The end of Des Moines... was delightful. On our host family day, my host family (well, the half that was not on the father/son ski trip) took Britta and I on a photo scavenger hunt. We had a list of places to see, to which I added a bunch of things to find. You can see our findings here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/sets/72157603974894211/ as well as a few extra things thrown in for good measure. My Des Moines family was amazing - having host brothers and sisters is so much fun. We really got to know each other and our host mom was interested in just about everything we had to say. The food was fantastic as was the family.
Our trip to Muscatine... was less eventful than our trip to Des Moines, thankfully. We arrived at the appointed time and met with our new host family. Our host mom is a vegetarian, so she requested vegetarians as well (2 of us don't eat red meat and the other doesn't eat meat at all). It was definitely a learning experience. When eating in the midwest, one expects lots of hot dishes and familiar (to Ohioans at least) foods. I never expected vegetarian versions of these, though. Living in San Francisco has given me a wide view of what a vegetarian eats, so I never even considered that midwestern food really fit in aside from a large amount of vegetables. Boy, was I wrong. Our first night, we had veggie hot dogs... from a can. I honestly had no idea such a thing existed. Sure, I knew there were veggie hot dogs, but not from a can. We also had a macaroni and cheese with corn dish. To go along with this, we had Ruffles potato chips and grape Kool-aid. They told us we'd have cultural experiences, I just never expected them in Iowa.
On our second night I was introduced to a dish called "Special K loaf." After some questioning, I found out that it was egg, cottage cheese, and Special K mixed together into patties that were then baked in cream of mushroom soup. It wasn't bad, but it was again surprising.
So far, just about every host family I've had has had at least one Longaberger basket. Being an Ohioan, I notice these things. Well, my Muscatine family had more than one... WAY more than one. I'm guessing they had at least 300 baskets. I'm not exaggerating. Every room was decorated with baskets, from the basket tree in the living room to the baskets above the t.v. to the baskets around the fireplace to the baskets on the hallway shelf to the baskets in the bathroom... They were everywhere! The house was beautifully decorated with them, though. I noticed them immediately, but it wasn't until the next day that my roommate Andre noticed. Very tastefully done, but I kept thinking of our Ohio neighbors and my mom's cousin who used to do basket shows.
Our show in Muscatine went fairly well. We had a sold-out show at a high school, and most people in the cast thought it went amazingly well. I got caught up on a few big mistakes I made (like forgetting to stay on stage for the microphone groups for a song) but other than that I did a fine job. Since one of our main male vocalists was sick (and another of our male vocalists had to go home for a few weeks for health reasons) we were in need of a little extra assistance. That being said, Mitch (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/2284831783/in/set-72157603919410083/) got to sing "We'll Be There" with me. (For those of you who don't know, Mitch is the only person on the road that I knew before Up With People, as our parents are good friends). We didn't get to sing together in rehearsal, so we went over it a bit at dinner. As we finished, he remarked that we were singing together and we both looked at each other and at the same time said, "Our mothers would be so proud." So if both of our mothers are reading this, I'm sure Mitch has already told his mom, who has told my mom- but yeah, we got to sing together.
When it came time for the show he was quite nervous, having never done that particular song in a show. Even rehearsing nerves kept getting to him, so I was a bit concerned. When he came on, all of the sudden it clicked. He hit everything perfectly and we rocked it out. The whole song got an extra push of awesome from one of our education coordinators, Aoife. After rehearsal, she said we needed more energy, much in the same way we all sang to her on her birthday (which happened to be the karaoke party night). On karaoke night, there was a mullet wig floating around, and it was put on her as we serenaded her with a rousing rendition of "My Heart Will Go On." Well, she stood in the back of the auditorium that night during "We'll Be There" wearing a wig we found backstage and I nearly laughed out loud every time I looked up at her. Ah, the things we'll do to have a good show.
Muscatine was short and sweet, and today we traveled to Burlington, WI. Burlington just happens to have the nickname "Chocolate City" so I'm looking forward to testing the fruits of the town. My new host family has three sons- 25, 21, and 15, and their house is gorgeous. The layout is very unique, but really inviting. I'm told there's a lake right outside all the windows, but it was too dark to see by the time we got home. I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow.
There's always tons more to say, but I can't go on writing forever, so this is it for now.
Take care,
~Molly
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Des Moines, des merrier.
Oh yes, I DID just make a pun. My papa would be so proud. This week has been jam-packed and fun-filled. I'm sure this post will be incredibly long too, so if you don't like nerdy stuff, skip the part in asterisks.
On Tuesday our entire cast went to one site for Community Impact. This is a rarity, as there are usually a number of sites we split between. We were working with Kids Against Hunger, our beneficiary in Des Moines. We worked packaging meals (basically making a chicken and vegetable rice casserole dry mix) to send to those in need not only in Des Moines, but in Haiti and Tanzania. Our goal was to package 200,000 meals throughout the day. My host family even came for a bit to help out. I was part of the mini-shows we did - there were 5 scheduled, as the non-Uppie volunteers came in 5 shifts, but we ended up doing 8. We only did two songs, just a teaser for the show, but the 3 extra shows were due to media being there. According to a castmate, I was on the news dancing. There's no t.v. here, so I didn't have to watch.
**********************************************************************
Yesterday we visited Pioneer, an agricultural company that produces different varieties of seeds to farmers around the world. They do everything from conventional hybrids to genetic manipulation, with their main products being soybeans and corn. Our visit was truly fascinating and brought up so many questions that they were more than happy to answer.
Basically, they create different varieties to make crops yield more acre or to be resistant to bugs or drought. It was interesting to hear some of the European opinions on the company, as many came in with closed minds as soon as they heard that the company produces GMOs. Since GMOs are illegal in Europe, some of them had never even thought about there being positive sides to creating new varieties of crops. Others had never really thought about it since it was never brought up aside from the fact that it was illegal. Genetic manipulation of crops comes with positive and negative aspects, but that was not the part that fascinated me.
The most interesting part to me was the concept of corn as intellectual property. Pioneer signs contracts with their customers saying that the seed they provide will only be used for one year and will not be re-planted in following years. Due to the specific genetic compositions of the plants, the company has the right to sue a farm for using the seed again because of a breach of intellectual property law. For this reason, Pioneer will only do business in countries that have strong intellectual property protections. When questioned further about it, they said that they would use older varieties in those countries, but that the newest ones "probably wouldn't be useful to them anyway." Their quote, not mine.
Clearly, corn is the moneymaker since farmers have to buy it again every year. The seed will generally lose 15-20% of its yield the second year due to different genetic combinations (not all of your kids are going to have your charm AND good looks), which is actually the amount gained by using Pioneer seed. We talked mostly about corn, and upon looking it up (I told you I was a nerd) I found that corn IS protected by IP laws, but soybeans are not. Why? Corn is the result of cross-pollination, whereas soybeans are self-pollinating (http://www.choicesmagazine.org/2003-3/2003-3-05.htm). Therefore, planting the soybeans a second year would not have any significant effect on the crop yield. Crazy.
We got to tour some of the laboratory and saw corn in all the different stages of experimental development. We talked to one of the genetic engineers, who actually is a co-creator of a certain type of "gene gun." Gene guns are what they use to insert the gene into the plant DNA to create the new variety. Smart guy, that one.
While at Pioneer we also spoke to the president of the World Food Prize, which is pretty much the agricultural equivalent of the Nobel Prize. We got a nice history of the prize and why it was created. It's quite an interesting idea.
****************************************************************
After visiting Pioneer, most of the cast went roller skating. I, however, was in the group that went to the mall to do a mini-show. We did about 6 songs in this one to an audience of maybe a dozen people. I sang a certain song for the first time and it was quite frightening. This morning, one of the tech staff came up to me and told me to have confidence in it, because she could see what I was feeling as my face cringed before I got to the parts I'm uncomfortable with. I am not good at ad-libbing and adding flourishes to songs that someone else wrote, and that was what I had to do at my cringe-worthy parts. At least I got through it.
When we got back to our meeting place, we were finally let in on the secret "cast activity" that was planned for the evening... karaoke! There was lots of dance music played near the beginning, so I danced my little heart out. Karaoke brought about lots of interpretive dance from me. I also managed to enlist some co-conspirators for most songs. We laughed so hard, it was a nice break from the usual scheduled activities.
This morning I worked at the Des Moines Area Religious Council in what was a storage house for their emergency food pantries. There were 8 of us and we had to check dates on donated goods, count and properly sort the items, then box and tape them for distribution. We were supposed to be there from 9-3, but my plans got changed. I was told that our music coordinator was sick, so they needed me to go to the school where they had another mini-show planned. When it came to lunch time off I went to, you guessed it, sing the cringe-worthy song once again. I don't think my face showed it as much today, but I'm still horribly frightened of the song.
Oh, the show. Insane. Incredible. The show was for a bunch of middle school students and from the moment we greeted them at the door with high-fives they were into it. We had kids dancing in the aisles and up front with us before the show even started. Once we started, the response was overwhelming - the pitch of the screams is unmatched. They went nuts over the parts that had any kind of hip-hop dancing. At the end of the mini-show, we ran out into the audience to close. The kids once again joined us in the aisles clapping to the music being played over the speakers. Two kids ran over to me to dance, which was really sweet. After a while, they began filtering onto the stage. Eventually, they were ALL on the stage and it was an all-out dance party. People were taking pictures, dancing, getting autographs, you name it. Finally, the classes started to filter out until there were only a few left. One of those left had a really enthusiastic teacher (he was up on stage, too) and the whole class started a "Thank you" chant. We replied back with the same. Our show manager said he'd NEVER seen a school audience react that much to us. I'm sure they'll remember us as much as we'll remember them. Did I mention it was insane?
~Molly
On Tuesday our entire cast went to one site for Community Impact. This is a rarity, as there are usually a number of sites we split between. We were working with Kids Against Hunger, our beneficiary in Des Moines. We worked packaging meals (basically making a chicken and vegetable rice casserole dry mix) to send to those in need not only in Des Moines, but in Haiti and Tanzania. Our goal was to package 200,000 meals throughout the day. My host family even came for a bit to help out. I was part of the mini-shows we did - there were 5 scheduled, as the non-Uppie volunteers came in 5 shifts, but we ended up doing 8. We only did two songs, just a teaser for the show, but the 3 extra shows were due to media being there. According to a castmate, I was on the news dancing. There's no t.v. here, so I didn't have to watch.
**********************************************************************
Yesterday we visited Pioneer, an agricultural company that produces different varieties of seeds to farmers around the world. They do everything from conventional hybrids to genetic manipulation, with their main products being soybeans and corn. Our visit was truly fascinating and brought up so many questions that they were more than happy to answer.
Basically, they create different varieties to make crops yield more acre or to be resistant to bugs or drought. It was interesting to hear some of the European opinions on the company, as many came in with closed minds as soon as they heard that the company produces GMOs. Since GMOs are illegal in Europe, some of them had never even thought about there being positive sides to creating new varieties of crops. Others had never really thought about it since it was never brought up aside from the fact that it was illegal. Genetic manipulation of crops comes with positive and negative aspects, but that was not the part that fascinated me.
The most interesting part to me was the concept of corn as intellectual property. Pioneer signs contracts with their customers saying that the seed they provide will only be used for one year and will not be re-planted in following years. Due to the specific genetic compositions of the plants, the company has the right to sue a farm for using the seed again because of a breach of intellectual property law. For this reason, Pioneer will only do business in countries that have strong intellectual property protections. When questioned further about it, they said that they would use older varieties in those countries, but that the newest ones "probably wouldn't be useful to them anyway." Their quote, not mine.
Clearly, corn is the moneymaker since farmers have to buy it again every year. The seed will generally lose 15-20% of its yield the second year due to different genetic combinations (not all of your kids are going to have your charm AND good looks), which is actually the amount gained by using Pioneer seed. We talked mostly about corn, and upon looking it up (I told you I was a nerd) I found that corn IS protected by IP laws, but soybeans are not. Why? Corn is the result of cross-pollination, whereas soybeans are self-pollinating (http://www.choicesmagazine.org/2003-3/2003-3-05.htm). Therefore, planting the soybeans a second year would not have any significant effect on the crop yield. Crazy.
We got to tour some of the laboratory and saw corn in all the different stages of experimental development. We talked to one of the genetic engineers, who actually is a co-creator of a certain type of "gene gun." Gene guns are what they use to insert the gene into the plant DNA to create the new variety. Smart guy, that one.
While at Pioneer we also spoke to the president of the World Food Prize, which is pretty much the agricultural equivalent of the Nobel Prize. We got a nice history of the prize and why it was created. It's quite an interesting idea.
****************************************************************
After visiting Pioneer, most of the cast went roller skating. I, however, was in the group that went to the mall to do a mini-show. We did about 6 songs in this one to an audience of maybe a dozen people. I sang a certain song for the first time and it was quite frightening. This morning, one of the tech staff came up to me and told me to have confidence in it, because she could see what I was feeling as my face cringed before I got to the parts I'm uncomfortable with. I am not good at ad-libbing and adding flourishes to songs that someone else wrote, and that was what I had to do at my cringe-worthy parts. At least I got through it.
When we got back to our meeting place, we were finally let in on the secret "cast activity" that was planned for the evening... karaoke! There was lots of dance music played near the beginning, so I danced my little heart out. Karaoke brought about lots of interpretive dance from me. I also managed to enlist some co-conspirators for most songs. We laughed so hard, it was a nice break from the usual scheduled activities.
This morning I worked at the Des Moines Area Religious Council in what was a storage house for their emergency food pantries. There were 8 of us and we had to check dates on donated goods, count and properly sort the items, then box and tape them for distribution. We were supposed to be there from 9-3, but my plans got changed. I was told that our music coordinator was sick, so they needed me to go to the school where they had another mini-show planned. When it came to lunch time off I went to, you guessed it, sing the cringe-worthy song once again. I don't think my face showed it as much today, but I'm still horribly frightened of the song.
Oh, the show. Insane. Incredible. The show was for a bunch of middle school students and from the moment we greeted them at the door with high-fives they were into it. We had kids dancing in the aisles and up front with us before the show even started. Once we started, the response was overwhelming - the pitch of the screams is unmatched. They went nuts over the parts that had any kind of hip-hop dancing. At the end of the mini-show, we ran out into the audience to close. The kids once again joined us in the aisles clapping to the music being played over the speakers. Two kids ran over to me to dance, which was really sweet. After a while, they began filtering onto the stage. Eventually, they were ALL on the stage and it was an all-out dance party. People were taking pictures, dancing, getting autographs, you name it. Finally, the classes started to filter out until there were only a few left. One of those left had a really enthusiastic teacher (he was up on stage, too) and the whole class started a "Thank you" chant. We replied back with the same. Our show manager said he'd NEVER seen a school audience react that much to us. I'm sure they'll remember us as much as we'll remember them. Did I mention it was insane?
~Molly
Monday, February 18, 2008
Oh happy week.
Today was our travel day from Maquoketa to Des Moines. This trip averages 2.5-3 hours. Due to various weather conditions, it took us 7.5 hours. I was quite excited, as I enjoy travel days and was a bit sad this one was only a short ride. My bus date was Amador (from New Mexico). He's one of our drummers in the cast. We had to pick a bus date based on our birth month. Since his birthday was yesterday and mine was today, I figured it would be fitting. We watched movies, took naps, and shared pictures. He even shared some of his birthday cake with me (his host family had a party for him). When we got to our halfway rest stop, (4 hours into the trip) I got out to use the restroom. When I came back I was blocked from entering the bus. After having someone on the bus grab my coat so I would not freeze, I returned to the McDonald's where most people were standing about. When I finally did get back on the bus I saw they'd converted Bus #1 (Stan's bus) to the party bus, complete with balloons, streamers, and posters. They then serenaded me with a very special version of "Happy Birthday." I got that on video, so I'll see if I can upload it to youtube.
When we got to Des Moines, we were greeted and then we had a special guest... the mayor. The mayor spoke to us and proclaimed this week Up With People Kids Against Hunger (our beneficiary) Week. We also got a proclamation from the governor that says something similar, but we didn't have time to read it due to our travel delays. I am rooming with Britta (from Sweden) this week. We have a wonderful family in a beautiful home. Upon learning it was my birthday, they made a special stop to get a cake on the way home to celebrate. The children are ages 11, 8, 6, and 3 - the eldest being a girl and the rest boys. They're all home schooled and I'll have to get a picture of their school area because it's truly amazing. Each child has their own work station complete with a real desk and a plaque with their name (like you'd get done at Cedar Point or Fisherman's Whart) above it.
So yeah, today was an all around fantastic day. Here's hoping tomorrow's even better.
~Molly
P.S. - Pictures will be up in the next couple of days and I'll try to go back to posts and insert links to pictures where they belong. I figure this will make it easier for looking back in the future. Also, if you've forgotten where my pictures are, they're at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/
When we got to Des Moines, we were greeted and then we had a special guest... the mayor. The mayor spoke to us and proclaimed this week Up With People Kids Against Hunger (our beneficiary) Week. We also got a proclamation from the governor that says something similar, but we didn't have time to read it due to our travel delays. I am rooming with Britta (from Sweden) this week. We have a wonderful family in a beautiful home. Upon learning it was my birthday, they made a special stop to get a cake on the way home to celebrate. The children are ages 11, 8, 6, and 3 - the eldest being a girl and the rest boys. They're all home schooled and I'll have to get a picture of their school area because it's truly amazing. Each child has their own work station complete with a real desk and a plaque with their name (like you'd get done at Cedar Point or Fisherman's Whart) above it.
So yeah, today was an all around fantastic day. Here's hoping tomorrow's even better.
~Molly
P.S. - Pictures will be up in the next couple of days and I'll try to go back to posts and insert links to pictures where they belong. I figure this will make it easier for looking back in the future. Also, if you've forgotten where my pictures are, they're at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/
Sunday, February 17, 2008
I'm a loser baby...
On Friday I helped with promotion by talking to shoppers at the local Fareway. We were in the corner between the butter and the milk. The people who passed had to either go up the aisle right before they hit us or they had to pass directly by us. 80% of people turned up the aisle, most avoiding eye contact after they did the initial glance to see if we had something they were interested in. When we did talk to people, the most common response was, "I'd love to, we'll have to see what the weather's doing, though. I hear we're supposed to get some snow that day."
Yesterday we had host family day. My host family took my roommate and me up to Dubuque for the day. We had lunch at the newly renovated Star Brewery before heading to the Mississippi River Museum. Dubuque is beautiful, it pretty much looked like the set of Gilmore Girls if set on the Mississippi River. We ran into lots of friends in the museum. It's always cool to be in a place for the first time and run into familiar faces. On the ride home we stopped (after Dairy Queen) in Bellevue near the locks on the river. We went up to Bellevue State Park (where my host parents got married) and saw the beautiful view from the top of the hill (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/2270614808/). We took the scenic route home and watched the sun set over the snow from the van. We saw deer and even wild turkeys! When I got home we got to feed the pigs (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/2269853173/in/photostream/)before settling in for a night of movies. I couldn't have asked for a better day.
Today we did indeed get snow. The day started off with ice so slick that our host dad had to take the skid loader out twice, once to roughen things up and once to lay salt. After that we were able to make it in to Maquoketa to the theatre. Near lunch time it began to snow. Well, snow would be an understatement. There were blizzard conditions for a while. We were wondering if we were going to get an audience other than our host parents, who really had to come anyway in order to pick us up. We ended up with a decent crowd, though. I guess the conditions cleared up a bit and the snow was easier to drive on than the ice.
After the show our host family and some family friends went out to a Mexican restaurant. The food was delicious and after eating my burrito they came out and set a dessert by us. Not having ordered one, I was a bit confused... that is, until I saw the staff come out with a sombrero. They placed it on my head and sang a Spanish song to me followed by "Happy Birthday." They took my picture in the hat and had me put it up on their designated birthday wall. So if you happen to be stopping by Maquoketa, make sure to check out my picture at the Mexican restaurant.
On our way back the gravel road, which makes up a mile from the highway to the farm, was so icy and covered in snow drifts that it took our host dad 3 trips to get us all from their friend's van to the house. The truck only holds 3 people and the van didn't have enough traction to make it to the farm and back. When I got back I realized that my water bottle had fallen out of my bag on the way home. (I know, two lost posts in a row!) When my host dad went back to get the back load, they checked the van to see if I'd left it there. I hadn't. We called the restaurant to see if maybe it had fallen out on my way to the car. It hadn't. We decided to take a trip back out to the highway to see if it had fallen out when I transferred vehicles. We noticed the neighbor farmer had plowed with his tractor since our last run, which made the roads easier to navigate but didn't do much for our hopes. As we neared the highway we saw my lovely blue bottle right in the middle of the road. Hurrah! Somebody's watching out for me. Let's just hope I start watching out for myself.
Happy Birthday mom!
~Molly
P.S. - My mom has mentioned that she was unable to figure out how to use the comment feature. For any who are interested (the more you write, the more I write) look at the bottom of each individual post. There will be a link that says "0 Comments" or whatever number of comments there are. Click on that and you can add a comment.
Yesterday we had host family day. My host family took my roommate and me up to Dubuque for the day. We had lunch at the newly renovated Star Brewery before heading to the Mississippi River Museum. Dubuque is beautiful, it pretty much looked like the set of Gilmore Girls if set on the Mississippi River. We ran into lots of friends in the museum. It's always cool to be in a place for the first time and run into familiar faces. On the ride home we stopped (after Dairy Queen) in Bellevue near the locks on the river. We went up to Bellevue State Park (where my host parents got married) and saw the beautiful view from the top of the hill (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/2270614808/). We took the scenic route home and watched the sun set over the snow from the van. We saw deer and even wild turkeys! When I got home we got to feed the pigs (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/2269853173/in/photostream/)before settling in for a night of movies. I couldn't have asked for a better day.
Today we did indeed get snow. The day started off with ice so slick that our host dad had to take the skid loader out twice, once to roughen things up and once to lay salt. After that we were able to make it in to Maquoketa to the theatre. Near lunch time it began to snow. Well, snow would be an understatement. There were blizzard conditions for a while. We were wondering if we were going to get an audience other than our host parents, who really had to come anyway in order to pick us up. We ended up with a decent crowd, though. I guess the conditions cleared up a bit and the snow was easier to drive on than the ice.
After the show our host family and some family friends went out to a Mexican restaurant. The food was delicious and after eating my burrito they came out and set a dessert by us. Not having ordered one, I was a bit confused... that is, until I saw the staff come out with a sombrero. They placed it on my head and sang a Spanish song to me followed by "Happy Birthday." They took my picture in the hat and had me put it up on their designated birthday wall. So if you happen to be stopping by Maquoketa, make sure to check out my picture at the Mexican restaurant.
On our way back the gravel road, which makes up a mile from the highway to the farm, was so icy and covered in snow drifts that it took our host dad 3 trips to get us all from their friend's van to the house. The truck only holds 3 people and the van didn't have enough traction to make it to the farm and back. When I got back I realized that my water bottle had fallen out of my bag on the way home. (I know, two lost posts in a row!) When my host dad went back to get the back load, they checked the van to see if I'd left it there. I hadn't. We called the restaurant to see if maybe it had fallen out on my way to the car. It hadn't. We decided to take a trip back out to the highway to see if it had fallen out when I transferred vehicles. We noticed the neighbor farmer had plowed with his tractor since our last run, which made the roads easier to navigate but didn't do much for our hopes. As we neared the highway we saw my lovely blue bottle right in the middle of the road. Hurrah! Somebody's watching out for me. Let's just hope I start watching out for myself.
Happy Birthday mom!
~Molly
P.S. - My mom has mentioned that she was unable to figure out how to use the comment feature. For any who are interested (the more you write, the more I write) look at the bottom of each individual post. There will be a link that says "0 Comments" or whatever number of comments there are. Click on that and you can add a comment.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Holy Maquoketa!
Happy Valentine's Day!
It feels like it's been ages since I've blogged as so much has happened in the past few days. Our first show in Denver was on the 9th and we had over 2000 people in the audience, including my lovely parents. For me personally, the dress rehearsal was tighter. For the cast overall, thankfully, the actual performance was tighter. I got to dance the gypsy dance, which is pretty much my favorite part of the show. Who doesn't love flowing skirts?
I'm starting to get used to the idea of working all day. I still get a little freaked out when I see our drop-off time is 7:30 a.m. and our pick-up time is 12:00 a.m., but I know that I will at least be standing at the end of the day (though support may be necessary for the aforementioned action).
This week has coincided with a lot of firsts.
-First show
-First 9 hour bus ride
-First city on the road
-First time dancing Daddy-oh in front of a crowd
-First time dancing Daddy-oh with proper timing
-First time interviewing prospective students
-First visit to Nebraska
-First visit to Iowa
-First freak-out over possible loss of items (Don't worry, I found them)
-First host family dog
On Monday morning we left Denver for Lincoln, Nebraska. It was there that I met my new host family. In typical midwestern fashion, our family was incredibly kind and went out of their way to make sure things went well while we were there. They have a dog, a shih tzu, named Bolt (see flickr pictures of a smaller, lighter version of Gizmo when I get them up) who was so sweet she would come right up to us waiting to be pet when we walked in the door. Our host mom made delicious meals (and compliments on grandma's salad as well) and even peeled and sliced apples for a mid-day snack every morning! On Tuesday night, one of the family's sons took us to a pizza restaurant where we played pool. They were hosting four of us, all girls, so my host mom was excited that her daughter finally had some girls in the house (they have 3 sons who are grown and out of the house, so they don't usually have that many females at one time).
My host mom also gets major points for willingness to call campus security once I realized I'd left a bag with my camera and show costume at the university where we'd performed. It wasn't there, so I figured someone must have seen it and grabbed it, and wasn't panicked too much. This morning I stepped out of the car to see the person in the car next to me step out holding my missing bag. I ran up to him, gave him a hug and shouted "I love you," as I went to get my bag. He looked at me and then said, "Do you know whose bag this is?" I said, "Mine," to which he replied, "So THAT'S what that was for. I just thought you were being nice." Sure, that too :-)
Valentine's Day on the bus was full of excitement. There was a valentine box where people could put notes and candy for other cast members, and people kept offering up goodies from their bags. My host mom had baked fresh oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and stuck them in our bag along with our lunches. She also snuck in a paperweight with a globe in it, which is quite neat.
Now I'm in Maquoketa, Iowa staying in a really cool farmhouse. They have two dogs here (outside dogs, not house dogs) and also some cows and piglets, which we have yet to see.
The snow is about two feet deep right now and more is predicted every day we're here. According to our advance team, it snowed 11 out of the first 12 days of February in Maquoketa.
Tomorrow I'm doing show promotion, so hopefully that goes well and we fill the house. I'm also hoping I don't freeze in the snow without proper boots.
And that, my friends, is my update. Feel free to leave any questions or messages for me.
~Molly
It feels like it's been ages since I've blogged as so much has happened in the past few days. Our first show in Denver was on the 9th and we had over 2000 people in the audience, including my lovely parents. For me personally, the dress rehearsal was tighter. For the cast overall, thankfully, the actual performance was tighter. I got to dance the gypsy dance, which is pretty much my favorite part of the show. Who doesn't love flowing skirts?
I'm starting to get used to the idea of working all day. I still get a little freaked out when I see our drop-off time is 7:30 a.m. and our pick-up time is 12:00 a.m., but I know that I will at least be standing at the end of the day (though support may be necessary for the aforementioned action).
This week has coincided with a lot of firsts.
-First show
-First 9 hour bus ride
-First city on the road
-First time dancing Daddy-oh in front of a crowd
-First time dancing Daddy-oh with proper timing
-First time interviewing prospective students
-First visit to Nebraska
-First visit to Iowa
-First freak-out over possible loss of items (Don't worry, I found them)
-First host family dog
On Monday morning we left Denver for Lincoln, Nebraska. It was there that I met my new host family. In typical midwestern fashion, our family was incredibly kind and went out of their way to make sure things went well while we were there. They have a dog, a shih tzu, named Bolt (see flickr pictures of a smaller, lighter version of Gizmo when I get them up) who was so sweet she would come right up to us waiting to be pet when we walked in the door. Our host mom made delicious meals (and compliments on grandma's salad as well) and even peeled and sliced apples for a mid-day snack every morning! On Tuesday night, one of the family's sons took us to a pizza restaurant where we played pool. They were hosting four of us, all girls, so my host mom was excited that her daughter finally had some girls in the house (they have 3 sons who are grown and out of the house, so they don't usually have that many females at one time).
My host mom also gets major points for willingness to call campus security once I realized I'd left a bag with my camera and show costume at the university where we'd performed. It wasn't there, so I figured someone must have seen it and grabbed it, and wasn't panicked too much. This morning I stepped out of the car to see the person in the car next to me step out holding my missing bag. I ran up to him, gave him a hug and shouted "I love you," as I went to get my bag. He looked at me and then said, "Do you know whose bag this is?" I said, "Mine," to which he replied, "So THAT'S what that was for. I just thought you were being nice." Sure, that too :-)
Valentine's Day on the bus was full of excitement. There was a valentine box where people could put notes and candy for other cast members, and people kept offering up goodies from their bags. My host mom had baked fresh oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and stuck them in our bag along with our lunches. She also snuck in a paperweight with a globe in it, which is quite neat.
Now I'm in Maquoketa, Iowa staying in a really cool farmhouse. They have two dogs here (outside dogs, not house dogs) and also some cows and piglets, which we have yet to see.
The snow is about two feet deep right now and more is predicted every day we're here. According to our advance team, it snowed 11 out of the first 12 days of February in Maquoketa.
Tomorrow I'm doing show promotion, so hopefully that goes well and we fill the house. I'm also hoping I don't freeze in the snow without proper boots.
And that, my friends, is my update. Feel free to leave any questions or messages for me.
~Molly
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Today began with a circus. Our delightful staff decided to make a presentation to announce the first round of internships, and it was all circus themed. I need to remember to bring my camera to morning meetings, because there are often entertaining things that I wish I had pictures of. (I may borrow pictures from those who were prepared, though). There were elaborate costumes- most notably Jared's purple unitard. There was juggling and "tightrope" walking. We had a daring feat of acrobatics performed by Andrew the sound technician as he rolled down an entire flight of stairs. The tech crew even formed a pyramid. All of this before 9:00. I am not an intern for this round, but have an assistantship as a city runner. That means I get to do research to prep the cast for the next cities we go to and get them pumped. It should be great.
Tomorrow night is our dress rehearsal for the Denver show on Saturday. Our host families are invited as are our real families. My parents are coming as are my host families. We still need a bit of work on transitions, but our show is looking decent. I wish we could have solid run-throughs with notes afterward, but so far it's been all stop and start directing. As a cast I think we just need to run it a bunch of times for continuity sake, but we may only get to actually do one or two run-throughs. My guess is that we'll start feeling comfortable in the show about 3 weeks from now. It's a little frustrating not knowing which parts you'll be doing in advance, as this leads to crowds around every run list so people can figure out which songs they need to be on microphones for and which dances they are in that involve special costumes.
That all said, tomorrow will be a very long day. Here's to hoping I can keep my energy levels up and not get too many blisters from ill-fitting character shoes. Also, if you know anybody who lives in Denver or nearby areas, tell them to come check out our show. http://www.upwithpeople.org/denver/
Oyasuminasai!
~Molly
Tomorrow night is our dress rehearsal for the Denver show on Saturday. Our host families are invited as are our real families. My parents are coming as are my host families. We still need a bit of work on transitions, but our show is looking decent. I wish we could have solid run-throughs with notes afterward, but so far it's been all stop and start directing. As a cast I think we just need to run it a bunch of times for continuity sake, but we may only get to actually do one or two run-throughs. My guess is that we'll start feeling comfortable in the show about 3 weeks from now. It's a little frustrating not knowing which parts you'll be doing in advance, as this leads to crowds around every run list so people can figure out which songs they need to be on microphones for and which dances they are in that involve special costumes.
That all said, tomorrow will be a very long day. Here's to hoping I can keep my energy levels up and not get too many blisters from ill-fitting character shoes. Also, if you know anybody who lives in Denver or nearby areas, tell them to come check out our show. http://www.upwithpeople.org/denver/
Oyasuminasai!
~Molly
Monday, February 4, 2008
"I hope he DOES say 'Grab your coat.'"
The end of last week was full of performing arts. Thursday, I was pulled to do dance workshops instead of going to our community impact projects. All in all, we danced for 6.5 hours. Though it was not continuous (as we had lunch in the middle) it does break the 4 hour record for amount of time spent dancing in one day. I am almost fully recovered from that, arms and all. The dance we worked on primarily is my favorite in the show.
This weekend was the Super Bowl. For many of my castmates, it was their first American football game. I ended up watching with Beth (from New Hampshire) and Sanna (from Sweden). I had a great time just kicking back and relaxing while watching what I found to be a lackluster game. Granted, I had to leave early in the 4th Quarter to catch the appropriate bus and I'm told I missed the best part of the game. My theory is that if I watched over 3/4 of the game and it was boring, then it was not a good game.
The commercials were not fantastic, though there were a few that I quite enjoyed:
-Pepsi - People nodding off until they get the jolt of Pepsi's new product and they all start doing the Roxbury dance. I love it because I can relate completely. They get bonus points for the Chris Kattan cameo.
-Bridgestone - Screaming squirrel and other animals. Need I say more?
-Tide - The talking stain. Again, I can identify and have often felt that way. It was brilliantly executed, with the stain overpowering his interview. I loved it.
-Budweiser - Clydesdales with the Rocky montage. All they could have added to enhance this commercial would have been the Clydesdale running up stairs at one point.
Today we had a fantastic guest speaker, Carolyn Lee. She was incredibly entertaining, had an engaging delivery, and really spoke to our current and future experiences and how to make the most of them. It's hard to address the post-lunch crowd, but she had us all in the palm of her hand. During the day, there was another freak snow storm. I do love the snow, but I would appreciate if they'd forecast it a little better, as I could not feel my feet through my ballet slippers as I was walking home.
Tomorrow's an entire day of performing arts/show prep, as our dress rehearsal is Friday and our first real show is Saturday. I'm quite impressed that we've put a show together in less than 3 weeks. Let's see how much we can polish it in the next few days.
Oh, and apparently Bradley Whitford (from The West Wing) is calling me to tell me that even though I'm an independent voter, I can request a democratic ballot on primary day. Thank you Bradley.
Take care,
~Molly
This weekend was the Super Bowl. For many of my castmates, it was their first American football game. I ended up watching with Beth (from New Hampshire) and Sanna (from Sweden). I had a great time just kicking back and relaxing while watching what I found to be a lackluster game. Granted, I had to leave early in the 4th Quarter to catch the appropriate bus and I'm told I missed the best part of the game. My theory is that if I watched over 3/4 of the game and it was boring, then it was not a good game.
The commercials were not fantastic, though there were a few that I quite enjoyed:
-Pepsi - People nodding off until they get the jolt of Pepsi's new product and they all start doing the Roxbury dance. I love it because I can relate completely. They get bonus points for the Chris Kattan cameo.
-Bridgestone - Screaming squirrel and other animals. Need I say more?
-Tide - The talking stain. Again, I can identify and have often felt that way. It was brilliantly executed, with the stain overpowering his interview. I loved it.
-Budweiser - Clydesdales with the Rocky montage. All they could have added to enhance this commercial would have been the Clydesdale running up stairs at one point.
Today we had a fantastic guest speaker, Carolyn Lee. She was incredibly entertaining, had an engaging delivery, and really spoke to our current and future experiences and how to make the most of them. It's hard to address the post-lunch crowd, but she had us all in the palm of her hand. During the day, there was another freak snow storm. I do love the snow, but I would appreciate if they'd forecast it a little better, as I could not feel my feet through my ballet slippers as I was walking home.
Tomorrow's an entire day of performing arts/show prep, as our dress rehearsal is Friday and our first real show is Saturday. I'm quite impressed that we've put a show together in less than 3 weeks. Let's see how much we can polish it in the next few days.
Oh, and apparently Bradley Whitford (from The West Wing) is calling me to tell me that even though I'm an independent voter, I can request a democratic ballot on primary day. Thank you Bradley.
Take care,
~Molly
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