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.
September 4, 2008
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!
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.
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