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