Mexico City and the Return to the States

Hello all!

Unfortunately, it’s been a while since I’ve posted…sorry about that. It’s been a busy last week and a half, so I’ll try and streamline it for you so you (and I) aren’t up forever reading and writing this :)

So I left off at with my first Thursday in Mexico City. Friday came as Fridays usually do, and we took a trip to see President’s residence – Los Pinos. We took a great tour of the facility and learned a lot about Mexican history through the view of the presidential office. We even got to meet the First Lady of Mexico for about fifteen minutes. She was one of the most humble people I’ve ever met! Kind, warm, and seemed almost intimidated in meeting Viva la Gente. We got to sing “Viva la Gente” to her, which was cool, and then she had to get back to work. We finished our tour of Los Pinos, and made our way back to our facility for the day, where we had a BTS lined up for some press. We arrived in short order and changed into costume, and put on the best BTS we’d ever done (according to the staff). Two of our staff members were brought to tears! After the BTS, we called it a day and went home.

Saturday came – our first host family day in Mexico. AJ and I’s host dad, however, had surgery all day, which meant we were left to ourselves all day. This was not a bad thing – free time is ALWAYS welcome! Our host dad was about to step away for a while to take us to lunch, where I had some Mexican pizza – which was a corn tortilla crust, with cheese and sauce and some black stuff. Our host dad wouldn’t tell us what the black stuff was until we tried it. After AJ and I did, he told us that, essentially, it was corn mold. Mmmmm. I thought it kind of looked like it, but tried it anyway. After lunch, I spent most of the day relaxing and watching “The Office” on my computer – it was great!

Sunday was our first show day in Mexico City – and it was a double show day to boot. But it sped along nice and fast, and the crowds in both were explosively amazing! They reacted just as much or more to the entire show as Monterrey – it was SO cool! They called for an encore quickly (by shouting “otra!”), and we delivered with a medley of our songs from throughout the show – “Ayiko,” “Mexico,” and “Estaremos.” Both shows were nearly sold out, an amazing thing to see while performing!

Monday brought a shift in my schedule from the rest of the cast. I had been asked on Friday if I would be interested in doing advanced work for Up with People in New Braunfels, Texas – the first city after our tour in Mexico. I thought about it over the weekend and decided to accept the opportunity. I found out on Monday it was confirmed that I could get to do it. I would leave a week from that day, and Monday was spent doing advanced work training. For those who don’t remember from my earlier posts, advanced work is where students leave the cast to go ahead of them and set up a city. Usually they leave two weeks before the cast is scheduled to arrive, which is why I was set to leave the next Monday. My castmate I would be working with is Maiken from Denmark, a quirky and amazing girl who makes anything fun! So anyway – I did advanced work training all day long. We learned about different things we’d need to focus on – Community Impact, Admissions, Promotion, Facilities, etc. Basically everything. Many of the staff members sat down with us and gave us their spiel on there needs and wants for each city. Between all of this, I also did a BTS since we were all at DIF doing CI. Good times.

Tuesday brought another Regional Learning day for the cast. We took a tour of Chapultepec Castle (see website for historical info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapultepec_Castle), which was cool to see, although we could take many pictures inside the place. So, took them from the outside and called it good. After that, we walked from the castle to the Angel of Independence in along Reforma in downtown Mexico City. Beautiful. We had a large cast picture with a sponsor, who refurbished the statue for the city. It was a good time. Especially crossing the roundabout the surrounds the statue – we had to run in between light changes in groups, since there was no crosswalk, and no one stops for pedestrians in Mexico. We all made it across and back, though, safe and sound.

Wednesday was another regional learning day for the cast – this time it was a guided tour around to different spots in downtown Mexico City. We saw some large, old government buildings, some churches, and what was left of the ancient Aztec pyramid located in downtown Mexico City (which was built upon its ruins after the conquest of Cortez). Unfortunately, I was not feeling so hot that day – I think I ate something wrong, or didn’t drink enough fluids the day before. I was exhausted all day long, and the pounding sun with walking all around the city didn’t help much. By the end of the day, I crashed in my bed, slept from 8-10, at dinner, then fell asleep again and slept until about 9:30 the next morning. BUT! I felt a lot better the next day, so perhaps I was just really tired.

Thursday brought a departure from the cast for myself and my roommate, AJ. Our host dad, Luis Enrique, had mentioned wanting to take us to Acapulco while we were in Mexico. So, with permission from the cast staff, we departed Thursday morning for a three-day stay in Acapulco, which was about three hours away. So while the cast was having an internal day on Thursday, and a CI day on Friday, we were relaxing in Acapulco! Our trip over to Acapulco went mostly uneventful, until we reached a small city (the last one before Acapulco) where we were stopped in the middle of the high in the beginnings of the town by a protest line who had stopped all traffic. What a mess! The group was a bunch of workers protesting low wages, but in Mexico (like the U.S.) protests and strikes are only legal so long as they are peaceful and unobstructive. This was most DEFINITELY obstructive!! Cars immediately started turning around and going backward on the highway to try and detour around, traffic was backed up for miles. What was a few minute drive through a city turned into a forty minute detour. Our host dad tried to talk some sense into them, but some guy on a megaphone started shouting at the all of the protesters that we were trying to get through, so they all started to surround our car. A few of them started pounding on it, and messing with it, so finally we had to back off and go around. A police car showed up, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Let’s face it – he’s only one guy against, essentially, a mob. And armed or not, a mob acts differently than any single person would. They are far bolder, and situations are far more explosive. So the cop sat there – about all he could do. We detoured around, like I said, somehow we’ve through the city to get our way back to Acapulco. Eventually, we arrived at the city, which didn’t look much different from Mexico City to me. Perhaps more like Monterrey, on reflection, because it is a bit more commercialized than Mexico City, but still – the Mexican culture showed through in everything. We drove to our hotel, grabbed our room key, and made our way up. We opened the door, and my jaw dropped. Our balcony window had a view that captured the entire length of beach within a cove at Acapulco. All along the beach were hotels and apartments, accenting the touristy feel of the place. It was absolutely gorgeous. And, the first time I had ever seen the ocean. Beautiful! We settled in and took advantage of the great weather by swimming for the remainder of the afternoon. For the next couple days, we all slept in only to finally get up and go down to the beach to lay some more. Needless to say, I got a sunburn. But, it wasn’t nearly as bad as AJ’s :) Overall Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were full of relaxation, sun, and swimming. It was great!

We arrived back into Mexico City Saturday evening, settled back into our host dad’s apartment and got ready for our show day tomorrow. Sunday morning came earlier than it should (or perhaps it just seemed that way because we’d been able to sleep in the days before). We traveled for about two hours to get to our show facility, and did a super-set up because the truck broke down and showed up late. Plus, the facility had a lot of stairs and no way to get equipment to the stage without traversing them. So, we got to carry a lot of heavy things down stairs. Thankfully I wasn’t on strike, because then I would have had to carry them back up :) After our super set up, the cast broke into their different groups for a few hours, came back together for lunch, then began rehearsal in the afternoon. All went well, and showtime came right on schedule. The show itself went well, I thought – my last Mexican show since I was set to leave the next day for New Braunfels, Texas. It was fun doing the Mexican Medley one last time. We wrapped the show up nice with an encore, and broke into our different tasks for the evening. I did an interview, then spent the evening saying quiet goodbyes to people – many of whom didn’t realize I was leaving the next day.

Monday morning came far quicker than the morning before, probably because I was up a few hours after host pick-up packing my suitcase just right for the plane flight back to the States. I got dropped off at the same place as the rest of the cast, so I was able to say goodbye to some of the others in the cast. AJ and Katie Mears sang Maiken and I a goodbye song, which was really cool. We waved goodbye, hopped into the Up with People van, and took off for the Mexico City airport. When we finally arrived (which took a while because of traffic and the simple difficulty of finding it – there are no signs in Mexico), Maiken and I found out we were both 5 kilos overweight (about 10 pounds)! The overage charge for each of us would have been $120, but thankfully we were able to check two suitcases, and vendor in the airport sold large bags that we could buy, fill, then seran-wrap for flight. We both dumped out extra weight in the bag, which put our suitcases under the weight maximum, and check our three bags. The extra bag cost $36 -- $18 each! So I think we saved a bit of money. We made our way through security, and eventually onto our flight out of Mexico City. As we took off, I was really able to see the VASTNESS of the city – it is huge!! We landed on time in Houston, Texas, and made our way to the customs line to officially enter into the U.S. The process went smoothly; however, since the line was so long, we missed our connecting flight to San Antonio. But once we were through customs, we went to the flight counter and got booked for another flight (which was only in another hour) and got a chance to relax until then. Eventually we got onto our second flight, took off, and landed nearly as soon as we were up. We gathered our luggage and found Ryan, one of our Field Managers (FM) in New Braunfels. He greeted us warmly and we left San Antonio for the much smaller town of New Braunfels. We met up with Karen (our other FM), who was meeting with the New Braunfels City Council, and they both took us to our host family in New Braunfels. We all had an amazing dinner of beef, ribs, and fish – mmmm! After that, Ryan and Karen left for their host family for the night, and Maiken and I hit the sack.

So. I’ve been here in New Braunfels for about a week now, and I’ve been doing a lot of stuff. Really. I’ve been working on getting this city ready for the cast. We’ve got some pretty cool stuff up our sleeves, and I think that the cast will be excited when the get here. But to protect the surprises we have in store, I’m not going to talk about anything more. In short, I’m not really going to be posting for the next few days. Don’t worry though – I’ll keep notes down so that I can relay everything AFTER the cast gets here and such; but until then, you’ll just have to wait :)

Until my next post!

Dan

La Ciudad de Mexico!

Hello all!

Here's what's been happening for the past few days in Mexico!

Our Sunday started quite early -- at about 7:30 a.m. in fact. We had a long list of items to take of to be sure the show was ready for 4 p.m. After morning meeting, we quickly moved straight into rehearsal of the new Mexican Medley -- blocking, entrance cues, exitting cues, overall transitions, etc. It was a logistical mess in the sense of trying to coordinate that many people in that short amount of time -- but our staff but their best effort out there. We ran a bit late into our lunchtime, which was okay since our lunch was late, but that meant sacrificing some prep time before the show. But, by the end of our rehearsal, we were far more ready than we had been before. Lunch came and went, and we all prepared for the show. Our green room went well, and soon I found myself backstage listening to our opening song "Ayiko" and waiting for my entrance on "Step into the World." The first big difference for us as a cast to get use to was that all the emcees were in Spanish. This totally makes sense, but suddenly we couldn't listen to the emcees for our cues to come on or leave. This made it slightly more difficult, but then again we're all smart people so we figured it out :) The show moved along great, and the crowd really seemed to be getting into it. By the time we reached the Mexican Medley in the second half of the show, we could really feel the crowd responding to us. After the medley we moved straight into "Estaremos," or "We'll Be There" and finished with our "Up with People" number -- "Viva la Gente" here in Mexico. When we finished, the crowd called for an encore, and we greatly abliged with "De Que Color Es la Piel de Dios" -- "What Color is God's Skin," a classic Viva la Gente song that all of Mexico loves. So, they enjoyed that :) After the first show, some of us were put onto admissions for those people interested in joining Up with People. I, fortunately, was not on admissions, so I had about a half hour to relax before our next green room. We got our minds in the right place for the show, and went out ready to go. I have to admit that it was strange doing another show so quickly. But, at the same time, it provided a great opportunity to fix any personal mistakes from the first show. I, personally, thought the second show went better. The crowd seemed EXTREMELY into it. In the second half of the show, I’m up on microphone groups for the second poet moment/ “I Can Believe” and halfway through it people in the crowd pulled out their cell phones and started swaying them in the air like lighters. By the end of the song, I was staring out into a sea of blue lights swaying all around in a pitch black void the crowd was seated in. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. In that moment, I wished I had had a camera to take a picture or video to show everyone what I saw. It was unbelievably beautiful and motivating. It was as if in that moment everyone in the audience felt the emotion that song was conveying. They were with us, and we were with them – a moment of connectivity. I was so amazingly energized from that moment, I cannot even begin to describe it. It is safe to say, however, that I rocked out the most I ever have in the next song “World Celebration.” It was so cool! That moment really set the tone of the cast. When we reached the Mexican Medley, we were all completely energized, and the crowd responded, fueling us even more. They all seemed to LOVE the medley we put together for them. It was cool to look out and see the different age generations react to the different songs. Absolutely invigorating! After the show finished, I was assigned to admissions/interviews, so that’s what I did. I ended up only having to do one interview, even though we had over twenty applications. After I finished, I ended up helping strike load the truck until we all had to leave with our host families. Once I got back to my host family’s place, I had to pack my suitcase yet and make sure all was ready for our trip to Mexico City. Needless to say, I did not get to bed until about 3:30 a.m. And we had to get up the next morning at about 5:45. Ugh. I was a bit out of it the next morning when we all loaded the buses for Mexico City. But, I was able to sleep a bit. Our drive lasted about 12 hours – our longest yet on tour. The sad part was that our AC cut out a bit four hours into the ride, making it a bit warm and adding to our discomfort. But, we arrived safe and sound. One other thing of interest on our trip – whenever we made a bathroom stop along the way, we were all surprised to find that we had to pay 2 pesos to use the public restroom – something very common Mexico. Needless to say, after a warm, uncomfortable ride, some of us were not happy to have to pay to use a bathroom :) Once we arrived at our allocation point, I found out that I was living in the south part of Mexico City. Since Mexico is the largest city in the world (in area) and the second largest in population, we were all split up into two groups: north and south. I was, as I mentioned, in the south, and roomed with AJ from Wisconsin, which has been working out great. Our host dad, a facial surgeon, picked us up at the south drop off point, and both AJ and I unpacked a bit for our two week stay in Mexico City. We’re staying in this city for two weeks because Acapulco was dropped from our tour. This works out alright because there is SO much to see in Mexico City, and now we have more of a chance to see it all.

Tuesday brought our first day in Mexico City, and it was also our first Regional Learning day there. We started off the morning a bit early, since we had to all take into account the crazy and ever-busy traffic in Mexico City, but eventually we were off to our regional learning location – Teotihuacán, the pyramid site just outside of Mexico City. For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan. It took us about an hour to get there, but once we arrived, we were all kept silent in awe – it was SO cool!! There were two main pyramids, the Sun Pyramid and the Moon Pyramid, the taller of the two being the Sun Pyramid. It didn’t take too long to climb either, though we were definitely winded by the time we got up there – after all, Mexico City is about a mile and a half above sea level! I took a TON of pictures, and plenty of video as well. I’m posting some up here, but the rest will just have to be viewed when get home – yes? :) We were able to stay there for about two and a half hours, exploring the ruins and such. I’ll let the pictures explain… After Teotihuacán, we all boarded our buses again and went to downtown Mexico City to see Munal – the Museum of Art in Mexico City. That was another AMAZING place, with brilliant paintings, some about four or five hundred years old. We toured the museum for a couple hours, and the boarded the buses again to head home for the day.

Wednesday was our first CI day in Mexico City. We were divided up between north and south again – the south going to Xochitla, an ecological park, and the north doing Stand for Peace in bilingual schools. Since I was on the south, I did Xochitla, a beautiful oasis in the pavement desert of Mexico City. There were trees accented by gorgeous flowers of all different kinds, open grass spaces, and ponds. Xochitla is an environmental organization that has been working in their area on water conservation (a very serious problem in Mexico City) as well as plant and wildlife preservation. We spent most of the morning learning about the organization and their difficult process of cleaning water to be used just for maintaining their plant life. After that, we worked for a few hours potting plants to be put in the greenhouses, and also planting flowers ready to leave the greenhouse. Overall, the day was extremely educational – it was amazing to learn the extremely difficult and expensive processes one must go through to purify water just to be used by plant life. That water isn’t quite good enough for humans! And the water they were purifying was the “cleanest” dirty water, known as grey water (water that’s been used in showers, dishwashers, clothes washers, etc.)

Today was a promotion day for our show on Sunday. We spent the day at a local university – Anahuac, a private Catholic university. We spent the morning rehearsing our mini show, and then performed the show in the early afternoon. Before we got to perform, however, the university put on a small mariachi presentation for us – demonstrating the music and dance of Mexico. After our mini show, we all joined about 200 students from the university in their cafeteria for a lunch full of traditional Mexican dishes – delicious! After lunch, we socialized with the students, describing what Up with People was and encouraging them to come to our show on Sunday. At about 4, we went back to their auditorium for our wrap up, and then enjoyed a version of “Romeo and Juliet,” performed by the students of the college entirely in Spanish, which was very interesting. The play itself had a slightly modern twist to it, and it also had music accompanying it, turning it into more of a musical. It was VERY good!!

Tomorrow, the cast is traveling to meet the President of Mexico in his home in Mexico City. We will also be meeting his wife, and other prominent members of the Mexican government. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am! It’s not every day one can say their going to meet a president!! Hopefully I’ll be able to get some pictures and post them up later. I’m not sure how security will work, but one can hope!!

Until my next post!

Dan