The Bard Life

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