Pictures from Week #16 - Mol, Belgium

My bus date Adam from California and one of my cast members who will be traveling for a second semester  with me!

We were greeted with two giant moles when we entered Mol, Belgium!

My host family and of course the host code had to be a type of beer... there are only 800 different kinds!

Community Service at De Witte Mol, a place for the severely mentally and physically disabled people! We brought life and a dance party to brighten their day!

Some of us decided to spread the Attitude of Gratitude and bomb the "Warm and Fuzzy" board with appreciation for our cast mates!

Myself with my host sisters Mindy and Sari!

Out bowling with a few host families!

Miguel, pretty much my roommate for the week. 

oooppps we really did not plan to be wearing opposite colors! 

Bowling with my lovely host family! I great week full of females!

Out for drinks at the pubs :)

In Mexico it is bad luck if you do not look each other in the eyes when you are doing Cheers! Miguel taught me that!

Sharing our drinks of course! Delightful Pina colada and Sex on the Beach :) Yes they are girly drinks, but hey don't worry I tried the Belgium Beer and it is good just strong!

Of course Up with People is brave enough to dance whether or not others are on the dance floor!

Warm up on Show Day!

Goodbyes are hard, but the people we meet are so sweet and worth the goodbye heartache! 

Both my host mom Ilse (UWP alumna) and my host grandmother Ida were sweet as could be all week! 

Week #16 - Mol, Belgium

           Well this week has been very draining, but also very good. I have come home every night ready to go to sleep at the snap of a finger! We had 3 show days with 4 shows and I had a very energy intensive community service day where I was the crew leader. It has been a very fun, high-energy week. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed every second, I just know I did my best because I left each day feeling vey satisfied and also very tired. My high of the week was receiving the wonderful opportunity to be the Band Intern for the next 5 weeks! I am very excited to learn about all that the band entails and maybe learn how to play some songs on different instruments as well. My low for the week was probably having the realization that we only have 6 weeks left before the semester is over and we will never all be in the same place at the same time ever again. Both moments I had tears in my eyes, of both happiness and sadness.

            This week we arrived in the wonderful country of Belgium, a country that loves UWP and has many alumni of UWP living within its borders. Belgium is also known for and very proud of its beer, chocolate, fries and waffles! All of which I got to try throughout the week! It was another split city week and so half of the cast was in the larger city of Mol and the other half was in Turnout just 20min away.

My new host mom, Ilse, was an alumna of UWP and had two teenage daughters Mindy and Sari who will most likely be in UWP someday as well. I had a great week getting to know them and sharing stories and laughs the whole time. My host mom’s mom and dad live directly next door (they actually share a wall) and they were hosting Miguel from Mexico. So we were pretty much roommates considering we all did everything together besides sleep. I felt very welcome and well taken care of. My host mom new exactly how it felt to be in UWP so she knew exactly what we needed which was wonderful. It was also so fun to be able to bring her back down memory lane as she recalled her year in UWP and watched the show with the biggest smile on her face as she thought about when she was on the stage 25 years ago. It will be hard to say goodbye. On host family day she told me to sleep and later in the evening we met up with another host family and went bowling and  then hit the popular street where everyone goes out  bar hopping!

After travel day on Monday we had CI on Tuesday. I was the crew leader for a group that went to a place called De Witte Mol. It is a care center and place of residence for people with severe mental and physical disabilities. It was definitely a challenge zone for me and many others but we worked through it together and ended up having a great day interacting with the different residents and creating a dance party for them in the after noon. It took a lot of energy to be so positive and present for 6 hours straight with people who may have lost all hope but we did our best and went home very tired.

On Wednesday I had study abroad and I got a chance to explore the city of Mol a bit. It was beautiful and sunny outside and it felt like I was home in the Midwest on a May Day. On Thursday and Friday the cast was reunited for our show days in Mol. Very long days, but of course fulfilling and wonderful. We had a guest speaker come in who had HIV and he talked about his condition and was very informative. We also had the 3^rd round internship announcements and I got the Band Internship so I will hopefully be learning a whole lot in the next 5 weeks about the band and how it works within UWP. I am hoping to gain knowledge for my future if I ever sing in a band again. Saturday we had our host family day and then on Sunday we had a big ole double show day. Talk about exhausting!

Now it time to move on to our next city in Belgium! Two more weeks in Europe and then off we fly to Mexico for our last month together in Up with People. Time to live life like it is your last 6 weeks to live! Let’s do it up! YOLO (you only live once!)

Pictures from Week #15 - Apeldoorn, Netherlands

Bus dates Adel (Belgium/Morocco) and Jordan (USA)!

I had multiple bus dates for the 10 hour bus ride but Adel was my core bus date :)

You really do ride bikes everywhere in the Netherlands! I loved it!

                           

Service work, gardening and helping the mentally handicapped.

We finished our service early so we got to take a lovely walk in the sunshine!

Study abroad day included (after work was finished), ice cream, shopping and exchanging friendship vows with flowers (as you see above:).

We had class in a bar! haha

VIP Event. All of us VIP hosts dressed in our #1's!

The nicest venue thus far. Huge stage and seating area... the Princess of the Netherlands attended!

"Oh Johnny Boy... the pipes the pipes are calling."

Oh its just my vocal instructor and new found friend! haha

Yes we can do what the naked men on the statue are doing! No big deal :)

So much delicious Italian Ice Cream in Europe and far too many flavors!

They have the cutest streets in Europe mainly for walking and biking!

So in the Netherlands (where marijuana is legal) when you see a sign that says "Coffee Shop" it is not where they serve coffee to drink(that is called a "Cafe"). No it is a place where they serve marijuana so to speak. So we had to get a picture :)

Combined host family day including the casual tour of a small Dutch town and a bar-b-que (below) to end the week!

A very fun week with these roomies (pretty much roomies I guess)! 

Erin, Norman, Dave Penny and Myself :)

My roommate for the week - Erin from Virginia!

My wonderful Dutch/Turkish host family!

Week #15 - Apeldoorn, Netherlands

            This week we arrived to the flat land of the Netherlands. Apeldoorn was the city we were in for the week (it was a split city so half of the cast was in a small town just 20 min away). It is known for its great use of bicycles and  now when you hear that  about the Netherlands you can believe  it is true. You cannot go anywhere without seeing a bike. There are more bikes than cars and there are even lanes and traffic and everything. I had the  opportunity to use a bike as my transportation for a chunk of the week and it was wonderful. It reminded me of home and being outside. Besides the fact that there were no rolling hills, the Netherlands reminds me of Wisconsin. It is finally becoming spring and the daffodils and dandelions are just beginning to bloom so I thought of Viroqua quite a bit this week. I also thought of my mom a bunch, realizing how she really does have Dutch in her. I really love this country and I am sad we only had one short week to experience the culture.

            Monday was the longest travel day we have had so far. It was a 10-hour bus ride, but felt like 5 because of the great people I was surrounded by and all the great conversations passed the time very quickly. We travelled through 4 countries in one day, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany and Netherlands. Europe continues to blow  my mind. My new host family was wonderful. My host mom was an alumna of UWP and she was just so Dutch and I liked to call her a sassafrass! We had twin 13-year-old sisters and a 10-year-old host brother. Our host dad was from Turkey and also a great guy. They all spoke excellent English so we had lots of stories and laughter throughout the week. We also had possibly the most delicious meals I have had yet on the tour – a mix of Turkish food and Dutch traditions! Erin Shippee from Virginia was my roommate this week and we had great pillow talks as we fell asleep.

            Tuesday we had a CI day and I had a chance to get to know some of my cast mates better. It was beautiful and sunny and I got to be outside laughing and helping out a mentally handicapped man so I was content. On Wednesday as usual we had Study Abroad and were given a little free time to explore the beautiful streets of the center of Apeldoorn. Shopping and Ice Cream with the Study Abroad girls topped off the day! Thursday was a very busy and professional feeling day. We had a show for a lot of VIP people including the princess of the Netherlands. The facility was the biggest and nicest facility we have used yet and the day was just as nice. I was a VIP host and met some wonderful people during the fancy dinner I got to attend as a VIP host before the show. I also got to meet first hand the princess and her husband and have a little chat with them. After the show they came backstage as well to take a picture with us all. Friday we had to set up in the other city and I had a good day of working and laughing and talking. I continue building relationships every second of everyday. We also had a very inspiring cast meeting run by Dave Penny, who is here visiting the cast for a few weeks. All week he and Norman were hosted with our host mom’s colleague and neighbors so we spent a lot of time together. Saturday we had another show and it was such good energy! The place was packed with people and lots of alumna so the crowd was crazy!

            For host family day on Sunday we met up with the neighbors and Dave and Norman and went to a beautiful little Dutch city where we walked around, saw typical Dutch things (as my host mom would say), ate some ice cream, stopped by a “Coffee Shop” just to say we had (in the Netherlands a coffee shop is a place where you can get together to smoke marijuana, which is legal). A café is where you drink coffee. We also got the wonderful experience of walking through a small red light district.(definitely an odd thing to see.) We then made our way back and had a delicious two family barbeque with classic Turkish and Dutch food. We told funny stories around the fire and laughed and talked and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Back at home the laughter continued as I came to find out my host dad is so similar to my real dad for certain reasons.

            A short, but great week overall here in the land of the Dutch. Crazy to be leaving so soon to Belgium. Only 3 weeks left before we head to Mexico! Let’s see how the Belgian beer, fries and chocolate treat us these coming weeks! Thank you Netherlands! Hello Belgium!

Pictures from Week #14 - Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Bus date (Andrew Erusha, Lighting Technician) from Switzerland to Liechtenstein! We saw 13 castles!

Regional Learning - "The Amazing Race"! Best group for sure!

My pro self timer photos almost got my camera killed as a car was inches from the camera (you can not tell but there is a road in front of us and the car was just about to pass by!

The Prince and his castle. He really lives there :)

Gorgeous valley of Liechtenstein!

Host Pick up - Martin (my new host dad), was dressed as the Black Swan!

Cast Dinner (5 countries at 1 table!)

Cast Tshirts from the Sponsor!

My host parents, Bianca and Martin!

After the Show after party!

Dancing the night away!

Hughbert, the biggest and best teddy bear ever waltzing me around the dance floor!

View from the deck of my host families house :)

Brunch with relatives and naturally other Uppies were there.

In the mountains, in a small ski resort village.

Beautiful Sunday Host Family hike to see the views! I could see Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein and all three alpine mountain ranges to go with the countries! Europe is nuts!