I know it's only been a few days, but I'm going to post again straight-away before I get bogged down again with something else that keeps me away from this blog! After all, who knows what posting will be like in Thailand, and it is fast approaching, so I'd best post while I can!
Well, even though I posted on Friday, I last talked about what happened on Wednesday of the week, so I'll pick up with Thursday. Thursday, as mentioned earlier, was a CI day, and for me it was at St. Jude's Children's Ranch again. We finished up the room that we'd been working on the day before, and we also organized some other things around that building. In between all of this, we cleaned all around the building -- sinks, bathrooms, etc. Two of the bathrooms we cleaned hadn't been touched in a couple years, I was told, so we cleaned that all up. After an amazing lunch of chicken nuggets and mac and cheese, we tidied up a few other things and then were able to just sit back and relax. We ended up leaving a bit early, picking up the other St. Jude's site people, and stopping off at a Walgreen's for some packaged ice cream -- a perfect way to end the day. Mmmmm.
Friday was show day for the cast, and I was especially excited for this because I was going to be able to watch the show for the first time! A perk of being on Advanced Work. While the cast was moving through the regular motions of set-up, workshops, fitness, and rehearsal, I was working with the advanced team putting together show flyers, surveys for the audience, and making sure meals arrived alright. In the end, it was a fairly lazy day for myself. Green room came and went; it definitely reminded me of how much I missed show days! Finally the show started with all its pomp and energy...wow! It was SO cool to watch everyone filter in during the opening of Ayiko, to see the entire song and such. I'm always backstage for this song, getting ready to come on for the next song, "Step into the World," so it was VERY cool to see how this song looks. Definitely jazzes up the room!! The rest of the show proceeded amazing; I found myself extremely entertained throughout it, and almost feeling like a proud parent watching their children strutting their stuff. Odd feeling, but I spose the analogy gives you a sense of my pride. There was one awkward moment in the show where our cast manager, Martin, forgot to come on a give the verbal transition for the cast. So, the cast ended up standing on the stage awkwardly, until Jared (our lighting tech guy) cued the lights out for the cast so they could get off :) After the show, the cast did a superstrike in attempts to beat their record previously set in the semester, but fell short about three minutes. However, I was told that the strike crew was not near as full as it had been last time, so they still accomplished a lot by getting that good of a time -- 57 minutes, I believe.
Saturday followed Friday, starting off a bit later since it was coming after a show day. We were all a bit thankful for that, though it was still tough to get out of bed. We took off for CI soon enough, and I returned to St. Jude's again, ready to wash their vehicles. But when we arrived, they told us we would be going with them to their barbeque and returning at about 1:30 to wash the vehicles. We were happy to comply, never one to turn down food. But after an amazing lunch of BBQ'd chicken and corn and sausages and the like, we didn't leave for St. Jude's until about 3 pm, putting us late for our return to the cast and no time to wash vehicles. I think we were all a bit disappointed by this, but there wasn't really much we could do about it, unfortunately. We still had a fun CI day, but it didn't feel very productive for us.
Sunday brought host family day for me, and since I was staying with my friend Annette, we had been talking throughout the week on what we could do. We decided, e
ventually, to take a roadtrip to watch one of Annette's favorite things -- NHL hockey. The Dallas Stars were playing at home in Dallas, in a quarter final playoff game. They were ahead 3-2 in the seven game series, which meant that if they won the game they would move on to face the Red Wings. The trip to Dallas was between 3.5 to 4 hrs, so we left for the game at about 3 pm, stopping once for some Sonic dinner. Mmmm. We arrived to the crazy scene at the American Airlines Arena, found our seats at the very top of the building, and settled in for the game. It opened with an amazing show of sound, light, and pyrotechnics, and before long the game the started at 8 pm. For those who don't know, there are 3 periods in hockey, each 
lasting 20 minutes long with 18 minute breaks in between. So a regular game of hockey lasts about two hours between time outs, penalties, and such. Neither team scored until the third period, and then they both scored one goal, sending the game into overtime. In overtime, the clock works about the same: 20 minute periods with 15 minute breaks in between periods should more be needed. The game extended out not one, not two, not three, but FOUR overtime periods!!! The Stars finally scored a goal in the middle of the fourth overtime period (the seventh in the game) to end it and send them forward in the playoff race for the Stanley Cup. The arena went crazy! Streamers flew, the crowd cheered, people danced. Nuts. Unfortunately for Annette and I, we did not get out of the stadium and on the road back to San Marcos until about 2 am. If you do the math, adding in the 3.5 drive, we did not get back home until 5:30 am. I had to be up to leave at 6:30. So. There was no point in going to bed. I stayed up and packed and wrote cards and other odd ends. Annette crashed for about an hour, and then woke up to drop me off. We said our goodbyes, 
realizing this would be the last time we'd see each other for the next 2.5 years (she's leaving for the Peace Corps in June), and then I hopped on the bus. We all got on the road at about 8:30, all set for the three hour drive to The Woodlands. I dozed off in my seat for about 45 minutes before my neck could no longer take the odd angle it had to rest at if I was to sleep. I ended up watching "Juno" for a while and then talking with my bus date, Sara Persson from Sweden. We arrived in The Woodlands, a planned community (not a city), at about 1:30-2 pm, toured a welcome center to get a better idea of the community, and then went to our allocation site to watch a speaker. The speaker, who's name I sadly do not remember, was a man working in NASA on designing space suits for the Constellation project NASA is doing. Basically, he's trying to combine a bunch of the different suits that NASA uses on its astronauts into just one suit. A tall order, I realized, after he explained some of the basic mechanics of all the suits. In the end, it was a facinating lecture. Finally, we all deciphered our host code (which was the answer to a space oriented crossword clue) and found our host families. I found mine with my roommate, Leo from Venezuela, and we drove back to their place to have dinner and settle in. I surprisingly, was still able to carry on conversation and be presentable, despite the fact I'd been up for about 33 hrs at that point. After dinner, however, I did excuse myself from them and I crashed in my room. Needless to say, it did not take me long to fall asleep. All in all, though, I was surprised at how long I was able to go without sleep. No doubt, I felt very goofy at points, but I still managed through everything.
ventually, to take a roadtrip to watch one of Annette's favorite things -- NHL hockey. The Dallas Stars were playing at home in Dallas, in a quarter final playoff game. They were ahead 3-2 in the seven game series, which meant that if they won the game they would move on to face the Red Wings. The trip to Dallas was between 3.5 to 4 hrs, so we left for the game at about 3 pm, stopping once for some Sonic dinner. Mmmm. We arrived to the crazy scene at the American Airlines Arena, found our seats at the very top of the building, and settled in for the game. It opened with an amazing show of sound, light, and pyrotechnics, and before long the game the started at 8 pm. For those who don't know, there are 3 periods in hockey, each 
lasting 20 minutes long with 18 minute breaks in between. So a regular game of hockey lasts about two hours between time outs, penalties, and such. Neither team scored until the third period, and then they both scored one goal, sending the game into overtime. In overtime, the clock works about the same: 20 minute periods with 15 minute breaks in between periods should more be needed. The game extended out not one, not two, not three, but FOUR overtime periods!!! The Stars finally scored a goal in the middle of the fourth overtime period (the seventh in the game) to end it and send them forward in the playoff race for the Stanley Cup. The arena went crazy! Streamers flew, the crowd cheered, people danced. Nuts. Unfortunately for Annette and I, we did not get out of the stadium and on the road back to San Marcos until about 2 am. If you do the math, adding in the 3.5 drive, we did not get back home until 5:30 am. I had to be up to leave at 6:30. So. There was no point in going to bed. I stayed up and packed and wrote cards and other odd ends. Annette crashed for about an hour, and then woke up to drop me off. We said our goodbyes, 
realizing this would be the last time we'd see each other for the next 2.5 years (she's leaving for the Peace Corps in June), and then I hopped on the bus. We all got on the road at about 8:30, all set for the three hour drive to The Woodlands. I dozed off in my seat for about 45 minutes before my neck could no longer take the odd angle it had to rest at if I was to sleep. I ended up watching "Juno" for a while and then talking with my bus date, Sara Persson from Sweden. We arrived in The Woodlands, a planned community (not a city), at about 1:30-2 pm, toured a welcome center to get a better idea of the community, and then went to our allocation site to watch a speaker. The speaker, who's name I sadly do not remember, was a man working in NASA on designing space suits for the Constellation project NASA is doing. Basically, he's trying to combine a bunch of the different suits that NASA uses on its astronauts into just one suit. A tall order, I realized, after he explained some of the basic mechanics of all the suits. In the end, it was a facinating lecture. Finally, we all deciphered our host code (which was the answer to a space oriented crossword clue) and found our host families. I found mine with my roommate, Leo from Venezuela, and we drove back to their place to have dinner and settle in. I surprisingly, was still able to carry on conversation and be presentable, despite the fact I'd been up for about 33 hrs at that point. After dinner, however, I did excuse myself from them and I crashed in my room. Needless to say, it did not take me long to fall asleep. All in all, though, I was surprised at how long I was able to go without sleep. No doubt, I felt very goofy at points, but I still managed through everything.Today was our first CI day here in The Woodlands, and I was at a site tearing out a deck. We tore it out, leveled up the foundation a bit, and begun digging trenches for the "foundation" to sit on. Long story short: because of different licensing things, we have make the deck very low to the ground and thus build it the hard way. It's sort of hard to describe. I'll try and get picks to add to this :) On top of digging this, we had to cut through the webbing roots that were interwoven throughout the ground. For those who've tried to cut through thick roots with a shovel understand my pain. But, by the end of the day we'd made some progress, and we'll be going back to finish the job tomorrow and Thursday. I definitely want to finish this project with time to spare -- it's kind of UWP's em-oh to do more than our CI's think we can. So. That's our goal.
Tomorrow, as I mentioned, will be CI day, as will Thursday. Friday is our regional learning day, and we're traveling to Galveston, Texas to check out the beach along the Gulf Coast, which the cast is absolutely stoked about!!! Myself included! Saturday will be our show day, set in the amazing amphatheatre here in The Woodlands, which can hold 17,000 people. So. Kinda big. And finally, Sunday will be our host family day. Plenty of fun things to do in the next week, so I'll be sure to keep you all up to date!
Until my next post!
Dan
1 comment:
I kick you, hi-ya, for not updating! (and beacause it's fun)
Post a Comment