First REAL day

I am so beat! For some reason, my body refused to sleep properly last night and I only got about five hours of sleep after all the tossing, turning and waking up for water I did. I felt badly for my roommate, as we share a same bed, but she said she didn't notice my constant movement.
Despite only getting a few hours shut-eye, I was energized throughout our first REAL day in Up with People. The past two (Sunday and Saturday) we have had "off" and I have spent my time with my awesome host family. But today, Mirof (my Ethiopian roommate) and I woke at 6:30, grabbed some quick breakfast (and some sweet lattes that Matt, my host dad, made us) and caught the 7:27 bus to Denver. We arrived downtown thirty minutes later and in the space of that time I had made a new friend; Sarah from Sweeden. The three of us walked the seven or so blocks down the walking mall towards the Sherman building where we spent the rest of our day.
The Sherman building is a beautiful old temple, six stories high. We had activities on nearly all the floors today, so we got some great exercise tromping up and down the stairs. I'll have to take some pictures of the building to show you the grandeur...
We spent the morning playing "get to know you" games that were TONS of fun and really seemed to loosen everyone up. The games definitely helped as a memory aid for the ninty-seven names I have to learn. Now instead of only knowing three other student's names, I know sixteen. Yes, I counted.
After re-introducing myself multiple times to the same people and being totally embarrassed when I realized I was having REAL deja vu, we had about an hour of really boring intro stuff that seemed completely common sense to me like: "Talk to your host family," "make sure to ask before you use the host family's phone or computer," "smoke outside unless your host family says it's OK to smoke inside," etc. Then, lunch. Despite my host sisters telling me that the past students had said the food was awful in UP with People, I was quite impressed by the salad, vegetables, oranges and apples and pasta they provided. Not half bad...
The afternoon was filled with a briefing on culture and on American culture in particular. We split into groups of about nine each and came up with ways to demonstrate for our audience (the rest of the students) certain "American" customs. My group had "visitation." Basically we had to depict the polite and rude ways of visiting someone. We did a little skit that was quite fun. I wish I had some of the other student's skits on video, some were VERY entertaining.
The rest of the afternoon until 5:30 we talked about the coming days. Tomorrow, we start "modules" which are basically auditions. I guess they call them "modules" because it sounds less scary and competitive than "auditions." I'm just happy I get to dance tomorrow! I'm hoping I'll get to be one of the main dancers, that would be great.


Love to all,
Marina