Des Muscatington

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