So i believe I left off with Friday... Well Friday evening came with TONS of rain, which is great for the Denver area, but actually made my travel to where my host family picks Suzanne and I up an interesting adventure! I found out that day that Suzanne hates thunder and lightning and I love it so everytime the thunder would clap or the lightning would illuminate the sky Suzanne would kind of jump and I would laugh! :) It was a great experience trecking through the downpour and the many puddles with her! By the time we got to the train station we were both drentched from head to toe! It reminded me of the time right before I left when my dad and I went running and when we started out it was not raining but looked kind of threatening and then by the time we got half way around the circle that we run it started raining and we were completely drenched by the time we got home, but we had fun with it!! :) [Love you dad!]
After Friday came Saturday, which brought about many events. We had our first Thai prep in which they told us a little about the places we were going. We are going to Puket and Nampong... Our travel day to Puket from the states will take approximately 27 hours and Nampong is actually a very small agricultural village in which very few homes have air conditioning! I am getting so excited for Thailand and I can hardly wait! After our Thai prep we went on another community impact day. We met up with Junior highschool students from around Colorado that are participating in a program called Leaders Challenge. We all were split up into smaller groups and went to different places around the Denver area and did a variety of things. I went to St. Francis, which is the only homeless shelter in the Denver area that is open all day. When we got there we were given a small tour of the facility and then began painting the walls to help give the place a more welcoming and pleasant feel. It was a lot of fun, especially getting the chance to connect with high school students who wanted to be helping their community and had the passion to make a difference. It was so awesome getting to know everyone! After the community impact project was finished and our day with UWP was done, Maria from Sweden invited me and a couple other girls to the Rockies vs. Dodgers game with her host dad! It was great, especially because Maria, Suzanne, and Kim had never been to a baseball game before, nor had they ever been in a stadium as big as Coors Stadium before!
Then today Suzanne and I went to the Japanese Dragon Boat races with our host parents!! Dragon boat races are where all these people pile into a long row boat shaped like a dragon and row together and try to beat the other team! Along with the boat races there were many booths about different Asian countries, and different performances from different cultures including Chinese Kung Fu (AMAZING)!!! So now you are all up to speed on what has been happening with me!! Also, you should all check out our cast blog at www.castc2007.com!!! It has bios of all the students traveling, information about the different community impact programs that we do, lots of pictures, and much much more!!! Also, I want to apologize for any spelling errors that I have along the way... but until next time... peace out!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
More staging stuff!!
So the beginning of the week began with more singing, dancing, and blocking!! But we also had a guest speaker come and talk with us about working through cultural barriers and using our understanding of different cultures to help bridge gaps. He was a really interesting speaker and the week before he came and spoke to us with some of the representative of the United Nations!! It was way cool to hear about his stories and to get information from him. The thing I liked most about him was that it wasn't a seminar in which we just sat and listened to him talk about what we should be doing, he actually just gave us ideas and really let us think about problems and solutions on our own! I think this was great because it let each of us really take ownership of what we were doing and so even though we were all sitting in the same room listening to the same speaker, we each got something different out of it!
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent doing more dancing, singing, and blocking. (What a suprise) But on Thursday we got to spend the entire day in Boulder, CO. It was such a beautiful place and the day we incredible!! We started by doing a scavenger hunt around the city, which led us to the University of Colorado at Boulder's campus (also beautiful by the way) and also downtown. We learned so many little pieces of information about the area (Like the fact that it has a hotel named Boulderado after Boulder and Colorado) and it was just a good time to spend some relaxation time with my cast mates and get to know some of them a little better! After the scavenger hunt we went on a tour of Celestial Tea Factory! Oh man the smells I smelled!! It was so great! I think my favorite was definitely the Peppermint room in which the peppermint smell is almost overwhelming but still wonderful all the same!! It was an amazing time!
And finally today, we did more dancing, blocking, and singing as usual!! But more to come later!!
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent doing more dancing, singing, and blocking. (What a suprise) But on Thursday we got to spend the entire day in Boulder, CO. It was such a beautiful place and the day we incredible!! We started by doing a scavenger hunt around the city, which led us to the University of Colorado at Boulder's campus (also beautiful by the way) and also downtown. We learned so many little pieces of information about the area (Like the fact that it has a hotel named Boulderado after Boulder and Colorado) and it was just a good time to spend some relaxation time with my cast mates and get to know some of them a little better! After the scavenger hunt we went on a tour of Celestial Tea Factory! Oh man the smells I smelled!! It was so great! I think my favorite was definitely the Peppermint room in which the peppermint smell is almost overwhelming but still wonderful all the same!! It was an amazing time!
And finally today, we did more dancing, blocking, and singing as usual!! But more to come later!!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The past week...
So much has happened since I last wrote on here and my apologies for not keep all of you more up to date! I am going to try to recap this past week for all y’all so I can bring you up to speed. We have been dancing and singing everyday this week which has been a lot of fun! Starting with Monday though, as you know we were placed in casts and I am in Cast C!!! This means that I will be traveling to the East coast and to New York City for the Macy’s Day Parade on November 22nd. We have a 60 second time slot during the parade so you should all tune in!!! I am so excited for this!! Also, we are going to Tucson, AZ after our staging in Denver for the Up with People World Alumni Reunion!! This is going to be too cool and I am so excited to perform for a bunch of incredible alumni!! After that we go straight to Thailand for 3 weeks and we have been told that we should prepare for a real Thailand adventure because most of the host families that have been arranged already do not speak any English at all!! I am so ready for this challenge (I think), it will be amazing to learn how to communicate effectively without words!
Tuesday wasn’t quite as eventful, we did a lot of singing, dancing, and spend some time going over policies, and also got together for the first time as Cast C to develop some cast expectations. It was a busy busy day!
On Wednesday UWP brought in leaders from the community to come and talk to us about leadership in small round-table discussions. This was so interesting and definitely the highlight of the day! One of the coolest people I had the opportunity to talk to was a young woman who worked at the University of Colorado at Denver. She was one of the heads of a leadership program that is available for top students at Denver to develop their leadership skills. It is a program that is incorporated into a student’s curriculum. I just found it so interesting and I wonder if it could be applied to the NDSU student body?? I definitely think it is going to be something I look into when I am done with UWP! Also, I got the opportunity to talk to a man that works with the Guild Foundation focusing in Civil rights/justice issues. He was incredibly interesting to me! All of the people that I got the opportunity to talk to was incredible! ( I think there were 5 total) I learned so much about leadership and myself and I feel like the session really helped me to realize even more that I am going to be able to take the experiences that I have in UWP and apply them in my everyday life to become the active member of society that I wish to be!! I truly think that when I am done with my time in UWP I will have a different perspective and a greater passion to work toward different issues in the communities that I go back to!
Thursday we had our first cast blocking session. Cast blocking is where we learn where we are suppose to be on stage and when we move on and off, etc. It was interesting but a lot to take in all in one day. We will continue to work on blocking until our show so it should become like habit to me by the end. Also, I found out that I was chosen to do advance work in the 2nd city in Sweden that we go to, which means that I get to go to this city early and will set up everything for when the cast arrives!! I am way excited about this because that means that I get to spend 3 weeks in Sweden working hard, but also getting the chance to really immerse myself in their culture!!
Friday we had our first CI (community impact) day! We went south of Denver to what they call the Upper South Platte, which is an area where many of the rivers in CO run and it houses over 100,000 acres of forest! We spent our time building new trails, trimming plants that had overgrown onto the trail, and just cleaning up the area. It was quite hot but definitely rewarding work! The guides that we worked with told us that 75% of the Denver area get their water from the rivers that flow through this platte! I thought this was so interesting and all day I was constantly amazed by how everyone put all they could into the projects that we did even if they were hard work or not the most fun, like picking up trash. I think it is so cool how the people in my cast put everything they have into all that they do and am constantly surprised at the incredible things that are accomplished! So our first CI day was a real hit and I can’t wait for more!
Saturday we didn’t get the day off like last weekend, instead we spend more time blocking, dancing, and participating in a diversity program. The diversity program was so incredible! I was once again amazed by the incredible hearts that my cast members have and their abilities to have the confidence to really share intimate things with the entire cast! I feel so blessed that we have only known each other for 2 weeks and yet people are so willing to share who they are and continue to bring everything to the table! I sometimes look at the cast and almost feel as if I don’t deserve to have this many incredible people in my life for 5 more months! I just really admire each and every person in my cast!
Today we got up early and went white water rafting! It was sooo much fun and in order to get to the place where we were rafting, we had to drive through the mountains! The views were spectacular the entire trip. I think I am currently very smitten with Colorado! It is so beautiful and I have decided that in the future I want to be a rapids tour guide, have a horse farm, own a bed and breakfast in the snow covered mountains, and learn to rock climb! Big dreams right:) Anyways, I am continuing to have a blast here in CO and I think it will be sad to have to leave such a beautiful place. By the way, I think the best part about CO is that you can go so many places and see so many things for free (minus the price of gas). Anyways, that is all for now! I hope to post more frequently in the future!
Also, one last note, thanks so much to all of you that have made comments on my blog, I love going back and reading them and it is so good to hear from home!! Thanks again and I send my love!!
Tuesday wasn’t quite as eventful, we did a lot of singing, dancing, and spend some time going over policies, and also got together for the first time as Cast C to develop some cast expectations. It was a busy busy day!
On Wednesday UWP brought in leaders from the community to come and talk to us about leadership in small round-table discussions. This was so interesting and definitely the highlight of the day! One of the coolest people I had the opportunity to talk to was a young woman who worked at the University of Colorado at Denver. She was one of the heads of a leadership program that is available for top students at Denver to develop their leadership skills. It is a program that is incorporated into a student’s curriculum. I just found it so interesting and I wonder if it could be applied to the NDSU student body?? I definitely think it is going to be something I look into when I am done with UWP! Also, I got the opportunity to talk to a man that works with the Guild Foundation focusing in Civil rights/justice issues. He was incredibly interesting to me! All of the people that I got the opportunity to talk to was incredible! ( I think there were 5 total) I learned so much about leadership and myself and I feel like the session really helped me to realize even more that I am going to be able to take the experiences that I have in UWP and apply them in my everyday life to become the active member of society that I wish to be!! I truly think that when I am done with my time in UWP I will have a different perspective and a greater passion to work toward different issues in the communities that I go back to!
Thursday we had our first cast blocking session. Cast blocking is where we learn where we are suppose to be on stage and when we move on and off, etc. It was interesting but a lot to take in all in one day. We will continue to work on blocking until our show so it should become like habit to me by the end. Also, I found out that I was chosen to do advance work in the 2nd city in Sweden that we go to, which means that I get to go to this city early and will set up everything for when the cast arrives!! I am way excited about this because that means that I get to spend 3 weeks in Sweden working hard, but also getting the chance to really immerse myself in their culture!!
Friday we had our first CI (community impact) day! We went south of Denver to what they call the Upper South Platte, which is an area where many of the rivers in CO run and it houses over 100,000 acres of forest! We spent our time building new trails, trimming plants that had overgrown onto the trail, and just cleaning up the area. It was quite hot but definitely rewarding work! The guides that we worked with told us that 75% of the Denver area get their water from the rivers that flow through this platte! I thought this was so interesting and all day I was constantly amazed by how everyone put all they could into the projects that we did even if they were hard work or not the most fun, like picking up trash. I think it is so cool how the people in my cast put everything they have into all that they do and am constantly surprised at the incredible things that are accomplished! So our first CI day was a real hit and I can’t wait for more!
Saturday we didn’t get the day off like last weekend, instead we spend more time blocking, dancing, and participating in a diversity program. The diversity program was so incredible! I was once again amazed by the incredible hearts that my cast members have and their abilities to have the confidence to really share intimate things with the entire cast! I feel so blessed that we have only known each other for 2 weeks and yet people are so willing to share who they are and continue to bring everything to the table! I sometimes look at the cast and almost feel as if I don’t deserve to have this many incredible people in my life for 5 more months! I just really admire each and every person in my cast!
Today we got up early and went white water rafting! It was sooo much fun and in order to get to the place where we were rafting, we had to drive through the mountains! The views were spectacular the entire trip. I think I am currently very smitten with Colorado! It is so beautiful and I have decided that in the future I want to be a rapids tour guide, have a horse farm, own a bed and breakfast in the snow covered mountains, and learn to rock climb! Big dreams right:) Anyways, I am continuing to have a blast here in CO and I think it will be sad to have to leave such a beautiful place. By the way, I think the best part about CO is that you can go so many places and see so many things for free (minus the price of gas). Anyways, that is all for now! I hope to post more frequently in the future!
Also, one last note, thanks so much to all of you that have made comments on my blog, I love going back and reading them and it is so good to hear from home!! Thanks again and I send my love!!
Monday, July 16, 2007
And the tour is...
So I don't have much time but I just wanted to let all of you know that I am officially a proud member of UWP cast C 2007!! This means I will be traveling to Thailand, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Sweden, and the East coast of the United States!! I am so incredibly excited and just wanted to let all of you know!! But I have to go... I will update you on details soon!!! Till next time...
Sunday, July 15, 2007
More about Denver!
Saturday morning our host family took Suzanne and I to the Renaissance festival on the outskirts of Denver! It was a lot of fun just hanging out in the sun and seeing all of the costumes and events. One of the coolest things we saw was this man who played a huge instrument made of many many bells. The contraption weighted over 4 tons!! It was very cool! then today we woke up and went to church with kay and Frank and just spent time relaxing the rest of the day. it has been a rejuvinating Sunday so hopefully it will help when I don't get much sleep in the upcoming days. Also, I am including some pictures of my trip so far so i hope you enjoy them!!
And since I have some time I will explain some of the picutres to you. the first is a picture of me, the rest of the Minnesotians, and Vannessa from New Jersey all getting fake tatoos when we arrived because we had to find something to do while we waited for all of the other students to arrive. the next picture is of the view from the back yard of our host families house!! great right! Following this is the picture of the front of the complex that we have been spending all of our staging time in!! It is a cool facility partially because it is so old and the arcetecture is so great!! Next we have Suzanne and I with Starbucks because Suzanne loves it and she doesn't have it in the netherlands so she likes to stop there almost every day!! She makes me laugh a lot!! Next is during the culture jam that I talked about in an earlier post... this picture is of all the students from Germany who got together and preformed the song "99 Red Balloons"! They had a lot of fun with it and it was very entertaining to watch. Next is a bunch of UWP guys that were board during auditions that put together a little dance number and proceeded to call themselves "Out of Sync". They are hilarious!!! And last there is a picture of Suzanne and I at the Renaissance Festival!!
So that is it for now... but I will be posting again tomorrow night because I find out what tour I get to travel in and so i will let you all know as soon as I do!! See ya later
And since I have some time I will explain some of the picutres to you. the first is a picture of me, the rest of the Minnesotians, and Vannessa from New Jersey all getting fake tatoos when we arrived because we had to find something to do while we waited for all of the other students to arrive. the next picture is of the view from the back yard of our host families house!! great right! Following this is the picture of the front of the complex that we have been spending all of our staging time in!! It is a cool facility partially because it is so old and the arcetecture is so great!! Next we have Suzanne and I with Starbucks because Suzanne loves it and she doesn't have it in the netherlands so she likes to stop there almost every day!! She makes me laugh a lot!! Next is during the culture jam that I talked about in an earlier post... this picture is of all the students from Germany who got together and preformed the song "99 Red Balloons"! They had a lot of fun with it and it was very entertaining to watch. Next is a bunch of UWP guys that were board during auditions that put together a little dance number and proceeded to call themselves "Out of Sync". They are hilarious!!! And last there is a picture of Suzanne and I at the Renaissance Festival!!
So that is it for now... but I will be posting again tomorrow night because I find out what tour I get to travel in and so i will let you all know as soon as I do!! See ya later
Friday, July 13, 2007
More Adventures in CO!!
So the past couple of days have been completely CRAZY!!! We have been doing so much in so little time that it feels like I have already been here for a month!!! A friend of mine explained UWP time to me as one day feels like a week and one week feels like a month and it is totally true!!! I have already begun to learn things about myself that I didn't know and I am already being tested and pulled in directions that I didn't even know existed! First though, I want to recap for you some of the things that have happened this week. On Tuesday we had a workshop on stereotypes and it was very cool. we had paper all over the room with the different countries that the students represented and we all had to go around the room and write down the stereotype that we had of that culture or that country and then the people from that country would get together and pick 3 things they wanted to talk to the entire group about. the comments that were put on the papers were quite interesting and alot of people were very honest which was great because it really gave others a chance to see how their country is looked at from afar. Being from the U.S. it was interesting to see what people thought of our country and many things that were shared made me really think about the systems here in the U.S. and the fact that to me they had always seemed so normal but from the outside looking in they kind of look rediculous.
Wednesday we had our first Culture Jam. A Culture Jam is like a talent show were people can get up on stage and perform some sort of song, dance, poem, etc. from their country or from them personally. It was so great to see all of the incredible talent and us Minnesotians even got up there and did a little diddy about how to speak Minnesotian because since we arrived eveyrone had been poking fun at us for our "accent". It was a great experience and we got quite a few laughs which is always nice. Wednesday also brought about modules, which are a nice name for tryouts. Each student had to sing and dance for the staff so that they can get a feel of the talent that you can bring to the cast. It was good and in between tryouts we had a bit of down time which was very nice for me to just take time to reflect on everything that had been happening in the past couple days and really take time to talk to people about the experiences they have been having and the emotions that have been racing through them. I know for me that coming into UWP has been a culture shock in itself and I still have moments were I freak out inside going, "AM I REALLY DOING THIS!?!?!" and "CAN I REALLY DO THIS!?!?!" but those moments are slowly becoming few and far between.
Thursday brought about our first cast movement and cast vocals day!! We learned our first dance and a couple of songs. Learning the dance definitely made me realize just how much I miss dancing and I am pretty sure I got a crazy stupid grin on my face that wouldn't come off the entire time I was dancing!! I am so glad that I have a whole 5 months to continue dancing and singing!
And finally, today brought more cast movement and cast vocals along with some presentations about tips on keeping a journal on the road and other ways to document your experience, including keeping a blog! I just want to finish with the fact that I am having a wonderful time dispite all of the challenges and freak outs I have had. It is so worth it and I can't wait to experience more! So goodnight or good day depending on when this is read!!
Wednesday we had our first Culture Jam. A Culture Jam is like a talent show were people can get up on stage and perform some sort of song, dance, poem, etc. from their country or from them personally. It was so great to see all of the incredible talent and us Minnesotians even got up there and did a little diddy about how to speak Minnesotian because since we arrived eveyrone had been poking fun at us for our "accent". It was a great experience and we got quite a few laughs which is always nice. Wednesday also brought about modules, which are a nice name for tryouts. Each student had to sing and dance for the staff so that they can get a feel of the talent that you can bring to the cast. It was good and in between tryouts we had a bit of down time which was very nice for me to just take time to reflect on everything that had been happening in the past couple days and really take time to talk to people about the experiences they have been having and the emotions that have been racing through them. I know for me that coming into UWP has been a culture shock in itself and I still have moments were I freak out inside going, "AM I REALLY DOING THIS!?!?!" and "CAN I REALLY DO THIS!?!?!" but those moments are slowly becoming few and far between.
Thursday brought about our first cast movement and cast vocals day!! We learned our first dance and a couple of songs. Learning the dance definitely made me realize just how much I miss dancing and I am pretty sure I got a crazy stupid grin on my face that wouldn't come off the entire time I was dancing!! I am so glad that I have a whole 5 months to continue dancing and singing!
And finally, today brought more cast movement and cast vocals along with some presentations about tips on keeping a journal on the road and other ways to document your experience, including keeping a blog! I just want to finish with the fact that I am having a wonderful time dispite all of the challenges and freak outs I have had. It is so worth it and I can't wait to experience more! So goodnight or good day depending on when this is read!!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Adventures in CO
So I arrived safely in Denver on Saturday morning. I made all of my flights safely and was excited and quite nervous to step into the beginning of my journey. I spent Saturday waiting for people to arrive and slowly getting to know people as they got in. The other 4 minnesotian and myself were the very first to arrive at the airport and we even got there way before UWP was suppose to start picking us up to take us to the check in. It was good because we all got a chance to get to know each other better and take in the whole environment before everyone else started arriving. We were so early that we actually were there for an entire 2 hours before any of the other cast members arrived, so we killed time by buying temporary tatoos from a vending machine and taking pictures of our bonding moment... I will post pictures of that at a later time, but my tatoo was of this evil looking snake wrapped around a skull... Sounds just like me right!?! After that we slowly started to meet people as they arrived and did this until we were picked up by our host families at around 9:30pm. I am staying with a great family that lives in Littleton (a suburb of denver) and with another cast mate name Suzanne from the Netherlands. On sunday we had a free day and we spent it going shopping with our host parents and going for a hike in the foothills. It was quite pretty until we learned that there are black bears and mountain lions roaming around and that it is not uncommon to see them while you are hiking!!! AHHHH!!! So that made for some exciting adventures! Which leads me to today... It was our first official UWP day and it was great fun!!! We played a lot of get-to-know-you games and even watched the staff preform a mini show for us!! it was wonderful getting to know everyone and realizing that these are people that are going to become like family to me for the next 5 months!! I still don't think that realization has hit me yet, but hopefully one day soon it will. But I am getting exausted right now so I am calling it a night because I have to be up at the butt-crack (compliments of my father) of dawn so stay tuned for the next edition!!
Friday, July 6, 2007
And I'm off!!
So I know some of you are just tuning in to my little adventure I am about to start and I can't wait to tell you all about my journey. I leave tomorrow, by the way, my flight flies (not the bug) out of Rochester at 6:10 AM tomorrow morning!! I am all packed and mostly ready to go, minus some last minute items that I need to find a space for someplace... As I was packing, I realized how hard it actually is right now to fit 6 months of my life into 1 suitcase and am hoping that this journey helps me to learn at least how to pack lighter! I am getting really nervous but quite excited at the same time!! I am so ready for this part of my life and I can't wait for it to start!! So wish me luck and I will keep you posted as I go!! DENVER HERE I COME!!!!!!!!
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