Monterrey? More like Monte-yay

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