So I realized there were a few things I missed in my last entry. The first was our arrival in Monterrey. As we neared the city, the sun was setting. Through the haze, you could see the red of the sun as it set behind the mountains. Being a bus sleeper, I was sleeping and happened to wake up just as the sun hit the mountains. When we reached our final destination at Tec de Monterrey, we were greeted by lots of cameras as well as staff we haven't seen since Denver. We had a special surprise waiting for us, which turned out to be a traditional band with dancers. The dancers were great, with a style made up of lots of foot stomping and spinning.
The second thing I may have missed was the fact that every morning we get fresh juice here. The first day we had orange juice, which was awesome. The second day, our host mom made mandarin orange juice. I don't know what it feels like to get punched in the face, but if it feels really really good, then this juice was about the same. It had such an intense flavor and it was soooo good. This morning we had pineapple juice to go along with our breakfast, which was a ham and cheese tortilla.
This week I've been doing promotion around the campus of Tec de Monterrey, and I'm learning how to say all the things I need to say for promotional purposes in Spanish. I think, though, that my Spanish is getting worse. Perhaps it's a side effect of being very tired, but by the end of the day I don't understand anything my host family says in Spanish. They'll ask me what words mean and the synapses just aren't firing quickly enough for me to recollect the English words. Yeah, my understanding has been much worse than I would like. I knew coming in that I had a hard time understanding when people speak, and it's true. I ask for everyone to repeat things at least once, especially when they are asking a question. Hopefully I'll start picking more up soon.
On Thursday, we had a mini-show on campus. It was outside in the 90-some degree sunny weather. At least there was a breeze. The stage, however, did not get much breeze, which caused my knees to burn while doing a dance which required kneeling (though only for a brief period of time). After the mini-show, I got interviewed for Tec de Monterrey's newspaper. Then some of us laid about a bit in the shade, watching the deer, peacocks, birds, and squirrels on campus. It's a gorgeous campus.
Friday was our regional learning day, and man was it packed - 4 sites in one day. We split up into 4 groups and spent the day with our group. My group started off at Parque Fundidora, which used to be a steel mill, as steel used to be one of the biggest industries in Monterrey. The park had tons of great steel structures strewn about. We got to ride the rickety cage elevator up the side of what used to be a blast furnace and got to walk the catwalk. Needless to say, I stayed near the rails and the non-slotted walkways because it was a long way down.
Our second stop of the day was Dialago en la obscura (Dialogue in the dark). This was a museum that simulated what the world is like for a blind person. It's completely dark, and you go through a series of rooms (a grocery store, a neighborhood, a street, a beach...) and get to experience the world without the use of your eyes. It was really neat to hear the differences between people's experiences, even within our own group. Some people had a really hard time telling where things were or who was near them. I was able to get my bearings pretty quickly in each place and was very aware of who was in the room with me. At the end of the tour, we went to a snack bar where I got to make a transaction in the dark even. It was really cool.
After Dialogo we walked to Paseo Santa Lucia. We took a boat along a river through the park, which led us to... the Museum of Mexican history, our fourth stop. We only had a little bit of time to look through the museum, but it was cool to see all the artifacts we've seen in U.S. museums with a Mexican perspective. Didn't I tell you we fit a lot in for one day?
After our regional learning we went to DIF, an organization that works with children who've been abused or abandoned. We got to play with all the kids (ages 2-18) and we danced for each other. It took about 3 minutes before I had a little one on my lap to watch the dancing. We got to run around and just have fun for a bit, which was a great ending to our day.
Did I say ending? I didn't mean the real end. Our day ended in my first official fiesta. There are a bunch of us living together in a neighborhood, so we had a party with all 9 of us Uppies and our host families. There was talking, singing, dancing, and food. I danced until the cows came home, which was about 1:00 in the morning. It was such a great group, some of my favorite Uppies, and we just had a blast all night.
That leads us to today. This morning, a group of us (most of us from the party) went to the Tec for a salsa class. It was really fun. I danced with Paul (my original dance partner from the show) and we didn't do too poorly for a couple of gringos. At one point, the teacher even called us out to show the dance they were teaching us. They only did that at one other point while we were there. Dance truly is a universal language, because goodness knows I didn't understand 40% of what our instructor was saying and I was still able to pick it up. After salsa class I went to help set up the stage for our show tomorrow. Tomorrow brings with it a lot of firsts - our first show in Mexico, our first time doing the Mexican medley, our first time doing Up With People in Spanish in a show, and most importantly... our first double show day! It's also my first show as the marketing intern, which brings with it some responsibilities I've not yet had. We've got a lot of work to do in the morning before the show actually starts. Here's to hoping everything gets done.
Cheers,
~Molly
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Up With People becomes Viva La Gente por Mexico
!Hola!
Estamos en Mexico ahora, en Monterrey. Soy con mi amiga Jen (de Canada) en una familia con dos hijas y los dos padres. Las hijas hablan ingles, y el padre se habla Spanglish, pero la madre no habla ingles. Vivimos en un barrio con 4 o 5 otra personas de Viva la Gente y esta muy divertido. Acoba de jugar futbol con dos personas de Viva la Gente, mi padre, las dos hijas, y otros vecinos en el parque. Fue magnifico, y el tiempo fue fantastico tambien con un poco de viento.
Hoy fue mi primera entrevista sobre Viva la Gente y... fue en espanol! Fue una sorpresa para mi. Soy el asistante nuevo de marcadeo por las 6 semanas proximas y de esos, 5 estan en Mexico. Es dificil, pero es posible. Necesito mejorar mis abilidades en espanol y esto es una oportunidad buena para mi.
La comida aqui esta bueno, tambien. Ayer despues de llegando, tuvimos jicama con limon y chile y entonces pastel de chocolate :-). Esta manana, tuvimos bananas, mangos, y pinas frescas porque son mis frutas favoritas. La madre le gusta cocinar y comemos pescado asado con arroz, champinones, y aguacates. !Que delicioso!
Manana, voy a bailar todo el dia porque tenemos bailes nuevos por nuestros canciones hispanicos. Me gusta el sol, las montanas, y la gente aqui en Mexico. Mas luego, pero ahora voy a dormir.
!Buenas noches!
~Molly
Otra cosa - lo siento, pero mi computadora no tiene las marcas de puntuacion o esta muy dificil y por eso no las tengo.
Estamos en Mexico ahora, en Monterrey. Soy con mi amiga Jen (de Canada) en una familia con dos hijas y los dos padres. Las hijas hablan ingles, y el padre se habla Spanglish, pero la madre no habla ingles. Vivimos en un barrio con 4 o 5 otra personas de Viva la Gente y esta muy divertido. Acoba de jugar futbol con dos personas de Viva la Gente, mi padre, las dos hijas, y otros vecinos en el parque. Fue magnifico, y el tiempo fue fantastico tambien con un poco de viento.
Hoy fue mi primera entrevista sobre Viva la Gente y... fue en espanol! Fue una sorpresa para mi. Soy el asistante nuevo de marcadeo por las 6 semanas proximas y de esos, 5 estan en Mexico. Es dificil, pero es posible. Necesito mejorar mis abilidades en espanol y esto es una oportunidad buena para mi.
La comida aqui esta bueno, tambien. Ayer despues de llegando, tuvimos jicama con limon y chile y entonces pastel de chocolate :-). Esta manana, tuvimos bananas, mangos, y pinas frescas porque son mis frutas favoritas. La madre le gusta cocinar y comemos pescado asado con arroz, champinones, y aguacates. !Que delicioso!
Manana, voy a bailar todo el dia porque tenemos bailes nuevos por nuestros canciones hispanicos. Me gusta el sol, las montanas, y la gente aqui en Mexico. Mas luego, pero ahora voy a dormir.
!Buenas noches!
~Molly
Otra cosa - lo siento, pero mi computadora no tiene las marcas de puntuacion o esta muy dificil y por eso no las tengo.
The end of us... I mean U.S.
Brenham, Texas was our last city in the United States for now. I shall begin where I left off (or where I believe I left off, as I'm too tired to look back now) On the third day, we got a new toilet and it was possible to have two bathrooms for the 11 of us. We had a number of guests to the house while we were there, as our host family had talked about the 9 of us a lot and everyone wanted to "meet the kids." One night we had a couple of ladies from their church. The next night, we had an artist from Houston who brought us clay to play with (Sculpey for those who are interested)! I was inspired by the cupcakes we were eating, so I made a clay cupcake with sprinkles and an optional candle and cherry that you can add depending on your mood. There wasn't enough room in my suitcase to carry them with me (and you can read that as they were too delicate) so I left them with my host family. Le sigh. There are always pictures.
Did I mention the food yet? The food was fantastic. Our host parents basically cook the way that I do, which was perfect for me. We had pasta with freshly sauteed vegetables one night, stir fry one night, and veggie burgers one night (well hamburgers for those who prefer them). On Thursday night, my roommate from Nepal, Lachhu, made a Nepali dinner. It was so delicious. It made me miss those Naan 'n Curry runs between shows at the Phoenix Theatre or those late night parathas at the Indian Bread Co. next door to the apartment on Bleecker St. Soooo good! The piece de resistance from our host parents however, came in the form of breakfast our last day. We had bran muffins that were made with Raisin Bran. They were so moist, yet so dense, and the flavor was great. I'll have to get the recipe for those.
The show in Brenham was a lot of fun, too. We had a very enthusiastic audience, which we were worried about because it was Good Friday in a very religious town. We ended up having a sizable house despite the holiday. They were all so kind to us and impressed by the show. We ended up having tons of people apply for the program afterward, too, which was a nice plus.
Oh, did I say holiday? That's right, we spent Easter in Texas. When I woke up (in the usual manner, which was Megan, the dog, licking my face) on Sunday I saw that our host family had used colored plastic cowboy hats - the kind with the string to go under your chin - as Easter baskets for each of us and had filled them with candy. It was such a sweet gesture, especially since some of our crew was away from home for Easter for the first time. We went to church and then went to Houston and visited a few places before stopping to get dinner on our way home. When we got home some people got their hair cut, but I just packed. I had some help from Katrina, one of the three cats. She sat in my suitcase for about 20 minutes while I was going back and forth doing different things to get ready. After I'd packed, I took a shower and talked with my roommate Louisa (from Denmark) until about 1:00 in the morning. Overall, I approve of Texas so far. I'll let you know more when I return for three more weeks.
~Molly
Did I mention the food yet? The food was fantastic. Our host parents basically cook the way that I do, which was perfect for me. We had pasta with freshly sauteed vegetables one night, stir fry one night, and veggie burgers one night (well hamburgers for those who prefer them). On Thursday night, my roommate from Nepal, Lachhu, made a Nepali dinner. It was so delicious. It made me miss those Naan 'n Curry runs between shows at the Phoenix Theatre or those late night parathas at the Indian Bread Co. next door to the apartment on Bleecker St. Soooo good! The piece de resistance from our host parents however, came in the form of breakfast our last day. We had bran muffins that were made with Raisin Bran. They were so moist, yet so dense, and the flavor was great. I'll have to get the recipe for those.
The show in Brenham was a lot of fun, too. We had a very enthusiastic audience, which we were worried about because it was Good Friday in a very religious town. We ended up having a sizable house despite the holiday. They were all so kind to us and impressed by the show. We ended up having tons of people apply for the program afterward, too, which was a nice plus.
Oh, did I say holiday? That's right, we spent Easter in Texas. When I woke up (in the usual manner, which was Megan, the dog, licking my face) on Sunday I saw that our host family had used colored plastic cowboy hats - the kind with the string to go under your chin - as Easter baskets for each of us and had filled them with candy. It was such a sweet gesture, especially since some of our crew was away from home for Easter for the first time. We went to church and then went to Houston and visited a few places before stopping to get dinner on our way home. When we got home some people got their hair cut, but I just packed. I had some help from Katrina, one of the three cats. She sat in my suitcase for about 20 minutes while I was going back and forth doing different things to get ready. After I'd packed, I took a shower and talked with my roommate Louisa (from Denmark) until about 1:00 in the morning. Overall, I approve of Texas so far. I'll let you know more when I return for three more weeks.
~Molly
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
St. Joseph, Enid, Brenham
So Chicago ended with a slow burn, that burn being in my throat. The day after the show I stayed home and pretty much did nothing for the next two days. My host family got my roommate and I tickets to Blue Man Group one night (they had an event to go to) and that was great. They did a lot of things for the sake of being awesome, or so it seemed. I approve.
St. Joseph, Missouri was the next stop on our tour. The architecture was amazing, but I managed to escape the city without taking a single picture. That's sacrilege, I know, but we were only there for 3 days. On our community impact day, we worked in local elementary schools in the morning working with a curriculum based on diversity and peace-building. Afterward, we got to do a mini-show for the school - actually, we got to do two mini-shows. The first school we were at, there were about 15 cast members and we did a show with just us. It was so much fun.
There was one highlight, or lowlight depending on how you look at it, but either way that first show will be memorable. When we do the real show, we have different costumes for different dances. When we do the mini-shows, we just use the costume we wear for the whole show. For me, this consists of a skirt, leotard, and two shirts. This was the first time I'd danced in my show costume for a specialty dance. Well when I did the first lift of our swing dance, my skirt flew up and an entire K-8 grade school saw my leotard. This wouldn't be a huge deal except our show manager started laughing when it happened, so the audience was a little shocked. Our vocal director gave me a pair of leggings to wear under my costume for the next show. So yeah, I flashed a K-8.
Next we went to Enid, Oklahoma. We were told upon arriving that we needed a state-issued ID to get home... we were living on a military base. It was pretty cool. There were six of us girls all hosted together in a host family with two young daughters. That's right, 9 girls and 1 boy in the house. Our show had a very low attendance, due primarily to the fact that our community impact day was the day AFTER the show so we really didn't get too much of a chance to promote. The show itself was good, however. The day after the show I was in a dance workshop all day (well for 6 hours of the day) learning our dances for the Mexican medley. Things are kicking into high gear for Mexico as we travel there in less than a week.
The day after our show, another family came over with their students - all girls. In total, there were 17 girls and just our host dad. We had soup and then made s'mores out in the driveway on a portable fireplace. We also played some ping pong and laughed a lot. The next day we (along with another group of Uppies) got a tour of the base from another host dad, who happened to be one of the highest ranked officers on the base. It was really cool seeing all the different types of planes. After that we went bowling! They have a bowling alley on base and it was so incredibly cheap I fear that if I lived there I would do nothing but bowl. We had a great time and even ran into another group of cast members in the bowling alley.
On Monday we left Enid for Brenham. That's right, I'm officially in Texas. There are 9 of us (4 boys, 5 girls) being hosted together with a couple. We've had great food so far, the most familiar to home with stir-fry and pasta with fresh vegetables. When we got here, it was cloudy and 81 degrees. It's cooled down a little bit and it rained a lot of the day today. We've got a tornado watch for tonight, but it's supposed to get back up to 90 by the end of this week. Time for me to break out the shorts. We skipped spring completely and jumped straight to summer.
Okay, that's enough of an update for now. If you want to know anything else, please let me know.
~Molly
St. Joseph, Missouri was the next stop on our tour. The architecture was amazing, but I managed to escape the city without taking a single picture. That's sacrilege, I know, but we were only there for 3 days. On our community impact day, we worked in local elementary schools in the morning working with a curriculum based on diversity and peace-building. Afterward, we got to do a mini-show for the school - actually, we got to do two mini-shows. The first school we were at, there were about 15 cast members and we did a show with just us. It was so much fun.
There was one highlight, or lowlight depending on how you look at it, but either way that first show will be memorable. When we do the real show, we have different costumes for different dances. When we do the mini-shows, we just use the costume we wear for the whole show. For me, this consists of a skirt, leotard, and two shirts. This was the first time I'd danced in my show costume for a specialty dance. Well when I did the first lift of our swing dance, my skirt flew up and an entire K-8 grade school saw my leotard. This wouldn't be a huge deal except our show manager started laughing when it happened, so the audience was a little shocked. Our vocal director gave me a pair of leggings to wear under my costume for the next show. So yeah, I flashed a K-8.
Next we went to Enid, Oklahoma. We were told upon arriving that we needed a state-issued ID to get home... we were living on a military base. It was pretty cool. There were six of us girls all hosted together in a host family with two young daughters. That's right, 9 girls and 1 boy in the house. Our show had a very low attendance, due primarily to the fact that our community impact day was the day AFTER the show so we really didn't get too much of a chance to promote. The show itself was good, however. The day after the show I was in a dance workshop all day (well for 6 hours of the day) learning our dances for the Mexican medley. Things are kicking into high gear for Mexico as we travel there in less than a week.
The day after our show, another family came over with their students - all girls. In total, there were 17 girls and just our host dad. We had soup and then made s'mores out in the driveway on a portable fireplace. We also played some ping pong and laughed a lot. The next day we (along with another group of Uppies) got a tour of the base from another host dad, who happened to be one of the highest ranked officers on the base. It was really cool seeing all the different types of planes. After that we went bowling! They have a bowling alley on base and it was so incredibly cheap I fear that if I lived there I would do nothing but bowl. We had a great time and even ran into another group of cast members in the bowling alley.
On Monday we left Enid for Brenham. That's right, I'm officially in Texas. There are 9 of us (4 boys, 5 girls) being hosted together with a couple. We've had great food so far, the most familiar to home with stir-fry and pasta with fresh vegetables. When we got here, it was cloudy and 81 degrees. It's cooled down a little bit and it rained a lot of the day today. We've got a tornado watch for tonight, but it's supposed to get back up to 90 by the end of this week. Time for me to break out the shorts. We skipped spring completely and jumped straight to summer.
Okay, that's enough of an update for now. If you want to know anything else, please let me know.
~Molly
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
"This is my kind of town"
Chicago is... Well, it's where I am right now. Before I get to that however, I must finish telling you about Chocolate City. The reason Burlington is called the Chocolate City is because of the Nestle factory which resides there. What they DON'T tell you is that the air smells like chocolate... not just chocolate, but it smells like brownies are baking ALL the time. It's intoxicating.
My family in Burlington was just incredible. They were all amazing cooks making everything from homemade bread (wheat as well as the most delicious focaccia I've ever eaten) to chicken piccata to pancakes. Needless to say, we ate very well. On Sunday, our host family day, we had brunch with a neighboring family which was also hosting three students. Our host family made Thai noodle salad, chicken satay, and chocolate covered strawberries. So good!
Our beneficiary in Burlington was an organization called Love, Inc. which has a lot of different services offered under its umbrella. There is a food pantry and a thrift store, but the organization also offers services to those in the community who would benefit from them. I worked in the food pantry helping people find what they needed and occasionally restocking shelves. It was fun because the biggest part of my job was just greeting people and talking to them a bit. The only downfall was that I was losing my voice.
On show day, I woke up without a voice (for the second day in a row) and figured it would be back around noon. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to have a vocal workshop at 9:30. Let's just say it wasn't my best singing. I made it through the day and when it came time for the show I was fairly confident I could keep my voice together, as long as I didn't take too deep a breath and force myself into a coughing fit. It all worked out, though. As is wont to happen, I got more compliments on that performance than any previous show - from the staff and cast as well. My host grandma, the one who had heard my lack of voice that morning, was astounded. She must have brought it up 4 or 5 times over the next day that she was amazed that I could sing at all, and then that I could sing well.
After the show, different people are assigned to different tasks to make sure all the interviews get covered and the stage gets taken down. That particular night I didn't have a specific assignment, so I was in the TBD group. After walking around for a while we decided that yoga and stretching was the best use of our time. I stretched for quite a while and then noticed people were starting to give each other massages. I'm not sure how I managed this but one of my castmates offered to give me a massage, and man did I get spoiled. Most people got 15 minute or so massages before the other person gave up. My fellow castmate, however, gave me an incredibly delightful hour long massage. Needless to say, I had no trouble sleeping that night.
On Saturday night my host family took us to Milwaukee to see the 5 Browns, a family of 5 siblings (ages 22-29) who are all piano virtuosos. The concert was great and though they played mostly classical, they threw in a few Gershwin pieces, which are my favorites. It was so interesting to watch them perform, because I've never seen more than 2 people playing piano at the same time. Having 5 people all performing together was almost hypnotic. They all had a similar technique, and when they played they would sway along with their motions on the piano as if they were in a trance. They each did solos, duets, and trios as well, but they are one of the first acts to ever have 5 pianos being played at once.
As if that wasn't great enough, Sunday was amazing as well. It started off with the aforementioned brunch. What I didn't mention, however, was that the neighboring family was Filipino, so in addition to the food brought by us we had delicious Filipino food. During our week in Burlington, my host family discovered my love of improv. So what was their suggestion for our host day activity? Going to Second City (an improv and sketch theatre in Chicago). We drove the hour and a half to Chicago for the show, then stopped for some Mediterranean food before heading back for the night. Seriously, I could not have had a more amazing family. They treated me like one of their own, and they treat their own very well.
Now on to Chicago! Though I did get a "sneak-preview" of Chicago the night before I came here for real, Monday was our first day in Chicago. I'm now staying with an Up With People alumnus (Cast of '83), her husband, and their daughter. This is my first alum host and it's really refreshing to have someone to talk to who really knows what it's like. She understands that the unspoken rule is that we are tired all the time. She knows how much we appreciate the extra half hour of sleep we get because she is willing to drive us to our morning meeting rather than taking public transportation. She also has some hilarious stories about her enthusiastic encounters with other UWP alums.
Yesterday, we were in a number of Chicago high schools working with students on projects focusing on diversity. We'll be doing the same thing tomorrow. Today, however, there were a number of different projects people worked on. Twenty of us were given a special opportunity in that we got to take a tour of NBC Studios and watch the taping of a live show. It was cool to see the studios, even though the show was not anything special. It's called "In the Loop with iVillage" and apparently it's NBC's only syndicated talk show produced in Chicago. I had no idea.
My roommate this week is Astrid from Mexico. She's the most graceful dancer and is just a joy to watch perform. Ella esta ayudando con mi espanol, porque necesito mejorar antes de Mexico.
That's the news for now. All is well.
~Molly
My family in Burlington was just incredible. They were all amazing cooks making everything from homemade bread (wheat as well as the most delicious focaccia I've ever eaten) to chicken piccata to pancakes. Needless to say, we ate very well. On Sunday, our host family day, we had brunch with a neighboring family which was also hosting three students. Our host family made Thai noodle salad, chicken satay, and chocolate covered strawberries. So good!
Our beneficiary in Burlington was an organization called Love, Inc. which has a lot of different services offered under its umbrella. There is a food pantry and a thrift store, but the organization also offers services to those in the community who would benefit from them. I worked in the food pantry helping people find what they needed and occasionally restocking shelves. It was fun because the biggest part of my job was just greeting people and talking to them a bit. The only downfall was that I was losing my voice.
On show day, I woke up without a voice (for the second day in a row) and figured it would be back around noon. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to have a vocal workshop at 9:30. Let's just say it wasn't my best singing. I made it through the day and when it came time for the show I was fairly confident I could keep my voice together, as long as I didn't take too deep a breath and force myself into a coughing fit. It all worked out, though. As is wont to happen, I got more compliments on that performance than any previous show - from the staff and cast as well. My host grandma, the one who had heard my lack of voice that morning, was astounded. She must have brought it up 4 or 5 times over the next day that she was amazed that I could sing at all, and then that I could sing well.
After the show, different people are assigned to different tasks to make sure all the interviews get covered and the stage gets taken down. That particular night I didn't have a specific assignment, so I was in the TBD group. After walking around for a while we decided that yoga and stretching was the best use of our time. I stretched for quite a while and then noticed people were starting to give each other massages. I'm not sure how I managed this but one of my castmates offered to give me a massage, and man did I get spoiled. Most people got 15 minute or so massages before the other person gave up. My fellow castmate, however, gave me an incredibly delightful hour long massage. Needless to say, I had no trouble sleeping that night.
On Saturday night my host family took us to Milwaukee to see the 5 Browns, a family of 5 siblings (ages 22-29) who are all piano virtuosos. The concert was great and though they played mostly classical, they threw in a few Gershwin pieces, which are my favorites. It was so interesting to watch them perform, because I've never seen more than 2 people playing piano at the same time. Having 5 people all performing together was almost hypnotic. They all had a similar technique, and when they played they would sway along with their motions on the piano as if they were in a trance. They each did solos, duets, and trios as well, but they are one of the first acts to ever have 5 pianos being played at once.
As if that wasn't great enough, Sunday was amazing as well. It started off with the aforementioned brunch. What I didn't mention, however, was that the neighboring family was Filipino, so in addition to the food brought by us we had delicious Filipino food. During our week in Burlington, my host family discovered my love of improv. So what was their suggestion for our host day activity? Going to Second City (an improv and sketch theatre in Chicago). We drove the hour and a half to Chicago for the show, then stopped for some Mediterranean food before heading back for the night. Seriously, I could not have had a more amazing family. They treated me like one of their own, and they treat their own very well.
Now on to Chicago! Though I did get a "sneak-preview" of Chicago the night before I came here for real, Monday was our first day in Chicago. I'm now staying with an Up With People alumnus (Cast of '83), her husband, and their daughter. This is my first alum host and it's really refreshing to have someone to talk to who really knows what it's like. She understands that the unspoken rule is that we are tired all the time. She knows how much we appreciate the extra half hour of sleep we get because she is willing to drive us to our morning meeting rather than taking public transportation. She also has some hilarious stories about her enthusiastic encounters with other UWP alums.
Yesterday, we were in a number of Chicago high schools working with students on projects focusing on diversity. We'll be doing the same thing tomorrow. Today, however, there were a number of different projects people worked on. Twenty of us were given a special opportunity in that we got to take a tour of NBC Studios and watch the taping of a live show. It was cool to see the studios, even though the show was not anything special. It's called "In the Loop with iVillage" and apparently it's NBC's only syndicated talk show produced in Chicago. I had no idea.
My roommate this week is Astrid from Mexico. She's the most graceful dancer and is just a joy to watch perform. Ella esta ayudando con mi espanol, porque necesito mejorar antes de Mexico.
That's the news for now. All is well.
~Molly
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