The Odyssey

New Blog!

2010-07-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

If you still read this (or check in from time-to-time) you'll notice I have not updated in a looonnngg time. I apologize for this. I've actually moved to a new blog as I start off on a new journey. Feel free to follow me there. I promise there will be more activity there - primarily because there are more people reading :-)

http://mollyskye.wordpress.com/ Check it out! I'm headed to Africa next.

See ya there!
~Molly

Slice of Life

2009-10-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

I wrote this while at a cafe this afternoon. I've left the pauses where I apparently felt they went at the time. This is a glimpse into my mind. There are no incredible revelations or life-changing pieces of advice. Just simple observation.

The air is crisp. The trees show their true colors, which are reflected in the still waters of the canal. In the canals I can also see the blue of the sky with wisps of cloud strewn about. I feel the stones under my feet and the slight drip of my nose lets me know that it is fall.

My thoughts are so loud I fear those around me can hear them. Perhaps their minds are feeding into them. As I sit, my gaze is fixed and I am entranced. Occasionally the clink of a glass or an unexpected laugh brings me back to the table. I watch the curly redhead across the street as she gets her hair cut. The stylist twists the locks as she prepares to cut. I am reminded of my poor posture when my back begins to ache from my current position. My eyes are drawn to the cafe decor. Black and white striped walls are interrupted by large, colorful paintings from a local artist. I wonder if they will ever sell. I take a sip of the tea the shop owner helped me pick out and smell the berries as its warmth reaches my tongue. It is followed by a bite of cannebullar - the best I've tried in the city so far. The dough is a bit crispy on the outside, but moist. The cinnamon flavor is fresh and the pearl sugar atop melts in your mouth.

The two girls who were sitting in the Victorian velvet brocade chairs put on their coats and both look at me again, trying to be discreet. My toes feel the burst of cold wind as they walk through the door and they take one more look in my direction before strolling off laughing. Only my imagination will know what is so amusing about my appearance. A young couple walks by - each of their two children carrying a mylar balloon with unnamed cartoon characters.

Another bite of canelbullar. The redhead reads a magazine and the stylist takes a bite of a chocolate bar while the hair is drying. I admire the construction of the cafe's stools- designed for comfort. My mind wanders to all the dogs I passed in the morning's Oktobermarket. Each had such a distinct look and personality that barking was almost unnecessary, because you could already tell what they were thinking.

A woman walks in whose green brocade jacket exactly matches the pattern of the chairs. I wonder if she ever noticed. The scent of the next table's cheese dip wafts over with the shutting of the door. Looking out the window, I catch in the reflection of the blue van parked outside a little girl rolling about on the sidewalk laughing. She rolls far enough that I can see her plainly and she continues to laugh as her blonde braids peek out from beneath her knit grey cap. Mom helps her up as she walks by and the family continues on their Saturday walk.

A girl walks by with a mylar pony balloon attached to a small suitcase. She looks back in admiration and concentration so as not to lose control of the suitcase. Mom smiles and leads on. She reminds me of myself as I rolled my large suitcase through these same streets just two days ago. There was no balloon, but perhaps there should have been.

I stir my tea and the sugar from the bottom swirls around with the remaining tea leaves and I take a sip of the tea which is now slightly cold and slightly too sweet. I think of the coffee I was invited to share with a bible study group this morning when I showed up unannounced at a local church. I tried to mask the flavor with cream and sugar, but was unsuccessful in my attempt. I still do not care for the taste of coffee. It was the first time in this country that tea was not also offered. The tea light on my table is no longer flickering in its black glass cup.

I notice the black wall behind me is covered with two huge canvases. One is the Mona Lisa. The other is a picture of cows. The blonde couple on the couch embraces and the young man gently kisses his girlfriend's forehead. The server arrives with their food and she yawns unceremoniously.

A family walks in and eyes my table upon realizing they are left with only high tables at which they can sit. The clouds shift deepening the contrast between light and shadow. I guess the time is 3:00, but a look at my phone shows me I am ahead half an hour. The mother of the family asks something in Swedish and I am forced to reveal I am a foreigner here. She asks again if she may use one of the chairs at my table to store her things. I nod emphatically. I sip the last of my tea and take the final bite of canelbullar, making sure to get every last bit of pearl sugar. I use my finger to pick up the remaining three pearls. As if on cue, my phone rings. My face flushes wondering how long the call will take and whether I should take it outside for not. I try to answer as inconspicuously as possible and am relieved to hang up a few minutes later. Work.

I let the last few drops of tea run into my mouth and use my finger to remove a rogue tea leaf from my front teeth. With that, there is no further excuse to stay. The cafe is becoming more crowded as people come in for a fika. I leave my seat and bundle up before walking out into the brisk air again.

Greetings from Sweden,
~Molly

Buenas noches

2009-08-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days that makes everything worthwhile - and then some. After dropping Celi off at the airport I met my host family for lunch at my host abuela's house. We talked a bit and then went to the church to pass out information about being a host family for any people interested. I have to say that having light hair has its advantages here... after about 10 minutes everyone on the block had seen me and smiled at me as I passed by. Another advantage is that they are a little taken aback when I start speaking Spanish. I have yet to encounter a person for the first time who hasn't commented on my Spanish - and it almost always follows "where are you from?"

After handing out fliers I headed home for some quality internet time. I listened to some music and sang a bit working on a project that, if it comes to fruition, I will share. I decided to go explore and try to find a good place to eat for dinner, so I headed off to the Centro Historico. Centro Historico never ceases to amaze me. Every time I visit my brain goes into camera mode to take mental pictures of everything I pass.

This evening was even more spectacular. There is a special exhibition of frogs going on right now where different artists have made artistic interpretations of frogs. It was an unexpected sight... I knew they were in town but did not realize they were out in the public squares. After walking about a bit I settled into a cozy creperie. There was a table right by the entrance facing out to the square with just one seat facing the outdoors. It had my name written on it. I went in and ordered a panini and a chai tea frappe. The panini was good, but the frappe was delicious. I sat and took in the happenings of the square as I let my mind drift off. (Don't worry, I will get a crepe the next time I go, but this time there just wasn't enough room - as I only finished half of my panini). I took the other half of my panini and headed back to the car.

This was my first time driving into the Centro, so I decided to stick with the more familiar roads until I knew where I was exactly. I stuck to the small stone roads and was noticing the traffic moving very slowly. The radio was playing and I decided it was time to mute it and open the windows to take in the bustle of Sunday night in the town squares. I looked to my left and there was a beautiful cathedral. To my right, there was a large fountain and families spread throughout the square enjoying the beautiful evening air. As if on cue, mariachi music came over the square. All of a sudden, the fountain changed. It was synchronized to the music! Different fountains shot into the air in time with the music. Luckily, the stoplight was generous and gave me a few minutes to watch in awe. It reminded me of that perfect night in Rome.

I took a guess as to which way to go once I got out to the big roads and found myself right where I wanted to be. As the car pulled into the development I followed the loop around to our house making sure to stop where we can see the whole city. Celi and I call it the "Victory lap." After a day of hard work, we come home and we can either take the short loop or the Victory lap. We usually choose the Victory lap because it's the perfect end to a bad day as well as a great day. The sun had set, but the sky was still filled with color. The mountains were silhouettes against the pink sky which faded to a blue grey around the edges of the city. The city lights twinkled magnificently as I rounded the corner to my host family's house.

With that, I leave you. Until next time,
~Molly

Te quiero Querétaro

2009-08-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

Querétaro, Querétaro – the capital of the state. The middle of México, the middle of summer; without a beach nearby it would be easy to think I was going to die of heat exhaustion. Luckily, that is not the case! The weather here in Querétaro has been absolutely beautiful. In the mornings, the chill is enough to cause one to layer. In the afternoon the sun gets bright, but what is summer without some warmth? By the time the sun sets over the mountains, however, the cool breeze blows in again.

I’ve been here now for one week and so far I love this city. The historic downtown is straight out of a photographer’s dream and it makes me wish my own camera was better at capturing the city’s magic. Everything downtown is within walking distance. There is a mix of traditional food vendors and historical churches alongside modern cafés and clothing shops. Best of all, in all the public squares they have free wireless internet! It’s as if someone stole my dreams and made them into a city.

Our host family lives on a hill in the south of the city. From here we can see the entire city. It was not until this morning, however that we discovered there is a pyramid in the city. How we managed to miss it, I am not sure, but now that we know it’s there we’ll make sure to explore. We’re living in a family with five kids. Our host dad is Mexican and our host mom Hungarian. The kids range in age from two months to eleven years. They all speak Spanish and Hungarian and those over eight years also speak English. It’s quite impressive to see them switch languages based on who they are talking to. English is their weakest language, so host dad asks me to speak only English to them. I’m working on that, as sometimes it’s hard when you speak the language they prefer as well.

Tomorrow I’ll be returning to San Luis Potosí . This will be my second time there in just over a week. I will once again get to visit my delightful host family there. When I arrived last week – the first time in over a year – I was greeted with handmade signs welcoming me home and saying how much they missed me. It was really sweet.
I guess that’s all for now.

Loving Querétaro,
~Molly

Mastercard?

2009-04-16T00:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I suppose it's time to write again. Let's start off with the good news (at least for me). In the last three months, we have managed to successfully obtain 23 visas! I say we because it takes more than just one person. I did much of the research and leg work, but it couldn't have been done without a whole group of people. If you've ever tried to obtain a visa, then you may understand what an undertaking this is. For those who haven't, here's a little insight.

Lesson #1- Communication - Depending on how nice you are to the individuals in the consulate, your communication with them may be great. Communication between embassies, however, is non-existent.

Example: The Taiwanese embassy in Miami says non-US Citizens must apply for Taiwanese visas at the consulate nearest their home (Nepal must apply in India, Venezuela must apply in Venezuela) and that Chinese students are unable to travel to Taiwan as tourists. They need a green card to enter the country. The Taiwanese embassy in Chicago says that everyone can apply in the US, but the process for the Chinese students will take longer, however, they cannot apply in the Chicago office due to the fact that we were at the time traveling in Colorado. That leads us to Kansas City - the embassy for the Colorado area. We were able to work out a system to get all of the visa information necessary there and obtain many of the visas.

Lesson #2 - Destination - The answer of one embassy may not be what you want, and therefore it is necessary to not take the word of the first embassy as a final answer. Much like buying a new car, it is important to shop around first.

Example: The Mexican consulate in Denver said it would need to have all of the visa applications approved through the Mexico City office, a process which could take up to a month. The Mexican consulate in Miami took our applications and the visas were obtained the next day except for one who needed to be cleared through Mexico City due to a name issue.

Lesson #3 - Preparation - There is nothing that can help you more than having all the necessary paperwork filled out and ready to go. Calling ahead is a great way to ensure all necessary documents have been prepared.

Example: When going to the consulate where they have told you that as long as you have the applications, the passports, and one other authenticated document your visas will be no problem- don't let said documents fall out of your bag in the van. If you choose to do so, be prepared with the number of people who can bring documents to you.

Lesson #4 - Determination - When the consulate who you have sent all the information to informs you that you will need to go through a separate avenue to obtain a visa for a certain country, it is important to follow through.

Example: When the Taiwanese consulate in Kansas City tells you that the Chinese students need to fill out additional paperwork, you do it. When they tell you they need to talk to your sponsors in Taiwan, you give them the number. When they tell you to fill out another set of papers, you do it. When they tell you that the applications need to be handled in Taiwan, not the United States, you contact your team in Taiwan who sends you forms to fill out. You do it. The sponsor submits information and you are given a new set of forms to fill out. You do it. The Chinese students may have to fill out 4-5 sets of forms before they are given the right ones. When the embassy tells you they are not sure of the process for certain nationalities - ask them to be more specific, as they are the authorities on the subject.

The process is long. The process is hard. The process is time-consuming. Then you get hugs from the students as you hand back their passports with newly-obtained visas and you see the smile on the face of the Chinese student who is so excited to be the first person she knows to be able to visit Taiwan... and it's all worth it.

~Molly

The Bucket List item I never added

2009-03-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

Well I suppose the first new post of the new year (as the last post was technically written before the year's end) should be memorable. It should be suspenseful. It should be filled with interesting information. It should have a real message.

Today's story is about the effects of peer pressure. The topic of a certain activity came up early in the week and was bandied about a bit. It was something that had been mentioned at the beginning of the semester in jest; a full-staff activity in which half the staff would never agree to participate. I laughed it off as they began rallying the troops. Some were excited, some nervous, and some just plain not interested. As the week went on, the group grew larger. It began to get so big that I thought about it myself. If everyone else did this and I did not, would I regret it? Looking back on my life, I realized that the things I have regretted have never been the things that I have done. They've always been the things I was too scared to do. With that in mind, I told those coordinating that if they got the WHOLE staff to agree to go, then I would go as well. By Saturday, they had rallied 14 of the 16 staff members. The 15th person was on the fence... she was going to go, but not sure if she would participate. With that level of commitment, I agreed to go.

On a crisp, yet warm Sunday morning, the bus pulled into the monastery where the staff was staying to pick our group up. We had grown from the 16 staff members with the addition of a field manager and 5 students. At 22 strong, we made our way from Dade City to Orlando and by mid-morning had arrived at our destination. After signing our lives away, we began to go. Each group had about five of us mixed in with a contingency of instructors and other people. By the time my shift was to go, there were only three of us from Up with People left. We got dressed appropriately and met our instructors. I use the term instructor loosely, as there was not much instruction at all.

When the vehicle arrived, we all got in and buckled up. I was a bit nervous at the very beginning as we began to move and I realized the back hatch was still partially open. I got less nervous the further we got from our starting point. I looked out the window to enjoy the scenery and made conversation with the man sitting in front of me. After about 20 minutes, we'd reached our destination and my instructor (Ray) told me it was time to get out. We'd practiced our exit a bit on the ride over, so I felt pretty confident. He said, "Now take one last deep breath," and I did. There was no time to think, for as soon as I finished that last breath we went. As I tumbled out of the plane, there was a fraction of a second where my mind screamed, "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!" but that quickly subsided as we finished flipping and began our descent. I was not scared at all after that. My ears hurt as the wind went rushing by at 120 miles per hour, but I did not feel scared. The ground seemed so far away that it was as if I was swimming on the air rather than falling. We did some turning and after 60 seconds of free falling, Ray deployed our parachute.

All of a sudden, everything stopped. The rushing air ceased and everything was quiet and still. Ray and I talked a bit as the parachute made a few turns. I looked out over the land and could see for miles. It made me think of the paragliders in our back yard. I had always been too afraid to go, but now I was seeing that the paragliding was tame in comparison to free falling. We neared the ground and I prepared to land. Even after I landed I felt like I was floating still. I walked toward my colleagues as one of the last to jump out of the plane, but still feeling the same sense of accomplishment.

If I had not gone would I have regretted that decision? Absolutely. Let this be a lesson to us all: If everyone else is going to do it, you might as well check it out too... No wait, that's not it. Oh, right. If it seems dangerous, research until you realize that it's actually pretty safe.

The facts: The incidence of death in skydiving is 1 in 100,000. This may seem like a lot, however the majority of those deaths are caused by a maneuver known as swooping, where an individual will approach the ground at high speeds and level out just above ground level as if running on air. This was DEFINITELY not a maneuver we were going to be doing. We all jumped tandem, which took the control out of our hands and into the hands of a professional. Most people's biggest fear in skydiving is the fear that their parachute will not open. Modern day skydiving equipment has built in altimeters which automatically deploy your chute at a certain altitude in case you or the person with you is unable to do so. If the first chute fails to open, there is a second parachute that is actually SAFER than the original parachute.

So with facts in hand, I felt comfortable in my decision. Aside from the moment the plane took off and the moment I left the plane, I was not scared at all. I'm actually more scared now looking back and seeing the pictures. I notice that there's NOTHING between me and the ground except for 13,000 feet of air. That's when I can't believe that I did it. What was I thinking?!

Well, I suppose that's it for this one.
~Molly

A late seasonal greeting.

2009-01-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

The following is my holiday letter, but it really expresses my thoughts over the past month or two.

While in the Philippines I witnessed many things, but the most beautiful was the power of hope. So often people are consumed by the news spread across the media about the problems of the world today. Violence, drugs, war, teen pregnancy, childhood obesity... This generation is slated to be the first in recorded history to have a shorter lifespan and be less successful than the generation before. That's a harsh start to a long life. We look for answers in medicine and technology, which is where we start to miss things. Is it easier to cure someone or to prevent them from becoming ill? The answer seems apparent to those of us who know the power of prevention. However, once a person is ill what keeps them holding on is a little thing called hope. We hope for a cure, for a miracle, for one more day, for something to live for, but we still hope. Well it's time our world had a little more hope.

I've seen first-hand the dramatic impact hope can have. In the Philippines I worked in two different impoverished areas. On the outside, the two areas looked about the same. The needs were the same and the people, at face value were also the same. After wondering what was missing in the second community, I realized it was hope. Following is the story of that first community.

While in Manila I was working with an organization called Gawad Kalinga. The organization has a goal to create a squatter-free Philippines. Their basic model is to tear down the slums and in their place build safe, adequate housing. Working with the beneficiaries, who are required to put in a certain amount of "sweat equity," and volunteers, they construct the housing. They are working to gain land rights in areas where people are living illegally. The basic ideal is to restore dignity to the Filipinos and eventually help to eradicate poverty throughout the world. GK works to build more than houses. They build communities. They teach livelihood skills and work with the beneficiaries to create business models to ensure their future success. In our particular project, the city was working with GK and had given them land rights so they were able to build without tearing down the peoples' houses.

I hardly know where to begin in recounting my experience. I was with a group of 12 people from 7 countries - Bangladesh, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, United States, Mexico, and Germany. On our first day, we were given a tour of the slum that we were building housing for. The neighborhood was within an area they called the "Values Section" with street names like Friendship and Charity. This community lived at the end of Prosperity St. We made our way through a maze of narrow pathways between cardboard enclosures topped with corrugated metal. The pathways were covered with wrappers and trash as well as puddles of water which were likely disease-ridden. In some cases the metal on top was not sufficient, so shirts or tires were thrown on top to help keep out the elements. There was no electricity. The children were walking around barefoot and, in some cases, naked. The mothers were working on recycling or other livelihood projects in which GK had trained them. The heat was unbearable for us, yet it seemed to not affect them. The biggest thing we noticed in every person we passed was their smile. They were all smiling. They knew that we were there to help build their future homes and were filled with the promise that they would soon be able to move out of this slum - which was actually a park until it filled with squatters - and into real houses.

When we returned to the site where we were building, we all had a new appreciation for the people there. These people working side-by-side with us were helping to build their community, their future, and a future for the children. Did I not mention the children? There were hundreds of children. On our first day, we were joined by a dozen or so children with whom we played after finishing our lunches. We taught them games and songs and had some of those who spoke English help to translate. They called us "Barbies" and would feel our skin commenting on how beautiful it was and how beautiful we were. It was almost as if they were checking to see if we were real. As we returned a second and third day they began to look forward to our arrival. We would see them playing games with each other that we had taught them and we rarely would go 15 minutes without hearing a part of one of the songs we'd taught. Each day was filled with excitement at the prospect of going to this amazing place and not only helping to build houses (I did a lot of plastering) but having fun with the kids. There was a buzz around, a jolt of energy to the place that had once been so unfamiliar. We were able to work there for 8 days. At the beginning people would avert their eyes as we walked through the village that was on the way to our site or would occasionally venture to look at us. By the end of the week we were greeted every day with choruses of "hello" and "Goodbye! See you tomorrow!" by adults and children alike. It was easy to see that these people all had hope. They had something to look forward to and knew the lives of their children were going to be improved dramatically due to the efforts of GK.

On our final day, we had a day of just playing and celebrating. We played with the kids to start off the day and later they performed for us. The kids from the neighboring school did little dances and songs for us. Some of the beneficiaries did a Filipino folk dance. Then the beneficiary kids came up to perform. These were "our" kids - the ones we saw every day and had come to love. They got up and performed... one of the songs we'd taught them! When they finished one of their mothers explained "this was the first thing you taught our children and they wanted to let you know that they'll never forget you." Some of the mothers came up to us to tell us how much they'd miss us and that they'd never forget us, that we'd made such an impact on their children in just the short time we were there. They explained that they have hope that with other people like us in the world that we can make it a better place.

When we left there were lots of tears. There were tears of joy for the work that had been done and tears of sadness for the friends we won't see for a long time. They may not forget us, but we will never forget them. Whenever I think of the Philippines, I'll see the faces of Louie and Len Len and Winsy and Camille. I'll know what poverty looks like, yet how hope can shape the lives of those in poverty.

~Molly

If you're interested in Gawad Kalinga, you can find out more at gawadkalinga.org So far their model has been successfully replicated in parts of India and Africa in an effort to eradicate poverty and homelessness.

Su Fu and So Forth...

2008-11-09T00:15:00.000-08:00

Right now we are in Sioux Falls, SD. Our lovely fall weather has passed and we have officially hit winter. Today started off at 45 degrees and by the end had fallen to 23 degrees. Needless to say, I'm glad I had my mom bring my winter coat when she came.

Tonight I went with my host mom and roommate (Nathalie from Sweden) to the Ahn Trio concert. The Ahn Trio consists of three sisters - one cellist, one pianist, and one violinist. All are Juilliard trained and they play chamber music by contemporary composers. That was probably the most interesting part, the fact that the oldest composer represented by their pieces was Richard Rogers. Their performance was dynamic and passionate and they were all very talented. The theatre we were in, the Washington Pavilion, had some of the most amazing acoustics I've ever heard. Every pluck of the strings could be heard from the top of the balcony (or so I assume... We were in the 8th row Orchestra). Each note resonated and you could feel it in your chest. It was almost like the music became the air and you were just breathing in the harmonies. I enjoyed it immensely.

One of the basic concepts of improv theatre is pattern recognition. What is funny in a scene is when a specific action or theme returns and is played out in a parallel fashion. This is a skill improvisors must work to develop with the understanding that the more they are able to perceive what is unusual or funny about a scene, the better they are able to portray it to the audience. Those improvisors who are seen has being very perceptive, sharp, and funny are the ones who see the patterns easily and are able to play them. Why, you may ask, do I bring this up? I was thinking about it this evening when I got to the concert. This is my second tour with UWP. In my first tour, I only went to one concert... The 5 Browns. Five brothers and sisters, all Juilliard trained, who traveled together and performed. I'm just wondering what the third beat of this pattern is going to be, because I'm sure we're all aware of the comic rule of three.

We have our show in Sioux Falls tomorrow afternoon. We've already sold out the floor (2,000 seats) so it will be a nice big audience. We leave Monday for North Platte, NE and then the following Monday head to the Philippines. It's a wild ride and I'm hanging on tight.

~Molly

Fiesta

2008-10-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Retelling our Mexican Independence Day experience reminded me of my 4th of July this year. For the first six weeks of this semester I lived with a delightful Uppie family north of Denver. My host dad works for the company and my host mom had worked for them for many years. They have two of the most picture-perfect kids as well.

For the 4th of July, we went to a party (yes, full of Uppie alums) at a house that backed up to a park with a lake. The fireworks were to be shot off over the lake. We couldn't have had better seats. The food was incredible with my favorite dessert being the homemade s'mores. That's right, homemade marshmallows, homemade graham crackers, and Nutella. Yum.

The fireworks display began with parachuters jumping from planes with fireworks attached to their feet. From there, things got beautiful. The fireworks were so close you could feel the pounding in your chest as they exploded. We had to look up because they were erupting right over our heads. The ashes fell on our blankets and the rooftops of the neighborhood, but we were entranced by the glittering sky. There was no way we could have been closer unless we'd been those parachuters. It was beautiful.

Well, we're back in the U.S. after five weeks in Mexico. This brings with it new challenges as well as new advantages to my job. I was able to have dinner with some of my family last week, which was delightful, but a bit surreal. I'm very used to having my life sectioned off. My New York friends all live in New York and are either school or improv friends. My San Francisco improv friends are separate from my San Francisco school friends, who are separate from my Bay Area Challenge Day friends. My Ohio family, California family, and Arizona family come together occasionally, but are pretty separated from my friends. Work has never really connected with any of the groups, so when two of my worlds collide it blows my mind a little.

There's a different feeling when I'm at work versus when I'm with my family. When you live in your work and are constantly surrounded by it, it's easy to fall into being always "on." Needless to say, driving out of one group and into another throws you for a loop. I realized I've never been to Arizona in the fall. I'm not sure if it was that or the fact that I was seeing it from a different point-of-view that made it seem like a whole new place. All the familiar landmarks came into view but were somehow different... or maybe it was me who was different.

We're in Albuquerque now. The cast is preparing for a show at the zoo where the stage is a hippo mouth. Just this morning we surprised the cast by announcing that we're going to the Balloon Fiesta tomorrow. Over 1000 hot air balloons are registered to take off tomorrow morning. All week we've told them we were doing a community service project at a landfill for which we need to leave at 3:30 in the morning because it's far away. In reality, we're leaving at 3:30 because 2/3 of the cast are going to be on launch crews for the balloons. This morning there were already dozens of balloons in the sky on our drive in. I can't wait for tomorrow.

Every time I see a hot air balloon I'm always reminded of this picture: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2923914240061776909ERyqyX?vhost=good-times I don't even know if we're going to see hot air balloons or if it's just my memory making up another story, but in my mind whenever I see a hot air balloon I see my dad in his furry hat with me strapped to his back. It should be a really exciting event.

Until we meet again,
~Molly

How am I?

2008-09-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

People often ask me how my job is. Truth be told, it goes up and down. Up With People is an emotional roller coaster to begin with, having the natural ups and downs of life magnified by being on the road away from any constants except for the 100 people you see all day 6 days a week. There are moments that are frustrating and disappointing, moments when you're so tired you can barely function or too busy to even eat. Then there are the moments that make it all worth it. There are families who touch your heart, who will never forget you and who have kids who ask where you are for months following your departure. There are places you visit that are breathtakingly beautiful and experiences you wouldn't be able to have in another context. There are little things that show up along the road to remind you why you're here.

Then there are the people. When asked if I'm homesick, the answer is always "no." That's not due to a lack of love for home, but due to the fact that the only times I've ever really been homesick are when I'm not happy where I am. I've always been confident in the relationship I have with my family. I don't need to see them or hear from them every day to know that they love me. I know that though they miss seeing me from time to time, they just want me to be happy. The people I'm surrounded by are all united by a common vision - to make the world a better place. Idealistic? Perhaps, but I'd rather live by my ideals than give up on the world we live in. We all know that it only takes one person to make a difference in another's life, and we sing it all the time, "One to one we change the world."

I've noticed that we always talk about changing others' lives, and the thing we don't often realize is how our own life changes in the process. So many of the students talk about how they don't feel like they're impacting others' lives, and then I see how theirs has been impacted. They don't see how helping a child with cancer to smile is making a difference, and then I see the look on their face and realize that they just want to be able to do more than that. They feel helpless sometimes. In the end, if the only thing that changes is ourselves then I think we've succeeded. The thing is, though, that I know how much of an impact we've made already.

Have I changed? Yes. I look at my life now and know there are things that are a part of me forever. After this experience, I won't be able to do "nothing" with my life. All those free days I used to have I realize were wasted opportunities. Opportunities to volunteer. Opportunities to explore the place I live. Opportunities to explore new places. Opportunities to bond with other people. These are all things I value but never realized all the opportunities I had. My days now are filled. From early morning to late evening I'm constantly active, sometimes at so frantic a pace I feel my body won't keep up. I won't keep the pace up forever, but I'll always have the knowledge that I can. There are so many hours in a day.

One thing that living on the road gives you is the knowledge of who takes the time to connect with you and who you take the time to connect with. Living in a place you have many acquaintances who you see a lot. Going away helps you to see those that really care for you and who think about you from time to time. It's also an opportunity for me to see who I miss and think about and to let them know.

What is it that I do? I am currently coordinating logistics for a 6-month international tour of 107 young adults from 21 countries, while doing community service, performing in a show, and living in host families in a different city each week.

So you ask once again, "How is my job?" It's crazy and fun and stressful and delightful and enlightening and strengthening and educational and exhausting and unique and important and hard and surprising and magical. That's how it is, and it's the perfect place for me to be at this point in my life.

~Molly

2008-09-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

Despues de cuatro y media semanas en Mexico, estamos casi terminado. El Lunes, regresamos a los Estados Unidos otra vez. Esta semana, estoy en Hermosillo en el estado de Sonora. Cuando llegue en Hermosillo fue el 15 de Septiembre - el Dia de Independencia. Fui a una recepcion del gobierno del estado en el Palacio Gobierno. Vimos el presidente del estado y despues fuimos afuera por los fuegos artificiales (fireworks!). Estuvimos directamente debajo de los fuegos artificiales y tambien el confetti. Fue muy bonita.

Ahora estoy mirando la television con mi hermano anfitriona que tiene tres anos. El es mi amigo nuevo. Cuando llegue a la casa la primera vez, fue muy timido, pero ahora anda sobre la casa buscando a mi. Es precioso. Tengo cuatro hermanos anfitrionas ahora, de 3 a 16 anos edad.

Luego...

This afternoon Carlos Alfonso (mi hermanito) started getting closer to me and will not leave my side. He ate dinner on my lap and while the girls were watching a movie he'd come in intermittently so that I knew he was there. At one point, he brought his sister's hair tie to me, because it had a rose on it. Later we played with his magnet house and then I asked if he wanted to read a book. He nodded and so we read Green Eggs & Ham again. I asked if he was ready to go to sleep and he nodded again, so I tucked him in and off to sleep he went. My host mom was quite surprised when she asked a few minutes later where he was and I said "in bed."

Tomorrow is our last show in Mexico, then we head back to the States for 8 weeks. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. I'm really excited to see some people in Arizona that I haven't seen for a while. I'm also nervous about how operations change in the United States.

That's my Hermosillo update.
~Molly

Who are you, what are you doing, and where have you been?

2008-09-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. What can I say? Life moves really quickly on the road and I don't always have enough time to even think about it, let alone write. When last we met I was in the midst of a month in Thailand. My student semester tour ended there with tearful goodbyes and lots of plans to visit foreign friends in the future. What happened beyond that? TONS! Here are some highlights.

Directly following Thailand, a group of us from the cast stayed in L.A. in what we termed "Cast L.A. 2008." It was a fantastic experience orchestrated by one of our castmates. It was almost a mini-version of our tour. We had host families and even had an allocation meeting. We got an RV donated for us to use which was really nice. We had mini morning meetings to discuss the day's logistics and re-live the past six months of our lives. It was a lot of fun.

From there I went directly to Hawaii, where another group of castmates was vacationing. I stayed with that group on Oahu for a few days before heading to the big island. I met my family on the big island and was there for a week for my brother's wedding. It was probably the most laid-back wedding that's ever occurred. We procured the use of a hole on the golf course the day before the ceremony was scheduled and had a beautiful sunset wedding overlooking the ocean. I even got to walk the bride down the aisle. It was great spending time with the family as well.

From there I flew back to San Francisco where I re-packed my bags, said hello to my dog, and slept for four hours before getting back on a plane to Denver. I was in Denver for 6 weeks, one week for a pre-staging private events show (in layman's terms that means I did about 30 hours of dancing in 3 days and then performed) and 5 for staging. That's when the loooonnnng days started. Coordinating logistics for an international tour of 107 people from 21 countries is a tall order. I'm still in my learning curve, but am getting more and more confident every day. It's lots of work but lots of fun.

While in Denver I was staying with the producer of the show and his wife, who was on UWP staff for many years. It was really relieving to have a family that understood what it was like to be doing what I am doing. When I got there, their younger son was just learning to walk. I was there for his first birthday (chocolate cake covered face and all) and by the end he was almost running. We went on a hike by a beautiful mountain lake, which was a first for both of the boys, to which the older son exclaimed, "I love hiking!" They were also there for me learning how to drive and getting my driver's license. Yes, it's true. Seven years after the rest of my peers I've finally experienced the rite of passage into mobility.

From Denver we hit the road and our first stop was Breckenridge. Breckenridge is beautiful. The mountains are unlike those in the places I've been and it's so beautiful in the summer it makes it easy to see why people flock to it in the winter. We managed to get condos donated so all the staff was able to stay together. It was great for bonding. We went out to eat, watched some olympics, and just shared some good stories as we prepared for the most challenging part of our journey thus far...

Mexico! That's right, our second week on the road took us into Mexico. Our first stop was La Paz, an ocean-side city with crystal clear waters and poor drainage systems. Upon our arrival in La Paz, we drove through the central part of town which was completely flooded. The water almost reached the bottom of our bus in parts, and we saw vehicles getting stuck in the streets. It wasn't even raining when we were there, but there was nowhere for the water to go so it just stayed there.

From there we hit Los Cabos, but that deserves it's own post. So that's it for now. There will be more to come... at some point. Tonight is our last night in Tepic and tomorrow we're off to Culiacan.

Hasta luego,
~Molly

I've been pinched, but I'm still waiting to wake up.

2008-05-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

Upon our arrival in Bangkok, we were greeted with flower bracelets by a volunteer who helped set up the Thailand portion of our tour. The flowers smelled lovely and made for an excellent make-shift crown. We grabbed our bags and got on the bus for a 15 hour bus ride. What better way to see the country than on a bus, right? We passed rice fields and temples and amazing cloudscapes before stopping for dinner.

Dinner was our first experience with Thai food. By that, I mean it was the first time someone mistook hot chili sauce for sweet and sour sauce. There were more than a few burned mouths. Mine took to it well, as I was pretty sure whatever sauce it was was going to end up hot, so I took only a small amount. After that it was back on the bus until 1:00 AM which is when we arrived to the temple. Did I just say temple? Oh right, a temple. We spent our first night in Thailand at a Buddhist temple. We woke up to the mind-numbingly loud chirp of the crickets and Erika and I went for a walk to check out the local area before breakfast. Breakfast began the chain of similarity when it comes to food. So far, 3/4 of the meals here consist of fried rice with egg, vegetables, and some kind of meat I don't eat (so I get it without). It's delicious, though monotonous.

Where was I? Right - the temple. We were greeted on our first real day in Thailand by the head of the monastery as well as some local radio personalities. Monks are very happy people. I want to take them home. The pictures don't do the temple (or the happy monks) justice, but suffice it to say the entire experience was beautiful. We also experienced luke-warm bucket showers and "squatty potties" at the temple. We were told to expect them in our host families, as well. I'm happy to say I lucked out on that front. My family lives in a nice house near the airport with a western toilet that flushes as well as a shower with warm water! They also speak English! These are all luxuries in the Up With People Thai tour. I'm living the big life.

Our first night, my 17 year-old host sister took me to a show. I had no idea what kind of show to expect, but it turned out to be a multicultural show put on by a local university. My host sister is friends with another family that's hosting, so Johan from the Netherlands was also with us. When Johan (as blonde-haired and blue-eyed as they come) and I walked in we were approached by the staff and told to "Wait here for VIP." We told them we weren't VIP and went to sit down with our host sisters. When we got to the row we were sitting in, another staff member came up and said "You can sit up front." It was then that we realized that we were the only non-Thai people in a crowd of about 1000. Needless to say, we stuck out. There were spotlights that would go around the whole room from time to time. Every time they came near Johan and me we were just waiting for them to stop and for everyone to look at us. Thankfully, that didn't happen until halfway through the show. We heard the emcees coming down the aisle saying "farang, farang," which I recalled from my Thai phrasebook to mean "foreigner." The spotlight came to a halt on our blonde heads in the sea of dark hair and we meekly waved to the crowd. I let Johan do the talking and just sat back and laughed. I'm finally exotic!

On Friday the group I'm with went to one of the local high schools to do some activities, teach some English, and perform a show for the students. It was well-received, though the students were very shy.

That brings us to Saturday. Saturday was our regional learning day. We started the day with an hour and a half boat ride down the river to our first site. One of the boats ahead of us hit a rock and got a hole in it, so we had to stop and wait for another boat to get there, as our boat had the only Thai/English speaker. As we neared our destination we saw them. They were big, gray, wrinkley, and beautiful. They were our rides. Each elephant had a seat on its back which held two people. We went on a tour of the area on our elephants (ours was a female who happened to be pregnant) which ended in the river to get back to the stand. My elephant date and I each got a chance to ride on the head of the elephant. It was quite bumpy, though the overall feeling was much like that of riding a pony. The elephant's skin felt really cool with all the bristly hairs on its head. Its ears kept wrapping around my legs like it was trying to protect them. It. Was. Awesome.

From there we got on another boat and headed to our next departure point. We were told to bring comfortable walking shoes, which usually means a fair amount of walking. We hadn't really anticipated what was about to come. After a grueling 45 minute hike in the 90+ degree weather we reached a hill tribe. "Great!" we all thought as we reached the village. Our guide then informed us that we were just stopping to let people catch up, that we still had another 45 minutes to the hill tribe that we were going to stop at for real.

We hiked another half hour and stopped again to wait for people to catch up. Two hours and buckets of sweat after we left our starting point, we arrived at one of the Akha tribe villages. We stopped to get drinks and then hiked the last ten minutes to our actual destination. We could hear the rushing water before we could see it, but as we climbed further and further in the jungle, we finally reached the WATERFALL! Hans, Mitch, and I were the first around the bend to behold the amazing sight. After some shouting and running about in feverish delight (90+ degrees, remember?) we hopped into the waterfall. It was glorious. I went to sit on the rocks right at the bottom of the waterfall and realized it created a natural massage. I stayed there while the others trickled in. It was very surreal, seeing my friends from all over the world climbing around on a Thai waterfall like water nymphs.

How do you follow that? With dinner, of course. We took the local trucks (pictures to come eventually) to an open air restaurant that was just for us. We had some time to relax and chat with each other as we heard the vocal stylings of a local artist. He sang everything from Aretha Franklin to Maroon 5 - all in English. There was even some John Denver thrown in. After that, we were treated to a local group of hill tribe performers. The group comes together as part of an effort for awareness and to keep tribal girls out of human trafficking. They were from a number of different hill tribes and each had their own ceremonial dress. Their songs and dances were very reminiscent of native American traditions, with a lot of natural influence.

I think I'll stop there for now. Happy reading.
~Molly

Champagne showers and goodbyes

2008-05-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

I leave for Thailand tomorrow, and by tomorrow I mean 3 AM. Our travel "day" is currently estimated at 53 hours. We'll fly from Dallas to Denver, Denver to LA, LA to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Bangkok, and then take a bus from Bangkok to Chiang Rai (which is essentially on the other side of the country). I'm not sure yet who my travel partner will be, but I better pick a good one.

I guess I'd better backtrack first. Last night was our last show in the United States. It went swimmingly. Unfortunately, it was our last show with our technical manager. She will not be joining us in Thailand, as she got a job working for Cirque du Soleil and has to leave on Monday. Also, in Thailand we won't have to set up or take down our set, so last night was our last night of striking the set. Upon finishing, we had a truck-closing ceremony as well as a goodbye to our tech manager. The tech crew climbed up on top of the truck, made speeches, and then sprayed us all with champagne. I must have been in the splash zone, because I got pretty wet. We will miss her, but are all really excited for her to be working with Cirque.

Tonight we'll be dropped off at our meeting point at 9 PM, where we'll have an education workshop then a party... until 3 in the morning. I know what you must be thinking. "But Molly, there's no sleep time in that schedule." Believe me, this small detail has not been overseen. We will have over two days to sleep intermittently, and I plan to take advantage of that. It is, however, quite exciting to have some party time with the cast. We're so often in work mode that we rarely get the chance to just hang out.

My host family in this city is amazing. Wendi is an alum from '92 and she along with her husband Derek are expecting their first child in early July. They're currently referring to it as "the mushroom" as they're waiting to see if it's a boy or a girl. Their other "child" is a husky named Nikita and he is one of the sweetest dogs.

Today my roommate Maiken and I went to a glass blowing studio owned by our host mom's parents. Her mom does fused or flat glass pieces while her stepdad does blown pieces. They have created pieces for corporations as well as individual patrons around the world. One of their more fun commissions was a series of glass cowboy hats for a man from Taiwan. They happened to have one left lying around the studio and, though stylish, it's not exactly practical for everyday wear.

Afterwards, we went to Snuffers for lunch. Snuffers was one of the originators of cheese fries. They're a Dallas staple for burgers and game day food. Once stuffed, we went to pick up some last minute items for Thailand... you know, a towel, bug spray, toilet paper. Oh, I didn't mention that they don't have toilet paper in the restrooms in Thailand? Well, they don't. We also stopped by Borders where Derek and I looked at inappropriate children's books. One gem was "The Mole Who Knew It Was None of Its Business". It's about a mole who, upon emerging from its hole, gets pooped on. It spends the rest of the book asking different animals about their poop until it realizes it was the dog. (Spoiler Alert!!) It decides then to poop on the dog's head, then promptly returns to its whole. Moral of the story...? It was lost on us as well.

Now I'm off to finish packing. Who knows when I'll have internet access again? I don't.

Happy trails!
~Molly

Mucho mas

2008-05-14T17:03:00.000-07:00

So let's see... Again, I'm not here with too many real updates. I do, however, need to list things out again so as not to forget to write about them in the future.

San Luis Potosi
~La Familia - Lupita, MaPo, Princesa Jimonorosa, Hongito
~Cast Appreciation Day
~Travel back to Texas
~Police escorts

New Braunfels
~Arrival/swimming
~Abby
~Fiesta Texas

The Woodlands
~The Masterplan
~The ferret stole my toothbrush - Parts 1 and 2
~Momma

Plano
~Strangeheart
~Hunger Banquet
~Swedish culture presentation

Here we go, starting at the end again (well, with yesterday). We started the day with a walking tour of the Arts District in Dallas. There was nothing too note-worthy. We had some free time in which I walked around the Asian art museum. I loved the intricacies and delicacy of the art work. Other than that, the coolest part was the symphony hall. Unfortunately, we were only able to go into the lobby. It was gorgeous there, but I really wish we'd been able to go into the actual theatre.

Our focus for the day beyond that was poverty. When we returned there were some presentations from various nations describing what poverty looks like in their nation. We also got a look at the worldwide situation. That's where the demonstrations began. Our education team put together a Hunger Banquet, in which we were divided into three classes and given food according to our station. The poorest group (the bottom 50%) sat on cardboard boxes and had rice to eat and salt water to drink. The middle class group (the middle 35%) sat in chairs and had rice and beans as well as water to drink. The upper class group (the top 15%) sat at a well-decorated table where they were waited on by our road staff. They received a salad course, a pasta course, and dessert. That group, however, was not allowed to share with the others. Beyond that, any food that was left was tossed in a trash can in plain sight of all parties. Once the food started being thrown away, those at the upper class table rallied to eat as much as they possibly could. This resulted in many ice cream-filled stomachs as one of our staff members kept "accidentally" bringing out an extra cup of ice cream, just waiting to be able to throw it in the trash. After the sixth time this happened, the table gave up and sighed as the rest of the fixings were unceremoniously thrown away.

"How were we categorized?" you may ask. There was an activity earlier in the day in which hands full of pennies were tossed and the cast scrambled about trying to scavenge for as many as they could. On the first toss, I managed to grab three. On the second toss, I didn't grab any. In each of these rounds, we were told not to share any of our pennies. On the third toss, I happened to be standing near the front and by simply putting my hand up I managed to catch five, then I picked up one more for a total of six. The education team mentioned that you could share pennies this round if you so chose, however there was no one around me who was talking, so I just kept the ones I had. That, as you may have guessed, left me in the upper class.

To truly understand the reality of the situation, some context must be added. We were asked to wait outside until the food was ready. Upon returning to the room, it was clear what was about to happen. The lights were all dimmed and the walls were lined with pictures of poverty along with descriptions and quotes. There was a slide show portraying more images along with statistics. We were asked to keep silent as we listened to Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" and looked at photo after photo. We were then asked to take our seats. The silence continued for what seemed like hours, as we contemplated whether or not we could actually eat the food laid in front of us. Too many thoughts went through our minds as we realized there was no right way to handle the situation. The guilt set in long before those on the cardboard began to come as close as they were allowed and started singing "Sound of Peace." It was immediate. Welcome to the real world.

At what point does the situation lighten up? Well in the case of our demonstration, it was after we got in the car with our host family to go home. It was decided that a stop to Cold Stone was in the cards (please refer to aforementioned section on ice cream). Those who didn't have enough to eat during our hunger banquet were asked to go hungry for the night. As I was in the upper class, I figured it was my responsibility to take what was offered to me and pony up for some more ice cream. Mmmmm.

That's all for now. I'll try to get one or two more posts in before Thailand. Good night.
~Molly

Highlights

2008-04-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

So I don't have time to go into detail right now as a ton of stuff has happened recently, but I'm going to leave myself bullet point highlights so that I can return to things later and fill in the blanks. I am back online after having a full week without internet. Anyways, remind me to tell you (or if you're interested, ask me) about:

~Secretary of Foreign Affairs
~Night of the Churros
~All hands on deck load-in
~Puebla family
~Cholula
~Payasos
~San Luis Potosi reception
~Mariachi promo in the streets
~University "rally"

In true fashion, I'll start right at the end. Let's just start with the fact that tonight was absolutely amazing. I've recently started trying to take more chances and just go for things rather than justifying them away. Today was one of those days. Near the end of an already crazy day, one of the staff members mentioned that there was a rally at a University in town and they wanted some people to promote there. Being the marketing intern, it made sense that I would go help promote, so I volunteered. We were all in for a huge surprise. Now, as tends to happen in our Mexico cities, we didn't really have a clue what we were supposed to be doing. We just knew we had a place to meet some students and that we'd probably be done at a certain time. Well the "rally" turned out to be a scavenger hunt. There were eight teams (and eight of us) so we were divided with one Uppie in each scavenger group. Our only instructions were "Please speak only in English. They have to figure out how to work with you, but please speak in English." Well, that lasted about 10 minutes. The problem with a scavenger hunt and having a time limit is that you want to do things as quickly as possible and it makes it a lot easier when you don't have to feign ignorance, so I used a lot of Spanglish to try to at least mix the two.

Basically, each team had 4 different characters they had to find and each character had a task associated with them that needed to be completed. All the characters were from San Luis Potosi lore, so there was Juan de Jarro (I'm not sure what exactly he was - some sort of apothecary-looking person) who told us that one member of our team had to learn how to make a "trenza" and had to make one at least 3 cm long. Well a trenza turned out to be hair weaving, where you take thread and knot it around the hair. Our next task was to find envelopes with puzzle pieces in them and make a puzzle. Let's just say that my team's color was brown and trying to find 5 brown envelopes in a dark park with only the light of a cell phone was not the easiest task. After that, we found the clown. We had to make up one of our members as a clown and perform a "show" until people in the "audience" gave money for a total of 5 pesos. Our last activity was to create a cheer using 5 words that were given to us that included specific movements and a pyramid. It was a ton of fun. Our chant became "Amigos unidos, amigos unidos, todos juntos vamos a ganar." (Translated that means "Friends unite, friends unite, all together we're going to win.")

So yeah, sometimes when you take a risk you come out on top. This was definitely one of those times. There's nothing quite like running (as fast as possible, mind you) through the dark streets of an unfamiliar city with people you've never met who speak a language that you (more or less) don't. It was brilliant.

That's all for now,
~Molly

La Cultura

2008-04-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Ahh yes, Thursday. Thursday we went to a college campus in the southern part of Mexico City (I'm hosted in the north). We had another mini-show there. Again, we used costumes. This time, rather than having to change on both sides of the stage, we had to change in the big truck we carry all our equipment in. That means we had to run all the way off stage and over to the side, climb up into the truck, change, jump down, then run to whichever side we entered from next. Did I mention this city is approximately 2 miles high? Needless to say, we were all out of breath pretty quickly. After our show was a reception with regional Mexican food. It was really good.

We were treated to a special performance of Romeo and Juliet by some of the college students. Our schedule said Romeo y Julieta, denoting Spanish. The poster on campus said Romeo et Juliette, denoting French. Let the confusion begin! When the announcer introduced the show he welcomed us all to the musical, Romeo y Julieta. Well the show began with a big song and dance number - in French. All right, we thought to ourselves, it's in French. The song ended and the next scene began... in Spanish. Wait, what? Oh right. The costumes were really cool, kind of a gothic style with the Montagues in black and the Capulets in red. The show was really good, but I can now say that I saw Romeo and Juliet in Spanish with French songs in Mexico. They had a really cool addition to the show which I guess would best be described as fate. There was a dancer all dressed in white who was shown directing all the moments where the plot turned - whether it was passing the knife used to stab someone or stealing a letter from the messenger. It was very effective, especially with the dark costumes the rest of the cast had.

At the end of the day, our host sister took us out for tacos, so we got home around 12:30. That made it quite difficult as the next day we had to leave the house before 6:00 a.m. Why? You might ask. There was a group of 15 of us who went to a television studio to perform for some show that I don't know the name of. After we finished there we walked to our meeting place where the rest of the cast was. We rehearsed some and then went to Los Pinos, a.k.a. Mexico's White House. We received a tour of the grounds and were officially received by the President's wife. We sang "Viva la Gente" for her and she sang right along with us mouthing every single word. It was neat to see all of us dressed up in our fancy attire as opposed to our day-to-day rehearsal clothes.

When we left Los Pinos we went back to our meeting place where we did another mini-show (yes, that makes 3 days in a row) for the press. Apparently we were on the 10:00 news here, but I didn't watch. I got interviewed for the first time in English. We had a little bit of time to hang out before our bus came, which was nice to have some down time. I sat next to Jared, one of my hometeam leaders, on the bus ride and we came to the realization that we are both equally nerdy. I never would have guessed.

I came home and took a quick nap before eating and heading out again. Our host sister took us to a salsa club where we danced all night. By all night, I mean that we got home around 4:00 this morning. I danced with 5 or 6 different people, which was cool to see the different styles with which people lead. Most were decent partners, but one was great. He led with confidence so you knew which way you were turning and how far and all those details that make a girl look good. I even got a few compliments on my salsa skills :-) Today is our free day, which means sleep! My roommate and I both slept really late and so far we've just lazed about. We're probably going to go into the city to hang out with some people and get coffee later. With that, I think I'm up to date! Huzzah! Now I just have a ton of pictures to upload. The connection is a bit slow so it takes a long time to upload. Be patient and there will be more up soon.

Adios,
~Molly

Monterrey? More like Monte-yay

2008-04-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

Show day in Monterrey brought up a lot of new experiences - my first double show day, my first alumni reception, and my first on-camera interview in Spanish. Having two shows in one day is such a unique experience, because we're all so used to having our show and then going immediately into breaking down the set and interviewing prospective students. It was weird to stay in my show costume all day.

Our first show went pretty well. We were still trying to gain confidence as it was our first time performing our Mexican medley. The audience was much quieter than I imagined - they were very polite, but seemed to be enjoying it.

Our second show was awesome. The crowd was a bit bigger and a bit more raucous. During one of our songs ("I Can Believe") I looked out to see a few cell phones waving back and forth, lighter style. After a while a few more joined in, and then a few more. Eventually there were cell phones waving through 3/4 of the audience. In the dark they looked like stars twinkling in the distance. I first noticed when I looked over at the singer who had this smile of surprise on her face. I looked at the person sharing the microphone with me and we both got huge grins on our faces as we continued the song. It's amazing how something so small can make such a difference. I only wish more of the cast was on stage at that point so they didn't have to experience it second-hand.

Monday morning we left Monterrey and traveled to Mexico City, where I am currently. Mexico City is... HUGE. Our days are usually pretty long, but they're even longer when you add in Mexico City travel time and traffic. I spend between an hour and a half and 4 hours traveling each day, which makes our normal 10-12 hour days much longer. Needless to say, sleep is far from abundant. That being said, our days have been packed with activities.

Our first full day here we traveled to Teotihuacan, the ancient pyramids. The pictures really speak for themselves (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/sets/72157604366099067/). All I can say is that it was the perfect day to be there. When I reached the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, there was a yellow butterfly that just kept flying around like crazy. Eventually another joined it, but the original was up there the whole time I was. After Teotihuacan we visited MUNAL, one of the most famous art galleries in the city.

On Wednesday we worked in the classrooms of a school here. The school itself has the oddest architecture I've encountered. The classrooms all look like pods, with one stacked on top of the next. It's very futuristic. We worked with 3 classes and had a mini-show for all 1000+ students in the school. It was our first time using specialty dance costumes for a mini-show, which led to a few problems when I realized during our rehearsal that half my costumes were on one side and half on the other. Due to different entrances, my shoes ended up on one side when I had to change on the other. Fortunately, one of my castmates had an extra pair of shoes that I borrowed for half the show. It went over pretty well with all of us being asked for pictures and autographs afterward.

As for the classes themselves, there's an interesting contrast. The school we were at was a bilingual school, so the students are more or less familiar with English (the older they are, the more exposure they've had). The three of us who worked together began in a sixth grade class. They understood some of what we said, but I ended up translating a good portion of it into Spanish so we could make sure they got as much out of it as possible. They were a good class, very attentive, and very interested in what we were doing. They also had some great ideas about ways to make their community better.

Our second class was an 8th grade class and man were they difficult. They were so loud we couldn't hear ourselves, and it was quite frustrating to go an hour and a half without having a single moment of silence. We ended up getting through about half of what we had planned, but there's only so much you can do with an unwilling audience. Some of them were very receptive and we ended up taking the opportunity of them talking all the time to talk about respect. For the last 10 minutes, they suddenly got quiet - we're not sure why. We're just hoping that perhaps our lesson of respecting others when talking will translate into helping their regular teacher.

Our last class was... amazing. They had said that there was a portion of the student body that was different than the normal students. They were less privileged, but were given the opportunity to go to this private school at a very discounted rate as long as they maintained a certain grade point average. I knew that these would be good students, as they actually wanted to be at school rather than being forced to. I was right. Every one of them was engaged. Since many of them were indigenous people, many didn't have the opportunity to learn as much English as the other classes. Again, I translated most of what was said to make sure they understood the meaning. Our lesson plan got rearranged because some of the things we were talking about flowed right into another activity and the transitions were effortless. At the end, we taught them a few songs that we sing to get ourselves energized. They went crazy for them. One was in Spanish and one in English, and they were so enthusiastic - even the teacher got into it. After that they taught us two similar songs in Spanish. The kids who had all been reserved and shy were no longer. They were shouting and laughing and having a great time. As we left the classroom, we were accompanied by the singing and energy along with shouts of "Thank you!" and chants of "Viva la Gente!" It was the best class I've been in.

This is where I'll stop this one so that you can split your reading into two parts, because this is really long already.
~Molly

Mas y mas

2008-03-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

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

Up With People becomes Viva La Gente por Mexico

2008-03-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

!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.

The end of us... I mean U.S.

2008-03-25T21:04:00.001-07:00

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

St. Joseph, Enid, Brenham

2008-03-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

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

"This is my kind of town"

2008-03-05T20:33:00.001-08:00

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

Des Muscatington

2008-02-27T20:13:00.000-08:00

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

Des Moines, des merrier.

2008-02-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

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

Oh happy week.

2008-02-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

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/

I'm a loser baby...

2008-02-17T17:51:00.000-08:00

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.

Holy Maquoketa!

2008-02-14T20:25:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

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

"I hope he DOES say 'Grab your coat.'"

2008-02-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

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

When forging a path, make sure to wear the proper shoes.

2008-01-30T19:18:00.000-08:00

The weather is back to normal. It was 30 degrees yesterday and down to 15 degrees this morning. On our morning walk, we got a double sunrise. The snow was falling in the mountains, so when the sun rose on our east side, the snow reflected the light giving us a western sunrise. It was beautiful as it shifted from purple to rose to a pale pink.

This evening brought on another delightful snowstorm. When we got off the train for our walk home the snow was over an inch deep and had no footprints in it. That may not seem like much until you realize that the train before ours was there only 15 minutes before us. My roommate and I were both wearing canvas shoes and were shuffling along in an attempt to not slip on the now-hidden black ice.

Earlier this week we had a guest speaker, Steve Farber, issue us a challenge for the semester. He was a very dynamic speaker with excellent examples and some very interesting concepts. His basic message (and challenge) to us was when working with others to make them greater than ourselves. It's definitely something to keep in mind as we're working, and I'm sure it will help us to be more selfless and giving.

Today we had more dance workshops, which definitely challenged me physically. The dance we worked on involves lots of partner lifting, which we'd previously skipped over. Today was the day to add in our lifts. I wouldn't consider myself gymnastically inclined, so naturally I was hyperventilating in anticipation of one particular lift that involved us flipping over our partners arm. I did not die and I only hit my head once (which was more due to disorientation than anything else). I feel like tomorrow will be a spin of the roulette wheel to see which part of my body is most sore/bruised. I'm putting my money on the stomach for soreness with a side bet on arm bruises.

As you can see, it's been a week full of challenges. Some good, some not so good, but overall it's been a really good week and the rest of the week holds lots and lots of performing arts. Hoorah!

~Molly

2008-01-27T19:11:00.000-08:00

Sixty degrees in January?! I'm amazed how it can be -3 degrees on Tuesday and 60 degrees five days later. We walked the entire length of the 16th Street Mall today, from the Civic Center to Riverfront Park and back. It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day and a perfect day for a long walk, which is exactly what I needed. Hopefully this week will stick with the warming trend so we don't freeze on our morning walk to the light rail station. Pictures will be up shortly.

~Molly

2008-01-26T18:48:00.000-08:00

This week was jam-packed and fun filled. We had a round table discussion with a number of local leaders, we had our first day of community impact, and we blocked our show. Exhaustion, excitement, boredom, bliss, fun, and frustration were all in abundance this week.

Since our host mom was out of town most of this week, on Wednesday my roommate and I spent the night up in Broomfield. It was fantastic. We had some delicious chili followed by Belgian cookies and tea. There are 6 Uppies being hosted in the neighborhood, so after dinner we practiced our dances. Johan played us some Dutch rap and Natalya showed us some of her pictures from home (Uzbekistan). I slept on what was possibly the most comfortable couch ever - even rivaling our own couch at home. I was soooooo comfortable I didn't even want to get up to use the bathroom. I'll be dreaming of that couch until we meet again.

For our community impact day (Thursday) I was at the Food Bank of the Rockies helping box food for one of their family-based programs. 'Twas quite fun - I was in charge of peanut butter, then peanut butter and non-fat dry milk, then just non-fat dry milk, then non-fat dry milk and pork, then cereal with a bit of box flattening throughout. It was interesting the way different people interacted on the line, especially when things slowed down. It took a bit before we at the end of the line realized that they probably needed help somewhere up the line. Indeed they did and there I went.

Later in the day we met with our home teams to get to know each other a bit better. Our team leaders each have a fascination - one with zombies and one with a particular bodily function. Naturally, our stories followed the interests of the latter. Laughter ensued.

Friday we started blocking the show, which included lots and lots and lots of standing around with spurts of dancing and singing. They're trying people out in all the parts, and apparently we won't know who will actually be doing each part until the day of our show (or maybe the day before). I'm not holding my breath to be included in any featured dance parts, as there are many really good dancers. I've also only been involved in learning the featured parts of the partner dances... I'm not a very good partner dancer. Who knows how the vocals will go, as they'll end up with one person doing each solo with two or three back-ups. I'm sure I'll at least get to do a part somewhere along the road. It is incredibly frustrating to have 100 people on a small stage, however. It's really difficult to not have room to move and then have to dance full-out in a space slightly larger than your body. Yeah.

The mountains are incredible here. I see them every morning and evening on my way to and from our rehearsal space and though they seem close they're always too far away to take good pictures of. Every morning as the sun begins to rise, the mountains turn a dark pink followed by shades of orange as the sky turns purple above them. There's about a five minute window in which to see them in their full glory, because once the sun rises completely they take on a more natural color. This evening, the mountains were silhouettes against a pale yellow sky. The sun had set, but the sky remained bright and the clouds looked like smudges of charcoal left by an artist. I'm hoping to get better pictures of the mountains at some point, as we obviously don't have them in either of my home states.

Tomorrow is our free day, so I'll get to sleep past 6:00! If you have any ideas of cool or unusual things to do in downtown Denver I'd LOVE to hear them. We're always looking for suggestions.

How are you?
~Molly

Catching up already

2008-01-20T10:40:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night we had a Culture Jam. Cast members were invited to share something from their culture, whether it be a poem, a dance, a song, or a story. The group from Sweden did a traditional Sankta Lucia procession. The Danes did an anniversary song. There was an amazing dance from Mexico, an incredible song from the Netherlands, and plenty of other unique displays of talent.

Thursday began vocals and cast movement - a.k.a. dance. Cast movement ended up being an hour of conditioning, including push-ups and sit-ups, followed by two hours of learning a fairly simple dance combination for one of the songs.

Friday we had a presentation on ways to document our semester, including journaling, photography, and video. We'll see how well I do in keeping up-to-date on things. I found my camera's USB cable, so new pictures are uploaded. After lunch, I was assigned to a dance workshop instead of joining vocals with everyone else. Cast movement was planned again for an hour and a half that afternoon, so I was anticipating a double dose of dance. Little did I know we would stay in our workshop room dancing continuously from 1:00 to 5:15. That is officially the longest I have danced without some sort of significant break. We had a few 2-5 minute water breaks, but that was it. About halfway through it was apparent that I was already sore (partially due to Thursday's conditioning and the rest due to the quick pace of Friday's dancing). By the time I got home, my face, wrists/hands, calves and ankles were the only parts of my body that weren't sore.

My host mom took Miwa and me to the mall to get dinner from the food court and we encountered some strange sights. We passed three different groups of people wearing crazy hats. Two people were wearing hats that looked like they had plush spikes coming out of them. A group of 6 younger girls had rainbow-striped "Cat in the hat" style hats. A couple of girls sitting at a table were wearing tiaras. We felt as though we'd missed the crazy hat day memo.

Saturday, my host mom and I got some lessons in Japanese and laughed harder than we had in a long time. We went to see 27 Dresses - a lot more dramatic than I expected - and then sang and danced in the car on the way home. Apparently, Dancing Queen is one of our host mom's favorite songs. We came home, played with the cat, and watched The Nanny Diaries on Pay Per View.

It's Sunday already, and my host mom is very ill. I'm hoping not to catch anything, as that would severely alter this week. I already go to bed exhausted at 10:00 every night, and being sick would make staying awake even that long harder. I volunteered myself to cook this week, as host mom will be out of town most of the week and I guess my roommate doesn't cook. Here's to hoping everything turns out all right.

Hope your week was well,
~Molly

Day 7: Denver daze

2008-01-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

I have tons to say, but my roommate is sleeping now, so I don't want to type too much as she's a light sleeper. The past few days have been absolutely amazing! Wednesday we had a scavenger hunt around downtown Denver in single digit temperatures after touring the dome of the capitol building. When finished, most of us grabbed coffee from one of the 5 Starbucks within a mile of our meeting place. I opted for the local fare and stopped at Dazbog for tea. Then I headed back and a big group of us were sharing languages, so I learned a bit of French, Japanese, Swedish, and Amharic. It was one of those times that reminds me how unique this opportunity is and I've vowed to take advantage of it.

Remind me to talk about Culture Jam and modules tomorrow. Now I must sleep. I do have pictures, but I can't upload them right now because I think I left my USB cable at my other host mom's house. That will all get sussed out this weekend though, as we all (host mom included) might have a sleepover in Broomfield on Saturday. Sweet dreams! (Or have a great day if you're reading this and it's morning).
~Molly

Day 4: Introductions

2008-01-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

Today was our first real day of activities and cast discussion. Needless to say, everyone is incredibly tired tonight - particularly those for whom English is not their first language. I've moved to my new host family, and it is QUITE a change from my first one. I'm sure it will all work out, but it was a bit of a shock when I realized the situation we were going to be put in. Tomorrow Miwa and I get to figure out the Denver light rail system. Hopefully all goes well and we make it to our meeting place early.

So far it seems Denverites do not eat real butter and they all have highly scented homes. Even the towels are scented. Lots of amusing things have slipped out of the mouths of host families as well as staff members - mostly phrases that can be interpreted in alternate ways. For example: "We'll shoot the cast on Saturday." "If you're in a relationship, you're back in your comfort zone and flowers will be popping everywhere."

Too tired to go on now, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.
~Molly

Day 2: Boulder

2008-01-12T20:48:00.001-08:00

A brief explanation of my current living situation as a pretext to my day: My temporary host family (my roommate Miwa and I move to our "real" Denver host family tomorrow) is part of what I would term the Broomfield tri-fecta. Three families who live right next to each other are hosting students, so every night is a friendly gathering with us all. It's worked out wonderfully thus far, as it helps us get really comfortable with 6 castmates right away as opposed to brief meetings. I'm sad to be leaving this lovely little collective, but hopefully my "real" host family will be nice.

Today, after waking up at 8:00 a.m. WITHOUT an alarm clock, we went to Boulder. The "we" I'm referring to in this case consists of 5 Uppies and 2 host neighbors. After stopping at Paradise for lunch, we strolled down Pearl St. admiring the scenery while making stops in all the necessary shops: the occult shop, the vintage store, the kite store, and the candy store. There was a mystery book shop that I didn't make it to, but I was certainly intrigued. Boulder's located at the base of what they call the Flatiron mountains. Unfortunately the sun was too bright at that point to take good pictures, but they were beautiful.

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/sets/72157603702733573/
~Molly

Day 1

2008-01-11T21:53:00.001-08:00

Today I arrived in Denver for the official beginning of the semester. Okay, the "official" official beginning is actually Sunday, but today was the arrival day. After two amazing flights this morning, I made it to Denver a bit earlier than scheduled and had plenty of time to get to know a few people before even getting to our meeting spot for the day. I got to meet a ton of people, which is making me grateful that we all have name tags so it'll be easier to remember names.

We played some games - Mad Gab, Phase 10, Egyptian rat screw, and a Swiss card game called Pants Down. There are a lot of people who like to play games, which I'm sure will prove to be entertaining (and educational!) Apparently, in Switzerland the decks only have the numbers 6-10, Unter (Jack), Ober (Queen), Konig (King), and Ace. The suits in this particular deck were Roses, Bells, Shields, and Acorns.

Most of the day was spent introducing ourselves and eating food while comparing notes on cultural differences. Camilla (from Denmark) and I had a discussion about alcohol legislation in the U.S. vs. Denmark. Carolina (from Sweden/Chile), AJ (from Wisconsin) and I discussed global politics as well as the legislative system and voting regulations in our countries. I'm really looking forward to learning a lot about my fellow castmates and their home countries. There should be plenty to talk about since we have people from 26 countries in our cast.

On that note, I'm off to sleep.
~Molly

Success!

2008-01-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

I've done it. Technically my suitcase weighs in at 45 lbs., but I figure it will be light enough once a host gift or two is given and a few weeks worth of shower products are used. I'm much more of a weakling than I remember being. I know plenty of my suitcases from treks back and forth to New York were well above 50 lbs. and I was able to trudge through the subway system with them. This bag seems unusually heavy, but I suppose the scale does not lie. Hopefully there's nothing too important missing. The next few days should be telling in that department. Oh well.

Now, I sleep. Sweet dreams to you!
~Molly

Packing

2008-01-10T15:42:00.001-08:00

Today is packing day. I get to fit 6 months worth of stuff into a 44 lb. suitcase and a 19 lb. carry-on. Can I do it? I think so. At least I thought so until I realized that my suitcase alone is 10 lbs. Maybe I'll have to get creative. My flight leaves at 6:20 a.m. tomorrow, so I may end up pulling an all-nighter. Or not. We'll see.

Dance shoes! I have one high and one low so you can see the versatility.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyskye218/2184180608/

That's all for now.
~Molly

Self-indulgent, but true

2008-01-03T14:54:00.000-08:00

Living in San Francisco for the past seven months has put me back into a bubble. Unfortunately, it's been a pretty exclusive San Francisco bubble. I realized just a few weeks ago that I have not been nearly as in touch with my New York Citizens as I've wanted to be. I miss them all terribly. Seeing the NYE UCB pictures made me SERIOUSLY homesick. As such, one of my resolutions this year is to keep in touch better. If you're feeling neglected, please please please drop me a line.

That being said, San Francisco definitely has its perks - great food, great friends, my family, and my dog... not to mention an incomparable view. Okay, end of rant.

On another note, I just got some awesome new dance shoes. Pictures are forthcoming.

Have a great weekend!
~Molly

The journey begins

2008-01-02T00:21:00.000-08:00

The beginning of a new year seems a proper place for the start of many new things. There have been many requests for me to start a blog detailing my upcoming tour with Up With People as well as a few requests for me to just blog in general. I'm happy to oblige and will do my best to keep up-to-date (at least for a while). I'll be with Up With People until June, and possibly until December. I'm still trying to decide that along with many other details of my life. Beyond that I have absolutely no idea where I'll be or what I'll be doing. If you happen to have leads on jobs in good cities (US or international are acceptable) please let me know.

That's all for now. Here's to a prosperous, healthy, and pleasant new year!
~Molly

P.S.- For those of you who are still wondering, "What exactly is it that you're doing again?" feel free to check the UWP website (http://www.upwithpeople.org/index.php?id=32). I've also received a lot of questions, so I'll keep some of the most frequent ones here for referral.

Q: When do you leave again?
A: January 11th, 2008

Q: Where are you going?
A: I'll be in Denver for a month for staging, etc. and then my tour covers the midwest and southern United States, Mexico, and Thailand. Sorry, but no New York, Ohio, Minnesota, or Arizona on this tour.

Q: Is this some sort of religious cult?
A: No. We're just a bunch of people promoting peace and cultural awareness. There are no blood oaths or sacrifices... that I know of.

Q: Up With People - are they still around?! The Up, Up With People people?
A: Yes and yes. It's the same group my mom and aunt traveled with in the BC (before children) era. They went away for a short while in the 90's, but the organization is back in full force.

Q: When are you coming to New York?
A: I have no plans currently, but if someone wants to buy me a plane ticket I'd gladly come visit... I'll be available for New Year's Eve next year.