A Week Full of Work...and Fun!

Hello all!

This week has been crazy-busy, often leaving me enough time after I eat to check my email and then hit the sack. So, needless to say, I haven’t post on the blog for about a week. I’m going to fix that now.

The most of this week has been spent in “movement” sections and other random meetings. We’ve been working hard to learn the show we’ll be performing in less than two weeks…ah! So, I am sore. Quite sore, actually. Most of the songs require a lot of movement, but the song “Ayiko” really did me in with all the different lunges and quick movements, etc. Added with this was a nasty sinus cold that hit me, making the days even longer. Ugh. But, Friday and Saturday brought “blocking,” which is where we started running through the show to find our cues in and out for the show, etc. It has been a lot of work for that, but it has given us a sense of continuity for all the parts that have been thrown at us the past week and a half. In that sense, it has been great!

On Thursday, we took part in our first Community Involvement project (CI). There were three choices for us to choose from: working at a Habitat for Humanity home, helping relocate a African Refuge program office, or putting together food packages for the needy. I chose the Habitat for Humanity home, so we took a half-hour bus ride to the site and got a fun safety speech from the supervisors there. After that, we divided up into groups, some of us going outside and some of us staying inside. I ended up being inside all day long, working on the upstairs of a duplex, hanging sheetrock. If any of you have ever hung sheetrock, you know how fun it is. BUT, the plus side to this was working inside on a day that wasn’t too warm. And, the sheetrock we had to hang was all on the lower half of the rooms, which made the job ten-times easier. So there were about six to nine of us working upstairs, some measuring and cutting sheetrock panels to hang, others holding up the panels while others screwed them in. I was lucky enough to have experience with sheetrock and the screw gun, which made it easier for me. For others, it was a true learning experience trying to figure out the nuances of a power drill. We worked from about 9:30 in the morning til about 3:30 in the afternoon, not quite long enough to get the job done which bugged me for a while. The supervisors of the Habitat house had an inspection lined up for the next day, and they needed all the sheetrock hung before that, which meant that our supervisor, Allison, had to finish up what we didn’t get done – three walls in one room. Not cool. Hopefully she was able to get it done.

As for the cast, everyone is growing closer and closer. Friendships are flourishing everywhere and between everyone, it seems, with no signs of drama or dislike (which a great sign). While I’m not foolish enough to believe that it will forever remain like this, it is still great not to have it spring up too quickly! With blocking now in full swing, names are being dropped for solos and speaking parts and lead dancers, which surely has those involved excited. I, myself, had no such involvement, which was what I expected. I enjoy singing, but I know that I’m not great at it. I can speak in public, but there are those more natural at it. And dancing…well, I was HAPPY to know that I’m not a front line dancer! Though at the moment I’m on the top riser for the most complicated dance, “Keep the Beat”…hopefully that doesn’t keep! I don’t mind dancing it, but I’m not good enough to be so center stage. Advanced positions were handed out also this week, which means that soon some of our castmates will be leaving for Lincoln, Maquoqueta, Des Moines, Muscatine, and Burlington. Sad. But I am excited for them as well – they’ll be working to prepare cities and growing exponentially in the process. It’ll be great to see them again when we arrive in the city – THEIR city.

Since our Saturday was full of blocking, we were only left with one day for relaxation, sleeping in, and exploration of Denver. Our host family graciously left Kristian and I to sleep in for a few more hours than normal. Normally, we get up at about 6:20 in the morning, but we got to sleep in until 9:30, which was great! After we got up, we had a great breakfast with bacon, eggs, sausage, and Danish rolls (made by Pillsbury, so who knows how Danish they actually are). After breakfast, we suited up with warm clothes and made our way up to the mountains to Winter Park, and did a bunch of snow tubing – which was a blast! The hill was insanely steep and fast, and we tubed for about an hour (since they rent out the tubes for hour increments). It was a great time, and the trip up and back made for great sight-seeing since we had to wind all the way to the place (see video below for our tubing experience).

This next week will surely bring more and more blocking and rehearsal, since our first performance will be a week from Saturday. But, we’ll also get a bunch more time to spend with each other. Its always a big ta-do when we all leave for the evening, full of hugs from cast members and anxious waitings til we meet again. It’s hard to imagine that in a few months, we’ll be saying goodbye for good. But let’s not think about that just yet, yes?

Until my next post!

Dan

"Tubing in Denver"

Meet Some of the Cast of A2008

Hey all!

I thought I'd take some time to introduce some of the cast I feel I know decently enough (and I have pictures of). First, I'll start off by introducing my roommate from Denmark -- Kristian (see left). He's never been to American before last week, and seems to be having a great time so far. I've been trying to teach him American Football with the playoffs going on right now, but it hasn't been going so well (mainly because of my teaching ability). Anyway, we've been taking time to explore the differences and similarities between our two cultures, and having a blast at the same time. The picture to the left is him eating his first cheeseburger in America (which was at Old Chicago). We also went and saw "Cloverfield" in the theatre last Friday. Kristian had never seen a movie in an American "cinema," so that was a fun experience.

In the picture to the right, we have five of my castmates, all from a variety of places. Starting left and moving right, we have Phil, from Arizona. Then we have Alice and then Cecile, both from Belgium. And then there is Andre, from Canada. And finally there is Amadine from Belgium. All of them are fun people, and its been great to get to know them. Cecile is 26, and teaches high school language classes in Belgium. She quit her job to join Up with People, so she's not sure if she'll take back her job after or not, but it surely was a leap of faith on her part. I haven't gotten much of a chance to know Phil, Alice, Andre, or Amadine, but as I said -- they all are amazing people from our small discussions.

On the left is Brittany and Noa. Brittany is a sophomore at a college here in Colorado, and Noa is from Belgium and is a pop singer. Noa has sold many CDs in Belgium and France, as well as many other places. This picture was taken with the spirit of Brittany being in awe of a Noa's presence. Of course Brittany has never heard of Noa, BUT Noa has many fans who would be jealous of the picture. Brittany herself is a fun person (as this picture would suggest), but I haven't gotten much of a chance to know her either. Still, it's only been a week. Give me a break!!

Finally, I've got one more picture to share (on right). On the left is AJ, from Wisconsin, and Hans, from South Dakota. I actually went to college with Hans at the University of South Dakota, though I never had really met him before we both joined Up with People. He's having a blast now that he's graduated from USD, using Up with People as a break between college and "the real world." Hans was also part of a barbershop quartet back at USD, so the show portion of the UWP has really been up his alley. AJ, as I mentioned, is from Wisconsin, and has brought a great amount of energy to our UWP cast. He's an amazing singer and dancer, not to mention has become a great many people's good friend.

Well, that's some of my castmates for now. I'm sure I'll post many more pictures of them in time, so until then!

Dan

The First (and Last) Free Weekend

Hello all!

It has been a fun and exciting past few days here in Denver, albeit busy. Friday was full of more staging and training for the show. We spent the entire afternoon doing vocals for the show (learning music and lyrics), and then also working on dancing. We finished learning the dance moves for "Keep the Beat," which is the dance we were learning all Thursday (and the source of much of my frustration). Rafa (one of our dance coaches) taught us the last 8-12 beats and then we were done, which was a relief. This dance is the toughest one to learn, and it is a relief to know that I've got it done. Not quite DOWN, but I've got it learned anyway. After that, we learned the dance for "It Takes A Whole Village...," which consisted of about five different moves. Simple. Especially compared to the last dance. No crazy salsa moves. No pencil turns or Russain leaps. Just a couple side-steps and arm movements. Nice. The vocal side is going well, too. We learned a song whose lyrics are all Spanish, and I've made good progress on getting it down. Definately a fun song to sing once you can say the lyrics!

Friday morning (yes, I realize I was just talking about the afternoon and I'm now going backwards), we talked about a couple things: journaling (or "documenting your semester" as they put it), and internships/advanced work. In journaling, we discussed different ways of journaling...as I'm sure you could guess. In the internship/advanced work session, we discussed the different opportunities for learning with Up with People. Every semester, there are different areas of the program (which put together the amazing experience for the students) that take on three interns throughout the semester. As an intern, you assist with that area's operations and such, and work with the staff member in charge of that. Areas that I'm interested in applying to are education, video, and stage managing (perhaps others). Advanced work is different sort of opportunity. In this, you travel with a staff member or two ahead of the cast to a city coming up and set up the city for the cast. In most cases, you are in the city two weeks before the cast will arrive. With this, you arrange media coverage for the cast (to attract people to the show), arrange host families for the cast to stay with, set up community impact sites, etc. The better you make the city, the better experience the cast will have when they arrive. It's a lot of work, but a great experience. As for me, I'm not sure whether I'll do it. Leaving the cast for two weeks wouldn't be ideal, and missing a couple of the cities on the cast tour would also suck (especially the cities we have lined up). So, I'm still deciding whether or not to apply for advanced work.

On Saturday, one of the host-dads arranged a sledding day for whomever wanted to come in the cast. My roommate, Kristian, and I went, and had a great time! We sledded for about an hour, and then went back to a nearby church for a potluck and other fun times. There were about 20 of us there at any one time, sometimes more sometimes less. People sang karaoke, played games, and just took the opportunity to hang out. The host-dad who put on the party also gave us a tour of his basement which held a nationally-known model train set that he has been working on for the past 40 years! It was really cool to see.After the party, Kristian and I went back to our host family's place, ate pizza, and watched "Superbad," which my Danish friend had never seen. It was a fun time.

Today, we're just taking it easy, watching the Chargers lose to the Patriots (which was pretty much expected), and enjoying some relaxation. Tomorrow, staging kicks in again and time to do what I'm doing today will be tough to find.

Until my next post!

Dan

"Karaoke -- Lady Marmalade"

The First Few Days in Denver

Well, today Staging kicked into full gear, sending us hurtling into vocal practice and cast movement (aka dancing). Let it be offically known that I suck at dancing. But, I'm making progress still, and its still fun overall (though I did want to punch a wall because I was getting so frustrated). Anyway, the past few days have been fun. We've been getting a lot of time to meet people, and I've been trying to take advantage of it. As I mentioned earlier, there are about 95 people from 27 different countries, some as crazy as Nabibia and Mongolia. I've done well on getting names and hometowns down, but I've still got some people to go. Overall though, it has been fun the past couple days. Conversations between people have been slowly progressing deeper, going beyond the superficial, "What's your name?" "Where you from?" "How did you get involved with UWP?", etc. We've been slowly getting into cultural norms and such.

Yesterday, I was discussing college life with a Swede, and how they don't have to pay tuition to go to college (but, they do have 50% taxes tho). Today, we were discussing marriage and family life in Sweden, which is a very interesting subject.

Yesterday, I explored Denver a bit more with people from our cast, and took a tour of the state Capitol. I even stood on the Mile-High step on the building's step! Beyond that, we've been doing "modules" which are opprotunties for us to demonstrate our abilities in four different areas -- speaking, technical, vocal, and dance. The speaking went the best for me, and technical was cool; vocals was alright, and dance sucked. I made a complete fool of myself, but eh.

Tomorrow, we're going to work on vocals and dance, as well as journaling and internships with the tour. Later that night, we're going to go see "Cloverfield" because my roommate, Kristian, has never been to an American "cinema". So that will be fun. Saturday, depending ont the weather, we'll either be going hiking in the mountains, or going to a group UWP thing. I'll prolly try to watch football on Sunday, but we'll see if that happens :). Mostly, I'm going to try and catch up with sleep this weekend -- something I've been missing the past few days.

Overall, the people are just amazing. It is amazing what a philisophy like what Up with People has can do to create a positive, truly accepting culture where you feel comfortable to share anything and do anything. Friendships are blossoming everywhere between people, and it has only been the first week. I can only imagine what will happen after six months!! Pretty soon, we'll be on the road and truly living out of a suitcase.

Until my next post!

Also, check out upwithpeople.org for my tour schedule. We'll be in Lincoln for three days it looks like, so I'm sure the show will be on the last day or second to last day.

Dan

Arriving in Denver

Hello all!

I will be trying my best to keep entries flowing into this medium for you all so you can see what I'm up to . . . right now I have access to internet and I have some time, so I'm taking advantage of it! Yesterday, I arrived in Denver International Airport without trouble and was met by many representatives from Up with People. They helped me find my suitcase in baggage and then gave me a bus ride to a nearby recreational center where about 50 other fellow castmates were there hanging out. After I registered and such, I spent the next five to six hours talking and getting to know all the variety of people there (and believe me, there was SUCH a variety!). After some Dominoes pizza, I paired up with my host "brother" (another castmate who will be living with the same host family as I) -- a 19 year old named is Kristian from Denmark. He has been great to hang out with. Today, with the NFL playoffs on, I've been trying to teach him American football without much success. I never quite realized how complicated the game was until I tried to explain it! Anyway, today we also drove around with our host family and went to Boulder, CO, which is nearby and nestled up against the Rocky Mountains (which are amazing by the way). I was lucky enough on my flight in to have the plane pan the right way so I could see a great panorama of Denver set in front of the Rocky Mountains behind. Beautiful. Today, as I said, we drove to Boulder and took a short drive up to some looking points, where I was able to see the Mountains better than before (and a great view of Boulder, too). After that, we went back down to Boulder and ate at Old Chicago where I had (what else) a hamburger :). You can take the kid out of Iowa, but you can't take the Iowa out of the kid!! ;) So far, the only difficulties I've had is with the elevation. Not so much that I'm having a hard time breathing or anything, but when I ride in vehicles, my car sickness jumps into full throttle. Riding in vehicles seems to make me tired and sick, so I'm trying to remedy that with lots of water and Advil :). It'll get better though.

Other than that, there hasn't been much happening. Today we have a day off, and Kristian and I are just trying to get oriented to Denver (he more than I since it is an eight hour difference from Denmark to Denver). Though I didn't talk about it too much, the five hours of conversation and meet-and-greet yesterday was amazing and it just flew by. There are so many interesting and exciting people here, so I'm really looking forward to getting to know them all . . . though learning all the names will DEFINATELY be interesting!!Until my next post!!

Dan