First Week on the Road

Hello all!


It’s been a busy past few days. We’ve been traveling around so much that its seems like we’re trying to make up for the LACK of traveling we’ve been doing the past four weeks! We left Denver on Monday morning, bright and early, leaving our teary-eyed host families behind for the promise of a great adventure ahead on the road. We drove for about eight hours on the road to Lincoln, Nebraska, where we arrived at a local church and parish center for our city arrival meeting and orientation. Along the way, we made two stops, the last of which was in Kearney, Nebraska. I have to admit it was nice being in a town whose name I knew. The stops were about fifteen minutes – and not a minute later! If we were late to get back onto the buses, we might as well wave at the bus as it drives by because it will not stop. Some of this learn this the hard way on the trip to Maquoketa, but that’s a story for later. After some going back and forth in the Lincoln arrival building, I finally figured out that I was to be roomed with Ren-Horng Wang for Taiwan/USA, one of the guys I had been riding the bus with during our Denver orientation. Together we met our new host family, Les and Paula Schultz. We grabbed our luggage and made the short drive back to their home. There we had a great Midwestern meal of roast beef and potatoes with carrots. It. Was. Great. Ah! :)

We spent the few days in Lincoln – sadly only two full days. The first full day we spent doing the "Stand for Peace" program in some local elementary and middle schools. I spent the morning and afternoon with two different 6th grade classes. In the morning I was with a class from Lux Middle School, and in the afternoon I was with a class from Scott Middle School. It was an exciting time, though a bit challenging to do. It was the first time for me to actually do this program, so a bit of trial and error was in order. But, overall, I think it went well. I was with Eilis from Georgia/Maryland/Ireland, and Carolina from Sweden. We each took different sections of the presentation, which made it easier to do.

On Wednesday, we spent the entire day prepping the stage for the show, doing dance workshops, and also vocal prep. The first thing that I noticed about the theatre we were set to perform in was that it was significantly smaller than the Buell. Don’t get me wrong – I knew that we were being spoiled by the Buell, but it still surprised me by its size. Definitely small. In fact, for most of the numbers, we had to split the cast in half for the show, having only half the numbers come on the stage on any given song. Only on a few songs did we have the ENTIRE cast on the stage at the same time, as opposed to the Buell performance where EVERYONE was on the stage for nearly every number. We spent the afternoon rehearsing these changes and the show in general. After that run-through, we had some dinner (Runza), and did our own preparation for the show before Green Room. After Green Room, we made our way into the crowd of people swarming into the O’Donnell Auditorium, and I happened to catch a glance of my grandparents and a couple of my aunts in the lobby. I was able to talk with them throughout the pre-show, intermission, and post-show, and it was GREAT to see them. It really gave me a boost of energy for the show, especially when I could look out on the stage and see them staring back. Overall, I thought the show went well, though I do know that it wasn’t up to my performance at the Buell. I just think not having practiced those dances for so long and then picking them back up a couple hours before the show really dulled the once sharp edge I had on them. But, I’ll take that experience and learn from it.

After the show, I spent the entire evening (about two and a half hours) striking the set and restoring the auditorium to the way we found it, which included replacing the front row of seats that had been removed so the front stage lights could be set up. That was a fun task. Or not. :) We finished at about midnight, and then I spent the next couple hours packing my stuff up again for the morning’s trip to Maquoketa, Iowa. We departed at around 8:30 a.m., and the bus ride was scheduled for about nine hours. But by the time we reached Iowa City, we were making great time, so we stopped at the large mall there and spent an hour meandering around, shopping and eating and such. This is, of course, where some of us learned to be on time for the bus the hard way. Four of my castmates did NOT make it back to the bus on time and were subsequently left at the mall. The staff was kind and graciously picked them up in the vans that follow closely behind the buses, but in any normal circumstance they would have been left to their own means of finding a way back to the cast. All said and done, it was slightly funny.
We arrived at a Comfort Inn for our arrival meeting, only to be greeted by mountains of snow that had been pushed away not long before our arrival. I was told that it had snowed 11 out of the past 13 days in Maquoketa, the big dump happening last Wednesday – 15 inches! We soon met our host families, and our roommates, getting a chance to get to know both. I’m now rooming with one of the staff members, Marc, from England, and also a castmate, Ultan, from Ireland. Both men are energetic and swell chaps (can you tell their language is rubbing off on me?) My new host family, too, are great people. My host mom’s name is Susanna, and she has a twelve-year-old son whose name is Jacob, and a 19-month-old daughter named Carly. All of them are great people to be around. They have made us all feel like kings or czars or someone else supremely important. It’s been great so far. Our family is good friends with another host family, so we’re already planning some joint activities on our host family day on Saturday. Should be a good time, and I can’t wait! If only for the idea of a free day! Sleep in – haha!!
We have a show coming up in Maquoketa on Sunday afternoon that will be amazing to put on. I guess that not many people in this town have heard of Up with People, so we have so many people that we have a chance to impress, which is an exciting prospect. I can’t wait to show them what we’ve got!

Until my next post!


Dan