Up With Annie

How I Spent My Birthday

2010-03-21T04:01:00.000-07:00

(copied from an email I sent to my family about my birthday events)

Hellooooooooo to everyone back home on the other side of the world. My birthday was here yesterday and is today for you guys so YAY for me, I'm celebrating twice :)

Yesterday was probably the most memorable birthday of my life (which I know is hard to imagine considering surgery on my sweet 16, getting braces for my 21st!). I started off the day with breakfast at my host family's house, which might as well be a resort oasis for the Philippines. For those that don't know, Anthony stayed here last time UWP came to Manila and he talked to his host dad to request me to stay here for the staff allocation. There are six of us staying here this time around and it is absolutely gorgeous. I've tried taking pictures but none come close to how beautiful the house and yard are. (so thank you Anthony because having air conditioning and internet and getting to live somewhere that I'm not afraid to close my eyes at night is quite the luxury and I appreciate it).

After breakfast we all had to head out for Regional Learning around Manila. which means that we all had to take taxis from our host family to the Philippine Red Cross headquarters. If anyone has every experienced traffic of any sort... you haven't experiences ANYTHING until you are in traffic in Manila. People my age hold infants on motorcycles and in a twenty minute cab ride we might almost get into an accident 5-7 times. SCARY.

But during this cab ride I got a phone call from Anthony telling me that he got his acceptance letter to the University of Arkansas. Congratulations to him! I know he's pretty excited about the acceptance and has been working hard on his limited off time to get all of the transcripts and applications ready. (he still isn't sure if this is where he will be going to school in the fall but I am definitly proud that it is now one of his options)

The Red Cross was just our meeting allocation. The cast sang me (conga line style) Happy Birthday (Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, HAPPY Birthday to you) and they gave me a huge group hug. (Huge as in 100 person, group hug... I felt the love). We then all crowded into Jeepney's to head out to Gawad Kalinga. There really is no way to explain Gawad Kalinga (meaning "to give care") without seeing it. It is a housing area that is being built slum areas around Manila. We went to the Baseco site which was an area of slums that had been burnt completely down in a fire and now about 300,000 families are displaced. Gawad Kalinga is much like our version of Habitat for Humanity. They have what is called "sweat equity". If you qualify for a house (which means you had to have lived in the slums before the fire and are still currently living in the slums), you have to help build it. Once it is built, you can own it.

We were given a tour of the newly built homes which are colorful and the people are so proud of having them to live in. The families wanted us to walk through them to see everything that they had. They would run up and grab our hands and say "come look, come see" and it was heartbreaking because the best home that they had ever lived in....were less than anything I've ever seen in my entire life.

That is until, the cast continued our tour and wound up smack dab in the middle of the slums of Manila. We spent a few hours playing on a playground with hundreds of local children. All dirty, all wanting piggy back rides and for their picture to be taken...all giggling and playing with our hair and playing ring around the rosey. Much like any other set of 4-10 year olds I've ever met. Which really proves that children are children no matter where they are born. Kids just want to be kids. For a few hours in the morning I was given the opportunity to hold a two month old baby (Michalee-- Mike-ah-lee). He was two months old and I offered to hold him for a little while. I have to admit that at two months old he was every bit as perfect as Stella, or Nathan, or Grace were at that age....He was such a precious baby. When I was holding him, his mother asked me if I was married or if I had any children back in the states. Then she disapeared for about an hour. And I have to admit, I was pretty scared that she wasn't coming back. But me and Michalee had a pretty fun time trying to stay in the shade which sheilded us slightly from the 100 degree weather that everyone else was playing in. After play time we walked back through the Gawad Kalinga site to where they have a school and we performed a few songs for them as well as a little children's group dancing for us to "every move I make I make in you" which brought back quite a few memories of creative movement at Lake Village Baptist Church. We then had a two hour dance party in front of the school with all of the little kids. After that we sat down in the shade and had our sack lunches (tuna sandwhiches.... I didn't want much of it after its been in my backpack since 8 in the morning....)

After lunch we left Baseco and were given a tour around the National Museum of the Philippines. Mostly it was cargo that was found from the San Diego shipwreck... I'm sure Dad and Charlie Jr would find it really interesting. Alot of it was pretty cool except we got to see actual burial jars that literally have bones inside of them and a video of how they used to preserve dead bodies and.... whew.... its really not a visual I wanted to carry around with me for the rest of the day :)

After the museum we headed out to Fort Santiago for a few hours of free time to wander. Then we had a wonderful dinner at a fancy restaurant downtown. Some traditional dancers came and performed for us as well as giving us the chance to learn some of the dances. One of them consists of them banging wooden sticks on the ground and banging them together while dancers jump in and out of the sticks without getting their feet caught. Because it was my birthday they let me try it. It was pretty fun, I have to admit.
Then we all piled into taxis and came home. By the time I got home it was after nine at night.... I was sunburnt and all kinds of gross. After talking to mom on the phone for a while and taking a cold shower... I was exhausted!!

So that was my birthday in Manila. I don't think I'll ever forget it.

Just so all of you know, I am 14 hours ahead of you in Central time zone. So Jennifer when you called it was 1 in the morning here and when Gary called it was 4:45. Sorry I didn't answer. I do have, for the most part, good cell signal and do have an international plan so feel free to call. I don't know how to answer my voicemails yet so I may not get them until I'm back in the US.

I love all of you and am thinking of you all of the time. I think it would be impossible to see some of the things that I've seen and not continously think of all of the people that I love.

And I definitly thought of Jen and Kaine yesterday because it was their anniversary while it was my birthday here in Manila!! I love you both and Happy Annivesary. And I also hope that Chloe had a wonderful birthday party today! Two years old is going to fun for you, Amy...I'm sad I missed it.

What I am learning more and more every minute is that the Philippines is a country of extreme contrasts. I am literally living in the nicest house I've ever seen while I'll be working every day in worse conditions than I ever thought possible. Its insane.... but I'm loving it...and I love you.

Kisses and Hugs.... e-mail me or text me!!! I want to hear from everyone!

love you
-Annie

safe and sound in Manila

2010-03-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

Of course travel days with Up With People are crazy!! Here is a first hand look of what it was like to travel from Chicago to Seoul, South Korea, to Manila.... WHEW what a day what a day!!!....and to top it off I was so incredibly sick. I didn't even tell my mom how sick I was because I knew she's worry but I woke up with a fever and throwing up. Dave (the cast manager) wasn't even sure if I'd be able to fly. I had to sneak through security without them finding out I was sick... it was horrible. But I landed in Manila just fine!! And didn't even take any anti-anxiety medicine! :)

Travel Itinerary:

5:30 a.m. — wake up and make sure all of the last minute items are packed and ready to go

---sit on the bathroom floor with a wet washcloth over my face for a while---

7:30 a.m.— Host Drop Off in Naperville, Illinois

-----hug Anthony goodbye about 30 times and cry a little bit....------

8:00 a.m.— leave for the airport in Chicago

9:00-10:30 a.m. — check in luggage and go through security

12:00 p.m. — board our Korean Air Flight to Seoul, South Korea

12:30 p.m.— flight for Korea takes off

——full cast is in the air for 13+ hours…. all of which are sunny outside. We fly over the Northern Territory above Canada, over to Russia, and down to South Korea. During the flight we are fed two asian style meals plus some breakfast pastries. I am sitting with Robert from China and a missionary that works in Cambodia. She writes in my cast book a list of foods I should try while in Manila.... I also watched "Love Happens" and listened to my new ipod (birthday gift from Anthony)—–

4:00 p.m. (South Korean time) — Cast lands in South Korea

---I take anti-nausea medicine and sleep on the floor in the terminal---

7:30 p.m. — cast boards plane for Manila, Philippines

8:30 p.m. — still sitting in a plane waiting to take off

8:45 p.m. — flight leaves for Manila

---I sit with Toni from Arizona. We make videos while trying not to get caught by the flight attendants.... not so successful. But we do laugh almost the entire flight!!---

11:30 p.m. — cast lands safely in the Philippines

11:30-12:30 — Cast A gets passports stamped, picks up luggage at baggage claims, goes through customs, loads all large luggage into a truck to be stored for the night, load busses and head to a hotel for an overnight stay.

1:30 a.m— all cast members are safe and sound in their rooms ready to sleep through the night and wake up bright eyed in the morning ready to meet new host families!!!!!

Montevideo, Minnesota

2010-03-10T01:33:00.000-08:00

I had the most fun time in the little city of Montevideo, Minnesota. Our stay was short but it was so much fun to finally be back in a host family again and to have a student roomie. Kaisa, from Finland, and I stayed with the Mohagen Family who are personal friends of Megan Luebke (from my student semester). The Mohagens were an amazing host family and provided the best meals for us. Especially a mushroom soup in a bread bowl …. Which was the first time Kaisa had eaten anything “out of bread”.

Montevideo is a tiny town where everyone knows everyone but there was a distinct charm about it that couldn’t be denied. Rick and Karen took us out for ice cream at Art’s. It’s the local “hangout” and I had a vanilla crunch cone that was recommended to me by a very convincing seven year old. And I have to admit that it was soooo good.

The town of Montevideo was excited to have Up With People in town to help with flood relief preparations. There are huge snow banks all over town and annually when this snow melts the entire town floods. When Up With People was in Montevideo in 1997, the cast helped with sandbagging for the flood. This semester we did 7 CI projects., Some including flood relief and also graffiti clean-up, redecorating children’s nurseries at a church, cleaning up an animal shelter, ride alongs with the police department, and school projects. We also had a BTS (mini) show during a health fair after school hours, in addition to our regular show that was just a few tickets short of sold out.

Although this was a short city, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Montevideo….. Thank you Mohagen Family.

Hunger and Poverty

2010-03-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

The week that the cast is in Minneapolis is Hunger and Poverty Week for the cast. I'm not sure that they realized that going into it but up until now we have experinced the Hunger and Poverty Global Series presenation, Community Impact at Feed My Starving Children, and also the Hunger Banquet.

It was a very intense series of experiences. The Global Series Presentation was led by some students and they did a great job offering facts and even a guided visualization of what it is like to live in poverty. Afterwards there was a good question and answer time for the cast to talk about their personal experiences with poverty and their feelings about the topic globally.

Community Impact at Feed My Starving Children was fantastic. It was a full day CI, except for me leaving with the Ed Team to plan the Hunger Banquet. The CI involved packing meals to be sent to Haiti and other developing countries. We were in teams at tables filling bags with soy protien, dried vegetables, rice, and vegetarian chicken flavoring. I was part of a great team and we worked nonstop. We were also given the chance to taste a sample of what this meal would be like for a family and I have to say that it tastes pretty good.

In the evening the Ed Team hosted the Hunger Banquet. The cast is randomly assigned to one of three groups. Upper Class, Middle Class, and Lower Class. They were given time to walk around a gallery of photos, news clips, videos, powerpoints, quotes, and charts about global poverty.

Afterwards they are told to go sit and have dinner with their group. The Lower Class sat on the floor on top of pizza boxes, the Middle Class sat in the cirle on chairs, and the Upper Class sat at the fancy table with a table cloth. Phil and I were the host and hostess for the Upper Class. We waited on their every need. We provided them many options for drinks including multiple flavors of sparkling cider. They were cooked a fabulous meal by a local chef in Minneapolis. It was a fantastic three course meal.

The middle class was given rice and beans with water to drink. They had bowls and silverware to use with their meal. The lower class was given a pot of rice and pitchers of dyed salt water to make it look dirty and a few cups to divide what their had as servings to eat. The middle class had to wait until the upper class started their main course to eat and lower class had to wait longer to be able to eat. All of the left over food was thrown in the trash.

I love the Hunger Banquet because it gives just a taste of what it is like to live in these conditions. The groups were not allowed to pass food back and forth between classes nor were they able to talk to eachother. This was the first time that I was on this side of the event and I have to say that it is very difficult for all of the groups. The Upper Class group felt so horrible for eating such a nice meal in front of their friends who hadn't even been given any food yet. The middle class had to watch both groups and the lower class struggled with being frustrated at the other groups who had much more to eat and a longer time.

The wrap up of the activity is so important and Arnab did an amazing job at leading it. Some of the students were made at this activity and made that we made them feel "guilty", some expressed nervousness for going to the Philippines, some expressed that they enjoyed the experience because it opened their eyes to new ideas. In any case, I am happy when they show any large forms of emotion because that shows how much they care about the topic.

Overall, Hunger and Poverty Week has, in my opinion, been a success. I feel like it was a good preparation for the casts departure to the Philippines in two weeks!!

Day One: Back in the Game

2010-03-02T04:54:00.000-08:00

First day back in the swing of things and I have to say it was extremely full! It was so nice to see the cast again. They arrived on Monday night in a flurry of hugs and smiles and then I headed out to the Staff Hotel Allocation. I am rooming with Arnab this week which is kind of nice because we can go over Education Stuff and he’s helping me get back in the loop.

I am so thankful for the DeGraff family for letting me stay with them for two nights until the cast arrived in Minneapolis because it really gave me some time to get things together for the rest of the semester and helped me ease into being back. That was more helpful than they could know.

Today was a fun and (of course) overwhelming first day back. It was a CI day for the cast and I joined in with the students in school projects. My intern was the crew leader of the group I was in and it was so cool to see her step up into that leadership position. We were in two classrooms at two separate schools in Minneapolis today and both were very successful. The students (5-6 grade) seemed to have fun in all of the activities and had a lot of questions about our group. Its so fun to see kids when their minds are full of questions and they just can’t sit still until they get to ask them. That’s probably the most fun part of going into the classrooms for me.

After CI projects were over the cast had a guest speaker that works for the American Refugee Center and he spoke about the ARC’s efforts in Haiti. He has worked in Hong Kong, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and more. His stories were so touching and honestly made me just want to get up and get to work helping the people that really need it.

At the end of the guest speaker the staff left for an FNG (Fun and Games). The advance team prepared this with the help of an alumni in the area. It was a surprise to the staff until we got there and it was a free dinner theatre to see the production of Footloose!! It was so much fun and the dinner was really nice. Our alumni was actually one of the main supporting actors in the show and we were able to meet him afterwards.

What a long and eventful day. All of the staff are staying in Staff Allocation this week and I’m glad because I think its much more beneficial for me right now to be able to come back to the staff allocation and retreat a little bit opposed to having to go home to a host family and still being “on” 24/7. Next city I will back in host families though.
Here’s to a good rest of the week!!

The Cast Comes Today!!!

2010-03-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

I am in Minneapolis and am getting quite excited to see the cast this evening! I was nervous about how I would feel once I got back on the road but right now I am nothing but a bundle of excitement and anxiousness to see everyone.

My last day at home was so much fun. My mom suprised me with a lunch of all of my favorite Lake Village foods including Rhoda's Tamales and Chocolate pie, La Terraza dip, and Johnnys BBQ. It was so much fun to eat all of that before I left! Also Gary and Shannon suprised me by bringing Stella to see one before I headed out because she's learned to walk!!! It was so exciting and the best way to say goodbye to everyone. I have the best family.

Anthony picked me up from the airport the other day and I was lucky enough to get to stay at the DeGraff's for a few nights until I could move into staff allocation. This week all of the staff will be staying together in a hotel so that will be fun.

Yesterday Anthony and I embarked on our own regional learning experience at the Mall of America!!! I was so excited and overwhelmed. IT IS HUGE!!! 4 floors of Mall!! North, South, East, and West wings!! Its crazy but we had so much fun. I think we walked every square inch of that mall because by the time I got back to my host family's home I was EXHAUSTED!!!

We had a fun day though exploring the mall, eating lunch at Johnny Rockets overlooking the amusement park in the mall, driving around downtown, going to the movies to see "Valentine's Day", and then going out to eat dinner at Olive Garden. It was much needed fun time.

Today I am getting my things packed up at the DeGraffs and then heading out to help the advance team with any last minute things before the cast arrives!!

decisions decisions

2010-02-26T12:13:00.000-08:00

Being has given me a lot of time to think about my life and what I want to do for the time being. I have decided after hours and hours of thinking about all of the choices that I do want to continue as Education Coordinator of Cast A....

I have bought a ticket and tomorrow I will be flying to Minneapolis to meet the cast.

Thank you to everyone who has offered me advice and given me their thoughts on the topic.

Minneapolis Here I Come

Home Again

2010-02-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

This has been a long and tough week. I am back in Lake Village, Arkansas and will be for the time being. Last week, about thirty minutes after I posted my Fort Collins blog I got the news that Rob was being taken off of life support..... everything after that is a big blur for me, including about 30 minutes of crying in a bathroom, Leslie and Caitlin helping me book a flight, and then Dave sitting with me in the staff allocation hotel for hours letting me talk through every single emotion that I was feeling.... Anthony drove in that evening so that I wouldn't be alone at the hotel during the show and strike and then the next morning I flew home.

Since I've been home there has been an outpouring of support for my family and I am so appreciative. Flowers, cards, people dropping by, phone calls. It all means so much.

and although I'm sad for me, my family...his family... his precious babies... I am content in knowing the peace that he is in now. Leukemia is gone...tests and transfusions are done....

After Rob's service, that evening Gary, Shannon, and two of my sorority sisters (Debbie and Amber) went out for a drink to say goodbye to Rob. I think that slowly over time there will be a million goodbyes... to a funny story that only he and I shared...to no longer texting randomly late at night... to nicknames that no one else called me or him... to road trips and spades tournaments that won't happen again.... to songs that don't sound the same without him singing.....

Rob was an amazing person. He was instrumental in making me who I am. This world wasn't large enough to hold his personality and the life that he had. He was an adventurist and for all intents and purposes.... a liver. He lived. exciting, loud, happy, on the edge... he lived better than most do....

For Rob.....

2010-02-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

"Fix You"-- Coldplay

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down on your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down on your face
And on your face I...

Tears stream down on your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down on your face
And on your face I...

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Rob Daniel Toon--- Dec 20, 1976 - Feb 13, 2010

"After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign, levy--nothing can touch him further"--Macbeth

Its War.....in Fort Collins, CO

2010-02-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

This has gone wayyyyyyy too far......

I'm staying at the staff allocation hotel this week and what started as a fun game has now gone to the extreme.

The other morning I woke up to none othr but Mr. Potato Head himself watching me sleep. Instead of complaining I simply commented that it was awkward and uncomfortable to wake up to such a sight....

So the next night I was in the bathroom washing my face and when I came out of the bathroom...who is outside the door? None other than Mr. Potato Head!!

Now... today I woke up and who is IN BED WITH ME??? You guessed it! Mr. Potato Head.... I think this is starting to become a problem. I think that Dave, the cast manager, should sit down with Mr. Potato Head and talk about what is appropriate roomie behavior and what is NOT!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Other than this completly outragious act of adoration for me, this week is going wonderfully! We had an amazing cast CI project at H.E.L.P. international, fixing products to be mailed to Uganda, Israel, and Haiti. I worked with a group filled water jugs with rice and beans to be sent to Haiti next week. It was amazing knowing that in a weeks time, this will be around the world and truly helping a family with their basic needs.... so cool

The founder of H.E.L.P. International spoke to the cast about her experience in Haiti and how in 12 seconds life can so quickly be changed. She told the cast about the Parliament being in session and how in 12 seconds all of them were killed during the earthquake...how in 12 seconds those that were already living in poverty and those that were wealthy were on an equal ground. How quickly 12 seconds can go by but how much can be done in that time. It was an amazing speech that really pumped us up about doing community impact the next day.

Today we moved into our show facility for our first setup on the road and its quite exciting to see the cast get ready for tonight!!

I'm really enjoying this week in Fort Collins and have had fun staying at the Staff Allocation Hotel with Breton, Leslie, and Paul.... Last night Breton and I did the Saltine Challenge. Its where you try to see how many saltine crackers you can eat in a minute without drinking anything.... DIFFICULT!!! We actually took it easy and went for two minutes... I think we both had 9.

Anyway... more adventures surely to come

Cast A 2010 UWP Tour Schedule!!

2010-02-08T19:08:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow Cast A 2010 gets on the road!! How exciting! Tonight is the casts first show (in Denver, Colorado) and tomorrow morning we all head out for Fort Collins, Colorado. Staging has really flown by, filled with memories and laughter!

Here is the tour schedule for Cast A 2010 :

Cast A 2010 Tour
(subject to change)

JANUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 9, 2010
DENVER, CO

(STAGING & ORIENTATION)

FEBRUARY 9-14, 2010
FORT COLLINS, COLORADO

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2010
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO

FEBRUARY 22-24, 2010
VERMILLION, SOUTH DAKOTA

FEBRUARY 25-28, 2010
NORTH PLATTE, NEBRASKA

March 1-7, 2010

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

MARCH 8-10, 2010
Montevideo, MN

MARCH 11-15, 2010
NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS

MARCH 16-18, 2010
MANILA, PHILIPPINES

MARCH 19- MAY 2, 2010
TBA, CALIFORNIA

MAY 3-9, 2010
TBA, ARIZONA

MAY 10-16, 2010
ENSENADA, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO

MAY 17-23, 2010
HERMOSILLO, SONORA, MEXICO

MAY 24-30, 2010
TLAXCALA, TLAXCALA, MEXICO

MAY 31- JUNE 6, 2010
TBD, MEXICO

JUNE 7-14, 2010
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO

JUNE 15, 2010
END OF TOUR

Super Bowl Sunday

2010-02-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Superbowl Sunday!

First Sledding Experience

shout out to the host fam

2010-02-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to give a shout out to my amazing Denver host family for all of staging. Miss Mary Kleba agreed to take on me and Caitlin for 6 whole weeks and she has made this an incredible experience. From her amazing meals to taking us for massages, Mary has been the perfect host mom. Caitlin and I spend more time laughing than anything else around here.

Since living with Mary I have

gone to an Avalanche (hockey) game
gotten my first massage
gone bowling/ played arcade games
taken Mary to get her first tattoo
watched a movie at a theatre that served meals :)
gotten my ear pierced with Caitlin
watched a Denver Nuggets game

Along with the fact that she genuinely shares her life with us along with asking us questions about our day and Up With People. She also helped my boyfriend plan the absolutely best date I've ever been on and driven me to be with him over an hour away when he had a minor surgery. Mary truly is an amazing person and I'm having the time of my life living with her.

I have an INTERN!!

2010-02-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

Today was intern announcement day! I was so excited that finally we could tell the students that we've chosen that they are our interns. The theme was "detectives" so Arnab and I made an announcement as a News Broadcast that there was a huge mystery.

BREAKING NEWS! Ed Team is lost until Ed Interns are found!

Arnab had posted photoshoped pictures of Irene (from the Netherlands) and Bianca (from New York) under the chairs and the last clue given in the news broadcast was that clues were under the seats in the auditorium. It was so much fun!

In the afternoon we were given time to sit down with the ladies and make some plans for their internship. Bianca is my intern and she is just awesome. Our personalities are very similar and what she wants to do with her internship is very much what I want to do with my job as education coordinator.

It looks like its going to be an amazing 6 weeks!

from hospital to Nuggets game

2010-02-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

Today started for me in Colorado Springs. Anthony was having a minor surgery and none of his family was able to make it to be there with him. My heart broke thinking about him having to go through that alone so I took the day off to be able to be there with him. It was kind of fun sitting with him in the pre-surgery. Making jokes to keep him from being nervous.

While Anthony was in surgery I sat out in the waiting room and his host mom came to keep me company. I'm so glad that she did because we ended up having the best conversation. She kept my mind off of worrying by asking about what I want to do after Up with People and let me tell her funny stories from the road. I am so thankful that she was able to be there.

After the surgery was over and he was able to get home and rest, Mary came to pick me up. Anytime with Mary is fun so we laughed most of the way back to Denver (other than the time that I was asleep). Once we got to Denver we picked up Caitlin and headed to a Denver Nuggets game. I've never seen the Nuggets play so I was excited to be there but I was also so exhausted from my day at the hospital so my enthusiasm wasn't exactly through the roof..... however, it was alot of fun to be there

no suprise...going to sleep, another tiring and memorable day in Colorado :)

Girls Day Out!!

2010-01-31T18:13:00.000-08:00

I'm having so much fun living in Denver with Mary and Caitlin. Yesterday we had a girls day out with another host family, The Raffaeli's. They are hosting two girls: Fredricke and Kelly. We went out bowling (where I severely sucked!) at a place called Mr Biggs. Its a huge place with different games, an arcade, rides, bowling, ect..... SO MUCH FUN!

All of us girls danced to jai ho on the bowling alley lanes...then on a ride (which I was very scared to do but I did it twice!). Then we played some games in the arcade. After all of this fun stuff, all of us girls headed to the movie theatre and watched "When in Rome". Super cute movie and the couple in it resembled how Anthony and I are with eachother....

"you love me?"

"I didn't say that"

"oh... okay"

"yet"

"oh, well, say it then"

"I love you"

Overall it was such a fun day with the girls and I'm so glad Wendy and Mary are friends because we've gotten to do alot with Fredricke and Kelly during staging.

Earlier in staging the Raffael's invited our host family and Anthony's host family over for dinner and then we all got in the hot tub. After being in the hot tub for awhile, Anthony and I convinced everyone to run out and roll around in the snow. so hilarious. We were screaming and running around then it felt so good once we finally got back in the hot tub!

After our girls day, Caitlin, Mary, Anthony, and I went out to take pictures at Red Rocks then headed to dinner at a hibachi grill. Its fun that Anthony is only an hour away doing PR in Colorado Springs because he can drive up every once in a while to see me.

Could yesterday have been any better? I think not :)

Community Impact: Surveying Panhandler's

2010-01-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

Cast A's first community impact day proved to be nothing short of exhilerating, challenging, and life changing. What else would I expect from a day in Up With People?

This was the cast's first CI day and it was a full cast CI which means that all staff and students participate in the service project. The theme for the day was homelessness in Denver. Some students went to refugee centers, food banks, soup kitchens, and Denver's Rescue Mission.

The CI group that I was in surveyed Panhandler's for an initiative called Denver's Road Home. Denver's Road Home is a 10 year initiative set in place by the governor to help bring an end to homelessness and to help provide better services for homeless in the Denver Metro Area. On the 16th street mall there are red meters lined up with the regular meters and all money put into them goes towards services for the homeless.

In Denver alone, annually Panhandler's (as a whole) make over 4 million dollars!! However this money can't be tracked or prove to provide necessities for the homeless. If a person donates to the meter, however, that money goes directly to providing services.

My CI Group walked around downtown Denver and we, basically, spoke to the Panhandler's on the street. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous heading out there but as the day went on the anxiety washed away. One of the first people I spoke to was an older man named Gordon. He was such a sweetheart and extremely funny. He answered our survey questioned easily and said he's been trying to get off of the streets for a long time now but because of the economy it is almost impossible to end his debt. Another man we spoke to said he panhandles because his monthly paycheck doesn't pay his bills AND bring food home to the table...so his panhandling provides meals for his family. Another man we spoke to had only been panhandling for about an hour. It was his very first day...He's lost his job last week.

Being downtown and talking to these people really helped change my perspective. I wasn't dealing with an "issue" anymore. These are people with families, with lives, with dreams.... it easily could be someone that I know that lost their job or simply can't make ends meet living month to month.

After lunch my group met up with other surveying groups at the Denver Rescue Mission and we were given a tour. This site houses over 300 homeless men EVERY NIGHT. When there is an overflow, they can even add 50 more sleeping in the hallways on the floor with just pillows and blanket. The kitchen at this facility was built to feed about 400 people a day and actually feeds almost 1,000. I was amazed at the services that this site provides.

All in all...another amazing day in Up With People :)

Leadership Round Table Discussions

2010-01-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

Today was the annual leadership roundtable discussion. It was so interesting to be on the staff side of the morning and help welcome the guests coming to speak to the cast about leadership and also sitting at the tables with the students and help ask questions. I felt like I was listening so much harder to all of the advice that the guest speakers had to offer and I wanted to soak up as much information as possible!!

Here are some notes that I took from the guest speakers:

"To develop your leadership skills I would tell you to observe. There are people you will gravitate to. I would tell you to observe what it is you want to immulate from them. Watch for those things. Learn from those around you" -- Connie Proulx

"At some point you have to make decisions. Take risks and don't look back" -- Connie Proulx

"Lead by example. Don't demand people follow you. When you are a true leader people will be drawn to you"-- Janice Rooney

"Think to yourself: What is your talent? What is your passion? What are you going to do to make an impact?... when you think of it that way, your course mught just open up for you" -- Janice Rooney

"You can't be somebody you hope to be. You have to be who you are" -- Chris Mygatt

Making the Dream a Reality

2010-01-18T17:49:00.000-08:00

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today." -- Martin Luther King JrToday is a day for the United States of America to come together and celebrate that great strides that have been taken to overcome segregation, discrimination, and inhumanity. In Denver, ever year on this day there is a Marade. (Marade = Parade + March). It is the largest event of this kind in the nation. I am so thankful that Up With People chooses to participate in this annual event as a statement of who we are as an organization. We are a group of 100 people from all over the world...and we become family. We are not the same color, we are not from the same background...we don't even speak the same language. But we overcome all of that together.
I really enjoyed getting to walk in the Marade next to my castmates and fellow staff members. I've never been in an event such as this before and I have to say that it was very moving.

After the Marade the cast all met for an afternoon of educational sessions. The theme for the day was Leadership. Phil, Arnab, Ellen, and I had split up the different activities and really tried to make the afternoon interesting as well as educational. Some of the activities are done every semester but there was also room for newer ideas. One thing that was added to the day was a game that each hometeam stands in a line with blindfolds. Markers are scattered all over the floor throughout the room. The last person in the line can see without the blindfold and leads the person in the front of the line to pick up a marker. When that person picks up a marker, they move to the back and the next person in the line then has to pick up a marker. The goal was to find out which group could pick up the most markers. It was really fun to watch the cast in the activity. Halfway through the time we put on loud music so make it that much more difficult for the groups to hear the person explain where the markers were. Afterwards I led the cast in a wrap-up, asking questions like "Who was the leader?" and "What strategy to pick up the markers worked the best?" The casts answers were so thought out and interesting. In some groups the person who picked up the marker was the leader... in some groups the person who gave the directions was the leader. Some groups had the instructions passed down through the line. In some groups the person that could see would yell down the instructions. In some groups the person that could see would squeeze the shoulder on the right or left of the person in front of them if they wanted the person to step left or right.....

Other activities of the day included making human statues of what "leadership" looks like in the continents that the cast is from, writing a word that descibes a leader and pasting it on a poster, and playing speed warp...which is a game about communication within a team.

I feel like today was such a success as far as workshops go. My mind is so busy thinking through the amazing resonses and thought processes that I heard today. Cast A 2010 has some amazing world leaders...... the future is pretty darn lucky

Hello! Annie Matthews, Education Coordinator...from Arkansas, USA

2010-01-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

Well here I am, back in the swing of things with Cast A 2010 of Up With People. Only now I'm not traveling as a student. I've been hired as an education coordinator for the cast!!! How exciting!

This semester's tour will be going to the Mid-West USA, the Philippines, and Mexico. Its already been such a learning experience for me. I arrived in Denver a week before the cast for staff trainings. The week was actually a lot of fun and involved getting to know you activities with all of the staff, workshops on teambuilding/ and staff expectations, and also meetings with my department team to prepare for the semester. I will be working with Phil Woods (Education Manager, USA) and Arnab Dewan (Education Coordinator, Bangladesh).

Being a staff member will prove to have its own set of challenges but honestly right now I'm just excited to get down to work. I think it is a privilege to be able to create this type of experience for a set of 80 students from around the world. The education team are in front of the cast for workshops, coordinating Community Impact sites/ Regional Learning, ect so a lot of their experience is based on what we prepare for them.

After a week of training as a staff member I had such a crazy mixture emotions about arrival day of the cast! As we drove to the Monte Bello Recreational Center anxiety was rising up in me along with a crazy mixture of excitement and even straight up fear!! I was about to walk into a room full of students that I didn't know who had traveled from all over the world...and I was supposed to be their role model! When I know for certain that I have so much to learn from them and their life experiences as well..... it was so intense to be there for their arrival and to see how quickly bonds were formed. I was also very excited to see Caitlin, my roomie for staging and a second semester student from Cast B '09........

On the Sunday after arrival day, I was able to perform in the semesterly "Opening Session". This is the first time that the cast gets to see what some of the songs from their show are going to look like. Only staff perform in it and we are also introduced to the cast. I was so pumped to be back on stage even if it was only for a few songs!!

The first day of staging I, along with Phil, facilitated a workshop on comfort/challenge/panic zones then had the students write their 1st letter to self. I was so incredibly nervous to be presenting on this because I remember very clearly what this workshop was like for me in my student semester. If you go back in my blog, I typed in my letter's to self as I received them back. Writing them was really emotional for me at times and really touching as I read them again months letter. Now here I was facilitating the exact same activity!!!!

I'm very excited about the semester ahead :)

Hometeam Olympics!

2009-11-14T14:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the cast got to participate in a long standing tradition in Up With People: The Hometeam Olympics! We were so excited when we saw this in our schedule for our week in Kolding, Denmark but none of knew what to expect of the day!

The 3rd round interns planned the entire event and it turned out to be a blast! My hometeam (Hometeam 6) got third place in the Olympics and we were so proud!

The Olympic Events of the day were:

1- Hometeam Olympics Trivia (including photos from cities we've traveled and questions about castmates

2- Clothing Swap (two team members volunteered with out knowing that we had to race against other teams to switch all of our clothing!)--- Caitlin and I won!!!!

3- A Shoe Race (6 members of the team had to put their shoes in a huge pile on one side of the room then from the other side, race to it as fast as they can and put their shoes back on)

4- Naquita's Make-up Workshop (one guy sat in a chair and another ,blindfolded, put make- up on him)

5. a pantyhose fight

6- a relay race (typical, carry a Kinder egg between your legs, pop a balloon by sitting on it, carry a balloon between two people's heads, chug a glass of water, run across the room, and build a human pyramid).... awesome

The entire day was so much fun. We got to spend so much time, just having fun and laughing with the whole cast. Its so rare that we get to do activities like this just to have some bonding time together. I loved it! :)

Greeetings from Poland!

2009-11-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

Its 00:58 (In US time that would be 12:58 am.) here in Warsaw, Poland!

I haven't had a wonderful internet connection in quite sometime but I wanted to say that I am typing everything on my computer in Word Documents and hoping to get some that uploaded ASAP!!! I have tons of amazing stories to tell so keep looking back! I may not get internet access again in Warsaw so hopefully I'll get everything updated in our next city, Zabraze, Poland!

Some highlights for a small Update:

jacuzzi bubble bath in Vanersborg, Sweden (just another Annie adventure)
Cast B Halloween Party (I performed Thriller with a group of girls to get the dance party started!)
visit to a Castle in Cottbus, Germany
going hiking in my high heels on cliffs near the sea in Sundsvall, Sweden
seeing the Coal Mines in Cottbus
visiting the first HydroPower Plant and the start of Vattenfall in Vanersborg
four event days in Cottbus
Girls Bus Ride travel day to Warsaw, Poland
...and many many more

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T12:46:00.000-07:00

The staff suprised the cast with a Halloween Party tonight! It was such a cool way for us to all celebrate together and spend time with eachother outside of the normal UWP routine. Many fun activities were planned for the evening including hometeam competitions...a flip cup (with cider) contest, and also a group of us girls performed "Thriller" for everyone! Here are some pictures of the Cast Halloween Party! :

Warsaw...welcome to the Hampster Cage

2009-10-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

Cast B has made it to our next city: Warsaw, Poland! We've only been here a few hours but I can already tell that it is going to be an interesting city for us. I am rooming with Nilofar (from Sweden), Cecilia (USA), Lynsie (USA), Tinna (Sweden), and Alejandra (Mexico). All of us are staying in one room in the top floor of our house.

It has been such a weird evening. Our host parents found out about UWP through couchsurfing.com. I don't think they realized what they were getting themselves into. Basically they've left us in this room with only mattresses....and they don't have any food in the entire house. All of us are just sitting around laughing at how awkward this is for all of us.....and the house smells a little bit like a hampster cage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today's bus ride to Warsaw was so so so so much fun. One bus was only for girls and the other bus was most guys but a few girls had to sit on it because of space availability. The girls bus kept passing the boys bus and we would do funny stuff in the window to get a reaction out of them. It was hilarious. We were having so much fun coming up with things and the entire bus got involved!! So awesome...then the guys would try to one- up us. The time on the bus went by so quickly because we were in constant excitment waiting to see what the guys would do then trying to come up with something that would shock them....

definitly we need to do this again!

check ya lata, Cottbus

2009-10-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

I'm so exhausted and definitly don't feel brand new right now. But this city is officially over. Its a little sad that I was sick the entire time because I wasn't able to fully be myself with my host family. But I totally fell in love with them. Especially Grandma Linda because she showed me all around her special apartment this morning.

Tonight my host parents and I sat out in the winter garden (inside) and drank wine and said goodbye to eachother. It was very sad. They are such a sweet couple.

Today's show was good. I got to wear the Bulgarian International costume and didn't throw up!! We also had tech workshops this morning that were actually very cool. The tech part totally makes the show worth it to watch! awesome

ME= sicko

2009-10-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should have slowed down and taken care of myself a little better because I am totally wiped out right now. I took the afternoon off because I had a fever. After laying in bed watching two episodes of Greys (thanks to Anthony) and tking a 4 hour nap, and drinking some German chamomile tea, I'm feeling a little better. I still can't stop coughing but I'm better than before, for sure.

The past few days have been a whirlwind due to not feeling well. On Monday we had our friends and family show. My host parents loved it. As I walked up to them at the end, they both had tears in their eyes.

We also had Community Impact. I was in a group that went to a Kindergarten and played all day until naptim and then we worked in the garden outside of the school. I met a little girl named Annie Princess! I loved the CI site but it was difficult for me to connect with the kids because I didn't speak German and they don't speak English!

On Tuesday I wasn't feeling good at all. It was so horrible. I was asked to wear the Bulgarian international costume for the show and I was standing on stage in the costume and had to run off the stage to throw up! I was mortified!!

Today we started off with Regional Learning. I went with a group to a park where there was an awesome castle and a pyramid! We took so many pictures because the area was absolutely beautiful but the entire time I felt so run down. Everything was taking all of the energy that I had. Luckily Caitlin, Breton, and Tim were there to keep things fun and make the time go by quickly. As soon as we got back I talked to Gabe about taking the afternoon off to recuperate. I was hoping that I could see a doctor but its looking like I will have to wait until the next city. At least I have the afternoon to rest and hopefully I'll feel brand new in no time!

When did this become my life?

2009-10-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

48 hours ago I was performing in front of 200+ Vattenfall employees in Vanersborg, Sweden... since then I got on a bus at 1 a.m.... rode to a ferry in Denmark... rode the ferry from Denmark to Germany then got back on a bus a rode from Northern Germany to Cottbus, Germany.

I did some serious snuggling with my bus date, Caitlin...watched Schindler's List... brushed my teeth in a public bathroom... slept on the floor of a ferry on the "Bla" Deck... arrived in Cottbus 5 hours earlier than expected and was thankful that mine was one of the few host families that were able to pick up their students early!

Last night I ate dinner with my new host mom and dad, Annelise and Manfred, and new host Grandmother. None of them speak any English so we spent the entire dinner typing our conversation on http://www.freetranslation.com/. It was quite hilarious. My host grandmother loves me and woke up early to bake two breakfast pastries for me!

Today was a host family day (which I was so thankful to have!). My host mom works for Vattenfall and was able to get me and a few other students a tour of their wind energy plant and coal mining plant. I'm not going to lie, it was so completely awesome. We were standing on the edge of a huge pit of coal...literally earth 15 hundred years old... then we walked in it... We were like little kids running around in the back yard!

We were also able to see the largest machine in the world. It is at the coal mining field in Cottbus and I don't remember how many meters/kilometers/whatever long it is, but it is HUMONGOUS! It was like looking at a metal city. None of the pictures I took even come close to showing how huge this thing was. It is used to take the coal out of the earth and sent it to a train to be burned for energy.

After this we were all taken to an amusement park and out host families paid for us to ride to the top of this "mountain" and "slide" (in a metal car) the way down. I was a little nervous...but in the end it was so fun.

Tonight we had a great dinner at my family's house and I am ready to get a great nights rest for our 4 event/show days in this city!

Bye Bye Sweden...for now

2009-10-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Vanersborg, Trollhattan, Vasterlande...and all of the other cities I may have visited in the past four days! Our last city (for now) in Sweden went by quickly and now we are all on buses headed for Cottbus, Germany.

10-20-09 Arrival Day in Vanersborg
We arrived in Vanersborg after a 6 hour bus ride (with the beautiful Lima from Switzerland as my bus date) and of course I ran to grab my allocation card and *suspensful music playing* JOCHIEN is my roomie!! We were so excited to be roomies again after our stay in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Our host code was "Abba:The Movie". We quickly found our host mom, Asa, and sister, Ylva who were very excited to meet us. Then we drove to Vasterlande, about 30 kilometers away from Vanersborg.

10-21-09 CI and Regional Learning
Such a fun morning! Alejandra, Kelsey H, Breton, and I wqere at the Kronan Skola in Trollhaten. This school is brand new, only opened about 3 months ago and is 90% immigrants from other countries. It is a school to help immigrants get acquainted with the culture and language in Sweden. Instead of exposing the students to our diversity and international culture, I feel like they did that for us! We were in classrooms with students from Bosnia, Iraq, Afganistan, Serbia, Finland, Holland, and multiple places in Asia....all in one classrom!! It was so cool to see them hanging out together. We did activities in the classrooms to promote teamwork and diversity. It was so much fun and I was with an amazing group all day.

In the afternoon the cast was given a tour of Vattenfall's 1st hydropower plant. I thought it was going to be lame but honestly it was so cool and it was in a beautiful fall setting. It was my first experience inside a plant like this and I didn't expect it to be so surrounded by nature. Absolutely breathtaking!

In the evening me and Jochien had the amazing idea to fill our host family's jacuzzi bathtub with bubbles and go swimming in our swimsuits!! SO MUCH FUN!! We convinced Ylva to join us after she heard us laughing and playing. We ended up just hanging out in the bathtub having girl talk!

10-22-09- Ed Signouts and Friends & Family Show
In the morning the Ed team was signed out to work together on some upcoming Education Workshops. I'm really enjoying being an Ed Intern because I think they really push me to think through my ideas and why I believe what I believe. It is not enough to just believe in something...the Why is the important part.

In the evening we had our friends and family show. Our host family loved it! They were waiting with open arms to give us hugs at the end of the show. I was so happy tha they liked it. We all really connected after the show. When we got home they had snacks and tea waiting for us.

10-23-09-- Show Day and Load Up
Today/Yesterday (they are all starting to run together) was our offical Event Day for Vattenfall. Did I mention that we are performing on an ice rink?!?! It was FREEZING backstage but the cast all had fun sliding around on the ice.

The show was fun and afterwards we had a blast dancing at the after party with the Vattenfall employees. Once they left we only had a few hours to strike the set and get all of our things ready to load the buses for Germany.

Now I'm just ready to see what adventures Germany will bring!!

Twilight Night in Sundsvall!

2009-10-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

I am sitting on the couch between my two awesome host sisters in Sundsvall, Sweden watching TWILIGHT!! Common ground is such a funny thing. One moment we are at the dinner table having small talk and the next moment me and Kerstin are squealing about Twilight and guessing how quickly the other read the series. And within an hour, here we are snuggled in, watching the movie! :)

Sundsvall is a beautiful city. We arrived here last night after a 4 hour bus ride from Stockholm and I instantly fell in love with my fam. Our host code was "dancing", so I was already excited about that. I am living without roomies this week but after a week with 3 room mates in Stockholm I am excited about some alone time! My home this week is actually about 15 minutes away from Sundsvall in a tiny town called Alno. We live in this cute little house that is like a two story cottage on the inside.

Today was our first full day in Sundsvall. There were 6 CI sites at schools around the city including a school to Autistic children. I didn't go on CI this morning, instead I was signed out to work with the education coordinators on my internship. Emil and I are excited about our upcoming internship project that will be in the last week (hopefully) of our intern time. We also had time this morning to get some feedback on the workshops that we've been doing for the past 3 weeks. I really feel like my public speaking skills are improving which makes me feel really excited!

This afternoon, the full cast got together and worked on another project. There is a day in November that the entire town of Sundsvall turns their lights out all day long and at the exact same time in the evening all of the Christmas lights and candles come on in the center of the city. An organization over it showed us a video of last years event and it looked Beautiful!! For an hour this afternoon the cast walked around downtown and handed out candles for the event. The first year they had it there was 10,000 people in attendance and they are hoping to increase that number.

After that there was a two hour Global Series workshop on Gender Roles. The presentation group did an amazing job of presenting the touchy subject to a group with such a variety of opinions. They went over issues like gender stereotypes, transgender vs transexual, and also gender roles in Developing Countries. I really enjoyed the presentation and the videos they used to illustrate their information. I will try to find links on youtube and post them because they were super awesome.

Check ya lata, Stockholm!!

2009-10-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

On the bus leaving Stockholm, Sweden. I have an awesome bus date, Laura Lynn the cast Music Manager. This morning we had host drop off at 9:00 and we were given 4 hours downtown to hang out before heading to Sundsvall. A bunch of us girls spent the entire time at H&M buying some last minute accessories like mittens and scarves and everything else that we could fit into our carry-on! And lucky for some folks in my life, I was able to buy some H&M christmas gifts!!!!

Here are some pics from the last day in Stockholm... we won't be back in this city until the day we fly home at the end of the tour! :(

If I Could Write a Letter To Me:

2009-09-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Today we had mid-semester checkin with the education team. Dave and Hans led a workshop that let us think about where we've been this semester, physically, emotionally, socially, ect...and where we want to go with the next three months. I can't get over the fact that we really have been on this rollercoaster for 3 months and sadly we are now over the halfway mark to heading home.

During the 3rd day in Denver at the start of this trip, the Ed Team had us write letters to our future selves to give ourselves advice or to just send some positive energy our way. It was a really cool idea and I can remember exactly what that moment was like. We were in the Sherman Center in Denver and I was lying on my stomach writing to myself. Didn't that moment just happen last week?...Nope. 3 Whole Months ago

And today we were given our letters back. I chuckled as I read mine because at the moment I was writing it I really thought I was in the middle of an adventure....and man, I had no clue what was in store for me! After reading our old letters we were given the chance to write another letter to ourselves that will be given to us before we come home at the end of the tour. I can't wait to read it again to see how it matches my experience and how to contrasts to my first letter.

Dear Future Annie:
Today it all starts! In a way you feel like this adventure started the moment you looked at your friends (the PC) and told them that maybe you didn't want to get a clinical job after graduation, maybe you wanted to do something completely different....On another hand, you also feel like every moment since you landed in Denver has been the beginning of a new adventure.

Sometimes I wonder if this was the right choice. Leaving home with Rob in the hospital and giving up the prospect of being "an adult". Hugging my parents goodbye at the airport, wasting months on fundraisers that I could have spent with friends or planning for my future. All of these things were excruitiatingly difficult.

But in the past THREE days I've tried an Indian dish from a stranger on a plane and had a hummingbird land on my finger. I've stayed up all night laughing with my Norwegian roommate and have been to the top of a 14,000ft mountain during a sleet storm. I've celebrated my host sisters 16th birthday and cried as I hugged new friends that were literally strangers 4 days ago.

Now I'm laying on my stomach in a ballroom with no idea what the next 6 months will hold. Will I do something scary? probably. Will I make new friends? Yes! Could a tragedy happen while I'm away? Maybe. Will I be given the chance to be a catalyst for change in the world and spread some good wherever I go? I hope.

Will I be changed for the better because of merely being in this room right now? Definitly. Will these amazing and motivational people help make me a better person? Absolutely.

As with anything, this new experience is overwhelming and challenging. But this will be so worth it. No Matter what lies ahead.

Take Care,
Be Safe,
Call your Mom!,

Annie Matthews
Cast B 2009

"oh you got so much going for you going right. But I know at 17 it's hard to see past Friday night. I wish you'd study Spanish. I wish you'd take a typing class. I wish you wouldn't worry, let it be. I'd say have a little faith and you'll see. If I could write a letter to me"- Brad Paisley

The last and largest city in our North American Tour: Mexico City!

2009-09-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

I am in Mexico City, the last and largest city in our North American tour! It is crazy to think that I am past the halfway mark on this trip! On Sunday I am leaving with all of the other north American's to fly to Stockholm, Sweden.

My bus date for today's travel day was Drew Thompson, my goal tender. Everyone was encouraged to sit with their goal tender on this trip just to catch up and make sure everyone is on the right track. Drew and I sat together on another, much longer (8 hours), bus ride ealier in the Mexican tour so we didn't have an extreme amount to catch up on "goal-wise". He is still awesome to talk to and we ended up looking through some pictures on my computer of earlier this week. I also spent some time sitting with Tim, from Chicago. Tim is one of my closest friends in our cast. I absolutely adore this guy. As most times that Tim and I are talking, we went through a variety of topics from venting, to being homesick, to talking about our future life plans. He is one of the easiest people to talk to.

Also on today's bus ride (I can't even believe that I did this!) I ate a cricket!!! Lynsie Haley had a bag of them that her host mother in Puebla bought for her so she passed them around and took a video of everyone eating it. Of course I couldn't turn down that kind of challenge. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, after I got past the fact that I was eating a bug! But hey, when in Rome, you know?

Today when Viva La Gente arrived in Mexico City our first stop was a really cool stop at the Mexican President's home "Los Pinos". We were all so excited to visit there. Unfortunately we were not able to meet the Mexican President but it was still very awesome to be right there where he lives.

This week in Mexico City is estimated to be our busiest and most intense city yet. I think all my cast is up for that kind of challenge though. Tomorrow I am going with a CI group to a museum to do some gardening and landscaping.

My new host family is ,of course, wonderful! They barely speak any English so it should be interesting trying to communicate with them. Luckily Hans, one of the education coordinators, gave me a little english to spanish dictionary that I can use for the rest of the week.

Johari's Window

2009-09-23T04:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a really good day. The educational activity “Joahri’s window” was really good for me. We were all encouraged to write positive and constructive criticism for our castmates. All of the ones I received had a common theme about wanting to get to know me better and for me to be more assertive. I have to admit that I’ve been holding back a little from getting in the mix of things. I was also very happy to read some of the positive feedback. It’s good to know that people think I am sensitive and genuine. For the rest of the week the envelopes will be out and we are encouraged to continue giving feedback. I’m looking forward to hearing from more people.

Hello Puebla, Mexico

2009-09-22T04:25:00.000-07:00

1st full day in Puebla is behind us! I really thought Puebla would be a tiny town but compared to many places on our tour it is a really large city!! My host family is awesome. We have a maid, a cook, and a driver. How crazy!! My host mom is Claudia. She is so sweet but totally should start the “Real Housewives of Puebla” TV show because she is just like the women from the Real Housewives of Orange County!! Hilarious! I have 4 host siblings (Daniela, Silvana, Vico, and Victoria). They are all super sweet!

Today the cast toured the chiclets/Cadbury factory! I have a brand new appreciation for gum. Did you know that one piece of gum takes 8 hours to make?!? And If the gum has a hard coating like trident splash, then it takes 24 hours for that coating to set? That’s insane!! After the chiclets factory we were given a short bus tour of the city.

Heal the world...make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race

2009-09-18T04:22:00.000-07:00

After two days of CI in Veracruz, I am completely drained yet I know that Vive La Gente made a difference in Veracruz this week. Yesterday the full cast did CI in the morning at the beach cleaning up trash. It was atleast (At the VERY minimum) 100 degrees outside and sun was blaring down on us the entire time but as a cast we picked up over 30 bags of trash in an hour and a half! Amazing work, Cast B!!

After leaving the beach part of the cast went to a nursing home in Veracruz and sang to them. It was so much fun. We sang “Are you sleeping brother John” in all of the different languages in our cast. It is one of a few songs that they teach children in literally every country! We also sang some Vive La Gente songs. After this we helped the grandparents do their daily exercises. All of the grandparents were so cute. They kissed all of us as we left!

Today’s CI started off a little rocky. We were supposed to go to Xalapa to do some reforestation. But due to bad weather that CI was cancelled. It would be to dangerous to take all of us in the mountains during heavy rain. Instead we drove to the town of Xalapa and went to a nursing home and did much the same as yesterday. Instead of helping them with exercises we finished performing for them and then had a dance party with them!! It was so much fun.

But apparently the team didn’t know how long it would take us to get to the nursing home from Veracruz. It was 3 hours away! So we rode on the bus for 3 hours there and 3 hours back but only worked for about 45 minutes today!!!

But 45 minutes of work was so worth it because their faces as we were dancing with them just lit up! They were so excited to be with us. Afterwards a nurse told us that patients who never get up and participate in activities were up dancing with us. That is such a cool feeling!!

The Day Cast B Went on Vacation

2009-09-16T04:21:00.000-07:00

What a fabulous day!! We had “regional learning” at Cocoa Aventura outside of Veracruz. It is a waterpark for team building exercises and it’s right on the beach! We started the day with team exercises and games with people from the facility and then they gave us 4 hours to just hang out at the pool and beach. It was so much fun! We’ve never gotten time like this to just hang out together and have fun. We had a blast swimming in the ocean and then jumping in the pool. We took fun pictures by the water and wrote in the sand. It was just a fun day!

And although I got really sunburned, it was completely worth it! After our day in the sun was over we were given about 30 minutes to get cleaned up and in sundresses for our next activity. All of us girls were in the bathrooms sharing hair gel and lotion and make-up. It was so much fun because we were all in a panic to get ready but everyone was in a great mood and helping eachother.

After all of this we piled back in to the busses and drove to the Harbor and we were given a boat tour around Veracruz. They showed us an island that used to be used for sacrifices to the God’s! And they showed up a building on an island that started off as a fort for the army to stay to protect the city from pirates and later was turned into a prison to keep criminals away from the town and lower the risk of them escaping. It was really neat.

Basically today was an awesome day. This evening my host family took me out to eat and then we all sat on the bed in my host mom’s room and looked through family photo’s. Both their family and mine.

Regional Learning in Veracruz!!

2009-09-15T04:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day Mexico!!!

Awesome Awesome day today!! Our Veracruz Advance team really planned a fun week for us.
We started the day by going to the Veracruz Aquarium. There were animals there that I’d never seen before in my life! One eel in particular was super creepy!! Also Phil, Kristine, and Kelsey K were able to get in the shark tank and feed the sharks! I got the entire thing on video. There was a drawing to see who would be able to feed them but I’m so glad that I didn’t win because I might have chickened out at the last minute! Getting into a shark tank during dinner time doesn’t seem like the smartest thing for someone to do!!

After the aquarium we all loaded up the buses and road to Antigua. It is the oldest city in Mexico. The town is so small and on a river. It was a least 100 degrees outside and every activity they had for us to do involved being outside or inside of a building with no air conditioning… MISERABLE. Although looking back at it, I really did enjoy the activities that we did during the day.

We toured the House of Cortez. Cortez is a famous explorer and he built his home in Antigua with trees growing inside and outside of it. After time all of the trees roots and tops grew together so when you are standing in the house it literally looks like all there is, is trees! Its insane and totally beautiful. I really looks like something out of Lord of the Rings or Narnia…. I want to see it at sunset because I bet it is absolutely amazing. I never thought something like that existed.

We also toured the oldest church in Mexico. It is about 4 blocks from the House of Cortez. Its so weird to be standing in something so old! Older than anything in the entire United States!!
This evening my host family took me to the Harbor in Veracruz to celebrate Independence day. Because the children in my family are so young they didn’t want to do anything crazy to celebrate. Walking around the harbor was beautiful. We then went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner.

Welcome to Veracruz

2009-09-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

Today we had an 8 hour travel day to Veracruz! I was lucky enough to have Drew as an awesome bus date. We made the time pass by playing 20 Questions. It was fun getting to know him a little bit more. He has some awesome stories to tell. I recommend that if anyone has the chance, they should definitly hang out with Mr. Drew Thompson.

After our allocation meeting in Veracruz, it was time to meet our host families. My host mom, Isabelle, and my new little host sister, Luci, were there to greet me. Luci is just about the cutest 18 month old Ive ever seen and since she doesn't understand any English, she thinks Im the funniest person ever!

My host family seems to be super awesome. I have 3 host siblings: Alexis, Tiki, and Luci.

Super Crew----- Host Fam Day in Bernal

2009-09-13T04:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday’s day was CRAZY! I was on super crew and had to be there at 6:00 a.m. When we got there we did some simple stretches and warm-ups and then were ready to unload the trucks to start set-up but the trucks weren’t there! So we had to wait until 7:00 to start unloading which put set-up back a full hour! I helped work on the costume area for set-up. The costumes were washed this week at a laundry mat so all of the costumes were jumbled together by color. I had to go through each costume for the entire show and piece all of the pieces together. Some outfits have 8-10 accessories. It was very confusing and I was working on it without anyone else from the costume crew. By the time all of the people that weren’t on super crew showed up I was so worried that I had put the costumes together wrong!!

During the day we had 2 shows. It was our first double show day. I don’t think any of us were prepared for how much work it would be. To keep the energy up Yui (our show manager) challenged us to switch costumes with someone before the show and sometime during the show we had to switch back to our original costumes backstage without being noticed and it couldn’t be during intermission. It was a really fun activity and it was so neat to see everyone in someone else’s costume. We are so used to seeing everyone in the same outfit during each show so it was cool to see what other people look like in someone else’s costume. During the first show I wore LizZ’s outfit and during the second show I wore Melissa’s outfit.

All in all yesterday, those of us that did super crew set up AND strike after the show, worked a 20 hour day! EXHAUSTION follows!!

Today is host family day! Haruna and my host family took us to a small city called Bernal right outside of Queretaro. It is the town where our host parent’s got married. Our host mom ‘s(Marty) family owns a lot of the businesses in the town so they took us from store to store to meet all of her family. Marty was so much more at home here than we’ve seen her all week. She was smiling and laughing. I can tell that she really loves her family.

Bernal is such a quiet and peaceful town and although we were tired and sore and hungry and exhausted from head to toe it was impossible to not appreciate the calmness and beauty around us.

One thing that Mexico opened my eyes to is that there is beauty everywhere. We just need to open our eyes and see it. There is so much good and so much happiness….
It is crazy to know that this place is so different from anything normal to me, anything familiar..but I’ve been able to feel at home. I’ve found some moments that are better than anything I’ve experienced at home.

Como se dise "Hola" in Ingles?

2009-09-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today was so cool! I taught an English class! I did CI with a group at a school in the hills near Queretaro. We got there and originally were supposed to be working the garden pulling weeds but there wasn't enough work for everyone to do so we asked if there was anything else in the school we could do.

The group ended up going into a basic English class to teach their english lesson. It was so much fun. None of us in the group knew a lot of Spanish but luckily we had Nolwen from France with her French to Spanish dictionary. What an experience! When we needed a specific word we had to translate from English to French to Spanish!

All of the kids would laugh at us and help us with words when they knew what we were trying to say. It was quite a fun CI day. Driving back to the Conservatorio (our allocation site), I rode in a truck between a driver and Scott. We saw such beautiful landscapes on the way back to Queretaro. We drove through some very beautiful places.

This afternoon we did a Value's Auction with our hometeams. We had $1,000 worth of imaginary money to make bids with for the values that we wanted. There was a list of available items to buy from such as "to be famous" "a satisfying romantic relationship" and "physical beauty". We had to bid against eachother which became pretty fun and it was awesome to see what values people were willing to fight for. All I won was "Peace for my Country". Afterwards we had a values educational session run by Phil Woods. It was really good and afterwards we were given time to talk to our neighbor about our values. Thats one thing that is so cool about UWP, it gives you time and space to have really indepth conversations that you might not normally have.

sick day :( update from yesterday

2009-09-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Dad! I'm so sad that I'm not there to celebrate. I've now missed both of my parent's birthdays.

Today I was sick. Major tummy problems :( No fun at all-- welcome to Mexico. Luckily I was able to take the day of and stay at my host parent's house and rest. Unfortunately the house doesn't have internet, television, or even a radio...but atleast I was able to catch up on some sleep. My host family was so cute. Because I was sick they played Garth Brooks music on their CD player and also made me speghetti and said "American food make you feel better". How precious!

This evening after Haruna got home from UWP our family took us downtown to walk around. We took a lot of pictures of the statues and our host dad told us alot of the history of Queretaro. This city is where the Mexican constitution was written and it was started by a woman!! How awesome is that?!!?

We also went inside the oldest church in Queretaro. It was so beautiful. All of the churches I've been inside of in Mexico have been breathtaking. It truly is a beautiful country. I don't feel like enough people give it credit for how amazing of a country it is.

About CI yesterday: I worked at the main food bank of Queretaro (the state). There were about 5 of us girls there and we bagged cereal all day. The guys were taken to a food market to collect rotten food so we didn't get to spend the day with them. Us girls were put in a corner by ourselves so we didn't really get to interact with anyone else at the foodbank but we still had fun having girl talk amongst ourselves to keep us busy! It was kind of nice to have some girl time....even if we were working the entire time.

One awesome thing about yesterday is that the advance team had a huge suprise for us! On our schedule it said we were going to go on a theatre tour but we when showed up, the "theatre" was a Lucho Libra boxing ring! We were so excited!

The boxers put on a private show just for our cast! It was so aweoms and hilarious and entertaining! We all got so into it because it is so rare that we just do something fun with the whole cast that has no educational purpose. Very Very awesome of our advance team to plan this! It was so much fun!

San Miguel/ Welcome to Queretaro

2009-09-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

San Miguel was such a beautiful town. It had traditional Mexican buildings with little artesen shops. I bought a lot of little gifts for Christmas. We were given almost a 4 hour break so we had a lot of fun exploring.

I stayed with a really fun group: Michelle, Tim, Andrea, Melissa, LizZ, Cecilia, and Leslie. It was a good mixture ofa group. We ended up having lunch together at a little bistro. We were the only ones in the restaurant. It was so incredibly nice to have some time with everyone to just chat and catch up.

Now Im at my new host family's home in Queretaro, Mexico. Haruna from Japan is my roommate. When we arrived in Queretaro we were given a wonderful welcome by two performance groups. One was a Mexican Folk group who performed with instruments to replicate how the Aztecs performed. The second group was a muscial group of blind students. They sang traditional Mexican songs along with songs such as "De Que Color" and "Vive La Gente". When we heard our songs being sung we went crazy! We were up dancing and cheering. They were fantastic! Everyone was out of their seats.

This week seems like a very busy week starting with 3 days of CI! I am a crew leader tomorrow for a group at a food bank! :) Should be fun!

The Great City of Leon, Mexico

2009-09-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

Leon, Mexico: This week went by too fast. In a blink we arrived in the city and now we are pulling away and heading towards Queretaro. This was a fabulous week and I am honestly sad to be leaving. I teared up at host drop off. I’ve never cried as I left a family before but this family will forever hold a place in my heart.

FIRST DAY: Tuesday—Leon Tour
When we all arrived to morning meeting our advance team surprised us with special Leon Viva La Gente shirts!! Very exciting! For the entire morning and into the afternoon we went on a tour of the city of Leon. It was an awesome experience. We went downtown and saw the gate to enter to city and the oldest church in the state of Guanatro (the inside of it is covered in gold!) We were given a tour of the municipal building and were able to meet the Mayer of Leon. The entire tour was so cool. Every place they took us held such significance to Leon and was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in Arkansas. It was also fun because we had paparazzi. Once again news photographers followed us all over the city. Viva La Gente are rockstars in Mexico!!

In the Afternoon we were given time in our hometeams. Gabe wanted us to talk about a high and lowe oif our experience so far. One thing that a lot of people had in common is that they often feel left out or lonely within the cast. We discussed different scenarios that we could help each other not feel this way. It was very good for all of us to get this off of our chest. There were a lot of tears and a lot of hugging. In a way I feel very close to the people in my home team and really enjoy our time together even if it is just to vent.

In the evening me, Luz (my host sister), Michael and his host brother Lalo went out in downtown Leon. We went to an helado place to get really good ice cream, out for tamales, then to a bar to try Micheladas. Micheladas have beer, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lemon, chili powder, orange juice, lemonade, and salt. To be honest, it was pretty gross!! But so cool to be trying in Mexico!

Wednesday: CI DAY in Leon
This was an amazing day of community impact in Leon. It was full cast CI and I was the crew leader for the day. We started off the morning at the Escuela de Padre Jacobo which is a school for children with disabilities along with children without disabilities. It is the first school like this in the state and was started because of a teacher who had one student with special needs then realized there were no schools to help the student. This sparked a passion in the teacher to start a school that would help children with special learning needs along with help build tolerance among all students. We were given a tour of the facility then taken to a sports center to play basketball, volleyball, and soccer with the students. It was such a fun morning to just play and play and play. The kids were so fun to play with and they were very competitive. I think we all just fell in the love with the students. When it was time to leave the kids were upset because they found out that we wouldn’t be coming back the next day. There were a lot of tears. As we were about to leave the kids presented us with T-shirts from the school. It was so special.

In the afternoon we went to a center for Teens and Adults with addictions. We were all pretty nervous because we didn’t know what to expect also we were warned that it was in a more dangerous side of town. Scary scary. When we got there all of the participants were already in the room and cheered for us as we walked in. It was a welcome that I am sure no one was expecting. After Daniella (a member of our advance team and our translator) spoke to introduce the group she called me up to speak. I was not expecting to speak in front of the group nor was I prepared at all but there I was with a mic in my hand and facing a crowd of 100+ people that couldn’t speak English. Sooo what do you do at that moment but just take a deep breath and start talking? And that’s just what I did. I have to tell you that it is very hard to speak only one sentence at a time, then wait for Daniella to translate for me….and still sound like you know what you are talking about. I give out mad props to people that do that on a regular basis! I talked about what Vive La Gente is and what the plans for that day are. I reminded everyone that we love to be goofy and encouraged them to just be themselves and interact with us as best as possible.

The first activity of the day was for everyone to get in a line according to birthday without talking. I kid you not, everyone in the room (so called- scary, scary drug addicted people and overly happy, carefree Up With People, people) were, without words, communicating…and laughing…and smiling. It was an amazing thing to witness take place.

In all of the activities today I learned that language barriers are really not barriers at all. There are many many ways to communicate with someone. I saw it happen. I watched people go from silent and timid and confused to smiling and drawing pictures and telling stories and doing gestures and asking questions. It really was a sight to see take place.

In the evening we had our very first BTS (backing track show). This is a small 30 minute performance of only part of the cast, without the lights, stage, or band. The show was at the mall. I video taped part of it and I have to say it was kind of fun to be in the audience to watch the show. Also during the BTS I did promotion for our show on Saturday…..

Thursday: Dr. Laugh
I was once again the crew leader for CI today. My group went to a local hospital in Leon to participate in Dr. Laugh. If you’ve ever seen the movie Patch Adams with Robin Williams then you will understand completely what we did today. It was so much fun.

We went to different wings of the hospital and basically made people smile all day. We danced in the hallways and talked to the parents of the little ones. We tickled and held little babies. It was really a fun CI to participate in. We were able to learn about the magical healing power of the red nose!

In the evening, Luz and I went out bowling with Nolwen and her host sister Karina, and Michael and his host brother Lalo. Michael was our bowling superstar. After that we went out to eat at a local restaurant. So many people from Viva La Gente were there. During the meal a mariachi band was playing and surprised us by introducing our group and giving a plug for our show on Saturday. They let us all come up on stage and sing “Vive La Gente”. It was so much fun because it wasn’t expected at all!

Friday: Work Hard, Play Harder
To celebrate being in Leon, the Tech dance team that performed for us at the beginning of the week planned a night out on the town for anyone in Vive La Gente that wanted to come. Because my host sister was one of the organizers I had no choice but to go…but I have to admit it was so much fun!! There was about 40 of us there and it was so so so so much fun to be out at La Estudio dancing and having a good time with my cast mates. Even some staff came out and danced with us…..

Saturday: Show Day!!
Our show in Leon is going to forever be one of the more memorable just because of the venue. It is Farro del Lago: a stage literally in the middle of a lake. So incredibly cool!! When we all saw it for the first time we were amazed!! The dressing rooms are underneath the stage and a tunnel leads us to the audience. It is an awesome venue!

The show was amazing. The crowd cheered for us louder than any other crowd before. Fans were running up to us before, during intermission, and after the show to take pictures and get our autographs. In Mexico, Vive La Gentes like a rockstar band!!

This was the first night that we performed the Mexican Medley and I have to say I am very proud of it. I am in the Mariachi dance and its just so fun to be in the huge skirt twirling around!! Plus to hear the crowds reaction when we walked on stage is so so cool!! After the show my host family came running up to me, they LOVED the show. They said that they cried through much of it. My host siblings were so sweet and gave me so many compliments. I just love my Leon Family!

Sunday: Host Family Day
After strike the night before, I was a complete zombie. So thankfully my host family let me sleep in until 9:00 a.m. I was so grateful! When you’ve been going for a week working off of 3-4 hours of sleep a night, sleeping for 7 hours feels like a gift from God!!

After slowly waking up and getting ready, Luz and I went out shopping in downtown Leon. Leon is the show capitol of the world and has huge shoe factories so shoes are extremely cheap! So of course I was on the lookout for the most amazing pair of shoes ever…and of course I FOUND THEM!! So exciting!

In the evening me and my host siblings climbed up on the roof of our apartment building and hung out. We had so much fun just being goofy. Then we all made a pallet on the floor of the boys bedroom and watched a movie on Luz’s laptop. They bought me snacks and we all just snuggled in for the movie. It was so much fun and It really did feel like we were a family.

Monday: Travel Day
Now we are once again driving and driving to get to Queretaro. This shouldn’t be too long of a travel day. I think it’s only a 3 hour drive from Leon. They made an announcement that we will be stopping in a town shortly so I better put up my computer….goodbye Leon!!

Plane Rides, Chair Covers, and Mariachi Bands... Oh My!

2009-08-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

We are in MEXICO!!!! Just getting here has been an extremely memorable experience. We left Lake Havasu City yesterday morning and drove 4 hours to Phoenix to the airport. I slept almost the entire way. When we got to the airport we had about four hours to go through security, get something to eat, and board the plane. I was so worried that my bag would be overweight. We are only allowed to have one bag that is 50lbs or less. When I went to check my bag, my heart was racing as I lifted my bag onto the scale! But my bag was only 39lbs!! I couldn’t believe it! Way to go me for under-packing!! Jason and I went through security together. We were the first ones to make it to the terminal. Once all of us got to the terminal we were all checking our e-mail for the last time and calling home. Some were sleeping on the floor. It was pretty funny to be honest. I’m sure we were really a sight to see. I called home and talked to my parents and to Jennifer for a while. It was nice to talk for more than 5 minutes at a time!!

My plane dates for the day were Sofie and Megan. Yui sat across from me and Kelsey Kiernan sat in front of me. The plane ride from Phoenix to Hermosillo was so bumpy. Anytime the plane would shake Kelsey would put her hand back for me to hold. We ended up holding hands most of the flight. I was so glad to have her there with me!! When the plane landed in Hermosillo, MX we all got off the plane with our carry ons and went through customs. We only had 30 minutes for all of us to make it through the line!! Then we all re-boarded the same flight and flew to Mexico City.

Landing in Mexico City was so much fun. People from our advance team were at the baggage claims area holding a Vive La Gente banner! We were all cheering! It was so exciting to finally be in Mexico!! They had snacks for us all to eat and we took a group picture with the banner. It was such an exciting moment.

Immediately we all got on buses and started our 7 hour bus ride to Leon, Mexico. My bus date was Anna and I fell asleep almost instantly! I was so exhausted that we apparently stopped for an hour somewhere and I didn’t even know.

The best part of the trip is when we arrived in Leon. The buses stopped outside of a building and we all got off. Caitlin and I were the first two people to walk in this huge empty room. We saw a huge pile of what we thought were sheets laying in the middle of the room so we went to get some to sleep under. They were chair covers! All of us were so tired and it was so cold that we didn’t even care! Everyone in the cast for 2 or 3 of the chair covers, curled up on the floor and went to sleep!

Gabe woke us up about 5 hours later and told us we had 2 hours to get cleaned up. All of us girls wentto a public bathroom and I ended up washing my hair in the sink! Sometimes on this trip I find myself doing things that I never thought I would do. Sleeping on the floor under a chair cover and washing my hair in a public bathroom sink like a homeless person is definitely one of them!! Looking back at the whole 24 hours I can’t even believe how big of an adventure it has been!

In the afternoon the college dance team at the Technology College of Monterey in Leon performed for us a welcoming. (did I mention that the huge empty room that we slept in was actually a banquet hall at the local college?) The dance team was awesome! Then we got up and sang “ Vive La Gente” for them. The entre time we were out in the open today photographers were following us around taking pictures of our every move. It was so much fun like we are celebrities!

For lunch we all met under a tent and had a traditional Mexican meal. Many students from the college ate with us. In the middle of lunch as we are sitting and eating and chatting a Mariachi band suprises us! They performed for about an hour and we all got up and danced with them! Michael even put on one of the mariachi guys outfits and performed with them! It was awesome!!!!

After lunch we had a cast meeting to discuss how everyone is feeling about Mexico and prepare us for the week ahead. Then it was time to meet our host families! I am staying alone this week!! AHHHH When I read my allocation card and it didn’t have a roommate listed I was so nervous! Fortunately I hit the jackpot. My host sister is one of the dancers from the Leon dance team! She speaks very good English so that makes this week so easy for me.

When they picked me up it was pouring down raining. We went to a taco vender on the side of the road to eat. We ate behind the vendor on little chairs under a tent to keep dry during the storm. As I was sitting there, soaking wet from running from the car, eating my taco, reading my Coca-Cola can that said “refresca tu optimista” I thought to myself, “Yep, I’m really in Mexico right now”…..

Show Day in Lake Havasu...Bye Bye Rafa

2009-08-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today was our 2nd show day in Lake Havasu. Unfortunately it is also the last night that Rafa from the Tech Team will be with us :( Rafa worked at the Tech Manager for the show and only agreed to work this semester for the American section of our tour. Starting in Mexico we will get another tech manager, Gaby. Its always a little sad to say goodbye.

Here are some pics from the 2 show days in Lake Havasu:

Go Drew, Its Your Birthday...We´re Gonna Party Like Its Your Birthday

2009-08-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

Today was one of the most fun days on tour so far. We started off the day with a guest speaker, Steve Farber. He spoke about leadership in the context of business. He is an author and his most recent book is “Greater Than Yourself”. It is about finding a person who has similar goals as your own strengths and helping that person to become greater than you are. It was a very powerful speech and he encouraged us to find our very own “GTY” project for the semester.

In the afternoon we had a culture fair for local children to attend. Over 500 children came to it!! It was insane. I worked at the USA booth for the day along with Anthony Anaya-Gorman. It was fun working the booth with him because up until now I haven’t really had a chance to get to know him very well. He told me a lot of stories and was so much fun to spend the day with. The USA booth was pretty cool but it was hard to get the kids interested because they are from the US! A lot of them came and recited the Pledge of Allegiance to us. That was pretty cute.

There were a lot of really cool things at the culture fair. Stephanie (who is visually impaired) had a booth that taught people how to read braille. I thought that was so cool!! It would take forever to learn how to read it well. Also there was sumo wrestling, henna art, and a dance area. The kids had so much fun.

This evening our host mom took us out to eat at a Mexican restaurant to get us ready for Mexico at the end of the week! For dessert she got us fried ice cream. We devoured it! We were so happy to have dessert!! Jochien even licked the chocolate syrup at the bottom of the bowl!

To end the night off right, a group of us went out for Drew’s birthday. We went to a place called “Martini Bay”. We were pretty much the only people there and it was so much fun. We just danced and talked and cheered to celebrate. It was so much fun to just go out as friends and not have to worry about “official business”. Some of the UWP staff came out with us and they were so much fun. It was the first time I have gone out since being on this trip so I was a little desperate for some fun!! Happy Birthday, Drew!!

Global Series Project-- Human Rights

2009-08-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today was the first of the global series presentations. This afternoon a group presented information about human rights. IT was an amazing workshop. They talked about many different aspects of human rights including the caste system in India, fair trade, human trafficking, the history of human rights, and ended the presentation with everyone in the group writing on a leaf what a value of ours is about human rights. We all pasted our leaves on a tree of humanity. It was a very cool activity.

One thing that was discussed in the workshop was what if the world was a village of 100 people. I found the statistics to be so interesting.

If the world was a Village of 100 people there would be:
48 males 52 females
70 adults 30 kids
90 heterosexuals 10 homosexuals
1 with HIV
61 Asians 12 Europeans 13 North Americans and Africans
86 unable read
1 without a college degree
6 people in control of the world’s wealth
50 people who do not have a reliable source of food
1 person dying of hunger

48 unable speak or act according to their faith in fear of torture or imprisonment for speaking their minds.

Lake Havasu City-- Home of the London Bridge

2009-08-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

When we arrived in Lake Havasu City, our advanced team had us meet in a popular restaurant here and we had the perfect view of the London Bridge!! Here are some pics!!

Welcome to Lake Havasu City, AZ

2009-08-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

On the bus on the way to Lake Havesu City, Arizona. The bus ride was crazy today. Michael, Breton, Caitlin, and Jason put on a puppet show for all of us with Scott as the narrator. So funny!
When we arrived our allocation meeting was at one of the best known restaurants in the city.

The view from the restaurant ws of the London Bridge. We were given time to walk down to the water and take pictures of the bridge. It was a beautiful 110 degree day so we were eager to take our shoes off and wade in the water.

After some free time we had an educational session on Leadership. Anthony from the tech team gave the workshop and it was from a military point of view. He did an amazing job. It was a two hour speech but I was completely engaged the entire time. He has a passion for leadership and the different contexts in which a leader might lead.

After that we had the allocation meeting and I presented Emil with the appreciation book. I was so nervous standing in front of the group reading it out loud but Emil’s face when he found out I was writing about him was priceless. I love the idea of the appreciation book because we don’t always tell the people that we appreciate what we appreciate about them.

Then came time to meet our host families and roomies. My roomies for the week are Aude from Quebec and Jochien from Belgium. I’ve never roomed with Jochien before so I’m excited to get to know her a little more. Aude and I were roomies in Aspen and we had so much fun so I’m looking forward to a great week with her again. Our host mom is Gail Malay and she is the superintendent of the school system in Lake Havasu. She’s never been a host mom before so she has a lot of questions about UWP and us in general. It’s been a fun evening chatting with her.

“A leader is a person who has the ability to get people to do what they don’t want to do and like it” –Harry Truman.

Show Day in Chino Valley

2009-08-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

Today is the show in Chino Valley! I know Scott is so excited because this is home town. I can’t imagine UWP coming to Lake Village or even Arkansas at all. I would be so proud to show off all of the hard work that we do.

All morning I’ve been in dance workshops learning dances for the Mexican Medley. I can’t believe that we will be in Mexico in ONE WEEK!! And performing in two weeks!! Craziness.

Last night my host family had a cook-out and invited some members of their family to come meet us. Our host parents used to be foster parents and they invited one of their previous foster daughters to meet us. It felt very cool that they wanted to show us off to other family members!

Happy Birthday, Mom

2009-08-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

We are having the best host family day ever! Right now we are watching Ratatouille . It’s so nice to really have a day off to not wear make-up, to sleep in past 5:30 a.m., to wear PJ’s all day if we wanted and just RELAX!! Tonight we are having a cook-out with some other family members so that should be fun!! I’m ready for a grilled hamburger! Plus roasting marshmallows afterwards for dessert!

Today is my mom’s birthday. I wish so badly that I could be home with her now. Plus cake and ice cream sounds so good!

Earlier, all of my roomies sang “Happy Birthday” to my mom in their native languages. It was so cool to hear! Awesome!!!

Hello Arizona!!!

2009-08-22T22:51:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon was beautiful!! We were there for two hours. In that time it was sunny, pouring down rain, cloudy, drizzly, sunny, then pouring down rain again!

Luckily I was able to get some good pictures while it was sunny. When it was time to take our group picture it was raining so hard! We all sat under an awning waiting for it to clear up but it never did so we ended up taking our group picture in the rain with all of us cheering and laughing. Then we ran back to the bus full speed!!

Now we are in Chino Valley, Arizona (which is about the size of Lake Village, Arkansas but without a cool lake or grass!) My host parents are Brenda and Tony Griffin and they are a lot of fun. I am sharing a bedroom (and bed) with Berit from Germany. Also living with us are Ronja from Germany, Sisa from Slovakia, Lima from Switzerland, and Manuel from Mexico.
Tomorrow our host parents said we can feel free to just take it easy and watch movies! We are all so happy. It’ll be the first “lounging” day I’ve had while on this trip!!

Grand Canyon Pics

2009-08-22T21:53:00.000-07:00

Last night in Durango

2009-08-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

We have had two great show days in Durango. Our shows were at the Fort Lewis Community Concert Hall. It was a really nice facility that sat about 600 people.

The girls dressing room is in the basement of the building and didn’t have mirrors or outlets. The guys dressing room had full mirrors on each side, outlets, AND a bathroom!! Tell me how this is right!!??!! It was still fun getting ready. Some of us would sneak upstairs to the public restroom to get ready.

Last night in Greenroom, Kelsey Kiernan presented me with the appreciation book. The appreciation book is a tradition with each cast. It started in our first greenroom with Rafa writing to Kelsey. Then she had to write a letter to someone that she appreciated. She wrote the nicest letter. I started tearing up when I realized that she was writing about me. Now I have to write a letter to someone for next week.

Tomorrow we leave for Chino Valley, AZ and we get to stop at the Grand Canyon!! I can’t wait!!

Boys and Girls Club then Family Night Out

2009-08-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Another CI Day today!! I was in a group at the Boys and Girls Club of La Plata County. Lynsie Haley was the crew leader and she was great with the kids.

We were broken up into groups to go to different stations with the kids. I was in the gym most of the day playing dodgeball, RedLight/GreenLight, Bulldog, and Go Banana’s.

It was such a fun day and equally as rewarding as yesterday’s CI. At the end of the day we played “Cross the Line”. The group was between the ages of 6-14. We weren’t sure if they would like it or not but they really became engaged in the activity.

Tonight our host mom took us all out to eat at a pizza place that’s really popular in downtown Durango. I was a piece of pizza that was bigger than my entire head!! It was hilarious and really tasty at the same time. I also tried Key Lime cream soda that is made here in Durango. Surprisingly, I really liked it! Then we walked downtown to the different shops to buy postcards and things like that. It was a really fun night to just go out in the town and not be obligated to an activity.

No Limits

2009-08-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

Today Today Today…. Where to begin?

We did full cast CI (Community Impact) all day, in the mountains, doing trail work. We had to climb to the top of a mountain (about 2 miles high) with our backpack, water, lunch, and tools to work. Before we started hiking we were told that the hike was strenuous and man they were not kidding!!

My legs were burning, my heart was racing. I felt like I couldn’t take a full breath (because of the altitude). It was stifling hot outside and, I’m not going to lie, there was a time about ¾ of the way to the top that I felt like I just wasn’t going to be able to finish to the top. But… I DID

I DID IT!!

It felt so good to walk out of the bushes and see parts of the cast sitting on the ground…and when they saw me they cheered me on and I knew that I really had done it!

We were given a little bit of time to take pictures form the top and eat a short lunch before getting to work. Trail work was hard and exhausting but strangely I really enjoyed it. I felt like I was really working as hard as I could. I was using my entire body, with all of my energy and strength. It was blazing hot especially carrying my backpack the entire time but we kept ourselves entertained by joking and singing….and as tired as we all were, everyone stayed really positive all day.

I worked with a lopper cutting branches off of trees and bushes. I’ve never in my life done anything like this but I caught on quickly and I really liked my job. I also carried branches, threw brush off of the trail we were building, and worked as a photo assistant taking pictures.
We worked up in the mountains from 9:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. then started our hike down the mountain.It was easily just as hard as the climb up but it used completely different muscles. In the steeps areas we had to basically slide down the hill carrying our tools, water, backpacks, ect . It was HARD!!!

But when my group crossed out of the trail and towards the bus, I couldn’t help but jump for joy and cheer!!! We were all pretty proud of ourselves but completely and utterly worn out. I drank three bottles of water in the 15 minute bus ride back!

After the day was over our host mom threw a birthday party for our host dad at a small private lake surrounded by mountains. Another host family (hosting Stephanie, Michelle, and Jochien) also came to the party.

To start the party off our host sister, Allee, dared Anna, Alejandra, and I to jump in the water, swim to a floating dock in the center, climb up, jump off, and swim back. She did it first and said the water was a little chilly but we would get used to it pretty quickly. So, of course, we go for it.
It was BONE-CHILLING COLD!!!! We were screaming and shivering but we all completed the task. Allee was very proud of us and pretty surprised that we actually went through with it.
When the 3 of us dared the other girls they almost went through with it. They ran into the water about knee deep before finally running back, screaming!! It was pretty hilarious. I wish I’d brought my video camera.

Anna, Alejandra, Allee, and I rode back o the house in the back of a pickup truck with our feet dangling off of the edge. It was fun to have the wind blowing our hair and we were singing and laughing.

After we got home, we got in the hot tub (“Annie, I want HOT TUB”). The hot tub is on their back deck facing the mountains. On one edge of it is a little wooden deck but then a drop off. Allee turned all of the house lights off and when we looked up all we saw were a million stars. It was one of the most amazing sights I’ve seen on this trip so far. I layed my head back on the little wooden deck and it felt like all there was in the whole world was me floating in a sea of sky. Absolutely breathtaking.

Today was the most full day I’ve had on this trip so far. My body is sore. I have a sunburn, blisters, cuts, and I’m so tired I can hardly believe I’m sitting here writing this…but to be honest today has been one of the best days so far.

I did things I never thought my body was capable of. I saw things that even my eyes could not fully appreciate. I went from one extreme to another with all of my senses. I laughed with people I’d barely spoken to before. I made memories with castmates that will last a lifetime. I depended on others in situations that could have been dangerous. I kept going on when it would have been easier to go back. I jumped right in without hesitation.

Today I really was alive.

Hello Durango, CO!

2009-08-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

My new home is amazing. Anna, Alejandra, and I are staying with the Belanger Family (Randall, Barbara, and Allee) in an area called Falls Creek Ranch. Its right outside of Durango, CO and its absolutely beautiful. The house has super cool artwork in it and the layout is so unique. Mine and Alejandra’s beds are parallel to a glass wall overlooking the mountains.

Our new host sister is eleven but she is incredibly smart. She has built her own two story tree house/fort in the front yard. I couldn’t building something that awesome NOW much less when I was eleven. The family is very cultural because they just spent three years living in Costa Rica. They moved back to the states about a month ago! There is so much for me to learn from this family. I’m very excited about my week in Durango!

Another city gone by

2009-08-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

I’m writing from the good ole UWP bus!! We left Snowmass this morning and are heading to Durango. Scott is my bus date and we have seen some breathtakingly beautiful places in Colorado. Mostly we have been driving through mountain areas and these mountains are more beautiful than anything I’ve seen before!

It is hard not to believe in God when seeing places so magnificant! Sometimes we’ll look out the window and our jaws will just drop. It’s almost hard to grasp that our eyes are seeing what they are seeing! I’ve taken pictures out the window but it doesn’t come close to seeing the real thing.

Yesterday was an amazing host family day! We woke up at 5:00 a.m. to go up in the hot air balloon. I was so nervous that I took a xanax before leaving. No one told me that at this altitude antianxiety drugs work about 3x’s stronger!!! So by the time we got all the way up in the sky, I was wiped out!! I could barely keep my eyes open! I literally fell asleep standing up for a minute! Haha

From the balloon, Aspen/Snowmass was incredible! I can’t even express just how beautiful of an area Colorado is. Once the balloon landed the pilot gave all of us mamosas and chocolate covered strawberries. He said it was a tradition for first timers to drink champaigne after landing. It was a lot of fun.

After getting home, we all took naps until 1:00 a.m.!!! It was the most rest I’ve felt since being on this trip! We we woke up Jacqie’s parents were there and we had a cookout. Then we went shopping for souviniers.

It was so sad packing everything last night! It feels like we just got to Aspen. We barely had time to get to know our host parents or roomies!

There is a little bit of a scary feeling about not knowing where I’ll be sleeping tonight! We won’t know until we arrive in Durango, who our host family is and who our roommates are. Hopefully they will be just as amazing as all of my previous ones!!

Hot Air Balloon Pictures!!

2009-08-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

Pictures our host dad took of the hot air balloon in the air!!

Show Day in Snowmass

2009-08-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight was our show in Snowmass. It was so completely different than any other show or rehearsal we have ever had. It was at an outside venue at 12,000 ft elevation!

In front of the stage in Snowmass

All day we finished stage set up and then had calisthenics outside to try tp help us get acclimated to the altitude. We did sprints, jogged, high knee running, and side to sides all uphill. I thought I would NEVER breathe normally again!! Just walking up a flight of stairs makes me out of breath here!

After warm-ups... taking a breath

But it was so important for us to have warm ups because during the show, to get to the audience from the stage, we had to sprint uphill, run into the audience, and still sing and dance!!

All day I felt out of breath and had a terrible headache. For a short period of time I even felt dizzy and then before dinner I threw up. Caroline (from Sweden) gave me a swedish version of Ibueprofen and sat with me until I felt a little bettr. She showed me different ways to rub pressure points on my head to feel a little better. By the time dinner came around (and I drank 3 glasses of water) I felt like a brand new person.

The show tonight was so cool.... in a very literal way because it was less than 40 degrees outside! Our costumes were in a tent behind the stage so in between songs we would all run down there and huddle together to keep warm.

Pieter (from Belgium) keeping me warm backstage

With Yume from Japan

Quickchanges between songs were INSANE! We only had an area about 1 foot wide behind an inflatable screen for the love medley to change behind. Everyone else had to run off the stage, downhill to the tent, and change there. A lot of time people would barely make it on stage for their songs.

The backstage quick change area for 20 people

The "Love Medley" went pretty smootly tonight, although I barely got on stage in time after my quick change. Also Pieter's headset was broken before the show so during "footloose" I had to exit the stage and get white mic 3 to bring to him during "To all the girls I've loved before". Ken (over dance production) told me about the change about 15 minutes before the show so we didn't have time to practice it. Needless to say it all went smoothly and no one would have known that that wasn't how the show always went.

With our host parents, Jacqie and Brad during intermission

CI (or lack there of) in Snowmass

2009-08-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

In UWP, you always have to be flexible. Plans change all of the time.

Today I was the CI Leader for a group to clean up trails in the Snowmass Mountains. I had a group of about 15. When we woke up this morning is was pouring down raining. By the time we got to our CI meeting spot, all of the lifts into the mountains had been closed!!

Playing "Copy Cat" until we figured out our new CI Plan

Our group ended up splitting into 2 groups. One did promotional work in Carbondale to promote the show tomorrow and the other group helped set up the stage so there won't be as much work to do tomorrow. Also Caitlin and I helped prepare food in Jacqie's restaurant for tomorrow's dinner. It turned out to be a good and fun day. We were able to have fun setting up lights because there weren't as many people trying to move around the stage all at once.

Cutting mushrooms for the salad

Caitlin and I taking a cat nap

Tim and I obviously working very hard!

coolest CI group!

riding the Gondola down the mountain with Coy and Caitlin

I was only slightly freaking out

Tonight Tim, Aude, and I had dinner at Jacqie's restaurant "The Circe" with Brad and Jacqie. The food Jacqie makes is A-----mazing.

First Night in Aspen/Snowmass

2009-08-13T23:51:00.000-07:00

I am laying right now in the most comfortable bed, EVERRRR at my host familie's home in Snowmass, CO!! My roomies are Aude (from Canada) and Tim (from Michigan). Aude and I are sharing a room and bed but it totally okay because the bed is huge and its also giving us some time to get to know eachother.

With my new roomie, Tim, from Chicago

Our new host parents are Jacqie and Brad. Jacqie owns a restaurant in Snowmass in the same area as our performance. She loves to cook and told the advance team that she would only be a host parent if she could host people that want to eat!! :) YAY!! I'm definitly looking forward to her meals. Tonight we had chicken cordon bleu.

First Dinner with Jacqie and Brad!

This house is beautiful. It is like staying at a bed and breakfast. There is a hot tub out back! Tonight after dinner Tim, Aude, and I got in the hot tub and talked and talked and talked. It was wonderful. Its weird how we all think we are so different because we come from such different places, backgrounds, and cultures. But tonight when we were talking we realized that us three are so similar! We think the same about so many things. Our families, traditions/structures/ect, are so similiar! :)

I am exhausted from a long day of traveling so I'm going to go to bed. I am a CI (community impact) leader for a group tomorrow. We will be working on trails in the Snowmass Mountains. Goodnight All!!

Aspen Bound!

2009-08-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

Staging is officially O-V-E-R!!!! Last night was a fantastic first show. The audience was so energetic!

Before the show, in greenroom, the staffed showed us pictures that our families had sent to us. Everyone was so emotional and crying and hugging. I had pictures from Nathan and Grace, Jennifer and Monk, & Stella. Everytime a picture would pop up I would burst into tears. I was so homesick for my family and just people who already know me and love me. As soon as greenroom was over, I didn't go mingle with the audience at all, I went back to the dressing room and called my mom. It felt so good to hear her voice, if only for just a minute.

Although everyone was very emotional, I think it made the experience better and that much more special. Instead of giving high fives backstage and saying "break a leg", we were giving hugs and saying "I love you". It brought us together and grounded us.

And guess what? I got dressed SO quickly for my quick change in love medley!! I had time to spare! Kristine is a perfect quickchange helper, now we have a system of just how to get me into my next outfit!

Kari and Kinsie Corby came tonight to watch the show! I was so happy to see them!

After the show, instead of strike I was signed out for education. I am going to be a CI leader in Aspen for buiding hiking trails! I'm excited to be a leader for service work. There will be 15 people on my team.

Sitting on the bus today was amazing. Kristine was my bus date. It was so awesome to see the mountains on the way to Aspen. It was absolutely breathtaking. Looking out the window and seeing all of the formations really made me stop and think about the Big Picture. I am so happy right now to be a part of Up With People... I know, believe me, that I'm going to be stretched and challenged while on this trip but it is so worth it. Now I'm just sitting back and waiting to see what the next big adventure will be!

Dress Rehearsal!!!!

2009-08-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight was so cool! It was our first performance in font of a live audience!! Larz, Wendy, and Krista came. Also the Corby family (including Aunt Rika) was in the audience cheering us on!!

It is almost midnight but I am so engerized because being on stage with the rest of Cast B was amazing. I felt so alive...and our message is so powerful.

The Love Medley was so so so so so much fun tonight. I'm still dancing with Tim and he is a great partner. After our practice run through Tim came up to me and we gave eachother show notes to make our peformance better.

Kristine is my helper for the quick change. We barely have 4 eight counts to change outfits completely so she waits backstage for me to run off and change. I was a little stressed tonight because it felt like I was taking FOREVER to get into my outfit and I barely made it on stage for "at the hop". But it all worked out perfectly in the end.

Tomorrow will be the longest day for all of us. We have run throughs all day, then our 1st public show..then STRIKE! I can't believe staging is so close to being over with. Didn't we all just get here?

I'm so sad because after tomorrow Kristine and I will no longer be roommates. She has become like a sister to me.

I'm getting things packed up because I know tomorrow night I'll be too tired to pack anything then we are leaving at 8:30 a.m. the next day!

Highlight Memory of the Day: Little Ellie in "Sound of Peace" who sat on my lap because she was so scared and then had be dance while holding her in "It Takes a Whole Village to Raise a Child"

Happy Anniversary Larz and Wendy!!

2009-08-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Last night was so so so so so cool! It was our host parent's wedding anniversary so they took Kristine and I out to dinner to celebrate with them. When Larz picked us up from CI yesterday, he arrived in a Mercedes Convertible!!!! We felt like superstars climbing in and riding off with the window down.

We rushed home and cleaned up so we could get to dinner quickly. They took us out for a steak dinner at the Denver Chophouse. Then meal was one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. It got their famous white cheddar mashed potatoes and a gargonzola filet mignon.

On the ride their and home our hair was flying everywhere in the wind. It was in our face and in the air and it was FABULOUS! Larz and Wendy were laughing at us because we kept putting our arms up in the air and waving at the people in cars driving past us. It was so much fun!!

When we got home, Caitlin, Alejandra, and Mary (their host mom who is Wendy's best friend) came over and we celebrated Alejandra's birthday. Caitlin, Kristine, Alejandra, and I (the Mike Group) sat out on the back deck laughing and playing "Never Have I Ever". We were having so much fun. It was sad when midnight came around and they had to go home to their own house.

Warren Village Transitional Home

2009-08-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an amazing day. We did CI at Warren Village, which is a transitional home for mothers and children. The entire cast worked so hard today!

I worked in a group on the playroom for the kids. There was so much to do but we broke up into small teams to get it all done. At first I worked with Lynsie Haley (from California) to disinfect and organize all of the childrens books. There were over 400 books and all were disinfected!! Once they were clean we put them into categories: baby books, animals, religious, parenting, self-help, trains/planes/automobiles.

We had so much fun looking through the books and reading some to eachother. There were some really great childrens books that brought back alot of memories of my childhood. A few of the children that live in Warren Village came out to help us/play with the toys. The play area hadn't been used in years because no one ever had the time to fix it up.

By the time our group was done, we had put up all the bookshelves and even put together some nascar/ train sets for the kids to play with. The room was completely ready for all of the little ones to come in and start playing!

While the group I was in was busy working on the playroom another group was making a sitting area outside. Another group moved all of the playground equipment from one side of the yard to another and another group was painting and organizing things inside.

By the time the day was done, we had all accomplished so much!! The difference was so noticeable and astounding. It was awesome to see who took charge of each groujp and who only took a 15 minute lunch in order to complete their project.

The day was so incredible! GO CAST B!!!!

Food Bank of the Rockies/ Rockies Game!

2009-08-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Today was a blast! Cast B did CI (Community Impact) at the Food Bank of the Rockies. We packed 1,278 boxes of food for needy families in the Denver area. It was an amazing experience.

I was a box folder all day, so I literally formed atleast 1,200 boxes. That job would seem a little boring but I was with a really fun group all day. We spent the entire day laughing and gossiping and joking. The entire day just flew by.

One really cool moment of the day was in the van on the way to CI. We were all jamming out in the car to Fergie , having a great time. I looked around and realized that no two people in the van were from the same country. There was Bernward (Germany), Raven (Bermuda), Lima (Switzerland), Jochien (Belgium), Nao (Japan), and myself. Its amazing how different we all are: we don't have similar traditions, holidays, skin colors, or even languages.....but at that moment we ha found a common ground singing "Let the Beat Rock". It was a great moment of realization for me. If we can find this simple similarity, just imagine what other similarities might be out there if we just devote enough time to finding them!

Tonight after CI, my host family took Kristine and I to a Rockies Game!! So So So So SOOOOO much fun!! Larxz ande Wendy bought Kristine and I matching Rockies shirts for the game, along with a package of peanuts! We were so excited! The Rockies were playing the Cubs and WON!!!!!

It was such a fun energy release to be cheering and dancing in the stands. Gianna and Roman came to the game also and they were so precious. Roman was so worried that the Rockies weren't going to win! Gianna wanted to share all of her snacks with the people in the stands around us. Roman is such a bundle of energy. Even after the game, he wanted to sprint all of the way to the car! Alll of us adults could barely keep our eyes open!!

Going to bed now! Another big CI day tomorrow!

Goodbye Sherman Center

2009-08-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

Today we moved out of the Sherman Center, where we have been staging the entire time in Denver. We had our first "strike" today. Strike is taking down the entire stage and set and loading it all into trucks. There are so many little details that go into tearing it all down!!

One of the fun things about my day was, in fact, learning how to coil wires! We had a huge stack of cords that had to be coiled and put into large boxes. I had no idea how to even start a task like this! Aubrey, from Arizona, had done alot of technical work before so she took the time to teach me how to correctly coil the wires! It took me quite a few tries before doing it correctly but everytime I did wrapped it the right way she would cheer me on!

Although this seems like such a small moment, it was actually one of the best parts of my day. Aubrey easily could have told me "don't worry about it, I can do this myself" and it probably would have taken her half of the time it took me to complete it. But instead she took the time to teach me something new and she actually made coiling wires kind of fun! (as strange as that sounds!)

Anyway, after wrapup today we all yelled goodbye to the Sherman Center. Its a little sad leaving such a beautiful building. Next week we will be rehearsing at the Pinnacle Events Center, preparing for the show! Thank you Sherman Center for being such a wonderful place to spend my first month with Up With People

European Prep!

2009-08-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today we had an hour European Prep session with Paul Whitaker. He is the person who is working with our European Sponsor to help plan our shows and educational events.

It was very exciting to listen to the types of things that we will be doing. Our European sponsor is a company named Vattenfall. Vattenfall is one of Europe's leading energy companies and is celebrating its centennial year this year. Mr. Whitaker told us that although Vattenfall is an international company, they don't necessarily have an "international feel" to them. That is why they are interested in Up With People coming to help them celebrate their 100 year celebration.

While in Europe we will (for the most part) be hosted by employees of Vattenfall. Mr. Whitaker told us that this may be the first time any of their employees have met someone from the United States or from China, or Ethiopia. We will be representing our entire country by our actions while on this tour.

Vattenfall works with many different types of energy: Hydroelectric, nuclear, wind, ect.... While in Europe we will be spending educational sessions at different engery plants, learning about how the energy is made and other facts. Mr. Whitaker encouraged us to research our own country's view on conserving energy and climate change and the steps that are being taken to conserve energy. We will be speaking with many people while in Europe and all of them will expect us to know the answers to their questions.

We will fly from Mexico City, Mexico, to Stockholm, Sweden. Immediately after landing we will get into a bus and drive 12 hours North to our first city. This will be just mere hours from the Artic Circle (guess where I'm going to ask my host parents to take me on host family day!?!?!). Altogether this will be a 30 hour travel day! whew!

Hearing Paul Whitaker speak about our European tour got me very excited to get on the road. There are so many amazing places for us to get to see!!

" Whether you go to Europe, or to Asia, or the moon, it's the spirit in which you do things, not what you do, that they will remember" -- Paul Whitaker

Is it Friday yet?

2009-08-04T21:02:00.001-07:00

Today after lunch we had a full run through on the stage with the band! Very exciting moment for our cast! Today was the first day that we ran the show with live vocals and the band playing. Our band is amazing! They totally rock out. I've heard a few of them mention how difficult some of the medleys are because of the drastic music changes, but if they were struggling at all I definitly couldn't notice.

Having a full run through of the show makes for a long afternoon but there is a huge sense of accomplishment when it is all through and we're in the final pose for the "Up With People" theme song. The most moving song of the entire show is right before the finale number. It's "What Happening to You" and Caitlin and Pieter singing it can bring you to tears. Even when I know its coming, I still get tingles so I can't imagine being a member of the audience.

During the love medley section, I actually made it out on stage at the correct time for the "At the Hop" routine! Unfortunately, Tim and I were still a little off on the lift and I ended up just straddling him in the center of the stage... I'm sure the people watching thought it was hilarious! We've messed this lift up a few times now, so its just humerous to see how many different ways we can do it wrong!! Eventually I know we will get it though!

After the run through we still had about 2 hours left in rehearsal. I was called into a workshop to learn the full "Time of my Life" dance. Right now a lot of areas are having last minute workshops to clean up the dances and vocals. At first my partner in this workshop was Coy but then he was called out for a vocal workshop so I danced with Isaiah. Then I didn't have a partner for a little bit...and then finally I danced with Paul (the dance captain). Now, if anyone is nervous about remembering footwork and making sure the moves are in the right sequence, DON'T PARTNER WITH THE DANCE CAPTAIN. Chances are, he'll be really good and it will be completely obvious if you suck!

All kidding aside, all of my partners today were in great moods (especially considering how exhausted everyone was from the crazy run through...and how hot and sweaty everyone was from working out under the stage lights) and kept positive engergy throughout the entire workshop. Everyone was willing to go over the moves over and over and over again with me. I really need this because I have a tendency to be a really slow learner until I memorize the moves. Once my body just knows the moves then I can add my extra personality to a dance....until then I'm just flailing my arms around on stage and turning in wild circles like Lucille Ball. Its a wonder I'm in any dances at all right now!

Highlight Memory of the Day: Dancing to "Time of my Life" with Isaiah, who only calls me Miss Matthews... during the lift (first try) we are a little off balance so instead of me sitting up straight on his shoulder I am a leaning to the side and my "pillow" (as he called it) was pushed into his face until he set me down. It was hilarious! Of course through the entire lift, he's singing away "I had the time of my life"... we couldn't stop laughing. During the second lift I didn't quite make it onto his shoulder so I was trying to wiggle my way up...once again, we couldn't control out laughter. He's such a fun person to be around so I really enjoy getting to dance with him. I'm sure the instructors HATE when we are together

Not-So- Highlight of My Day: I think in the middle of a dance or while walking to the wrap- up meeting, someone stepped on my foot. I didn't really notice anything until Sheena asked me if I was okay and when I looked down my foot was bleeding. After walking to the bus and sitting down, my foot started hurting so bad! Now it hurts to even put weight on it and the top is pretty swollen. I'm going to pop in a Tyelenol or something because I don't have any time to be hurt this week.

Tomorrow is a long day. All of this week we will be staying at rehearsal until 6:00 except for tomorrow. We are staying until 7:30 and having dinner at staging. Long day ahead! I better get some sleep!

...Courage Is....

2009-08-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

Courage Is
by The Strange Familiar

Take all my vicious words
And turn them into something good
Take all my preconceptions
And let the truth be understood
Take all my prized possessions
Leave only what I need
Take all my pieces of doubt
And let me be what's underneath

Courage is when you're afraid,
But you keep on moving anyway
Courage is when you're in pain,
But you keep on living anyway

We all have excuses why
Living in fear something in us dies
Like a bird with broken wings
It's not how high he flies,
But the song he sings

Courage is when you're afraid,
But you keep on moving anyway
Courage is when you're in pain,
But you keep on living anyway,
You keep on living anyway

It's not how many times you've been knocked down
It's how many times you get back up

Courage is when you've lost your way,
But you find your strength anyway
Courage is when you're afraid
Courage is when it all seems grey
Courage is when you make a change,
And you keep on living anyway
You keep on moving anyway
You keep on giving anyway
You keep on loving anyway

At Red Rocks, outside of Denver, Colorado

Red Rocks

2009-08-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Caitlin, Alejandra, and their host home Mary came over to our host family's house for dinner. It was so much fun hanging out with Kristine, Caitlin, and Ale. Our host dad, Larz, made a WONDERFUL meal. He made two kinds of meatloaf (Mexican and Italian) and two kinds of Develed Eggs. It was the first time that Ale and Kristine had ever heard of develed eggs before. All of the meal was amazing. Larz is a fantastic chef for us!

After dinner we took a little drive out to the Red Rocks to see them and take pictures. PHISH was having a concert at the Red Rocks natural ampitheatre so we didn't get to see much of it but we still had tons of fun climbing around on the rocks and taking pictures. The Red Rocks is literally an area of completely natural red rock. Red Rocks are how Colorado got it's name (Colorado: Color Red). Its a beautiful area of Colorado and unlike anything that I've ever seen in Arkansas. The mountains here put our little Ozarks to shame! :)

We stayed out until sunset and once we drove home we all had ice cream and brownie sundaes. It was a fun treat to have with Roman and Gianna before bed time....and we're working out so hard in staging that I would NEVER pass up a chance at an ice cream sundae!

Basically it was a glorious way to end the weekend. Now I just have to muster up some energy for the last full week of staging!

Girls Night!!

2009-07-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had a Girls Night at the Corby's house! It was so much fun and exactly what Kristine and I needed! Rika (our host Aunt) and Katey (our host Cousin) even came for the evening to relax with us.

The night was complete with Chocolate fondue, strawberries, pizza, and watching "Enchanted". I had never seen it before and it was such a fun chick flick. Everyone else had seen it so they sang through the movie. Afterwards we all did our nails. Basically it was the best girly night EVERRR!

Kristine had never had root beer before so right before bed we decided to make root beer floats. Its exciting to be there when someone tries new things for the first time. She ended up loving root beer and root beer floats. Basically the best Saturday!

Thank you Kipp!!

2009-07-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

This morning Kipp (our host brother) suprised Kristine and I by making us breakfast! He thinks he wants to be a chef when he is older and wants to specialize in making omelets! They are his favorite thing to cook. I have to admit his omelets were pretty fantastic!!

Thank you so much Kipp for a wonderful breakfast! It was so special for us!

Anthony and the Heartbreakers

2009-07-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

It has been an eventful couple of days! Yesterday we had a scavenger hunt for an hour followed by an hour of Regional Learning at the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver. The scavenger hunt was so much fun. It was kind of exciting to be running around Denver on this scavenger hunt without having to worry about hazing! There was a list of things we had to do such as go to the UWP headquarters offic (so cool! They had pictures of each cast member up on a wall which made me feel like a celebrity!), take a jumping picture in front of the capitol building, take a picture with a security guard, and find a "noble barn". We got all the way to the end of the scavenger hunt before we realized a "noble barn" was a Barnes and Noble! We ended up going to another book store called "Tattered Cover".

Our group was made up of 7 girls and our leader was Anthony from the Tech team. He was so much fun to spend the afternoon with. Our group was named Anthony and the Heartbreakers and we even wrote a song about our experience on the scavenger hunt!!

The Regional Learning was much more interesting than I thought it would be. We were given a tour around the EPA building. This building was made to be as environmentally friendly as possible. The carpeting is made out of recycled material, the toilets flush with less water, and they even have sails (yes, just like on a sailboat) hanging from the ceiling in the lobby to direct sunlight all the way to the bottom floor so they can use mostly natural light! Our tour leader, Tim, was very educated in every aspect of the building and was willing to answer all of our questions.

After the afternoon out in Denver, I had to rush back to the Sherman Center for the "Footloose" dance workshop. I ended up being about 15 minutes late and while running up the stairs, took my glasses off to wipe them and ended up falling down the flight of stairs!! Luckily no one saw me do this but I banged my shin pretty bad and hurt my foot :( I didn't tell anyone about it until I was on the bus on the way home because I was pretty embarrassed...but honestly, it really hurt to fall down the stairs!! Kristine laughed hysterically when I told her about it!

This morning Anthony and the Heartbreakers performed our song at morning meeting. Everyone thought it was pretty funny. Before we sang, I introduced our group to the cast and explained why we wrote the song. I'm trying to work on talking in front of a group. It makes me so nervous! I don't mind being in front of the group or being on stage but as soon as I have to speak or sing I freeze up! Its the worst feeling in the world. I worry about my voice and always end up forgetting what I'm supposed to say.

Today internship applications were due. I applied for the Education internship and the Marketing internship. I feel like either of those will offer great opportunities for me to work on my speaking skills. The internships are for 6 weeks so I'll have the chance to apply for Advance Work after this round of internships. Right now I feel like I need more work on speaking and being confident than I do in the Advanced Work. We won't know for a couple of weeks who gets to be interns during the first round. Fingers crossed please!!

Culture Jam

2009-07-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

Our Schedule!

Tonight was Culture Jam. Its an event that each Cast has the opportunity to be involved in. Anyone can sign up to perform something that represents their culture. It was an incredible night of performances. Some of them were hilarious like the American performance including Breton "surfing" on his surfboard (i.e. Drew)... or the Netherlands presentation on the good and bad sides of the Netherlands. I've never been so informed about the Red Light District and "coffee shops"!

Emcees for the Evening: Coty abnd Cody

Some of the performances were really inspiring like the Chinese song with Teng Chiung performing Tai Chi. I also really loved Ronja and Berit's German poem.

Aude from Canada and Emil from Sweden

Really every performance was fantastic. It was so moving to be a member of the audience and to realize how many extremely different cultures were represented in one room....When you think about 17 countries being present in the Cast B, that just blows my mind. Seventeen different countries and different cultures and different viewpoints but ALL are correct and all are worthwhile to listen to.

Alejandra from Mexico

The Scandinavian Crew finished out the night with a Scandinavian Medley. Complete with Saint Lucia and Waterloo.

Round Table: Leaders

2009-07-22T21:13:00.000-07:00

Today we had a round table discussion session with different "leaders" in the Denver community. This included lawyers, executives of non-profits, business owners, ect.

The session was interesting because each leader had a completely different passion but they managed to express themselves in almost the same way. So many of the leaders that came to my table talked about leadership as a way to serve others...not as a way to control others. I found that to be very profound.

I wrote down a lot of quotes from different people who came to my table during the hour:

Control is just an illusion -- Carolyn Love

On Diversity: The problem isn't a lack of awareness. Its a lack of Relationships" - Morris Prius

Being a leader isn't about you. It's about helping the person standing next to you. It's about a WE. Its about an US- Derridck Haynes

Going into a place and leave knowing that its better than when you entered it. Thats the true reward -- Derrick Haynes

The real aspiration is to just be really really good at whatever it is that you are doing.

Las "B"egas

2009-07-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

I am so exhausted.

This morning I was in vocals for 4 hours (definitly NOT my favorite thing). We did learn some pretty awesome songs: Shosholoza and Keep the Beat. Then we went to an educational session on admissions.

In the afternoon we had a "tournament" listed in our schedules. It was exciting to be standing in the hallway, everyone wondering what we would be doing. When we got into the cafeteria we were in the middle of Las "B"egas complete with an Elvis Impersonator, Show Girls, dancers, dealers, security, and VIP players! We all sat at tables with cards and chips. Of course with UWP we can't just play a regular card game. Each table had a list of rules and instructions that whoever one the game moved up one table and whoever lost the game moved down to another table. After reading the rules and playing a few practice rounds we were told that from that moment on we were no longer able to communicate verbally or physically with anyone at our table.

Little did we know that each table had a different set of rules so once people started moving to other tables there was tons of confusion, frustration, and laughter. Imagine playing a card that you just know is going to be the winning card, just to find out that you lost?!?!

After the game we talked about it and applied it to our UWP experience. Every host family and culture that we enter into is going to have a different set of "rules", traditions, customs, languages, ect. We might not know everything about each culture but we should be willing to adapt and accept the new "rules" with patience and understanding...instead of being willing to give up once we realize that we didn't play the right card or make the right move...or speak a sentence correctly in a new language.

It was really a good learning experience. It was very interesting to see who got extremely frustrated (and even angry) during the game and who was ready to just accept the new rules at the table.

Tattoo Pictures

2009-07-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

Tat Tat Tat it Up

2009-07-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

After an amazing lunch this afternoon, we spent 4 hours in a tattoo parlor with our host family! It was the most fun ever! Krstine, RJ, and Mrs Corby wanted to get their first tattoos. Caitlin and I got the tops of our ears pierced. It was such an exciting afternoon!

Kristine was so nervous to get her tattoo. I sat in the chair with her and hugged her through the entire tattoo. While everyone got their tattoos, the rest of us sang children's sonbgs to keep their mind off of the pain. It was so funny. The tattoo artist said he'd never heard anything like us before. I was so impressed with RJ because he didn't flinch or anything during his tattoo. A total badass!

Afterwards we all went to Starbucks to reward ourselves for being so brave! :) What an awesome way to spend our first "Host Family Day"

Gaining back all of the weight I lost this week in dance workshops

2009-07-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

I wish I could bottle the smell in our host families house right now. Mrs. Corby woke up super early this morning to start cooking an authentic Philipino meal for Kristine and I. By the time we woke up, the scent had already drifted all the way upstairs and it smelled absolutely DELICIOUS! It was so hard to just eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast when I was breathing in all of that good food.

Kristine and I went to church with the Corby's this morning. They are Catholic so they took us to Mass. Neither Kristine nor I are Catholic so it was quite an experience. It was actually really exciting to see the differences in how my usual church experience in Arkansas is like compared to their church. All of the people were extremely friendly and happy to meet "the new Corby girls from Up With People". It was quite a learning experience.

Mrs. Corby, Rika (her sister), and RJ (Rika's son) perform for the music services at church. We were proud to sit and watch them during the singing section of the service.

After church picked up Caitlin to come over for lunch. Lunch was Ahhhhhhh---mazing and every single second worth the wait! I ate 3 plates of food plus dessert. Absolutely fabulous.

Busy Saturday!

2009-07-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today was a FULL saturday at staging. The morning opened with the previous written about educational workshop and was packed full completely after that as well.

After lunch we were given the awesome chance to see our show performed by the staff, some guests, and recent alums living in the Denver area. The show was broken into segements and after each segment was performed Eric would stop everything and explain to us the purpose of that segment. It was the first time that we were able to see our entire show performed from beginning to end. Totally cool. There are a few songs added to this show that have never been performed before so we are excited to be the premiering cast! To see everyone on the stage with the lights and everything was so cool. So many pieces started to make sense that we have been learning this entire time. I wish they would have had a movement hour after the show presentation becuse everyone was so pumped up!

Right at the end of the show presentation, Eric stopped the music and had all of Cast B leave the audience and join the staff on the stage then they played the UWP theme song! It was so incredible! It was the first time that we performed it as an entire cast. Even though there were only about 15 people in the audience, it still felt so exhilerating to be on stage, with the show lights shining on us, and people taking pictures of us, and to be jamming out to "Up, Up with People...." I don't think anyone could have gotten the smile off of my face. I'll never forget that moment.

After the show presentation, the cast was broken up into hometeams. We didn't really know what "hometeams" were when they told us to meet them. I am in Hometeam 6. This hometeam includes: Kristine (from Norway), Caitlin (from Wyoming), Micheal (from Tucson), Niels (from the Netherlands), Anna (from Minnesota), Coy (from Denver), Rachel (from New Mexico), Shiona (from Japan), and myself. Our leaders are Gabe and Anthony.

When we met up with them, Gabe and Anthony told us that they had an adventure for us and that we were going to be going somewhere in the Sherman Center that no one else in the cast was going to be able to go. We were lined up and they had us close our eyes and they led us to this place in the building (which would totally be hazing in Arkansas, but was oh-so-cool to get to do without worrying about getting in trouble!). I was the leader of the line and I have to admit that I was totally stressed out at first because I didn't have anyone's shoulders to hold on to. When you're walking with your eyes closed it always feels like you are one step away from falling down the stairs or walking into a wall! Gabe has a very calm and reassuring voice so after a little bit I started to trust that he wouldn't let me walk into anything. There were a few times that I would start to take a step and he would stop me and make me turn to another direction. After a little bit I started to just trust that I wasn't near anything even when it felt scary to me.

When we got to our destination Gabe and Anthony had us "describe" the room we thought we were in. It sounded like an empty room that was dark. We could hear cars but they seemed above us. When they had us open our eyes the room didn't look a thing like I expected it to! It was full of boxes and had the lights on. They had led us to a room underneath the Sherman Center that is below the cafeteria. It was neat to be somewhere that no one else would get to see, even if it was just a storage space.

After that we did a get-to-know you activity. It was fun to just sit and hear stories and laugh for a little while. Gabe and Anthony told us that our hometeams will meet every other week or so while on the road and it will be a group just to support us and talk about things when we need to. Our hometeams leaders are the people we can go to if we are stressing out or something is bothering us. I really liked our hometeam experience so I'm looking forward to getting to spend more time with them on the road.

Assumptions....and Barcodes

2009-07-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

This morning we had an educational workshop labeled "Barcodes". It was about stereotypes and what effects they have. The educational team had placed huges pieces of paper with different countries listed on them around the room and we had time to walk around and write the stereotypes we thought of when we heard of that country. It was so interesting to see what other countries thought of the United States. It had a lot of labels like fat, lazy, uneducated, think they are better than everyone, and even tabloid obsessed. It also had labels like proud and patriotic.

After the time to write on the papers was up we were then divided up by our countries to look at what was on our paper. We were given a sheet to fill out with questions like: "Most suprising stereotype", "Most correct stereotype" and "One thing you'd want other people to realize about your country". It was interesting to sit with all of the other Americans and hear their opinions about what was said about us. The one thing we listed that we wanted others to know about the United States is that one label really can't fit for the entire USA. Each state is so completely diverse and different from even the ones directly next to it.

The thing about assumptions is that they are usually so negative and hardly ever true (atleast not completely). Some of them are just plain stupid!

For Example on Norway's paper it was listed that there are penguins and icebergs everywhere! Kristine (my Norwegian roommate) thought that was hilarious because she has lived in Norway her entire life and has never seen a penguin.

On Ethiopia's paper were the words "poverty/crime". Helene from Ethiopia said that, yes, most people in Ethiopia live in poverty (especially compared to American standards) but that most people there are very happy and where she lives has a very low crime rate. She was suprised that people thought that Ethiopia was unsafe.

What I love about Up With People and this entire experience is that it is a time to leave assumptions at the door. We are given so many opportunities to ask important questions and get real answers, so there is no reason to assume anything. It is the most unique experience I've ever known. I've learned more about the world in the past week than I have in an entire year of graduate school learning about "cultural competency".

"Brave": Top of the List of things I am NOT

2009-07-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

I saw something while riding the light rail the other day that I just can't get out of my head. Its an image that I caught out of the corner of my eye, barely a few seconds long...but it's stuck with me and has been slowly making an impact on me.

(I should preface this story by saying that I am an extreme worrier. Its typically very irrational and over pretty petty things)

While riding the lightrail (that I worried over for about 24 hours, driving Kristine crazy about what times and what lines we needed to get on!) I saw a blind woman with a lead stick getting on another train and making her way to her seat. It took her a few seconds to find the door to the train and then had to pass other passengers to find an empty seat (which is hard to do on a work day at rush hour).

At the time, I didn't think anything of what I saw. As the day went on I couldn't get the image out of my head. The more I thought of it, the more I admired this woman. I thought about how extremely brave she is to attempt getting on public transit without being able to see. I thought about all of the little steps it takes to get on the train (climbing stairs, walking to the edge of the platform, climbing into the train in the few seconds that the door stays open, ect) and how scary it would be to do all of that without being able to see. I thought about how much trust she has to have in herself and her abilities to be able to complete a task like this.

Then I thought about how nervous I was about riding the train for the first time when I didn't have any physcial disability holding me back. I thought about how silly and irrational so many of my fears are. I thought about how much time in a day I waste on "worrying" instead of "doing" and "living"...and how I wish that I was half as brave as this woman.

During an educational workshop we were given tags to write a long term and short term goal on. I wrote as my short term goal to try to not be such a worrier and to not have to "overly" prepare. After writing the goals we were randomly matched with a partner that would become our "Goal Tender". We will be meeting with this person periodically to talk about our goals and what we are working on to complete our goal.

I was matched with Drew Thompson. Before being matched, he and I had only chatted once or twice at lunch. We don't know eachother very well so I explained to him about how bad my anxiety is. This didn't seem to phase him at all. In fact, he seemed like my goal to stop worrying so much was very achievable :) He talked to me about things happening for a reason and that I could come tell him when I'm worried and he would tell me "Annie, just go with the flow"...

I may not ever be as brave as the woman I saw today. But I am very thankful that I did see her because I believe she sparked something in me that needed to be sparked. And now we'll see where this leads me

Staging Continues (to kick my ass)

2009-07-17T18:39:00.000-07:00

Today concludes the first week of staging and I am officially 100% exhausted!! This week we've had educational meetings, vocal lessons, dance practices, lunch meetings, modules (auditions)....and so many more things. Every day is crammed full of events.

I was called back today to two dance workshops. I was excited to see my name on the board but had no idea how stressful/tiring those workshops would be! The first one I did was a swing dancing workshop and was partnered with Coy. In the second workshop we learned "Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing for the "Love Medley" in the show. I was partnered with Isaiah Chatman in that workshop. We had to practice lifts and a lot of partner work. Isaiah was such a goofball that it made the workshop really fun to be in. He was pretty afraid of dropping me in the lifts and I think us being timid made it a little bit more difficult for us but I know that with practice we will nail it! :)

In the afternoon we praticed blocking on a mock stage in the ballroom. The dance instructors are awesome because even after a long day of rehearsals and workshops and full cast movement.... they still manage to keep up the energy and positive attitudes.

Participating in the workshops today made me realize how important a positive attitude is. Its so incredibly easy to blame an instructors teaching style, or how tired you are, or that you just ate, or that how fast we have to learn, or that your partner isn't as good as you on the fact that you're struggling to learn a dance...but all of those complaints won't get you anywhere. Sometimes we spend so much time complaining that we lose learning time. Positivity and enthusiasm will get you so much further.

Tomorrow is Saturday and once again we will be at the Sherman Center bright and early at 8:00!! :) Staging is so much more intense than I thought it would be. The workouts are so good for me but I'm so so so SO tired and sore! By the time we get home I am exhausted and don't want to do anything but take a shower and go to bed :( I hope that I'll get in better shape and then it won't wear me out as much.

Harry Potter and Middle Names

2009-07-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

Today after Staging some of the cast and staff went out to eat and to see Harry Potter. It was so much fun to just get to hang out with everyone without it being an official Up With People activity. Kristine and my host sister, Kari, met us in downtown Denver for the movie also. I absolutely love her! :) Kristine and I are trying to talk her into applying for UWP next semester. I think she would be perfect for it and would benefit so much from the learning experience.
The movie was great but we were so tired that we ended up taking a 10-15 minute nap during the movie. Fortunately we woke up before the most intense parts towards the end of the movie. I'll definitly need to see it again to catch up on the pieces that I missed :)

After the movie Kari drove us home so we didn't have to take the lightrail late at night. We were (once again) so tired that we were delirious. On the way home we talked about how in Norway it is unlikely that people have middle names. In the United States almost everyone has a middle name. Kristine said she always wanted a middle name. I said that Sue was a great one but she wasn't so into that one. We put together a few good name combinations but she didn't fall in love with any of them. Now it's our assignment to come up with a great middle name for Kristine.

Some Possible Options:

Sue
Bernadette
LeAnne
Marie
Ann (just because she wants so badly to be like me)
Rae

can't. stop. laughing.

2009-07-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight was so much fun. Our host parents went on a date becuase it was the anniversary of the day they met (how awesome is that?) so it was just Kristine, Kinsie, Kipp, Kari, and myself at the house for the evening. We ordered Chinese Take-out and all of us girls ate dinner together at the table.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Maybe we were just delirious because of how tired we are but we couldn't stop laughing throughout the entire dinner. Every thing turned into a joke. Even Kipp came to the table and joined our comedy time. Kristine taught us some Norwegian phrases and we were laughing so hard at ourselves trying to say them.

We talked about how languages are so neat because in some languages just the tone in which you say a word can totally change its meaning. Kinsie and Kari told us a story about their cousin Katy that was speaking Mandarin Chinese to a woman and meant to say "Your outfit is amazing" but instead told her that she looked like a dead body.

And in a total "had to be there" moment: We had a joke that lasted for about 20 minutes about if a police officer tried to give us a ticket (for speeding or something) that we would tell him that we prefer to give instead of receive and then we would give him a ticket to the UWP show instead. We were cracking up.

It is crazy to think that a week ago I didn't even know any of these people. They would have been strangers passing me but now tonight we were family just sitting around the dinner table.

Rocky Mountain Adventures

2009-07-12T22:28:00.001-07:00

On Saturday our host dad, Tim took Kristine and I all over Denver, the surrounding cities, and up into the Rocky Mountains. He was such a good sport about everything. Every time Kristine or I asked for him to stop the car for a photo op, he was so nice and took our pictures.

When we entered the National Park, the park ranger told Kristine and I that if we stood at the entrance patiently enough then a hummingbird might land and sit on our finger. We were so excited to see if they really would that we stood there for about 15 minutes until we got pictures of them sitting on each of our fingers! I've never seen a hummingbird slow down enough to perch on a person's finger before so that was so neat for me.

I was so excited to actually go into the Rocky Mountains. (I mean, seriously, people write songs about the Rocky Mountains!) It was such a beautiful day outside. When we left the house it was about 90 degrees outside. At the bottom of the mountain is was around 75 degrees.... It was so extremely beautiful. Every turn brought a different and equally amazing view. Colorado is just breathtaking.

As we drove higher and higher, we noticed that it was getting cloudier outside. Right as we are getting to the VERY top of Mt. Evan a lightening and sleet storm started! It was insane, The wind was blowing so hard and snow/sleet started to collect on the car and outside, We sat in the car for about 30 minutes waiting for the storm to pass. Mrs Regina packed us a cooler of snacks so we sat and ate until the weather (darn it MONA) calmed down enough for us to go outside of the car.

When we finally got outside, it was about 25 degrees outside! CRAZY!! The sleet and wind was hitting us pretty hard but we wanted some pictures at the top so we ran as fast as we could to a little structure to take some pictures. Tim was so amazing. He stood out in the sleet and would yell "1,2,3" and on 3 Kristine and I would jump out and pose really quick and then run back behind the wall!! It was pretty hilarious.

As we ran back to the car we noticed a sign that said the elevation level and I wanted a picture by it. The sleet was hitting my face so he would count down for me to open my eyes. After he took the picture, a huge gust of wind came and literally knocked me over!

We probably weren't outside of the car for more than 5 minutes but it felt like such a long time to be in the cold!! By the time we got in the car to head back down the mountain the storm was completely gone and it was sunny again. Mother Nature (MONA) is just nuts. Look at how quickly she changes her mind :)

After leaving the mountains, Tim drove us through Idaho City and Golden to see what the towns there look like. He told us all about the Gold Rush and drove us through an incredible canyon. Our day off was just amazing and a perfect start to all of our adventures in Denver.

Host Family #1

2009-07-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

My first host family is absolutely amazing. I was so nervous about living in a host family for the first time but I really had nothing to worry about because they all make me feel so welcome.

Sitting in the Montbello Recreation Center, waiting for our host families to arrive was so nerve wracking for me! My heart was pounding when we were told that our families were on the other side of the wall and in a moment we were going to be allowed to go meet them!! My roomie for the next three weeks is Kristine from Norway. We met eachother about ten minutes before we met our family so everything was completely brand new for me.

The way UWP has it set up to meet our families is pretty cool. We were each given a card that had our families name, address, phone number, whether they had animals, our roomies name, and our host code. The code is a way to identify our family when we are let in the room. Mine and Kristine's for this family was "Acrobat". Our family could dress like this, have a drawing, or bring a prop to identify themselves. Kristine and I found eachother in the middle of the room and had to search for our family together.

The Corby's were standing in the back of the room holding a sign with a picture of an acrobat. They were smiling and so happy that it was easy to fall in love with them instantly. There were big hugs all around.

They live outside of Denver so there was a little bit of a drive but it was nice because it gave us time to get to know eachother. In the family there are four children: Kyler, Kari, Kinsie, and Kipp. Kinsie's birthday had been the day before so when we got home we had cake and ice cream. Kyler is in Kenya on a mission trip so we won't meet her until our last week here. The family chose to host us for an extra week so that we will be able to meet her. I'm pretty stoked to see her pictures of Africa and hear about her experience.

The family was so sweet. They had balloons on our pillows for us. Kristine and I are sharing a room for the next three weeks. We stayed up late the first night talking and laughing. We get along very well.

Also the family has a black kitty that looks just like my Houdini. We were told that the cat (Noelle) doesn't really like people but within minutes of us being at the house, Noelle was sleeping on my bed. She's slept, snuggled up to me ever since. I might have to pack her in my suitcase.

Getting this party started

2009-07-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I was terrified of starting this adventure. I had completely mixed emotions of not wanting to come at all anymore and also wishing it could start sooner because I couldn't wait to meet everyone. It felt crazy to feel both extreme emotions. Flying into Denver was the longest hour and 45 minutes of my life because I couldn't wait to land to finally meet my castmates and the staff for UWP.

On the plane ride my neighbor was a man from India. He was flying with his family for a wedding and asked me all about UWP. I told him that the thing I was most excited about was getting to eat food from all over the world. :) (if you know me, you know this is so true). He told me that I should try Indian food before (which I had never done before) and I made the off-hand comment that if I ever was in India than I definitly would. When we got off of the plane in Denver he and his family offered me some bahkrie, which is like a sweet tortilla bread. It was so cool to start the trip off with an experience like that. It also made the trip go by a little faster because he asked me a lot of questions about UWP and what I wanted to do with my life. When we parted ways in the terminal everyone in the family gave me a big hug and wished me well on my trip. They made the first start of this journey very memorable and I'm very appreciative with how kind they all were to me.

It was also exciting because when I got off of the plane ande finally met some UWP folks I had this huge piece of bread and was able to break the ice by telling them all this story and offering them a piece of the bahkrie. No one told me no which was pretty cool.

The first person I met from my cast was Timothy. His plane landed right after mine and I recognized him from facebook. It was exciting to finally see a familiar face. Isn't it crazy how facebook allows us to get to know eachother before meeting in person? Timothy is super funny and easy to talk to so I was glad he was my first (in person) UWP friend.

Arrival Pictures

2009-07-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

I'm here and alive and EXHAUSTED!!

2009-07-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

I made it to Denver and have so so many stories to write about already. But unfortuntately they will have to wait until tomorrow sometime. I am so so tired. But the experience is already better than I imagined it would be. My host family is wonderful and I have a great roomate (who is trying to sleep in the bed next to mine)

Wanted to let you all know I'm alive and well :)

Pros and Cons

2009-07-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

I guess today is the day for lists! My friend Kasey wrote a blog listing reasons she wanted to lose weight, Jason Mraz wrote a blog listing reasons he was grateful, and I had an old friend sent me text after text listing good memories that I thought were long forgotten.

So in keeping with todays theme, here are two of my lists:
(the list items are not in any specific order)

Things I'm Afraid of/ Worried About (for the next 6 months):

My plane crashing
Getting a family that hates me or makes me sleep on a flea infested mattress (which DID happen to my brother while on tour with UWP) or only eats one meal a day
Missing my family
Something bad happening to a family member while I'm not there
Not getting along with the cast
Getting sick and having to go to a hospital overseas (which is probably the most realistic of all of my worries!)

Reasons Why I'm Excited about Touring with UWP:

Dancing...duh
Getting to meet new, exciting people who are positive and motivational
Gaining a second family
The chance to see places in the world that I otherwise would never get the chance to travel to
My community/home town has truly supported me and I feel like I am making them proud
Finally Gary and I will belong to the same organization (my sister and I went to the same college but I've never done anything like Gary has)
Learning about other cultures firsthand
After Skyping with Emilie and Melissa, I'm sitting on edge until I meet them!
I will have so many cool stories to tell!!
The community service projects will be amazing and will truly give me a global perspective on non-profit organizations
Being around a group of people that won't make fun of me for taking alot of pictures
Eating meals from all over the world (I'm sure most of my friends are wondering why this wasn't closer to the top of my list!)
Learning more about myself through this process and finding out new ways that I can be a catalyst for change
Using my social skills in a (can you believe it?!?) non-clinical setting
Pretty much having the time of my life

Update: Tour Schedule!

2009-07-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

The following is the most recently updated tour schedule we have been given. It's looking like my cast will pretty much have the dream tour! I'm just thrilled about being able to tour Europe. The cities we are going to will be so much fun and much more than I ever would have gone to on my own. To be honest I jumped for joy when I read that they added Berlin to the schedule. Other than traveling this semester when would I have ever decided to go to Berlin?!? It's not exactly a honeymoon location. But now I get to go! A few others that I am sitting on edge until I get to go are Warsaw, Stockholm, and Veracruz.

I suppose no matter where we went, it would be exciting, especially with such an energetic group. But there's just something about Europe that can't be topped :) I only wish that while in the United States the cast would be closer to Arkansas so my family could come see me. I remember as a little girl going with the family to see Gary perform in Up With People, so I think it would have been fun for them to do the same for me.

Cast B 2009 Tour Schedule

*Tour cities and dates subject to change

United States Dates
Denver, CO (Orientation & Staging) 10 July – 9 August
Thornton, CO 10 August – 12 August
-Show @ Pinnacle Events Center -Aug. 12th – 7pm
Aspen/Snowmass, CO 13 August – 16 August
-Show @ Snowmass Village Stage - Aug. 15th - 7pm
Durango, CO 17 August – 21 August
-Show @ Community Concert Hall, Fort Lewis College - Aug. 20 & 21 - Time TBD
Prescott, AZ 22 August - 24 August
-Show @ location TBD - Aug. 24th - Time TBD
Lake Havasu City, AZ 25 August – 30 August
-Show(s) @ High School Performing Arts Center - [Show Date(s) TBD]

Mexico Dates
Leon 31 August – 6 September
Querétaro 7 September – 13 September
Veracruz 14 September – 20 September
Puebla 21 September – 27 September
Mexico City 28 September – 5 October

Europe Dates
Luleå, Sweden (Private show) 6 October – 9 October
Stockholm, Sweden (Private show) 10 October – 14 October
Sundsvall, Sweden (Private show) 15 October – 19 October
Vänersborg, Sweden (Private show) 20 October – 23 October
Cottbus, Germany (Private show) 24 October – 29 October
Warsaw, Poland (Private show) 30 October – 3 November
Zabrze, Poland (Private show) 4 November – 8 November
The Netherlands (Private show) 9 November – 13 November
Berlin, Germany (Private show) 14 November – 19 November
Hamburg, Germany (Private show) 20 November – 24 November
Odense, Denmark (Private show) 25 November – 27 November
Varberg, Sweden (Private show) 28 November – 3 December
Uppsala, Sweden (Private show) 4 December – 7 December
Tampere, Finland (Private show) 8 December – 11 December
(City TBD) Sweden 12 December – 15 December

We will be sponsored by Vattenfall, a multi-national energy company based in Sweden to help them celebrate their 100th anniversary. All of the performances in these cities will be for their employees only (marked in the schedule as Private show).

More information can be found at http://www.upwithpeople.org

Ways to Contact Me

2009-07-05T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some ways to get in touch with me or follow what I'm doing while on the road with UWP!

Skype: anniematt870
Twitter: BabyMatthews http://twitter.com/BabyMatthews
Facebook: Annie Matthews in the Arkansas Network
E-mail: sau_matthews@hotmail.com
I also receive unlimited free texts so feel free to text away!!

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to use the internet, especially once we leave the United States. But, I love to keep in contact via internet and my laptop is wi-fi capable so I should be able to pick up internet signals most places. Feel free to follow or "friend" me!

If you don't have my cell and need/want it, send me an e-mail and I'll get it to you

Tribute to the PC

2009-07-05T20:46:00.001-07:00

Let it slide,
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Until you feel it all around you
And i don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by.
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain--Rob Thomas "Little Wonders"

The PC: Me (Belle), Lyndsey (Aurora), Sarah (Mulan), Michelle (Ariel), Lindsey (Pocohantas), Bonnie (Tinker Bell), and Megan (Cinderella).