connecting flight, and so i had lots of time. so i picked up my guitar and luggage and waited in line.

so i got up and talked to the customs lady. and everything is fine until she asks how long i'm going to be in the states. so i tell her that i'm here for seven weeks, and then gone to mexico and then back for another eight or something. and so she asks me why. and so i tell her that i'm travelling with this non-profit called up with people. and then she asks what i'll be doing . . . and so i gave her my title. and THEN she asked if i was getting paid.

so i didn't want to lie. cause i mean - what if they caught me in a lie. what then? so i explained that i'm an independant contractor and that i'm working for the company - so i will be getting paid in the states . . . but i'm not working in the states. cause i'll be other places too.

so she's all confused by this and sends me to this american 'room'. i explain again and go sit down. ugh.

so i kinda just hang out. this woman with two little boys sat down next to me. they were from arizona. and then there was this black woman and her little son, who she told us was thirteen months, and he was SOOOO CUTE! he was dressed in a little black puma track suit with black and white puma shoes and his hair was all in cornrows and just too cute. and you could tell he was just learning to walk really well so he was just running around everywhere. and man he was cute.

so i'm sitting there waiting. kinda starting to freak out a bit - and this air canada lady comes in and asks if anyone in on the flight to denver. so i say that i am. she comes over, takes my name, and then rips the tags off my luggage and guitar and tells me that i've missed my flight. AGHHHHHHHHHH. but then she said to just go see her when i was done and she'd book me a new one.

so i finally got permission to come into the states. and i guess i'm lucky i did at all cause the guy who's supposed to be our sound tech guy (from ontario) got sent back home. and if they've flagged him in the system then he won't be able to get here ever. agh!! this could be a huge problem.

so since i missed my connecting flight i got to hang out at the airport for like five hours. ewwwww. and it was a little boring. ahhh well.

i finally got to denver. and libby came and got me. YAY!

so we went to the Up with People warehouse - where the special events cast was practicing for our show on wednesday. and i got to be reunited with so many people that i know and love - and got to meet a lot of people that i've come to love in the short span of a week!

the show itself was nuts. just a 40min preview show - but it was SOOOOOO hot in the warehouse. like thailand hot. like i know it's hot when i'm sweating my face off and all i'm doing is standing and singing. poor dancers. but it went really well, we got really good responces from our special guests. hopefully they'll hire us!!! :D

oh and so i'm staying with the stonesmiths again - same host family as last year. and i loves them. i love that i'm back here with them cause i'm already comfortable with them and it's just awesome.

and there's so much more to write but i feel bad that i don't have anything at all up yet so i'll just put this on and hopefully it'll satisfy you for the time being. maybe tuesday night i'll do the last couple days. man there is just so much going on. i'm SOOOOOOOO excited. wow.

first offical day tomorrow. meetings all day. 8-9ish. wearing my number two.

alright.


love from denver!

i just figured out how to do that top header thing.

so cool.

thanks to ryan, who i completely stole the idea from. so he gets all credit about how incredibly awesome it is.

:D

18 sleeps!

so excited i might just blow up

okay. so i just got some incredible news.

guess who's going to be the music coordinator for Up with People's Cast B 2008?!?!?

ME!

so i got my dream job. getting paid to teach music around the world. wow. wowowowowowowowowowowowowow. i am SOOOO EXCITED.

so excited that i renamed my blog and i'm writing in it already. hahaha and i don't leave for a month!

so here's where i'm going . . . in case your interested!

Cast B 2008

Orientation: Denver, CO: June 29 -August 11
Colorado: August 11-14
New Mexico: August 14-18
Arizona: August 20-25
Mexico: August 25-September 21
Arizona: September 21-19
New Mexico/Colorado: September 29 - October 6
Utah/Wyoming: October 7-20
South Dakota/Minnesota/Wisconsin: October 20 - November 9
Illinois: November 9-16
Philippines: November 16-end of tour


except i think its changing in that we're going to mexico right after staging. at least that's what tim lane said. and he's the vice president so i assume he knows what he's talking about.

YAY!!! I <3 UWP!

okay in for another short one. but i really need to catch up. although i should be writing my paper for the UN on global peace that's due tomorrow. but i am not. maybe tomorrow night.

north carolina. winston-salem to be exact. i lived on my own this week. with a lady by the name of lavonda boston. what a name. i did CI at the ronald macdonald house. which was really awesome cause i stayed there for a couple days when i was little - so it was really cool to kinda give back to them. i organized their food cabinet. it took like 3 hours. soooo much food. we did a bts (backing track show) at a kids hospital, and we met this little boy jonathan who was just incredible. the band did admissions presentations at the high school and it was my first time doing that! yay! except we missed the first macy's parade rehersal, and i was a little upset about that. okay and i went out to eat at a japanese grill, where the chef cooked everything in front of us on a grill thing. and he set things on fire and it was just fun. and then there was the cat that was always in the church that we were in the whole week. like it was just walking around in the church. creepy . . . .

hmmm okay. oh on saturday night after the show netta came to live with me cause her host family went away for the night. and then in the morning we got up and then picked up brodie cause my host mom belonged to a Unity church, and so does brodie, so all four of us went to that service. and then went out to eat at a 50s diner. and it was fun. and we listened to sexyback on the way to church. in my 60 something year old host moms car. and it was her cd. HAHAHAHHA lovely!

okay i really need sleep. hopefully i'll do another one tomorrow.

okay. wow. this is the most behind i've been i think. and my only excuse is that we're back in the states. and it's just nothing really foreign or anything. but i guess i'll give you all a little taste of what is was like to be back in the states.

weird. it had been a couple months since i could read all the sings along the road. or hear english conversations occuring all around me. i think i had more culture shock re-entering our western society then i did in thailand or europe or any of the other places i've ever been. weird.

so our first stop was gwinette county - just outside of atlanta, georgia. i lived with vania from
bulgaria this week, and we stayed with an alumni couple, renee and tim, and their 8 and 7 year old sons, will and alex. wow that was a really messed up sentence with all the commas and such. my bad. anyways. they had a MASSIVE house. wow. so beautiful. and they were just awesome. it was really cool cause they just kind of understood what it's like in up with people. umm this week is a little hazy cause i took so long to write about it. my bad. again. okay but what really stuck out is . . . . martin luther king jr center, boys and girls club, hanging out with the kids there, the middle school that had 876 sixth graders. holy crap!!! our really awesome show facility, with the giant robot outside, eating outside, being slack and hanging out with dave after the show, mitch dancing in the lobby all mitchishly. babysitting my host brothers on saturday night - it was like being home!!!! so weird how it all just came back so naturally. and then on sunday we went to the World of Coke musuem. which was really cool.

yay and that's atlanta. well gwinette county. same dif though. okay hopefully i'll get around to north carolina soonish.