Momentous Moments in Monterrey, Mexico!!

Hello all!

First week in Mexico! Woo hoo! So many things have happened in this past week that, unfortunately, this will be another long post, so bear with me as I guide across the winding landscape that is my memory of this past week.

We left Brenham, Texas bright and early Monday morning – 7:30 a.m. The drive itself to the border was about five hours, but we needed to allow for our border crossing time (which we didn’t know how long that was going to take), and then also the couple hour drive from the border to Monterrey. The drive to the border was uneventful, as always. We arrived in the border town Laredo (I believe) and unloaded ourselves from the bus. Our plan was to walk across the border and get onto another bus, but we were prepared for an entire cast search. Thankfully, however, the entire cast (all 100+ of us) made through customs and such in about two hours – not bad! After that, we loaded up onto our new buses, made a pit stop to load another truck with our excess luggage (since these new buses had half the cargo space as our American buses), and then we were on our way to Monterrey. When we hopped onto the other side of the border, I could immediately feel the difference between the two countries – just that feeling you get from your surroundings. It wasn’t an eerie feeling or anything, just a feeling of foreignness. Once we got onto the road to Monterrey, I took advantage of our comfortable seats and fell asleep for a while. When I woke up about an hour later, I did a double-take when I looked out the window – we were surrounded by mountains! I knew that the Rocky Mountains extended all the way from Canada into Mexico, but I didn’t realize they extended eastward. But these mountains, too, seemed alien compared to the Rockies in Colorado. These mountains had a beginning and an end, as opposed to the ever-stretching Rockies. I later learned that “Monterrey” means “king of mountain”, and for good reason. Even though it was dark, I could see that the city was surrounded by gorgeous, towering mountains. Beautiful. It took us about a half hour to tour through the city and arrived at our allocation point, which was also the theatre we would be performing at. We stepped off to a large welcoming of people, ranging from alumni to volunteers to news crews, etc. It was crazy! We all went inside and grabbed our allocation sheets. After, we watched dancers perform traditional Mexican numbers, which was cool, and then we went to find our host families. Mine, sadly, did not show up, so I was re-allocated to another family, and became hosted with Brandon from Colorado, and Gift from Thailand. Both have been great to hang out with! I left with my host brother Julio and went back to their home to meet the rest of the family. Besides Julio’s parents, he also has a sister named Ale, short for Alejandra. Both are in the college here in Monterrey, and both speak English very well, which makes life a lot easier for me. Their parents speak a bit of English, but its still very broken and haphazard. Even though it’s a lot better than my Spanish, it’s still difficult to communicate, which is why it’s great to have Julio and Ale. We all went out to dinner at Sirloin Stockade, which I hadn’t eaten at in a long time. However, the name was the only thing I recognized because all the food inside was Mexican, save a few American dishes. This was fine by me because I got a chance to sample a bunch of different Mexican dishes, buffet-style. They were all pretty good, too. A bit spicy, but good. After dinner, we went back and went to bed.

Tuesday was our first full day in Monterrey, and it was also our first CI day there. I was allocated to the DIF community impact project along with five others. We rode in a van with a rep from DIF to the site on the other side of the city, about forty-five minutes away. After a few wrong turns and a stop to pick up supplies, we arrived and set out to clean up the area that had become overgrown with weeds, grass, and trash. The weeds and grass were so rooted into the ground that we had to use pick-axes to rake them out of the ground before using a hoe to finish the job, and then a rake to pile it all together. It was hard work, let me tell you. We also had to had to paint the buildings that had become overridden with graffiti, which ended up being the easy job, especially when the sun reached high in the sky. Some different reps from local media came to our site in the morning, too, and Paul did a T.V. interview completely in Spanish – it was pretty cool. We broke for lunch at about 1:30, and had a home-cooked, authentic Mexican meal – gorditas. Mmmm. After lunch, we went back to work on the different stuff to do, and then left for wrap-up at about 4 p.m.

Wednesday started off well -- we have a cast appreciation book that gets passed around between people of the cast, someone bequething it to someone else they appreciate, continuing around the cast. Wednesday morning, durning our opening meeting, it was passed onto me. I took a picture of what it said so that you may all read its virbous flattery. Needless to say, it was nice to receive it. Wednesday was also our second day CI of the week, and I went back to the same DIF site with about four other cast members. We had the same driver to the site, a DIF rep named Oscar who knew only a few words in English. We had, just like the day before, a castmember with us who could speak Spanish, but it was fun to talk with Oscar and work on our Spanish while he worked on our English. When we arrived at DIF, we continued cleaning up the surrounding area of garbage and weeds. After lunch of some delicious gorditas and tuna macaroni salad, we worked on a mural to represent our work together. It turned out pretty nice – we had our Viva la Gente/Up with People star with the DIF logo, trimmed with the nations flags who worked on the project, Mexico’s in the center. It was pretty cool, especially in the hot afternoon sun, which avoided by being inside. After we said goodbye to all the children and volunteers at DIF, we went back to our wrap-up location. We did a small discussion of our CI stuff, but then moved into a discussion of high-performance teams. This discussion was facilitated through an activity that I and a few others participated in while the rest of the cast observed. Basically, the activity put us in a time crunch situation that requires efficiency and teamwork. We all learned the value of trusting the people in your team, putting the pride of your team ahead of your own, communicating efficiently and honestly, and willingness to try new ideas/think outside the box. It was a great experience to be a part of, one that I don’t really want to spoil by walking through what exactly happened. Suffice it to say, I learn a lot by participating. After this activity, we met up with our host families and went home for the day.

Thursday brought our last CI day of the week, but I was signed out of CI to do a BTS mini show on the college campus we had been working at. The twenty of us that were signed out for the mini show had rehearsal in the morning, and then made our way to a courtyard to block the show on our stage, which was a bunch of risers set up on the grass in front of the courtyard. We blocked the show and then changed into our costumes, which we were all sad to do since it was about 95 degrees outside with absolutely no shade. It is hot normally while doing a mini show, but this was just crazy. We started our BTS off just like normal with “Keep the Beat,” but three-quarters through the song the riser I was on dropped about three inches down, tilting all weird and wobbling. I, of course, moseyed my way off the riser and advised people around me to do the same, all while trying to keep my stage face and get someone from the staff to come fix it before it collapsed and some got hurt. Yeah. Fun :) After the second song in the BTS, someone had fixed the stage, but sweat had made its way into my eye, and I couldn’t really wipe it out. More fun :) But we made it through the mini show, and people really seemed to enjoy it, which was reassuring. Afterwards, our admissions team took a bunch of applications, did some interviews, etc. while I was able to relax a bit in the shade and be on call in case they needed help with interviews. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. After we finished all that stuff, we all came back to our wrap-up location, discussed our three days of CI, and did a general wrap-up of the day. After that, we had a half hour break for a bite to eat and to relax a bit before a panel came to talk to us at 6:30. When they arrived, they all talked about the different things they did after Up with People, and how they applied what they learned in the program to their lives after. It was really cool to listen to, and the time seemed to go by fast.

Friday was our regional learning day in Monterrey, and we had a tight schedule that took us around to different parts of the city. I started off in the Macroplaza, which is either the largest or near the largest in the world. Really cool to see! I definitely took a lot of pictures :) After that, my group took a boat ride down a canal, which took us through a bunch of cool different things in Monterrey. After this, went to an old ironworks factory that had been recently converted into a science museum. It has a lift that takes you all the way to the top where you get a great panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy, so we couldn’t get a very good view of the mountains surrounding Monterrey, but it still was really cool to look at the entire city from that point. After this, we grabbed a quick lunch as we walked over to a local attraction, roughly translated “Dialogue in the Darkness.” Basically, it was a blind experience. We were taken through this activity in groups of about 8 people or so, one of which who could speak Spanish since our guides could only speak Spanish. It took about an hour. It is called a “Dialogue in the Darkness” because you are walking through many different rooms that are in complete darkness. Absolutely no light. We had a walking stick to use to guide ourselves, and of course our guide, but that was it. All we had besides that were our other four senses. We went through a nature room, a grocery store room, a dockside room, a street room, and finally a coffee shop room where we could actually buy things to drink from the worker. It was there we found out that our guide was actually blind, and so were all of the other people we met throughout the tour inside. When we paid for our drinks, they got us change without any help. They were completely self-sufficient inside. When we reached the end and stepped back into the light, we were finally able to visually meet our guide. She told us that she lost her vision about twenty years ago to glaucoma, but she only wishes she could have her sight back so that she could see her children and now her grandchildren. It was such an amazing experience, one that I wish we could have continued on beyond just an hour. It was doubly interesting because we have a blind girl in our cast – Jessica Rojas – and I think this experience really helped us to all “see” the world through her eyes. Definitely very cool. After the blind experience, we all went to another DIF center that works with displaced children. All of the children were ones taken from their homes because of the abusive situations they had all been in while legal action was pending. Some of the children themselves had not been abused (they were just in an abusive home), but others had been abused, both physically and sexually. Their ages ranged anywhere from newborns to eighteen year olds. Absolutely crushing to hear their stories. I found it interesting, however, to find that despite being in a different country there were the same sad things happening. The United States had its own major problem with domestic abuse, something I learned a bit about while working at the Woodbury County Court House. I found it interesting that while culturally the United States and Mexico are quite different, we are linked by this one tragic sadness – a common pain between us. No matter where you’re from, hurt people hurt people. Children who had no doubt grown up with abuse in their families are now passing the terrible legacy to their children. A vicious circle of pain. Our task in visiting this center was to hang out with the children there. All of the ones there were those who didn’t have relatives to visit over the holiday week (the week after Holy Week is also considered part of vacation for school and sometimes work). These were the children who normally have no stories to tell to the other children when they return from vacation. But this time they did have a story – they got to hang out with Viva la Gente! We played games, tossed a Frisbee around, and kicked a soccer ball back and forth. Our time together went by very fast, and before we knew it, we were saying goodbye and giving warm hugs. We returned to the university we’ve been operating out of all week, and dropped off some people who were to be picked up by their host families. The rest of us took a ride out to a host family’s weekend home for a party and barbeque. We hung out with host families and alumni and members of our cast all night long, enjoying great food and even better music. It was a great time, a good culmination of a great day!

Today was host family day here in Monterrey, which meant I was able to sleep in until about 10:30 – amazing! After that, and some breakfast, Brandon, Gift, and myself joined our host mom and went to a mall to do some shopping and looking around. After that, Brandon and I had to go to the theatre we’ll be performing at and help set up the stage. We’re doing it the day before the show because tomorrow we’re putting on two performances – one in the afternoon and one in the evening. This means that the morning will be spent rehearsing, which means that we had to have the stage ready first thing. No morning set up. So we set up the stage quickly and efficiently, and were able to leave at about six. After that, Brandon and I went back to our host family’s home and grilled out on the beautiful Saturday evening.

Tomorrow is show day, and as I mentioned earlier it is a double show day – as all show days will be in Mexico. I’ve been told that one show has pretty much sold out and the other one is nearly there as well. Needless to say, we’re all a bit nervous, but definitely excited, too. It is our first show in Mexico! And Viva la Gente is such a big deal to many people in Mexico. And, the next cast (B08) will be traveling through Mexico, too, so we’re setting the tone for their tour as well. If we do well, they will have a receptive tour. If we don’t, well… So. No pressure, right? It’s going to be a long day tomorrow. With rehearsal all morning long, leading into a show at 4 p.m., which will last until about 6:30; then we’ll eat quickly while doing interviews and admissions stuff for that show. After that we have another show at 8 p.m. which admissions, interviews, and strike to follow. Where the show doesn’t get done until about 10:30, we won’t get out until about 12:30, and then we still have to go home and pack so that we’re ready to be on the bus later that morning for our travel day to Mexico City. And the bus leaves at 6:30 a.m. Fun fun fun!!! Yes. A bit of sarcasm. I’m sure you heard it. But, it’s all pretty exciting, too.

Until my next post!

Dan

Brenham, Texas!

Hello all!

Well, it has been a CRAZY week here in Brenham, Texas! So much has happened that this is going to be a LONG post, so I hope you’re all ready for the long haul! As a side note before I delve into the week’s activities, I just want to share how truly amazing pop is. Yes indeed…Easter has come finally and I can drink pop again! Not going to lie, I was up past midnight this morning so I was able to enjoy the sweet goodness that is Coca-Cola. In fact, I am right now enjoying one…mmmm! Okay. Back to Brenham…

We arrived in Brenham, Texas after about an eight and a half hour drive from Enid. For the most part, the drive was uneventful, and by that I mean I don’t remember anything significant happening on the bus worth mentioning :) When we arrived, we stopped off at a small parking lot on the outside of town where we met up with our Advanced Team and Field Managers who had a small surprise lined up for us……..an escort through the town by the Brenham Police and Fire Departments! The police had intersections blocked off for us as a huge fire truck paraded us through Brenham on our way to our allocation site at the Brenham High School. It. Was. So. Cool!! I can’t even describe to you how stoked we all were to be in Brenham! Besides the fact that it was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside, it was just incredible to be paraded through Brenham like we were stars. Ah! So cool! Once we arrived, we unloaded our suitcases off the buses and grabbed our allocation sheets like normal. Little did I realize that I had another surprise in store for myself – I was allocated to a country bed-and-breakfast with 11 other people about a half hour outside of Brenham! I was SO incredibly excited! Normally, people are only roomed with one or two other people. Maybe three. While this is fun, you just can’t socialize on a comparable level as it is with about 12 people. Needless to say, all twelve of us were extremely excited to be spending a week with each other. I was staying with Cody from Colorado, Leo from Venezuela, Pepe from Sweden, Nina from Finland, Erin from Indiana, Jessica from Pennsylvania, Zaire from Bermuda, Meraf from Ethopia, Fanny from Sweden, Katie from Colorado, Eilis from Georgia, and Stan our bus driver, who would serve as our “host dad.” Our host, a 78 year old woman named Carol was the owner and runner of this bed-and-breakfast, called “The Front Porch.” We all didn’t really know what to expect when we took the bus out to the bed-and-breakfast. When we arrived, it was pitch black out because of thick clouds, but we were amazed at what we saw. The bed-and-breakfast is on a picturesque Texan landscape, surrounded by soft hills, whispering trees, and green pastures. So gorgeous! Unfortunately we couldn’t see how gorgeous until morning, but this was definitely a change of pace from what we were all used to. The guys were allocated to a small cabin-like house, which had one bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. Oh, and a porch, too! Stan took the bedroom and the guys took the two fold-out couches in the living room, which worked well. It was a strange feeling to have this kind of autonomy on tour, but definitely welcome.

Tuesday came and we had a regional learning day in Brenham, so we went to one of the biggest companies in the town (if not THE biggest) – Blue Bell Creamery, which is the third largest ice cream company in the United States. We got to tour the factory, learn the history of the company, and sample some free ice cream from their freezers. Mmmmm. After lunch, we as a cast went through some more preparation for our Mexican numbers we’ll be adding to our show. We spent all of the time working on lyrics and notes, and next to nothing on dance – which was fine by me since I think we have that pretty much down. After all of that, we had wrap up for the day and our bed-and-breakfast crew (which we’ve dubbed ourselves Camp Carol’s Wilderness Adventure, or CWA for short) made our way back to our place. Carol had dinner ready for us, an amazing meal donated by a member of her church. All of our meals, in fact, were donations by members of her church – and let me tell you, they SPOILED us! So many of the meals and desserts were amazing. I could definitely tell that they pulled out all the stops on the meals. Mmmm. It had rained all afternoon, so we didn’t do too much after dinner besides carefully walk up to our cabin/house and go to bed.

The next day was our first CI day, and I was allocated to the Brenham School District Maintenance Crew, and we spent the first day repainted an entire gymnasium. Their bleachers there were made entirely our of wood, and its paint was chipping and loosing its luster. So, the fifteen of us that were there sanded down the entire thing and repainted it. After that, we repainted some of the railings, doorways, and then finally restrooms so that everything had a bright new sparkle to it. I have to admit that it was fun working on a lot of this. I ended up stepping into a leadership role and allocating people into different spots so that the jobs could get done more efficiently, which was a different role for me. But it was fun at the same time. After CI, the cast did a wrap up and went over a few more things which I can’t honestly remember at the moment :S After cast wrap up, our CWA crew headed back to Carol’s, where we were greeted by yet another amazing dinner, and we all enjoyed each other’s company with conversation. We it got dark, we made a campfire and roasted some marshmallows for s’mores. Some of the people staying with had NEVER had any before, so it was a great experience for them, and we were able to have fun together outside in the gorgeous weather.

Thursday was another CI day for me, and I was working with the Maintenance Crew again, this time at a middle school repainting a very long guard rail. We had about thirty of us there again, and I stepped up again into a logistics role and delegated people into different roles to make the job more efficient. After that, I grabbed a brush myself and just started painting. The railing itself ran pretty around the entire school, which included the football field, tennis courts, etc. making it VERY long. We knew we weren’t going to get it all done, but we ended up getting at least a third of it done, which I was happy about. The process itself was the same: we had to sand the railing first, smooth off and rough spots, and then repaint. The sanders were able to zoom ahead and I found that the painting was what took time. That, and we couldn’t have as many painters as sanders because of equipment shortages. Oh well. We had fun still. After morning CI, we all regrouped together for an education session in the afternoon called Jahari’s Window. Essentially, and perhaps too succinctly, it is a feedback tool. We ended up breaking into small hometeam groups and wrote feedback comments for each other, sharing our observations and thoughts about each other – both good and bad. The two qualifications were that the comments had to be constructive, and you must own it – i.e. put your name on it. It was an interesting exercise, and a necessary one I think to air out feelings and problems that inevitably fester in large groups such as Up with People. I, myself, received all positive feedback, which was nice to hear, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed as well because I know that I am not perfect and there is much I could improve on as a person – yet I got no feedback to help me with that. Slightly disappointing. But, that’s how it goes, and it just means I have to read more into the comments I did receive. After wrap up for the day, the CWA crew traveled back to Carol’s, had an amazing meatloaf dinner, and relaxed.

Show day arrived next, but this day was slightly abnormal to the common goings and comings show day routine. Thursday afternoon held a bunch of different workshops that are normally done the morning of the show, and the tech crew also did set-up Thursday afternoon, so everything was ready to go Friday morning. We started off the morning with our typical morning meeting, however, but this morning meeting held the announcement of second round internships! Since each round of internships last only six weeks, Brenham was the final week for the first round. I had applied for two internships: video (like last round) and logistics. I, unfortunately, did not receive either and I was disappointed about this. While I don’t think I should have beaten out any of the people who DID get the internships, because every one of them fit the role completely and will do awesome, I just was disappointed to have not gotten one the second time around. I suppose in the end I want a way to contribute to the program, and I don’t think I can do that through the show since there are far more talented dancers and singers, etc. Internships I think I could contribute to. But, it won’t happen this round. Perhaps the next! :) After morning meeting, we spent the morning doing small, fifteen minute workshops with different parts of the show – anywhere from lights to sound to video to dance to vocals to truck loading, etc. The first round interns ran the sessions, and basically it was a way for them to step into a teaching role and for us to see what the different parts of technical theatre do. It was very interesting! After lunch, the cast did warm-ups and made our way onto stage to work on blocking for our Mexican Medley. Michael and Eric (our guru’s from staging) had traveled to Brenham to help with the medley, and they were there to coordinate the process along with our staff. After a few hours of it, we moved on to the actual show rehearsal for the night, broke for dinner, and then got ready for the show. After green room (which was amazing by the way – the interns led it and Abby played “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen to sike us up for the show), we mingled with the incoming audience, and I met a really cool little girl sitting in the front row (who was four, by the way). I was able to come back to her throughout the night, and even shoot her winks during the show, which she enjoyed. It was a good time. After the show – which went amazing! – I helped on the strike crew and we finished by about 11:30. Not too bad. After the CWA crew made it back Carol’s, we all crashed hard in our beds.

Saturday for the cast was an internal day (which means we spent it with each other), and we worked basically on educational stuff. The two education interns, Erin from Indiana and Johanna from Sweden, did a personal mission and vision presentation that focused on self-examination and reflection. The tool they used, which I thought went very well, was a brochure metaphor. This brochure had spaces for a personal mission statement, applicable skills, amazing experiences, and personal challenges. It was a great activity that whole cast seemed to enjoy. Lunch came soon after, and we finished that time up with a news presentation by myself and Chris (from Canada). We tried to make it a fun presentation, so we turned it into a game – Who Wants to be a Newsillionaire? A couple of the cast got to come up and compete for prizes, answering questions whose answers could be found in the news. The information the cast came away with was current events, and they had fun with it, too. It was Chris and I’s last news activity, since new news assistants were chosen for the second round, but we had fun with it. After our news thingy, we continued on with some other cast interactive projects, doing different things and such. Before we knew it, it was near time to go. But before we could, we got a rundown of our logistical crossing into Mexico! Woo-hoo! We’re all pretty excited to go to Mexico, and I especially am since it’ll be my first stamp in my passport. Can’t wait! After cast wrap-up, the CWA crew went back to Carol’s, ate dinner, and prepared for another nearby bed-and-breakfast crew to come over to our place and have a bonfire. I cut some stick for marshmallows, and before long the other crew arrived. Some other castmates found their way to Carol’s, too, and there was about thirty to forty people there! It was SO much fun! Ultan, my roommate from Des Moines and Maquoketa, showed a few of us how to find satellites in orbit, and we all in general just enjoyed some unstructured conversation/hang out time. The night went by quick, and I ended up staying up until about 2:30 talking with Erin from Indiana and Jessica from Pennsylvania about anything and everything, which was a fun, but rare moment – which is probably why we stayed up so long!

Sunday came around too early it seemed, and we all were out the door by 8:00 a.m. to go to Carol’s church for Easter, partly because it was an opportunity for us all to meet the people who had been feeding us all week. There was a pre-church brunch we all enjoyed, and then we all got together and worked on a thank-you song for the church some of us had written the night before. After we worked out all the kinks, we got up in front of the church before mass had started and sang it to them, and they seemed to really enjoy it. After mass, we all went to the other bed-and-breakfast crew’s place and had an Easter lunch, which was of course amazing! I especially enjoyed the fact that I could drink pop, and I did several times! We all enjoyed hanging out with all of the different people there, and it made for a great last day in Brenham.

Tomorrow will begin early, unfortunately. We leave Brenham at about 7:30 for Mexico, and we’re expected to arrive at the border at about noon. Our logistics people think it will take about two and a half hours to get processed through (if nothing goes wrong) and then we’ll be back on the road to Monterrey, which is about two hours away. I have to admit that I am VERY excited to begin really traveling. While going to Texas and Oklahoma was fun because they’re both states I’ve never been to, they’re still in the United States. Tomorrow, the real culture shock and experience begins!

Until my next post!

Dan

Enid, Oklahoma -- the Next Windy City

Hello all!

Sorry to disappoint, but I haven't got any pictures from this city either. I've gotten lazy this past week, and I haven't had my camera with me as much so hence -- no pictures. I'll make up for it I'm sure over the next month and a half. We're leaving for Brenham, Texas, tomorrow morning (bright and early), and after a week there we will be crossing the border into MEXICO! Woo hoo! For me, the culture shock and culture shift will begin! While all my castmates from outside of America have been going through their own culture shift since staging in Denver, I've been in the lap of "comfort" that is mainstream America. Should be interesting once I step foot into a place where Spanish is the main language and hardly no one will understand me. Definitely going to appreciate those four years of high school Spanish -- thanks Mrs. Hoch! :)

We left St. Joseph, Missouri, at about 11 a.m. after a presentation about environmental awareness. During this presentation, the entire cast was given a challenge that would last from that point until we arrived in Brenham, Texas. The challenge was simple -- we were not allowed to throw any of our trash away. Any trash we made, whether recyclable or not, would be stored in our own personalized garbage sack that we were to keep track of throughout our stay in Enid. Bottles, napkins, paper towls, wrappers -- anything! Needless to say, we suddenly became very conscious of everything we were throwing away. Trash also included banana peels, uneaten food, etc. If that doesn't make you aware, nothing will. Of course this challenge was totally reliant on the honor system, but I trust our cast. And we're all pretty good about keep each other honest as well. Anyway, after this presentation, we loaded the buses and took off on our six hour drive to Enid, Oklahoma. I was on bus #1 and we watched three different movies -- Beauty and the Beast, Happy Feet, and Superstar. That certainly entertained those who didn't want to sleep, and didn't pester those who did. All in all, an enjoyable and relaxing trip. When we arrived, I found out that I was to be rooming with three other people -- Gabe, our show manager; Britta, from Sweden; and Eilis, from Georgia/Ireland. In short, I've really enjoyed hanging out with all of them, and its been especially fun getting to know Gabe outside of his staff role. Our host family, too, is pretty cool -- they're Mike and Michelle Jansen. Mike is an Air Force pilot, so they are a military family -- often traveling around. They just moved to Enid about 10 weeks ago, so they knew as much about the city as we did. But they were definitely excited to have us. They also have three children: Beau, Jack, and Julie -- all of them under eight years old. Julie, the youngest, is three years old.

Friday was our show day, which makes our Enid visit a bit backwards since we are doing our show BEFORE we do our CI work. I was assigned to dance workshops in the morning, and I worked on "A World Celebration" frontline dance. Probably the one song that I hate dancing to. Ugh. If anything, it is SO hard on my shoulder sockets. But I worked through it, and I have the dance down a bit better now. We were able to practice the song outside, too, in the nice weather, which was nice even though the wind made our scarves go everywhere. I have to admit, that Enid IS a windy city -- just as much as Chicago! After lunch (where we had to keep our plates and napkins and utensils in our own trash bags), the cast as a whole continued to work on our Mexican Medley dancing. We've got about all of it learned now, but its just getting it memorized. After this, we did our normal rehearsal, and I found myself in the same spots as in the last show -- mike groups for the most part, but in the cast stage for "We'll Be There" and "Up with People." Rehearsal ended, and dinner came and went. We gathered for our Green Room, and broke to begint he show. It went off well. Definitely cannot complain about anything. Afterward, I was on Cast University again, and we didn't have much to do, so a few of us walked to a gas station and grabbed some food. Fun times. Because there wasn't too many interviews to do, most of the people on admissions moved to strike and they did a "super-strike" -- basically, try and take down the set as quick as possible. For the United States, the fastest UWP has taken down the set in the past was 1 hr. and 1 minute. They got the set down on Friday in 53 minutes. Though they had to add two, 1 minute penalties for opening the trucks up again, they still did a great job beating that record with extra equipment compared to past years.

Saturday was our CI day. While there were plenty of different spots around Enid, Oklahoma for the cast to go, I went to our beneficiary's location, a place called Leonardo's. Basically, it seemed to be a community children's museum that is completely intereactive, where kids can let there imaginations run wild in two primary areas -- art and science. The fifteen of us that went spent the morning working up on the third floor, cleaning up their supply room, which was basically items that they've saved or been donated to them over the years and that had piled up to an unsiftable, unorganized mess. So we helped organize it for them. After lunch, we split in half, some going out to their adventure land to clean leaves and weed their park area, while the rest went back upstairs to continue sorting. I took advantage of the opprotunity to go outside, and spent my time cleaning up a ton of leaves and dirt and such. Overall, we filled 35 gallon trash bags with leaves, and we filled 22 bags full of this stuff in about an hour and a half. Good amount of work, I felt like. After CI was complete, the whole cast regrouped and did a wrap-up discussion about everyone's experience. After this, we returned once again to our Mexican Medley practice, working on lyrics for the different songs, and then going over the dances. I would say that we're about half way there. This next week in Brenham will be all we need, I think, to be ready for Mexico. And I can't wait!

Today was our free day/host family day. We got to sleep in and then Eilis, Britta, and I went to Catholic Palm Sunday mass at 11 a.m. Afterwards, we came back and had lunch, and then Mike took us all on a tour of the Air Force base. We also went bowling there, we I scraped up a score of 129 and 133. Not too impressive. But it was still fun. After bowling, we all came back to our host family's home, and was joined by another host family with their students. We grilled out and just had a good time, which seemed to go quickly. While our stay in Enid was short, it definitely left an impression, it seems like!

Until my next post!

Dan

A Brief Stay in St. Joseph

Hello all!

I’m trying get my posts out quicker so that I have more time (and energy) to write about more than just “this happen here, and that happened there.” So, this is my attempt at started a mid-week posting trend…wish me luck! :) I will apologize ahead of time -- there are no pictures in this post. Sad day, I know.

Monday was travel day for the cast, and we were daunted with a nine hour trip ahead of us. But, I suppose in a way we were all looking forward to it because it meant that we had nine hours of unstructured, work-free time we could use to sleep, read, relax, and just plain hang out. Because I was living on the south side of Chicago, I got to sleep in a bit longer than normal. While the north side had to be on the buses by 7:15, we didn’t have to be on them until 8:30 – they had to get up before us for once! My roommate Johan, however, did not join us. My host mother, Mary Ellen, took him to the airport where he left for Monterrey, Mexico to start his advanced work for the cast. We’ll be meeting up with him there in about two weeks! I know that he was excited to go, but he was also nervous – after all, he’s not very fluent in Spanish. Try persuading people to become host families in a language you’re not too fluent in! After the cast loaded up on the bus, we set out on the road to St. Joseph, Missouri, which is located about a half hour north of Kansas City, Missouri. To be honest, I forgot I was so close to Kansas City, until I saw all the Kansas City Chiefs stuff that is everywhere here. Had to say, I was excited! :)

So our bus ride went – that about all I can say there. My bus (bus #2) watched a couple movies along the way: Grandma’s Boy and Elizabethtown. Elizabethtown was alright, though kind of long. Grandma’s Boy was stupid, even though I was asleep for most of it. What’s that say about it? Anyway, so the trip went. It was a relaxing change to the hectic week we had in Chicago. We arrived on time in St. Joseph, had our allocation meeting, and met our new host families. I am now roomed with another Johan – Johan Petri from Sweden – and Martha from Ethiopia. Both of them are great roommates! My host family is Mike and Donna Moseman, and they’re both great people. Sadly we haven’t had much time to hang out with them (which is often the cast in half cities), but we’re enjoying the time we have.

Tuesday was our CI day in the community, and half of the cast went to Tiny Tots Town, which is an organization that puts on a yearly event that allows kids to “live” in a tiny tot town. The event aims to get kids thinking about being independent and self-sufficient, as well as learn how to find the necessities in life. So the organization builds a small town, complete with a post office, grocery store, and more to give the kids an opportunity to “live” in a town of their own. The part of the cast that went worked all day constructing the different buildings the organization will use for their fall event. The other half of the cast was split into two school groups, one going to Cathedral Elementary School and the other going to St. Xavier Elementary School. There, we did our “Stand for Peace” presentation to a class, and then also performed a “BTS,” which is a mini-show for the kids so they can get a taste of what the show will be like. I went to St. Xavier School and had a 7th grade class – Mrs. Meyers 7th grade class to be exact. They. Were. Awesome! We had a great time together, and plenty of extra time to discuss other stuff outside of the presentation. My group partners, Zaire from Bermuda and Veronika from Norway, were able to talk about their countries and how they differ from the United States. We also were able to play a game called “Human Knot” where everyone stands in a tight circle and grabs each others’ hands, creating a human knot. After that, they have to try and get out. It’s always a fun game. After our morning presentation, we had our BTS in the afternoon, which went off well. We pumped up the kids when they came into the performance area, dancing along with background music we had going. After that, we did the BTS, which everyone seemed to like, and then we cleaned up and went back to our cast meeting place. After everyone got back, the cast worked some more on our Mexico medley, and we started learning some of the dances for it. They don’t seem difficult as of now, but I reserve the right to change my opinion :) Once we finished wrap-up for the day, myself and my roommates went with my host mother on a small tour of St. Joseph. One thing that I’m impressed with in this city is the architecture. It is SO beautiful! Very ornate stuff. Always has detailed trim, and vaulted spacing, etc. And the houses are so big! Very cool. We showed Johan and Martha the Missouri River, which unfortunately was mostly blocked by a casino, but oh well. I’m sure they’ll get over it :) After our tour, the four of us went to Famous Dave’s to sample some local American cuisine – BBQ! I love Famous Dave’s, so I was not complaining…and I wasn’t disappointed either. Yum! Once we finished dinner, I stopped at Target and picked up a box so I could mail home some of my stuff – including my winter coat!! Yes, that’s right. It is WARM here in Missouri! AND, it’s going to stay that way for the rest of the tour! It got up to 65 degrees Tuesday – we were ALL excited about that one!

Show day arrived the next morning, bright and early like always. My roommate Johan, who hadn’t been feeling good the day before, decided to call in sick. He had a fever and was having other terrible symptoms, so he’s not here today. Unfortunately, he’s not alone – the past week and a half has been marked by sickness. I think it has a lot to do with our long schedules coupled the large group of people we’re constantly around. Our bodies are constantly bombarded with germs, so our immune systems have their work cut out for them. Luckily, the worst I have gotten has been a cold, which I’m aiming to have as my worst illness for the tour. We’ll see how it goes! This morning I was signed up for Vocals, and spent all the time working on parts for our Mexican Medley, which went well. We made it through all the songs in about two hours. I’m not sure how much of it stuck, but we made it through at least. After lunch (which was pizza), we did some cast dance work for our Mexican Medley, and we almost got done with it but fell a bit short near the end of our time. After working on this, we moved to rehearsal for the show. I found myself on a little bit less mike groups, but I was still up there a fair amount of the show. We hit a snafu with the speakers during rehearsal, but our amazing tech staff ironed that out before long and we were back working again, and we didn’t have any problems during the show at all. The show itself went very well. I felt like I had a great emotional infusion in the show tonight, which makes it easier to get up there when you’re tired. I got to be on stage for “We’ll Be There,” which I liked since I had normally been on mike groups for the song. I can really throw the emotion in when I’m on stage and not hid away in a corner. After the show, I was on “Cast University,” which is basically time we get to take with different members of our cast and focus on different things we want to learn more of, or something like that. We had a good time hanging out with one another, so I definitely can’t complain.

Thursday morning we are heading out again on the road, this time bound for Enid, Oklahoma. It’s about a five and a half hour drive, which is about the right amount. Long enough to relax; short enough to not get sick of the seats :).

Until my next post!

Dan

Chicago!!

Hello all!

Wow! This week has blown by faster than I had thought it would. But, of course, this is the Windy City! Our week in Chicago was full of many fun, busy, and exciting things, so many that this will be a LONG post – hope you’re all buckled down to read it, because I know its going to be a long one to type! :)

We arrived in Chicago late Monday morning, and our two tour buses headed straight for a well known attraction in the city – Navy Pier. If I had to sum it up in one word, I would say that it was picturesque. I took SO many pictures of the Navy Pier area! There is a great view of the downtown area from the pier, and there were many different attractions to see as well. They had a large rainforest/tropical tree area/thing near the center of the complex which was cool to check out. A bunch of us also went outside to the actual pier and took a TON of pictures of each other doing crazy stuff. We wandered around the Pier for the rest of the morning, checking out the different shops and taking the Chicagoan flavor. At about 1:30, we made our way back to the buses and went to our show venue – the Copernicus Theatre, which was a renovated movie theatre built back in the 1920s. We had a roundtable discussion activity set up for us with some of the local Chicago leaders which was interesting and educational. We rounded out the day by separating into two separate groups – the northsiders and the southsiders. Chicago is such a big city that we had two Host Pick-Up places to make it more convenient. I was allocated to the southside, so I hopped onto a bus and headed that way. Once we arrived there, I met with one of my castmate’s hosts, who told us he was taking us back because my roommate and I’s host mother had a meeting that evening and couldn’t pick us up. The only problem was, we had to walk. With our luggage. Which, despite having wheels, was heavy. We walked about ten blocks with all our stuff – thankfully in the nice Chicago evening. It was about 30 outside, so I couldn’t complain at all. Once we arrived at my host family’s place, we all ordered a true Chicago deep-dish pizza. Mmmmmm! Twas good. After an hour or so, Johan (my roommate who is from the Netherlands) and I’s host mother arrived home – an awesome woman named Mary Ellen Duffy. We all hung out for a while before we closed out the night for some sleep.

Tuesday came and with it an early rise. Since I was living on the southside, we had to catch a train in the morning that would take us to downtown Chicago, where we were catching the UWP bus to our morning location. We had to be downtown at or before 7:15 a.m., which mean we had to catch the 6:15 train from 103rd street, which meant Johan and I had to be up at 5:00 a.m. Every. Morning. Ugh. So, as I was saying, it was an early rise on Tuesday. We caught our train with ease and met up with all the other southsiders soon enough. We walked the five blocks to Union Station (our rendezvous point) and got a chance to check out downtown Chicago. Not going to lie, I thought Denver had a big downtown. Chicago dwarfed it. Wow! We all caught our bus, and arrived at a local high school for our morning meeting. We all got divvyed up into groups and went out in Chicago, split up over three or four high schools. I was placed in Foreman High School, and got a chance to meet some great students there. The entire school was SO diverse! I did get a reality check, however, when I arrived and had to go through metal detectors and a sign-in process. I was telling some of my castmates that this school had more security than the County Courthouse I interned at a couple summers ago. Crazy! Anyway, I worked in three different class periods, doing an abbreviated version of the “Stand for Peace” project, focusing more on the Card Identification activity and the Take a Stand activity. They all seemed to be received well, and we also got many students interesting in our program and show. After all the school projects finished, the cast regrouped and went over the day.

In the interest of time, I’ll combine Wednesday and Thursday into shorter segments :) On both days, the cast was split into different Community Involvement groups, some still working in local high schools, other doing workshops for the show, still other doing internship duties, and others doing different CI activities. On both days, I was assigned to high schools, and I went to Eisenhower High School and Wendell Phillips High School, where I found myself a sure minority. At Eisenhower, the ration of students was 40% Hispanic, 40% Black, 17% White, and 3% Asian. Coming from Iowa, where diversity can be lacking, it was a cultural shift for my – definitely! After doing CI most of the day, we all gathered together afterwards to do wrap-up and work on other things. In Burlington, WI, we began working on our Spanish medley for Mexico, and we continued that on Wednesday, making it through most of the songs. On Thursday, we did a group workshop where we had an auction for a list of values. This was a very interesting way to discover what values we held important to ourselves, and how far we were willing to go to “have” them. Some people spent all of the fake money on one value because it was THAT important!

Friday brought show day for the cast, and, like always, people were divided up into different groups – workshops, strike, and fitness. I was on the fitness crew along with about 10 others, so we worked together and made a great fitness session of games, workouts, and stretches. We even ended with a small massage session – it was great! After a great Polish lunch, we did rehearsal for the show, and went over all the special conditions we had to work with the stage. Since this venue used to be an old movie theatre, it had NO backstage to speak of. None. We had to set up curtains on the sides so we could enter on the stage, and there were only two entrances on stage instead of the normal four, which made for many traffic jams during rehearsal. But, we worked through the difficulties and made the show one of our best. And, the audience LOVED it! I didn’t realize the large Hispanic crowd we had until Jessica Rojas, my castmate, got up on stage to do the Spanish portion of our show. We she began the mariachi long-note, the crowd went WILD!! The “Oye El Boom” came next and they just erupted! It was SO cool! The show ended well, and we all moved into our post-show stage. I had admissions work again, and did an interview before I caught a bus to the southside of Chicago for the evening. By the time I got done and in bed, it was 12:30 a.m., and after a day that started at 5 a.m. it was definitely a long day!!

Saturday brought a morning CI at the Field Museum, where the Illinois PTA (our beneficiary) was holding a parent summit, so we served as guides and watchers for the parents’ kids and we took them around the museum. I had seven 4-8 year olds that I took around the museum for about two hours. While I know they had fun, they were also quite hungry and tired by the time lunchtime rolled around. After we dropped the kids off, we were given the rest of the afternoon off to explore downtown Chicago. I joined up with some of my castmembers and we walked around, ate some lunch, and finally made our way to the Sears Tower. After riding up the super-fast elevator, we were awed by the amazing view on the skydeck. It. Was. Awesome! We took SO many pictures, I can’t even come close to throwing them all up on this blog. Sorry! :)

Sunday morning started later than the rest, at about 10 a.m. The southside of Chicago was having their annual (and HUGE) St. Patrick’s Day Parade, arguably larger than the more popular northside parade where they dye the river green. It was SO cool!! After the parade, which was a bit chilly and snowy, we went over to our city-setter-upper’s place (Patrick) for a party where we hung out and relaxed after a very long week. Safe to say, we had a good time! :)

Tomorrow, we’re leaving for St. Joseph, MO, and it is supposed to be about a nine hour drive, which will be a great time to rest. AND, its supposed to be 50 degrees when we get there!! Woot!!

Until my next post!

Dan

Muscatine and Burlington -- Separated at Birth?

Hello all!

This week started off in Muscatine, Iowa, a quaint town on the eastern side of Iowa that represented our last city in my fair state. While I have to admit that it was nice being back near my own Iowan culture, I am VERY much looking forward to traveling somewhere outside of the Midwest. Chicago, I think, represents that step outward, even though it still is considered in the Midwest. Still, Chicago is its own unique culture, I would expect. Anyways, our stay in Muscatine, like Lincoln, was short. We arrived on Sunday evening, met our host families, and went our separate ways. My roommate for this city was Johan from the Netherlands (see left), one of the few in our cast who traveled last semester with UWP. Our host family was Rick and Peggy Decker. Both of their children were off on their own, so Johan and I had the entire basement to ourselves. I took the air mattress in the “family room” and Johan took the bedroom. I have to say that the air mattress was especially comfortable! And, I was sleeping right next to a big screen T.V. which I used a couple times. Nice. Our first full day in Muscatine, Monday, was filled with “Stand for Peace” projects. I matched up with Eilis and Carolina (from Maryland and Sweden, respectively), and we all worked with 5th graders in the morning and 6th graders in the afternoon. It was a good time! For lunch, we ate at Madison Elementary School and had pork tenderloin sandwiches….mmmmmmm!! They were amazing!! Our next day in Muscatine was show day, and I was put on a vocal workshop for the morning. We spent all morning long going over songs and such in the high school, which was where our performance was to take place at. Before lunch, the high school choir class invited us to come watch them on a couple songs, and we took them up on the offer. They were amazing! I’d forgotten how much fun high school choir was until then. I mean, sure, we sing and stuff in UWP, but not like that. They have that choir sound, a sound we try and avoid in our show since we are not a choir. We got a chance to introduce ourselves, and I was quite surprised that I got a huge cheer when I said I was from Iowa. But I suppose I’m doing a bit of “representin,” so that explains it. Still…cool.

After lunch, we had rehearsal that lasted all afternoon. Because the stage was a smaller one, we divided the cast in half again for the bulk of the songs. I, however, was on mike groups for most of the show, so I was on stage pretty much the entire time. Fine with me. We finished rehearsal and had a wrap up before dinner, which is when we got some of the best news in a while. As I mentioned before, AJ from Wisconsin had to leave us because of medical reasons and while he was going to visit us in Burlington, WI, we knew he would not be able to rejoin us. During wrap up, we learned that AJ’s doctor had cleared him and given him the green light to rejoin UWP! I can’t tell you how pumped up this made the cast. For once, we’d gotten some GOOD news! I think this news reflected in our show, because it seemed to me that it stepped up a notch and it went off great. We had a good time. After the show, I was assigned to admissions interviews, where interview people who are applying to UWP from the city we’re in. It was an interesting experience for me, being on the other side of the interview process. I’d like to say that I reached back to my Interviewing class I took last spring at USD, but I know that I didn’t. Oh well. The interview seemed to go well anyway. After I finished with that, I helped with the remainder of strike, which is the photo you see above.

Wednesday brought the end of our Muscatine visit and another travel day. After some morning discussions and lectures, we left on our four-hour drive to Burlington, Wisconsin. Along the way, we watched “Wedding Crashers,” one of comedy’s greats, and most of “Once Upon A Time in Mexico,” an interesting movie that the verdict is still out on for me. I’d never seen it before, and it’s hard to catch nuances of movies on a bus. We arrived in cold Burlington, and I quickly found out that I didn’t have a roommate I would be staying with, a first for me in the “on the road” experience. I met my host family, Paul and Rhonda Sullivan and their two kids Jake and Alex. They even had another host sibling – Jorge from Paraguay. We went over to another host family’s (they were hosting Chris from Hawaii and Tucker from Denver) house to have a combined dinner. They host dad is an amazing recreational chef, and he cooked us tossed up lasagna and spaghetti and Italian sausage and cheese garlic bread. Mmmmmmm. I pretty sure I ate too much. After that, we all went back to my host family’s place and settled in for the night.

Thursday brought Community Impact day for the cast, and we worked most of the day with our beneficiary – Love, Inc., which is (simply put) a food pantry, thrift store, and transitional housing shelter. Some of the other cast also went to Mount Carmel, a senior living home, and worked with residents there. I, on the other hand, was on the sign-out list for the day, and worked on dance in the morning and then vocals in the afternoon. For dance, we worked on “World Celebration,” which involves swaying and scarves. Fun. (Yes, yes. There was sarcasm there.) Honestly, I’m not a big fan of the dance for the song, but hey that how it goes sometimes, right? Right. In the afternoon, as I mentioned, I worked on vocals, which I liked considering all the mike group work I had to do in the last show.

Friday was show day in Burlington, and we spent the entire day in high school there, setting up our stage in the gymnasium since their auditorium simply was not big enough. This brought an interesting challenge from a set up perspective because of the openness of the venue. We had to use a LOT of curtains so that the Burlingtonians didn’t get a peep show instead of an UWP show :) While most people were either on set-up or workshops, I was on the fitness crew – basically a fill time for people extra people in the cast. Since they didn’t need more people on set-up, and I had done dance and vocal workshops the day before, that squarely put me in fitness. We were left to lead our own fitness, the fifteen of us that were on it. Cody from Denver led some of us in an ab workout that I’m regretting right now. After that, we played a few games and then meditated (also known as sleeping). It was great really. Relaxing. Care-free. I like it. The afternoon brought rehearsal, just like always, and I found myself again in mike groups for most of the show. Soon, rehearsal was over and the show was beginning. AJ stopped in and said hello to the cast, and we were all very happy to see him. He got to sit in the first row and watch the show. The first half of the show went smoothly, all up until the last song of the half – “Keep the Beat.” I was standing on mike groups when all the sound suddenly kicked out. No band. No vocals. Nothing. The cast, however, didn’t miss a beat. We kept right on going. Our tempo never wavered, we filled what was suppose to be an instrumental interlude with cheers and such, and picked the vocals back up all on cue. It was AMAZING to see us all pull together in that sudden, unexpected moment. Even as I was standing up on the mike group platform, I could see everyone’s game faces stay on and their dancing keep together. It. Was. Great. We broke for intermission, fixed the sound problem, and came back to re-perform “Keep the Beat” with no problems. After that, show went on great, without any other hitches. After the show, I was on admissions interviews again, which went rather quickly. Once I finished, I joined a fitness/yoga group (again, a group of extra people from the cast) and had fun with them, talking and such.

Saturday was a regional learning day, at least for the morning. We spent our pre-lunch time at a local dairy farm, learning about the dairy business and seeing all the different parts of the process. For the many people who had never been on the farm, the most common comment was, “I never realized cows were so big!” I had to laugh a couple times when people commented on the manure smell, mainly because that same smell reminded me of being back home. The silage helped with that, too. The cast also got a chance to see a bunch of the newborn calves as well, which everyone enjoyed. I sort of started something when I had a calf suck on my finger. After that, others joined in and then peer-pressured others into doing it. Quite fun. After the dairy farm tour, we went back to Burlington and had a few meetings and group discussions, the last one about the five stages of group dynamics, which I thought was a well-received discussion that made people think about how we, as a cast, want to interact with each other, as well as put a name to the different dynamics we are experiencing as a large group. After all of that, my host family picked me up from the Veteran’s Community Center, and we all went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant. I had never had Japanese food, so I knew right away this would be an interesting experience, but one I should challenge myself to experience. When we got there, I ordered a dish whose name I can’t remember but basically it was a steak stir-fry. It was good. But before we got our main entrees, we had some appetizers – sushi. I’d never had sushi before, so it was definitely an interesting experience. I ended up trying about five different kinds of sushi, most of which I enjoyed. In fact, I don’t think I hated any of them. During the night, I even learned how to eat with chopsticks, and I also had fried ice cream – which I’m a new fan of. Yum. After that, we all went back to their place and watch “American Gangster” – an interesting, albeit long film.

Today was host family day, which meant I could sleep in and I did. Once I got up, we all went to Milwaukee, which wasn’t too far away, and to the famous art museum that is there. The building itself was designed by a famous architect who had never designed a building in the United States before this one. It was such a cool building. It had a large triangle portion of windows that would be covered up by sails during the evening and then opened up like sails during the day to let in the light. It was very cool to look at, as well as the art that was inside. Some of it was a little boring, which artwork can be sometimes, but other parts were cool too. After the art museum, we all went to “Vantage Point” in the theatres, which was an intriguing mystery/action movie. Afterwards, we went back to Burlington and ate at Fred’s Burgers (?) home of the “World’s Best Burger.” Honestly, it was a good burger, but I’m not sure it was the best. Eh :) After dinner and evening church, we went over to Chris and Tucker’s host family’s place where I learned how to play a couple guitar chords and we at some amazing chocolate, macadamia nut pie. Delicious.

Tomorrow, we’re leaving for Chicago at about 8:30 am. It’s only about an hour and a half drive, but we’re playing to spend the rest of the day at Navy Pier and do some regional learning/tourism stuff. It should be really interesting!

Until my next post!

Dan