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