The
week started off pretty great with super fun arrival day activities into the
lovely city of Culiacan! Saying goodbye to the gorgeous west coast of Mexico
was not easy, but it was time to move inland! We arrived and had a busy
schedule filled with touring a museum about addiction, which was super
fascinating. We also learned some traditional Mexican dancing and jammed out to
a Mexican techno/rock band! Before our host families arrived, we had a press
conference and were welcomed into the beautiful city of Culiacan.
This
week I was hosted with Leslie (the Cast Manager with whom I have been studying
under these past weeks) and Lina a super awesome girl from Canada and Belgium!
We had a lovely host family with a beautiful neighborhood and house and the
beds were actually like heaven. I have not slept so well in months. We had two
host siblings - a 15 year old sister and a 17 year old brother who spoke pretty
good English. Our host parents spoke no English so we had ample time to
practice our Spanish, which is always great J I could almost swear to you that our
host mom is a Mexican chef! The breakfasts were overflowing every morning and
our dinners were 5 course meals and everything was always so healthy, delicious
and plentiful! We felt very spoiled this week and we also had great bonding
time with our host family! We talked in broken Spanish and translated into
English for Lina. Each night at dinner we laughed as we took funny pictures and
told stories. On host family day we walked in the beautiful sunshine along the
lake to a restaurant where we ate a delicious buffet of Mexican food outside as
we overlooked the lake shining in the sun. Later we went to another host family’s
house in the nearby neighborhood and had a fun little evening gathering. We ended
the night by going night swimming at a place that had 3 crazy awesome pools!
In
Up with People this week, we felt like busy performing bees. We had 3 mini
shows this week and then a double show day on Saturday. The only days we were
not performing were Monday (travel day), Friday (Internal Day with the cast)
and Sunday (host family day). It was also my last week as cast manager intern
so I was personally an extremely busy bee!
I finished my internship, prepared resumes and cover letters to apply
for UWP jobs, along with all the other normal weekly duties I do such as
homework, meetings and doing the tasks for the committees I am on. In general I
felt as though I barely had time to catch my breath. I was always doing
something whether it was a 10 min break or a 2-hour lunch, I always had some
mission to attend to.
Tuesday
I attended my final planning session as an intern and then proceeded to do a
mini show. Wednesday I had study abroad before another mini show. On Thursday I
had classroom workshops before performing in a mini show and then on Friday we
had a break from shows. As much as we love to sing and dance, it was nice to
get away from the autographs, endless pictures and fame for a day. During
internal day we practiced our Denmark and Swedish medleys and had cast
university – a time where we do workshops for each other. We had a great
workshop on gratitude, positive manipulation and appreciating each other, which
was put on by the education interns and finally as second round interns we got
to announce the final round of interns! We were dressed as super hero interns
so naturally that is extra exciting! On Saturday we had a super long double
show day and we were all in 80’s themed clothing to make it extra fun!
Unfortunately, after the first show we had pizza for dinner and the meat on the
pizza did not sit right. At intermission of the second show that expression
about poop hitting the fan came to life! People were dropping like flies but in
consideration of the “full house,” those of us who could, pushed through and we
managed to put on those smiles and perform our best, despite what was going on
internally! What a night to look back on and laugh and remember J
Two
more weeks left in Mexico and then off to cold Europe! Time to soak up the sun
and enjoy it while it lasts! Hello Obregon – adios Culiacan!
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