Week #3 Lakeland, FL

Officially I have been in sunny Lakeland Florida now for 3 weeks and it continues to be fabulous. There is so much to do around the Lakeland area. Tampa and Orlando are just an hour away, not far at all in my opinion. To get to the ocean you have to drive about an hour or so. Again nothing, considering the drive to the ocean used to be 20 plus hours for me.  There are numerous other unique things to see and do within a driving distance of 20min – 2 hours. It is quite fantastic if you ask me! With that said, you can see that there are endless possibilities of how to spend our free days, which are very rare, and this makes decisions quite difficult. But hey it’s pretty awesome to have a hard decision be: should we go to the beach or a theme park? Hmmm what a rough life, or what a blessed life more like itJ

So this past week was our second week of staging and orientation, which meant more dancing, singing, getting to know our cast mates and a lot of educational workshops as well. We continued to learn about all aspects of Up with People, like the production side of things and how all the technical parts of the show come together. I am learning so many things that I never thought I would.  Of course, we continue learning songs and dances from the show, which is fun and hard at the same time. There is so much to learn and get down that some days you just get so overwhelmed and when you arrive home after a 8am-5:30pm day you are just totally pooped. I made many more friends and tried to talk to someone new everyday, which I did succeed in doing. Yay!

           This week included a few monumental moments within our Up with People program. First of all, we took our cast picture, which was quite the task. Imagine trying to get 120 people ready and smiling for a group picture. Did I mention we all had to be seen perfectly and have our eyes open? You tell me if that would be hard or not. Also as a cast we had our first CI day (community impact day), which was quite fun. We took a public bus to volunteer at an orphanage. Let’s just say it was a good day for the bus company when 60 passengers got on their bus! Also on Wednesday night we had something called Culture Jam, which is an event where different cast members do little 5 min skits about their culture or country. The host families are invited and let’s be honest, you automatically have an audience when you have 120 cast members and staff there. Another fun event that took place was called Leadership Round tables. This involved a group of “leaders” from the Lakeland community, who came to speak and answer questions and share their stories. I found this to be a very interesting and informational session that I quite enjoyed.

            The week nights remained nice and relaxing. We would come home, have a snack, do anything we needed to get done, catch up with Maureen on how our days went, maybe do some homework and release any stress or emotions necessary. It has truly become a very comfortable place for me and my roommates and so whenever I have an off moment or rough day I long to go “home” or home to the Brownes. I feel cared for and thus very at home with my roommates (sisters) and host parents.

             Tuesday night is usually date night for our host parents (Kevin and Maureen). They graciously took us out to eat at Bonefish Grill with them where I got to try some new types of fish and squid. Kevin and Maureen are very intent on helping us expand our horizons. They encourage us to experience new things and get as much culture as possible while here in Florida, which I am very grateful for.

            On Friday we gained a new roommate, Bailey from Colorado who is a second semester student. She brought with her wonderful stories, great energy and lots of advice and helpful tips for us in these crazy weeks of staging. She is a great addition to our little family.

            On Saturday Maureen was a “Super Host Mom” and got up at the crack of dawn to drive us to Homosassa Springs to swim with manatees. It was simply amazing. You literally are in the water floating and the manatees come over and you scratch their backs and then they roll over like puppies so you can scratch their stomachs as well. When one of them was with me for about 20 min, I fell in love with the giant creatures. I named my one manatee friend, Lucinda, and squealed in joy when she took her two fat fins and pulled my hands to her chest in a big manatee embrace! At one point I was surrounded in front, behind, below and on the sides by these beautiful, wild and yet so calm creatures. One even came in for a kiss as well. It was incredible.

            After the manatee excursion we headed to Tarpon Springs to eat Greek food and by chance spotted some frolicking dolphins in a small inlet, which topped off the already amazing day! We made it home in time to see the full moon over Lake Hollingsworth and went to bed at a very early hour.

            Sunday consisted of a lot of homework, sleeping outside by the pool in the sunshine and a wonderful family dinner around the dining table to top off the week. Life is good and I really mean that from the bottom of my heart.