Oh My Gosh. This week has been absolutely INCREDIBLE. After wishing for ever to be hosted with a ton of people all together, I finally found myself rooming with nine other students on a ranch in Texas. The ranch has three cabins/bungalos, we're not sure what they are exactly, so hence the name, Camp Cabungalo. Each cabungalo has two rooms, each room two beds and its' own bathroom. On top of living in hotel style conditions with a ton of other awesome people, I got to share my room with my bff in the cast, Molly. We were so stoked to find out that we were rooming together. We basically knocked each other over from excitement when we found out.
This week was mostly amazingly fun. When we first arrived here at The Retreat (the REAL name of our ranch) we spent a good fifty minutes freaking out about how awesome it is and taking pictures. We had a huge bonfire and Molly, who also is a singer songwriter, and I played guitar and sang for a long time. We didn't sleep at all that night and we got to know this awesome chick Brittany a lot better. We stayed up all night drinking coffee, playing pool, laughing, making ridiculous videos, and generally having a ball. We didn't sleep for thirty-three hours, which was a record for me. The day after our all nighter we worked on our Mexico Medley, which is sweeeeet.
The week basically was night after night of late or all nighter coffee drinking, video making, bonfire dancing, amazingness. Last night we decorated plastic eggs and filled them with tea bags, almonds, uncooked noodles, and other random stuff we found in the kitchen. We then covered them in googly eyes and feathers. It seemed like every single evening when we returned to our haven, It was so soo cool to get to know more members of the cast much, much better.
Ah, it is now April 2nd and I've been in Mexico for nearly two weeks already! My last host family didn't have a computer or internet so I am only now finishing this blog.
The first week in Mexico was awesome. We were in Monterrey, where I lived with an alum of Up with People named Mayte, her two beatutiful, intelligent daughters Marisa and Mariana, their father Geno and their abuela (grandmother) Teresa. Mayte always said I fit right in because my name started with M. I got to be very close with Mariana who is 12. Everyone in the family spoke excellent English but insisted on speaking Spanish most of the time so I could improve. We played Scrabble a lot so I could learn new, important words like balde, which means bucket, and morro, which means purr. I feel like my head is getting back into the Spanish language and I understand a lot better than I did when I arrived.
Now we are in Mexico City and staying with a cool girl, Ana who's twenty years old and lives with her really nice abuela and aunt. Ana works at a gym that's in a really nice indoor/outdoor mall. Every night she picks my roommate Veronica (from Norway) and me up and we stay here until eleven o'clock. We drink coffee at Starbucks and talk endlessly. I continue to get exactly what I want as far as roommates and host families.
Being in Mexico has been harder than I expected. Maybe because it's so different from home and I've been semi cut off from communicating by cell or internet I have been feeling very homesick at times. In the US I didn't feel homesick hardly ever, and when I did think of home, I didn't feel very badly but here, it hits my harder than ever. I'm really grateful I have Veronica as my roommate for two weeks because we get along very well and I've been wanting to know her better for a long time.
Yesterday, we went to the pyramids at Teotuhican and I climbed the largest one, which is actually taller than the one in Egypt. It's so cool I can now say that I've climbed one of the seven wonders of the world.
onother exciting thing, on Friday, we get to meet the president of Mexico!
It's so cool and yet so challenging for me here. I'm learning a lot about myself, other people and the world. I'm really glad I'm here even though it's hard right now.
Hugs to all,
Marina
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Enid Oklahoma
Well, this is the second computer that refuses to recognize my camera, so, yet again I cannot share the awesome pictures I have.
We arrived in Enid on Thursday evening and are leaving tomorrow, Monday, morning. We had our show day on Friday, and had a better turn out than we expected. The theater we performed is one of the many that the fake John Wilkes Booth's body was displayed in. It is purportedly haunted, but I didn't see anything suspicious.
Tonight I experienced Black Walnut ice cream for the first time and a Cherry Lime-aid, both of which were fabulous.
Yesterday I finally got to learn one of my favorite dances, an African one called Gumboot! It was soooo much fun. It's really simple, but really cool. I think I'll be performing it in Mexico.
We finally know that our last city before Thailand will be Plano, Texas. I'm so excited to experience Texas...
The woman I'm staying with, Vicki, has a masters in handwriting analysis and this morning she gave me a crash course in how to interpret people's handwriting. She also talked about how writing certain ways can be therapeutic for the subconscious, and you can actually alter certain habitual thoughts and feelings through practicing your handwriting. Soooo cool! I'm staying with Kelsey from California and Gift from Thailand. I stayed with Kelsey in my last host family as well, but I'm really glad I've had her again as my roommate because the last city was a very short stay. She's talking to her family through iChat, which I still find perplexing and weird, and I have no idea how it works, but it's so cool.
Happy St. Patrick's day everybody!
-Marina
We arrived in Enid on Thursday evening and are leaving tomorrow, Monday, morning. We had our show day on Friday, and had a better turn out than we expected. The theater we performed is one of the many that the fake John Wilkes Booth's body was displayed in. It is purportedly haunted, but I didn't see anything suspicious.
Tonight I experienced Black Walnut ice cream for the first time and a Cherry Lime-aid, both of which were fabulous.
Yesterday I finally got to learn one of my favorite dances, an African one called Gumboot! It was soooo much fun. It's really simple, but really cool. I think I'll be performing it in Mexico.
We finally know that our last city before Thailand will be Plano, Texas. I'm so excited to experience Texas...
The woman I'm staying with, Vicki, has a masters in handwriting analysis and this morning she gave me a crash course in how to interpret people's handwriting. She also talked about how writing certain ways can be therapeutic for the subconscious, and you can actually alter certain habitual thoughts and feelings through practicing your handwriting. Soooo cool! I'm staying with Kelsey from California and Gift from Thailand. I stayed with Kelsey in my last host family as well, but I'm really glad I've had her again as my roommate because the last city was a very short stay. She's talking to her family through iChat, which I still find perplexing and weird, and I have no idea how it works, but it's so cool.
Happy St. Patrick's day everybody!
-Marina
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Oh where to begin...
The past week was awesome. Even when I was sick, it was awesome. It was actually more awesome BECAUSE I was sick. ok, so, last Monday we arrived in Chicago and we were all super stoked. I love Chicago and was excited to meet my new host family and roommate. I hoped to be staying close to the Downtown area and got my wish! I was in Old Town staying with Heather, an alumnus of Up with People. It was cool staying with someone who knew what we were going through because she was flexible with letting us do whatever we wanted. Whether we wanted to go out with her, meet friends or just stay home at night, she was cool with it. My roommate was Noa, a girl from Belgium. It was so cool to stay with her because she was someone I wouldn't have just gone up and tried to get to know otherwise. We became pretty close since we shared a bed and a very small room for a week.
On Tuesday, all of the cast went to inner city schools to do our High School version of Stand for Peace. I was nervous, but pleasantly surprised to find most of the students responsive and not only willing, but excited to participate. The first class my group and I facilitated, the teacher was AMAZING. He was a French and English teacher who jumped in and participated in the activities with his students. My team and I could tell that he had an awesome connection with his class. The next period was a free one for us, so we got to sit and chat with the awesome teacher. I've thought in passing about possibly teaching before, and talking with him made that passing thought stick a little. He talked about how he loves his job and can't wait to go to work in the mornings. I walked out of his classroom thinking that I could see myself teaching in the future.
Wednesday brought more school projects for half the cast and other community service for the rest of us. I went to help at the Gaia (the word means Earth in Latin) center where they recycle everything from clothing to baby strollers to books. I sorted through two huge boxes four times the size of a refrigerator of books and junk, sorting the paper products from the random stuff people had thrown in there. I salvaged about twelve new or nearly new books that my book loving heart couldn't bear to throw away. I keep them in a box on one of our buses as a sort of library. It felt great to know I was helping the recycling process along.
Thursday morning dawned bright and sunny and very very phlegmy. I had more Stand for Peace at the schools and didn't want to let my team down so I walked fifteen minutes with Noa and arrived at morning meeting worse off than when I left the townhouse. I nearly immediately turned around, went past the drug store to pick up Airborn (yes I know it's been proven not to work, but even if it was the placebo effect, it helped me!) and cough drops, past Einstein Brothers for some soup, and headed back home to bed. I basically slept the entire day, which was very boring but very restorative.
Friday came and my throat was dry, dry dry. I got up to get some water and felt like I was going to puke, tried to get to the bathroom, and then almost passed out. I spent who knows how long hunched over on the floor with my head to the ground regaining consciousness and trying not to cry. I was freaking out. My Aunt Kelly was coming to the show that night, I had to feel better, I had to be on stage that night. I toughed out the entire day of rehearsal, refusing to go home, insisting that I was feeling much much better (when I really wasn't) when our show manager Gabe tried to send me home. It was so worth it. That show meant more to me than any other I had done because I was doing it for my aunt. I knew she was in the audience and that meant more to me than anything. She's the reason I came to do Up with People. She traveled in '89 and last year when I was trying to decide what to do after high school, she encouraged me to do this. I'm so, so grateful to her. The show was meaningful because I felt like crap, because our venue had absolutely no backstage, so every time we had to cross over to the other side of the stage, we had to run outside, all the way around the back of the building. On top of it all, it was freezing backstage because of the doors being opened and closed constantly so once you were inside, it didn't feel much warmer than when you were running for you life around the building.
After the show, I made my way into the audience and found not only Aunt Kelly, but also Aunt Cathy, Nana, Uncle Gary, Mom and Dad! I was sooooo happy! I had slight suspicions that there may be someone else coming, but five more people?! It was soooo amazing to see all of them and know that I had stuck out a horrible day and sickness for all of them; it made the Chicago show ten times more meaningful.
The next day I woke up feeling much better and met my family for breakfast downtown. Mom took me shopping at H&M, which was AWESOME. I really want to get a job there next year. I found one close to Bard that I think I'll apply for. We spent some time in Nana's hotel room just talking, which was really nice and then we met Dad and Uncle Gary (who had gone to a museum exhibit) for dinner and a show. We saw the Improv Olymics which was super funny and fun. Afterwards we went to Ethyle's Chocolate Lounge where I had a delectable banana cupcake and stared in awe at all the colorful, sparkly, oddly shaped chocolates. I went home feeling very content and happy and found Noa and Heather making Belgian waffles. Ok, about Belgian waffles... I'm not a big waffle eater. Not like I have anything against waffles, I just don't get the chance or take the chance to eat them very often. And now, I don't thinki I"ll ever eat another unless it is a REAL Belgian waffle. It's no wonder American's pile syrup, whipped cream and fruit on their waffles, because they are very tasteless I realized. But the one's Noa made, warm off the iron, thick and spongey, tasted like a bite of heaven. After eating a few, Noa decided we shoud watch the Wizard of Oz because she wanted to see Wicked the next day but had never seen the Wizard of Oz and thought she might be lost if she didn't watch it first. Something I realized while watching it is that it's a very strange movie. I've grown up with the story of Dorothy, the Munchkins and the wicked witch of the west, but to someone who has never seen the film nor grown up around the culture of it, I can imagine it's quite strange. Especially Munchkinland. We got about half way through before we were all falling asleep and decided to call it a night.
Noa and I packed on Sunday morning before heading downtown to buy her a ticket to Wicked. I planned on meeting my family for lunch in Millennium Park, but bumped into them at the Wicked box office instead. They had decided on a whim to get tickets and go that afternoon! I was very excited for my mom to finally see it! My friend Jill and I saw it two years ago, but we couldn't get a ticket for mom. We went to lunch then to the show and it was awesome. We ate dinner at a pizza place and I got to meet up with my friend Hope from dance back in Georgia. She goes to school in Chicago now at the University of Illinois. After dinner we went to Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which is a show that Mom and I absolutely love and have seen four times now. The night closed with coffee at the hotel. As hugged everyone goodbye, I was surprised to find tears in my eyes. Saying goodbye hadn't been this hard before, I'm still not sure why it was then. The weekend had been a much needed and very nice respite from the craziness of Up with People.
Now, wer're in Missouri, or Misery as our bus driver Stan announced to us when we crossed the border. It's not so bad, but I'm looking forward to Mexico more than anything right now!
Now, I'm going to watch Veggie Tales with my roomie Kelsey and laugh my head off.
Go Cubs!
-Marina
The past week was awesome. Even when I was sick, it was awesome. It was actually more awesome BECAUSE I was sick. ok, so, last Monday we arrived in Chicago and we were all super stoked. I love Chicago and was excited to meet my new host family and roommate. I hoped to be staying close to the Downtown area and got my wish! I was in Old Town staying with Heather, an alumnus of Up with People. It was cool staying with someone who knew what we were going through because she was flexible with letting us do whatever we wanted. Whether we wanted to go out with her, meet friends or just stay home at night, she was cool with it. My roommate was Noa, a girl from Belgium. It was so cool to stay with her because she was someone I wouldn't have just gone up and tried to get to know otherwise. We became pretty close since we shared a bed and a very small room for a week.
On Tuesday, all of the cast went to inner city schools to do our High School version of Stand for Peace. I was nervous, but pleasantly surprised to find most of the students responsive and not only willing, but excited to participate. The first class my group and I facilitated, the teacher was AMAZING. He was a French and English teacher who jumped in and participated in the activities with his students. My team and I could tell that he had an awesome connection with his class. The next period was a free one for us, so we got to sit and chat with the awesome teacher. I've thought in passing about possibly teaching before, and talking with him made that passing thought stick a little. He talked about how he loves his job and can't wait to go to work in the mornings. I walked out of his classroom thinking that I could see myself teaching in the future.
Wednesday brought more school projects for half the cast and other community service for the rest of us. I went to help at the Gaia (the word means Earth in Latin) center where they recycle everything from clothing to baby strollers to books. I sorted through two huge boxes four times the size of a refrigerator of books and junk, sorting the paper products from the random stuff people had thrown in there. I salvaged about twelve new or nearly new books that my book loving heart couldn't bear to throw away. I keep them in a box on one of our buses as a sort of library. It felt great to know I was helping the recycling process along.
Thursday morning dawned bright and sunny and very very phlegmy. I had more Stand for Peace at the schools and didn't want to let my team down so I walked fifteen minutes with Noa and arrived at morning meeting worse off than when I left the townhouse. I nearly immediately turned around, went past the drug store to pick up Airborn (yes I know it's been proven not to work, but even if it was the placebo effect, it helped me!) and cough drops, past Einstein Brothers for some soup, and headed back home to bed. I basically slept the entire day, which was very boring but very restorative.
Friday came and my throat was dry, dry dry. I got up to get some water and felt like I was going to puke, tried to get to the bathroom, and then almost passed out. I spent who knows how long hunched over on the floor with my head to the ground regaining consciousness and trying not to cry. I was freaking out. My Aunt Kelly was coming to the show that night, I had to feel better, I had to be on stage that night. I toughed out the entire day of rehearsal, refusing to go home, insisting that I was feeling much much better (when I really wasn't) when our show manager Gabe tried to send me home. It was so worth it. That show meant more to me than any other I had done because I was doing it for my aunt. I knew she was in the audience and that meant more to me than anything. She's the reason I came to do Up with People. She traveled in '89 and last year when I was trying to decide what to do after high school, she encouraged me to do this. I'm so, so grateful to her. The show was meaningful because I felt like crap, because our venue had absolutely no backstage, so every time we had to cross over to the other side of the stage, we had to run outside, all the way around the back of the building. On top of it all, it was freezing backstage because of the doors being opened and closed constantly so once you were inside, it didn't feel much warmer than when you were running for you life around the building.
After the show, I made my way into the audience and found not only Aunt Kelly, but also Aunt Cathy, Nana, Uncle Gary, Mom and Dad! I was sooooo happy! I had slight suspicions that there may be someone else coming, but five more people?! It was soooo amazing to see all of them and know that I had stuck out a horrible day and sickness for all of them; it made the Chicago show ten times more meaningful.
The next day I woke up feeling much better and met my family for breakfast downtown. Mom took me shopping at H&M, which was AWESOME. I really want to get a job there next year. I found one close to Bard that I think I'll apply for. We spent some time in Nana's hotel room just talking, which was really nice and then we met Dad and Uncle Gary (who had gone to a museum exhibit) for dinner and a show. We saw the Improv Olymics which was super funny and fun. Afterwards we went to Ethyle's Chocolate Lounge where I had a delectable banana cupcake and stared in awe at all the colorful, sparkly, oddly shaped chocolates. I went home feeling very content and happy and found Noa and Heather making Belgian waffles. Ok, about Belgian waffles... I'm not a big waffle eater. Not like I have anything against waffles, I just don't get the chance or take the chance to eat them very often. And now, I don't thinki I"ll ever eat another unless it is a REAL Belgian waffle. It's no wonder American's pile syrup, whipped cream and fruit on their waffles, because they are very tasteless I realized. But the one's Noa made, warm off the iron, thick and spongey, tasted like a bite of heaven. After eating a few, Noa decided we shoud watch the Wizard of Oz because she wanted to see Wicked the next day but had never seen the Wizard of Oz and thought she might be lost if she didn't watch it first. Something I realized while watching it is that it's a very strange movie. I've grown up with the story of Dorothy, the Munchkins and the wicked witch of the west, but to someone who has never seen the film nor grown up around the culture of it, I can imagine it's quite strange. Especially Munchkinland. We got about half way through before we were all falling asleep and decided to call it a night.
Noa and I packed on Sunday morning before heading downtown to buy her a ticket to Wicked. I planned on meeting my family for lunch in Millennium Park, but bumped into them at the Wicked box office instead. They had decided on a whim to get tickets and go that afternoon! I was very excited for my mom to finally see it! My friend Jill and I saw it two years ago, but we couldn't get a ticket for mom. We went to lunch then to the show and it was awesome. We ate dinner at a pizza place and I got to meet up with my friend Hope from dance back in Georgia. She goes to school in Chicago now at the University of Illinois. After dinner we went to Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which is a show that Mom and I absolutely love and have seen four times now. The night closed with coffee at the hotel. As hugged everyone goodbye, I was surprised to find tears in my eyes. Saying goodbye hadn't been this hard before, I'm still not sure why it was then. The weekend had been a much needed and very nice respite from the craziness of Up with People.
Now, wer're in Missouri, or Misery as our bus driver Stan announced to us when we crossed the border. It's not so bad, but I'm looking forward to Mexico more than anything right now!
Now, I'm going to watch Veggie Tales with my roomie Kelsey and laugh my head off.
Go Cubs!
-Marina
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