Week #6 - Fort Myers, Florida

Life can be very exciting and this week was especially new and exciting for me and everyone else! It was our first week on the road! This brought about a whole new part of Up with People and tons of new emotions as well.

            We left Lakeland on Monday morning and I definitely balled my eyes out when I gave Maureen (Lakeland host mom) my last hug. But it was time to move on to the next adventure and the buses needed to be loaded. We arrived in Fort Myers just 3 hours later, escorted into the city by fireworks and policemen on motorcycles. The media as well as the Fort Myers mayor were waiting to greet us at the Alliance Center of the Arts. Needless to say, Fort Myers was excited for our arrival and time in their city.      

            Then it was time to meet our new host families! Veronika, my new roommate for the week (she is the Marketing Coordinator/ Staff member from Sweden) and I went out to look for them (our clue/host code was beans). Finally we found our new family for the week – Scott, his wife Illiana and their daughter Esperanza (or Hope). We stopped for dinner on the way home and quickly became acquainted. When we arrived at our house we found that we lived on a small little hobby farm. There were horses that we got to ride later in the week, which was quite fun. Veronika and I had a guesthouse to ourselves equipped with a bathroom, kitchen and everything we needed. It was very nice and we enjoyed having space to spread out at night after the long days and evenings with our host family. Veronika and I have gotten to know each other much better already and we had lots of late night talks in bed which I will miss when we leave tomorrow. On Valentine’s Day, our host dad Scott invited two guys over as a Valentine’s surprise. We had dinner with them and shared traveling stories. They had both just returned from their own travels, Joey from Africa and Alex from Guatemala. It was quite an enjoyable evening, or blind date, as I call it and we laughed for hours into the night. A very sweet gesture on our host dad’s part, he has good taste in men! On our host family day we ventured to Sanibel and Captiva Islands. It was very windy and  not such a perfect beach day but the water was still beautiful and the sun was out so we made the best of it. There were many wind surfers out taking advantage of the weather. I will need to put that on my bucket list now that I have seen how fun wind surfing looks. Throughout the week we also had wonderful talks over deliciously cooked meals and one night I even played guitar and my host mom Illiana sang “Blowin in the Wind” with me. She has a gorgeous voice. I forgot to mention she is Puerto Rican but lived in Wisconsin for a huge chunk of her life. “It’s a small world,” is my favorite saying and I tend to use it quite a bit.

            In UWP terms this was a wonderful week. It went by quite fast and the routine of each day was quite different than it was in staging. We only did things regarding the show on one day, which is weird to get used to, but very good in my opinion. We had CI’s (which stands for community impact AKA community service) on two of the days and we also had an internal day on Valentines Day. An internal day is where we get to do activities as a whole cast instead of being at CI’s in smaller groups. We shared a lot of love with each other and the vibes  were so wonderful the whole day! We worked on stuff for our culture fair and we learned the system of how we will present to schools as we travel etc. We also had a super fun thing called “staff round tables” which was a huge chunk of time where we went around to each staff member in little groups and asked anything we wanted. Simply, it is a way to get to know our staff on a more personal level. Of course we had a day where we set up the stage and rehearsed. Because we had a double show day on Sunday, we had to do things a little differently. On Saturday night we had the honor of being the premiere act/ float in the Edison Festival of Light parade. It is such a huge deal in this town that about a quarter of a million people watch it and some chain their chairs to fences as early as November every year to claim their spots. It was so much fun! I think I danced for a good 2 miles. Talk about a work out!! It was really good promotion for us as well. Our matinee show was sold out and the 6pm show was pretty close to a full house as well. Sunday was a very busy day with a rehearsal and 2 shows. It ended up being a 15 hour day with little to know relaxing time. I had a lot of fun but my voice and body are extremely tired and ready for sleep. I was so happy to have a bit of  a surprise, spontaneous visit from Kristina Gullion and her children who just happened to be coming to see grandpa in Fort Myers and were able to come see the UWP show as a bonus! It was wonderful to receive some love from Viroqua and have some familiar faces in the crowd! My host family, Kristina  and her family all really enjoyed the show.

 Today, Monday, we departed to Orlando. The week has gone so fast and I am sure I will get used to the routine  week by week, but holy cow is it different than staging. An awesome different, but still different enough that I need to adjust my mind to this routine and enjoy every minute of it because before I know it the semester will  be over and we will be in Mexico! Crazy sounding but oh so true.

Here’s to another day of safe travels to Orlando and to all the adventures that await in the cities to come! Adios for now folks!

           

 Life can be very exciting and this week was especially new and exciting for me and everyone else! It was our first week on the road! This brought about a whole new part of Up with People and tons of new emotions as well.

            We left Lakeland on Monday morning and I definitely balled my eyes out when I gave Maureen (Lakeland host mom) my last hug. But it was time to move on to the next adventure and the buses needed to be loaded. We arrived in Fort Myers just 3 hours later, escorted into the city by fireworks and policemen on motorcycles. The media as well as the Fort Myers mayor were waiting to greet us at the Alliance Center of the Arts. Needless to say, Fort Myers was excited for our arrival and time in their city.      

            Then it was time to meet our new host families! Veronika, my new roommate for the week (she is the Marketing Coordinator/ Staff member from Sweden) and I went out to look for them (our clue/host code was beans). Finally we found our new family for the week – Scott, his wife Illiana and their daughter Esperanza (or Hope). We stopped for dinner on the way home and quickly became acquainted. When we arrived at our house we found that we lived on a small little hobby farm. There were horses that we got to ride later in the week, which was quite fun. Veronika and I had a guesthouse to ourselves equipped with a bathroom, kitchen and everything we needed. It was very nice and we enjoyed having space to spread out at night after the long days and evenings with our host family. Veronika and I have gotten to know each other much better already and we had lots of late night talks in bed which I will miss when we leave tomorrow. On Valentine’s Day, our host dad Scott invited two guys over as a Valentine’s surprise. We had dinner with them and shared traveling stories. They had both just returned from their own travels, Joey from Africa and Alex from Guatemala. It was quite an enjoyable evening, or blind date, as I call it and we laughed for hours into the night. A very sweet gesture on our host dad’s part, he has good taste in men! On our host family day we ventured to Sanibel and Captiva Islands. It was very windy and  not such a perfect beach day but the water was still beautiful and the sun was out so we made the best of it. There were many wind surfers out taking advantage of the weather. I will need to put that on my bucket list now that I have seen how fun wind surfing looks. Throughout the week we also had wonderful talks over deliciously cooked meals and one night I even played guitar and my host mom Illiana sang “Blowin in the Wind” with me. She has a gorgeous voice. I forgot to mention she is Puerto Rican but lived in Wisconsin for a huge chunk of her life. “It’s a small world,” is my favorite saying and I tend to use it quite a bit.

            In UWP terms this was a wonderful week. It went by quite fast and the routine of each day was quite different than it was in staging. We only did things regarding the show on one day, which is weird to get used to, but very good in my opinion. We had CI’s (which stands for community impact AKA community service) on two of the days and we also had an internal day on Valentines Day. An internal day is where we get to do activities as a whole cast instead of being at CI’s in smaller groups. We shared a lot of love with each other and the vibes  were so wonderful the whole day! We worked on stuff for our culture fair and we learned the system of how we will present to schools as we travel etc. We also had a super fun thing called “staff round tables” which was a huge chunk of time where we went around to each staff member in little groups and asked anything we wanted. Simply, it is a way to get to know our staff on a more personal level. Of course we had a day where we set up the stage and rehearsed. Because we had a double show day on Sunday, we had to do things a little differently. On Saturday night we had the honor of being the premiere act/ float in the Edison Festival of Light parade. It is such a huge deal in this town that about a quarter of a million people watch it and some chain their chairs to fences as early as November every year to claim their spots. It was so much fun! I think I danced for a good 2 miles. Talk about a work out!! It was really good promotion for us as well. Our matinee show was sold out and the 6pm show was pretty close to a full house as well. Sunday was a very busy day with a rehearsal and 2 shows. It ended up being a 15 hour day with little to know relaxing time. I had a lot of fun but my voice and body are extremely tired and ready for sleep. I was so happy to have a bit of  a surprise, spontaneous visit from Kristina Gullion and her children who just happened to be coming to see grandpa in Fort Myers and were able to come see the UWP show as a bonus! It was wonderful to receive some love from Viroqua and have some familiar faces in the crowd! My host family, Kristina  and her family all really enjoyed the show.

 Today, Monday, we departed to Orlando. The week has gone so fast and I am sure I will get used to the routine  week by week, but holy cow is it different than staging. An awesome different, but still different enough that I need to adjust my mind to this routine and enjoy every minute of it because before I know it the semester will  be over and we will be in Mexico! Crazy sounding but oh so true.

Here’s to another day of safe travels to Orlando and to all the adventures that await in the cities to come! Adios for now folks!

           

Pictures from Week #5 - Lakeland Florida

Above is a picture from the Superbowl Gathering my parents were so sweet to host! A few Uppies who lived near us stopped over for the game and some delicious Hooters wings (Justys I thought about you the whole time!)

Something I have been so wary of eating my entire life was snails - escargot... but what do you know my lovely Host Family- The Courageous Eye Opening Brownes as I call them convinced me to give it a try! And they were pretty delicious actually. Once again Kevin was right... never pass up the opportunity to try a new delicacy!

They just looked so snaily! 

Our last date night, at the country club! The heartfelt conversation we had brought me to tears!

After supper Amilee and I found the wonderful dress up box! Do we not look ravishing?

I wore the red jumper outfit to UWP the next day... I guess we could say I got some looks:) But I looked darn good! haha

Before the audience of 1500 filled the seats of our first show!

Country Line Dancing in the show!

The director of our show "VOICES" - Humberto!

I found Kevin at intermission - thoroughly enjoying it!

Very proud host parents after the show! They even asked me to autograph their CD:)

Pooped roommates after our first performance!

Toasting to a wonderful 5 weeks and to a roommate who is now a best friend!

Our last night as roommates Amilee and I stayed up until wee hours of the morning laughing and being over tired and making an amazing host family gift (pictures below)! As you all can see we love each other to death :) A fun night even with the short 1.5 hours of sleep! Yikes!

We made an entire scrapbook for them full of pictures, memories and lessons we had learned from each other and these are the front and back pages of the book! There was like 20 pages so you only get a preview - sorry :) 

Our last night together equipt with a toast from Kevin to our new family! 

It was a wonderful 5 weeks and I know we will stay in touch, but it is always painful to say goodbye to family so this was not any easier! Lots of tears were shed the following morning when we gave our last hugs and departed to Fort Myers. I cannot even begin to share the amount of gratitude and love I have in my heart for Kevin and Maureen Browne, I will miss them a lot, but we will stay in touch!

An exciting journey awaits and so do many more wonderful host families! Time for take off Cast A 2013! Let's hit the road jack!

Week #5 - Lakeland Florida

The week started with a bang on Monday morning as we began a very busy, jam packed few days to get everything finalized and show ready! We had 6 long days, which went by extremely fast to prepare for our opening show on Saturday night. As in every other show I have been in, the week prior to the opening is always the most intense, but you also improve the most in that final week. There is a certain magic that is created as you all work towards one final goal. A magic that cannot be described, but it is always there and despite how crazy everything seems, it ALWAYS comes together and it did! We worked our behinds off right up until two hours before the show and we put on an amazing performance! We managed to smile all week despite the pain that our feet were feeling from wearing character shoes for hours upon hours each day!

     The house was packed with a wonderful audience full of host families, real families, UWP alumni and the international board of UWP. We had FSC students and faculty and we even had all the kids from the Florida Baptist Children’s Home where we did community service last week. The crowd loved it and we drew tears of happiness and compassion. Not only was I was so happy to finally be performing but also the songs and words we were saying were so powerful, moving and inspiring. I felt so lucky to be a part of such an incredible show. The whole cast is so excited to leave on the road tomorrow and share our music with everyone  we can! After the show I helped to strike the stage – hard work, but many hands make light work so we got done under two hours. Crazy how it takes so long to prepare the show and takes such little time to take it all down just to put it back up again in a week in Fort Myers FL!! YAY!

            It was a  rather laid back week at the host family home front. We came home each night more and more exhausted, but Kevin and Maureen were as sweet as ever, making sure we had nutritious meals and tea to soothe our singing throats and yes even the jacuzzi one night to soak our tired feet! We had our annual date night and it was so incredible. Being the person I am I shed some happy tears as we shared our favorite moments from our time together.  My heart ached in joy when we all went around the table and said what we had learned from one another. I have truly created a new family in Florida and I feel so grateful to have them. At our last dinner together Kevin made a toast, champagne and all to his new family of adopted children. We are always welcome in the Browne house. I keep asking myself how I was so fortunate to get such a great family to host me for 5 weeks. We have learned so much from each other and we are so comfortable that we can even have disagreements and we manage to work things out and hug it all out! Tomorrow morning when we say our last goodbyes before getting on the bus, I will without a doubt be in tears. But then again when I am I not in tears. I am a Grenier after all. Emotions come with the name.

            As far as UWP this week, obviously most of the focus was on the show, but the staff managed to squeeze some fun things in as well. Our green room before the show was quite epic and it made me so excited to get on the road and travel. The staff knows we are ready and as sad as it is to say goodbye to Lakeland and our host families, we all know we are ready to embark on the journey at hand.  After all, there are more eager host families who await us in the next town. The staff also announced to us through a spontaneous game of wheel of fortune that we get to go to DISNEY EPCOT theme park as a cast! You can only imagine the excitement of 100 Uppies!!!! The staff also announced the internships as if we were at a Golden Globe Awards ceremony. It was fabulous. They are all so creative and fun. Amilee (my roommate) and I found the dress up box in the closet one late night this week and  proceeded to wear some wonderfully ridiculous outfits to morning meeting the next day. Let’s just say we totally pulled it off! We had a presentation about Camp Up with People this week as well and I am definitely interested in counseling in a coming summer.

            Lastly I must mention that my roommate Amilee and I did not know each other at all, not even first names, just over a month ago and now I swear we have become one. Tomorrow it is going to be hard to part with her. We are not really parting, but we will have new roommates. So tears will be shed there as well. Haha just kidding, but Amilee and I do shed a lot of tears, because we laugh so hard! We have lots of slaphappy laughing attacks and I swear I have never laughed harder. I am going to miss sharing a room and bed with her. The other night we were restless before our show day and we sang each other to sleep! This is just the beginning of our friendship!

            Well it is to time to hit the road tomorrow! From this moment on life will be way different and full of exciting new things!

                        “Oh the places you’ll go!” –Dr. Seuss

Photos from Week #4

Home team 6 - Bonding Time!

Reptile fun - alligators, bearded dragons and tarantulas oh my!

Date Night! Mac the dog got to come with us too:)                           

Host dad Kevin knows that we have quite the sweet tooth - he brought us home chocolate lava cakes for a late night snack! I love how well he knows us!

Cast Bonding time - How many Up with People people can we fit on a tarp?

And how much ice cream can 120 Uppies eat? Gallons? Yes- Challenge excepted!

"Up up with People, you meet them wherever ya go!"

This may be the most true lyric in the show. We literally see them all over Lakeland when you are out and about!

Just a classic Misa moment,  I could not help but find myself in a dance off in the street as the DJ played some sweet jams! haha What can I say I dominate in dance offs! hehe

We decided to get serious in the kitchen! Or not... We proceeded to have a painfully long laughing attack!

Jamming session in the living room! It is so incredible to be surrounded by people who share similar passions and who are so gosh darn talented!

Our wonderful host parents invited everyone to stay for dinner and a fire! So sweet, we had quite the spontaneous party!

Feeding the swans at Lake Morton! It was so beautiful, as were the swans and other ducks!

Above the swans are the middle of there mating call - so elegant

Classic UWP jumping pictures! You will see a lot of them throughout my travels - We are all such happy people that we tend to jump a lot. I think that is the idea anyway :)

We braved the chilly Gulf of Mexico, but in reality it was not that bad! I quite enjoyed it!

Week #4 Lakeland, Florida

Week # 4 of staging and orientation here in Lakeland, FL had its ups and downs. For the most part it was super fun and exhausting. In any situation where the pressure is extremely high and so much is going on you tend to have a few rough moments and mine came this weekJ There were days that you are just so energized from the passion that is in the room or you are laughing so hard that your stomach is in a ton of pain during cast bonding exercise. The next minute you may be overwhelmed with emotion because your head is spinning with a gazillion different instructions or stage directions or whatever it may be. You are definitely stretched to your limit in Up with People and you are constantly living in your challenge zone which means that I am growing as a person more and more each day.

            We did a number of things this week. We met our director of the show, which meant that we started blocking the show, which means things are starting to get very intense and picking up speed. Solos are being assigned along with dance placement and so on so forth. The feelings are high and emotions are flying. If we can just get through staging, all of it will be much smoother and things will become a little more routine. I am being considered to sing a solo in the African song Shosholooza, which is known as Africa’s second national anthem. It means encouragement, hope, freedom and looking forward! I would be honored to sing it, but we will see. Next Saturday is our premiere show of the tour so this coming week is going to be insane. It can be known as Hell Week – so here we go Cast A!

            The other things that happened this week were fun and we had a few surprises as well. On Tuesday evening the owner of Gatorland came in and we got to hold real alligators and other creatures, such as a bearded dragon, a tarantula and a python. It was super awesome. Strangely, when he first took the alligators out of their containers he literally pumped the pee out of them. It was very odd and quite humorous. We had date night on Wednesday instead of Tuesday this week, but the food and conversation were still wonderful. I had something called a “Chocolate Parfait” in a martini glass that may be the most decadent dessert I have ever tasted. We had some extra homework this week so we had to fit that into the schedule. On Friday we went  to downtown Lakeland to this event called first Friday. It happens every first Friday of the month in the little town square and the blocks around it. There is live music, vendor booths and  other stuff. Of course we met others from UWP there and had a blast dancing in the streets etc. Also on Friday we had cast bonding time, which included some crazy challenges that we pretty much accomplished. One of them was eating gallons of ice cream and toppings, which we did, but then again it turned into a full on epic ice cream fight so we all ended up sticky and laughing so hard our stomachs hurt. On Saturday we had a busy day and  I had my  first breakdown moment. Thankfully I am surrounded by amazing friends who gave me hugs and just let me cry. It just feels so good sometimes. We had people over after dinner for games, a fire and a jamming session with our voices, the piano and the guitar. Last but not least, on Sunday Maureen and Kevin took us to a lake to feed the beautiful swans! It was so cool even though one of them kept getting my thumbs! Then we went to Clearwater Beach which is ranked #1 in Florida. We ran into more of our Up with People cast mates at the beach as well. We spent the day there and watched the sunset before coming home to participate  in the biggest American tradition ever! The SUPERBOWL!!! A great fun weekend had by all!

            You know the Up with People theme song is extremely true- you really do meet them wherever you go! Haha it is a wonderful thing though! I love my Up with People people!