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
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