¡Viva la s2e!

The Philippines, Part 1.4: Host Family #2, and the Shows

2011-07-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

Due to some logistics things that went on with my first host family, my roommates and I had to be placed in other host families, which is always strange because on the tour, your host family is like your anchor. They are the people that pick you up and ask you how your day went. They’re the ones that feed you a warm supper and provide a warm bed and a sense of normalcy. So, to switch host families in the middle of the week throws a wrench into the qi of on-the-road life, so to speak. And, and as any Uppie can tell you, it’s all about the qi.

The first time I had to switch families, I went from the Fountains to the Elliotts, who welcomed Jochem and I with open arms and were one of my best host families. I was hoping that this would be the case in Manila. Actually, the scene around the host family transition could have been taken from a blockbuster movie. It definitely had that kid of energy attached to it because the day of the transition was also my last day at the GK Euro Village. And right up to that point I had no idea where the team would place me. Right before lunch, Aoife told me a little bit about where I’d be placed, in that quirky, hip Irish brogue that she rocks:

“Hey, Stewie, I have to tell you about the place we’ve found for you. I just need to run this by you to make sure you’re okay with things. The person you’re going to stay with is really, really crazy and really, really gay. He’s kind of out there, but he’s really, really nice, and it would be really cool if you could give it a try.” I had hoped that I had given off an air of open-mindedness and flexibility in the prior five and a half months so people wouldn’t have to ask me such questions, but I guess just like the briefing about the Elliots I got from Jessica before I moved there (“If the little girls want you to play Barbies with them, you’re going to play Barbies with them!”), it was protocol more than anything.

“Sure. Why not?” I replied back. I mean, really. If she had said, “The person we’re putting you with has an obsession with Britney Spears and sleep-yodels all night long,” I may have had them find a new host family. (C’mon! Britney is so 2003.) But crazy and gay? Some of my really good friends fit that description to a T! What’s one more crazy, gay friend? I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I went to a Chinese restaurant and opened up a fortune cookie that said, “You can never have too many crazy gay friends.” Confucius himself probably said that same thing and it’s been lost to History. Tangents are comedy gold. They are also train of thought killers.

Oh. Right. The switch. So, after that interesting briefing from Aoife, I was really interested in what I would find when I got there. At the end of the day, and after all of the goodbye hugs and the standard, “I’ll write!”’s, it was time to go to my new Manila home. As I pulled out of the basketball court with all of the children of the village pressed up against the car like really tiny Beatles fans, the feeling of the unknown had begun. I’ve mentioned this a ridiculous amount of times, but it’s stressful meeting someone for the first time and then having them take you home and feed you. And that feeling is multiplied on an exponential level when you’ve grown up 45 minutes away from Stephen King’s hometown.

Manila is a vast metropolis where it can take quite a while to get from one place to another. I believe the trip from the GK village to the new place was a total of 45 minutes. In a cab. In Manila rush hour traffic. But it was all good, because I got a chance to talk with Johan Verbeek, who oozes Dutchness from every pore, because as far as I can tell he fluently speaks 3 languages. Maybe more. Europeans always kick our asses at some educational level. Seriously. But it’s the Swiss that you have to watch out for in the language department.

We finally pull up to the palatial estate that I would call home for the next 4 days. And I’m not tossing the ‘palatial’ word around willy-nilly here. The house had a garden in the middle of it, and it was at least 3 stories high. Johan went up to the door and I swear I heard him knock in three different languages simultaneously. A man with a pleasant expression opens the door, and immediately rushes to the cab to help Johan with my things. I get out of the cab, and shake the guy’s hand. “Hi. I’m Mahar. I feel like I practically know you because I’ve read your blog! It’s so good to finally meet you!” As soon as his friendliness and superior people skills became apparent, the usual pre-Host Family Meeting jitters disappeared.

We waved vaarwel, adios, and see you later to Johan, and Mahar gave me the tour of the Mangahas compound. I couldn’t help but equate my new living quarters to the homes you would see on Magnum PI. It had a very open feel to it, had a plethora of vegetation, and was extremely inviting. After the tour, Mahar and I just started talking about anything and everything. Mostly it was him asking questions about stuff he had read on the blog and also some of his impressions of the program.

I found out that two of my castmates had stayed there for the whole time we were in Manila. Ben, from Colorado, and Eduardo from Venezuela. And I quickly found out how crazy it was having Mahar as a host brother. Throughout our time in Manila, Mahar had become very adept in making Ben blush by giving him over the top compliments and making fun of Ben’s geekiness. Within minutes of walking through the door, it already felt like home.

Ben had been fighting something for a couple of days, so we left him alone, and Mahar suggested that he and I go out on the town for dinner to just hang out and get to know each other a little better. We went to a shopping complex with the word, “green” in the title, something like Green Belt, I can’t remember what it was, but it was really funny, because I realized that Mahar had absolutely no experience assembling George Michael, or operating him for that matter. Whenever I am on my scooter, I turn up the speed as high as it can go so that I am in control of how fast I go. Most people who use my scooter for the first time always floor the lever so that it takes off like a rocket. Let’s just say that it took Mahar about 10 minutes to put GM together, and then had his life flash before him at least 3 times within a span of as many minutes trying to operate it. But once I got out of the car, and into my scooter, we found a nice place to eat.

This was the first time on the tour that I had this much 1-on-1 time with someone from my host family. It was great. A couple of times in my life, I have met people with this undefinable quality that mixes intelligence, wit, worldliness, intuition, and people skills. These qualities make them so easy to talk to, and it’s something I try to emulate with everyone I meet. Mahar is definitely one of those people. Within the first half-hour of us talking about the program and about the cast in general I got a glimpse into how much he knew about our cast dynamics, and how we functioned as a group. After that I talked about a lot of the challenges I had to face on the road and how I dealt with them. He told me that the blog I kept along the way was a huge part of the reason why he decided to become involved with the program as much as he did. It is so cool for me to know that what I was writing had had an impact on how people saw the program, and how it was inspiring people to get involved.

Before we knew it, it was already 10:30, and so we got back into the car, Mahar wrestled with George Michael again, and we sped off home. Wiped out from the day, I got straight into bed and slept as well as I could as an overweight American sharing a queen-size bed with a husky Venezuelan.

But the next day, the cold I had been fighting throughout the week decided to come on full force, because I had pushed myself really hard, wanting to spend as much time as possible with my GK friends. Everything had just caught up with me. My head was pounding, and other stuff not appropriate for travel blogs started happening. When I told Mahar that I was going to call in sick, his face went from pale to pasty. “What?! You’re sick now, too? Being Florence Nightingale was not in the host brother job description!” Yep. Ben and I were both sick. But it was great, because Mahar’s idea of Florence Nightingale was Nutella sandwiches and watching YouTube videos all day with us. Interspersed with sessions of making Ben blush, of course.

The shows in Manila were really interesting because it was not feasible for us to pack our scenery up and fly it across the Pacific. So, we had to make do with the set that our venue had provided us, which as close as possible to the regular dimensions of the set that we were used to.

What made the show really special was that all of the people we helped out in CI were invited to see our show. It's always special to look out into the audience and see the faces of the people you lived with and worked with looking back at you and congratulating you afterwards. But that special feeling was magnified a hundredfold because some of the people we were really close to from the GK Euro village were in the audience.

There were 2 shows in Manila. The first one was for the general public and our guests from the various CI sites we were on. The second show was a little more nerve-wracking because this was the show for our sponsors. The sponsors are some of the most important people on the tour because without them, there literally would be no tour. And in order to insure we can come back to whatever city we’re in, the sponsors have to think we’re a worthwhile investment.

The first part of the show went of without a hitch. I hadn’t messed up the words to my spoken word poem like I had in Arizona in front of the VIPs. The first act and the first part of the second act went off without a hitch. It wasn't until the part of the second act where I had to get up on mic groups at the end of the International Medley that it happened. One of those famous ‘actor’s nightmares’ you read about. Because the set dimensions were slightly different, instead of putting my right foot down on the back of the mic group risers, I instead put my right foot down on nothing, and landed flat on my back.

All of a sudden, during the show, I was staring at the ceiling and at the people who I was supposed to be sharing the mic group risers with were bent over looking down at me. Luckily we had some strong guys on our cast that quickly got me to my feet and let me to the side of the stage before the next song even started. I heard later on that only half the audience saw what had happened. I'm glad that that was thing that happened and not going over one of the makeshift stages in Mexico and falling 10 feet. That would have been catastrophic.

I have to say that because of all the wonderful people I met in Manila and all of the experiences the city opened my eyes to, I will never forget the time I had there, and one of these days I’ll be back and see everyone that let us into their lives for those two and a half weeks.

The Philippines, Part 1.3: Gawad Kalinga’s European Village

2011-03-26T17:33:00.001-07:00

When I ask several members of my cast what the most meaningful Community Impact Project they took part in throughout our whole tour, the overwhelming response is: our CI in Manila, and I, without a doubt, agree. I think this is the case for several reasons. The most obvious reason is that we practically lived at each of our sites. It was there that we spent the overwhelming majority of our time. But going deeper than that, it was at our CI sites in Manila where we made the most well-rounded impact. We didn’t just go into a school and paint the cafeteria, or refurbish a water feature. We were in people’s homes playing games with them, talking with them, making friends with them, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them in building their homes to make sure they, and future generations of their family, ultimately had a better quality of life.

To most of you reading this post, the words, “Gawad Kalinga” mean absolutely nothing to you. Some of you might even think that it’s a new brand of laundry detergent. But for the members of my Community Impact team, those words mean so much. In Filipino, Gawad Kalinga means “to give care,” and that is exactly what this organization does. Their aim is going into the most impoverished areas of the Philippines and digging those people out of poverty, assisting in building homes for them and teaching them the necessary skills (e.g. business skills, trades, and regular education) to become productive members of the Filipino, and global, societies.

Each individual section of apartments get a certain name to distinguish it from other Gawad Kalinga villages, and since I was living with a host family that I considered to by my European family, I thought it à propos that the CI site we were assigned to was called the European Village. How perfect was that? But what made the experience really great was our CI team, which consisted of myself, Savannah from Colorado, Jenny from Texas, Maggie from Connecticut, Molly from Ohio, Veronika from Sweden, Milou from the Netherlands, Bárbara from Mexico, Franziska from Switzerland, Colin from Texas, Arnab from Bangladesh, and from time to time Johan from the Netherlands would peek in and see how everything was running.

Then there were the people at the Euro Village that took excellent care of us and treated us like a family. At the Gawad Kalinga sites, there was more than just work going on. One of my best memories of our GK site was sitting around the table and singing Beatles songs and other songs from the ‘60s. Other days, the staff at the GK site set up challenges for us to get us working together as a team to reach a common goal.

One of these team-building challenges hinged upon the fact that none of us were native Filipinos. So, the staff got together and set up what they called a “delicacy relay” à la Survivor. We had heard about this particular challenge almost from the very beginning so, we had a little bit of preparation time. What happened was we were split up into two relay teams and stood face to face on either side of a long conference room type table on which were placed ice cream serving cups with plastic lids on top to conceal what was lurking inside. The vegetarian contingent of our group was breathing a sigh of relief at first, but that relief turned into horror when it was revealed that there would be vegetarian-friendly menu items. And that horror turned into terror when they found out that they would be starting the relay off.

The relay itself was quite a scene. It seemed as though the entire village showed up for this international showdown of intestinal fortitude. What am I thinking? The entire village probably did turn up for this event. It was like the Harlem Globetrotters had shown up at the European GK Village in Manila. There was so much shouting going on that it was hard to hear when the competition was going to start.

On the word, “go,” the vegetarians opened up their container and found therein things that might as well have been cultivated on Mars. To me it looked like a bunch of sea vegetation, and by the looks of “what the hell am I eating?” on the faces of my veggie compatriots, I got nervous about what would be staring me in the face when I opened that container. After the veggies were finished and everything was swallowed, the person two people down from me went. This time, it was the world-famous Filipino delicacy balut. Balut is a duck embryo that is a few weeks from being a full-fledged duck. And it’s still in its shell when you eat it. Some of my friends that were brave enough to try this said that they actually could taste some feathers and stuff. So, I am so glad that I didn’t have to endure that kind of test, because I don’t think I would have been able to do it.

The next item on the menu was chicken brain. It just so happened that chicken brain is a popular snack in Bangladesh, and Arnab happened to be the person to get chicken brain, which was good for our opponents. He expertly cracked the skull open and went to town eating the whole thing while Savannah had a hard time with hers. So, I had to eat whatever came next to save our team.

Savannah passed me my ice cream dish, and I was really afraid of what it could be. I lifted the lid up ever so slowly and much to my delight found two very orange chicken feet laying side by side. I was so relived to see what was basically the Philippines’ answer to buffalo wings. I found out later that chicken feet are usually grilled and served on long skewers, kind of like a shish-kebab or a corn dog.

I enjoyed my tasty treat as fast as I could, and when I finished, I looked at the next person in line, who shall remain anonymous, and they looked as white as a sheet. “I can’t do it. I just can’t,” they squeaked out.

“C’mon,” I said, “this will be a story for the grandkids! You’ll regret it if you don’t.” After a couple more flat refusals and a, “HURRY UP!” from the rest of the team, I decided to be the pinch eater for that round. The chicken feet weren’t that bad, how bad could this be? I opened up the container and saw two long, serpentine… things coiled up in the dish. “Intestines. I can’t believe I am about to eat intestines.” But I psyched myself up by telling myself that sausages are oftentimes cased in pig or goat intestine, and I love sausages, so this can’t be as bad as that. I popped the first one in my mouth, and at first was relieved when it wasn’t that bad.

And then, I bit down. As soon as I did, I felt this gamey, earthy paste ooze out of the intestine and discovered that for this particular delicacy, they take the intestines straight from the chicken and immediately put them into the boiling pot. Lovely. I looked at the person next to me and said, “You better love me for this.” It took me a good five minutes to choke both intestines down, and when I did, I noticed that Franziska was still working on hers. Savannah patted me on the back and handed me a bottle of RC Cola, which I drank in under 30 seconds. Never in my life did RC Cola taste to frickin’ good. My host brother Mahar later told me that it was called isaw, (pronounced ‘e-female pig’) and that he didn’t really care that much for it, either.

When all was said and done, I think the whole thing ended in a tie, and we all just stood there and wondered what the heck just happened. All of us except Arnab, that is.

In between the Survivor-esque challenges and the Beatles songs, real work was actually getting done. Some of us plastered walls and some of us bent steel rebar, and some of us made tiny little steel AIDS ribbons that would serve as metal ties for the rebar to provide structure to the concrete walls. That was my job. I think by the end of the 2 and a half weeks, I bent close to 7,000 steel wire rods into AIDS ribbons. But I loved my job, because I could talk to a lot of the villagers and all of the kids that hung around the construction site.

In many ways, my most special memories that come from the GK village are of the people who call the village home. The adults grew up with no running water, a very tenuous roof over their head, and hardly any clothes on their back, yet they were among the most genuine and down-to-earth people I ever met on the whole tour. They all smiled and gave me a big hug when I saw them each and every day, and they were very impressed when I flexed my Tagalog muscles for them. My favorite word that I would use often for them was masarap, which means, “delicious.” But the most useful phrase that they taught me was, ano pangalan mo? ‘Ano’ is ‘what,’ ‘pangalan’ is ‘name,’ and, ‘mo’ is ‘you.’ So, ‘ano pangalan mo’ is Tagalog for, ‘What’s your name?’ This came in handy for me every day I was there. A lot of people would just look at me, because they hadn’t really seen anyone with a disability before who rode on an electric scooter. So, I would just say, “Ano pangalan mo?” and they would smile and tell me their name, and the ice would be broken. Language is such an important tool for breaking down barriers.

Every day I would be bending my steel AIDS ribbons, and there would be a steady influx of kids with their big, curiosity-filled brown eyes staring up at me. I would demonstrate how one goes about bending steel AIDS ribbons, and they would dutifully help me for a half-hour or so, and then would run off to learn a new hand game from either Barbie, Veronika, Molly, Colin, or Marieke, whom they all called Hannah.

Then the break chime would sound and Annie and the other cooks would bring out different traditional Filipino snacks for the group to enjoy. One of my favorites, even though I am not too keen on bananas, were the fried, caramelized plantains on a stick, or puto, a sweet kind of cake made out of rice. There wasn’t one thing that we ate that was not masarap. Sometimes I thought something was so masarap that I ate what my castmates didn’t finish. And it was great because it indirectly helped the cooks so they wouldn’t have had as many dishes to do afterwards.

Out of everything, though, my most cherished memories will be of my lunch family. At the beginning of our time with GK, they assigned to each of the people in our group a family for whom an apartment had already been constructed. GK would provide the protein part of the meal, and the families would provide the rice.

On the first day, I pulled up to my family’s apartment, and Charisse and my lunch mother helped me in to the apartment where a huge bowl of rice was waiting for me. Charisse left and my lunch mother and I got acquainted with each other. When I sat down at the table, she said, “Don’t be shy. Eat!” Then she sprang out of her chair and went to her fridge. “You should drink something. What do you want?” I asked her what she had, and she listed off a variety of things, Coke, water, Sprite, and some other things. Thinking that a Sprite would be refreshing, I chose that, and as soon as I had made my selection, the refrigerator door was shut, and she was out the door in hot pursuit of Sprite. If I knew that she didn’t have Sprite in her fridge, I would have asked for something else. I told her this, and she said. “Don’t worry. You are a guest in my house. If you want Sprite, I give you Sprite.” If that doesn’t just pull at your heartstrings, you’re one cold— well, you can finish that sentence in your free time. But every day after that, she’d help me in, and there waiting for me on the coffee table was a whole paddy’s worth of rice and a liter bottle of Sprite.

Then, on the final days of eating in my lunch family’s home I finally met my lunch sister, who was actually right around my age. We talked about a lot of things, but the one thing that sticks out in my mind was when she told me about her financial situation. She had a husband and two small children. Every day, her husband worked outside of the village and earned 6 Philippine pesos per week. If you figure that US$1 equal 50 PP, 1 PP would equal 2¢. So therefore, her husband was bringing home 12¢ a week, and food for the kids cost 20¢. But she was so grateful for her mother who had weekly reflexology clients, which helped them make ends meet.

After telling me that, she looked straight at me and asked me, “Is your bathroom the size of our house?” The forwardness of her question kind of surprised me, and it knocked me out of myself a little bit, because for the first time in a conversation, I was the so-called “rich” person. I looked around the 10 × 10 apartment, and said that my bathroom was about a quarter of the size of their apartment. Then, I told them that my bedroom was about half the size of their apartment. Then to kind of have them relate to me better, I told them about UwP’s fees and how hard I work fundraising the money. I told them it was really difficult to come up with the money to travel, but that I had tremendous community support and was, in the end, able to come up with the money. I told them that I knew what it was like to live from week to week.

Then Savannah came and told me that it was time to go back to work, and so I give my lunch family a huge hug, had Savannah take a picture of us, and we were on or way. What I think was the most special about my time with my lunch family was that I learned that even though we came from two quite different socioeconomic backgrounds, we could still connect with each other and share our humanity. And that’s an awesome thing.

On the last day in the GK Euro Village, the whole community organized a huge festival with all sorts of dishes and music, and dancing. One of the moments I probably won't ever forget as long as I live is when all the kids perfomed “O Alele” for us, which was one of the hand games we taught to them. It was in that moment that I realized that we weren't there just to help them out with the labor it required to build apartments. We were also there to reach out to them and show them that we, as people who had come from literally around the planet, cared about them and that we were willing to go there and share our humanity and compassion with them. And that I something I will always carry around with me proudly.

But then, the most wonderful thing happened. After the whole festival had ended and I was back to bending my AIDS ribbons, I see a woman carrying two pots with her. It only took me a couple of milliseconds to realize that it was my lunch mother carrying with her the usual kilogram of rice and chicken soup. She sat down next to me at the table, opened up the pots, took out a bottle of Sprite from her bag and said, “Don't be shy. Eat!” And even though I was stuffed to the gills with all that wonderful Filipino food from the festival laid out before me, this woman whom I had shared several lunches with took the time and money to cook me a meal, for the road. So, I ate, and we talked, and before she left to go back to her apartment, we hugged one last time.

The Philippines, Part 1.2: Host Family #1, and Manila’s Public Transport System

2010-09-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

At last, after one of the longest days of my entire life, it was time to meet the people I was going to be living with for the next two and a half weeks, go home, and sleep like a baby on Ambien. After looking quite a while for my host family, we finally met up with our host mother. She was not at all the short, dark-complected, Filipino-looking woman I expected to have for a host mother. In fact, she was quite the opposite. The woman who was taking us home was a tall, rather striking German woman by the name of Annette Helbig. We crammed my scooter, our five suitcases and our five bodies into her SUV and started to our new home.

On the way there, we learned that Annette had lived in the Philippines for quite a while and was the director of an organization that was dedicated to help less fortunate Filipinos with family planning issues. Well, actually, if the truth be told, I learned about that stuff because I was in the front seat, and the rest of my roommates were in the back, sawing logs. But who could really blame them? We finally got home and there was a really nice-looking lasagna on the table waiting for all of us. Even though it wasn’t traditional Filipino food, I really didn’t care. It was lasagna, it was hot, and it was delicious.

What really made this host family special to me was that due to lack of sponsorship, we didn’t have a European leg of the trip, and so in my mind this host family reconciled all that. This was my European host family. There were German things on the walls, German magazines in the bathroom, and even tubes of mustard in the refrigerator. I had never seen Katrin so happy as when she first spotted the tube of mustard. In Germany, she explained to me, mustard comes in toothpaste tubes, and that this turn of events started her cravings for tomato sandwiches from back home. For breakfast, I enjoyed Rice Krispies and toast with Nutella. In the evening, it was more really good European cooking. Nothing could be better.

Our first night there, we met Anjuscha, Annette’s daughter, but everyone called her Yushi for short. She was just as striking as her mother, and spoke English like an American. She had a ton of questions for us, and we did the best to try to answer them for her. She told us that she went to the Brent International School, and that she was going to have a birthday party while we were there, so we’d get to meet some of her international friends. Sweet. I always liked something to look forward to, especially if it means cake in some form, and for me foreigners are just icing on that cake. That first night we met Yushi’s brother Tobi, but he wasn’t as talkative as Yushi or Annette.

Annette had planned that the girls would sleep upstairs and that the boys would get the guest house, which happened to have a sauna built-in, which would translate later into Colin doing the “let’s see how hot I can get the sauna before we have to open the door in order to breathe,” experiment, and me being an innocent bystander of said experiment. It’s counterintuitive that saunas would help you cool off and give you relief from humidity, but it’s true. I think the trick lies in making the sauna hotter than what is outside, so that after escaping from the sauna, for the rest of the day you’re thankful you’re alive and not suffering from heat stroke. That, however, is another post entirely. The first time I stepped crutch into the guest house, and saw the king-size bed, I think I just flopped on it and went to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next morning, we got up bright and early in the morning to get ready for our first CI day, and make some kind of plan as to figuring out transportation to get there. Annette told us that she’d take us there so that we could get an idea of where we had to go and what modes of transport we’d need to take.

Luckily for us, there was a veritable pantheon of options from which to choose. The Jeepney, which is a re-purposed Jeep from the era when the United States had a strong military presence there, is Manila’s answer to a public bus system. There are two long, stuffed benches along the side of the Jeepney itself, and the outside is decorated in over-the-top colorful designs. For our purposes, we didn’t ride very much in the Jeepneys, we instead chose the other two forms of transportation.

“What you’ll do in the morning,” Annette instructed us while driving the route to the CI site, “is take a trike from the house to the gate. Then, you have to flag down another trike to take you from the gate to the corner where all the taxis are, and then take a taxi to your meeting spot.” Okay. I know what you’re thinking, You Who Have Never Been to Manilla. You’re picturing grown adults riding on little trikes for two-year-olds. Well, you would be sadly, if hilariously, mistaken. Trikes are like motorized rickshaws. It’s a motorcycle that that has a mini-carriage with a big wheel in the front attached to it, and people can sit side-saddle on the motorcycle, on the backseat (if they don’t mind riding backwards and unbelted), or in the middle seat. It’s actually not a bad way to see the city. But, they’re only for short distances.

I love the simplicity with which Annette told us our morning routine. Oh, if it had been only that simple. If only we weren’t looked at by the taxi drivers as dollar signs (or in this case peso signs) needing a ride. It was very rarely that our taxi ride was problem-free. During our first ride to the CI site, our taxi driver didn’t know exactly where he was going, so during the time it took for him to ask his friend where we were going, the meter was running. That only happened to us once, however. What happened to us more frequently was that they would claim the meter wasn’t working, and ask for twice the normal fare, or because there were five of us and we had to wedge ourselves in the backseat, they charged us an “overload fee,” which wasn't listed anywhere inside or outside the taxi.

But what took the prize for the most frustrating taxi experience came to pass on the last day of our community impact project. Just like the fourteen or so previous days we went to the corner to get a taxi, and offered them 175 pesos, like before. But this time, there was a lot more deliberation happening amongst the taxi drivers. Deliberation in Tagalog, which is not one of the five languages that the members of our party spoke. Arnab, and Colin, (our fearless leaders) repeatedly offered them the standard price, and repeatedly there would be incomprehensible conversations, and a 250-peso offer would be offered up by the taxi drivers. New taxi drivers would pull in, and as soon as we’d try to offer them the same deal, more deliberation would take place, and the subsequent higher offer would be made. Finally, after nearly 30 minutes of this same scenario being played out, the consensus amongst our group was to admit defeat and pay them the higher rate. The only consolation was that we would never again need their services and we wouldn’t have to do business with them anymore. My advice for any non-Filipino-looking tourist taking advantage of public transportation in Manila is to be firm and up front with the cab drivers, because they will take you to the cleaners if you let your guard down.

With all that being said, I have a message for the cab drivers of the fine city of Manila: The way to get extra money from your fares is to go above and beyond driving people from Point A to Point B. Be friendly to your fares. Open and hold the door for them. Answer questions about the city. Make them feel welcome inside your cab. Help them with their bags. If you do any or all of these things, I can guarantee you that your fares will feel obliged to give you a nice tip above what is shown on the meter.

Okay. Enough of my ranting. Let’s get on to the nicer parts of this particular post: the trike rides. Our first foray into getting to the CI site was interesting to say the least. We all had to figure out how do get ourselves and my scooter onto the trikes and on our way. The first day we tried it out, we broke down the scooter, and each one of us was responsible for taking part of it. Marieke would have the back wheels, and Katrin would take the seat. Arnab and Colin would take the floor and the front wheel, and I would take the battery.

Well, the first time we did this, we thought it would be easier if I just hopped on the back of the trike. Well, in order to give you a better idea of what my first trike ride was like, let me give you a better description of what the back of a trike is like. First of all, all the seats in the public transportation are built for Filipino bodies, not for overweight American bodies, so I could only half-fit onto the seat. Secondly, the footrest/step of the trike was really narrow, and it was hard for me to get any traction so that I could stay on the seat. Luckily, it was made of grating, so I at least managed to wedge my foot in between the slits so that I would not slip. Then, there were tiny metal supports holding up the roof of the cart that I could hold on to, so that helped a little bit, too.

At first, I thought it would be alright but, as I got going, I quickly became cognizant of the fact that if I slipped one micrometer off that seat, I would undergo a tuck and roll of Evel Knievel-sized proportions, but it wouldn’t be as pretty, and I would be in the middle of the roadway. The whole ride would have gone a little better had there not been huge speed bumps every 30 meters or so. I was riding backward, so I could not prepare myself for the impending jolts that may or may not have sent me hurling into UwP oblivion. Luckily Colin, who was on the inside of the trike sensed my fear and informed me ahead of time when a speed bump was imminent, so I could brace myself accordingly. From that period of time onward, it was agreed that I was to take the inside seat of the trike, and people without my level of spasticity would take the outside seat. And that, my friends, is why I am alive today to write this post. But enough about my adventures with the Manila public transportation vehicles.

When you have spent close to five months on the road like we had done by the time we had gotten to Manila, and you live at different houses every week, it becomes increasingly easier to fall into a routine. The routine my roommates had found at the Helbig’s didn’t take long to establish itself. After getting home from a long day at the CI site, we’d go home, get cleaned up and then sit outside on the porch and use the internet while the lizards watched us. There were so many lizards, in fact, that Katrin and I had started naming them after all of our castmates. I don’t think we got all the through our cast, but we came darn close. Although I have the sneaking suspicion that we named the same lizard more than once. Then, when the sun was starting to go down, and we had dinner, we went back into our respective rooms and guest house and started to wind down for the night.

There was an exception to this routine however. One day after a particularly active day at our CI site, Annette announced to us that she had called the home massage service. Don’t check your computer monitors. There really is a home massage service where masseuses would come to your house and perform full-body massages on you for only US$4. She asked us if that would be alright with us, and we totally didn’t have any objection with that at all.

So, instead of getting out our laptops like usual, we all jumped in the pool for a little bit and got some pre-relaxing in before the masseuses showed up. The masseuses finally showed up, and we went to our sleeping quarters. They didn’t speak very much English; just enough to get them by. “Soft, medium, or deep tissue?” were all the words my masseuse said to me, and fearing how gelatinous I would feel if I said, “deep,” I went with the medium-strength massage. Now, when I say these were full-body massages, I mean they were FULL-body massages, well at least the full back side. It was definitely not what I was used to back home, especially the part when she started working my glutes. But when she was done, and I paid her her 200 pesos plus a little extra, I went inside where a nice piping-hot dinner and a very relaxed Marieke was waiting for me. I think for that entire meal, we hardly spoke to each other because we were so relaxed that the kitchen chairs were the only things holding us up. It was not a problem going to sleep that night.

Towards the end of our stay at the Heblig’s, our host sister was having a birthday, and so she invited some friends over from her school, the Brent International School. It was great that night because after everyone showed up, we had a little mini United Nations going on. The Uppies included a Bangladeshi, a Dutchwoman, a German and 2 Americans, and the Brent International School people included a Korean, a couple of Americans, a couple of Swiss people, and 2 South Africans. When Marieke heard that these South Africans spoke Afrikaans, she wondered (as I had) how close Dutch was to Afrikaans, since they pretty much started out as the same language. It turns out that the two languages are different enough that when the guys spoke Afrikaans to Marieke, she couldn’t understand them. It’s so fascinating to me how languages can change that much in such a short period of time.

After a couple hours of socializing, a couple of people started setting up the lawn furniture for drinking games and general debauchery. And seeing as though we had pretty much signed anti-drinking game and anti-debauchery contracts before traveling with Up with People, that was our cue to call it a night. Plus, we had another early morning ahead of us, and we wanted to be fresh as possible for our CI, and for the morning commute.

I hope you have enjoyed this installment of my time in Manila. The next post is going to talk about our CI site, and how none of us were the same after we finished working with that group of people.

The Philippines, Part 1.1: First Impressions of Manila

2010-09-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

After two meals, four in-flight movies and fourteen hours in the air, we had made it to the Philippines. What was once in my mind just a splotch of white in the middle of an expanse of blue on world maps was made instantly real as soon as I stepped off that plane. I took in the sights, the smells, the humidity, the friendliness of the people—everything. The wheelchair guy almost wheeled me past the cast, and I had to tell him a couple of times that this was the group I was supposed to be with. He was almost in shock at this discovery, but he wheeled me over to the cast, and I was immediately lei’d by a lovely Filipino woman. I don’t think they call them leis in the Philippines, but I have no other word to call it.

It’s so interesting to get on a plane and whisked off to a place that is so different from where you came from. When we were in Denver, we needed our jackets and hoodies to stay warm; in the Philippines, if there hadn’t been indecency laws in place the entire cast would have stripped down to our underthings, and even then we would have been overheated. After we all got our luggage together and our passports were handed to our logistics coordinator to go to the State Department for visa extensions, it was time to load onto the buses. The Filipino buses were not a thing like the American buses, and I had a hard time getting up into them, so I rode with the staff in the staff van. The Filipino drivers asked me if I needed help, and I think they would have tried to pick me up and put me in the van if Ellen Enebo and I hadn’t told them that I needed minimal help.

Once I got situated, the long trek across the city and to our meeting area began. Immediately, I was struck by the poverty that I saw around me. Every time the van stopped at a traffic light, seeming scores of people peddling homemade necklaces and jewelry swamped our van asking us if we wanted to buy anything. The next thing that struck me was all the billboards—some of which had to have been at least a couple stories high—advertising perfume, Gucci and Guess jeans. All of this towered over the streets that were dirty and in disrepair. All of the images I was seeing around me couldn’t have summed up better the microcosm of humanity that I spoke about in my spoken word pieces during the show: everywhere you looked, the stark contrast of the haves and the have-nots made itself all too apparent.

Then, through my jet-lagged stupor, the realization of my not being in the United States anymore started to reveal itself to me in increasingly vivid detail. I saw whole pigs, gutted, and cleaned hung up by their snouts on meat hooks displayed proudly in several storefronts; flashy old Jeeps that I would come to learn were called Jeepneys and motorcycle/rickshaw hybrids which zoomed past us on the left and the right; signs written in a language I had never seen before—all of it was almost too much to take in all at once.

After a good forty-five minutes of traversing the city, we finally made it to Elbow Room, meeting place for the cast briefing and allocation meeting by day, bustling night club by night. It was so good to just sit and decompress from the humungous sensory overload, get our schedules and allocations, and just chill. I got my schedule and learned that my roommates for the next two and a half weeks were Colin from Texas, Marieke from the Netherlands, Katrin from Germany, and Arnab from Bangladesh. I always loved big allocations like this because it was always great to have huge meals, and we could really delve into really interesting topics. We also found out that this portion of our tour was sponsored by Zesto, which is the Philippine’s answer to drinks like V8 Splash, and Gatorade, and as such we had as much free Zesto as we could get our hands on, which was great because the heat was getting more and more intense as the day progressed. This was also the day that I discovered Filipino iced tea. For those of you who know me, you know that when I make iced tea, I make it as strong and as sweet as possible. Well, this iced tea is better than all of the powered iced teas in the United States hands down. And the best part of it is that it is served in place of water in some restaurants. It’s one of the things I crave from time to time. If you ever have the chance to go to the Philippines, if you never enjoy a tall glass of iced tea over there, consider your trip a failure. Seriously.

After several futile attempts to find free internet connections, we all got together in our CI groups to find out what we would be doing for the next two and a half weeks. I found out that we would be working for an organization called Gawad Kalinga, which is an organization that is dedicated to ending poverty and improving the lives of every Filipino. To do this, it goes into areas hardest hit by poverty and tells show them that there are alternatives to violence and looting. That through hard work, you too can enter into a life that is more fulfilling and healthy. It’s really kind of impossible to explain everything in a short amount of space here. But we had a great CI group and all of couldn’t wait to start working with these incredible people.

Towards the end of the day, we all were dead tired as most of us hadn’t seen decent sleep since 48 hours prior, and we couldn’t wait to get home to our host families. It was pretty late in the day that they came to take us home, so unfortunately we didn’t really have a lot of time to get to know them at all before we all crashed. It had been an overwhelming day for all of us, and we couldn’t wait to crash and wake up in the morning to start our Community Impact day.

US, Part 2.8: North Platte, NE

2010-01-14T10:44:00.000-08:00

This week was a particularly interesting week in that it was a week that kind of punched us in the gut that this magical journey that we were on was not going to last forever, and that in another 5 weeks’ time, we all were going to have to say goodbye to the family that we all had created within the past months. North Platte marked the last city on the US tour for us, and it also marked the end of the road for three of our castmates who had decided not to continue on to the Philippines with us. I can’t, of course, speak for everyone on our trip, but I personally wanted to put all of those thoughts out of my mind because we did have four good weeks of the tour left, and it would not be fair to the people of North Platte if we did not put our best foot forward and share with them our spirit.

This was also a special week, like the week we had in Arizona, since for one of our own, it was a homecoming. Laura Lynn grew up in this town, and for the past couple of weeks, she had been telling us stories about North Platte. One of her favorite things to talk about was the two-headed stuffed cow that was one of the tourist attractions there. One thing I have missed about being in UwP is the ways that people welcome us into their communities. In Tepic, we were pop stars who were center stage in a parade/fashion show inside a shopping mall, and now in North Platte we were rolling into town with a full police escort. When we got to our main meeting place and put all of our belongings in the hallway, and sat down, we were treated with a routine by the local cheerleading squad. A couple of months after getting off tour, it was a really hard adjustment for me not to have that kind of treatment every time I crossed over a city limits.

Ever since the industrial revolution settled in and changed the landscape of our globe, North Platte was a major hub for the American railroad system. Nearly every transnational train would have to pass through North Platte. And it is for that reason that a lot of American GIs would pass through North Platte on their way back from Europe after fighting in the Second World War. The citizens of North Platte knew they had to fill a need for the soldiers who had seen so much. So the citizens gathered together and made sure the the GIs passing through would have a warm meal and even warmer hospitality when they got off those trains. All of the GIs that passed through were treated to banquets and feasts that were thrown in their honor. It was the first home-cooked meal that they had had since they shipped out. This tradition lasted for years, and has come to be known as the Canteen.

For our regional learning, we watched a PBS documentary on the canteen, and to our surprise, all of our staff (and Laura Lynn) were dressed in WWII-era costumes and everyone from town made us a full-on feast, midwestern style. Never before have I seen that many casseroles of all different types laid out before me in delicious splendor like that. Apparently, in the Midwest, it shouldn’t be called a “pot luck,” it should be called “Corningware luck.” There was not a pot out there to be seen. But the food was excellent, and the music was even excellenter. I know that’s not a word, but I don’t really care right now. There was a piano in the gymnasium of the church where the cast gathered every day, and for the duration of the meal we were treated by the piano stylings of an older couple who could play just about any song we requested. It was great to gather a round the piano, and just let the good music and good company wash over you. It turned out that this little feast was UwP’s idea of giving the American students some semblance of Thanksgiving, since we were going to be in the Philippines for the holiday. For us it was always nice to have downtime and just talk to each other and to the local people, and share good food with good people.

I really loved the host family that I stayed with, especially my host dad who happened to have his own full-fledged karaoke system in his garage, with around 5,000 songs to chose from. I was like, are you serious right now? My host dad is as much of a karaoke freak as I am? One night, he invited me into his garage and we took turns singing our karaoke signatures. His specialty was ‘40s-era tunes like Mac the Knife and New York, New York. This was a really good opportunity for me to increase my repertoire and see what I could do within my range. We had so much fun that we decided to invite all of the host families to another Thanksgiving celebration at the American Legion Hall and have karaoke be the focal point. So, not only did I feel very karaoke’d, I felt extremely Thanksgivinged as well.

After that whole thing, it was time to go back home and get packed up for the medium bus ride to Denver for the flight to LAX, the 12-hour layover in the airport, and finally the 14-hour flight to Manila. This was the time for all of us to wrap up the US tour by writing down all the memories we had in the various cities. It’s so interesting when you look back on things like this knowing that you did so much in such a short period of time, and hearing other people sharing their stories just reinforced for me the idea that we were a family. You don’t travel 5 months with somebody and not form a really strong bond with them.

That’s why it was especially hard to say goodbye to 3 of our family members that weren’t going to be with us for the final leg of our journey. Gwen, from Switzerland whose light and energy inspired me every day on the tour; Cathrine, my language buddy who was just one of the most amazing people I had ever met, and Kirk who was so awesome to me the first part of the tour were all leaving us and going to go back to their lives.

It was especially hard for me to part with Gwen, because she and I had really nice bond that began when she finally got the knot out of my neck Breckenridge so that I could finally turn my head to the right, and continued throughout the tour. One of the last face-to-face exchanges we had was when she noticed my Up with People hat I was wearing.

“Oh my God!” Gwen exclaimed, “I wanted to by an Up with People cap for myself, but I never did it.”

“Well, it would mean a whole lot to me if you had my hat.” I said, getting a bit teary-eyed.

“We can trade. I’ll give you my Swiss flag hat, and you can give me your UwP hat, and then the next time we see each other, we’ll both be wearing each other’s hats.” That was the best idea I heard throughout the whole tour. So, we switched our hats, gave each other huge hugs, and said, “See you very soon.”

When it was time to pack up the bus and say goodbye to our host families, we prepared ourselves for the longest travel day on the whole tour...

US, Part 2.7: Sioux Falls, SD

2009-08-29T21:22:00.001-07:00

When you come from the east coast, you don’t get the chance to appreciate wide-open expanses of land that seem to stretch out forever. I had no idea that there was this much un-fooled-around-with land out there, all tranquil and serene. To get to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from Aberdeen you have to pass through some pretty interesting cities. Riding along in the tour bus, I would see places like, “Arrowhead, Population 12.” and 30 minutes down the road you’d see another sign: “Custerville, Population 4.” Right afterwards you’d see two or three random houses, side by side. Then you’d come to the realization that in that split second you’d seen the entire town of Arrowhead or Custerville pass by the window, and that would make your head hurt a little, because you'd try to wrap your brain around questions like, “Where does the state get all that money to replace the sign every time someone either moves away from, or is born in Arrowhead, South Dakota?” and, “If you live in Custerville, and your house is on fire, how long does it take for the fire department to show up?” and even more perplexing: “If there are 4 residents in the town, and two of those residents are under the age of 18, and the other two residents are married, how do you choose a mayor?”

The day we reached Sioux Falls was one of the busiest travel days we had on the tour. After Marv and The Other Guy That Particular Week parked the buses, we all piled in to a gym connected to a church, and were instructed to sit in the middle of the floor. After we went through the week’s schedule and found out that we were sponsored by Burger King, they told us that this was the week of the Hometeam Olympics. Every cast is divided up into hometeams who get together periodically and do group activities or discuss things going on that week. So, we split up into hometeams and were informed of the events that we would be competing in: Musical Chairs, Tug of War, Pictionary, an alphabet game whose name escapes me, a statistical quiz about the numbers involved in the tour, and a special outdoor activity that would decide the ultimate winners. They passed us the quiz and told us to fill it out during the course of the game.

First up, it was Tug of War. The organizers of the hometeam olympics thought that just regular rope would withstand the force of teams with a combined total of 24 people pulling on it in opposite directions for a long period of time. Well, the rope stood up for the first round. The second round was off to a good start when all of a sudden we heard a big snap, and both of the teams went down with a thud. Little did we know afterwards that when Kirk hit the floor, he landed wrong and ended up breaking his finger. I think next time they had a better rope.

Then, it was Musical Chairs:

Let’s have a moment of silence for the three folding chairs that perished during the course of the game... It turns out that 107 people shouting at the same time can get pretty loud. I think they could hear us screaming all the way in Arrowhead.

After all of that, the third event was Pictionary, which was interesting, because instead of playing one word at a time, we played it like the end game of Win, Lose, or Draw, where you have a certain amount of time to draw ten words, and the team that ended up with the most words guessed moved on to the next round where the winner would be determined. Naturally, the team who was lucky enough to have Chihiro, the graphic designer from Japan, ended up winning. It was really interesting to see how much talent this cast had when it came to visual arts. And it was also interesting to see how some people just have absolutely no talent whatsoever. But we love them, anyway!

The next game we played was something I’d never seen before. I am not sure what they called the game, but the object was to be the first team to make formations of certain letters and numbers on the gym floor without talking. I’m not sure if I was an advantage or disadvantage to my team. Even though we were pretty darn quick, there always seemed to be a team that was slightly quicker than we were, and it always seemed to be the team closest to the head judge... Anyway, our team lost, and all we had to do was find out what the outdoor challenge would have in store for us.

Because I have only so much space, and this activity is really hard to explain, I’ll just post a video of what we had to do, and showcase the speed with which my hometeam won this particular activity.

After everything was tallied up, and scored, it was a hometeam that I wasn’t a part of that won. Oh well... the games were fun, and a wonderful change of pace from the normal day to day activities on the tour.

Then we were told to clean up and get into our number 2s for a press conference and host family pick up. Up with People has a special dress code that dictates what we wear. Number 5s are the crappiest clothes that we own that we usually wear when we’re out painting walls in exotic locations. As the numbers get smaller, our clothes get nicer. So, therefore, number 1s are our nicest clothes that we wear when we meet really important people like governors and mayors. Whenever we’d get off the bus, we’d have to be dressed in our number 2s so that we would look presentable to our host families and to any kind of media and paparazzi that happened to be there as we got off the bus. I remember one time Angela forgot to put her number 2 in her backpack for our trip to Albuquerque, and had to wait on the bus until the news crew had left, because she was in a number 3. I have no idea why I went on this little tangent. Apparently I have a lot to say about our dress code. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah... the press conference.

The press conference was a time for the cast to get oriented on what significance of the week was and what we were going to be doing, and to meet our host families. First, we found out that we had the potential of having the biggest US audience since Up with People was reformed, since our show facility had a capacity of 2,000 seats. So we needed to do as much as possible to get the word out there and raise money for our sponsors. Then a couple of people spoke about the history of Sioux Falls, including the mayor, and he told us that having so many young people from all around the world in Sioux Falls was a momentous occasion and he welcomed us all.

Then it was time to meet our host families. This city was unique in that instead of host codes, we had differently shaped keys that would only fit in our host families’ locks. This was good because we kind of got to meet everyone else’s host family before we met our own. My roommate that week, Colin Duckett from Texas, searched frantically for our host family, trying everybody’s lock. Finally, we saw a woman on the other side of the room that looked like her lock colors matched our key. Sure enough, it was a match. We were to be staying with the Roberts family, Judie, her husband, and their son and daughter, Sarah and Andrew. This was a unique family in that Sarah used a mobility scooter like mine, and so I had no problems getting around the house. What I particularly liked about this family is that every night after dinner we each would have an ice cream sundae with whatever topping we wanted on it. I would naturally drown mine in butterscotch and hot fudge to the point where that’s all you’d taste. Another cool thing about this family was that there was a old fashioned player piano in the basement that Mr. Roberts played for us. I had never before actually seen a player piano play all by itself. Colin and I spent at least 2 hours down in the basement listening to Mr. Roberts play. When you live an itinerant life, and you go from place to place, and live with a whole bunch of people from a varied array of lifestyles, you have no idea what is going to happen from one week to the next.

And that is no truer than when you are traveling in Up with People. If someone had asked me if I thought the cast would be performing during halftime at a high school football game in 15˚ weather, I would have responded by asking them if they were on psychotropic drugs. But I would have been wrong... So painfully, awkwardly, wrong. You see, it turns out that in order to promote the show that week, we were asked to perform a couple of songs for an O’Gorman High School football game. In sub-freezing temperatures. In our thin show costumes. And we had to act like we were enjoying ourselves, and not at all pre-hypothermic. I hope you know where I’m heading with this, because I could continue if you really want me to. I have never been that cold in all my life, and I’m from Maine. Luckily we were only doing three songs, so it took all of 15 minutes to perform. However, 15 minutes is a long time when the vitreous humor in your eyeballs is freezing solid. Did I mention it was cold? Anyway... all of the South Dakotans in the stands certainly understood our plight, and cheered us on, and waved signs at us. And it was kind of cool, because the scoreboard had a mini-Jumbotron (a Minitron?) on it, and I was told later that during a whole chorus of Up with People, I was on the Minitron, frozen eyeballs and all. It was probably my first and last time on anything with “tron” in its name... After all of that, my host family’s house had never looked better, or warmer.

Our theme in Sioux Falls was poverty in the world. This one we really understood, because we had had a taste of extreme poverty in Cabo. To really drive the point home, we had a couple of things planned. The whole cast was split up into small groups, and had to do various activities. I was in a group of 6 people and we were told that we were a family in Africa and then we were given 5 or 6 cardboard boxes and told to build a structure under which all of us could sleep at night, and this is the finished product:

After that was all said and done, we went back into the gym where there was a makeshift museum set up along the walls where there were pictures of what extreme poverty looked like, one of the pictures showed an african boy that was so starved that his stomach was distended and you could see his ribs, and it was plainly obvious that he hadn’t had water in days, or even months. It really hit home to me that I could have just as easily been that African child, and really all it comes down to is where you are born and who you are born to. There were other pictures of people scraping by on $1 or less a day. Then I thought of some of the very generous people who donated money so that I could go on this trip, the people like you and me who can afford simple luxuries like clean drinking water, or decent-quality fresh food and the oven or stove or microwave to cook it in, or a flushing toilet, or a bed... And I think of all of the frivolous things that the people who have an overabundance of money spend their fortunes on. The $10,000 pieces of jewelry that walk out of my Cabo host brothers’ store, the yachts, the big flat-screen HD TVs, and I think of how much of a better life all of these people in the pictures could have if they could get some of this money.

After the museum, we sat down to dinner. As far as the tour went, this was a very out-of-the-ordinary dinner. Earlier in the day, the poverty committee tossed a bunch of coins in the air, for people to catch. There were people who caught a whole bunch of coins, there were people who caught a couple of coins, and there were people who didn’t catch any coins at all. The people who caught a whole bunch of the coins became the Upper Class; the ones who caught a couple of coins became the Middle Class, and the rest of us were under the poverty line.

Dinner that night had three things on the menu: for the Upper Class diners it was a full 4-course meal, complete with a salad course, a bread course, an entrée, and a desert course, with a selection of carbonated beverages. For the middle class it was rice, beans, and a jug of water. For the poor people it was half-cooked rice and a glass bottle of water, that turned out to be salt water. I was in the group of people living under the poverty line. Here’s the set up of the gym floor:

The middle class were on the far left, and had the circle of folding chairs and the plastic table. The poor people sat in the middle of everything, and only had cardboard; the upper class on the far right had two tables with tablecloths and centerpieces and all of that stuff. They also had a staff of people taking their orders and serving them food. On either side of the low class people, there were blue jump ropes that signified oceans, and whenever one of the poor people’s feet would accidentally touch the rope, a member of the upper class wait staff would curtly bark out, “You are disturbing or guests! Move your foot!” This happened so often that the wait staff decided to stand tables on their sides between them and the poor people so that the upper class wouldn’t be disturbed. That was fine with me, because it somewhat blocked the delicious smell of the food that I wouldn’t be eating that night.

A couple of moments later, I saw the very environment-savvy, non-wasteful Ellen Enebo slide the garbage can in full sight of the middle and lower classes, and very purposefully scrape all of the food that the upper class people didn’t end up eating into the trash. The worst was when the garlic bread all went in the garbage can. I think at that moment, my heart did a reverse Grinch and actually shrank two sizes. I looked down at my bowl of undercooked rice, and finished the last of it, trying to forget the gruesome image that I had just bore witness to. But, one very cool thing happened during the hunger banquet:

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade!

After the whole hunger banquet had ended we all sat down as a cast and processed the events of the day. What began as a discussion turned into an outpouring of emotion as people started sharing their personal stories of the poverty they had witnessed in their own countries. That is when some things started to click for me: I was so lucky that I was born where I was born and that I had two loving, fairly well-off families that could support me if I needed it. I am from one of the richest countries in the world, and would never face living in a cardboard box, and looking around the room I realized how fortunate the whole cast was to be able to have this experience of traveling the world and actually going out there to help the people that most desperately needed it.

When they announced at the end that our host families were given explicit instructions not to feed us that night, my stomach started doing flips, and my mouth got a little dry as it wasn’t going to be enjoying an ice cream sundae that night. But hey, despite the extremely loud protests from my digestive tract, for the first time I had a clear picture economically of where my place was in this world, and I knew that I’d have a good breakfast in the morning.

The show that week was amazing. We reached our goal of 2,000 people, and the gym that we performed in was packed! It’s so great to look out into the audience before the show and not see one empty chair, and know that they all came to see us entertain them. It’s also great to look out in the audience and see some of the friends you had made that week and get their reactions after the show, and know that you added a little something to their lives.

Sioux Falls was definitely one of the most memorable cities of the tour, and this was particularly poignant as it would be our last travel day completely within US borders, and soon we’d be in the tropics.

As Marv and The New Other Guy That Week pulled the buses out of the driveway, we all waved to our host families, and thought of what North Platte, Nebraska might bring us.

US, Part 2.6: Aberdeen, SD

2009-08-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

After being in a big city like Cheyenne, Wyoming, it’s good to be in a place that has much more of a small-town feel to it. Our next stop, after Cheyenne, was Aberdeen, South Dakota, where we were welcomed because of the diversity of our group. It so happens that ever since Aberdeen has existed, there really has been no diversity to speak of. Recently, there has been talk of people from other places settling in Aberdeen. It seems as though the city has been resistant to other cultures and backgrounds, and so a Diversity Committee was formed to help the town make adjustments by learning about what other cultures have to offer through learning about the other cultures themselves.

Aberdeen, in fact, was so diversity-phobic that they had a really difficult time placing us into host families. Thank God for the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, because if it weren’t for them, 14 of us wouldn’t have had a place to stay. At first when I saw that I’d be living with nuns, I was kind of weary about it, since a) when I think of nuns, I think of Catholic school nuns whose main idea of discipline is a ruler against the knuckles, and b) I disagree with a lot of what the Catholic church teaches. But, being an Uppie, I decided to keep an open mind about everything, and I am so glad that I did. The Sisters welcomed all of us with open arms, and were really interesting to talk to. One of the Sisters’ families was from Orr’s Island, Maine, and when she found out I was from Maine, she almost started crying. It so happens that her family had been there forever before they settled in South Dakota. All of the Sisters were really interested in Up with People, and what the mission of the organization was. But more than that, they really enjoyed getting to know us all and hearing about the different places we called home.

That particular host family day was particularly memorable. The Sisters decided to give us a tour of the convent and show us the history of their order of nuns. One of the Sisters that gave us a ride to the facilities and made sure we were fed and warm was the Archivist for the Sisters of the Presentation. So, she gave us a tour of the mini museum that was enclosed within the convent. Then she showed us the convent itself. When you’re a member of a convent, especially the Sisters of the Presentation, you are very well taken care of, and when you get so that you aren’t able to take care of yourself, because of your age or whatever, there’s a staff of nurses there that make sure you get the care you need. It was great to see some of the older Sisters, and talk to them. One of them even let us in to their room and showed us around a little bit. I never dreamt in a million years that I’d ever have the opportunity to tour a convent.

After getting the tour, they showed us their chapel. It was one of the most beautiful chapels I’ve seen. Granted, I’ve only seen about 3 chapels in my life, but that’s beside the point. There were high ceilings, and really nice hardwood floors, and over in an alcove of the chapel was a bookcase of big red-leather-bound books that listed the information of all of the Sisters that had ever been in the Order, and it’s customary when a Sister dies to put their name in the book to memorialize them. What amazes me about these Sisters is that they sacrifice so much in order to serve God and help their communities out in whatever capacity.

In the evening, the Sisters gathered us all together, and we had a board game night! Finally, I got my board game night! The first game we played was a game called Apples to Apples, where you have 7 noun cards in your hand, (such as Cher, chicken pox, hot water heaters, strawberries, the Boston Tea Party, etc.) and each player takes their turn drawing an adjective card (e.g. icky, suspicious, rare, etc.) and the rest of the players have to put down one of their noun cards that they think best matches the adjective card. Then, the person who drew the adjective card chooses the winner, and then at the end of a pre-determined number of rounds, the person with the most points wins. During one of the rounds, the adjective was ‘boring,’ and one of the nouns that was put in was ‘church.’ And all of us Uppies looked at each other, like, “Woah! Somebody actually said ‘church!’” And ‘church’ ended up winning that round, and when one of the Sisters cried, “That was mine!!” we all started laughing so hard. At the other table, they were playing Dominos, and one of the Sisters playing that game was blind. After that game had finished, Cheryssa, from New Jersey, asked the Sister if she could read the braille note that Jess Rojas had written to her at the end of our Mexican tour. (Jess was the blind person who traveled with the previous two casts, and who was our ‘Special Guest Star’ for the Mexican tour, and Arizona.) It was really cool to see the sister translate what was in the note, because it was kind of surreal hearing Jess’ words coming out of a nun’s mouth. And it was also great to watch the interaction between Cheryssa and the Sister. I could tell it was a neat moment in Cheryssa’s experience, and it was for mine, too.

Aberdeen was packed with interesting stuff to write about. Now is the time that I shall talk to you about Up with People Land. The original purpose of Up with People Land was to be a simulation on immigration, since that was the theme of that particular week. On the way to the cabin, my friend Phil from Denver passed me a piece of paper and told me that they were going to do an immigration simulation, and I was to be an undercover member of the Border Patrol, and if anyone found out about this little twist, he’d have me drawn and quartered. Not really, but I saw you falling asleep and thought I’d spice up the blog a little bit.

Anyway, after I read through the paper, I knew this was going to be a very interesting education week, and I wasn’t disappointed. The Education Team passed out different immigration papers to people signifying different immigration statuses, from ‘Migrant Worker,’ all the way up to ‘Citizen.’ What made this game interesting was that if you were a citizen, you had first dibs at lunch, you got to sit wherever you wanted on the bus, and you had the power to make laws come before the people. If you were a migrant worker, you basically had no rights at all. At the beginning of the week, it was stated that only citizens could elect officials, and vote for laws. And that if you had a status below citizenship, you could “marry” a citizen in order to gain that status.

When the game was introduced to us, it was stated that in order to win the game, you had to have a job and a place to live. When I opened my “passport” up, I worked for the Border Patrol, and had a house with a room to rent. I had basically won the entire game without even doing anything. It just goes to show you how incredibly awesome I am. The duties of the Border Patrol was to make sure that the Citizens’ rights were being upheld, and to enforce laws. My job as an undercover Border Patrol officer was to make friends and get inside information so that I could report any wrongdoings to my colleagues, and have the wrong-doers arrested. So, this meant that I really had to trudge up all of my improv skills, and pretend like I was playing the game like the rest of them.

As soon as that game started, it was like the cast was transported to an episode of The Twilight Zone. After the game was introduced, it was a free-for-all for the immigrants to find a citizen to marry so that they could have rights. During the first five minutes of the game, Cathrine from Denmark asked if she could rent my room, and thirty seconds after that, Anika from Germany asked me to marry her. I really liked being super popular.

In order for Anika and I to be married, we had to schedule an appointment with one of the Justices of the Peace so that they could verify the veracity of our intent to marry. So, that night at the campfire, I saw the Right Honorable Russel Reitter, and asked him if he had time for me and my future Frau. He said that the first possible time the next day was at breakfast, right before morning meeting. And Anika and I both agreed. The next morning, Anika and I decided to have breakfast together to compare notes, like our favorite colors, how many brothers and sisters we had, etc., and waited for Judge Reitter to interview us. He came over and whisked Anika away, and in a few minutes came back to me:

Judge Reitter: Okay, sir, it’s your turn.
Me: Okay.
J.R.: Does Anika like to put bananas on her cereal?
Me: Yes.
J.R.: What is Anika’s favorite Star Wars character?
Me: Princess Leia?
J.R.: If a tree fell in the woods, and no one was around to hear it, what kind of car would Anika drive?
Me: A Volkswagen?
J.R.: Uhhh... Congratulations! You’ll make a fine couple!

Because I haven’t posted any video on here, I’ll post a video of my wedding to Anika. Enjoy!

Video courtesy of Katrin Skora

That was the nice and flowery side of Up with People Land. In and amongst all of the “weddings” that took place, there was some pretty hardcore politicking going on as well. There were arguments all over the place about the unfair treatment of non-citizens, especially since we as citizens got the good seats on the bus, and got first dibs on the food, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Then there was all the drama surrounding the election of the Mayor of Up with People Land. Before the election, there was a vote to let people other than citizens run for the highest office, and it passed. When Ryan Aguirre of Texas, (who was a migrant worker) ended up being elected, there was a huge uproar and rebellion that rose up in the group, led by Martin Brennan, our Cast Manager. This group mustered up quite a following, so therefore I thought it was my duty as an undercover member of the Border Patrol to protect the Mayor at all costs. So, I decided to join this little group, and find out as much information as I could and report it back to Ryan via facebook so that he could be one step ahead of the game at all times. Things just got so out of hand: people got assassinated, the Japanese were targeted and kept getting thrown in jail, and Mayor Aguirre ended up stepping down, and giving the position to Fenna from Germany, who ended up being Mayor for all of two hours.

So... what did I learn from this whole Up with People Land thing? Well, I learned that the best job in the world is being an undercover cop, and that when marrying a foreigner, one of the most important conversations to have is about one’s favorite Star Wars characters.

Another really awesome thing that happened in Aberdeen was the annual UwP halloween party. This was a particularly interesting part of the week, since Halloween is typically an American holiday, so for many of my castmates, this was their very first time dressing up.

For a good part of the week, I racked my brain for a really good costume. One that was cheap, and that stood out from the rest. On our information board, there were various costume contests, from the most scary, to the most bizarre, to the most original. As I stared at the information board, which we called our “Wicky-Wicky-Wicky Wall,” wondering what I could be, it suddenly dawned on me: I could be the Wicky-Wicky-Wicky Wall itself! And that would make me a shoo-in for the Best Original Costume Contest. Amazingly, Ai, who was in charge of the WWWWall for that particular round, and Molly Robertson whose department handled the wall, let me take the whole thing with me and tape various pieces of paper from it all over myself and my scooter. I spent $0 on a totally original costume. I was so freakin’ psyched!

When I got to the party, I instantly saw that I had some stiff competition in my category. There was a huge green dinosaur rocking it out on the dance floor (Who turned out to be Brittany from Rhode Island.) Then I saw Nathalie, one of the Swedes, was dressed as a fork. She had a foil-covered box and tines spearing a cardboard sandwich cutout sticking out of her head. But I think that my favorite costume by far was Javi’s Mormon missionary costume. He had the whole thing figured out: the suit and tie, the Book of Mormon, and the bicycle helmet. The only thing he was missing was his name tag.

Another one of the contests was the group costume contest where a group of people dressed up in themed costumes. The 7 girls that lived with us in the convent were the Seven Deadly Sins, which was interesting, since we all were living with nuns. But they took it up with the Sisters, and they were okay with it. The road staff dressed up like dominoes, and throughout the night, they all get into a line and then toppled over onto each other. It was hugely creative, and showed that they could topple over as a team, which was an inspiration to us all. But the convent girls did us proud by taking the category.

After a few other categories went by, it was time for the Most Original Costume competition. I pretty much I had it in the bag, even over the dinosaur and Nathalie the Fork. The other competition I came up against was Elizabeth and Ben who were dressed up as Anthony our lighting guy’s lab assistants. The audience voted for the winner by cheering, and the people who got the loudest cheers won. When they went through everyone, I was in a tie with Ben and Elizabeth, so everybody voted again, and again it seemed like dead heat, and they ended up giving it to Ben and Elizabeth. I was so robbed! I was the freaking Information Wall! Anyway, I’m happy for them, and they were worthy opponents. My only consolation is that I totally won in an alternate universe.

Okay... enough about Halloween.

Usually we have Sundays totally off for host family day, but since the Aberdeen Diversity Committee invited us here to show the town different cultures, the cast put together a diversity fair with all sorts of booths. At one end of the fair we made a “metal detector” out of cardboard, and each visitor had to step through the “metal detector” to get a “passport” with pages that included questions on each of the booths. If you got a stamp on every page by answering the questions about the booth right, you won a prize. So it was a way to educate the residents on different cultures.

We had a booth on every different region of the world represented in the cast, as well as a face painting booth, and a greetings booth where people could learn various ways of saying “hello,” and “I love you.” As an amateur vexillologist, I naturally devised an, “Identify the World Flag” game for the face painting booth so that people could get a stamp in their “passport.” Mandy Shoaf from North Carolina came over and played my game: “Okay... there’s Germany, Brazil, the Netherlands, Japan, China backwards...” At those words, my face dropped, and I said, “No way!! I didn’t draw China backwards!” So, after I had confirmation from one of our Chinese castmates, I had to switch the Chinese flag... talk about an ego bruiser.

After all the faces were painted, and the passports were passed out, it was time to pack up and head off to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the penultimate city in our penultimate country of the tour.

US, Part 2.5.1: Mount Rushmore

2009-01-19T19:04:00.000-08:00

When we left Cheyenne, we were in for one of the longest travel days on tour. When I found out that South Dakota was going to be one of the states on our tour, I instantly thought how awesome it would be to see Mount Rushmore, since it is probably the most easily recognizable American symbol, next to the Statue of Liberty, and I could not imagine that Up with People would pass up the opportunity to take us there. And I wasn't disappointed. Earlier in Cheyenne, it was announced that we would be going on the buses early in the morning and driving to see Mount Rushmore, and then spending the night at a camp in the middle of the Black Hills.

On the morning of departure, everybody on the bus that was not from this region of the United States was really excited about what they were going to be seeing, and speculating how big it was going to be. From the pictures, I thought that the monument itself could be huge, but after seeing the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, it became clear to me that photographs could be deceiving. So, I had no clue what to expect.

We were all on the bus, doing typical Up with People bus activities, (i.e. sleeping, listening to our iPods, giving our bus driver Marv a hard time by asking him if he knew where we were going, etc.) when all of a sudden I hear a big, "Oh, my god!!" coming from the back of the bus. I look out the window and see a bigger-than-life carving of George Washington's head, and I knew that we had arrived. Within minutes of that first sighting, Mount Rushmore was laid out before us, with all its splendor and majesty.

All of us raced off the bus to see how close we could get to the monument. But by the time I had gotten there, I found out that I was late for our cast picture, no doubt destined for Up with People brochures for years to come. After taking the picture, it was time to take a walking tour of the site, where we learned some fascinating stuff. We learned all about the Danish artist that had designed the sculptures, and we also learned how Mt. Rushmore got its name. We learned that throughout the construction of the monument that there were no work-related deaths, which is a rare thing when working on a project of that magnitude. The tour guide even showed us the staircase that Harney Keitell and Nicholas Cage fight over in National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I've decided that I am going to get a bunch of friends over to watch movies that feature locations that I have been on my tour. That might be fun.

Once the last pictures were taken, and the last Mount Rushmore hoodie was sold, it was time for Cast B to pile onto the buses and head to our camping spot that would be the site of one of three host family-free overnights of the tour. I do have to say that just like the Mormon Temple, Mount Rushmore seemed a lot smaller than I imagined it to be. When I went to the Eiffel Tower years ago, it was actually larger than I thought it would be. That's why I think it's interesting that with our reputation for big things, all of the American monuments or historical sites we visited were smaller than I expected.

Anyway, after a bus ride of a couple hours, we finally arrived at our destination. Outlaw Ranch is a summer camp nestled in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and I think it is pretty safe for me to say that this is the first time the staff of the camp had ever seen the likes of us. We are a rowdy bunch. After we all piled into the main lodge of the cabin, we did a little activity called "Thumper," which is a memory/concentration game. Everyone stands in a circle, and comes up with a funny noise with an accompanying gesture. The game is played by doing your gesture/noise combination, and then choosing the next person to go by doing their noise/gesture combo. That person has to do their combination, and then choose the next player and so on until someone makes a mistake. The last person standing, wins the game. It's a delightful game that could easily be played at your next cocktail party.

But... things could turn ugly if you are a member of Up with People's Cast B '08 and there is a Thumper tournament staged. Everyone was split up into their hometeams and a game of Thumper was played. All of the hometeam winners would then battle to see who would be the ultimate champion. It all started out innocently when we all were playing our respective hometeam match-ups, but once we got into the final round, things got extremely intense. People were chanting their representative's name: "VERONIKA! VERONIKA! VERONIKA!" It was an interesting sound that was produced when 107 people are chanting 7 different names all at once. As with all competitive events, the tournament was marred with teams accusing other teams of cheating, and then we'd inevitably have to go to the instant replay for an official ruling. When all was said and done, it was Molly Robertson, our logistics coordinator that took home the grand prize of... the satisfaction of winning the tournament. (Although, representing Hometeam 3, and all of the other hometeams whose representative didn't win, Molly is the person that actually introduced the game to the group, so I think all the rest of us were at an extreme, nay, unfair disadvantage.) Anyway... (Love ya, Molls)

After the craziness that was the Thumper tournament, and after supper, we had an introduction for what was going to happen for the week that we were going to be in Aberdeen. The theme for Aberdeen was immigration, so they introduced a week-long activity called Up with People Land, but that's something for the Aberdeen post, so I'll save it for then. Stay tuned for that! :) Hey, I've got to keep my readership hooked somehow...

After learning about UwP Land, we basically could do whatever we wanted for the rest of the night, which is certainly a rarity while traveling with Up with People. We could veg out in our cabins, we could go into the lodge and play Truth or Dare (from which I heard some very interesting stories that are not Blogger-appropriate,) or we could sit by the bonfire and roast marshmallows, eat S'mores, and talk about life, home, or the UwP Land game that we were all suddenly thrust into. I thought it would be really relaxing and mind-clearing to just sit by the fire and listen to the conversations around me. Then our music coordinator, the inimitable Kady Brown, brought out her guitar, and Ellen Enebo, our education coordinator, printed off some song lyrics, and we spent quite awhile contemplating the fire, and singing old Beatles and Joe Cocker tunes. It was quite lovely. Then after that kind of died down, another batch of people came in and started telling ghost stories. That was one of the best nights I probably spent during the whole tour.

The next morning, we all piled our stuff into the buses, and Marv and The Other Guy That Particular Week drove us due Northeast, toward Aberdeen, South Dakota, where the world of make-believe reigned supreme.

US, Part 2.5: Cheyenne, WY

2009-01-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

After Salt Lake City, it was off to Cheyenne, WY, the land of Cowboys and rodeos. When driving through the Wyoming countryside, you instantly realize that there is a whole lot of countryside and not much else. Up until that point, I had never seen so much unspoiled land. For miles and miles, there is nothing but hills, hills, and more hills, and right in the middle of this expanse of nothingness lies Cheyenne, a veritable metropolitan oasis. Our first day we were there, we got a taste of the mighty Wyoming winds. Everyone was making a mad dash inside so that they wouldn't get blown over.

As soon as we entered, we found out that the theme for this week was going to be gender roles, and that for the education workshop, we had to dress as the opposite sex. Not only that, but our gender roles committee (which, incidentally, was composed of five women) gave each one of us an egg and told us that we had to take care of it the entire week. It was like being in Biology class all over again. I totally thought I outgrew that.

After we got the lowdown on the week, it was time to go home to our respective families. This week I was hosted with Laura Lynn from Nebraska, and Neele from Germany, and our host family only consisted of one member. Bob Farr is many things: an entrepreneur, a veterinarian, a collector, a father, a humanitarian, and a really, REALLY good cook. When we arrived, we saw this charming 100-year-old country house laid out before us. The house made such an impression on Neele that she declared it to be "her dream house," and proceeded to take thousands of pictures.

But one of the best things about being placed with Bob was that he is Cheyenne's unofficial Up with People historian. Every time a cast came through town, he would host somebody, and save every article and piece of memorabilia from every show ever performed in Cheyenne. It was great to see all of that history laid out before me, and thumb through some of the old cast photos of the people who had soldiered forth before us. Even though I love answering UwP-related questions, it was so nice to be able to talk to someone who had a really good knowledge base of the program, and its philosophy.

The Regional Learning section for this city centered around the rodeo culture that pervades the Southern and Midwestern United States. The whole cast packed in to the rodeo stadium of the Laramie County Community College and were instantly transported into a world of lassos, goat roping, and bucking broncos. First, we had an introduction and explanation of each of the events that are in the modern rodeo. Then it was our turn to try everything. The first station I went to was the steer roping. It was a good thing that they used plastic dummies, because I was horrible. Those people make it look so easy! I tried about 7 times, and then gave up. Cheryssa, on the other hand, got her technique down in two tries. Nobody would have even guessed that one of her natural talents included steer roping.

One of the other stations let us see what it was like to tie a goat. But with this station, they used a real live goat that the cast later named "Pedro." The basic technique of goat roping is to get up behind the goat, throw it to the ground, grab thee of the four legs, and tie them together. After the first demonstration of this, our goat-roping expert told us that this is in no way stressful or taxing to the goat. I looked around to the people in my group, and I think we all had the same thought at the same time: "I wonder if anyone asked Pedro his opinion." The expert told us that after he was done with us, he'd be off playing with his friends again, and eating his favorite diet of oats and grass. I wonder if there is any money in Goat Psychology... I bet I'd make a killing! By the end of all the demonstrations, Pedro looked physically exhausted and despondent, and I really felt bad for the poor guy...

After considering a PETA membership, it was off to talk to some of the cowboys that ride the bulls. One of the biggest things that I learned while talking to the cowboys was that when in the ring, the bull and the rider are a team. The bull earns points, and the rider earns points, and they combine those two scores to get the total score... I always thought that you were in direct competition with the bull. Further conversation with the cowboys revealed what a brutal sport bull riding is. One of the riders we talked to told us about getting knocked out in the ring and spending the rest of that day and the next day in a coma. They told us that it wasn't uncommon to lose a thumb if you don't hold on to the saddle properly. What was really great about this part of the day was that a lot of the cast got a chance to ride a mechanical bull. I was very impressed to see that most of my castmates had succeeded in staying on the "bull." After the whole session had turned into the cowpeople roping the members of Cast B, it was time to call it a day.

What made this week special was that this was the week that my mother and sister came to visit me and hang out with me a little bit. I was really excited to introduce Mom and Kate to my friends in the cast. Here is the conversation that kept repeating itself:

Me: Hey, [insert Cast B friend's name here]! This is my mother and my sister.
Cast B friend: Oh... nice to meet you.
Me: No... my REAL mother, and my REAL sister...
Cast B friend: OOHHH!!! NICE TO MEET YOU!

It was extremely good to see my family during the course of the trip, and have them see the show that had really started looking like a professional show. But it was slightly weird for me with them meeting the friends that I considered family for the past 4.5 months. Two worlds and two chapters of my life were colliding. It's kind of like watching an episode of Frasier where a Cheers character guest stars. It's really fun and interesting, but it hurts the brain a little bit.

After the day, we went out to Red Lobster, because, believe it or not, there are no Red Lobster franchises within the state of Maine. Go figure. It was so cool catching up with the news back at home. It's amazing how much I hadn't thought about home and was so much out of the loop. I was on a personal odyssey, and meanwhile the lives of my family and friends were continuing without me there. That kind of put everything in perspective. I also enjoyed showing them how much I had changed in a very short period of time.

During host family day, I spent a lot of the day going back and forth from spending time with my host dad to spending time with my own family. The day started with a tour of my host dad's animal clinic. He showed us some hawks that he had rescued and explained a little bit about them. Then he took us on a tour of the whole clinic, the layout of which he designed himself to be as efficient as possible. He was so successful with his design in fact that his clinic was featured in a prominent magazine, and other clinics across the country patterned their layout after his. What really came out of the clinic tour was his love and respect for all animal kind, and how he has made it his life's work to protect them and make sure they're happy and healthy.

It so happens that Laura Lynn's parents were in town that week to visit her, so we all thought it would be wonderful if her family, my family and our host family all had dinner together. As always, the meal that Bob cooked would have gained five stars in any Zagat's guide. And it was so good to be sitting around the table and enjoying each other's company.

On the last night, Bob helped me upstairs to give me a tour of his massive collection of Hopalong Cassidy products... It turns out that it was Hopaling Cassidy that was the first public figure to make money off of putting his face on every kind of product imaginable. One of the most interesting pieces in Bob's collection was an actual Wheaties box with Hopalong's picture on it. "Hopalong was the first person to have his likeness on a Wheaties box," he told me as he passed it to me, "and this is the only box of its kind known to exist in the world." As soon as he told me that, I took a glance at it, and then quickly passed it back to him, not wanting anything to happen to it.

Then he passed me a coffee cup with a foil seal on it, and a dark substance inside. "In this cup," he said, "there is peanut butter from the 1950s." Hopalong Cassidy had his face on peanut butter in a coffee cup with the concept that when you finish the peanut butter inside the cup, you don't have to throw away the cup; you can reuse it. It turns out that Cassidy sold the rights to the peanut butter, which, upon changing hands, went from Hopalong Cassidy peanut butter to Jif, the brand that choosy mom's choose. After the tour of his house, and more information about Hopalong Cassidy than I had ever dreamed of learning, I started packing for the 12th time.

In the morning while having breakfast, Bob put on his copy of the first album Up with People ever produced. Hearing that music really made me realize how far this organization had gone. It started out with people going into high schools with nothing more than acoustic guitars, and exploded into a global phenomenon. And I was a part of its history. After piling all our stuff into the van, Neele and I went to the bus drop off place, said, "See you later," and, "Keep in touch," to Bob, and I hugged my mother and sister for one more time, and we rode off through endless hills on our way to South Dakota, for the next adventure to start.

US, Part 2.4: Salt Lake City, UT

2008-12-02T04:34:00.000-08:00

Two things come to mind when I hear the words, "Salt Lake City:" The Winter Olympics, and, of course, the Mormon Church, and then I immediately go to a picture of Donny and Marie Osmond doing a duet of, "I'm a Little Bit Country..." But that's another post altogether. To tell you the truth, I didn't really know what to expect from Salt Lake. The only thing I knew was that we were going to get a huge education on the Mormon religion, which turned up in me both excitement and hesitation: I was excited because I was about to be immersed in a thing that was almost completely foreign to me, and I was hesitant because it was something I had a hard time relating to. I am not a religious person, and have very strong beliefs and opinions about organized religion, and so I knew this week was going to be pivotal in my Up with People journey.

Our Regional Learning day brought a tour of the Mormon Temple, the very one that they put on all of their information cards that make it look huge. I was shocked to see that the temple wasn't that large at all. Since we couldn't go inside the temple, we instead took a tour of the Visitors' Center and the Tabernacle. And the best thing about the tour was that it was given in everyone's native language. I have been hearing my native language for a good part of my life, so I decided to take the French tour instead.

We learned all about the dynamics of the church, for instance, where and when it was founded, and it's structure. It's interesting because it has a structure similar to Catholicism. There's a head guy, which they call, "the Prophet," similar to the Pope, and several Apostles, which I equated in my mind to the Cardinals. Then, we learned about the Temple itself. It took the early Mormons 40 years to construct it, and, like the city of Mecca to the Muslims, only Mormons can enter inside. It serves as a ceremonial place for events such as weddings, funerals, etc. After we got the low-down on the Temple, we went into the Tabernacle and got a presentation from a Sister about the acoustic qualities. First, she ripped a piece of paper, then she dropped some nails on the lectern. The sound was amazing. If we had to perform a show there, our sound guy, Nathan, would have been able to take a well-deserved vacation.

For our Community Impact project, we volunteered at the Utah Food Bank, which takes donations of food from all over Utah and distributes it to people in need, mostly homeless shelters. For the first part of the day, we had these huge boxes full of food that we had to empty and sort into 25 different food categories. But the fun part came in the afternoon where we were walked into a room with three huge crates full of apples, and we had to put 6 apples into bags, and then put ten of those bags into boxes.

I learned at the very beginning of the semester that us Uppies don't just do community service. We make a game out of it. At the beginning, people were casually putting apples in bags, and bags in boxes. But by the end we were split up into two groups, and we were racing to see which team could empty their crate first. Apples were flying left and right. The other non-Uppie volunteers watched in shock and awe the spectacle before them. When the guy from the food bank entered and said that our time was up, everybody in the room groaned, and the guy gave a look like he had never had volunteers groan when they had to stop working. I think the people at the Utah Food Bank are going to remember us for a long time to come.

This was one of my favorite weeks on the tour because the Education Department set up what they call, "Cast University," where various members of the cast sign up for an hour slot and teach a skill to some of their cast mates. People kept encouraging me to sign up to teach a French workshop, and since I am such a pansy in the face of peer pressure, I decided to do it. It was so good to get back into the mode of "French Teacher." And, I especially love teaching people some of the complicated mechanics of the language, which, in the case of French, is telling time and numbers. Normally, in any other language it would be extremely easy to teach those to things, but with my class, it took almost the whole time. I got a really good response from it, and am still answering the "How do you say ________ in French?" question, which is probably my favorite question of all.

One of the biggest highlights of the week was our show facility. It turns out that all of the auditorium scenes for High School Musical were shot in the auditorium of Murray High. Of course everything was lost on me because I haven't seen any of the HSM movies, so when everyone was reeling over the fact that we were performing on the same stage that Zac Efron performed on, I was like, "Hey, cool." My reaction will probably change once I see the first movie, though.

Show day was also awesome, because the staff gave us a break from rehearsal, since we had been working so hard on the show. They set up a whole "Cast B Lounge," where we had a bar that served virgin drinks, awesome massages by the One and Only Mitch McVicker, a table where they served baked goods, a human slot machine, and High School Musical playing on our screen. It's always a good day when our cast has a chance to hang out with each other. Normally, during Up with People, we only truly get to hang out with everyone during meals, so every time we get an opportunity like this, we make the absolute best out of it.

Salt Lake City was a really awesome city that I plan to visit again real soon.

US, Part 2.3: Colorado Springs, CO

2008-11-27T06:27:00.000-08:00

In order to get to Colorado Springs from Albuquerque, you have to pass through Denver, and for the cast, it was like visiting home. As we were whizzing along the highway, I saw the Lightrail stations that I would take every morning to go to the Sherman Center. And then I started thinking about the very beginning of the tour, and how far the cast had come since the days of 12-hour rehearsals, and how people who hadn't danced a day in their lives were thrust into intricate dance lines, and people who had never been on stage before being petrified about the first show. Now, 11 weeks, and 13 shows later, all of those once-amateur dancers can do every single dance routine forwards and backwards, and every stage shy person doesn't bat an eye when performing in front of 2,000 people. That is what is incredible about the UwP program: it takes you to the limits, and changes you forever.

Even though our tour schedule says, "Colorado Springs," we spent most of the week on Fort Carson, which is an Army post within the limits of Colorado Springs. It was a little city inisde a big city. Because of the international nature of our program, all of our host families were in Colorado City, and Jochem and I were hosted again for the third time, which was cool because we were so comfortable with each other. As soon as we walked through the door, our host parents talked to us about Xoçai Chocolate, which is a special kind of Belgian Chocolate that a square of only has, according to my Host Dad, "more antioxidants than 12 pounds of tomatoes." And after 5 minutes of being there, Jochem and I knew more than we ever thought possible about the Xoçai business, antioxidants, and how the chocolate had changed not only their lives, but the lives of their friends. I loved this host family, because it was the first, and most definitely last, time I would hear phrases such as: "You have to eat your chocolate before you go to bed," or, "Have as much chocolate as you want." My host family rocked. Their names: Dan and Esther Sallee, he was a chiropracter with his own massage therapy school, and she was a cosmetologist/massage therapist. When Jochem and I were there, he was about to close his school and his chiropractics business, and she was not taking any more clients because they were going in to the chocolate business full-time. Needless to say, I loved everything about this host family, other than the fact that they were Republicans. But hey, nobody's perfect, right?

I digress. In this particular city our contribution to the community was our Stand for Peace Program where we go into the elementary schools in the area and teach the students about diversity and choices they make when they're faced with conflict. It's a really awesome program. Each classroom has 2 to 3 people from at least two different countries, and so they get so much culture on top of the things that we try to touch upon. It was great in this city because my partners in crime were Crystal from Wisconsin, and the Sioux Nation, and Veronika from Sweden. Veronika and Chrystal taught the kids all kinds of Sioux and Swedish games. What was different about this city was that most of the kids had at least one parent in either Iraq or Afghanistan. There were some points in the program where we ask if anyone has questions, and some of the younger kids raised their hands and instead of asking something, they would say, "My Mommy's in Iraq," or "My Daddy's in Afghanistan." It just put the whole war thing in perspective. Since this isn't a political blog I won't go into everything, but I just hope that all of the soldiers from Ft. Carson come home safely.

One of the highlights of the week was that we went bowling at the bowling alley on the post, and it was super fun. For the first string, I decided to let the other people in my group bowl for me, and they ended up bowling a 100, and winning the game for me. The second string, I decided to bowl for myself, and I bowled an 11. I never realized how hard the sport of bowling really is. In my mind, I'm an awesome bowler, but in practice, my aim is all off. I think that if I had gone to that lane where the gutters are blocked off with foam padding, I might have bowled a 300. I'm just saying.

I don't know if it's because a lot of our cast members equate guest speaker time with nap time, or if it because of another reason, but it so happens that we don't have a lot of guest speakers on tour. This week was an exeption, because we had an economist come and speak to us about the economic theory behind globalization, how it works, and what the future of it is. After his speech, he answered some questions on that topic, but most of the questions we had pertained to the US financial crisis. So, it was thanks to him that I understand how everything works, and why it'll still be years before a bank will ever approve me for a credit card. This speaker was special because he happened to be our Cast Manager's 90-year-old grandfather. It was great to see a man of his years with a mind that was still razor-sharp.

The show in this city was really special in that it was dedicated to not only all of the military families on the post, but also to all of the troops that are giving their lives overseas. I was a little nervous about doing my spoken word pieces, especially the seond one, because it actually mentions the war. But my worries were totally unfounded because after the show, Martin, our Cast Manager came up to me and said that I did such a god job that one of the Generals on post wants to use the second poem as part of his training. That felt really awesome when I heard that.

That's what happened in Colorado Springs... stay tuned for (drumroll...) Salt Lake City!

US Part 2.2: Albuquerque, NM

2008-11-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Before actually going there, whenever I heard Albuquerque mentioned, I always thought of it as the place where Bugs Bunny should have taken that left turn. Now, it is so much more than that. I met some wonderful people over there, did some incredible things, and gained yet another family. I also had to carry my trash around with me wherever I went for the entire week. But that's another story.

The host code theme for this week had to do with zoo animals since we were going to be performing at the Albuquerque Zoo. When I got my schedule, I got two surprises: a) that my roommate that week was going to be Abeba from Ethiopia, and 2) that I quickly had to find out what the heck a naked mole rat looked/sounded like, since that was the way Abeba and I were going to find our host family. I think I asked just about everyone in the cast that might have the slightest clue. Most of the cast just pointed and laughed at me, while the rest of them told me about Rufus, the naked mole rat character on some Nickolodeon cartoon that escapes me at the moment. With the vast amount of knowledge that Abeba and I had gathered about the naked mole rat, it was time to try to look for the owners of the house we'd be living in for the next week.

It wasn't too hard to figure out that the people standing around in bathrobes (and were thus "naked") were our host family. This week we had Miryam Miller, a medical student at the University of Arizona, her son Benjamin (8), daughter Maysie (6), stepdaughter Corinne, 18, and an orange cat, named appropriately enough, Orange Cat, which they didn't bring in to the Events Center. Usually I'm not hosted in houses with pets, but I think they made an exception this time because the cat had some thyroid problems, and therefore didn't shed a lot, so I wasn't allergic to him. I knew I was going to love this family when our first meal consisted of lasaagna. The stimulating conversation was definitely a plus, but if you ever want me to be a friend for life, cook me a pan of lasagna. It'll work every time.

I love it when there are kids under 15 in my host family. It adds something really cool to the whole dynamic. For instance, thanks to Benjamin, I learned all about the Eyelash Viper. Yes, they do actually exist, and they are Benjamin's favorite animal. I personally think 'Eyelash Viper' should have been our host code. They really impressed me when they were telling me about a movie they saw where one of the jokes had David Bowie as the punchline. I asked them if they knew who David Bowie was, and right away Maysie mentioned that he was the Goblin King in the Labyrinth. Now that is good parenting. Bravo, Miryam!

Now let's get back to the whole carrying-my-trash-around-with-me story. The theme of that particular week was the environment, and to illustrate how much waste each person of the cast generates, they had us carry our trash with us (minus our bathroom trash, of course.) This made the week really hard for me. At the beginning of it all, I made myself eat everything tat was on my plate, but then as my stomach started rebelling against me, I develloped the "find whoever is hungry, and give them the rest of the food" technique, which ended up working really well. It was a strategy that worked really well for the rest of the cast as well. At the end it was really interesting to see how much trash the cast generated. Unfortunately we couldn't get into a lot of detail because we had run out of time, ut we generated a lot of recyclables, which was awesome.

Regional Learning for Albuquerque was amazing. We drove to the Acoma Reservation, where the Acoma tribe lives. After a tour of the lovely Reservation Gift Shop, we all boarded a bus and went up on the mesa where the Acoma tribe has called home for millennia, give or take a couple hundred years. The English name of our tour guide was Gary, and he was such a dynamic speaker. What struck me was the culture that I experienced while on the mesa. I was definitely no longer in the United States. The Acoma tribe have their own culture, customs, values, ceremonies, and cuisine. When Gary took us to the cemetery, he told us that there were four layers of people burried, dating back to approximately the 1300s, with the latest addition to the cemetery being a couple of weeks prior to our visit. After going thrugh the cemetery, we toured the church which combined Catholicism with the tradional religion of the Acoma. It was actually one of the oldest chuches in the Southwestern United States. He gave us a tour of the whole reservations, and along the tour, there were various merchant booths set up where the natives sold their pottery. Many people in the cast stopped and bought some of it as souvenirs. I was afriad that if I had bought any, it would definitely break in my suitcase, so I decided against it. But I did sample some of their baked goods, and they were wonderful. I had one of their cookies, which is a cross between a dinner rool and a cake. It was deifintely different, but it was delicious.

One of the high points on the tour was being able to do a recording of Shine the Light for the cast. An alumnus who traveled in the '70s had seen a video of him performing a song for the cast, and it made him nostaglic, and he thought it would be awesome to give Cast B the gift of nostalgia as well. He was so passionate about this project that he started tearing up when he was explaining everything to us. His recording studio was state-of-the-art, and there was a whole slew of professional artists that had been there before us, such as Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, and Outkast. We did tree takes of the song three, and then he had us record the names of us and those of all of our castmembers, which was our way of personalizing the recording.

For the entire week, we were dreading our show day because we knew that when we got done with our show, we'd only have a couple of hours to sleep, because we were volunteering at a 'trash fiesta,' which took place in a landfill, and was designed to make Albuquerquians more aware of the stuff they were throwing away. Everybody on the cast that I talked to really didn't think it was worth it to wake up at 3 in the morning to go tell people about the wonders of waste reduction. And we all thought it was a bizarre time to be having something like this, which was open to the entire city of Albuquerque. The morning of show day it was revealed to us that the trash fiesta didn't really exist. We were all going to help out with the annual Balloon Fiesta! The Balloon Fiesta is an event where balloonists from all over the world come and do various things, such as a balloon glow, where throughout the evening the fully inflated balloons turn on their gas and the whole balloon lights up. But the event the cast helped out with was the Mass Descent, where 200+ balloons all take to the skies together. There were some of us that helped crew the balloons (which includes inflating the balloons and getting them ready to fly; some of the people who helped crew the balloons actually got to go up with the pilots.) and there were some of us that helped the Make A Wish Foundation's New Mexico chapter seel Balloon Fiesta calendars and programs. I did the latter. It was great helping out an organization that did so much for children with terminal diseases, and it also allowed us ample time to scope out all of the food vendors in the area.

For the actual show day, we performed at the Albuquerque Zoo, where some pretty big acts have played. My host mom said that she had seen the Indigo Girls play there a couple of years ago. The facility definitely had it's pros and it cons. It ws such a nice area to preform because it was outside, but we the stage had a roof, and it was actually in the shape of a hippo's mouth, which ws hella cool. Not only that, but if any one of us had fallen off the stage, we would have fallen into a duck pond that was filled with hundreds of different varieties of water fowl, and a pair of swans. Unfortunately, the stage wasn't really designed for shows with 100 performers, and it was hard for me to get around backstage, with everybody all back there at the same time. But everyone went crazy at the show, and really got into it. My host family liked it, and it even inspired my host sister, Corinne, to apply.

Travel day was probably one of the lowest days of the tour. One of our castmembers' fathers had passed away from a heart attack the night before, and she had to fly back home for a couple of weeks. It was ironic, because hte host family that I was staying with had lost the father from a heart attack in April, and so my Host Mom became a single parent. So, my host mother went over to my castmate and talked with her for a little while, which I thought it was awesome. It was really sobering to realize that our lives do go on back at home, and that things you never thought could happen can take place. We all hugged her and told her that we would support her no matter what. That is what is so great about the Up with People program: when you are finished, you end up with a global family. She originally thought that she'd meet up with the cast in the Philippines, but we found out this week that she'll be coming back to the cast on Tuesday in Sioux Falls!

Next stop: Colorado Springs, CO!

US Part 2.1: Sahuarita/Tucson, AZ

2008-10-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it through the Mexican leg of our journey, and it was time to start all over again in the United States, which, for me, was an adjustment. It was a weird adjustment. I went from constantly hearing Spanish being spoken around me, eating tortillas filled with whatever meat was for lunch, and taking cold showers to English, wheat bread, and warm showers. It was pretty sweet. It was also weird seeing speed limit signs in miles per hour again. Our destination was Sahuarita, Arizona, which is just about an hour outside of Tucson, which is where the original Up with People headquarters were before they moved to Denver, Colorado in 1993. This is a bit of random trivia that will become important later in the post.

Anyway, this city was extra special because I was hosted with my two best friends on the tour, Jochem, my roommate in Denver, and his now-girlfriend, Angela, and her parents Lucia and Lorenzo Montebello. It was really cool to see where one of our castmembers came from, and where she grew up. Almost immediately upon arrival, Lucia pulled out a whole bunch of Angela's school photos, and some of her artwork from school. It was really cool to see how Angela grew up, because we really don't get to see those kinds of things of our castmates while on tour. While we were in Mexico, Angela had asked me what I had wanted when we got to our house, and of course, with me being me, I said, "macaroni and cheese." And so, when we got to the Montebello residence, Lucia's three-cheese macaroni and cheese was waiting for us on the stove. I could tell this was going to be a really, really, really good week.

During the day, we did some really cool Community Impact work for the city of Sahuarita. During the first day of CI, we went to a place called "Casa de Esperanza," where they have a multi-generational program for both pre-school aged children, and elderly people. It was really cool to see how these two worlds melded together. All of the pre-schoolers called the elderly people either, "Grandma," or, "Grandpa," and so all of the older folks that were there had nametags that said, "Grandma Barbara," or, "Grandpa Bert."

Our task for that particular day was to paint a water feature that the children used on their playground. First, we had to sand everything down so that the new coats of paint would adhere to the wood. This gave Sarah and Katrin of Germany the perfect opportunity to show us their power tool prowess. Not only that, but we all got safety glasses that made us all look really super cool.

After we all got done sanding everything, it was time for lunch, after which we all went into the pre-school part of the building and introduced ourselves to the kids. I loved the looks on all the kids faces when we said who we were in our native languages, and pointed to where we were from on the globe. Then we all sang Frère Jacques in each of our languages. Judging by how the kids just stared at us, I'm thinking that this visit will stick with them for a long time to come.

When we were all finished, the Casa de Esperanza pre-school water feature was once again a brilliant red, white, and yellow.

The morning of the water feature CI, one of our Edcation Coordinators, Aoife (pronounced: EE-fuh; I think Gaelic is much worse to try to read than English), had come up to me to say that they had mantioned me to one of the people who would be working with us the next day at Madera Canyon, one of our CI sites in the Arizona mountains. It just so happened that he's been working on getting that particular site more ADA compliant, and requested that I speak to him. Aoife said that it was totally my decision, and that I didn't have to go down there if I didn't want to. I didn't really have to think much about it. To get a chance to help other disabled people enjoy the beauty of the canyon, and to give my feedback from the point of view of a disabled person was a great honor.

When I got there, I met Phil English, an octogenarian volunteer for the "Friends of Madera Canyon," which is a group of volunteers that work closely with the Forest Service of Arizona in order to do the upkeep for Madera Canyon. While the other people were hefting big logs out from under a bridge, Phil was taking me on a tour of the Canyon and the surrounding area, telling me everything possible about its history, its wildlife, and its future. When he wasn't talking about the Canyon, he was telling stories about how he grew up across the street from Dick and Jerry Van Dyke, and told me that it was Dick that got him his first job on the radio. Being the pop culture freak that I am, it was really super cool to hear those stories. After I got a tour of the entire canyon, he showed the trails that needed work. He pointed out where the trails were leading to, and then he told me how he planned on making everything accessible. He asked me what my opinion was, and I said that his ideas were really good ones. It was so great to see someone who was so devoted to one thing. This place is his world, and he obviously wants to share it with everybody.

Now back to the part of the post where I said that Tucson, Arizona, was the UwP headquarters for much of its history. Since we were near the old headquarters site, we got to meet with J. Blanton Belk, the founder of Up with People. This man has led the most incredible life of anybody that I have ever met. He was personal friends with the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and Jesse Owens, two of the most influential African Americans in history. He has also had dinner with kings and queens, and after all of this, he still remains securely grounded, and extremely down to Earth. I had the fortune of eating dinner with him that day, before the show, and he talked about having dinner with Martin Luther King Jr. the night after he delivered the immortal "I Have a Dream" speech. He also talked about how the UwP song, "What Color is God's Skin" influenced that very speech. That will probably go down in history as one of my most interesting dinner conversations that I will ever get to experience.

Mr. Belk was not the only VIP that was going to see the show. The Caldwell Brothers and Herb Allen, the very people who wrote the Up with People song were going to see the show, and perform a couple of songs at the end of our show. Then there were all of the original creative team that made UwP what it was in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. But to top it all off, Pieter von Vallenhoven, the Dutch Queen's brother-in-law, was there watching the show. It was so cool to be around my Dutch friends as they met a member of their Royal Family. It turns out that not only is Professor von Vallenhoven a member of the Board of Directors for Up with People, but when one of the casts traveled to the Netherlands about 10 years ago, he hosted a couple of the students. After my dinner with Mr. Belk, Jochem came over to me and asked me if I wanted to meet the Prince. And the only conceivable answer to that question is, "Duh!" So, Jochem introduced me to him, and he asked me where I was from. I said, "Maine, in the United States," and the Prince nodded knowingly. Then he asked me if I was looking out for Jochem. I said that we were like brothers, and that we were looking out for each other, and that made him smile. We joked around for a little while, and then it was time to get ready for this VIP performance and try to put out of my mind everyone who would be seeing the show, which was hard to do.

The show was probably one of the most memorable shows to date. The tension was palpable. I always love it when we go into cities where there are large pockets of alumni, because the whole cast could go up there, sing every note of the show wrong, light the stage on fire, and we'd still get a thunderous standing ovation. Anyway, the show was one of the best shows we had ever put up, and we were rewarded by hearing the Caldwell Brothers and Herb Allen do their stuff on stage. Part of their stuff on stage included Mr. Allen masterfully playing the xylophone. I had never heard anything like it. But what was great to hear afterwards was that the original creative team loved the show so much that they said that they were no longer worried that UwP would make a strong comeback onto the world scene. Knowing that my cast, my family, was a part of that, makes me proud beyond words.

After the show, and striking the set, it was time to go back to the Montebello's house to take it easy for a couple of days. It was so nice to be able to sleep for twelve hours. That's one of the things I've sorely missed while being on this tour. I think I may sleep the entire month of January away when I get back. My really cool week ended when Lucia, a Reiki Master, did a session on me. The session was quicker than expected because she said that when she did the scan, she found that my chakras were perfectly in line. "Not only are you well-adjusted, but you don't see yourself as a victim at all," she said. The only real Reiki thing she did was to wake up my root chakra, which was apparently really asleep. Right afterwards, I went to sleep, so that I could wake up really early in the morning and travel to Albuquerque, to do some more incredible things, and meet some more incredible people.

See you guys on da flip side, yo!

Mexico, Week 5: Hermosillo, Sonora

2008-10-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

The last city on our Mexican tour started out with a boom. Literally. Actually, Hermosillo started out with a 12-hour bus ride that included four checkpoints where men with machine guns checked our buses for fruit and drugs. It wasn't a big deal for me, because I was allowed to stay on the bus, which lead to very interesting conversations:

Machine-Gun-Wielding Mexican Officer {all serious and menacing}: ¿De dónde es? [Translation: Where are you from?]

Me {trying to act calm}: Los Estados Unidos. [Translation: The United States.]

M-G-W MO {still serious and menacing}: ¿Cómo se llama? [Translation: What's your name?]
Me: Stewart. [Translation: Stewart.]
M-G-W MO {all smiles}: ¡O... como el ratón Stuart Little! [Translation: Oh... like the mouse, Stuart Little!]
Me {breathing a sigh of relief}: Exactamente. [Translation: Exactly.]

Never in a million years did I think that E.B. White would help me break the ice with a guy that could blow my head clean off my body just for having some mango in my backpack. Mexicans take their fruits and vegetables very seriously, it turns out.

Anyway, what made this city so special was that our arrival day, September 15, was Mexican Independence Day, which meant that the whole city of Hermosillo lined the streets and partied hard. It also meant that we had to make our way thorugh the dense crowd of partying Mexicans just to get to our headquarters. That was a bit challenging, but we eventually made it. After we took care of business, we had to walk to the Palacio in Hermosillo, where the Governor of the Mexican state of Sonora lives, and go to a reception there with a whole bunch of official-looking people who we had no idea who they were. After the reception, and shaking hands with the Governor and His Lovely Wife, we stood outside the Palacio, waiting for him to ring the bell, and shout things in Spanish (in an Eva-Perón-Don't-Cry-for-Me-Argentina-type style) after which the whole town cried, "¡Viva!" Then, when all the ringing, shouting, and "¡Viva!"-ing had taken place, the fireworks display began. This fireworks display put all of my previous fireworks experiences to shame: The whole thing lasted a solid 45 minutes, and the fireworks were right over our heads, and then the whole thing was punctuated by mass quantities of green, white, and red confetti shot out of confetti canons.

The whole thing went until 12:30, and by that time everybody in the cast was exhausted, and wanted to go home. But in order to do that, we had to meet our host families. This time around, our theme was Disney characters. And to make it more challenging, all of our host codes were in Spanish, which made it really hard for Seung Beom (my roommate) and me to find our host family. Our host code was Campanita, which I had no clue who that was. If I had known that 'campa' was the Spanish word for 'bell,' I probably would have figured it out, but alas, I was left clueless.

The first person I met was my host mom, who was holding a helium-filled Tinkerbell balloon. Meeting your host family on a travel day is the most interesting experiences you can have when you're on tour with Up with People. Imagine meeting someone for the first time knowing that you are going to live with them, and eat what they eat, and sleep in a bed that they have prepared for you. This is why I get nervous on Mondays. The unknown can be a little disconcerting sometimes. But once you meet with them, and you put your stuff in the trunk of their car and get to know them on the way home, a sense of ease washes over you, and you're just so excited about answering whatever question they might have. I also met Aarón, my host brother, and his fiancée, Joana (pronounced: yo-AH-nuh). As soon as I was in my Hermosillo home and it was so easy talking to them, I knew it would be hard saying, "See you later!" at the end of the week, which, by the way, is the second reason why Mondays are always the hardest days of the tour.

I don't have a lot of stuff to write about this city, because Tuesday was the day that Montezuma decided to get his revenge on me. I guess that's what happens when you don't drink water on the bus, and then you sweat profusely for 5 hours afterwards. So, I had to stay home and miss the last day that the cast hung out at the beach in San Carlos. I heard it was amazing. [Sigh] But my day off afforded me the pleasure of talking with my host family and realizing just how much my Spanish had improved over the past 5 weeks. I went from not being able to understand my La Paz Host Dad Hector to having a really good conversation with my Hermosillo host family about the Up with People program. All in Spanish. It helped that Aarón spoke really good English and could translate whatever I didn't understand.

I also loved my living situation in Hermosillo because it was the second time that I was hosted with Seung Beom from South Korea. But it was even cooler because he was my only roommate and therefore I could learn a whole lot more about Korea. For instance, I learned that when a child is born in Korea, they automatically are one year old. In Korea, they believe that any living being should have an age, and so it is impossible to be under a year old over there. Another weird thing about Korean age is that everybody automatically is a year older on January 1st. So, a Korean baby born on December 31 is automatically two, two days into its life. It's interesting because when anybody asks Seung Beom how old he is, he says that he's 23 in Korea, and 21 everywhere else.

Okay, I could talk about my living situation over there for days, but I'll move on. One of the things we did in Hermosillo was attend a conference about issues surround sex and drunk driving in Mexico. The whole day started when we got up on stage and started singing Viva la Gente, Then we saw a drama about different issues that the Mexican people have to face in regards to sex. It's pretty much like the United States. Then, we had a selection of Viva la Gente people come up and speak about what their attitudes are about sex in their country. The most interesting part about the discussion was when Cecile from Denmark said that there are no real taboos surrounding sex, and that everybody over there was really open about it, which is the reason why Denmark has one of the lowest rates of STD transmission in the world. Nobody is ashamed to talk about it, because it's no big deal over there, so people are therefore more aware and able to take care of themselves more. This caused a stir in the audience because it is really not like that in Mexico. Sex is still a really hard topic for a lot of people over there, and they have a lot of work to do in order for people to be more open about it.

Towards the end of the week, our host family invited us to a couple of family get-togethers which was really cool, because both Seung Beom and I got to meet the rest of our host family. They were the nicest people, and they treated Seung Beom and I just like we were a part of their family. We sang songs, and we talked to them about where we were from, and told them about our tour of Mexico and what we thought about different things.

We also discussed the different things that had happened during the week in Hermosillo, like when Seung Beom wanted to say, "Buenas noches" to Joana, and it came out "Buenas nahcas" instead. Apparently in Spanish saying, "buenas nachas" to someone is the equivalent of saying "You're bootylicious" to them. I think we'll all be laughing about that in the years to come.

On travel day, we had to take our bus to the Mexican border, unlaod everything, walk across the American border and load onto American buses in Nogales, Arizona. It was really eay for the Americans, since all we had to do was get our bags x-rayed, and show the border guard our passports. It took the non-Americans much longer to cross, and some people's bags had to be searched. It was kind of a bittersweet moment of the tour because the Mexican portion of it was over, and it was back to normal as far as being in the US where everybody spoke English again. Looking back on everything, it's really hard to believe that I actually lived in Mexico for 5 weeks and became somewhat of an expert on the culture, attitudes and traditions of the Mexican people. I know that there are many of my host families that I want to see again, and will stay in contact with for the rest of my life.

So thank you, Mexico, for opening my eyes to so many things, and for the churros that I got to enjoy week after week.

Next stop: the good ol' U. S. and A!

Stay tuned!

Mexico, Week 4: Culiacán, Sinaloa

2008-10-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Our next stop in Mexico was Culiacán, which the cast was kind of nervous about going to because Culiacán had been in the Mexican news for quite awhile before we got there, due to drug-related violence. The story that we got from host families and from others was that during World War II Culiacán was vital in the manufacturing of drugs that went out to the troops over in Europe. But long after the war was over, the sale and manufacturing of drugs remained, and Culiacán, over time, has become a major midpoint between the drug cartels in South America, and the dealers in the United States. In recent months, there has been some deadly skirmishes between the drug people and the local law enforcement, resulting in the deaths of over 300 police officers.

So, needless to say, some of the people in the cast were worried about being in the city, but at the very beginning of the week, the staff assured us that they would never put us in harm's way. They likened Culiacán to any US city with violence, telling us that there are safe and not-so-safe places for us to go, and to always stick with the group or with our host families. That made all of us feel better, and honestly nothing happened to the cast while we were there, and Culiacán ended up being one of the nicest cities on the tour.

My host family in Culiacán was a really cool older couple named Manuel and Celia Franco Ramos, and my roommate was Gijs (pronounced: [clear your throat]-ice) from the Netherlands. This was a special week in regards to my host family because my host parents' daughter hosted Colin from Texas and Frederik from the Netherlands. I joked to Colin and Freddy that they had to call me Uncle Stew throughout the week. So, in essence I had two host families in one; it was sort of like a "buy one host family, get one free" sort of deal. Our second night in Culiacán, we had the best spread of food to date, and it was extra-special since that spread of food was mostly seafood, so I kind of felt like I was home. The best part of the meal was the pulpo, which is octopus with lemon juice. Once I got used to eating the suction cups on the tentacles, it was smooth sailing for me.

It was in Culiacán that I had my most favorite and interesting CI. We stopped at APAC, which is a day school for children and adults with Cerebral Palsy and various other disabilities. It was so interesting for me to see what was going on because it was so different from what happens in the United States. First off, there were people there from the ages of 5 months to 45 years old. Secondly, they were using therapies that I had never seen before, (they had a swing-like contraption that they strapped their clients to and swung for three minutes. There are circles of thought that says that motion helps people with CP with their development) and they were using therapies there that I thought hadn't been in use for decades, such as the electric shock therapies.

It was cool, because while my Cast B compatriots were busy pulling weeds and painting walls, I had the honor of observing the classroom with the really little kids and helping them with some of the therapies. I also made really good friends with the workers there, who, I could tell, thought of these children as their own. At the end of the day, it was the litte kids' turn on the swing, and the staff invited me to get on there, which I thought was really cool. So, for three minutes I was swinging, and who knows if it helped me, but it was an unforgettable experience nonetheless. Thanks to everyone at APAC-Culiacán!

We performed two shows in Culiacán, and it was kind of refreshing, because instead of being on an 8-foot-high removable stage, we performed on a basketball court that was the same level as the audience. This particular week we had two shows. On the first night, there wasn't a big crowd, but we gave it our best anyway. For me, it doesn't matter how many people are out there during a performance. They paid to see a show, and therefore we should be performing our hearts out, no matter what. The second night of the show, the audience was really cool, and had their cell phones out and waving for most of the performance.

Despite the reservations I orginally had about coming to Culiacán, I ended up having a really good time, and learning a whole lot.

Stay tuned to ¡Viva la s2e! for the conclusion of the Mexican tour.

Mexico Week 3: Tepic, Nayarit

2008-10-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

After Los Cabos, the next destination was Tepic, which was the southernmost city on our tour. But in order to get there, we needed to board a ferry for a 6-hour ride across the Gulf of California to Mazatlán, and then it was an overnight bus ride to Tepic. This was one of the most memorable times on the tour because I got to see the sun set in the middle of the Gulf of California, and it was one of the most beautiful things I've seen next to Obama clinching the Democratic nomination.

In every city, we have what are called allocation meetings, where we get information on our host families, and a host code to be able to find them. This time around, we all had to dress up in silly costumes so that our host families would be able to recognise us. My roommate that week was Rafa from Brazil, and of course we both had to dress up as soccer players. After we got dressed, we took part in a fashion show which went down the center of the shopping mall. It was one of the most surreal things that I have experienced. The mall was packed full of excited people, and two people on stilts lead us down the hall to where the catwalk was. All along the way there were people with cameras taking pictures and waving excitedly at us. In Mexico, a couple of Viva la Gente songs have become a part of the culture, especially De Qué Color es la Piel de Dios, or What Color is God's Skin in English. It's a song that they teach to all the children over there, and so every time we sang it, the whole audience would join in. And wave their cell phones. It was pretty awesome.

And to talk about awesome, my host family was really cool. My host Mom in Tepic was Gloria, and it so happens that she requested to host me because she's a physical therapist, and she works with people with disabilities every day. My host Dad was Gonzalo who works for the government. He was like a giant kid: every time he would pick us up from our day, he always kidded around with us, and cracked jokes. It was really cool because when it came to Spanish, Rafa and I worked as a team. Everything he understood, I couldn't, and everything I understood, he couldn't, so we became each other's translators. My host brothers were really cool as well. The host brother that I met, Juan, is nineteen years old, and he's been all over the world conducting a youth orchestra in Guadalajara. His friends call him "Tucán," because he used to eat Fruit Loops every morning for breakfast. My other host brother, that I didn't get to meet, but I felt like I knew him, is Luis Ernesto Franco who is a model and has been in many television shows and movies in Mexico. I was told by my host mom that he's seeing the Mexican version of Jennifer Aniston, and it was so cool to talk with her about her sons because I could feel the pride that she had for them.

The CI that I helped out with was a college fair with numerous booths, and I spent 5 hours in the languages booth (naturally) writing people's names in Russian. It was really cool, because I sat next to my friend Yordi from Ethiopia, and she taught me some of the Amharic alphabet, which is really difficult to learn, but it was fun learning from her. After the college fair, it was time for the cast to pile in cars and trucks for our promotional parade. For about an hour and a half, we rolled through the streets of Tepic and sang Viva la Gente and Cielito Lindo at the top of our lungs from our cars.

Tepic was one of my favorite shows because instead of performing on a removable stage, we got to perform on a concrete stage that actually didn't move when everybody was dancing all at once. When you're performing on a removable stage, and 92 people are doing the same move at the same time, you kind of feel like you're surfing, so it was nice to be able to not feel like I was taking my life into my own hands during the show.

On host family day, they took Rafa and I to see the lagoon. It was like I was looking at a post card. The water was a combination of azure and turquoise, and I could harldy believe the beauty that was laid out before me. After seeing the bird's eye view of the lagoon, we ate at a resaurant that overlooked it. While we were there, Tucán noticed a girl that was one of Gloria's clients, and brought her over to the table. She was eight years old, and had CP, and had been mainstreamed since the beginning of school. It was great to see Gloria interacting with one of her clients, and I could see instantly that she was more than their physical therapist, she was like a second mother to them.

Mondays are the hardest part of the tour, because that is the day that we have to say goodbye to the family that treated us like one of their own for the past week. It was especially hard this week to say goodbye because I really connected to Gloria and Gonzalo. But I know that I'll see them again, and that we'll always keep in touch.

Mexico, Week 2: Los Cabos

2008-09-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

This week has been such an incredible week. We did double duty in two cities: San José del Cabo, and Cabo San Lucas. Don't ask me what a Cabo is. I have no idea, but it must be something important, since it has two cities named for it.

My roommate this time around was Phil Woods, from Denver, Colorado, and we stayed with a really cool host family that exempliflied corazón to a T. I had two identical twin host brothers, Jorge, and José Luis, who married sisters, Rosita and Jasmine, and their mother and brother, Lolita and David live with them as well, so, needless to say, we had a full house. And it was sort of difficult, because only Jorge and José-Luis spoke any English. Every night Phil and I ate like Mexican Kings, and I swear that I ate a whole orchard of mangos by the time the week was over.

This is definitely one of the most interesting weeks on the tour, by far. On regional learning day, we went to the arroyo, which is a low area of land that floods really easily when it rains. It is also home to a lot of people who reside in little more than one-room plywood shacks. It almost took my breath away to see the conditions these people were living in. Right in Cabo San Lucas. Who knew that this kind of poverty existed in the same place that many Hollywood A-listers vacation? What I kept thinking in my mind was that my host brothers work in a jewelry store where it isn't uncommon for someone to walk in and just drop $10,000 on a single piece of jewelry, and across town, here are people who have no choice but to scrape by on 20 pesos a day.

And then you see the children who live there, and upon seeing their smiles, you can't help but smile yourself. Seeing them running around, and joking and laughing with each other, you really get the sense that these kids don't seem to think about it all that much. A lot of people had mixed feeling about what we were doing. Some people thought it a little strange for us to be coming in to this area in air conditioned buses, and walking around with our high-tech cell phones, and taking pictures of everything, like these people were animals at the zoo. I saw it a little differently. I think it was a good thing that we went into the arroyo because a lot of people in our group, including myself had never seen this kind of poverty in person. And as we spent more and more time there, and started interacting with the kids, all of a sudden, everyone's socio-economic backgrounds seemed to melt away. We were human beings connecting with other human beings on a real level, and it's something I'll always remember. It made me realize not only how lucky I am to have what I have, but how much more needs to be done so that no one has to live in that situation.

Because the cast was divided up into two cities, we had two shows. Our Friday show was in San José del Cabo, and our Saturday show was in Cabo San Lucas. Both shows were a big success. And it made for a really interesting week, because we had two really late nights in a row. The best part of the shows in Cabo San Lucas was when everybody took out their cell phones during "I Can Believe" and started waiving them around. The Mexican audiences have been so enthusiastic and wonderful. In San José, there was a large group of teenage girls that screamed every time Russ, Zach, or Gijs were onstage. I felt like the Beatles for a bit, there.

On our host family day, the twins tooks us to a waterfall, which I thought I could get down to since they said there were only stairs to go down there. They forgot to mention the sheer rock faces that were in between the car and the stairs. So, needless to say, we ended up going to a beach, which was so cool. I have never seen waves like that before in my life. I attempted to go swimming, but just ended up getting swept up into the ginormos waves, and watching my life flash before my eyes more than once, but it was really cool!

That was my week in Los Cabos! Stay tuned for week 3 from México!

Mexico, Week 1: La Paz

2008-08-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here I am, in one of the most gorgeous places on the planet, La Paz, Baja California Sur, where the humidity is high, the food is so much better than American Mexican food places, and the people will always treat you like family.

Speaking of family, I am living with the Castros. Yet again, my host mom, María, is the best cook imaginable. If this trend continues, I am going to see if I could get all of my past host Moms together and start up a restaurant of world cuisine. My host Dad's name is Hector, and he is the general manager of a hotel in La Paz that his brother owns. And I have two host siblings, José Daniel (17), and Ilse (11). It's great because they fight like my sister and I used to fight. Except they do it in Spanish.

The Community Impact projects that we have been doing here have been just amazing. On Tuesday, my group went to a nursing home in La Paz to paint the walls, and give it a fresh new look for the people living here. The paint never arrived, so we just ended up doing upkeep things, like washing the windows, and sweeping. The best part of that day was interacting with the residents there. One lady I had a conversation with was named Consuelo, and she had only been there for a couple of months. She expressed how greatful she was that we came in to help them out, and then she gave me a big hug. It was so great to think I could touch her life in that small way. There was a lady there that loved to sing, and another one that loved to dance with everyone. It was awesome seeing her dance with Russ, our lead guitarist.

The other CI project I was involved with was working with an Oregon-based non-profit organization called Mobilize Mankind, which brings donated American wheelchairs and other equipment and gives them to disabled children in the Southern Baja California area. They also work with the school systems down here to try to mainstream as many kids with disabilities as possible, and to help integrate them into society.

There was one girl with CP that I met with Asmartha, who, before getting in contact with Mobilizw Mankind, spent her whole life in bed. Her parents took her in to get a wheelchair, and her life changed dramatically. She started to go to school, and was eventually mainstreamed into normal Mexican school life. At the beginning, her mother went to school with her to help her with regular care things. But after awhile, Asmartha realized that she didn't need her mother's help. She tried many times to tell her mother, but her mother felt really strongly that she needed to stay by her side to help her out. So, Asmartha took matters into her own hands and asked the director of the school to help her draft a letter to her mother asking her to let her be on her own. The letter was signed by the Director, Asmartha herself, and eventually by her very reluctant mother. The school paid for another Personal Care Attendant for, her, and she's been attending a mother-free school ever since.

The most exciting night of the tour thus far was our performance last night at the Estadio in La Paz, where we had our largest turnout to date, ~1,500. Since we were outside, we had to perform on a stage that was about 5 feet high, and in order to accomodate me, they put the ramp to the equipment truck next to the stage, which was scary, because the ramp itself is on a 50˚ angle, and I get stuck at the top and the bottom, so people have to assist me onstage. So I am on mic groups the whole show, which is cool.

It's great to perform to a Mexican audience, because they know a lot of the songs that we perform, and most of them know the Viva la Gente theme song. And they especially went crazy during our Mexican medley, where we performad 7 Mexican pop songs. I greatly looknig forward to the next city when we perform a show on Friday in Cabo San Lucas, and a show on Saturday in San José del Cabo.

If I have internet access next week, I'll post again.

¡Hasta luego!

Pictures!!

2008-08-13T15:26:00.001-07:00

I am in my first stop on tour, Summit County, Colorado, where we've already have met some cool people, and have done some cool things. I even got interviewed for a promotional documentary that some film students from North Carolina are putting together. Yesterday I spent 6 hours painting the high school cafeteria, during which I imagined myself on Trading Spaces, and wondering how they could finish a room in two days.

Anyway, I promised pictures in the last post, so here they are! Enjoy! This may be my last post for awhile, since we'll be in México for the next 5 weeks, and I may not have an internet connection during that time.

Here's is the link to my Facebook album so that you can have a look!

Facebook Album: It All Begins

¡Adios!

Changes, changes, changes!

2008-08-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

A lot has hapened since I've written in this thing, but it's ten, and I should go to bed pretty soon, but here are the highlights of the past couple of weeks:

We said, "goodbye" to the Sherman Center, and, "hello" to the Teikyo Loretto Heights Auditorium
We learned a lot about the tour, such as where we'll be going, and who we're going to be working with. The venues for the Mexican portion of the show are going to be absolutely incredible. The smallest venue in which we'll be performing holds 7,000 people, and the biggest holds 20,000 people. We'll also be doing a lot of community service work including working on the streets to cover up graffiti alongside some of the graffiti artists themselves; we'll be working with children with cancer, and we'll also be working with Mexican people who have CP, which will be an awesome experience, and I'm glad the cast will learn more about it.
Jochem and I had to switch our host families because of some unexpected events, and our new host family is awesome. We have an 88-year-old host grandpa, a really cool host dad, a Ugandan host mom, and two adorable host sisters, who are 4 and 6.
I am learning to function on minimal sleep, and am starting a coffee habit.

That's all! I'll post pictures on the next post, I promise! Wish me luck for the dress rehearsal on Saturday.

Baseball, Burgers, and Big-Ass Raindrops

2008-07-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Today was a really good day, because I got to hang with some super cool people. At first, I thought that we'd spend the afternoon at Julie (our only Norwegian castmate)'s house, but those plans kind of fizzled, and I ended up going to Kirk's baseball game with Jochem. Kirk plays ball for the National Adult Baseball Association, and he pretty much plays every position for them. Today he was 1st baseman, and catcher.

It was really interesting because it was Jochem's first baseball game ever, and I had to explain the fundamentals to him. I didn't realize how much I understood about the game until I started explaining things to him. By the end of everything, I think he had a good grasp on things. I'm going to quiz him when we go to Coors Field on Monday to watch a pro game. It'll be good for Jochem to see both sides of the baseball spectrum.

The game was called off due to rain. During the 5th inning, it started dripping outside. In Colorado, it doesn't get dark and start to pour, it drips on you first. And I'm not talking about small little drips. These are huge-ass drops of water that hurt when they land on you! It was so hard for Jochem and I to have a conversation because we kept getting stung by the drops of water. Then, after 10 minutes of it dripping on us, it decided to downpour. Luckily Kirk left his car open, so we could take refuge.

Every day I'm here, I am so glad that I took the effort to apply to this program. Already I've made so many friends, and shared so many really cool moments with them. If I am this close to people on the second week of the tour, I can't imagine what it'll be like 6 months from now. Jochem and I have talked about everything and anything, and he's become a really good friend. He's been so helpful and he kept saying today that it's really cool to have a disabled roommate. That made me feel really good...

I have heard some really cool things from my castmates that they think it's one of the coolest things in the world that I applied to a program like this, and am actually touring. I honestly think that I didn't have a choice. So I can't walk too good. So I need crutches and a scooter in order to be mobile. So what? I still have a ton of things to share with everybody, and I can already feel that I am changing some people's ideas on disability, which totally rocks, and I think that is why I'm on the Earth.

Anyway, after the game we went to Red Robin, which was awesome. I can't really remember what I ordered, but it was very good. And every time I think of Red Robin, my mind of course goes to my friend Kurt who was in one of the national commercials. The one where they're in a burger museum, and the curator is all, "Nobody can touch the burgers," and my friend Kurt is all, "Screw that!" and he reaches for a burger and when he bites into it, it explodes and his face is covered in blue paint. Yeah... I went to school with that guy. We peeps.

Anywho... to wrap up, because I have another huge day tomorrow: I had another awesome day, and got closer to some really awesome people. Now I must go get my beauty rest so I can look all sexy and brooding for the cast photo.

Laterz!

Denver, Week 2

2008-07-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

I am not going to write a blog like I did last week, because last week's blog took me four hours to write, and I just don't have that kind of energy right now, so I am just going to touch upon the highlights.

The staging process is still moving at light-speed pace. It's only the second week, and already we're going into blocking rehearsals, where we can learn where to enter and exit for each song, and where everybody is going to be. It was really interesting, because we have such a huge cast, (95 people) and a tiny space in which everyone needs to fit (about 20ft by 7ft). Needless to say that I ran over a lot of people's feet, and I had to be extra aware of what was going on, because I almost got elbowed in the face a couple of times. Who knew Up with People would turn into a contact sport? After the last couple of days of blocking, I was really happy they make the cast take out accident insurance! The show looks spectacular. It's got a couple of pretty new features that they're trying out for the first time since 1990-something, so that's über-exciting.

The closer we get to the show, the more I am impatient to actually get on the road to start doing Community Impact things, and Regional Learning excursions, and etc. Today we had our first day without any rehearsal stuff, where we toured the Colorado capital building, and then set out on a factfinding scavenger hunt. The Colroado capitol is pretty nice. It seemed like it was smaller than the Maine capitol, but maybe they're about the same size... who knows. The capitol was built in 1908, and so it's around 100 years old, and everything is pretty much original. What's been the most interesting for me is the Colorado history, because it begins after everyone settled the East, and it's kind of strange, because the word 'pilgrim' never came up in the tour narration...

After that, we just walked all around Denver trying to gather some facts, like who Denver is named after (J.W. Denver) and how many blocks the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall covers (16)... It was extra cool, because our team had three Coloradians on it, so we definitely had the advantage. It was so cool to walk around with everybody, because I got included in some of the the crazy pictures, and got to know a couple of the staff better. Ellen, one of the Education Coordinators on the road, sang me a song designed to help people remember the order of the presidents. I deifinitely want to learn it before the end of the tour, not only because it's a great thing to pull out at a party, or a bar, but it also speaks to my inner nerd, which is always good.

The highlight of the the day was definitely going into Jamba Juice for the very first time. For those of you in the east who are unfamiliar of the Jamba Juice franchise, think Starbucks, but with smoothies instead of coffee. It was really good. I, being as anti-fruit as I am, decided on the "Peanut Butter Moo'd" with an energy boost. The boosts are little vitamin shots that they add to the drink to give you a certain thing, like energy. I was expecting a huge jump in my energy, but it never came. Oh, well...

I think that is all I am going to write right now... I am beyond tired, and I have a flight of stairs to descend before sleeping the day away. At least I hope I sleep the day away. Last "weekend," I only slept until 9:30... very disappointing. This weekend is actually a weekend, and not a day off, because there's a wedding taking place on Saturday at the complex where we rehearse. This will probably be the only true weekend we get on the tour, so I am going to savor it as much as I can.

I'll end this post with an itinerary change. Our city in Arizona will either be Sahurita or Green Valley, and it looks like we're spending two weeks in South Dakota, going to Aberdeen before heading off to Sioux Falls. I'll change the schedule on the side when I'm not so lazy.

Later!

Subwayaholics Anonymous

2008-07-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Amongst the members of Up with People's Cast B 2008, we have an addict. His name is Jochem Gunster, from the Netherlands.

Last week, my host mother Agnes and I thought it would be quite harmless to take young Jochem into one of Denver's many conveniently located Subway sandwich shops. Little did we know that we'd eventually awaken a monster inside of him. Ever since that fateful Sunday, Subway has taken over poor Jochem's mind: it's the first thing we talk about in the morning; it's the first thing we talk about after getting out of staging, and it's the last thing we talk about before we go to bed at night.

Yesterday, a light went out in Jochem's eyes when Jessica Trabert, the Field Manager for the Denver part of the tour, suggested a quicker route for us to take when we get home. When we got outside, he expressed his concern about not being able to enjoy the "explosion of flavor" that can only be supplied by the Subway veggie sandwich. The moment when Jochem's once-tense body relaxed when he saw that Subway sign on 16th Street, I understood the gravity of the situation.

So, to the members of Cast B, I implore you to do whatever you can to support our fellow castmate. He's too young to have this kind of addiction take over his life, and he'll need the encouragement of all of us to kick this lower-calorie, lower-fat, better-alternative-to-fast-food habit that has dominated his existence.

And to Jochem, I'll be there whenever you need me to be. You say the word "Big Mac,' and we'll be in the car faster than you can say "morbid obesity." I'm here for you, buddy. We're all here for you.

Denver, Week 1

2008-07-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

First off, let me tell you that this week doesn't seem like a week, it seems more like a month. I hear that this is what is called 'Up with People time,' where 1 week = 1 month, apparently. So, in theory that means that I'll be half-way done with my thirties when all is said and done, and will have paid off my loan. A man can only hope. By the way, this is a very long post, so you may want to read it in instalments.

Day 1
My first travel day went pretty much without a hitch. I made my flight in Boston in plenty of time, and made my connection in JFK with literally 3 minutes to spare. But it was all well and good, and I actually managed to take a nap on the plane on the way out to Denver. When I arrived at the airport, which is one of the most beautiful airports I've been in, (which isn't really saying something, by the way) I grabbed my bags, and started my wait for the official start of the semester. The Up with People greeters should have been there at around 11:30, but they ended up getting there around 12:30.

While I was waiting, this rather tall rocker/surfer dude came up to me, and introduced himeself. It turns out that this surfer dude was Russ Reiter, from "Baltimore," Maryland. we asked each other the customary UwP first questions, such as, "What got you interested in the program," "Are you excited?", and "Would you like fries with that?", etc. The next person I met was fellow New Englander, Brittany Rousseau from Rhode Island who was really cool. As she was waiting for the greeters to show up, she noticed a person that possible could be part of our group, and it turns out that he was Arnab Dewan from Bangladesh. By the time noon rolled around, we didn't see any greeters, so we took it upon ourselves to make our own "Up with People" sign.

At 12:30, I was so excited to see Dave Penny, who I met in Bangor when his cast was there in December. I felt that it was at that point when my Up with People experience began. We all piled into a tour bus and made our way to the Montbello Recreation Center where all of the UwP office staff was there to greet us. The first table we went to was the name tag table. My experience may have begun when I saw Dave, but I was on official "Uppie" when I put on my nametag. It was so cool to finally meet so many of the people in person that I talked to on the phone. When I saw my admissions counselor, Jen Moody, we gave each other a huge hug.

Right next to her was Jeff Ziegler, who also in the cast that came to Bangor. He told me that I was the first student to arrive in Denver, and that when 10:05 came around he yelled, "Hey, Stewart's here!" which made everyone look at the door for me. You should hear him tell the story. He's a better raconteur than I am.

For the rest of the day, we sat around in the rec center, played games and got to know each other. About 20 of us gathered around the pool table and played a really cool game of Jenga. We went around the twenty or so people 3 times before everything toppled over, so towards the end it was really cool, and by I was person number, like, 15, so by the time things got to me, the game was almost impossible. Towards the end of the night, I played Bullshit with three Ethiopian girls, two Japanese girls, a girl from Thailand, and several Americans. It was interesting to explain the game, because there were a couple of people from our group that didn't really peak English all that well. But as the game progressed, things got smoother. I learned that in Japanese playing cards, they have an 11. Pretty interesting stuff, right there.

Then, Martin Brennan spoke to the cast. It was really cool to look around and see everybody that I'll be traveling with for the next 22 weeks. Cast B was finally all together, ready to start our crazy semester.

It was time to meet my very first host family, the people whose home I'll be calling home for the next month. My roommate, a then-18-year-old vegetarian from the Netherlands, Jochem Gunster, and I had to find the people with the spyglass. In Up with People, they give out different codes so that the students can find their host families well. The theme this time around for the codes was pirating, and Jochem and I had to find the spyglass. We looked around, and finally spotted a man with a rolled up piece of paper, looking through it like a telescope. His name is Charlie Fountain, and his wife is Agnes.

When we got home, I was welcomed into a really nice, 3-level home, and found out that I would be sleeping in their basement, which you could hardly call a basement. It's more like a fully-furnished apartment. I even have my own bathroom, shower, and double bed. It's pretty sweet... That night, I went to bed and did my first video diary that I will post once I get uploading pictures to my camera figured out...

Day 2
Day 2 was spent getting a tour of the mountains, and walking around Downtown Boulder. It was really strange looking out the the left side of the car and seeing nothing but flatness, and looking to the right side of the window and seeing the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. We drove into the canyons, and it was really cool to look into the windshield and see nothing but a wall of pine trees ahead of me. "These are nothing like the mountains in Maine," I thought to myself, "these are real mountains." The mountains that I'm used to in Maine are more like really large hills.

After the Purple Mountain's Majesty Tour, we went walking along the pedestrian mall in Boulder. There we saw a whole cornucopia of street performers. We saw a man who could play the drums, the steel drums, and the didgeridoo at the same time. It was insane... then we saw a guy named Dereck Dereck that was a pretty cool juggler/stand-up comedian. After that, we decided to call it a day, and go back home for dinner.

Dinner that night consisted of one of my favorite foods on the Planet Earth: baked beans. If you know me really well, you can note the sarcasm in that sentence. But before I came here, I told myself that I would try everything, and broaden my culinary horizons, after all, these were homemade baked beans, and not ones from a can. These baked beans were actually palateable. The main ingredient was barbecue sauce, and so it was something I could actually enjoy. We had a great time at dinner getting to know each other. It turns out that Agnes is a pharmacist at the local hospital, and Charlie is a mechanical engineer. We also found out that Jochem and I were #59 and #60 of the Fountain Host Kids. In fact, it was the Fountains that hosted Bob Sloat, the husband of Anke, who was the woman who conducted my telephone interview. It's crazy how things like that work out. There has been talk of inviting Anke and her husband over for dinner one night. I hope that happens.

Day 3
This was the day of the opening session of the semester. We started out in the auditorium of the Sherman Street Center, and it was really cool to see some of the songs that we'll all be sick of come December. I hope I'm joking, but from the sound of things, I'm not. After that, we had a little reception downstairs in the cafeteria. The European students that arrived late were there, so I met most of the German friends I had talked to on Facebook, which was pretty cool. I talked to a woman who works in the office that had read my article in the Citizen, and complemented me on my hard work with raising the money to get here, which was really cool to hear.

At the end of the day, I couldn't wait to get the show on the road.

Day 4
This was the day where everything started to happen. During our first morning meeting, we met all of the office staff, and all of the staff that will be on the road with us. I can't wait to get on the road and actually work with them and learn from them.

The first order of business for the day was to act all silly to break the ice with everybody, and we ended up playing a couple of cool games. There was a really cool version of Paper, Rock, Scissors where everyone started out as an egg, walking around the auditorium acting like an egg, and then they would search out other eggs to do get into a head-to-head Rock, Paper, Scissors game, the winner of which would become a chicken, where you'd walk around, clucking like a chicken and would search out other chickens, and the loser would stay an egg. In the game between two chickens, the winner would become a dinosaur, and the loser would go back to an egg. After winning the dinosaur round we'd move on to the Ultimate Being round, and after that, you'd win the game and watch everybody else act like total idiots. I was so good at playing the game that I never lost once, and the whole thing took me 5 minutes to complete. If any future students are out there: Play rock every time, your opponent will most likely play scissors.

The rest of the day went really well, and it was a great introduction to the Up with People program.

Day 5
This was the day where we had modules, or 'Mods' for short. This is where all of the performing arts staff could take a look at us individually and see where our strengths are. The first day I had vocals, tech, and speaking. I totally rocked the vocals and the speaking. The tech mod was basically where they told us, "Don't be a dumbass and pay attention to where you're walking so you don't block the screen, and you don't end up impaling yourself." It was also a time to hear interesting stories about people blocking the screen during the performance and impaling themselves. Good times were had by all.

I also got my show costume all straightened around. When I showed the costume designer my blue button-down shirt, her response was an: "I don't love it." So, she pulled a really super cool green button-down, with a brown shirt with a green psychedelic print on it. It's slammin'.

Day 6
Day 6 was more of the same. In the morning, I had my dance module, and I decided to go in there with my crutches so that they could see me off of my scooter. I think that was a wise decision because then they could see what kind of movements my legs were capapble of. Yui, our dance captain on the road said she was wondering if I'd come in on my crutches or if I'd ride in on my scooter, and she said that she was really happy to see me come in on my crutches., and that made me feel really good.

Let me take the time in this monstrous post to thank all of the Dance Team for their support. They are trying their best to try to incorporate me into the choreography in the show, and I think they're really excited to have me because I present a unique challenge to them.

That day, our cast movement was three hours long. And we spent the whole time learning the 'Keep the Beat' dance. It was a little frustrating for me, because I'm not used to learning choreography, but by the time everything was over with, I had the hand movements down, which is the important thing for me. I talked to Kayliegh, one of the dance instructors, and she said that they are working hard to get me incorporated into the show. She suggested that I decorate my scooter basket for the show, and I told her that I thought it would be neat to put a 's2e cam' on there and record a performer's eye view of the show. Actually, I can't take any credit for that. Fenna from Germany had that idea, and I thought it was a great one. I'm going to talk to the tech people to see how I can make that happen. Thank you, Fenna!

We also had our first day of vocals, and let me just say that I love our vocal instructor, Bill. He is really cool, and he's been with UwP for years, and is son just happens to be the lead guitarist for the Fray. Pretty cool, if you ask me. We all know which water bottle is Bill's because he has a Fray sticker on it. All of the tenor parts are in actuality alto parts, so I am working in my upper register for a lot of the songs. But if I can improve my range by a half an octave or so, that would be super cool. At least I'm not a soprano. They're singing mostly in the alto range. Gotta love contemporary music.

Day 7 & 8
Days 7 and 8 brought more of the same thing, except on Day 7, Eric Lentz, who is one of the producers of the show pulled me ot of movement to give me a couple of spoken word pieces to memorize. He said that he passed them out to three or four people, and the most prepared person will end up performing them for the dress rehearsal and for the US and Philippines shows. I've gotten the first one down, and hopefully by the end of this week I'll have the second one down so that I can knock Eric's socks off. I'm really using everything I learned in Oral Interpretation so that I'll have everyone in the aisles bawling like a schoolgirl by the time I am done. That would be sweet.

Today
Today, the whole family piled into the Saab and went to Mt. Evans, which is the highest peak accessible by car. It was really interesting, because Charlie's Saab is equipped with an external thermometer, and it was really cool to see the temperature go from 100° to 50°. But before all of that excitement happened, we went out to the Red Rocks Amphitheater, where tons of really cool acts get to play. This week John Mellencamp is playing, and the handicapped seating is in the front, and by "front," I mean "the first row." So, needless to say, I'm super stoked about that. Maybe I'll end up getting a picture with Johnny himself, but I'm not holding my breath.

Mt. Evans was so cool. The road we went on was the highest auto route in the United States, and it was crazy because we rose 14,000 ft. in elevation in only 14 miles. It was nuts, because the road had niether a shoulder nor a guardrail, and so if you had the misfortune of going off the road, you would pretty much be done for, since the 14,000-ft. drop is almost certainly unsurvivable. That trip took most of the day, and we ended up getting back to Littleton at around 8:30, but it was well worth it.

Well, that's my week in a nutshell. A very large nutshell. I hope you got through it all. I'll be better at keeping up with things now that I have my laptop all set up. The only thing I have to do with it is figure out how to upload pictures and videos. Once I do that, I'll post all of my pics for you guys.

Until next time!

Highlights of the first week...

2008-07-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Right now, I'm barely coherent, so I'll fill you in later when my brain doesn't hurt so much.

Highlights of the first week include:

getting to know 130 people from 25 different countries
learning 11 songs in 2 days
living with the kick-assiest host family on the planet
stretching my brain to its limit

I'll fill you in later when I have more time, and can spell again.

"See You Later"'s are Always Hard...

2008-07-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the very last post that I will write from my computer in Belfast. The next time you hear from me I'll have so much to update you guys on, you'll have to use both your coffee breaks to read everything.

In this post, I would like to thank all of you who have supported me from the beginning: Cathy and Brian Horne, Jeannie Buzzell, the Hamlins, Chrystal Thorne, Emily Caswell, Mary McCormick, my mother, sister, father, family, friends... As I'm thinking of all the wonderful people that have given me advice, pointers, financial assistance, etc., I realize that I am one of the luckiest people I know, and it is you guys who have believed in me right from the start that will give me the strength and the motivation when the time comes in the tour where the newness has worn off, and I realize that we have four months on the road left. All of you mean the world to me, and I can't wait to introduce The New Me to all of you when I get back.

Don't forget to scroll to the bottom of this page to subscribe to the e-mail service I added to this blog so that you will be the first to know what is happening with me.

¡Hasta luego!
s2e

There's a New Itinerary!

2008-06-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

If any of you wrote down the original itinerary that I posted on this site or e-mailed to you, you can just throw it away, because Up with People just posted the more official tour schedule today, and by the looks of things they haven't secured a city for a couple weeks of the tour.

Here is the new schedule, hot off the UwP presses:

United States: July 11 - August 17
Orientation: Denver, CO - July 11 - August 11
Breckenridge, CO - August 11 - August 17

Mexico: August 18 - September 21
La Paz - August 18 - August 25
Cabo - August 25 - September 1
Tepic - September 1 - September 8
Culiacan - September 8 - September 15
Hermosillo - September 15 - September 21

United States: September 22 - November 16
Arizona: September 22 - September 29
Albuquerque, NM - September 29 - October 6
Colorado Springs, CO - October 6 - October 13
Salt Lake City, UT - October 13 - October 20
Wyoming - October 20 - October 27
Wyoming/South Dakota - October 27 - November 3
Sioux Falls, SD - November 3 - November 10
North Platte, NE - November 10 - November 16

The Philippines: November 17 - December 16
Manila - November 17 - December 4
Cebu/Subic - December 5 - December 16 (End of Tour)

Probably when we get closer to October, the Wyoming and South Dakota cities will make themselves known. I'll let you know when that happens!

Up with People: the Kevin Bacon of Non-Profit Organizations

2008-06-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Slowly, but surely, everything major that I've had to deal with for my "trip of a lifetime" has been coming along quite nicely. Yesterday, I went to the Alliance of Maine Credit Union, (which so happens to be one of the best in the state), to sign the loan papers, and ended up talking to the loan officer for about an hour. It turns out that the UwP theme song doesn't lie when it says "you meet 'em wherever you go," because every single loan officer I talked to there is friends with an Uppie. We may just be the Kevin Bacon of the Non-Profit Organizations. I wonder who I should talk to to get that slogan changed. "Bringing the World Together" just isn't doing it for me anymore...

In other news, Mark, the wheelchair guy, met up with me today and dropped off a snazzy wheelchair for me to try out. The first run went okay. I am a lot better going backwards and downhill, but the other two directions will come eventually. The armrests kind of got in the way, so once we figure out how to take those off, and we figure out how to have me not leaning back as much, hopefully it will be smooth sailing from there. If not, there's always the scooter option. "Hakuna matata," is what I always say.

Ummm... so, yeah. I guess that's it. Not a very exciting post, but I promise you that they will get better once I'm out there doing stuff.

Until next time!

Welcome to ¡Viva la s2e! !

2008-06-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

First of all, welcome to ¡Viva la s2e!, your front seat to my experiences as I travel all over the place with Up with People. Have a look around, settle in, and enjoy! To the right, you'll see a selection of my fellow castmembers' blogs, sorted by when they were last updated, for your convenience. Below that, you'll find the tour itinerary, so you'll know where I am at any given time!

I have just come to the realization that our tour isn't starting July 11; it has already begun! For the past couple of days, I have been getting to know all sorts of awesome people who have a lot of the same interests as me, and believe it or not the same sense of humor as me as well!! I didn't think it was possible either. Already as people mill around the Facebook group and each other's profiles, I can already see the the different dynamics of the group forming. Either that, or I'm comatose from being at the computer for too long. It could be both...

In other news, I just got approved for a loan that will pay off the rest of my program fee and help me finance a wheelchair/scooter for the trip, and I couldn't be happier... Now if the wheelchair guy would get back in touch with me on things, that would be nice! Baby steps, I guess!

Well, that's it for now... I need to take a walk so I can get the feeling in my legs back!

¡Hasta luego!